Seattle City Council: Sustainability & Transportation Committee 9/20/19

Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you all for being here.

My name is Mike O'Brien.

I am chair of the Sustainability and Transportation Committee.

meetings on Friday afternoons when there's a handful of people on the plaza who care about sustainability in our planet.

Thank you all so much for being here.

In a moment, we're going to start public comment.

We have about at least 30 people signed up today, which is awesome.

But that means I'm going to allow people to speak just for one minute each so we can get through everybody.

So if you've prepared a really awesome two-minute speech, I'm going to give you a few minutes to whittle it down to an awesome one-minute speech while I go over the agenda really quickly.

Today's agenda has nine items on it.

We're first going to consider three appointments to the Seattle Transit Advisory Board.

Then we're going to consider two appointments to the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board.

Then we're going to consider and possibly vote on a resolution.

about sidewalks maintenance.

We'll have a discussion.

There's no voter legislation on this, but just a discussion about ORCA Transit passes for all.

We'll consider possibly voting.

You can clap for ORCA passes for all.

We'll consider voting on a resolution to require the Seattle Department of Transportation to develop a traffic signals policy.

And then finally, we'll have an ordinance vacating a street at the petition of Seattle Public Utilities.

So I am going to formally approve our agenda.

And now we can move on to public comment.

So for folks that have never been here before, there are microphones in the center of the room.

There's two of them on that table.

There's also a microphone at the far end of the room.

They're bendy.

So you can adjust them to your height and you can go to any of the three, they all work, just whatever you're more comfortable with.

Regardless of where you stand, you will be on Seattle Channel being filmed and you can see yourself if you're so inclined or you can not look at yourself if you want to ignore yourself while you're speaking.

I'll call three or four names at a time and just ask that folks work their way up to the microphone so we can get through everyone pretty quickly when someone's done.

Catherine Horsters first, followed by Bobby Rigney, and then Karen Taylor.

Catherine.

Hi, I'm Kate Herster.

I took time off today as a public health researcher to represent my personal views about getting around Seattle on foot.

I'll give an example.

Most times I cross MLK at Oregon on my way to work, I run from speeding, left-turning cars that fail to yield to me in the 30 seconds I'm given.

I often see groups of kids walking to the Boys and Girls Club and folks with mobility limitations who are not able to get out of the way of cars at this intersection.

And my ask is that you please elevate pedestrian safety above cars getting to where they need to go faster, and instead create more and safer crossings and slow speeds.

My walk to work is terrifying at times, but I keep doing it because it's important for my health and the climate, and I get to connect with my community.

But I want to make it home to my family at the end of the day, and I want that for all of us.

So please make our streets safer by putting pedestrians first.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Bobbi Rieke.

I'm speaking today for Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action.

I can't remember the name.

And we are an organization of a lot of retired people, but also quite a few young ones.

But most of us are old enough to have an ORCA pass.

And I love it.

I ride the bus all the time.

It only costs me a dollar.

I can hop on and off.

learn about people in the city, because I'm not in a car isolated by myself.

So I think what makes the city great is a really good transit system.

And the chance for people to intermix, get to know each other.

What makes the city horrible is traffic jams, traffic pollution, traffic noise, and the isolation from sitting in your car for hours, literally, not just minutes.

So I'm supporting the ARCA for All, Corporations that are in this beautiful city have a responsibility to uphold the infrastructure and develop it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bobbie.

You're going to be followed by Andrew Ace Houston, Doug McDonald, and then Henry Schlosser.

Hi there, my name is Karen Taylor.

I'm here to support ORCA for All.

You can just imagine that all those kids out there are testifying that we need free public transit for everyone, and this would be just a minor step in the right direction.

It's good for poor folks like me, but we need to get all the rich folks on the bus too.

So everyone downtown needs a free pass, and then we're going to move on to free public transit for all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Karen.

Hi, my name is Ace.

I am an architect, a queer person of color, and a DC resident.

I'm here in support of sidewalks, safe streets, and Orca for All.

I understand, as an architect, that there are a lot of things that we can do to make the built environment more sustainable through our buildings.

However, those places aren't made safe if we do not have streets that continue that safety from inside to the outside.

And I also understand that in order to have more people stop using their cars and drive so quickly and get into transit, that we make things easier for them to do so.

So we need things like Orca for All.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ace.

I'm Doug McDonald.

I'm happy I was only on crutches for six weeks after I slipped on the ice, and I can give you a firsthand report of how many people were in the emergency rooms this winter, largely elderly people, because of icy conditions on sidewalks.

I'm 100 percent in support of the resolution, and I want to make two friendly amendments.

First, equally important to the sidewalk ice issue is the issue of vegetation blockage on sidewalks all over the city.

And that issue is an issue which is not at SDOT but at SDCI or between the two.

And I would strongly suggest that the resolution be worked for the recognition that we've got to deal with a whole host of sidewalk issues, not simply the issue of snow and ice.

but it too, and that we've got to do it with some recognition that passing aspirations is not the same as finding ways to enforce things.

We've had this discussion now on several topics, and it remains the case that we have to find meaningful measures so that when we ask people to do things, we don't have to rat out our neighbors or do other things that aren't feasible in order to get our sidewalks safe and accessible for everybody all year long, all day long.

Thank you.

Here it comes, Henry is next.

You're gonna be followed by, let's see, we have to talk about your handwriting, maybe Clay Curtis and then Tommy Magel.

All right, go ahead.

Okay, hi.

I think Orca cards for everybody would be great because then, obviously, less cars, which helps the climate.

we can make the streets probably more safer because there's only buses, not like other cars coming.

Also, I have school or I I go to a school that passes out orca cards to kids that live with like with or no out of one mile radius of the school and for the kids that don't get the orca cards I think it'll be good for them because if you are going over to like a friend's house that is outside of that one mile then they can get over there without having to worry about bringing their wallet.

So, yeah.

Thanks, Henry.

All right, Clyde.

Hello, I'm also from Whitman, and I am not within that one mile, so I got an ORCA card for school.

an avid OrcaCard user how helpful it is to get places.

Now that it feels like I've reached a maturity where I don't have to call my parents to get anywhere, I can pretty much go wherever I want.

Same with my friend Matias over there.

We've gone to movie theaters, friends' houses.

We even got to this rally using the OrcaCards.

So, I personally believe that everyone, not just kids, not within a one-mile radius, should have a worker card and have the freedom that we do.

Thank you.

Tommy Magel will be followed by...

I'm going to work on his handwriting, kiddos.

Something Boris, bears, and then Rex Oliver.

My name is Tommy Meagle.

I'm also from Whitman.

And with orca cards, I think it's a great thing that we should give them out, because some people, like homeless people, might not have enough to buy an orca card.

So maybe we should give it to Sorry, I'm sorry.

Maybe we should give it to them.

It's hard because usually people who are homeless have to walk everywhere and it's just kind of unfair.

While we get cars and buses and bikes and stuff to transit, well, what do they have?

They just, I'm sorry.

You're doing great, man.

You signed up after Tommy.

Say your name for the record.

Oh, Cyrus Beers.

Cyrus Beers, got it.

I think free ORCA cards would be important for people because Like, also like the homeless community, they can't really, they can't even really get a job because they can't really get to the job.

So it would be easier for them to maybe get off the streets and stay indoors and like warm.

And it would be good for like kids and teens.

who people, like, don't have parents around to take them places, so they wouldn't have to, like, use their money that they could use for food and other stuff on themselves, or, like, on the bus.

Great.

Thank you.

All right.

Rex Oliver's next.

And Rex is going to be followed by Laura Lowe Bernstein, then Ryan Packer, and then Doug Trum.

I think orca for all is a good thing because I don't have an orca card and sometimes my parents at work they can't pick me up and my mom's house isn't very close to the school so it's a big struggle trying to carry my really heavy backpack all the way to my mom's house and for the less fortunate that can't afford a car and maybe the struggle of the bus fare and always taking out your wallet and bringing it with you is always a pain and if you don't have a car then you can't really get places without walking and it would be a lot easier if everyone just had an Orca card and they could just swipe it and get, use buses and stop using the car.

Yeah, okay.

Your work is cut out for you following these awesome advocates.

Let's see what you got.

My name is Laura.

I was a former bus driver, a former middle school math and science teacher.

And today means more to me than the hundreds of council meetings I've attended over the last four years.

I would love to see this at least once a month.

This is so beautiful.

As a bus driver, when I would let folks on the bus and say, hey, no big deal, like if they're like, oh, I forgot my wallet today or whatever, sometimes people would start crying, like businessmen on the 212, folks that clearly were experiencing like visible poverty on the 301. People just really just love that kindness of saying like, oh, no big deal, like tomorrow, get it tomorrow if you can.

And the fare enforcement is just a really hostile environment.

So we should move to an environment where there's no fare enforcement, transit is free and people don't have to feel scared or intimidated on public transit, especially during a climate crisis.

It's extremely horrible that people are having to choose between dealing with law enforcement and taking transit in a climate crisis.

It looks like Ryan Packer.

He had to go back to work.

I wasn't expecting him today.

I saw that he wasn't going to make it.

Say your name for the record.

Next time.

I'm Doug Trump.

Both Ryan and I are with The Urbanist, and we have endorsed the Ogre for All campaign, so we're for that.

But I'm here today to focus on the traffic signal policy, adaptive signals.

We believe the city needs a comprehensive policy on traffic signals that puts pedestrians first, because What we have now is not working that great.

There's been small improvements on Mercer, but I don't think anyone wants that environment on every street in the city.

Making pedestrians wait longer at intersections so more cars can go through doesn't match our stated priorities for our streets, so we should make a signal policy that addresses that and puts pedestrians in safety first.

And I'm also in support of the rest of the mass transportation package, sidewalk maintenance for similar reasons, just so pedestrians have an easier time getting around.

And with the pedestrian safety crisis we're seeing, we need to be doing as much as we can to get towards Vision Zero.

Shear Goldberg is next, followed by Rachel Brown, then Jeffrey Padd, and Katie Lewis.

My name is Shear Goldberg, and two years ago, I was living in Chicago, which is almost as expensive as Seattle, and I could not afford a monthly transit pass.

Every time I stepped on the train, I wondered if I could afford it or if I was going to have to walk.

And now I live here, and my employer pays for a free monthly ORCA pass.

This has enabled Seattle to open up to me in a way that Chicago never did.

I can save more, I can spend more at local businesses, and I can participate in and support my community sustainably.

Because for me, getting a free monthly pass makes the decision to not own a car easy.

I hope that everyone can have this level of access to choose their form of transportation and choose something sustainable.

Thanks, Chair.

Hi, I'm Katie Lewis.

I wanted to speak for the need of improvements for crossing streetlights.

There's an intersection near where I live in the U District at Campus Parkway where they replaced a crosswalk with a signal where you can get halfway across the street.

during one light cycle and then you get across the other unless you run.

I'm usually on a bicycle, so I can get all the way across, but I feel like they're clearly, they're not thinking about the whole picture there.

If we have consistent policy, we can make sure that when you have, you design it for people, that we are prioritized.

I hear that you improve the things you measure.

We should be measuring, we should be paying attention to the needs for cyclists and pedestrians as well as cars.

Thank you.

Let me clear, so that was Katie.

Rachel and Jeffrey?

Jeffrey, come on up.

Oh yeah, Paul.

I said pad.

Sorry about that.

Is Rachel Brown here?

All right, I'll cross.

Great.

So Jeffrey, you're next.

And then we have Dave Schultz, then Felix Vincent Cobble.

Hi, my name is Jeffrey Paul.

I'm a special ed parapro for Seattle Public Schools.

I just came to talk about support for Orca for All.

I came to Seattle as an AmeriCorps member.

And so as an AmeriCorps member, I got a reduced fare.

But that's about to end at the end of this month.

