SPEAKER_04

Yes, of course.

We need to wait for the exciting Seattle Channel transition to officially proceed.

All right.

Well, welcome.

Good morning.

The September 17th, 2024 meeting of the Transportation Committee will come to order.

It is 930 a.m.

I am Rob Saka, chair of the Transportation Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_11

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Strauss.

Present.

Councilmember Wu.

Present.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

Chair Saka.

Here.

Chair, there are four members present.

SPEAKER_04

All right, and I note that Vice Chair Hollingsworth will likely be around 10 minutes late running behind from another meeting, but will be here shortly.

So good morning, colleagues, members of the public, members of the viewing public tuning in to the exciting Seattle Channel.

Thank you all for being here and sharing your time with us this morning.

We have a very packed agenda today.

Among other things, we're going to be considering appointees to the Seattle Transit and Bicycle Advisory Boards, a resolution to enable the Transportation Funding Task Force, including two technical amendments that I am offering.

And then as a sports fan, really excited about this, we get to honor the goat, the goat of goats, and women's basketball, Sue Bird, with some enabling legislation to enable a street name change in her honor.

We also have a presentation by central staff on the Seattle streetcar lines of business.

Finally, We're going to consider and likely vote on the T6 alley vacation proposal.

So colleagues, this agenda, I think, really speaks to what this committee has been all about and what I think voters expect of us as well.

And that is...

Now more than ever, a back to basics approach that centers common sense, is very mindful of nuts and bolts, the nitty gritty operational details that truly make a difference in people's everyday lives, and really a strident commitment to improving our transportation and our various infrastructure investments across our terrific city.

So I remain committed to improving our city infrastructure investment, foot, bike, public transit, car, freight, cargo, all the above.

Boats, airplanes, maritime, all the above.

And doing so with consciousness and being mindful of data and the demands of the constituents of our city that are counting on us to better enable Well, better enable their connection and, you know, egress routes and ways across this great city, make sure that they can travel across the city in a safe, reliable manner.

So thank you again, colleagues, for this journey.

We've got to consider that this year has been a microcosm of everything that we could conceivably consider in this committee.

We started out in earnest considering the Seattle Transportation Plan, moving forward, pivoting to the Of course, the transportation levy proposal legislation that is now before voters.

And then in between, scattered in between, tons and tons and tons of operational nitty-gritty enablement features that comprise really the nuts and bolts of this committee, from alley street vacations to honorary street names, in this case, a permanent street name ordinance for today to honor Sue Bird.

The list goes on and on and on.

We will likely have one more potentially two, but likely one more meeting before the end of the calendar year.

But this is our last major, well, this is our last Transportation Committee meeting before we enter our budget deliberations in earnest.

And so just wanted to take a moment to pause, reflect on what we've done so far this year.

Be mindful, of course, that we have one more post budget.

So that said, we will now move to the public comment period and we'll open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

SPEAKER_11

Currently we have one in-person speaker signed up and there are no remote speakers.

SPEAKER_04

All right, each speaker, the speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with the in-person and if anyone happens to join remotely, We'll pivot to them.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

SPEAKER_11

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open and we'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

And that is, first and only speaker, that's Heather Phil.

SPEAKER_00

Good morning.

Heather Peel, Friends of the Market.

And recently in the Times, there was raised the specter of the First Avenue streetcar again.

Friends of the Market defends and is interested and concerned about not only Pike Place Market, but also the surrounding community.

And I just want to be clear because the council members, many of them are new this year, that if the First Avenue streetcar were to go in, it would mean a very detrimental impact to the market because the load and unload zones would be completely moved around the corner.

only loading between 1 and 5 a.m.

on First Avenue, and because all the left turns into Pike Place Market northbound, except for a small turnpocket at Pike Street, would be eliminated.

The Show Box's load and load zone would be moved around the corner of 50 feet from the corner of First and Union, which would interfere with the Show Box's operations, but also targets trucks going in and out of the alley.

This information about load-on-load and the streetcar plans are not posted anywhere for the public to see.

I was able to learn about these from the Pike Place Market PDA, which had the loading diagrams, and by doing a public disclosure request to SDOT for the plans.

So I will send as a follow-up to all the council members the information pertinent to Pike Place Market and the show box.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

That was our only speaker.

All right, so given that there are no additional registered speakers, we will now proceed to our items of business.

Let's see.

So clerk, will the clerk please read item number one through seven into the record.

SPEAKER_11

Agenda items one through seven, appointments 02981 through 02987, appointments and reappointments of Dexter Jenkins as member Seattle Transit Advisory Board for a term of August 2, 2025, Deborah Barnard, Shirley Chu, Katie Freeman, Arthur Kunuki, Sandro R. Pani, Ashwin Bumbla as members Seattle Transit Advisory Board for terms of August 2, 2026. All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Will our presenters please join us at the table and share your presentation?

And once ready, please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation.

SPEAKER_08

Good morning, Chair Saka, members of the committee.

My name is Carolyn Birkenfeld.

I work at SDOT as a senior transportation planner supporting the Seattle transit measure, and I'm also the staff liaison to the Transit Advisory Board.

For a little bit of background, the Transit Advisory Board, or the TAB, is made up of 12 members of the public who meet monthly to advise the city on public transit-related matters in the city of Seattle.

The board also functions as the public advisory authority for the Seattle Transit Measure, previously the Seattle Transit Benefit District.

The board is involved with all things transit from the review of capital projects to transit service network changes, transit access programs, and plans such as the climate change response framework, STP, and low pollution neighborhoods.

Members of the board represent a wide range of perspectives of transit riders from all districts and advise the city based on their experiences and community connections focused on what it means to rely on transit to get around the city.

Today, we are bringing forward four new candidates for appointment and three reappointments.

Our new candidates, Dexter Jenkins, Deborah Barnard, and Katie Freeman, are here in person.

And surely two should be joining us remotely.

Our three reappointments, Ashwin Bambla, Art Kuniyuki, and Sandra Pani, are not here today.

And now, I will ask each of the new members to introduce themselves.

And we'll start with the folks at the table here.

SPEAKER_15

Hello, my name is Deborah Bernard.

I work at the Seattle Public Library and have for 18 years.

I have been writing the Seattle transit system since the 1990s.

And I look forward to serving my city in a new capacity.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_17

Hi, folks.

My name is Katie Freeman.

I'm a geriatric social worker with the American Parkinson Disease Association.

And I rely on Seattle Public Transit as my main mode of transportation.

And I'm really excited to be here.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Dexter Jenkins.

I am a member of the Social Security Administration, a federal employee.

I am new to Seattle, and I do also rely on public transit on a daily basis.

So I think I'm here at appropriate time and look forward to participating.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you.

And I see Shirley online.

Would you like to introduce yourself?

Hello.

SPEAKER_06

Yep.

Hello.

I'm Shirley.

I am a Seattle native.

I am a software engineer, and I have relied on public transportation nearly all of my life.

I used it to go from South Seattle to Shoreline for school, and now I am in Lower Queen Anne, and I'm very excited to join this board and kind of be a liaison to the Chinese community.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

All right.

No, thank you all.

Really appreciate this.

I guess Do any of my colleagues, we'll start with, do any of my colleagues have any questions, comments?

Chair?

SPEAKER_19

Well, first, thank you for coming this morning in person or online.

I really appreciate it.

And thank you for volunteering.

As someone who's volunteered in the past before this current position I'm in, I recognize the time and effort and sometimes money that goes into it, so I really appreciate it.

