Viva La Cola!

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.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

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.

x close
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.

Sound Transit Wins Another $10 Million for South Light Rail Extension

That Washington   December 15, 2011 at 12:34 pm Erica C. Barnett

Sound Transit just received a TIGER grant of $10 million to extend light rail south from Sea-Tac Airport to South 200th St. in the city of SeaTac. Altogether, Sound Transit has received just over $26 million in federal funding for the extension, which is expected to cost a total of about $383 million.

“I was proud to create the TIGER program to fund investments like this one for Sound Transit that put people to work, boost the local economy, and lay down a strong foundation for long-term economic growth,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said in a statement.

In a letter to US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in September, US Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1), who is running for governor, noted that the southern rail extension would create more than 2,000 jobs and would open at the same time as the University Link light-rail segment.

As we reported last year, Sound Transit now believes that it will no longer be able to deliver the entire Sound Transit 2 package by 2023, as originally proposed, thanks to a multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall. However, the good news is that the S. 200th station is now expected to open in 2016—four years earlier than originally envisioned.


  • Monster

    2000 jobs? that seems a bit high. are they permante middle class jobs or only a two- three year  gig.

  • Anonymous

    They are probably factoring in construction of the right-of-way, construction of TOD around the station, businesses that will occupy the retail spaces in the TOD (including apartment managers, janitorial services, etc), and jobs that ST would add (facilities, security, etc) Probably other things too.

  • FrequentPoster

    $10 million. Gee. A windfall for the planneristas, but it won’t build any track.

  • Ben Schiendelman

    No, they don’t count TOD. That’s just construction/operation/maintenance. Sure, some of the jobs may be short, and I’d love to see numbers for the *time* each of these jobs lasts (how about we use person-hours instead of jobs?), but it’s still way better than no money. :)

  • Ben Schiendelman

    It will, in fact, build track.

    Sound Transit bonds these sorts of things – it’s a ~$400 million project. Having cash up front has a double impact – that $10 million really represents $20-25 million in tax revenue Sound Transit can use for something else.

    Sound Transit only brings in some $500 million in actual annual revenue. That money is split between five subareas, of which South King County is not the largest. Then it’s split between Sounder operation, Sounder capital, ST Express operation, ST Express capital, Link operation, Link capital, and administration/planning/engineering/etc. When it comes down to it, $10 million for *one* project might be a year’s worth of the trickle that would have come into that bucket.

  • http://www.twitter.com/JN_Seattle/ JohnNiles

    Senior citizens and those in middle age may recall that the light rail line from SeaTac Airport to S 200th was voted for approval region-wide in November 1996 following the Regional Express campaign that got Sound Transit started. Light rail to S 200th was programmed in 1996 to be completed by 2006. A large, expensive station was designed, but the track and construction never happened. The extension below the airport to S 200th and on to Federal Way was then re-approved in the Prop 1 vote following the Mass Transit Now campaign in November 2008. 

    The TIGER grant award reported above by Erica should be thought of as additional cash in the South King subarea funding pot that will help pay for whatever eventually gets built south of SeaTac, because neither the $27 million TIGER grant requested, nor the $10 million actually awarded were necessary for the S 200th extension to be built and put into operation by 2016, despite any implications to the contrary in the massive application materials posted online at http://www.soundtransit.org/About-Sound-Transit/News-and-events/S200th-TIGER-grant.xml.  Any Federal funding now or later displaces local funding that can then be used later in the same subarea.How do I know this?  Sound Transit staff said it.  At the October 13, 2011 regular meeting of the Puget Sound Regional Council Transportation Policy Board, at about 28 minutes into the video record at 
    http://psrc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=198 
    Lisa Wolterink of the Sound Transit staff in charge of Federal grant strategy revealed to elected officials under questioning that winning the TIGER grant was not necessary for light rail to be built from the Airport to S 200th by 2016.  She said the project was fully funded by Sound Transit Board vote using local funds and Federal funds already received up to that point.

    By the way, City of Federal Way is very angry about the light rail funding situation in South King County, so angry that Mayor Skip Priest voted against approval of the S 200th light rail extension at the October 27th meeting of the Executive Board of Puget Sound Regional Council, visible in the posted video. 

    As described in the minutes of that meeting, “The board had a lively discussion about funding priorities to meet the region’s transportation goals.” The PSRC Executive Board then voted to “explore finance and governance of transportation infrastructure and transit in the region, explore the long term funding of transportation projects, and discuss the possibility of creating a working committee to begin discussions for dealing with these issues.”  

    The video of the October 27 PSRC meeting at http://psrc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=199 is much more entertaining than the account in the minutes. It reveals a potential future course correction in Sound Transit’s March of Progress toward the Seattle suburbs — the early faint sound of a different drummer.

  • TMN

    Can I start calling you “the posteristas”? It makes about as much sense as any of your other half-baked attempted slurs for people you disagree with…