And so my cost is going to double.

And that really sucks because I commute for a long way to get to my school, as do a lot of the teachers at my school.

A lot of people have to use cars to get there.

And there's only two paid parking spots.

So a lot of teachers are either forking out money or they're getting tickets.

They got to go move their car at lunch and all sorts of ridiculous stuff.

And a lot of them just don't take the ORCA card, don't take the light rail to work or buses or anything like that.

And I think that this would be a great way to get more people using public transit and less people using cars.

And I think teachers should have the same opportunity that the students have of having an ORCA pass.

Thank you.

My name is Dave Schultz, member of the Transit Riders Union.

I'm here to support the Orca for All campaign.

The more people that ride the bus, the better.

Thank you.

To the point and simple.

Thanks, Dave.

Felix.

And Felix, sorry, you'll be followed by Marid, Felit, Beaumont, then Krista Cherry, and then there's a group for the Mass Coalition that will speak.

Hello, my name is Felix Vincent Coble, and I'm a junior at Nathan Hill High School in District 5. Since getting our free ORCA cards from school, my sister and I commute to school every day instead of getting a ride from our mom.

I think that everyone should have an opportunity for public transit and to reduce carbon emissions.

But by charging money, you are discouraging people from choosing that option.

My friend Mario and I are part of Fridays for Future, and because it's free of charge, we easily take the light rail here every week.

If we want to make our goal of being a carbon neutral city by 2030, we need to take action now and make free public transit an option for everyone.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Sorry, I got your name wrong.

Oh, it's all good.

Members of the City Council, thank you for signing on to the Seattle Green New Deal.

My name is Mario Falipe Amonti, and I am an 11th grader at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle.

A few weeks ago, you all signed on to the Green New Deal.

In my opinion, public transportation has to be an integral part of any climate plan.

In the past year, since Seattle Public Schools have given each high school student an ORCA card, more students have started to use public transportation.

I believe that if we can expand the free ORCA card program to all of Seattle, we will see more people using public transit, and we can significantly lower our CO2 emissions.

Like with all issues, we have to look at this as an equity issue.

If we want to ensure that more people use public transit, we must make public transit free so that it can be an option for everyone.

I believe that this is the only way to ensure that everyone can be part of the solution.

Thank you.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

My name is Krista Cherry, and I'm a senior at Nathan Hale High School.

This November is the first year that I can vote.

So last year, the city council gave free ORCA cards to all Seattle Public High School students.

Here is mine.

I use my bus pass to commute from north to west Seattle every day this summer.

When public transit is a viable, cheap option, people don't drive.

This city made a commitment for my future and for our collective future to be carbon neutral by 2030. That's 10 years away.

In order to meet that goal, public transit needs to be massively expanded, and ORCA cards need to be provided not just to SPS high schoolers.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Is there a mass coalition in the house?

All right, moving on, Douglas Sexton.

Oh, you're coming, okay.

How many people are in the mass coalition?

Is three minutes okay, folks?

Three minutes.

We didn't plan this very well.

Hi.

So we are here representing the Mass Coalition, various organizations.

I'm with the Transit Riders Union.

Rooted in Rice, Disability Rights Washington.

350 Seattle.

Salem Neighborhood Greenways.

Sierra Club, OK, and several other organizations that are not standing here with us.

So we are here in support of the mass transportation package.

I'm very grateful that the City Council unanimously passed out a few pieces of legislation related to bicycle safety last month.

And we're here to support the pedestrian and sidewalk legislation that you're going to be discussing today.

For the Transit Riders Union, I'll just say that transit riders are also pedestrians.

When we get off the bus, we walk and roll to wherever we're going.

And so having sidewalks that are accessible to everyone is extremely important to us.

Any climate equity, climate justice focused future has to make it easy for people to get around in any way that's not a car or not dependent on fossil fuels.

And pedestrianism is one of those ways.

And as Katie mentioned, it's a way that connects with other ways.

It's a way all in and of itself.

And so people like my elderly neighbor need to be able to get around on the sidewalk.

People like my kid who, when he was a toddler, tripped once a week, and his enthusiastic dashes down the sidewalk over cracks need to be able to use the sidewalk.

I've lived in Seattle most of my adult life, and I'm looking forward to aging here, too.

And I commute by walking, taking transit, taking the bus, and I'm concerned about some of the recent pedestrian deaths in West Seattle of seniors.

What I understand is that there have been three within a month's time.

That's unconscionable.

We just can't accept that.

And I support the mass transportation package.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

We have Douglas Sexton, then Maxim Lowe, then Merle Adler.

Hello.

Hello.

All right.

I would like to talk about the inequality between who gets market cards and who doesn't.

So I've been fortunate that I'm one of the people that has worked at companies where usually people are high income and those people are the people who tend to get transit benefits.

So I've gotten into the system where my first company I was fully subsidized.

My company now it's 50% subsidized and I love using public transit.

Like I don't have to use the ride share apps.

It's fantastic.

But it disappoints me that that's not the case for other people.

So there's an inequality there.

And we also know that there's an injustice with the climate where We're not going to resolve it without more people using public transit.

So let's just solve both of these injustices at the same time.

Thank you.

Hi, my name's Maxine.

I just found out about Orca for All about 30 minutes ago, but I wanted to speak in support of it, because it's what we need.

I just moved to Seattle a couple months ago, and I got rid of my car.

And I started a job that I was lucky enough to start a job that gave me a discounted Orca Pass.

So I've been using that, and that's been wonderful.

But I'm leaving that job at the end of this month, and I'm starting a new one that doesn't offer me that.

And transportation is going to be a lot tougher.

My budget's going to be a lot tighter.

And I'll be fine.

Orca for All is what the city needs, and I can't imagine what it's like for people who are less fortunate than me.

So Orca for All, climate justice now.

Come on up.

And then after you, Merle, Katie Wilson signed up.

But Katie, I think you already spoke.

Yeah.

And then so Derek Richards, Chris Wolf, and Matt Gleason.

I'm kind of by way of an advertisement.

Mike's going to be appearing at a forum here coming up at the Spring Street Center with Long Bist presented by Shama Sawant on system change, not climate change.

We need to be attending to real change.

A lot of times in the transit issue you get concerned about where is the funding for the energy that's going to be displacing the diesel that we're using, the dirty diesel.

Well, Bernie Sanders has a way of looking at it by taking over the energy industry by way of of introducing electricity for all.

If you read into his environmental program, he says that electricity will be free to us all.

So if we're looking down the way to see if we do a major expansion of electricity, the current 120-odd buses that we purchased that are all electric is going to be expanded to 1,500 buses.

And any kind of expansion that we're talking about today, which will be free transit, can well be accommodated by buses that don't have to rely on hybrids.

And I've talked to a few bus drivers and they say they're equally as compatible as the troubles that they have with the current diesel buses.

But anyway, we need really to take over these energy systems.

And not rely on just tinkering like we see happening so much by politicians who are accepting goals and not meeting those goals.

But anyway.

Thanks Merle.

You betcha.

Thank you very much.

About a year ago, I was able to get rid of my car.

I live on First Hill because my job helps cover an ORCA card.

And it's been the most freeing thing that I have ever done.

And it was when there was smoke from the wildfires.

And my partner, I was complaining, I was like, man, there's all this smoke.

And she was like, well, I guess that means you're going to get rid of your car and start taking the bus.

And so because she got me, I did get rid of my car and started taking the bus.

And I know that not everybody has the same opportunity to get an ORCA card through their work.

So that's why I think ORCA4ALL will be important because I know people want to do a lot about climate change.

We should help them out.

Along with the free ORCA card, we should also continue to make transportation choices, give more options for it so that people, it's very convenient, it runs by frequently, and there's no financial barrier in the way.

Thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Chris Wolfe, and I'm a tech worker here in Seattle, and I want to introduce you to my ORCA card.

He makes me feel so safe.

He makes me feel so secure, and he gives me an enormous sense of freedom, because I can know between this and my two feet that I can get pretty much anywhere in this beautiful city.

And that's possible because my employer is a multinational corporation that introduces this to me as a perk, which means I basically get this for free every single month.

That's allowed me not to have a car here, which means that I can contribute in my small way to reducing CO2 emissions in this city and in the world.

And that should be a privilege, a right for everybody in this city who wants it, who doesn't need to choose between their bills at the end of the week and their future on this planet.

Thank you very much.

I'm at Gleason I have an orca card that's provided by my employer I used to drive to and from work every day and I would spend nearly an hour just idling on the highway on the way back it would leave me

drained, and I would generally just stay in my apartment.

I wouldn't want to go drive somewhere else afterwards.

It really made me feel disconnected from the community, the area.

I was having a really bad time.

And once I got my worker card, it's just been a really huge impact on my life.

I feel more connected to my community.

I'm more likely to go to businesses that I see.

Yeah, and I honestly just couldn't stop telling my co-workers how much better my life was when I wasn't just grinding my teeth for 40 hours a day after coming home from work.

Thank you.

Thanks, Matt.

After you will be Jessica Scalzo, then Susan Gleason, and Janine Shinglis.

Hi, I'm Bree Geinkeld.

I'm with Central Seattle Greenways, and we work to make our neighborhoods safe for people walking and biking.

And one of the largest challenges we have faced over the years is trying to understand why signals act the way they do at specific intersections.

It's completely opaque and appears to depend on which signal engineer was assigned to which intersection on which day.

So I'm very excited about the idea of having a signal policy, and I urge you to have SDOT work with community organizations and with the modal boards to ensure that the signal policy that comes out, since we have none right now, actually does put pedestrians first and makes sure that our people are safe and comfortable walking around our city.

I'm also very excited about some kind of workable sidewalk maintenance policy and support for all, so it's an exciting day.

Thank you.

Is it Jessica?

Oh, sorry, Jessica.

OK, cool.

My fault.

That's OK.

Hi, I'm Jessica Scalzo.

I work at Trader Joe's on Capitol Hill, and I am here today in high support of ORCA for All legislation.

As a former collegiate distance runner, my transportation has traditionally been my legs and my bike and maybe just a few bus trips.

But since injuries have rendered me dependent on the bus for the last couple of years, I have got to see what it's like when you have to take the bus all the time.

And it was quite an eye opener, both being injured and having to take the bus even just to go a few blocks.

And I can see how that lifestyle can become expensive and burdensome very quickly.

I would say on average, I spend about $175 more per month than I used to on transportation.

From the surveys that we did, we found out that it's the higher paid workers that get more subsidized transit and the lower paid workers that do not.

And I want to change that so everyone has access.

And I think ORCA for All will be a crucial step in doing that.

So thank you very much.

Thanks Jessica.

Janine.

Janine, you'll be followed by, I think it's Jim Page, maybe, and then Megan Murphy and Mallory Moser.

Hi, my name's Janine Shingler, and I am here in support of all of the above and congratulate the youth for coming out for those that were able and chose to be here, to practice their citizenship, and they're setting an excellent example.

Now, one thing that really bothers me, and I'm in support for ORCA for all, I think transit, mass transit, is a great tool to encourage people to use it, and it's the chicken and the egg, because people that don't use it want to use it, except for all the reasons.

It doesn't connect.

It's too inconvenient.

blah, blah, blah, blah, but I would if it was convenient, but people that don't write it don't encourage us to build more.

But if we build it, they really would come.

And light rail is a perfect example of that.

Reaching out to the powers that be, Mayor Durkin, if you are listening, and I hope that you are because this committee does a great job, and also all of the major, especially the tech companies in this town who have gotten so much from this city, And it's time to step up and help us do this to encourage people to use mass transit.

People that have money should be riding it.

They should be set an example.

And we should be giving free transit to everybody.

And especially, I just find it really disturbing that we use the stick for people that can't afford it.

and treat them like second-class citizens or criminals by checking their ticket and everything.

I think that's so, so mean.

