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Seattle vs. the rest of King County — How we voted on Prop 1

Proposition 1's totals by legislative district show a distinct split in King County. You can see the full map here, courtesy of .

Proposition 1’s totals by legislative district show a distinct split in King County. You can see the full map here, courtesy of Oran Viriyincy.

Screen Shot 2014-04-24 at 3.16.56 PMThis map posted by transit analyst and advocate Oran Viriyincy shows the Election Night returns for the vote on Proposition 1 broken out by legislative district. The proposition, seemingly on its way to a sound defeat, would have created a county transportation district to fund Metro and roads with a sales tax and car tab increase. One look at the map makes the basic story obvious — Seattle voters valued public transit enough to add the tax and car tab cost. The rest of the county? Not so much. Next week, we’ll learn more abut the plan from Friends of Transit which has announced it will focus on preserving Metro service within the city limits with a new Seattle property tax. The group plans to place an initiative on Seattle’s November ballot that could raise up to $25 million a year for the next six years, “enough to reverse most cuts to King County Metro routes that serve Seattle.” A statement from the group said members would file the ballot initiative Friday afternoon.Screen Shot 2014-04-24 at 3.17.24 PM

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Kikjou Delatour
9 years ago

There is only one consequence from this map: The City of Seattle should create its own Transportation Agency, take over the inner-city Metro lines and merge the rest of the lines into Sound Transit. I want a city where I can live without a car and I am fed up with rural folks imposing their own destructive car-driven lifestyle on my beautiful city.

RainWorshipper
RainWorshipper
9 years ago

Amen Kikjou, well said. I agree entirely. I’d still like to occasionally get out the the further reaches (Bellevue has a nice museum, for example) but I don’t want to burden myself or the environment with a car I shouldn’t have to need.

Verde
Verde
9 years ago

And the rural folks are probably sick of elitist city slickers like you telling them they need to pay for a bus service that is of *zero* benefit to them. Your point is good, up until you get into slamming the folks who live outside of the city and don’t have any choices outside of using a car.

How about we try something more constructive, like understanding why someone would be against paying for a service that they don’t have any access to, and then we figure out a way to actually build robust, viable transit in Seattle, and extend services into other areas that could use it.

joanna
9 years ago
Reply to  Verde

Verde, without mass transit congestion will be much worse all over the county and many of their residents do use it. The Park and Rides fill up quickly.

jc
jc
9 years ago
Reply to  Verde

There are buses in the fringes Verde. Ironically, those routes are going to be hit the softest.

bob
bob
9 years ago

Hey There, I am not rural, I am a city dweller with a Seattle zip. My commute to work is 3 buses at 1.5 hours each way. I’ll continue to impose my car driven destruction on your (our) city until transit becomes convenient and mass. I’m fed up with urban elitists deciding whether i do or don’t need a car in my city.

Joe
Joe
9 years ago
Reply to  bob

Interesting. How do you propose that transit become convenient and mass without funding? Is this perhaps a short-sighted “not on my dime” catch-22?

Cars need to pay because they impose negative externalities on the population. I am “paying” for your choice with worse air and with congestion that I’m not creating. The state spends far more supporting your drive-everywhere habit than the revenue it produces; who should bear the cost of your choices?

Bob
Bob
9 years ago

Wasn’t one of the main funding components a $60 car tab? If one doesn’t own a car, their contribution to the funding proposal is only the sales tax portion.

Completely agree that a robust, regional transportation system is important to a region’s vitality. Just not convinced METROs plans are getting us there. Within Seattle, maybe. Extend that beyond the city boundaries; not convinced.

elroy
elroy
9 years ago

Seattleites should pay for their own busses. They seem to have millions for bike lanes, bike lane sweepers, bike bridges. As an Eastsider living within the Urban Growth Boundary that does not commute to Seattle I find the busses useless and will continue to drive. Frankly your beautiful City is being ruined by Progressive politics iver the last 20 yrs. What idiots you all are for voting for Sawant and McDermott year after year.

I would much rather have dinner in Bellevue where the parking is free and watch sports on TV where I am not paying outrageous prices for everything including parking.

you can keep voting yes for any tax until Seattle implodes upon itself and better yet why not ban cars in the City and you can keep not so rural suburbanites out of your precious City

joanna
9 years ago

That is how it works in the Bay Area. The Regional Transit is funded and managed by the BART and then San Francisco and other cities fund and manage the city and community transit. Communities have to have more say in what they want and be willing to pay for it. It would mean that Metro would have fewer funds, but it would also not have responsibility for Seattle’s community transit. The Bay Area Transit may seem complex, but it is one of the best managed and used systems.

Verde
Verde
9 years ago
Reply to  joanna

Makes so much more sense than asking the entire county to fund something that primarily benefits only the metropolitan area. We definitely need to get to a place where we can traverse the city and move between neighborhoods easily and efficiently without a car, or we’re going to continue to isolate our citizens to only the neighborhood they live and/or work in.

joanna
9 years ago

I feel sad that this is broken down by legislative district. I wish it were by precinct. In some parts of the 37th way south or Madison may not have turned out a little less than Capitol Hill for Prop. 1, but I bet that most of the Central District came out just as strongly for it. If not I would appreciate being able to know that.