And I also appreciate that we have somebody new who's probably, you didn't say you were from, but brings the experience of being in other cities as well with transit.

I think that's really important.

Getting the insights and the experiences from other cities and then comparing and contrasting and looking to improve ours is really important, so I appreciate that.

In addition to those who, I've been here the whole time and live in Lower Queen Anne, which is fantastic.

I'm sorry, that's the District 7 rep and me coming out.

I apologize.

SPEAKER_04

All good.

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Kittle.

Mayor?

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Go ahead, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

And for our D7 colleague, is it Pike or is it Pine?

Is it Uptown or is it Lower Queen Anne?

The question, the answers will always escape us.

I just want to thank you first for your volunteer service to our city.

I know you also work for our city and you work for our federal administration.

Thank you for your service to our nation and our city.

This is all volunteer work.

You're not compensated and we benefit from your expertise.

Couple questions, one for each of you who are here.

Deborah, you've been able to work.

You've served us in the libraries.

You see people of all walks of life, all shapes, sizes, and abilities.

And you've used transit since the 1990s.

Can you share two questions here?

What's changed in transit since the 90s, one thing that's for the positive and one thing that needs to be improved?

And as second question, as you see everyone who comes to our libraries, for whatever reason, whether it's to use the computers, access digital libraries, check out books, have some time out of the weather.

What do you see for everyday Seattleites that are needed for transit?

So what's changed since the 90s, good, bad?

And then how do you see everyday Seattleites interacting with transit?

SPEAKER_15

Okay.

And you can move the microphone.

The thing that I have witnessed a lot of change with is the monorail.

The monorail in Seattle has had a wild ride as far as transportation.

And I'm really excited that it's part of the ORCA card now and it's actually useful.

And as far as how I see folks interacting with transit, a lot of people are really excited that the light rail is finally expanding outside of Seattle, especially for affordable housing.

So one of the things I see is friends who are able to have better access to transit without a car, and the light rail makes that possible for them.

SPEAKER_05

Nice.

Thank you very much.

Katie, your work as a geriatric social worker, thank you for your service.

How do you see your client's ability or barriers to using transit?

SPEAKER_17

That's a great question.

SPEAKER_05

And you can move the microphones around there.

SPEAKER_17

Thank you.

No, that's a great question.

And what I have witnessed is as we age, and especially as we age and get sick, our access to transit or access to transportation diminishes, right?

So oftentimes, we lose the ability to drive.

And for many people, that means that we lose access to, you know, not just medical services, but access to our communities.

And that has pretty detrimental health outcomes.

You know, Seattle has made a commitment to being an age-friendly city, and I think it's so important to consider transportation, especially public transportation, as an avenue for achieving that commitment.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Excellent.

I'm just pulling up.

I've got everyone's resumes up here.

So, Dexter, looking at your resume, you mentioned that you're new to Seattle.

Looks like you come from Georgia, according to your resume, or that was at least your last stop.

Here in Seattle, we can kind of get our blinders up where we only see what's right in front of us, but you get to share a fresh perspective from outside of even our region.

What have you noticed or what is your, you know, what's going well, what needs to be improved as far as transit as compared to other places that you've been in our nation?

SPEAKER_02

Well, one of the things I did appreciate when I first arrived and I mentioned earlier is the overlapping matching of services, the reliance on railways and buses and multiple railways.

That kind of gives you a security of having that transportation back and forth whenever you're going wherever you need.

Many other cities are still kind of developing those.

They're putting the infrastructure in place to have reliable transportation in different capacities.

And it seems like it was forethought here, like it was put in place well ahead, and it's just kind of being manipulated and improved on at this point.

SPEAKER_05

Fantastic.

Well, we're glad to have you here, and I wonder if maybe the two of you share some clients.

Could be.

Possibly.

You never know.

But you'll never know because of HIPAA.

Shirley, over to you.

One question for you.

I see in your resume, while you mentioned you work in tech, that you've worked for Redfin and that you've worked for Nordstrom.

Can you share how you've seen your colleagues interact with transit here in the city?

Does it help or speak maybe to your work at Redfin?

Do you see transit access being something that is positive for people that they're looking for when they're trying to buy a house?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I can speak for the buying a house part.

So I grew up in South Seattle and we, you know, my mom had to take a bus to downtown every day and it took over an hour, but that was her only way.

And as for tech workers, I think it's half half because now that we only have a partial return office and a lot of people can be exempt, they don't rely on it as much.

I noticed that buses are a lot emptier than they used to be.

But there is, I think, not a small fraction, maybe like half-half of tech workers that are really into public transportation.

And I know that a lot of recent transplants who moved to Seattle often stay in really popular areas like Capitol Hill or Queen Anne.

they just don't have a car.

So I think on both ends, people buying houses, especially if they are more underserved areas or tech workers, generally it is enthusiastic.

I do think it's part of the Seattle thing for tech workers to like public transportation.

SPEAKER_05

Well, thank you all again for your service and service you do at work to our city and to the residents of Seattle.

Chair?

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

And thank you all.

I want to echo the sentiment expressed by my colleagues here in terms of expressing my own gratitude and appreciation for you all and your work.

This is a 100% volunteer-powered board, advisory board, that you are undertaking here shortly, and...

It requires a lot of time, obviously, and sacrifice.

But I'm grateful that you have chosen to devote your time and talents to help make our city better through transit, in this case.

I also have served like Council Member Kittle on a number of volunteer boards and commissions, and I've learned something from every last one of those opportunities.

And I'd like to think personally that I've benefited in some small direct or indirect way through my own contributions.

to whatever was the task at hand uh but so i want you to know that your serv and by the way same thing we're also going to consider after you uh folks from the seattle bicycle advisory board so same comments kind of poured over there but um i want you all to know that your your work and your service to our city it matters it's important uh as now an elected policy maker in our city I often read, review, and ask questions of the work of volunteer boards and commissions, including most recently, I guess the most recent example is through the Levee Oversight Committee.

pouring through their report, calling up the chairs, asking questions.

So your work is important, it matters, and I'm grateful that people like you, leaders like you, are willing to step up and help our city in so many ways.

And transit is very important.

I take it regularly.

I took it this morning.

We'll take it later today.

You see me on transit sometimes, say hello.

And I've also been transit dependent in different stages of my life.

And when my family has had a car, it's not always been a reliable one.

And so I regularly took.

I remember I also, by the way, took transit locally since the 90s.

And I'm proud of that.

It's changed a lot.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm an 80s baby, and I remember about five, ten years ago, that used to be a cool thing to say, and now it's like I'm the old guy around here.

Councilmember Kettle's looking at me like, come on.

But in any event, transit is really important.

I still remember taking finally the 150 line back when I lived in Kent, and took it regularly and and now they're talking about making that potentially a one of our rapid ride lines my point is this is really important work that you all do um and you know i love our transit i would encourage everyone to take it is evidence not by just my words but by my actions uh that doesn't mean it's perfect 100 today there is opportunities to make it even better which is why we all strive to do and which is the thrust of your work so thank you uh Again, just echoing the sentiment of my colleagues here in terms of expressing our appreciation.

So as chair of this committee, I'll echo that on behalf of this committee.

Appreciate your volunteer service and sacrifice to our city to make it better.

All right.

I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 02981 through 02987. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Are there any further comments?

Hearing none, seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to confirm these appointments?

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

SPEAKER_17

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Vice Chair Hollingsworth?

