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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.

Tilting the Public Right of Way Scale

Morning Fizz   July 20, 2010 at 8:41 am Morning Fizz

1. The city council is sending a letter to Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl this week asking the transit agency to allocate “excess” money from the planned First Hill streetcar to plan an extension of the streetcar north on Broadway to Roy Street, instead of rolling that money (estimated at more than $700,000) back into Sound Transit’s general budget. Currently, the streetcar plan shows a route ending at Broadway and Denny.

Actually completing the streetcar to Roy would cost an estimated $132.8 million.

2. City Council member Sally Clark offers a suggestion for what she calls “radical pedestrian change” on her blog: Closing down a portion of Pike Street on weekend nights, the way Austin, TX closes down Sixth Street downtown on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

At a recent meeting of the Capitol Hill Community Council, Clark writes, people “seemed to have a voracious appetite for tilting the public right-of-way scale” in the Pike-Pine neighborhood toward pedestrians instead of cars.

3. Washington State Supreme Court Justice candidate, former Washington State Court of Appeals judge and Bainbridge attorney Charlie Wiggins got two nods yesterday: The Kitsap County Bar Association came out for Wiggins  (30 percent actually rated longtime incumbent, Libertarian Justice Richard Sanders “unqualified”) and the Muni League rated Wiggins “Outstanding” while calling Sanders “Good.”

4. No official word yet on the Sierra Club’s city referendum saying Seattle property owners shouldn’t be held liable for any tunnel cost overruns—they were meeting last night to discuss the City Council’s suggested provisions. But it was likely a done deal before yesterday’s meeting.

Sierra Club officials were telling supporters this weekend that “it’s real.”

5. City Council member Tom Rasmussen is participating in Mayor Mike McGinn’s “Walk, Bike, Ride” challenge in style: The diminutive West Seattleite is riding to City Hall these days on a black-and-white Cervelo 3T, a birthday gift from his partner, former Onvia President Clayton Lewis

Morning Fizz didn’t have the nerve to ask how much it cost (maybe BikeNerd could tell us?), but Rasmussen did let us pick it up, and it was the lightest bike we’d ever lifted.


  • http://twitter.com/fattailed fattailed

    Broadway & Denny to Broadway & Roy would cost $132 million? Google maps shows this as a distance of 0.4 miles, which sounds about right experientially. Streetcars cost $330 million a mile?

  • don't sweat t.s.s.

    “30 percent actually rateed longtime incumbnet, Libertarian Justice Richard Sanders “unqaulified”"

    any i felt bad about never using spellchecks.

  • Jakers

    #1: Why should Seattle be 'on the hook' to receive the excess money from a sound transit project?

  • Josh Feit

    Sorry. Thanks. Fixed it.

  • http://peacetreefarm.org N in Seattle

    You need to read the Council letter, fattailed.

    They estimate that the Broadway & Denny route will cost $125.4 million, well under the $132.8 million that had been allocated through ST2. Council is asking for $750,000 of the difference so that they can assess the feasibility of extending it to Roy. Were the route addition to pass review, they would ask for the rest of the $7.4 million difference for building the extra tracks. They acknowledge that if building it to Roy (if approved) comes out to exceed a total of $132.8 million, the city will have to find the extra cash somewhere other than ST2.

    Fizz is incorrect in asserting that going to Roy would cost $132.8 million. No one knows what that would cost, because no one has looked at that extension yet. Council is asking for a few bucks so that such looking can be done.

  • Punk Ass Bitch

    The streetcar extension would probably go all the way to Prospect and the entrance to Volunteer Park which is an extra 3/4 mile. The city estimates that it would cost about $20 million extra to build that segment. Doing the $700K design work that the city is requesting money for will make the project far enough along that we can apply for federal money.

