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Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

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Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Extra Fizz: Majority in Latest KING-5 Poll Want Rail on Bridge

News   April 7, 2010 at 1:51 pm Erica C. Barnett

A slim majority of 500 adults surveyed in a KING-5 poll released today support delaying construction of a new 520 bridge so that the state can study the possibility of putting light rail on the bridge. As we reported yesterday, the state’s current “preferred” six-lane 520 plan would virtually preclude the possibility of putting rail on the bridge later, according to a consultant’s report. That same consultant, Tim Payne of Nelson/Nygaard, estimated that planning to put rail on the bridge would take about five years; however, it would only delay the bridge’s opening between six months and a year.

Tim Payne of Nelson/Nygaard and Mayor Mike McGinn

The poll found that 51 percent of respondents supported delaying construction (the exact period of delay wasn’t specified in the poll), 33 percent supported moving forward, and 15 percent were undecided. Support for studying rail was higher among younger poll respondents, with 55 percent of those between 18 and 34 saying the state should delay construction.




  • inside some baseball

    I personally like the results. It is interesting, though, that the respondents were nearly all white and the numbers were randomly selected, not taken from voting records. The geographic area surveyed (Seattle, King County, etc) is not clear.

  • nwbedbuilder

    It is infuriating that they're only working on two stations right now.

  • Sean Blechschmidt

    The poll confirms the obvious flaws of the whole Eastside light rail routing process. Sound Transit presented I-90 as the only option and gave the public an up or down choice. Never mind that it is the least direct route imaginable to connect downtown, UW, and Overlake (forget Redmond), entails tearing up the I-90 bridges, and ignores the 520 except as a sometime in the (never-going-to-happen) future. It makes it obvious that Sound Transit and the Bellevue city elders who backed the current routing didn't learn very much from their junkets to see how other cities worldwide build intelligent, integrated, multimodal transit. While a delay now would be annoying, the recession has pushed back against the cost penalty for doing so somewhat. The fact that it took a McGinn to say the emperor has no clothes just shows how uninterested the rest of our local (and state) politicos are in getting real public input (as opposed to process disguised as input to validate bad compromises hatched in the back room).

  • drewcoll

    Susan Hutchinson said so too. Hahaha.

  • alexjonlin

    I-90 is by far the best and most cost-effective route to serve the very ridership-heavy corridor from Downtown Seattle-Bellevue-Microsoft-Redmond. 520 wouldn't even work for a route from Downtown because there won't be enough room in that tunnel because of the extremely high frequencies that will be required between Northgate and Downtown.

  • East Coast Cynic

    The Bellevue city elders probably did notice how well rail transportation efficiently moved people from different cultures and backgrounds all over the cities and decided they wanted to do everything possible to impede diversity via light rail coming their way.

  • Reader#2000

    East Coast Cynic
    I live in Seattle but i sure know that diversity reigns outside of the city, Bellevue and Burien, Renton and Redmond. Economic, cultural and racial. Wake up!!