Chair Saka?

SPEAKER_04

Aye.

SPEAKER_11

Chair, there are four votes in favor and none opposed.

SPEAKER_04

All right.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the council confirm the appointments will be sent to the September 24th, 2024 city council meeting.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

We will now move on to our next item of business.

Will the clerk please read items numbers eight through 16 into the record.

SPEAKER_11

Agenda Items 8 through 16, Appointments 02-988 through 02-996.

Appointments and re-appointments of Madin Akpo Asambe, Kizinei Arshova, Taylor Hom as members Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board for terms of August 31, 2025. Maxwell Baker, Molly McNeely, Catherine L. Ricciuto, Rafael Ronquillo, Donna McBain Evans, Joseph Robert as members Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board for terms to August 31, 2026. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Will our presenters please join us at the table and share your presentation?

Once ready, please do introduce yourselves and begin your presentation.

SPEAKER_10

All right.

Good morning, Chair Saka, members of the Transportation Committee.

My name is Quinn Kelly.

I'm a senior transportation planner at the Department of Transportation, and I'm also the staff liaison to the Bike Advisory Board, joined by my colleague, Hallie.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, I'm Hallie O'Brien, also with SDOT, and I'm a senior transportation planner and co-liaison of our Seattle Bike Advisory Board with Quinn.

SPEAKER_10

So the Seattle Bike Advisory Board was established by city council in 1977 in recognition of the growing role of bicycles in Seattle's transportation system.

The board's mission is to advise the city council, the mayor, and all departments and offices of the city on matters related to bicycling and the impact which actions by the city may have upon bicycling and shall have the opportunity to contribute to all aspects of the city's planning processes insofar as they may be related to bicycling.

In the last year, the Seattle Bike Advisory Board has been a voice for people who bike across the city, providing critical feedback on Seattle Transportation Plan, the Vision Zero Action Plan, the proposed transportation levy, the Better Bike Barriers Project, and major infrastructure projects including Aurora Ave, the Elliott Bay Connection, Alaskan Way, and North 130th Street, just to name a few.

So this morning we have seven new appointees and two reappointments to consider.

SPEAKER_04

Awesome no, thank you so much So I guess turn it over to my colleagues do any of my fellow committee members have any questions comments Oh Yeah, go ahead so yeah, we can start with Maxwell Baker who I believe is attending online and

SPEAKER_14

Hi there, Max Baker.

I'm a city planner in the city of Tukwila, current resident of West Seattle, and I've been biking around the city for almost 15 years.

Have lived in a number of different neighborhoods, Lower Queen Anne, Ballard, commuted to the U District when I was in grad school there, and currently I ride my bike from West Seattle to Tukwila most days of the week.

It provides a good perspective for me on some of the challenges and opportunities that we have in the city for bike infrastructure, and I'm very excited to serve on the board.

SPEAKER_10

All right, next up we have TJ Ham, who I believe was hoping to attend virtually, but may or may not have been able to join.

So if not, I can introduce him.

So TJ's a video producer and co-founder of Particle Studios in Seattle's Soto neighborhood.

He grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where he commuted to school on his mom's 21-speed mountain bike.

Since moving to Seattle in his 20s, he lives in a half-dozen neighborhoods and cycled through most others.

He envisions cycling in Seattle as a safe, accessible, and convenient alternative to single-occupancy vehicle travel for all.

As a board member, TJ aims to advocate for new and experienced Seattle cyclists by championing more extensive, safer, and prioritized bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to help the city achieve true vision zero and meet its climate objectives.

And next up, we have Katie.

SPEAKER_16

Hi, I'm Katie Ricciuto.

I work for the U District Partnership, U District Business Improvement Area, managing planning policy and placemaking for the organization.

I've been a Seattle resident for a decade.

I frequently commute by bike from my home in the Central District to the U District.

And I'm a member of Cascade Bicycle Club, so I do a lot of riding on the roads in and around Seattle.

SPEAKER_10

All right, next up we have Medin Akpoesampe, who I believe was planning to attend in person, but I'm not seeing him here, so I can introduce him if needed.

So Medin lives in the Rainier Beach neighborhood.

He works in Venture Capital.

And he appreciates biking as a way to get around the city, get exercise, and access public transportation.

Most days, his primary way to get around is biking to the Rainier Beach station and hopping on the light rail.

So really appreciates that sort of multimodal connection and is excited to contribute his time and experience to the Bike Advisory Board.

And next up, we have Molly McNeely.

SPEAKER_07

Hi there, my name is Molly McNeely and I work for SEIU 775 Benefits Group.

I do health benefit administration and health improvement for the caregiving workforce in Washington.

I've been in Seattle for six years and commute exclusively via bike and connection to transit hubs.

And I'm a volunteer for the Major Taylor Project, working with youth at Cascade Middle School and Garfield High School.

And yeah, very excited for the opportunity to join the board.

SPEAKER_09

All right, and next we have Rafi.

Good morning.

Hi, all.

My name is Rafi Ronquillo.

I work for the US EPA here in Seattle.

And I live in the Beacon Hill neighborhood and am a recreational cyclist as well as a commuter.

I moved back to Seattle a couple of years ago after being away for eight or nine years.

And I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed by the improvements in bicycle infrastructure since my absence.

And I'm eager to help participate on this board and shape the conversation going forward.

SPEAKER_10

All right, and finally we have Ksenia, who I believe is unable to attend this morning, but she's a strong believer that car-centric urban design is welcoming and dangerous.

She believes it can effectively be alleviated by providing alternative modes of transportation, such as biking and designing cities around them.

She believes that lively, desirable neighborhoods will form as a direct consequence of such redesign, and bicycles can save the city.

As a doctor, she appreciates that swiftly getting more biking and walking in the city will help to alleviate car-related air and noise pollution and significantly improve people's health.

I believe that's it for our new appointees.

SPEAKER_04

All right.

Excellent.

Thank you all so much.

Really appreciate that.

First off, I note that Vice Chair Hollingsworth has joined us.

So now this is the point where I will turn it over to my colleagues to see if there are any comments or questions.

I guess I will start with our esteemed Vice Chair Hollingsworth, if you have any comments or questions.

SPEAKER_13

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Like I always say, and I apologize for being late, but I read, I have a massive packet here and I read everyone's resumes and just want to thank you for your service.

We know that I say it all the time.

It's a volunteer service and we're really grateful for you bringing your expertise and lens to the group and looking forward to working with you and helping, you know, increase our transportation efforts here in the city.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

Colleagues, anyone else?

Go ahead.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_19

Thank you, Chair Saka.

Again, echoing what I said earlier and what Council Member Hollingsworth, thank you.

I also like the breadth of the varying ages.

To your point made five minutes ago, there is some that may...

be in my era, and so it's good to have a mix of people.

I think that's good to get the varying viewpoints.

And as noted, international too.

So from Russia, which I think is to have that experience.

I think it's great to have it here on the commission.

And then separately, I wanted to ask, You know, there's a lot of issues out there.

And in terms of building out like the bite networks and different pieces, the issue of today is the Seattle Public Schools.

And I recognize that this is a little bit of a touchy subject, but I think it's worth noting that our schools are not just schools where you go into the classroom and learn.

Schools have parks and they're part of the communities.

Whether it's Magnolia with Catherine Blaine, Magdalene that we kind of share, Council Member Strauss, but also some that are not on the list, like Coe, and that's where my daughter learned how to ride a bike.