  • TranspoGuy

    N in Seattle is right. And, there's a good chance that the overall project comes in even cheaper than now estimated because of the bidding environment and because risk on this kind of project is quite low (not a lot of utility relocation, no major grade issues to deal with, SDOT has recent experience with building a streetcar).

    There's also a good chance that Seattle can get federal grant money to cover most, if not all, the costs of the extension, especially given that the route passes right through the Yesler Terrace redevelopment, connecting it with two higher ed institutions and the employment centers of Downtown and Pill Hill.

  • http://twitter.com/fattailed fattailed

    Thank you much. Should have guessed it was another innumerate reporting issue rather than an insane construction cost.

  • giffy

    So in other words the Council actually has some concrete plans to make mobility better while the mayor tilts at windmills and holds townhalls. Why isn't he all over Sound Transit to make sure that 7sih million comes our way for streetcars? Why isn't he on SDOT to get not just that street closed, but also the one in front of Westlake and the Market? Hell all of Third Ave should be bike, bus, and ped 24/7. Some paint, maybe a little sidewalk work and we could have a great corridor for walking or ridding.

  • tpn

    Don't interrupt McGinn in the middle of his cost-overrun-Hail-Mary-Pass!

  • Trevor

    Not excited for a streetcar on Broadway at all– rush hour traffic is already bad, and the combination of construction disruption, traffic congestion, and reduced on street parking might hurt Broadway more than a streetcar would help. It would make so much more sense to run it up/ down 12th all the way to Jackson and then down to the ID and back along the waterfront to sculpture park. But of course I'm dreaming, and the political compromises around First Hill light rail would never allow that.

  • Good Work

    No picture of the bike?

  • Beacon Hill Pasta Boy

    Good article. This is another of a growing list of basic governance issues being missed by our Mayor. His OJT here costs Seattle $700,000.

  • reality based commute

    I agree with N in Seattle and TranspoGuy that the Cola erred in asserting that there is a cost estimate for the extension to Roy. I hope they correct this error soon instead of letting it stay.

    One question I do have that I have not seen answered is how they plan to relocate the trolley wires along the route. They are absent from city simulations so far.

  • Jakers

    haven't you learned anything, less lanes and more transit equals better traffic, duh.

  • joshuadf

    On Fairview Ave north of Valley the streetcar wires are in the inside lanes and the trolley wire is in the outside lanes. There's a funny crossing in a couple places.

  • Jon Morgan

    If you've paid the slightest bit of attention to the FH Streetcar project, you'd realize that the extension of the line and the battle with ST over funding design for it comes from neither the mayor nor the council but the Capitol Hill Community Council. Both the mayor and the council support the extension and requesting the design money for it from ST (though we won't get it). This is something the mayor and council agree on. McGinn has done nothing to block this (he's pro-transit, remember?), and the council is merely doing what Capitol Hill told them they needed to.

  • Jon Morgan

    What rush hour traffic? The only people I hear say this don't live on Capitol Hill and rarely use Broadway. It's a total red herring to claim Broadway is congested. The streetcar and proposed streetscape with 2 car/streetcar lanes, wider sidewalks, and a cycle track will drastically improve the corridor. There are physical reasons why the line can't run on 12th Ave, and many others why it shouldn't, such as lack of ridership. Not to mention, the whole purpose of this line was to serve First Hill after they lost a light rail station. 12th Ave. wouldn't do that at all.

    Ideas are great, but it's critical to get your facts straight first.

  • Eddiew

    re the letter to ST requesting study funds for the extension of the FHC streetcar north to Aloha Street. study funds are one thing, but what prospect does Seattle have to build the track at about $40m/mile, add another streetcar at about $1m, and add the additional service subsidy to maintain the 10-minute headway on a longer line? all for almost no additional benefit.

  • Eddiew

    Councilmember Rasmussen new wheels may be like this:

    http://www.competitivecyclist.com/road-bikes/fr…

    light, fast, and expensive.

  • zefwagner

    There is no need to relocate trolley wire, they can coexist.