In the process of writing last week's column--in which I announced that I had given up caring or writing about Sound Transit--I exchanged a few e-mails with Sound Transit spokesperson Geoff Patrick. In one, I asked: "You told the Seattle Times you could fund the airport station by extending taxes to 2011. [But Sound Transit Chair Ron] Sims keeps saying S.T. can build to the airport within revenues voters have already authorized. I don't get it."
Our correspondence stopped there. Patrick never answered. (Which certainly fueled my anger last week.) Oh sure, I got another e-mail from Patrick, but it wasn't an answer. It was a mass-mail press release about Sound Transit's light-rail car display at Westlake Park.
"Seattle residents will get a glimpse of their transit future," the press release said.
"'We want to give the people of Seattle a look at what's... coming,'" the press release quoted Sims.
So, I figured, if Sound Transit's response to my question was to direct me to a downtown display, I'd take my questions there.
I walked to Westlake on Sunday and checked out the model train: a roomy 66-foot car with blue-and-gray-speckled tiles, broad glass windows, shiny silver poles, and comfy cushioned seats. And to my satisfaction, Sound Transit staffers were on hand for questions.
Another visitor piped up: "Is this the future monorail?" a woman asked one Sound Transit official as she curiously stepped on board. ("I love this lady!" I thought. Given Sound Transit's cynical ploy of displaying a light-rail car across the street from the monorail--trying, it seems, to glom on to the monorail's popularity--her question was an appropriate zinger.)
As the spokesperson awkwardly explained that light rail wasn't the monorail, I went over to an information tent and asked my question: "What's the funding plan for the airport stop? Is Sound Transit going to extend taxes?"
A friendly woman in the tent told me she wasn't sure about the specifics, but after flipping through an official-looking black binder, she smiled: "I guess they still have to hammer that out." She suggested I write my name on a contact list, and perhaps someone else at Sound Transit could answer. I wrote down my name. Seeing that I was frustrated, she assured me that the money was there. If you say so, lady.
As I walked home, it occurred to me that Sound Transit could do a much better job giving Seattle a look at "what's coming." In addition to getting specific about extra taxes, a more appropriate "glimpse at our transportation future" would be a light-rail display in South Seattle. Every six to 10 minutes, Sound Transit should set down 360-foot-long barricades at Martin Luther King Jr. Way's east-west cross streets. And they should prohibit left turns at the vast majority of those intersections. After all, that's what's coming: a street-level system that will stall traffic and cost more money. No wonder they don't like to answer questions.