And so I'm concerned, and Coe's not on the list, but there's other schools that are, and they may be places where kids learn how to ride a bike.

And I know this is a touchy subject, but I think I'm raising it now because I think it needs to be you know, part of the discussion.

There's a lot of focus on the academic pieces, and rightly so, that should be where we start.

But we should also be looking at these schools and how they're part of the fabric of our community and our neighborhoods.

And one way that plays out is learning how to ride a bike.

And so I'm not sure if that's on your agenda.

You probably want to avoid it maybe, I don't know, but I think it's something that we should be talking as a community.

So I'm gonna take this opportunity here on the dais to raise it.

and say, hey, let's protect the areas where our kids learn how to ride a bike safely, like at the big area in Coe Elementary.

Thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_04

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Anyone else?

SPEAKER_05

Council Member Charles, please.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll just run down who's here, and I'll ask each of you a question.

Rafael, I'm going to start with you.

Since you're on my right, you're left though.

You lived here previously.

You left for some time.

You're back.

You mentioned we're in a better place than we were before.

What do you mean by that?

How are we better?

And then the second part of the question is, where do we need to go from here?

SPEAKER_09

Yeah, thank you for your question.

So I went to college in Tacoma and then lived in Seattle for a year in 2015 and would bike from where I lived in East Lake down to Soto.

And it was, at times it was a little harrowing, especially in those dark winter mornings, you know, 6.45, 7 a.m., biking down first or second to get down to Soto.

And I think the physical infrastructure has improved immensely.

I've also lived in several other cities in the past 10 years with their own bike infrastructure challenges.

And I think that Seattle's done a great job, and I think that there's room for improvement.

So to get to the second point of your question, I think that continuing establishing those permanent physical barriers along bike lanes is a key, key element of the city's success.

to council members kettle's point um i think that continuing to develop that infrastructure will allow children and people of all ages and abilities to learn how to and rely learn how to ride bikes safely in the city and have that be a priority using uh car infrastructure to learn how to ride a bike so i think the more development we pursue the better it'll be for all riders of all abilities

SPEAKER_05

Fantastic.

And I did learn to ride a bicycle in elementary school with one of the school-based programs.

SPEAKER_18

There you go.

SPEAKER_05

There we are.

And then I also used my hand turn signals that I learned just the other day.

Well, I mean, it's helpful.

Katie, over to you.

Colleagues, you might not know this.

Katie came to public testimony about living I-5 in the U District.

I did some back of the envelope math on the dais right here, which then led me to my amendment regarding the 47th pedestrian bridge in the U District to change it to a scoping analysis of living the entire I-5.

That's the benefit of local government is you can come to public testimony and have an impact on the policies that we pass here.

Katie, thank you for that work already.

I'm excited to have you in an official advising role now.

So what's our next big opportunity?

SPEAKER_16

in the whole city.

Oh, man.

Well, that's a great question.

I mean, I think that from a bicycle perspective, I'm really excited about the levy and what you proposed, what this entire committee has proposed.

I think getting that passed is really a huge opportunity for the city to start investing not only in scoping projects like the Lid I-5 project, but also in areas where huge safety improvements are needed, especially in South Seattle.

You know, Council Member Saka, you also proposed in that levy funding for a bike, a protected bike lane in West Seattle, in memory of Steve Holzman, who was a ride leader for Cascade Bike Club, who was tragically killed in December, and I'm a member of that club, So I think it seems small, but really figuring out where those high collision areas are and where better connections in the bike network need to be done to make it safer for a vast majority of people.

And I know that SPAB's role is providing oversight to SDOT and making sure that safety and accessibility are built into all of the work that they're doing.

So I'm really excited about Lit I-5, but I'm also really excited about some of those other connections in other areas of the city and making it safer for everyone.

SPEAKER_05

Very well said.

People wonder why a protected bike lane isn't used when it just ends in a busy intersection.

If there's not a connection all the way through to your destination or if that protected bike lane dumps you into a dangerous place, people just don't.

That's why it's underutilized.

Just, I've lost my position.

Molly, thank you for all your work here in our city.

We're excited to have your volunteer service.

What would you say the biggest opportunities are that we need to take or the next steps that we need to take in the view of the people that you serve, your clients, but also your coworkers?

SPEAKER_07

Thank you.

To Council Member Kettle's point, I do volunteer for an organization that teaches middle school students and high school students how to ride a bike with an emphasis on safe navigation in an urban environment and sort of that autonomy and community that comes with riding a bike, getting to school, and getting to other obligations in the city.

I think working with youth has just been a real eye opener.

I bike through the city with a specific lens.

And seeing the city from a neighborhood that has less protected bike lanes from the perspective of someone who's younger and more vulnerable has been very eye opening.

So one of the reasons I applied here is just to understand more about how projects are prioritized and scoped and implemented, just to have a greater understanding and involvement and input with where we're investing in more protected bike lanes.

And I would love to see, or I think I'd just like to connect the dots and be involved with how that's involved in our school districts and just in general for people who are biking around and who are a bit more vulnerable.

So yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Nice.

Well, thank you all for your volunteer.

Oh, Maxwell, I didn't forget about you.

Online here, Max, if you could just briefly share how your history of not only working as a planner now, but your education as a master of urban planning, how does that, what perspective can you share with the board?

SPEAKER_14

Yeah, so as a city planner in Tukwila, I've had a lot of opportunities to work with the city of Seattle as well as our surrounding jurisdictions when we're discussing new transportation projects, especially bike infrastructure.

There's a lot of projects coming online that are really exciting, and we're having conversations with those entities.

There's the Georgetown to downtown project with the potential of extending that further south and how that might impact Tukwila.

There's the King County, we call it the King County Missing Link, which is the Green River Trail extension that would connect South Park to the city of Tukwila.

And so we've been speaking with King County on that project.

What's exciting about all those projects are those are all routes that I myself have ridden over the years and have worked to identify some of the really weak points in them and what we can do to overcome the challenges there.

And having ridden from different parts of the city, so I was a resident of Ballard while I was going to school in the U District, but I was working and interning in the city of Tukwila.

Now, I was using my bike to get around because that was typically one of the faster ways to do it, linking up with transit, riding down to Light Rail Station, coming down to Quilla, taking the Burt Gilman from Ballard to the U District.

It just tended to be one of the faster routes, and it kind of also opened my eyes to some of the challenges that folks have coming from different neighborhoods, especially going south and hoping to – work to improve those challenges.

I think one of the great pieces of infrastructure we have is the Duwamish Trail that is in West Seattle and takes us down to our communities down south, especially Kent, Tukwila, Burien.

But there are also challenges in getting that trail from some parts of the city.

So it's been great to see what's happening in Seattle to beef up those connections.

The Marginal Way project is great, exciting, protected bike trail that's going to take us downtown.

Very excited to see that open.

But we're also excited to see those connections get improved into the future.

So really happy to kind of utilize my position at Taquilla to kind of DISCUSS SOME OF THOSE OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR CITY TO PARTNER WITH THE CITY OF SEATTLE AS WELL WHEN WE'RE HAVING THOSE PLANNING CONVERSATIONS.

SPEAKER_05

THANK YOU, MAX.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR VOLUNTEER SERVICE.

EXCITED TO SEE YOU AGAIN.

CHAIR?

SPEAKER_04

THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER STRAUSS.

AND THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR CITY AND BEING WILLING TO STEP UP AND SERVE IN THIS IMPACTFUL AND PROFOUND WAY.

