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MARCH 1, 2023
FINDING THE BEST ROUTE
VOL. 104, NO. 9
FEATURED STORIES
Sound Transit reviewing options for light rail extension By Jessica Keller Queen Anne & Magnolia News editor
The Sound Transit Board is further narrowing down the best routes and station stops — and alternatives — for its planned West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions project, with a meeting last Thursday drawing a large number of commenters offering opinions. The West Seattle Link Extension will add 4.7 miles of light rail service from downtown Seattle to West Seattle’s Alaska Junction neighborhood and includes four new stations from SODO to Alaska Junction. The Ballard Link extension adds 7.1 miles of light rail service from downtown Seattle to Ballard, including a new downtown Seattle railonly tunnel and includes nine new stations from Chinatown-International District to Market Street. While the majority of the comments at last week’s Sound Transit Board meeting centered around the routes and station
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Photo by Laura Marie Rivera Traffic flows through Mercer Street in Uptown on Thursday afternoon. Both traffic and businesses will be significantly impacted in the Uptown neighborhood depending on which option Sound Transit Board selects for its preferred light rail station to Seattle Center.
alternatives for other areas of the city, a few members of the Uptown community expressed their concerns about the proposals at Seattle Center, especially the effects on businesses. As part of the project, Sound Transit is exploring two station options and alternatives at Seattle Center in Uptown. The first is a tunnel Republican Street Station, a preferred alternative, which would include construction of a tunnel station under Republican Street between Queen Anne Avenue North and Seattle Center. The second is the Tunnel Mercer Street Station,
which would involve constructing a tunnel station under Mercer Street, between Queen Anne Avenue North and Warren Avenue North. LOCAL IMPACTS Jessica Hurst, owner of Mercer Street Books, told the board that an equity study is needed to determine the impacts of demolishing businesses, including her own, on Mercer Street for the Seattle Center Station Mercer alternative. She said a large number of the small businesses that would be impacted are owned by women and
racial minorities, and their earnings are modest enough that if they were forced to move, they would not be able to survive. “Equity studies were given to the international district, but racial inequity is not quarantined to a single neighborhood,” Hurst said. “The burden of demolition should not fall to those who are least able to recover and most highly prized by their neighbors.” James Ly, owner and neighborhood barista at Caffe Zingaro, at the corner of Mercer and Warren, said more than just businesses RAIL Page 3
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Mayor prioritizes revitalization in Downtown Seattle plan
By Spencer Pauley | The Center Square
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced his office’s plan to prioritize the restoration of the downtown core in his 2023 State of the City address last week. Following a year in which the city saw nearly 50,000 cases of crime, Harrell emphasized hope for a better 2023. Citing how the district is home to 100,000 residents and over 320,000
jobs, the mayor sees Downtown Seattle as the “undisputed economic engine and cultural hub of our region.” “I am bullish on our downtown,” Harrell said in his address. “The problems we are facing are not insurmountable and the opportunities, therefore, are immense.” Harrell’s focus will be on addressing crime and drug use in the downtown district. The mayor said he walked around downtown earlier this month
and saw that downtown safety concerns were real. This included witnessing people using fentanyl. The mayor announced the Downtown Activation Plan, which will look at immediate strategies to make downtown safer and more welcoming. This includes filling vacant storefronts along with converting office space to housing to creating what his office calls a “linear arts-entertainment-culture district.” “We need to recognize that [Seattle’s
downtown] office space may never fill up as before,” Harrell said. “We need more housing options, so let’s make downtown affordable for everyone who wants to live there.” Harrell mentioned in his address that Amazon’s decision to require its employees to work at their respective offices is a good thing for the Downtown Seattle core. However, safety is seen as an im-
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