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The Mayor of Capitol Hill: Streets and Transit

(Image: CHS)

By Ryan Packer

The next mayor of Seattle will face a bevy of transportation decisions, from whether to finally connect Seattle’s two disconnected streetcar lines to what the next version of the $930 million Move Seattle transportation levy, expiring in 2024, will look like. While they note the strongest contrasts between them on issues like homelessness and increased revenue, they also will likely treat the area of transportation very differently depending on who occupies the mayor’s office in City Hall in January.

With Bruce Harrell having served on the city council for twelve years, four years as council president, and M. Lorena González, currently in her second year as council president and her sixth on city council, the best way to know how they’ll treat the areas of transportation and public transit is by looking at their records. González has made transportation more of a focus during her council terms.

Last year, it was González who proposed an amendment that allowed a compromise to occur between councilmembers who wanted Seattle’s transit benefit district sales tax to stay flat at 0.1% and others who wanted to see it increased to 0.2%. That compromise likely kept hundreds of Capitol Hill bus trips per year on the road that would have been cut by Mayor Jenny Durkan’s proposal.

Harrell, on the city council from 2007 to 2019, didn’t make transportation a signature issue. He does stake a claim to the city’s action on improving conditions along Rainier Ave S, one of the most dangerous streets in the city. “This is the beginning of what we’re gonna do with Rainier Avenue. We’re gonna take our street back,” he told a crowd gathered at a protest on the street in 2015, as the city prepared to rechannelize a key segment of the street through Columbia City and Hillman City, which reduced collisions significantly on the stretch.

CHS Election 2021 Coverage

Harrell has been an outspoken booster of electric vehicles and infrastructure for them. At a mayoral debate this week, Harrell said electric vehicles will get smaller and more appropriate for city streets in the future, a claim that conflicts with the continued desire for SUVs in the US. “I’ll lead with transit… I won’t lead with bikes”, Harrell said, contrasting himself with González who rides a $3,000 Faraday electric bike but usually uses the bus to get to her office downtown.

Both councilmembers voted to lower speed limits on arterial streets citywide in 2016. After Harrell echoed the “twenty is plenty” seen on yard signs around town from the council dais, the results have come in: a 20% decrease in injury crashes and a 54% decrease in top end speeding, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation. Those gains have been unfortunately counteracted by a continued increase in collisions involving people walking and biking in recent years, however.

One candidate might be more likely to make a Capitol Hill Superblock happen. Teresa Mosqueda, champion of the superblock and ally of Lorena González, is all but assured to be reelected, where she will presumably continue her push for a car-light area in Capitol Hill. In 2019, González sponsored a budget amendment for a Capitol Hill Public Life study. The Capitol Hill Ecodistrict is still working on an implementation plan that has come out of that study, with the intention of finding public space improvements that will have the biggest impact on the neighborhood.

González has said that the next version of the Move Seattle levy should include funding to make up the broken promises that the SDOT wasn’t able to fulfill due to overly optimistic cost estimates made during the Ed Murray administration and a dearth of federal grant opportunities during the Trump years. To make up those promises would likely entail finding funding for an approximately 30 additional miles of bike lanes or greenways, fifteen miles of street repaving, and four transit corridor upgrades to full RapidRide amenities. One of those corridors, the 48 bus along 23rd/24th Aves, would connect Capitol Hill riders to the University of Washington, Mount Baker, and the coming Judkins Park light rail station.

Funding bridge maintenance will also be a huge focus by necessity in the next mayoral administration. Move Seattle promised voters seismic upgrades of 16 bridges citywide. But a 2020 analysis showed that full costs to retrofit all of those bridges exceeds $730 million, over two-thirds of the property tax receipts from the entire 9-year transportation levy. And that doesn’t count full bridge replacements that the city has been eying including Magnolia and Ballard. State and federal dollars will almost certainly be needed, or maintenance will continue to be underfunded.

Voters will decide by November 2 which person should lead the city for the next four years. No matter which mayor is elected, they will get to cut the ribbon on a repaired West Seattle bridge, a new light rail station in Judkins Park, and maybe even break ground on a new streetcar line. They will also have to decide whether Seattle takes a bite out of transportation emissions, the city’s single greatest source of greenhouse gases. One thing is for sure, big decisions await.

 

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5 Comments
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Gordon
Gordon
2 years ago

If we’re going to include the cost of González’s bike, shouldn’t the post include the cost of Harrell’s Tesla?

Candrewb
Candrewb
2 years ago
Reply to  Gordon

Harrell’s vehicle is likely paid for. But, Gonzalez did take out a 72 month loan @ $575 per on a BMW. We wouldn’t want to leave that out either.

Eli
Eli
2 years ago
Reply to  Gordon

Also, I think it’s unfair to call it a $3,000 bike.

Faradays haven’t been made in years, and the company has shut down. They sell regularly for ~$1,000 or so on Craigslist on FB Marketplace.

e.g.: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/bik/d/santa-cruz-2017-faraday-porteur-lg-bike/7394520901.html

HTS3
HTS3
2 years ago

Of course past experience is a great way to judge how someone will work. But they were council presidents during different periods. So from my perspective, it seems a little disingenuous to imply that Gonzalez will be better on transportation or other issue than Harrell because of her focus during her time in office. You work on what’s in front of you. I’m voting for candidates that I feel will react the way I think they should for what the problems are today and tomorrow.

Jules James
Jules James
2 years ago

We’ve got a Bike Plan for 1970s Schwinns and a Building Code for gasoline powered automobiles. I’m trusting Harrell to pursue pragmatic changes and Gonzalez to gush capital into ideological impossibilities. Easy voting choice here.