IT IS NOT UNNOTICED AND CERTAINLY NOT UNAPPRECIATED.

A couple quick thoughts.

A comment was made about the levy, and we worked hard on this committee and the broader select committee to craft a proposal that was passed unanimously that included a number of safety enhancements.

make better progress on our Vision Zero goals.

And also, you know, prioritizing unsexy things like bridges and pothole repair, among other things.

But really exciting work that we did there.

But at the end of the day, voters are going to decide in about two months to be exact.

So that is now on the ballot.

And then also...

So I am, I think, meeting with representatives from this group either later this week or next week.

And I'm excited to do that.

I've been meeting with all the advisory boards.

And also with respect to transit, if that's not already on the calendar, it will be.

But I appreciate all of this work.

Also mentioned and noted was Cascade.

Shout out to Cascade Bicycle Club.

I participated in a ride in West Seattle this past, maybe it was almost two weeks ago now, on a Saturday to honor the memory of Steve Holzman, who was killed in December.

It was a great ride.

I participated in the easy ride, the beginner ride.

It was only 14 miles.

Did so alongside a lot of cool people, including the executive director of Cascade, Lee Lambert.

Shout out to Lee.

But I was humbled as part of that.

I'm getting older.

Tweaked my lower back.

So I had this epiphany that maybe I might need a pivot from my old racer-type bicycle to an e-bike.

But hey, we all learn.

You've got to live and learn.

I am mostly an occasional commuter to and from work, participate in an occasional recreational ride, of course.

I think I might be upgrading or downgrading, depending on who you ask, to an e-bike.

No shame in that, though.

Come out to Ballard.

Rad bikes are great.

Hey, let's do it.

Let's do it.

Let's get in on the counter in any event.

So thank you all again for your work.

Look forward to meeting with you all soon and supporting and uplifting and amplifying your terrific work in any way I can.

That said, I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 02988 through 02996. Second.

Second, yes.

All right, it is moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Are there any further comments?

Hearing none, seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to confirm these appointments?

SPEAKER_11

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Councilmember Wu?

Council Member Wu.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_13

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Chair Saka.

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Chair, there are four votes in favor and zero opposed.

All right, the motion carries and the committee recommendation that council confirm the appointments will be sent to the September 24th, 2024 city council meeting.

Congratulations and thank you again.

We will now move into our next item of business.

Will the clerk please read item 17 into the record.

SPEAKER_11

Agenda item 17, resolution 32145, a resolution relating to transportation infrastructure improvement and maintenance responding to resolution 32137 regarding the establishment and recommendations of a transportation funding task force to develop policy and funding recommendations for long-term transportation infrastructure needs.

with specific focus on building out Seattle sidewalk network, improving existing sidewalks, improving pavement condition and replacing or rehabilitating aging bridges.

Got it.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

So, uh, Colleagues, this should be no secret or surprise.

I think this is the third or fourth time that we've formally talked about this at either this committee or a broader select committee.

We had that presentation last time around.

Welcome, Cal.

Please introduce yourself and share any thoughts.

SPEAKER_20

Council Member, it's Calvin Chow with Council Central Staff.

This resolution before you was discussed on September 3rd.

It was part of the mayor's proposal with the levy to establish a transportation funding task force, and the council endorsed the idea in a companion resolution to the levy.

So the resolution before you would establish that task force if the voters approve the levy in November.

It follows the recommendations, or excuse me, the recommendations THE SCOPE AND THE FORMATION OF IT FOLLOWS WHAT WAS CALLED FOR IN THE COMPANION RESOLUTION BY COUNCIL.

I CAN GO THROUGH IT IN MORE DETAIL IF YOU LIKE, OR I CAN MOVE RIGHT INTO YOUR PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.

SPEAKER_04

YEAH, NO, THANK YOU, CAL.

FIRST OFF, I MOVE TO ADOPT RESOLUTION 32145. IS THERE A SECOND?

SECOND.

SECOND.

SPEAKER_99

THIRD.

SPEAKER_04

ALL RIGHT.

IT'S MOVED AND SECONDED.

I think at this point, let's proceed with the discussion of the amendments that have been submitted.

So Cal, would you mind just giving a quick overview of those?

SPEAKER_20

Sure, council member, your first amendment would establish a new whereas clause in the recitals to just acknowledge the council's previous endorsement of the idea in resolution 32137 as shown on the screen.

Yeah, and so I offer two recommendations

SPEAKER_04

fairly minor, less substantive technical, what I'll characterize as technical amendments.

And this first one just specifically calls out and makes explicit the original legislation called out the council bill.

And this, you know, there was also a companion resolution.

So this just calls it out.

So that is that one.

I, are there any questions, comments, colleagues on this amendment?

Okay, I move that the committee adopt amendment number one to resolution 32145. Is there a second?

SPEAKER_13

Second.

SPEAKER_04

All right, it has been moved and seconded to adopt amendment number one.

Are there any further comments?

Hearing none and seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_04

Aye.

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Chair Saka?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

SPEAKER_04

All right.

So next, I am proposing amendment number two.

GO AHEAD.

SPEAKER_20

SORRY.

YOUR AMENDMENT NUMBER TWO IS ALSO SHOWN ON THE SCREEN.

IT WOULD ADD A SENTENCE THAT WOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE COUNCIL ANTICIPATES A FUTURE RESOLUTION TO FORMALLY CONFIRM THE ACTUAL APPOINTMENTS.

THIS LEGISLATION IN FRONT OF YOU WOULD ESTABLISH THE FRAMEWORK FOR THAT, BUT THIS WOULD ESTABLISH THE COUNCIL'S INTENT TO CONFIRM THE SLATE OF APPOINTEES WHEN THEY ARE KNOWN.

SPEAKER_04

So I essentially co-wrote this, co-authored this piece of legislation with, alongside our partners at the executive department, SDOT, and the mayor's office.

And so this, again, minor technical amendment just makes those, like, makes the legislation more in line with our conversation and just makes this more, this whole process for selection more in line with the, you know, what we anticipate anyway.

Just...

We're going to adopt this with the formal resolution.

So are there any further questions or comments about this amendment?

Hearing no further questions and seeing none, I move that the committee adopt amendment number two to resolution 32145. Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to adopt amendment number two.

Are there any further comments?

Hearing and seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on adoption of this amendment?

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Strauss?

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Wu?

SPEAKER_13

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Vice Chair Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_13

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Chair Saka?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

SPEAKER_04

All right.

Thank you.

Now let us continue down the path of...

considering the final amended resolution.

So I move that the committee recommend adoption of resolution 32145 as amended.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_05

Second.

SPEAKER_04

All right.

It has been moved and seconded to adopt resolution, the resolution as amended.

Are there any final comments or questions?

Hearing and seeing none.

Will the clerk please call the roll on adoption of a resolution 32145 as amended.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_11

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Chair Sacco.

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

SPEAKER_04

All right, the motion carries and the committee's recommendation that the council adopt resolution 32145 as amended will be sent to the September 24th, 2024 city council meeting.

Thank you.

We will now move on to our 18th item of business.

Will the clerk please read item 18 into the record?

SPEAKER_11

Agenda item 18, CB120857, an ordinance relating to city streets, changing the name of a designated portion of Second Avenue North, generally located between Lenny Wilkins Way and Denny Way to Sue Bird Court North, superseding the relevant portions of Ordinance 4044, Ordinance 89910, Ordinance 102981, and any other ordinance to the extent inconsistent and ratifying and confirming certain acts.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

And it looks like our presenters have joined us at the table.