Thank you.

Everybody, rise the bus.

Everybody, that's us.

Everybody, rise the bus.

And everybody thanks the driver.

No, I don't want to drive in a car.

Sometimes if I'm walking, it's just too far when you're carrying a guitar.

I want to ride the bus so I can sit down next to other people.

I can see the city go by.

I don't get all alienated sitting there by myself worrying about traffic, getting my foot all tired on the gas pedal and the brake and all that kind of looking for parking, all that kind of stuff.

You know what I'm saying?

A bus is a social organism.

We are social beings.

Let's get on that bus.

Everybody rides the bus.

Now, I know everybody doesn't ride the bus, but let's act like we do.

If we love the bus, let's sing this song.

Here we go.

Everybody rides the bus.

Everybody, that's us.

Everybody rides the bus.

And everybody thanks the driver.

You to follow that That was pretty good kind of like Woody Guthrie and so I love it anyways Well, I was thinking, you know, there's a climate crisis, and then there's refugees coming from the south, and because of climate change and the weapons industries, trades, you know.

So I thought, what if, like, the people that work for ICE, you know, there could be a new green job sector of, like, buses, and, like, they could pay their mortgage or their bills by you know, we develop green jobs.

And so, like, there could even be buses between the U.S. and Mexico, because the notion of borders, you know, it's like, we could reconceptualize borders, and instead of them being built around, like, trade and, you know, that pollutes the earth, I just, I think it's, to have trade that doesn't use pollutions at all, it's, time is running out, And we got to be fast and think fast.

I'm just really glad you're holding this.

We're getting more and more of a taste of free public transit.

But first the kids got it, and then, you know, more and more.

It just needs to all be free.

There's no more time.

Thanks, Megan.

Mallory is the last one I have signed up.

So if there's anyone else in the audience who would like to speak and give testimony who hasn't signed up, please come to the microphone while Mallory is speaking.

Go ahead, Mallory.

Hi, I'm Mallory Mosner, and I am a tech worker at a large corporation in the city.

And I just think, you know, I'm from this area, and I think it's deeply shameful, just the lack of equity in Seattle, the fact that in pretty much every aspect of life, it's the people in Seattle who have the greatest privilege, who have the most access to subsidized everything.

And Seattle should not just be a city for rich people.

Tech workers should, if anything, be paying for subsidization of ORCA cards and literally everything else that makes this city livable for other people.

So we need to address this reprehensible blight on our city.

This must not continue.

We must make this a city for everyone.

And that should start with ORCA for all and tax the rich.

So for the record.

So I'm Debbie Carlson.

I'm the executive director of LGBTQ Allyship.

And Allyship has come out to endorse the Orca for All campaign.

We regularly connect with workers, particularly restaurant and retail workers.

And transit is a huge worker rights issue within the LGBT community.

So thank you and hopefully for your continued support.

Thanks.

All right, seeing nobody else, we're gonna close public comment.

Thank you all so much for being here, and you're obviously welcome to stay for the next couple hours as we discuss the legislation, but really grateful to have so many folks down here.

I know some of the younger folks had to leave earlier, but it was awesome to hear then have a chance to share their opinions and their kind of thoughtful insight on our legislation.

So thanks again for showing up on a Friday afternoon for public comment.

And Kelly, when you are ready, why don't you read the first agenda items, I guess the first three into the record.

Appointment 01421, reappointment of Carla D. Salter as a member of the Seattle Transit Advisory Board for a term to August 2nd, 2021. Reappointment.

Appointment 01422. Reappointment of Erin Tingia as a member of the Seattle Transit Advisory Board for a term to August 2nd, 2021. And appointment 01423. Reappointment of Alex Wakeman-Rouse as a member of the Seattle Transit Advisory Board for a term to August 2nd, 2021. Welcome.

Why don't we start with quick introductions?

Okay.

I'm Alex Wakeman-Rouse, so up for reappointment.

Been on the TAB for about a year and a half.

and serve as the Move Seattle Levy Oversight Committee TAB representative.

Good to see Alex.

And I'm Ben Smith with SDOT, and I'm the board liaison.

Great.

Ben, do you want to say a couple short words about what the board does?

Absolutely.

So the Transit Advisory Board was formed in 2015, so it's a pretty new board.

It was charged with advising SDOT, Metro, Sound Transit, and other entities on issues relating to transit in the city and the region.

And it also serves as an oversight body of our Seattle Transportation Benefit District revenues, or STBD revenues, which lets the city fund Metro service and some equity programs.

And why don't we go ahead and start with you, Alex.

And first of all, thank you so much for being here.

I hope it wasn't too hectic getting to City Hall this afternoon.

But tell us a little bit about maybe your experience on the board and your willingness to continue.

Sure.

Yes, I'm really excited for the opportunity to continue to serve on this board.

I think it's been really important to serve in that oversight function for the STBD funding.

You heard so many people today talk about youth ORCA and ORCA cards, which is what STBD has partially funded.

We've also been helping SDOT oversee $40 million a year.

in additional transit hours.

So I find this role really fulfilling.

I'm from Seattle.

I'm a lifelong metro rider.

I ride the light rail every day.

I'm pregnant.

I have a kid.

Transit is so important.

And I find that I bring a voice of, I live in Rainier Beach, so I bring a voice from the South Seattle.

I bring a voice of equity, access, and mobility.

I really keep my ear to the ground.

of what other organizations are thinking about and talking about in terms of access and mobility.

And I think looking forward, SDOT has a big, you know, as STDBD funding wraps up, they've got some big projects they've got to finish up, and then we've got to figure out how we're going to keep funding this incredible benefit.

Absolutely do.

Ben, do you want to tell us a little bit about the other two appointees?

Definitely, definitely.

I'll start with Carla Salter.

So everyone knows Carla Salter as the bus chick.

She's been writing and thinking about transit in Seattle and the region for quite a while.

And she had some words to pass along, which I'll share.

Dear Sustainability and Transportation Committee members, thank you for considering her reappointment to the Seattle Transit Advisory Board.

She's sorry that she's not able to be present for the vote.

As her application indicates, she's passionate about public transportation.

She believes that mobility is a human right, and she wants to do what she can to ensure that everyone in Seattle has access to safe, reliable, affordable, preferably free transit service.

She wants to thank all of you for your commitment in improving transit service in Seattle, and the investments the city has made in bus service have made a big difference for her family and many others.

She looks forward to working with you to continue to improve access, speed, reliability, and affordability until transit becomes the most popular mode of transportation for Seattle residents.

And then also up for reappointment is Erin Tighe.

Erin Tighe is one of the Transit Board's co-chairs and is actually one of the only original Transit Board appointees when it was founded in 2015, so she brings a lot of institutional knowledge.

Erin wanted to say to Council Members, she's grateful for the opportunity to continue serving on the Transit Advisory Board.

Over the past four years, we've helped the Council and SDOT refine the Transportation Benefit District's priorities to help serve Seattle residents with a more reliable, frequent, and equitable transit system.

The TBD is entering a critical era as Seattle and King County consider how to best provide service for the region after the levy sunsets at the end of 2020. She's excited to continue advising the city through that time and to work with SDOT, Metro, and Sound Transit to implement policies focused on increasing access transit that is affordable at all income levels with equity in mind.

And thanks for your consideration.

Appreciate having the testimonials there Ben.

Thank you for reading that I am Really impressed with the work that the advisory board does I appreciate Alex you mentioning the transportation benefit district, which has been You know frankly an amazing resource so grateful to Seattle voters to supported that grateful to the work that the advisory board does grateful to the work that I the folks at SDOT have done, and Metro too, through just an amazing collaboration to significantly expand access to transit.

And as you mentioned, that funding ends at the end of next year, and the idea that this time where Seattle has the fastest growing transit system in the country as far as ridership goes, taking $40 or $50 million away from that is really unthinkable.

We need to continue increased investments in it to make it grow up.

So we are committed to figuring out how to renew that.

I think Kelly has been working to help figure out if there are opportunities to not just continue to expand transit for Seattle, but in the whole King County.

And so really hope that there's a chance that people throughout the county could have access to the type of robust transit network.

I mean, folks in the county have an amazing transit network, and it could be even more amazing if there were additional investments.

And so I'm looking forward to the big question marks to be resolved about how we do that.

Thanks for your work, and I'm thrilled to re-appoint you.

I know this is a big commitment, and you obviously have a few other things going on in your life that you've carved out time for.

Your civic duty here on Transit Advisory is really amazing, so thanks for that.

So unless you have anything else, I will go ahead and move appointments 1421, 1422, and 1423. I will also second those and then vote yes on those.

So those will all go to the full council, not on Monday, but the following Monday on September 30th.

So you're obviously welcome to come, but thank you so much for being here today.

Thanks.

Kelly, do you mind reading in agenda items four and five?

Appointment 01424 and appointment 01427. Oh, I should read the whole thing.

Appointment 01424, appointment of Benjamin P. Estes as a member of Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board for a term to August 31st, 2021. And appointment 01427, appointment of Mahondria Lai as a member to the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board for a term to August 31st, 2021. Great.

I'm going to invite the presenters forward.

all waiting for permission to come up here.

You're all so gracious.

We'll start with quick introductions when you're ready.

Hi, my name is Andrea Lai.

Sorry, I don't actually know what should go in the introduction.

A name is fine.

All right, perfect.

We'll come back to you in a second.

Hi, my name's Ben Estes.

Ben Estes.

That last name rings a bell.

But we'll come back to you in a second.

I'm Serena Lehman.

I'm the Seattle Department of Transportation liaison to the Bicycle Advisory Board.

Thanks, Serena.

And Serena, do you want to say any opening remarks about the Bicycle Advisory Board?

Sure.

The Bicycle Advisory Board is a 12-member volunteer advisory board.

It was created in 1977 to advise the council, mayor's office, and other city departments on all things bicycling, including projects, policies, and programs.

That's great.

So you both have been new to the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, so maybe tell me and the viewing audience a little bit about why you're interested in being on this board and what you hope to accomplish in the first few years.

Do you want to start?

Andrea.

All right, sounds good.

Go.

Yeah, so I've lived in Seattle since the beginning of 2015. I began bike commuting about a year or two before that, living in Chicago.

And so I'm a near daily bike commuter.

Bike commuting is the way I get around.

And it's really important to me that the network here in Seattle is connected and safe, reliable, usable across the city.

And so I'm really excited about the connected, the blanking on the name.

But the big plan to really connect all the infrastructure here and make it easy to use, safer to use.

Yeah, and that's my motivation for joining the Bike Board.

I would like my friends and family to stop telling me that biking is dangerous, because it is not.

I have a, anytime there's anything in the news about a bicycle accident, I have an aunt who is certain it's me.

My mom might be in that category too, and it's like, no, I promise, I'm okay, this is me talking on the phone, nothing happened.

So tell me a little bit about your commute.

What routes do you typically use?

So I used to live in Capitol Hill.

I live in Wallingford now.

I work downtown, so those are my primary commuting routes.

But again, I go everywhere on my bike.

So just this week, I was down in Soto, going to South Lake Union, Madison Valley, back home.

Those are kind of international districts.

So all over.

Great.

Thank you, Andrea.

Benjamin?

Yeah.

Applied to join the SBAB for many reasons.

I'm carless.

I'm a bike commuter.

I think my lens going into this is I work in elementary school.

I've been an educator for 15 years.

So just like we've all seen today, just thinking about the future generations and what kind of world we're creating for them.

And I'm thinking about our bike infrastructure, Vision Zero, and creating a safe network for all, for all ages, from eight to 80, making sure that people have safe routes, especially thinking about safe routes to schools.

This year, I'm trying to get some bike trains going, getting Cascade in to do some assemblies on bike safety, and yeah, I'm getting youth to get into biking.

It's really important to me.

It's a pretty amazing show of youth today.

