Op-Ed: South King County Deserves the Light Rail Stations It Was Promised [View all]

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

For decades, transportation infrastructure projects have been used to segregate and effectively destroy low-income and Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities. It happened in Los Angeles, Saint Paul, Minn., New Orleans, Washington D.C., and lest we think “we're better than that,” it's happened here.

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Any parent knows that it’s not always easy to keep promises. This is exactly what South King County is suggesting the Sound Transit Board of Directors must do now.

At the end of the month, the Sound Transit Board will decide whether to deliver on the decades-old promise to South King County to build the Boeing Access Road (BAR) and Graham Street stations. Both stations have already been approved — and paid for — by residents. Promises for these stations have already been broken before.

Boeing Access Road was approved in the 1996 Sound Move ballot. When funds ran short in 2001, it was deferred to get light rail to the airport. Graham Street was added in the late 1990s and voters committed to both stations in Sound Transit 3 (2016). Both stations were reaffirmed as Tier 1 projects in 2021.

https://www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-south-king-county-deserves-the-light-rail-stations-it-was-promised/