Thank you.

Once ready, please introduce yourself and begin your presentation.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I'm Councilmember Saka.

I'm billed aboard from the Seattle Department of Transportation.

And I'm here to present proposed ordinance that would rename a portion of Second Avenue North to Sue Bird Court North.

And just have a quick presentation that I'll jump into here.

Just to show the, as you were referring to earlier, Sue Bird is one of the greatest of all time, one of the great athletes who enjoyed her entire professional career in the city of Seattle as a star of the Seattle Storm.

And this ordinance would change the name of that segment of Second Avenue to honor her.

And it's adjacent to Climate Pledge Arena and perpendicular to Lenny Wilkins Way.

So two of our great basketball stars celebrated at the intersection with Climate Pledge Arena.

Just a little bit about Sue Bird for folks who are not familiar with all of her accomplishments.

She's definitely considered one of the greatest, most winningest basketball players of all time.

She led the Yukon Huskies to NCAA titles while she was in college.

Then over the course of her career has led Team USA to a record five Olympic gold medals.

successfully from 2004 to 2020. She, again, played her entire 20-year professional career for the Seattle Storm, leading the team to four WNBA titles, 2004 through 2020. And she retired after the 2020 season, and the Seattle Storm retired her jersey number 10 in 2022. And she's also an outspoken voice for change, using her position to influence and advocate for social change initiatives, including LGBTQ rights, plus rights here and racial equity here in Seattle and across the country.

This just is a map of the project area.

As I mentioned, it is adjacent to Climate Pledge Arena.

That portion of Second Avenue North that circled there would be renamed after this goes into effect to Sue Bird Court North.

There are, you've had a couple honorary street names come through this committee.

This would be a legal street name change.

Those are usually a little bit, those are a little bit more complicated than honorary street names.

This street in particular only has one street name one address on it, and that's the access apartment building, so we did probably have about 50 or 60 units in that building, and so we did outreach within the building to make sure there were no objections to renaming the street and that people would have plenty of notice.

to formally change their address.

And when we do a legal street name change like this, we also work with the post office, with mapping databases, and you should start to see, after this goes into effect, you should start to see, even by the end of the year, that in your mapping apps, it'll say Sue Bird Court North, and it will be registered in the USPS database, so people will continue to get their mail.

Thank you.

And just to wrap up about the proposed ordinance, I think I've talked about everything in here.

The Seattle Storm Organization and Seattle Center fully support the street name change.

The Seattle Storm Organization did advocate for this, and the executive was very happy to honor Sue Bird in this way.

SPEAKER_04

That's it.

Awesome.

Thank you, Mr. Laborde.

Appreciate this presentation here and overview and teeing up exactly why we're here in this piece of proposed legislation.

Friendly amendment to something you said at the outset.

In my view, at least, Sue Bird is not one of the greatest of all time.

She is the greatest of all time in her field, in this case, women's basketball.

Yesterday, I wore a jersey, an Olympic jersey from her 2020 Olympics.

It happened in 21, but, you know, Olympic jersey when she played on Team USA.

So we're doing a proclamation later today to honor Olympic athletes, and we'll have some in chambers later this afternoon.

I should have...

Should have brought my and wore my separate Sue Bird Seattle Storm jersey and just did the Superman outfit change to enable that.

But we appreciate the contributions of Sue Bird to our city, and this is one way we can honor folks like Sue Bird.

So, colleagues, do you have any questions, comments?

SPEAKER_19

Starting with...

SPEAKER_04

Well, vice chair.

Of course, starting with vice chair for so many reasons.

But, yeah.

SPEAKER_13

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

No worries.

I just have a quick comment.

I'm really grateful for you all bringing this.

I think Bill was being safe with saying one of the greatest because, you know, he might have got some flack from Lauren Jackson or some other folks.

But, anyways, Sue Bird is phenomenal.

And I couldn't be more grateful.

happy growing up watching Sue Bird play and being inspired by her and my own efforts of playing college basketball.

She is a great ambassador for our city and what we represent and couldn't be more happy, especially for women's basketball, the recognition that it's getting in our city.

The game is going to continue to grow, especially women's sports.

I know we have some girl dads up here and how supportive they are of women's sports.

So anyways, very grateful for you all bringing this, fully support it, and thank you, Mr. Chair, for supporting this as well, always.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.

Appreciate your comments there.

You know, this committee's work can devolve into a barbershop conversation about who's truly the greatest of all time, and I get that.

And hat tip, shout out to Lauren Jackson, not saying she's not also great.

Don't dig any deeper.

Yeah, yeah.

Let me shut up.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_05

And I think everyone watches, we all know, everyone watches women's sports.

We might not know.

Vice Chair, were you her coach's coach?

SPEAKER_13

Yeah, well, thank you.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, sorry.

We can move on.

SPEAKER_13

Yeah, no worries.

Talisa Rhea, who's the general manager, I coached her, and then I played against Noelle Quinn, their coach.

She was really great at UCLA, and she was phenomenal.

So, yeah, I got a little connections.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you for correcting the record.

I will say while we're designating just a few blocks of street as Sue Bird's court, I will put it on the record today, the entire city of Seattle is Sue Bird's court.

Thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Excellent point.

And, you know, we say that not just through our words, but shortly through our actions.

And we also recognize that.

So I'm prepared to vote today, colleagues, on this, but also recognize that, you know, given it's not one of our kind of customary honorary street names, it is a legal form of legal name change.

I feel good about the work and outreach that that SDOT has performed.

in terms of minimizing impact and working with the impacted stakeholders, all that work basically Mr. LaBoer described earlier.

But colleagues, are you all comfortable voting today?

Does anyone have, well, let me reframe it.

Does anyone have any concerns about voting today?

Hearing and seeing none.

Hearing and seeing none.

I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120857. Is there a second?

Second.

Dang, you guys are quick on them.

All right, it is moved and seconded to recommend passage of the Council Bill 120857. Are there any further comments?

SPEAKER_19

Chair?

SPEAKER_04

Go ahead, Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_19

Since I didn't get a chance to speak earlier, but then...

Hey, that's me, but here you are.

Really appreciate the opportunity to speak here.

Obviously, let's go with the greatest American, with Sue Bird.

And given that Lauren Jackson's Australian, she hoops, we can solve this challenge that you've found yourself in.

So there, we're good.

And I really appreciate this.

And as the D7 representative as well, The photo that you had with the Seattle Children's Theater and Sacred Heart, Sacred Heart Food Bank, by the way, a great resource for our community right there.

This is a fantastic opportunity to highlight what the Seattle storm means to us as a city and the fact that they have the four championships, something that the men have not been able to accomplish.

And so, really, it's worth recognizing both Storm and, in this case, Sue Bird.

And I just wanted to note that next time when the unveiling is done, don't do it during recess.

That's my only request.

I don't know if that was on purpose by the mayor and direct response and others, but...

It was based on the availability of Sue Bird.

Okay.

Well, in that case, it's all right.

But...

SPEAKER_05

based on Sue Bird's availability.

SPEAKER_19

D7, and this D7 representative, and as mentioned, Girl Dead, definitely supports this, and we'll be celebrating it tonight when they take on the Vegas Aces.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Hey, I adopted your feedback, and you didn't listen to your own.

You're re-raising the Lauren Jackson.

Like, come on.