I had a chance to get up to Cal Anderson Park, and then, of course, continue to pile and pile and pile into the streets and the plaza at City Hall.

It's the largest showing of people at City Hall that I've seen in my 10 years here, which is pretty impressive.

Then had a chance, some youth came, essentially stormed my office earlier.

It was great to hear them demanding the work on climate change and then having some youth here in the audience today talking about their experience with Orca Cards too.

I'm not sure if they'd planned to come down or stumbled upon it, but they did a great job.

I appreciate the focus on how to make our system safe for youth, too.

And my little joke about your last name, I assume Brian is your dad.

Your dad served nobly for many years and is someone that was an amazing advocate and great at really holding the city accountable.

I don't want to necessarily put you in the shadow of your dad, but I'm thrilled that you're willing to serve, both of you, to serve on this board.

It's great.

Anything else I want to chat about?

Well, I'm happy to approve these.

They'll go to full council in a week or so and get you to work, because we have a lot of amazing people in the city, I think, working on this.

And it's still hard work, despite amazing efforts.

I have to remind myself that just in the last 10 years, or even 20 years since I've been a bicycle commuter, how much better the network is today.

And at the same point, you know, I look at what's possible in other cities or what's on the maps.

I have a chance to go to Copenhagen in a few weeks.

I was there about 10 years ago, and you know, when 40 to 50% of the people are commuting compared to two or three or 4%, You know, we got a long ways to go to achieve that reality, and we're capable of it.

I know we are, so.

So I'll go ahead and move appointments 1424 and 1427. I will second and vote yes on those, and that'll be the full council on September 30th.

You don't need to be here for that, but I feel confident we will approve those appointments and look forward for you serving the terms on the Bicycle Advisory Board.

Thanks a bunch.

All right, Kelly, how about agenda item number six?

And I'll invite presenters forward.

Resolution 31908, a resolution requesting the Seattle Department of Transportation develop policy options for the maintenance of existing sidewalks, create a public education program on snow and ice removal responsibilities, and develop a program to enforce snow and ice removal requirements by private property owners.

Yeah, I think we've got it.

And do you want to show the videos first?

Yes, let's start with the Dixon video.

Is that the ice?

Oh, this one.

OK, great.

Great.

So, Council Member Herbold, why don't we start with a quick round of introductions, just so everyone knows who's there, and I'll start before we jump in, just to acknowledge that Council Member Herbold has joined us, so thanks so much for being here.

Calvin, do you want to start?

Calvin Chow with Council Central staff.

Clara Cantor with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

Ana Zibar, Rooted in Rights, Disability Rights Washington.

Courtney Cole, also from Rooted in Rights.

Courtney, great to see you again.

Thanks for being at the press event the other day, too.

So let's see.

How should we start?

Do we want to start?

I think so.

OK.

Should we do the video first?

OK.

Did you want to say something, Councilwoman?

Well, no.

I thought we were going to just talk a little bit about the proposal before us and then, yeah, kick it off with the video and hear from the rest of you all.

So I can do a brief summary of what the resolution does.

The resolution for you was part of the MAS package and was put forward by Councilmember Herbold.

It has three parts to it.

The first part requests that SDOT do a policy survey of sidewalk maintenance programs across the country and come forward with recommendations for what could be implemented in Seattle, and ask for that report by March 31st of next year.

The section section requests a public outreach campaign to inform property owners about the responsibilities to clean up snow and ice in a timely fashion after a snow event.

and ask for that proposal be in place by November 1st.

And then the third piece is for a report from SDOT on how it enforces snow and ice removal under the existing law, and ask for that report back by January 1st, 2020. Great.

Council Member Arbol, do you want to say a few more words about that?

Just a couple words.

You know, one of the things I've really appreciated learning about as it relates specifically to the need for a program like this is learning more about checking my own assumptions about who is liable for repairing sidewalks.

So I'd always been under the impression that it was the homeowner that was fully liable and now learning that it's not as clear cut as that.

And so I think that really points to the need for the city to partner on helping homeowners to pay for this obvious unmet need that has an impact on the general public, not just obviously the homeowner.

So I think that's sort of where the issue of shared liability comes from, right?

That this, it doesn't just affect the homeowner if the sidewalks aren't.

repaired it affects the general public.

So really appreciate the opportunity to learn more about that and learn also from what other cities have been doing in this area.

So thank you.

Shall we tee up the video?

Yeah, we've got two actually.

All right.

Thank you, Kelly.

Images of a man holding a large camera in his power wheelchair.

My name is Dixon.

I take pictures for Seattle's large events, like Fourth of July and Seaside Weekend.

I also shoot landscape to show how beautiful Seattle City is.

Dixon's colorful photos.

Mount Rainier with bright cherry blossoms.

Then, a pink and purple Seattle sunset.

When I go out, sidewalk is important for me.

Sidewalk enables me to do the job.

Dixon rolling along a sidewalk beside a large street.

and fell on the ground.

My phone screen is smashed, the camera is broke, and I scratched my hands and my knees.

So right now my wheel and my foot plate fight against each other when I'm using my wheelchair.

If the sidewalk is not in good shape, it's not only inconvenient, it's also dangerous.

A child in a stroller rolls past Dixon.

Produced by Rooted in Rights.

Great.

So we can talk a little bit, I mean, you guys are familiar with, there's a huge backlog of sidewalk repairs in our city.

The 2017 sidewalk assessment found, I think it was like over 90,000 uplifts.

over 20,000 obstructions where something is limiting the width of the sidewalk so that it's not necessarily accessible for folks in wheelchairs.

And 3.6 thousand cross slopes where there's like an off-camber slope that's not accessible.

And so we know there's this huge backlog.

We know it's going to be very expensive to make all these repairs.

we want our city to come up with a better plan for how we get there, how we get to a place where pedestrians walking and rolling can access our city.

And so we've collected, in addition to Dixon's story, we collected a bunch of other stories from folks, in particular folks with disabilities in the city of Seattle, and the troubles we face in navigating our city.

And so I'll hand these guys to you to enter in the public record.

And we can send you those.

They're also available digitally on our website.

We can share those with you.

I also just want to point out that, you know, all of these repair issues that Ana's mentioning, a lot of those are concentrated in certain areas.

The current sidewalk maintenance or lack of policy that SDOT has, Basically, there's not a lot of information out there.

Like Council Member Herbold mentioned, it's really difficult for people to know who's responsible for what.

And the result is that areas with a lot of new development end up having great sidewalks, and it's really easy for folks to get around.

And more lower income areas have really terrible sidewalks.

You just need to walk down Rainier Avenue once to know that it's really, really difficult to get down there with any kind of wheels.

And so we're basically asking for SDOT to draft a policy here that would make the repair program easier to navigate for those people who can afford it, and also to look into options around the country where other cities are doing a really good job of having income-based systems so that the city can subsidize the cost for low-income property owners, which would result in a much more equitable system for everybody.

You know, overall, as we see this climate strike today, as we talk about the climate crisis walking and rolling, they are one of the greenest options for transportation.

And in a city that wants to do better on that, and in a city where I think it's over 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions are from transportation, this is something that we have a lot of room for improvement on.

So the timeline on the resolution would have folks come back in March to talk about next steps, and what are your thoughts on what should be some next steps?

I realize that they will do that work, but I imagine there's also been some thinking about how we should proceed.

So basically, we're recommending a number of different cities around the country that have really great models for something like this, and asking that SDOT look at those models and see how they would be applicable to Seattle.

We're not necessarily recommending do X, Y, and Z exactly, because we recognize that it needs to work with the system that we have here and the way that SDOT is currently operating.

But there are some recommendations for cities that are doing it really well.

Denver comes to mind as one that has a really great tiered structure for people to be able to pay in if they can afford and receive subsidies if they can't.

Basically, we understand that we have a huge problem here in Seattle and that we're not doing anything to fix it.

And we're trying to figure out how we can do something to make it better.

I mean, for a little bit of context on that, the, you know, right now, currently, as far as, I've talked to some folks within SDOT, and it's my understanding that they don't actually, in the history of what they can remember, have never invoiced a property owner for sidewalk repair, even though that is, you know, the way property owners are supposed to be responsible, right?

But the process would require them to come to city council and get a list of addresses approved through city council, and that is a complicated process.

So the system is broken right now, and we need to find a better way to keep our sidewalks accessible.

And SDOT has, my understanding is, significantly increased the kind of spot repair work they've been doing since they did the survey a few years ago.

The numbers I've seen, I don't recall them off the top of my head, but thousands of spots they've hit a year.

It means the backlog instead of being 400 years is, you know, dozens of years, which is an improvement, but still far short of the city we need to be.

I'm curious, have folks seen, has that increased effort made a noticeable difference, or it just depends on which block you're on?

I think it's an improvement, though it doesn't make access necessarily smooth or easy.

I was on Rainier last night with my kid on his tricycle, and there were spot improvements, and yet, you know, the slope on those is still so steep that even for small wheels, they're a real challenge.

And I think you can ask us about some additional questions on this, but I think they're hoping with the spot improvements to do like a four or five year rotation.

and be able to cover the whole city within that time, but the funding for that isn't guaranteed and will depend a lot on what happens through this budget year.

Even that isn't enough and won't necessarily exist if the funding isn't there for it.

Yeah, I'll just add that SDOT is doing a really great job with some of these band-aid fixes.

But the reality is that there's not enough funding to be doing all of that on the city's budget.

And so finding a new way to fund that program and having property owners pay in if they're able to would be a really big help to the city actually being able to accomplish all the fixes that need to happen.

Right now, it's a fairly limited budget.

And so the SDOT runs through it really quickly and then just isn't able to do anything for the rest of the year.

So yeah, the move of a commitment for sidewalk safety repair was to repair to 225 blocks of damaged sidewalks focused on the urban centers and villages.

And from 2016 to 2018, they were able to do 78 block equivalents.

And then for the upcoming 2019 implementation plan, they're looking at 16 block equivalents So, again, as we know, based on the 156,000 issues identified, the need is much greater than we have resources to address it.

So, thank you for asking SDOT to come up with some new alternatives to move the ball forward, as Council President Harris often says with his sports analogies.

Can we pivot and talk about snow and ice removal too?

A man in a power chair drives down a sidewalk.

People often ask me, how did I manage to get around in the weather lately with the snow?

And I tell them, I didn't.

I didn't leave my house for eight days at one point.

For many people, it means they can't access basic services that they need.

I've talked to other people with disabilities, and some, for example, have dialysis treatments.

Others have other medical appointments that they need to get to, or even just getting out and getting food.

I believe that the city can do a number of things to make things better next time.

They should prioritize key areas, including mass transit, for example, and making sure those are accessible and usable to people with disabilities.

I think that they need to have plans for helping people with disabilities, for example, who can't clear their sidewalks so they can actually get down the street.

And I think they should just have a clear plan that they communicate to everyone.

Well, the disability community wants to see that they are willing to make this a priority going forward and that they will take proactive steps to make sure people with disabilities don't face these same issues the next time.

So we also brought some additional visuals, because I know it's been a while since the snow, and it's hard to remember how bad it was.

So maybe, let's see, ease up and I'll describe them.

Yeah, all right.

So this first one, oops, I can do this.

All right, this will work.

This is Henderson near MLK.

This is right by the light rail station in Rainier Beach, and this is 11 days after the first snow.

SDOT wants us to clarify on these that it may have been cleared sometime in between there because there were a number of snow events, but they don't know if it was because they weren't tracking whether the sidewalks were clear.

This is Rainier in Columbia City, 10 days after the first snow.

You can see there's snow and ice again covering the sidewalk, covering the ramps.

Yeah, not safe or accessible.

This is a visual showing a bus stop that is still really icy and snowy.

This is the 7 stop on Rainier, and you can see that the street itself is quite clear, but the area around the transit stop has not been made accessible.

