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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(107,063 posts)
Thu Nov 7, 2019, 09:33 PM Nov 2019

Voters derailed rail mass transit in 1970

King County voters in 1968 and 1970 rejected a rail rapid transit system in what former Republican U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton would describe as "the stupidest vote the people of Seattle ever cast." Actually, voters twice turned down plans that would have been paid for largely by the federal government.

We could have had a rail system up and running by 1985.

Instead, the Puget Sound area is still auto dependent, and voters have struck again. They passed Initiative 976 on Tuesday, the Tim Eyman $30 car tab measure, and put at risk $20 billion in Sound Transit spending for light rail expansion, commuter rail and bus rapid transit going out to 2041.

Launching the Forward Thrust rail campaign, in a 1965 speech to the (then all-male) Seattle Rotary Club, visionary Seattle civic leader Jim Ellis warned that half-a-million people would move in the "most livable" corner of America in the immediate future.

Ellis low-balled it. We have a million more people than when he spoke to the local power structure.

The Forward Thrust rail package needed 60% of the vote. Actually, powerful Sen. Warren G. Magnuson had secured $900 million in federal funds, enough to cover 75% of its cost. The 49-mile, 30-station system would have sent four lines out of downtown Seattle, one of them crossing Lake Washington.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/voters-derailed-rail-mass-transit-in-1970-and-again-tuesday/ar-BBWqRJE

I should point out here that 1970 was the Boeing recession, the time of the road sign, "Would the last person in Seattle please turn out the lights.

The mass transit vote in 1968 did get a majority but not the required 60% super majority.

Per I-976 the vote has tightened up to 54% yes.

In the three county Seattle metro area (Snohomish, King and Pierce) the vote is 357,715 yes to 357560 no. A 50.01% yes vote.



https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20191105/State-Measures-Initiative-Measure-No-976_ByCounty.html

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Voters derailed rail mass transit in 1970 (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Nov 2019 OP
I voted no but knew this would pass lettucebe Nov 2019 #1
Foolish, short-sighted people strike again. Haggis for Breakfast Nov 2019 #2

lettucebe

(2,336 posts)
1. I voted no but knew this would pass
Thu Nov 7, 2019, 09:53 PM
Nov 2019

People just don't inform themselves at all. All they did was saw cheaper car tags and voted yes. Our car tag rates are ridiculously high, so is our gasoline taxes but this isn't going to help anything. Watch our gas taxes rise to the moon though, because they have to make up this shortfall now.

Haggis for Breakfast

(6,831 posts)
2. Foolish, short-sighted people strike again.
Thu Nov 7, 2019, 09:55 PM
Nov 2019

I lived in the Bay Area for almost 10 years. Between light rail and BART, there is virtually no where in The City that light rain can't take you. At the time, BART went all the way down to Fremont. It was a god-send. I didn't have to drive, search for (or pay for) parking, gas up the car every other day, and could read The Chron every morning AND usually finish the cross-word puzzle. It was great.

There are plans on the books for future development that eventually link SFO and LAX. Won't that be divine ?!

The people who vote continually against their own best interests are just plain stupid.

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