All right, all right.

Well, all good, all good.

Well...

It is moved and seconded, so any other final comments?

Hearing none, seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to pass Council Bill 120857?

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_11

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Wu?

SPEAKER_17

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Vice Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Chair Saka?

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

SPEAKER_04

All right, the motion carries and the committee recommendation that council pass council bill 120857 will be sent to the September 24th, 2024 city council meeting.

Excellent, congrats goat bird.

We will now move on to our 19th item of business.

Will the clerk please read item 19 into the record.

SPEAKER_11

Agenda item 19, Seattle streetcar presentation.

SPEAKER_04

All right.

Looks like our presenters joined us at the table.

When ready, please introduce yourself and begin your presentation.

SPEAKER_20

Good morning, council members.

Calvin Chow with council central staff.

Council members, at the chair's request, I've put together a briefing and backgrounder on the Seattle streetcar.

It's the Seattle-owned and operated by King County Metro two streetcar lines, and I'd be happy to go through the presentation.

If I could start, if I could just make sure I get this presentation set up correctly.

So the streetcar currently exists of two separate lines.

The first line was the South Lake Union.

It was built at a capital cost of about $56 million.

Approximately half of that was paid by local improvement districts from adjoining property owners, and there was also a fair amount of federal grants available for that construction.

It's a 1.3-mile segment that goes from West Lake and Olive to the Fred Hutch.

It has four vehicles attached to it, as well as a vehicle maintenance facility.

At the time this was proposed, it was fundamentally talked about as sort of an economic development tool.

It was meant to bring development into the South Lake Union area to expand the walk shed.

And the example that was often given at the time was comparison with the Pearl Street District in Portland as the example of what that was meant to do.

You can certainly see the development that has happened around South Lake Union since that time.

The next streetcar that the Seattle, the part of our Seattle network is the First Hill Streetcar.

This was funded wholly from Sound Transit as part of Sound Transit 2 as an extension, essentially making up for the fact that the First Hill light rail station was removed from the original Sound Move project.

So it was a $133 million capital cost that was fully funded by Sound Transit.

It's a 2.5-mile segment that connects essentially from Occidental in Pioneer Square to the Capitol Hill Station, so it connects the regional employment center in First Hill with the regional transit system light rail at the Capitol Hill Station and the Pioneer Square Station as well.

There are six vehicles, and there's also another operations and maintenance facility at 8th and Dearborn.

There is a third proposed streetcar line, the Center City Streetcar, also known now as the Cultural Connector.

This is essentially a proposal to connect the two streetcar lines, have one connected system with some overlapping service.

This project had almost reached construction in 2018 when it was paused due to cost overruns.

and it was reassessed in 2023 for a full cost estimate of the project.

The project is $410 million currently.

A big portion of that is for utility relocations as well as structural and area way improvements to handle the weight of the streetcars.

seven additional vehicles and improvements to the operating maintenance facilities.

The project is currently not funded.

It is on pause and it is potentially eligible for federal grants, but currently there is no financial plan for how it would be funded or operated.

Council members, Council Member Saka, you asked me to provide some background on sort of the ridership and some of the performance metrics.

This is using data from SDOT's 2022 Streetcar Report, which is the last report published.

On the left-hand side here, you can see the ridership of the streetcar in green in total, both lines combined.

The red line is the First Hill streetcar, and the blue line is the South Lake Union streetcar.

You can see in 2019 sort of the peak of streetcar ridership and then the pandemic impacts that we are still recovering from.

A couple things to note on this.

You can see the blue line that South Lake Union streetcar ridership was level, even declining slightly before the pandemic.

That is largely seen as being attributable to additional transit options that were added to South Lake Union, particularly extending the rapid ride from West Seattle into South Lake Union, through downtown to South Lake Union.

and additional service on the Route 40, which goes up to Fremont and ultimately into Ballard and Northgate as well.

The recovery has been slow.

All of transit across the region and, frankly, the nation have seen slow recovery.

But you can see that the South Lake Union streetcar's recovery has been slower than the recovery on the First Hill line as well.

On the right-hand side, I just wanted to highlight the operating costs of the streetcar.

The 2024 budget, we have a total of about $14.4 million of operating expense, $4.6 million for South Lake Union Streetcar, and about $9.7 million for the First Hill Streetcar.

We do have some contributions to the operation to the South Lake Union Streetcar.

King County Metro provides about $1.7 million a year by agreement through 2029. South Sound Transit had previously contributed to the First Hill streetcar operations, $5 million a year, but those payments expired last year, was the end of that agreement, so now those costs are borne by the city.

This is common for many types of transit service, but government goods in general that the public Tends to pay for these public goods.

So that is part of where we're at what I've highlighted here is sort of the the city subsidy if you will the the other sources of revenue that we've had to provide for to maintain streetcar operations a total of ten point two million dollars were transferred to the streetcar operating fund in 2024 and Before 2023, these funds were the commercial parking tax.

And in 2023 and 2024, we have used Seattle Transit Measure funding, which is the 0.15% sales tax for transportation for transit funding that is authorized for another couple of years.

In addition, you asked me to provide some broader performance metrics.

Again, these are from the 2022 Streetcar Report.

This shows on the left-hand side some of the historic ridership, productivity, some other performance metrics that SDOT tracks.

And on the right-hand side, you'll see some estimated numbers that show performance the hope as we come out of pandemic and, and, uh, uh, do recovery.

Um, again, the thing to note is that, um, South Lincoln streetcar has not recovered at the same rate as the first hill streetcar.

And, uh, you can see that in some of the other productivity measures, uh, particularly riders per, uh, revenue hour, sort of that middle row where, um, Historically, the South Lake Union streetcar and the First Hill streetcar were somewhat similar in terms of their productivity, but the productivity rates have diverted with the pandemic.

And lastly, you asked me to compare some of these numbers with other transportation options.

So I've put together some comparable numbers from the National Transit Database.

The top part of this chart shows 2019 data, pre-pandemic sort of comparison.

And 2022 is shown on the bottom to show sort of the latest current situation.

Obviously, we have a year and a half of activity since then, but that has not yet been reported.

I'll use the productivity line item.

In 2019, productivity reported and productivity at 29.9 shown in 2022. These have different impacts depending on if you're looking at South Lake Union or First Hill.

You can think of productivity as essentially how many people ride a vehicle in an hour.

so a sense of how full the vehicles are.

Honestly, they compare pretty similarly with bus, and in this case, bus is the entirety of King County Metro's bus system.

That is the county system, so it includes suburban routes, even some rural routes in there.

It's a large, large system that carries over 100,000 people.

The trolley bus line is the electric trolley network that Metro operates in Seattle, so you can think of that as a much more urban system and maybe more comparable to what we think of as transit service in Seattle.

We have Sound Transit light rail shown, and also we have the monorail, which the city owns but is operated by concierge.

Councilmembers, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have on this presentation or any of the presentation materials that I've put in front of you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I have one more slide.

SPEAKER_20

There was a suspension of service in August 9th of the streetcar.

due to a breakdown of electrical components in the traction-powered substations.

There were media reports of a shortage of available spare parts, the causes of which and whatever the long-term implications of which are still under investigation by SDOT and Metro, who is the operator of the system.

So we will learn more about if there are any follow-up needs because of that.

Service resumed operation on September 4th.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Cal, and thank you for this informational briefing.

And I wanted to set this up as a briefing just so we can all get a better understand of an important topic, which is one component of our broader transit investments in the city and sort of the history around some of this purpose goals.