And finally...

Oh gosh, this one's really large.

I didn't realize when I ordered these they were quite as like three feet by five feet is quite large.

Yeah, so this is nine days after the snow.

This is Rainier and the i90 and you can see this photo, the snow is quite deep.

And this is an area where, you know, it's not in front of a property owner.

I'm not sure if this is WSDOT who's responsible for this, but again, just a lack of sort of any intentionality around what's going to happen with sidewalks and recognizing that sidewalks are an incritical part of our transportation network, especially for folks with disabilities.

Yes, Courtney's going to say a few other words.

I also just want to point out that all of those visuals are on major arterial streets, major transit pathways where there's a lot of pedestrian activity.

It's not a residential street somewhere in a corner.

So do you envision that both Section 2 and Section 3, Section 2 being focused on a public education plan and Section 3 focused on how we enforce the expectation that the adjoining property owner clears the sidewalk.

Do you envision that those parts of this resolution would include addressing the expectations for property owners like Metro, property owners like WSDOT?

as well as the folks that we usually are broadcasting these messages out to, which is homeowners, go out and clear your sidewalk.

Yeah, I think ideally we'd like all property owners to have a plan for clearing the sidewalk if they need to.

And we've been trying to have these conversations with King County Metro and WSDOT separately as well and hope that there's better communication.

There's a rumor, and I'm unclear if it was true, but that all the park and rides got cleared before any bus stops by King County Metro.

And so just recognizing that while that may be the priority for some folks, for people who are transit dependent in the city, that didn't work out particularly well.

I'm just thinking that if that's our expectation as it relates to, for instance, a public education plan, we might want to call that out in the resolution.

Otherwise, we might get a public education plan that is very focused on homeowners clearing the sidewalks in front of their homes.

Jessica, did you have some comments you wanted to add to the...

Courtney, yeah, Courtney wanted to...

Yeah, do you want to...

Yeah, talk about your own experience in these stories.

Sure.

So, like with the sidewalk repair situation, we did collect a whole bunch of stories from other people with disabilities in the Seattle area, in addition to Conrad.

Just super important because people with disabilities are often left out of these kind of conversations and not considered.

I've got these, want to enter those into the public record, and then just was going to emphasize, give my own experience.

I am a student at the University of Washington.

I live near the University of Washington, and then I work in the International District.

As with Conrad, I was pretty much trapped in my home for eight or so days.

I'm legally blind.

That kind of means that navigating with snow and ice is super hard and super dangerous for me.

And, you know, the idea of injuring any part of my legs pretty much is really scary because I am super dependent on my legs.

You know, they get me everywhere I need to go.

And so if that were to happen, that would be really detrimental to my life.

And so, yeah, it's just super important and super, I think helpful to consider these stories to understand the real logistical impact so that the plan to actually fix these issues can be based around the needs.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Courtney.

So I think what I'm hearing, the goal would be both public education to everyone in the city and also specific plans to address specific areas.

I mean, you highlighted in the shots there where no one lives, there's not a homeowner under the freeway that's responsible for that.

Is it s.metro or wash dot?

We can figure out the technical question, but it would be sure great regardless to just have a plan that says when the snow hits.

We've done a pretty good increase in awareness about snow plows for the roads in the last decade or so.

But what is the strategy for sidewalks and having an actual plan on how?

how that works out, and then make sure we're out there with, I mean, when the snow hits, the news media is covering it 24-7.

So there's no shortage of opportunities to have a department head or a mayor or a council member out there reiterating what needs to happen.

I recall in...

It was definitely not Seattle, I don't know where it was, but there's where mayors give out like golden shovel awards to the people that are doing shoveling for their entire neighborhood.

So I imagine there's just things like that that can really both highlight, make a game of it for folks that are physically able to do that.

Maybe people that can't get to the gym because it's snowing or the gym's closed, this is what you can do.

Get your shovel and go shovel your whole block.

And maybe you get on TV and the mayor gives you a golden shovel because of that.

So both outreach and encouragement and also very specific plans for the arterials and bus routes to dedicate some resources to make sure that those are happening by the paid professionals at the city or the county.

I want to just also mention one of the comments we heard during the public comment was about vegetation, and I imagine that folks around this table, I know I have, have also encountered that.

I'm curious if that's something you see as something that between now and full council in a week could be brought in, or it's like, that's really a different body of work, but also important, and we should take some time to do that separately.

I'm curious what folks' thoughts are.

I think it's definitely important and worth addressing, but potentially on a slightly longer timeframe than the snow and ice removal piece, which really is urgent, as we want it to happen before this winter.

And I think it would also include needing to bring in a different department, because SDCI typically is the one who is enforcing a property owner's obligation to keep the sidewalks clear of vegetation.

But I think it's great.

I just add that a lot of some of the sidewalk deficiencies we have are caused by root uplift and other things that are structurally changing the sidewalk as well.

So there is crossover, even though some of the ways we get at it might be different.

Anna?

And I think it's great, though, to have the vegetation be part of the conversation and that it is all around making sure that people recognize that sidewalks are part of our transportation network and a critical part of our transportation network for people who aren't driving.

And so any kind of barrier is a barrier.

Well, I would certainly be, Kelly is going to kick me under the table, but willing to start a conversation about what that would look like.

Kelly will kick me under the table, not because she doesn't agree with this, but because I only have a couple of committee meetings left between the end of the year when my term ends.

But Council Member Herbold.

You may have a lot more time than I do, perhaps.

We'll see.

Time will tell.

Yeah, and as long as we're talking about pedestrian issues that affect our ability to get around the city, you know, just making a plug for the fact that 45,000 blocks that have no sidewalks at all, And the move levy commitments for new sidewalks are only 150 new blocks of sidewalks.

So that's another whole body of work that I think is really important to pedestrian safety.

Yeah.

I know on the vegetation, I've used the Find It, Fix It app periodically to flag places.

And it's, you know, a complaint bait system doesn't work very well.

It only serves certain folks.

I'm not sure where those complaints go actually a couple of times it turns out that city was the property owner that I was complaining to And I don't know that it got fixed and so it somehow gets lost in the translation sometimes find it fix it works amazingly well on certain things and sometimes I don't know that there's a real process on the back end so I do think the vegetation's an important thing, and I think a lot of property owners may not even be aware of that.

And then there's also the question of what about property owners similar to the ice and snow who aren't physically capable of maintaining the vegetation?

Strict enforcement at that point may not be terribly helpful, but we still have the challenge that people are trying to get around, and we need to have a policy in place that's a little more comprehensive and actually solves the problem as opposed to simply says it's not our problem, it's somebody else's to solve.

So based on that, what I would, what I'm hearing is why don't we move forward with this resolution, and happy to talk with folks offline about a timeline for addressing vegetation issues too, and happy to chat with the department about that, the SDOT about that, and also bring STCI into that and figure out if we even have the right framework too.

Thank you.

I also want to thank both of you and your staff for recognizing this as a priority and for spending a lot of time and energy on it.

Absolutely.

Thanks for bringing it forward.

Council Member Herbold, would you like to move this?

I would.

Thank you so much.

I'd like to move Resolution 31908, Version 1. I will second it.

All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

and that'll move to the full council a week from Monday on September 30th.

This is the first time this week, but it's like my, what, seventh or eighth hour of committee meetings that I had company with me, so it's so great to not second my own legislation.

That's always so weird.

I'd love to have you around.

It's become a normal for me now.

It's been a crazy week.

So thanks so much.

And Courtney and Anna, thanks so much for your work and bringing all the visuals too.

And I'm glad that you weren't injured during the snow and ice.

I know a lot of folks were.

And we need to not have this be random.

We need to have a system for it.

So thanks.

Thank you so much.

All right, Kelly, let's read that next item into the agenda.

ORCA transit passes for all discussion.

Let's invite some ORCA for all folks up to the table.

Can you sit there?

Can you sit there?

Hello, everyone.

Hello.

Thank you all for being here.

Why don't we start with introductions?

You can just give me your name.

You can go first.

My name is Ty.

I'm the field organizer for the Transit Riders Union.

Hi.

Hey, I'm Eric.

I'm a worker.

All right.

I am Jessica.

I'm also a worker.

I'm Katie, and I'm also with the Transit Riders Union.

Welcome, everyone.

So awesome turnout today in public comment.

I don't know if you organized those youth to come down and talk about orcas, or they just chose to, but they were amazing.

It was great to hear from them.

And it was really, I thought, an awesome example of, like, here's a population that previously didn't have necessarily access to ORCA.

Now a lot more of them do, but not everyone does.

And they could talk about their experience, about what that meant to them.

Obviously, also great hearing from some of the workers that spoke about the differences it made in their life.

And I know that for me personally, working at the city of Seattle as an employee, we all get free ORCA passes.

And it's amazing to just know that that's in my wallet, and I don't have to think about it.

And I tend to walk and bike a lot of places, but when that's not working, it's just there, and it's free to me, and it's awesome.

And I know that it's expensive for a lot of folks.

And I can't imagine what that'll be like, but I'll get to imagine it in about four months when I'm no longer a Citi employee.

and I'll live that world once again, so.

Katie, did you want to start off to talk about what the vision is and how we can move towards that?

Sure.

I didn't really plan, but we'll just wing it.

It'll be great.

So yeah, Orca for All, and yeah, super appreciated all of the testimony, some of which we organized and some of which just happened or other people organized.

And yeah, so Orca for All, I mean, in a way, the Transit Riders Union has been kind of working toward Orca for All since we started back in 2011, 2012. And the big vision is pretty self-explanatory.

We want everyone to have an unlimited transit pass.

We want everyone to have that freedom to just hop on the bus or the train without thinking about whether they have the money in their pocket.

And, you know, it's obviously most important for people who don't have a lot of money, but even people who do have the money, you know, if they have that car, they're more likely to use public transit and not get in their car.

So that's the vision.

And the piece that I think we're going to really focus on today is transit passes for workers and recognizing that, you know, a lot of, Employers in the Seattle area already do a great job providing transit benefits for their employees, but then many others don't.

And, you know, the Puget Sound Regional Council travel survey results and also a survey that we did earlier this year make clear that it tends to be higher paid workers who get that benefit, lower wage workers tend not to.

And, you know, knowing that we're facing a climate crisis, knowing that transportation is a huge contributor to our carbon emissions here in Seattle, getting more ORCA passes into workers' hands and getting employers to step up and contribute to that is one of the biggest things we can really do policy-wise to to lower our carbon emissions and also help with congestion and equity.

So that's the idea.

And I think we have a slideshow, which I might have just kind of summarized.

Let's watch it.

I love this.

Oh yeah, and we have a video.

So why don't we watch the video.

Yeah.

My name is Stormy Sanbor, and I work for Starbucks.

Working for Starbucks, I've really enjoyed working with people I like and in an environment that I feel respected.

However, with all of the positive, there's also a lot of room for improvement.

When I first started working for the company, I worked at a retail store that was attached to the headquarters building.

I made $15.95 an hour.

I had full transportation benefits, and I had full health care.

About four months after I got hired, there was the opportunity to transfer and go open a new store, which seemed like a great opportunity for my career.

As we were discussing the transfer, it came that along with this, I would be losing my transportation benefits and would not be immediately receiving a raise to increase this.

I almost turned down the transfer because of this, however, ultimately ended up taking the position.

I don't own a car, however, and I live in Renton.

My commute to work is about three hours round trip each day.

and losing my transportation benefit was definitely a hardship and something I had to consider.

And for a company like Starbucks, who provides education and health care benefits standard even to part-time employees, some sort of subsidized transportation seemed like a benefit that would make sense, however, is currently only extended to corporate employees.

And in a city like Seattle, where many low-wage workers for all companies have a hard time living near where they work, it makes sense to start asking these large corporations to pitch in towards the transportation of those that they employ and those that have made their success possible.

