The Wednesday Seattle B1 Times
Traffic Lab headline, “Durkan associate gets $720K to steer light-rail planning”
could have been welcome news for the entire area. It could have heralded Mayor Durkan’s recognition Sound
Transit needed new “direction”.
That ST3 light rail extensions routed through the Downtown Seattle
Transit Tunnel (DSTT) will be a disaster for the entire area.
CEO Rogoff’s 2019 budget
long-range includes plans to spend $96 billion and 25 years implementing “the most
ambitious transit system expansion plan in the country”. However. it will do absolutely
nothing to increase transit capacity into Seattle. East Link operation will halve transit capacity into Seattle
from SeaTac. Any riders added by
ST3 funding will further reduce that access as well as access for those
currently using University Link. Residents
throughout the area will be forced to perpetually subsidize the added operating
costs with Rogoff’s “transit system expansion plan.”
Durkan’s previous support for increased
Metro service for Seattle shows she recognizes the benefits of public
transit. However her decision to
have Sound Transit pay Anne Fennessy, someone she’s know for years, $720K to
“steer light rail planning” will do nothing to increase public transit into the
city.
Since 2010, Sound Transit has
already paid her firm, Cocker Fennessy, $409,308 for advice. Any consultant with a modicum of transit competence would’ve
recognized light rail routed through the DSTT would never add the transit capacity
needed. Sound Transit’s decision
to pay her an additional $720K “suggests” they anticipate continued “favorable”
treatment.
Mayor Durkan’s deputy Mayor
Shefari Ranganathan is the mayor’s designee to handle Fennessy’s monthly billings. A November 17, 2017 editorial described her selection with the following:
It was surprising that one of the first people Durkan
hired (Ranganathan) to help lead the city, as deputy mayor, is an activist with
no significant management experience.
The editorial also
included Ranganathan’s biography, presumably Durkan’s reason for hiring her:
Shefari
Ranganathan, Executive director of Seattle-based Transportation Choices
Coalition, is an effective political organizer and policy influencer. TCC led
campaigns, including Sound Transit 3 that garnered tens of billions of tax
dollars for transit projects.
While she had been an “effective
organizer and policy influencer” there was no mention as to what qualified her
to “influence” public transit planning.
Again, anyone with a modicum of transit competence would’ve recognized ST3 light rail capacity problems.
Clearly neither Fennessy
nor Ranganathan have shown an ability to do so. It’s not clear why Mayor Durkan chose her associate to
receive $270K, beginning in 2018, to “steer” light rail planning for a Ballard
Link that won’t begin service until 2035.
The area faces far more imminent transit problems. If she really wants to demonstrate
concern for those who’d like to ride transit as well as those who will pay for
it, she needs to hire new transit advisors.
Competent advisors would warn her Seattle light rail commuters will loose access with Rogoff's ST3 extensions; that the billions Sound Transit collects from residents throughout the area will be spent implementing extensions that do nothing to reduce congestion into the city but whose longer route operating costs will increase the subsidies the entire area will have to pay.
Competent advisors would warn her Seattle light rail commuters will loose access with Rogoff's ST3 extensions; that the billions Sound Transit collects from residents throughout the area will be spent implementing extensions that do nothing to reduce congestion into the city but whose longer route operating costs will increase the subsidies the entire area will have to pay.
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