Here’s the latest climate news from our region.
Seattle
SDOT and the Mayor’s office released a draft Transportation Levy. This new levy would replace Move Seattle, which expires this year. The levy provides one third of SDOT’s spending overall, and almost all of the capital projects. The levy would raise $1.35B, up from $930M in Move Seattle, but below the $1.7B that SDOT polling showed would pass, and that advocates had hoped for; in inflation adjusted terms it represents a 10% increase according to the Urbanist. In spite of the fact that the overall levy is larger than Move Seattle, the new spending proposal has sharp decreases for both transit (-30%) and sidewalk spending (-23%), while spending on road maintenance is up by about 33%. The draft is available for public comment until April 26. Then it will go to Council for approval before going on the ballot in November. Advocates are asking for transit, walking, and biking to be 50% of the investments in the levy. There are a series of public events during the public comment period when you can talk with SDOT:
- Wednesday, April 10: SODO BIA 2024 Transportation Open House | 11 AM–1 PM
- Saturday, April 13: Columbia City Farmers Market | 10 AM–2 PM
- Sunday, April 14: Capitol Hill Farmers Market | 11 AM–3 PM
- Tuesday, April 16: Northgate Station | 3 PM–6 PM
- Thursday, April 18: Westlake Park | 11 AM–2 PM
- Saturday, April 20: University District Farmers Market | 9 AM–2 PM
- Sunday, April 21: Ballard Farmers Market | 10 AM–2 PM
- Sunday, April 21: West Seattle Farmers Market | 10 AM–2 PM
Seattle’s Climate Change Response Framework makes it clear that meeting our climate goals requires increasing transit, walking, and biking as well as electrifying vehicles, and in particular, transit usage and biking will have to double between now and 2030.
Excerpted from the Seattle Climate Change Framework
The Office of Sustainability and Environment recently posted several job openings, in spite of the city-wide hiring freeze. The three positions are for a grants advisor, a coordinator for the Building Emissions Performance Standards program, and for the Clean Heat Program. This is a possible sign that the Mayor is not planning to significantly cut these programs in order to cover the budget deficit.
350 Seattle’s Green New Deal for Social Housing campaign is helping House Our Neighbors gather signatures for the social housing initiative. They have just months to gather 30,000 signatures, and are looking for folks to help out.
Sound Transit
The Link extension to Lynnwood will open on Aug. 30 this year. It will add four new stations: Shoreline South/148th St., Shoreline North/185th St., Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood City Center. During peak hours, trains will run approximately every eight minutes. Bus service changes related to the opening will start on Sept. 14.
The East Side Starter line, from Bellevue to Redmond, will start April 27. This will connect 8 stations, from South Bellevue to Redmond Technology Center (aka Microsoft), passing through East Main, Bellevue Downtown, Wilburton, Spring District, BelRed, and Overlake.
State
A State timber sale in East King County has been blocked by a judge after opponents sued in court that the environmental impact statement did not take into account the carbon emissions that would be caused by logging. The forest in question is mature, with trees as old as 110 years, and cutting it would emit an estimated 48,700 metric tons of CO2. The State uses money from sales of the timber on its land to fund education, but this is a practice that is under increasing pressure. This decision could impact many other sales elsewhere in the state.