Yeah.

You know, I don't know all about corporate policies at different companies, but fascinating that you working for the same company, doing the same job in the same city, but just the location you're in comes with a set of benefits that differs one location to the next.

And I can imagine that being quite the hardship.

Interesting.

Yeah.

And I'll just add to that, you know, that's partly reflective of the way that Seattle's commuter production policy has played out so far, right?

So the city already has a program and a law where we're working with large work sites like the Starbucks headquarters.

encouraging those large employers at those large work sites to be doing things like providing subsidized transit passes to reduce drive-alone commuting.

But we don't really have laws or policies that touch smaller workplaces like a Starbucks coffee shop in the same manner.

Other stories?

Do we want to walk through the slideshow?

Yeah, we can walk through the slideshow and maybe, I mean, everyone feel free to jump in at any point.

So yeah, just first wanted to start with the positive, just recognizing that Seattle, in a lot of ways, is already leading on transit.

We have ridership that is growing in the Seattle area, which is actually unusual, unfortunately.

Today, in a lot of cities around the United States, transit ridership is falling.

And part of that's because we've done a lot of voter-approved investments in transit service and infrastructure over the past years.

And we're also a national leader in transit affordability programs, including the Orca Lift low-income fare program.

And also as part of the Orca for All campaign, the Transit Riders Union and other organizations that we're working with are continuing to work with King County Metro on transit access for very low-income folks and folks experiencing homelessness.

And we already have several programs and laws that encourage large employers to reduce drive-alone commutes.

So there's a lot that we're doing right, but we're here because there's a lot more that we need to be doing.

And if I can add to it, the part that we need to be doing more is paying attention to the voices that usually get left out, especially as like, OK, I moved to Seattle, quotes, four years ago.

But it wasn't until two months ago that I could actually afford to live within the city limits of Seattle.

And that ties into the point that Stormy mentioned in the video, that so often the poorest people have to live outside the city.

And there's so many demographics within poor people that make it harder.

to get access to transportation.

For instance, working overnight, that's mostly a low-wage job.

I work that.

Working as a contractor, as a temp, being a person of color, being queer, all of these different identities make it even harder to get access to transportation.

And that's why OrcaForAll is so important.

I think that emphasizing equity, because it's very easy for really big tech companies and architecture companies to give a few handful of guys just an orca pass, but to say that it isn't necessary for everybody, the people who put chain stores into this community and then don't really, aren't responsible for all of the employment that that generates, especially short term employment where people aren't staying at their job forever.

And I think that like, I guess you could continue talking about this slide.

I would just hide it and put that.

I like that.

Oh, that's great.

Thank you.

So even though we're doing a lot right, Seattle's still a city that's really dominated by cars.

Our greenhouse gas emissions have been rising rather than falling, which definitely puts us not on track to meet our climate goals, especially the ambitious climate goals that the city has now affirmed with the Green New Deal.

And passenger vehicles, especially cars, are the largest contributor over half of our carbon emissions in Seattle.

Pollutants harm health, especially in communities of color that are more likely to live near busy roads.

And people of color, seniors, and people with disabilities are more likely to be killed by traffic violence.

And so these are all really strong reasons to be trying to shift toward transit and away from cars.

Someone else want to take this one?

I can.

Traffic around here, if you're in a car, can be a real pain.

That actually looks like one of the least congested moments on I-5 that I've seen in a long time.

Really?

Increase.

Yes.

And as Ty just said, lower wage workers are more likely to have long commutes and also to spend a lot of their income on transportation costs.

I'll say that I live in the Fremont neighborhood and generally bike to work.

And I can do that because it's a 30-minute bike ride, and I'm physically capable of doing that, and I can afford to live close enough to downtown that it's a reasonable commute to do that.

And when the biking doesn't work, I'm within a few blocks of two bus lines that serve downtown and another bus line that serves UW.

So it's an amazing system when it's free and accessible as it is because of who my employer is, and you can afford to live in good locations.

And I know for so many folks, I mean, talk about moving to Seattle and you're not actually in Seattle because you don't have access to it because of the pricing.

That's a challenge.

Transit benefits are effective.

So there's a lot of research that shows that when employers provide free or subsidized transit passes to workers, people use them.

It's not too surprising, maybe, but it's nice to have it backed up by the facts.

And so here's just an example from the Atlanta Regional Household Travel Survey found that, quote, employees who were provided free or subsidized transit pass had 156% higher odds to commute on transit, all else equal compared to their counterparts.

I can, I know I'm not supposed to be giving the presentation, but my previous life, I worked at a law firm as a, as doing their accounting and helping with transit issues.

And when lawyers became shareholders, they got free parking in the building, but they were a shareholder.

And so they, you know, it wasn't really free.

They came out of how much money was left for them to take home at the end of the year.

And every single shareholder, I watched these people, they were great transitor bikers.

And then as soon as they got the free parking, it was like, well, I might as well drive now, it's free.

And so we switched our policy, both signed up for the, what's called Orca Passport now.

So all employees, including the shareholders who drove every day, got a free transit pass.

And then said, instead of, well, still get free parking, but if you choose not to use your parking, instead of the firm getting that money back, the individual shareholder got to keep their parking money instead.

And what happened was we went from, I think it was 16 or 17 shareholders, all with parking spots, to three taking parking spots within about a year.

They still would drive occasionally, but they'd say like, it's cheaper for me to pay for parking like the one or two days a week I need my car, and then I can ride the bus, and you know, A combination was amazing for even, you know, these were high, you know, high wage earning individuals and the behavior shift that happened almost immediately was really incredible.

And so these incentives, you know, as a combination of things can really be effective.

More evidence.

And I think that extends even further, especially to university students, as some of the people that we talked to during our workplace outreach.

The downtown area usually hires younger people who are in school or just got out of school.

And I think that as someone who had to get a car to drive between Everett and Linwood and Shoreline, and all these farther places, that if we could encourage people to have a job afterwards that had a transit benefit, then they wouldn't ever have to get a job.

I have one car now, it's my first car, and I'm hoping to get rid of it if this passes so I don't have to pay anymore, because I don't want a car.

I think a lot of people don't, but after you stop going to school and you stop getting that UW pass where you can just go anywhere you want, you have to be more realistic about where am I gonna end up working versus living.

Maybe I live in Renton and I'm gonna have to be working in Seattle.

And you have to get realistic about that aspect of your life.

If there could be a transition period where people never even got a car once, let alone got rid of the one that they already had, I think that would be the most encouraging sign, is that people don't even consider a car as the next logical step in going out of school or growing up.

It's just something that you really get if you absolutely have to.

Okay, and workers love transit benefits.

So we did a commute survey at the beginning of this year and had, you know, hundreds of people respond.

And these are just a few of the quotes.

Someone else want to read them?

Jess, do you want to read them?

Okay, I'll read it.

It means the world for me and my commute.

It's fantastic.

It means that there's no second thought about grabbing a bus or train, no scrounging for change or hunting for an orca machine.

In all honesty, it's a near necessity for me.

There isn't really an excuse for employers in the region to not offer it.

Yes.

It is a fantastic relief and makes me feel like I'm making great pay since I don't have to spend a large portion on transit fares.

Do we have data about employers and what their own internal policies are for when they offer transit as a benefit?

So like within different employment classifications, like so if you're a salaried employee, you get it.

If you're an hourly employee, you don't.

I mean, I hope that's not true.

I think it probably is. but it's counterintuitive.

I mean, it's logical in one way, as it is a benefit that an employer might want to give somebody who is perceived as more valuable, but it is illogical in that lower income folks need the benefit more.

So do we have any data about large employers and how their personnel policies structure the provision of this benefit?

Yeah, I don't think we don't have any comprehensive data.

Certainly, I mean, like what Stormy's testimony there, using the example of Starbucks, there's definitely a lot of employers, I think, where there is that kind of disparity.

Another one that just comes to mind, just from seeing it on Twitter, the workers at the Fry Art Museum who've been organizing were saying that, I believe it is, I could be wrong about this, but I believe it's the salaried employees at the museum who get worker passes.

The hourlies don't.

And so, yeah, we know that those disparities exist, but we don't really have any comprehensive picture of that.

And from my experience in outreach and talking to individuals, they were mostly on the floor workers and a few managers, and that was kind of the difference.

I want to say there was a hotel, I can't quite recall, that the managers had parking off campus or something where they had access to, and a few of the sneakier employees could get it.

but it was down to if you're a manager, you get it.

If you're not, you don't.

And that disparity, like you said, it doesn't really make sense.

And as someone mentioned earlier during the testimony, he called it a perk.

And that's what gets me.

It isn't a perk.

It's not a bonus.

This is a necessity.

So that's why higher income people get this benefit, because it's considered to be a perk, something as cool as like a coffee cup or something, when it really should be as necessary as a wage, something that you wouldn't think to give somebody twice.

as extra or bonus or for good behavior or for valuable employee, it should be a requirement of having an employee.

And related to that, there is, you know, the city's own obligation.

to consider transit pass as a necessity for the work that we don't do in-house but that we contract with outside agencies to do.

We have an inequitable system that we are perpetuating ourselves in that we provide transit passes for all city employees.

But for the human services contract work that we have other people do that work, we don't require that, we don't provide for it.

And this is precisely why it's such a strong labor principle that they encourage municipalities and government to resist contracting out.

because it inherently creates that inequitable system.

So we have a chance to correct that.

Yeah.

Hear, hear.

And I can speak a little bit to being a contract worker, because I work for a contractor for Amtrak.

And Amtrak employees do get to ride Amtrak for free.

So if you ride the Cascades or anywhere, you can pretty much ride it all over the entire country.

But I don't work for Amtrak.

I work for a company that works for Amtrak.

And thus, I get zero benefits from them.

Yeah, that's what contracting is all about.

Yeah, so this is what we've just been talking about.

Transit benefits are inequitable.

So this graph is from the Puget Sound Regional Council Household Travel Survey.

Yep, pretty much higher paid workers most likely to be offered employer-subsidized transit.

Low-wage workers aren't getting it.

And the survey that, you know, TRU conducted earlier this year, which was not scientific in the sense that we didn't have, you know, a balanced sample or anything like that, but we had showed an even greater disparity between high-wage and low-wage workers.

Okay, so what are we proposing?

Then this is just an idea.

We have some time to figure this out.

But basically, we want to strengthen the commuter benefits ordinance that Seattle passed last year, which is going to be going into effect this coming January and will require most employers to enable their employees to purchase transit passes with pre-tax payroll money.

So we want to strengthen that law by requiring that employers above a certain size subsidize transit for their employees.

And what this requirement looks like, you know, details need to be figured out.

It could be a tiered requirement.

Maybe the largest employers have to cover 100% of the cost of transit and large, you know, large but less large employers have to cover half or something like that.

We do want to make sure that we're including part-time and temp workers as well as full-time workers.

And at the same time, we want to be flexible as possible about Ways that employers can comply with the requirements so that they can do it in the way that works best for them, while also ensuring that benefits are easy to access for workers.

And then we also would like to study ways that the city can further assist and encourage medium and smaller employers to provide transit subsidies for their employees without creating undue financial burden.

So recognizing that for smaller employers, providing transit benefits is a significant cost.

And we should figure out how we can still make that happen because their workers need transit too.

And then proposal number two, which Council Member Herbold alluded to, ensuring that all workers employed through city contracts are offered transit benefits comparable to those received by city employees with a focus on service providers and trades.

A few ideas about how we could do this for construction workers, adding a transit benefits provision into the community workforce agreements that govern labor agreements for large public works projects.

And for human service providers, finding some way to offer some kind of money for transit benefits based on how many employees are funded through their contract with the city, but at the same time trying to make sure that the providers are then providing transit benefits for all of their employees so that we're not creating new inequities kind of within an employer.

