Here’s the good news: Seattle is done fighting over whether light rail is a smart idea or not. Voters like light rail. Our choked streets demand big investments in mass transit. Political leaders realize we can’t welcome a million new residents to the region by 2040 without it. And everyone’s cluing in to the fact that the challenge of spiking rents and rising income inequality can’t be addressed without giving people a cheap, efficient way to travel from the still-affordable parts of this region to its increasingly expensive urban centers.
With that settled, the fight now is about how and where to build the next light-rail lines. Less than a year from now, in November 2016, a massive tax measure to build a bunch of new Sound Transit routes is going to appear on your ballot. You’ll get to make a simple choice: yes or no. But if you want to weigh in on the more complex question of where those light-rail routes should actually go, you need to start paying attention right now…