Bunny
Bunny
9 years ago

If only mass transit users vote yes, these initiatives will always fail. If only people with kids in public schools vote yes on levies, those will always fail, too. Sorry about your traffic congestion/crappy schools/lower property values and other decreases in your quality of life because you don’t want to help pay for services you don’t use.

AsherSea
AsherSea
9 years ago

I’m coming into this late…I declined to vote because neither option was good. How about raise fare by 25 cents? I own a car and use metro a lot. I also bike commute during spring/summer.

jc
jc
9 years ago
Reply to  AsherSea

A .25 increase was part of the proposal. Fares have been increasing steadily in recent years.

pcc
pcc
9 years ago

Yep. Seattle transit for Seattleites. If our suburban neighbors can’t realize the benefits of mass transit then let them sit in the freeway backup. No skin off my nose. King county can’t keep trying to run commute lines as a luxury to folks in places like Issaquah and the outer burbs if they won’t chip in to support the system.

Bob
Bob
9 years ago
Reply to  pcc

Transit benefit? Try getting from Maple Valley to most parts of the county. Hope ones time is of little value.

Now visit, NYC, Boston, Philly, Chicago, London, Paris, Rome, Japan, etc.

Our 21st Century “vision” seems to be light rail and buses that share the road with a mass of cars.

pcc
pcc
9 years ago
Reply to  Bob

Bob it’s +/- 28 miles from Maple Valley to Seattle. From the end of the north line in Chicago (Evanston) to downtown is 13 miles. The comparison you’re making to Chicago is bogus. But you may not realize that the drive in from Maple Valley would be a lot easier if everyone from Tukwila in (13 miles form downtown) was able to take mass transit. That is an advantage to people who commute to the city or who have to get to anyplace in King county.

You’re right that Seattle should be building dedicated trackways instead of sharing roads with cars. And this generation will decide whether we turn to one of those great transit cities you mention, or into another LA.

calhoun
9 years ago
Reply to  pcc

Have you not noticed that we ARE building a road-separated transit system?….it’s called light rail. It already includes those who live in Tukwila. It has a long ways to go for a truly comprehensive system, but at least it’s happening.

Dorothy
Dorothy
9 years ago

I also live in Seatte. Take the bus. BUT, I voted against both initiatives! Metro needs to start being accountable! When I see people get on the bus asking:

1) Does someone have change for $5.00, and when no one comes forward, get a free ride;

2) saying, I have to find my transfer, then sitting down, pulling out a wad of transfers to find the right one, and, again, getting a free ride.

Like Snohomish County, Metro needs to go to strictly using ORCA.

I have to admit that depending on why I am taking the bus, I will use cash, because the Transfer gives me more time that the ORCA card does.

ORCA only allows two hours. When half-an-hour is used up getting to your destination, there isn’t much time left to do what has to be done. What happened to the old days when transfers were given out when you got OFF the bus.

Phil Teller
Phil Teller
9 years ago

For those who would say “I do not support a bus system that I do not use, I would like to say the same. “I do not support paying for your kids to go to school with my significant suburban property taxes because I don’t have kids.” But I can’t do that, because I am old enough and wise enough to understand the mutually shared benefits of the American concept of “Shared sacrifice for the greater good.” How did so many of us lose track of the simple yet profound ideals that once identified the United States as the greatest nation on earth? Sad that is no longer the case. Too bad we had to give up compassion and understanding for the needs of others in order to benefit ourselves, in exchange for an opportunity to drive our foreign made cars to Wal Mart where we send our American dollars and your neighbor’s jobs to China because we have become so cheap, that we have come to believe that cheap is a good idea. Cheap is not a good idea. You want to live a selfish, cheap life, swing by Alabama any time and see what that looks like.

notinmyhood
notinmyhood
9 years ago

Summary of Comments:

1) this is horrible
2) cut service to the burbs
3) enjoy more traffic
-and the best one ever-
4) metro doesn’t have enough service to the burbs, so lets make sure that it gets worse and cut funding. This reminds me of:

a) we messed up the economy, and why don’t you have a job, lazy bum?
b) healthcare is increasingly unaffordable, so lets campaign against any effort to fix it!

SMH

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[…] the last one didn’t go so great — but a Seattle tax district to pay for the city’s parks and community centers will be […]

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[…] officials had been hinting that his plan would essentially be a Seattle-only version of the plan suburban and rural King County voters shot down in April. Proposition 1 proposed a $60 car tab fee and .1% sales tax […]

scott thompson
scott thompson
9 years ago

if true, are there many a county resident who commutes into seattle?? would a toll/fee for car entrance into the city ( i guess like there is in san francisco) or higher bus fares fo rnon residents be as equitable as anyting else??

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[…] kind of effort. His district, which includes Northeast Seattle, Shoreline, Kirkland and Bothell, wasn’t so keen on Prop. 1. Half the district supported it tepidly and the other half was outright opposed. Our own […]

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[…] to delay making the deep cuts county officials said would be necessary after suburban and rural voters shot down Proposition 1 in April, which called for a $60 car-tab fee and a 0.1 percent sales-tax […]

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[…] in May, is basically a local version of Proposition 1 which Eastside and rural King County voters torpedoed in April. The plan would raise sales taxes by .1% and add a $60 vehicle licensing fee in Seattle — a […]