And, you know, for this we recognize there's some work to do working with the service providers and just figuring out kind of the logistics of how this would work.

And so the proposal here is to start doing that process of engaging stakeholders and identifying where funding could come from and making sure that we're able to take real action, real funded action on this sometime next year.

Free transit for all.

That's what we really want.

Heard some people talking about that in public comments today.

Yeah, people are for that.

That's exciting.

I mean, so if we could just find a big pile of money that we don't get by taxing poor people, then we could do this tomorrow.

We'd just forget all this little stuff.

Let's go big.

Yeah, make it easy.

I've heard Jeff Bezos has a stack.

Yeah, Jeff Bezos.

Yes, he does.

There we go.

Let's just have him do this.

Yes, he does.

I feel like we tried that.

So continue and expand programs that provide free or deeply affordable transit access for low income and very low income riders, youth, seniors, et cetera.

Create a pathway to free transit for all Seattle residents.

And at the same time, recognizing that just affordability is not the only barrier, we need to work to expand and improve service, including late night and off peak service for workers who commute at all times of the day and night.

That's it.

Yay.

You, well, the Mass Coalition and Trans Riders Union do amazing work, so I'm really grateful for that.

The vision you have for our city is a vision that I share, and your insistence on us moving as swiftly as possible to achieve that vision is a great objective that I want to figure out how I can best support in the next few months as a council member and other ways when I'm no longer a council member.

So I really like the proposals you laid out.

What I'd love to do would be to work with you all.

This is my last committee meeting we have for the Sustainable Transportation Committee before we start our budget process.

But work with you over the next month or so and maybe flush out some details and maybe put, you know, together like a bit of a matrix or chart of some of the different options and the different pieces of various proposals and trade-offs or costs or whatever information we have to just kind of flush some of that a little more and have another conversation with colleagues and Councilmember Herbold, I know you're particularly focused you said on the what we do with for the human service workers.

There are hundreds and hundreds of workers who are on the front line of some of the most important work we do in our city, which is working with whether that's in shelters or or food banks or working at our treatment centers.

And often those are some of the lowest, you know, folks making minimum wage.

And often just on the edge of needing the shelter that they work at as a service to.

Yeah, I mean, in some ways, I really feel this is a conversation that came up this morning in the select committee on homelessness.

We had SEIU 1199 at the table, and it really the point that was made there was that in some ways we're responsible for helping to create a system that is inequitable when we are, because we can't provide the services that the city needs in-house, we are contracting out with providers to provide those services.

So we have, we bear some responsibility for that.

And I'm glad that you're holding our feet to the fire to make sure that we take responsibility.

I also just want to make sure that Eric and Jessica, if you want to say anything about from your experience with your current jobs or previous jobs or anything, your experience, your coworker's experience about the importance of transit benefits.

I want to make sure we have time for that.

Go for it.

Yeah, so I'm a white collar worker, and I'm really fortunate to not be burdened by the fact that my employer doesn't offer any form of worker benefits, but I feel like that doesn't mean I can't be here for my own selfish reasons.

I want everyone to take the bus.

I rely on the bus for my commute.

And I would love to see more people relying on the bus.

I think it builds this virtuous cycle where more people take the bus.

That gets more cars off the street, more frequent and reliable.

Service would result from that.

And I think it would make everything a lot better.

And yes, I'm here to support.

Orca for all, and I really hope that we can get this passed.

Thanks.

And I'll just add to that.

I'm not going to name your employer, but I believe you work for a large downtown employer that creates a lot of commute trips in and out of the center city, which is very congested.

Yeah, it's a Fortune 100 company, so I don't know that it would be a huge burden to them.

Truly.

I would second what everyone has said here.

I would add to it that I work at Trader Joe's, so it is, I don't know, is that Blue Collar?

I guess, I don't know.

Yeah, Blue Collar job.

And we were offered a pre-tax situation for transit, but I, from talking to people and me trying it myself, I just got confused, and I kind of gave up on it, and I think my fellow employees have done the same thing.

And when I have gone through my work and talked to people that I work with, they were all for subsidized transit passes.

We did pass a regulation a year ago that requires employers to offer the pre-tax benefit.

That's not as robust a benefit as a subsidy.

And we might want to send Commute Seattle back out to your employer just to make sure that they have all the proper tools to explain how it works and all the systems and payroll.

That's not happening.

So, great.

I could tell you that.

Yeah, we should be making sure that it is not confusing because that's the last thing.

that we want is that to be a barrier.

Yeah.

We have an email address up there that we want to let everyone know about.

Kelly, do you want to tell folks?

Yeah, over the course of the next month, two months, we're trying to gather stories, public comment, information about how transit passes would benefit folks.

If people have ideas about some of the proposals that Transit Riders Union shared, we're just gathering that through an email.

It's orca4all at Seattle.gov.

And that'll be an account just to kind of gather all of this information and these stories, because they're very important to be heard.

Yeah, so thank you all so much for being here today.

And I really appreciate the advocacy, the different perspectives you're able to share and look forward to working with you all and others over the course of the next number of weeks to build on the proposals that were part of that slideshow and tee up some options that we may want to consider as a city and figure out how we can move swiftly to achieve some goals with working towards the ultimate vision making transit for everyone, Seattle, King County, Puget Sound region, something that you don't have to pay for.

Yeah, that'd be so cool.

It may take a few years to get there, and there may be some intermediate steps, but let's keep an eye on that prize.

Great.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have two more items.

Kelly, do you want to read the next one in?

Resolution 31909, a resolution requesting the Seattle Department of Transportation to develop a signals policy.

Great.

We're going to have Clara and Calvin come on back to the table, I believe.

So thank you both for being here.

And Calvin, do you want to do a quick reintroduction?

Calvin Chow with Council Central staff.

Clara, do you mind reintroducing yourself?

Clara Cantor from Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

Thanks for being here.

Calvin, do you want to say just a quick word on what this resolution does?

The resolution that's currently before you.

asked SDOT to provide a new signals policy by December 1st of 2019. It also lists a number of sort of specific signals policies that it asked the department to consider, and then it lists a number of stakeholder groups for them to coordinate with, including the Pedestrian Advisory Board, the Transit Advisory Board, the Bicycle Advisory Board, Disability Rights Advocates, the Walking and Biking Advocacy Organizations, City Council staff, and of course, general public input.

Claire, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has been an amazing advocate to help raise awareness for me about how our signal system seems to benefit certain types of users over other types of users, and frankly made me more aware of my experiences, largely as a bike commuter, but also as a pedestrian at times.

I'm like, oh yeah, you're right.

That doesn't seem to be, keeps getting worse at these intersections.

So maybe you want to tell us a little bit about your background here.

how we might be able to help.

Yeah, so we heard in public comment today that right now SDOT doesn't have an overarching policy in relating to how they do their traffic signal timing.

So what that means is that basically every decision at each intersection is made by the individual project managers and engineers that are working on that intersection.

And the result is that it's really confusing for people who are walking around the city to know what to expect at any given intersection or how that intersection is going to treat them, what is expected of them, whether you're required to push a button or not, how long you can expect to wait at that intersection.

And this sounds like a really wonky technical thing, but it's really noticeable when you're walking down the street and a traffic signal is not prioritizing you.

You can tell when it's not working.

And so we've seen people walking along Mercer in South Lake Union.

And when the adaptive signals were rolled out there last year, the walking time from one end of the corridor to the other doubled overnight.

Because every single stoplight, suddenly you were having to stop and wait at the corner for a really long time before you were allowed to proceed again.

And that's one of those instances where you don't really notice the signal timing until it's really not working for you.

We've heard folks down on MLK trying to cross the street.

MLK was not working for any users.

It was really difficult for people driving trying to cross the street, for pedestrians trying to get to light rail stations, for people on bikes.

And when you have a signal like that that's, you're not sure what's happening, you just know that you're not able to do what you need to do, oftentimes you'll end up resorting to really unsafe behavior like, driving through a red light because you think it's broken or jaywalking across the street because you're trying to get to a train and you see that it's coming.

And so you end up seeing a lot higher instances of dangerous behavior where things are not working properly or people are unsure about what's expected to happen there.

Yeah, one of the things I've noticed in South Lake Union, I believe, I don't know, either the system intelligent design has been changing itself or people have been reprogramming it, but I've noticed that, you know, when there's a green light for automobiles to go straight, on Dexter, for instance, when he crossed Mercer, and there's a walk sign for pedestrians to go to, then the walk sign stops.

But it's not, there's not a right turn.

It's still protected.

There's no one crossing that.

And I watched the pedestrians look around and think like, Well, shoot, this seems kind of screwed up.

It looks like I should be able to go.

But of course, they have no idea how long they have to make that crossing at that point.

And so you see this behavior, which is...

you know, somewhat rational, saying, well, I think this thing's screwed up, because I should have a walk sign right now, because there's no one else crossing this.

But they're also putting themselves at risk.

And it just, you know, it seems like there's no reason for that not to work.

I don't understand what's going on with technology.

And, you know, those are the things that get behavior that may result in outcomes that we really don't want to have.

Yeah, and that's a really good example also of an instance where if you have a green light and it turns red for pedestrians, people who are able to run across the street really quickly are likely to take that chance and just sort of go and expect that if a car comes to turn, they'll be visible enough that they won't get hit.

And people who are a little slower moving across the street, if you have a family with young kids, It's difficult to expect how long it's going to take you to get her off the street.

If you have big bags, if you're in a wheelchair, if you have a walker, you're not likely to take the risk.

And so you end up just waiting on the corner.

And it may be a long time.

Sometimes waiting a really, really long time.

So that actually reminds me.

Aaron, who we just reappointed to the Transit Advisory Board, talked about it in this particular way.

We think about Vision Zero a lot in how we design streets to be safer for people driving at slower speeds.

But one thing that we could do a lot better on is actually looking at how we're incentivizing safer pedestrian behavior, and so that's kind of what this is talking about.

In the frame of Vision Zero, by ensuring that we're giving pedestrians always the ability to cross the street and know how long they have to cross the street, that is incentivizing Vision Zero behavior for pedestrians and people walking.

The other thing I do want to give SDOT a little bit of credit is they are doing some really great things around signals.

We just had them at the table on Tuesday.

And I do want to give them some shout outs for doing things like leading pedestrian intervals, as well as pushing the signals industry as a whole to think a little bit more multimodally.

But I think that's also why we are pushing for this signals policy.

to be more comprehensive, to just make sure that we're having all of these things thought about really thoroughly and prioritized and be clear for everyone to know what the goals are and that we're working towards Vision Zero through signals.

Yeah, thank you for giving that shout out.

I just also want to say that this is something that SDOT has been working on for all of this year and some of last year as well.

And they've come up with some really good things.

The corridor along Mercer has seen some really great improvements, thanks to a lot of neighborhood advocates up there who've been raising a bunch of fuss.

Some of the MLK signals have seen some great improvements as well.

We've also seen some of the policy improvements with the leading pedestrian intervals that Kelly mentioned.

And the goal here with this piece of legislation is to set a timeline where we're knowing that this is something that they're actually prioritizing and to encourage them to keep doing the good work that they're doing and make it a little bit more all-encompassing rather than one small step at a time.

So maybe we'll pivot to the resolution.

Kelly, I assume that the base resolution we have before us doesn't include the amendments that I have in front of me.

So we've communicated with SDOT the resolution.

And they had some concerns about the timeline and the base legislation, which asked for a new signal policy by December 1st, 2019. We want to give them enough time to do a thorough job.

We also want to make sure, we heard at the table on Tuesday, that in addition to some of the amazing advocates who are tracking signals all the time and keep my Twitter feed Keep me well-informed through Twitter of where things are working occasionally and generally not working.

You know, we want their expertise at the table, but we also want to do broad outreach to make sure we're getting a diverse community helping to weigh in on policies.

And so I'm going to propose an amendment, which I'm guessing will pass because I'm the one proposing it and I'm the only one here to vote on it, which would make a couple changes.

Instead of having a new policy by December 1st, 2019, we'd ask that they submit a draft policy to the Council by December 1st, 2019, but then ask for also a plan for engaging stakeholders on that draft policy, and then come back to the Council.

the City Council by June 1st, 2020. That gives them an additional six months than what we had.

I think the goal here is to not set some unreasonable expectations so we get work that's not the quality we know they're capable of or It doesn't get the type of community input that we want to get.

But we also want to, as you said, Clara, make sure that this is a priority.

And my sense is, we'll see between now and full council, but that I think six months should be able to do something pretty robust.

You know, in the next two months, do something, get a draft out there, and use that as kind of the basics for what we're doing.

This is something that they've been working on for a while, and so it's, you know, not starting from scratch.

So, Claire, I don't know if you have any comments on that, those changes I'm proposing, but you're welcome to comment on those.

I think that sounds great.

I'm excited that this is a priority for the council and for SDOT, and I second your desire for it to be something that's actually workable to be able to come up with something positive.

Great.

So I'm going to go ahead and move to amend the resolution.

Kelly, can you tell me the number?

I don't have it in front of me.

Resolution 31909, and it's version D5.

OK, so I'll replace the old version, which is D2, with the new version, which is D5.

I'll move and second that, and then vote yes on it.

Hey, I was right.

It passed.

That's exciting.

And so now we have an amended resolution before us.

And I'll go ahead and move that resolution as amended, second it, and vote yes on it.

And so that will go to full council on a week from Monday, on September 30th.

And we'll make sure that SDOT has a chance to look at this and hopefully they're slightly uncomfortable because we're pushing them a little bit and not terribly uncomfortable because we're pushing them too far, but I feel pretty comfortable about this and hopefully they feel the same way.

Thanks for your advocacy, Clara, and for all the work that Salem Neighborhood Greenways does.

It's a great organization.

Thank you, Calvin.

Enjoy your weekend.

Kelly, do you mind reading the last agenda item in?

Yes, Council Bill 119614, an ordinance vacating Car Place North between North 34th Street and North 35th Street on the petition of Seattle Public Utilities, Clerk File 312535.

Welcome, everyone.

Thank you all for sticking around right up till that closing bell at 5 o'clock on Friday.

I appreciate you sticking around and being flexible today with all the youth activists out on City Hall Plaza.

We delayed our start for half an hour, and so that pushed things back a little bit.

Why don't we do a quick round of introductions?

My name's Jeff Nooner.

I'm with Seattle Public Utilities.

I've been working on the solid waste facility plan for quite some time.

Great.

Thanks, Jeff.

Beverly Barnett, Seattle Department of Transportation.

Hugh Yang, Seattle Public Utilities.

I'm the project manager for this project.

Great.

And so we have a slide presentation.

Looks like Hugh, you got that.

However you want to lead off, however you've coordinated, let's just jump right in.

OK.

Okay, so what we have today is the final vacation ordinance for the car place vacation that the City Council granted to support the development of the North Transfer Station.

So we do want to remind people that this is the last step.

The City Council has established a two-part approval process for vacation.

So we initially bring forward a recommendation, and the City Council holds a public hearing, And then if the vacation is granted, it will be granted to a number of conditions.

Then the project manager developer, in this case Seattle Public Utility, can go out and develop the project.

And we come back with the final legislation.

After everything is completed, the project is done, everything is in, so this is the very last step.

So then, I think they want to talk a little bit about it, and we have a brief PowerPoint.

I think the committee is pretty familiar with this project, so we can go through things pretty quickly, but we wanted to make sure we had information.

and slides that demonstrated how all the conditions were implemented.

This was a pretty complicated review process back when the site selection and everything was going on for this, and a rezone, and a community agreement.

So it was complicated, but now it's finished.

So, Jeff, are we going to jump in?

Go ahead and start with the agenda.

So we're going to first go off the project background, site plan, and then the public benefits that was built per the request.

So just to get everyone situated, the North Transfer Station is located just northwest of Gas Works Park and east of Fremont Public Library.

So we worked on many years with the Wallingford community and the Fremont community.

And Jeff can go further details about the project background.

Yeah, we kicked off the Solid Waste Facility Master Plan 19 years ago.

when we recognized the facilities were 50 years old and at the end of their life.

The North Transfer Station is the second phase of that.

We rebuilt the South Transfer Station, or built a new one, I should say.

And then we moved up north.

Let's see.

We met with the community frequently.

I don't think I saw TV on Tuesday nights for seven years.

Between 2007 and 12, most was the bulk of it, because we needed both a street vacation and a zoning change, as mentioned.

Ultimately, we developed a design package that met city of Seattle solid waste needs and will meet them for 50 years in the future, as well as a project that the community could get behind.

And Hugh will highlight some of the elements of the project.

So the NTS site plans, as you can see, for giving up the 1,100 square feet of car place that was vacated, SPU provided and maintained about 56,000 square feet of open space with amenities.

And we provided and maintained a viewing educational space inside the facility itself, so we can have a talk about recycling and other things.

And we provided a safe, increased and safer local pedestrian access to the open space areas.

I don't think I have, oh, there's an arrow here.

So the main open space area we have is on the north side of our campus.

There was a setback with green space and static exercise areas.

And along Car Place, this used to be a former parking lot, we actually have a play area for kids and other areas there.

Down here, we have an obsidian walk with a multi-sport court and other green space areas.

And then down here, there's a little area right across from the coffee shop where people can gather together and have their pastries and coffee.

Okay, with that.

And here are the finished public benefits that Jeff will go over.

Okay, one of the things we incorporated was a viewing and education room in the facility.

It is incredibly well used.

There's kids up there from.

nine in the morning till three or four in the afternoon.

I think it's on the nanny hotline.

I was up there giving a tour today for some folks from Salt Lake City, and a mother with two young children interrupted the tour to tell the people that they had to incorporate something like this, because they were building a transfer station.

Is it open to public just to come and go whenever?

I mean, during those hours?

Or do you need to schedule visits?

The facility is open from 8 to 5.30.

And so we made a commitment that the viewing room would be open the same hours, so the community has full access.

That's awesome.

My kids are a little old for me to take them to the transfer station and show these days.

But when we started this project, they were right in the sweet spot.

Yeah, I told my daughter she was going to get married there.

This is the play area, and it, again, is part of the youth tour.

It really gets well used, particularly in good weather.

Go ahead.

This sort of highlights the area along Woodland.

sport court up on the corner nearest the station.

It gets a fair bit of use, and then a lot of people stroll up and down this sidewalk.

It was sort of interesting, the previous presentation about accessibility really brought something home.

We had some grade issues on these sidewalks, and SPU made the decision that we weren't going to live with that, and so we just with a great deal of effort on Hugh and everybody else's part, corrected all those so that they met the cross slope requirements and the slope requirements, and I didn't, so it was great to hear it.

Just to clarify, those are walkways, Jeff, not sidewalks.

It was inside the facility.

They're walkways.

The grade change was maybe about a half a percent above the ADA, but we still corrected all those and it took a while and it took a lot of engineering feed and construction practice to get that half a percent grade back down.

So, thanks.

Anyway, it was the right thing to do.

Yes.

Go ahead.

I did.

This shows on the north side of the facility, we've got a pretty good size buffer.

You'll also see some stations for parkour exercise.

That was something the community wanted.

And it gets a fair bit of use.

The Brooks Shoe Company is right adjacent to us.

And there's a lot of runners in the area, I think.

Go ahead.

The last enhancement I'm going to speak about, we did commit to some enhanced pedestrian crossings up at North 35th and Woodland.

And this is particularly an area where you have the little kids play area where they can safely cross along the woodlawn down to further down by the Om City and walk.

So I think this was one of the ones that the community really enjoys having in the area.

And there's a transit stop just to the right as you look at this.

Okay, so the last line I'm gonna talk about is sustainability.

We do have green roofs along the administration building and the Recycling and Reuse building.

We have PV panels on the building roof, and we also have skylights that actually provide daylighting for our tipping floor itself.

So with that, I've brought in data from September 2017 to August 2018, about a year's worth, And the solar panels generated about 174,000 cubic watt hours, which with an average price of, what, 7.8 cents per kilowatt hours, we saved approximately about $13,500 in electricity by using the photovoltaic cells out there.

And this building is LEED Gold certified.

And I think that's about it.

Is there any questions?

It's a beautiful site.

My house remodel is largely done, and so my trips to the transfer station slowed down.

I spent a lot of time at the old one, but I've been there a few times, and the inside of the facility, you know, I can't speak to the operations, but it's a lovely, huge improvement, great place to visit.

The recycling is on its own side where it's free, and it's just easy to come and go and drop stuff off.

I've used the parks on the side too, and the open space there is great.

And so I have not been to the viewing room, and so it's great to hear that that's being well used by folks.

I know that when the kids are little, those are the exact types of outings in the neighborhood that are just awesome places to go.

You can get out of the weather in the year.

It's relatively close if you're in the neighborhood.

It's something to do, and it's always something fun to watch through those windows, I imagine.

Yeah, it is, especially with the dozers pushing the garbage across.

Yeah, that's the best.

It also provides an area where We get a lot of interest from youth groups on tours and students.

And it's not really safe to take them around.

And so this is an area they can, you know, we have models of the facility, models of how the equipment work.

You know, we outfitted them with some little toy cars.

And the kids go nuts on it.

The only side issue that I see is that Jeff has been giving a lot of tours out there because a lot of the other municipalities have been coming.

As a matter of fact, I think there was one city that came in and they were not going to rebuild one of their facilities because it wasn't a residential area.

But after seeing this, the council members came in and they decided, no, we can do it because this looks so great.

They couldn't even tell that this was.

a transfer station.

That's great.

Yeah.

Well, I know that, obviously, locating a transfer station in any neighborhood is a challenge, and even rebuilding one is a challenge.

I really appreciate the work both with neighbors and the businesses and SPU.

Again, it took a lot of time, but it's a big facility.

It's an important piece of our infrastructure, and to get it right, I think you've done some amazing work.

Thank you.

Kelly, you live nearby.

I don't know if you have anything you want to add.

The playground is great.

Thank you.

That's great.

Beverly, any other things you want to flag before we move forward?

No, I think everything's done.

The only thing I do need to note that there is a property use and development agreement, which we're accustomed to doing with private developments.

And there was so much open space in the park area and everything that we did work with SPU on a property use and development agreement just so that it's clear that Keeping these amenities in good repair and open and available to the public will be there for the life of the facility.

So we do have that in place to make sure the great playground stays.

And so is the playground managed by SPU, not Seattle Parks?

Correct.

Yes.

Parks did not want to take that over, even though we offered them money to maintain it and they said no.

All the fun within the city family.

Thank you for keeping it in good shape.

I know their hands, they're stretched with all the resources they have, so thank you.

Great.

Well, I'm really, really pleased.

This is, I know it started before my time here, but I was definitely involved early on when I was chairing Seattle Public Utilities on the work around this, and it's exciting that you get a certification project to wrap up in less than 10 years.

It's amazing.

So, this is great.

Thanks for all your work on it.

I'll go ahead and move Council Bill 119614. I'll also second and vote yes on that.

We'll send that to the full Council on September 30th, I believe.

I don't think we have anything else to do on that.

That's right.

Great.

Okay.

That's the end of our meeting.

447. Happy Climate Strike Day, everybody.

Thank you for everyone being here on a Friday afternoon.

This is the last committee meeting until after the budget season, at least that I'm aware of at the moment, so.

I don't know if we can sneak one in before Monday.

Yeah, so thanks everyone for being here, and we'll be adjourned.

Bye.