And today there's no, especially in light of the South Lake Union outage from last month, And today, there's no right decisions that need to be made, whether on current service or any of the proposals, including the First Avenue streetcar.

We heard a public comment earlier sharing some potential concerns about that and the impact.

As Cal noted, there's no current funding path for that.

But just wanted to tee this up as a really important informational topic, colleagues, just for your awareness and for the awareness of the broader public as well.

So thank you, Cal, for sharing this.

Colleagues, does anyone have any questions, comments?

SPEAKER_05

Go ahead, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair and Calvin.

I have to thank you for this presentation.

In all my years around this building, I have not seen The information about the streetcar is put together with such depth, breadth of analysis and in a succinct manner.

I think the last part is really the crux here.

So thank you.

I know that I've lived a fair amount of this.

I'll just bring us if, I'm actually not gonna talk about the streetcar, but if we could come back to slide three.

I want to flag a historical element for colleagues.

When Seattle was founded in Pioneer Square, we used sawdust and other refuse to build our streets.

After the Great Fire, we then elevated our streets a full story, which is why we have Underground Seattle.

Great fun tour.

It also creates areaways, areaways being the former sidewalk between the building and our...

the side of the roadway that is full of sawdust still or bricks or refuse.

And so I can't remember if it was at the before or after the pause of the street of the first Avenue street car in 2018, we also had to put out signs that do not allow heavy trucks to be in the right hand lanes of pioneer square because of the risk to the area ways collapsing.

So yeah, In good project management, we do more than one thing at once, and so the First Avenue streetcar also includes the structural areaways to be strengthened so that any vehicle can use any lane of the road without fear of falling into sawdust.

Secondly, the utility relocation along First Avenue needs to occur with or without the streetcar I just raise that for the committee's attention because with or without, no decisions, no commentary about streetcars today, but those two things need to happen with or without the streetcar.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Colleagues, any other comments, questions?

No?

Well, I had just a few.

So, Cal, can you talk a little bit more about the original vision for the South Lake Union Streetcar and your assessment on whether it might have come to fruition to any extent?

SPEAKER_20

Well, Council Members, I think, so I was in the city when the South Lake Union Streetcar was proposed.

I was working for the city at the time.

I recall the proposal was very much an economic development proposal.

It was on the heels of the Seattle Commons discussion.

It was certainly of interest to the property owners in the area to demonstrate that public investment was going to go into the Cascade neighborhood, the region of what is now called South Lake Union.

I think that we have all seen the development that's happened there.

So in terms of an economic development strategy, it seems to have been...

The development seems to have followed.

It has been...

You know, it has come under criticism lately of not being a transit system as much.

And so a lot of the SDOT's work has been how to increase the reliability and speed of the transit operation.

And as you can imagine, that's harder to do retroactively than if you design it that way.

So, you know, that is a bit of a theme of the streetcars, frankly.

South Canadian streetcar was...

Honestly, it was done in a way that could be implemented fairly quickly.

I know that this isn't necessarily how it got built, but at the time, there were conversations that we wouldn't necessarily have to do as much utility relocation because if utility relocation had to happen we were okay with interrupting streetcar services for a time.

That's no longer how we want to operate transit service, and that's not what we did with the First Hill streetcar.

So we definitely moved to more transit priority.

We moved to get the utilities out of the way with the First Hill streetcar.

because we wanted that to be more of a transit service.

So I think we've had that evolution with Senator City's streetcar proposal.

That is certainly in the discussion, and probably why the price tag is so expensive is because that is driving a lot of that conversation of it being more of a transit system connection and maybe getting away from the purely economic development rationale that the program started with.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

Can you talk about, like, what accounts for the difference in ridership numbers between the South Lake Union streetcar line and then the First Hill streetcar line?

SPEAKER_20

Well, the difference in the numbers is primarily because they have very different transit markets.

I think the two things to think about, First Hill is a regional employment center, one of the top ones in the state, with a number of the hospitals, medical facilities obviously up there.

The rationale for having the First Hill streetcar was to take the place of what was a regional transit connection with light rail.

So the First Hill Streetcar definitely makes that connection to both to Capitol Hill and to down to downtown, the International District and Pioneer Square.

And, you know, those connections are not, do not have as much alternatives in terms of transit service compared to South Lake Union, which now has, as I mentioned, additional service on the 40 and the Rapid Red Sea.

So I think there's the nature of the transit market.

Southwark Union appears to be a market that may be more affected by return to work policy and sort of the nature of that employment compared to health care workers on first.

But that may help explain the difference in recovery rates and sort of the trends.

Ridership obviously is very different, but in terms of the trends.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

So there's clearly, you know, any number of factors or reasons why, you know, to account for the varying numbers, ridership levels, but, you know, in terms of performance, ridership levels, trends, the first hill line is definitely, it's bouncing back quicker, looks like, than the Southlake Union line.

Just curious to better understand, final question, what other transportation options serve the South Lake Union area?

SPEAKER_20

Well, we have, in addition to the Metro service, I guess the thing that's most on the horizon is the potential expansion of light rail services.

to South Lake Union as part of the Ballard extension.

That is still several years out.

Sound Transit has to get through the environmental process and choose the project, but one of the options is to have a station at West Lake and Denny, which would be a regional transit connection in South Lake Union, which would be another transit option.

DEPENDING ON WHICH OPTION IS SELECTED THAT COULD IMPACT STREET CAR OPERATIONS AND MAY SUSPEND OPERATIONS FOR DURING PERIOD OF CONSTRUCTION AS WELL.

SO THERE COULD BE SOME IMPACTS THAT WOULD HAVE TO BE COORDINATED WITH SOUTHERN UNION OPERATIONS.

BUT PRIMARILY IT IS CURRENTLY THE METRO SERVICE THAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE NOW.

SPEAKER_04

THANK YOU, CAL.

AND THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THIS PRESENTATION.

COLLEAGUES, AGAIN, AND I'LL EMPHASIZE THERE ARE NO policy decisions to be made today.

And so, you know, this is just informational only briefing and discussion so we can learn about an important investment in our transit and which is really important to keep people connected.

And so again, really wanna emphasize, thank you for this Cal.

Do any of my committee members have any final questions, comments?

SPEAKER_20

Councilmember, if I may just make one more comment.

We do expect that the department will be sending out the 2023 annual report, hopefully soon, so we'll hopefully see these numbers and what they've looked like this past year.

The trends are, we are seeing transit recover generally, so it'll be good to have some more information about how things worked last year.

SPEAKER_04

Awesome.

And finally, I'll note that I expressed my gratitude to the executive department, SDOT.

I've been in touch with them and the mayor's office on the streetcar issue.

the various streetcars and especially since what we learned, what happened with the outage, unanticipated outage of the South Lake Union Line last month.

But I appreciate their information sharing and their collaboration and look forward to partnering them on this and any number of other issues going forward.

We will now, thank you, Cal.

We will now move on to our final item of business.

Will the clerk please read item 20 into the record?

SPEAKER_11

Agenda item 20, clerk file 314497, petition of BRE, BMR, LLC for the vacation of Alley and Lots 7 through 12 inclusive, block 67, DT Denny's Park addition to North Seattle, being the block bounded by John Street, Thomas Street, Taylor Avenue North, and 6th Avenue North.

SPEAKER_04

All right, thank you.

Looks like our presenter joined us at the table.

Once ready, please introduce yourself and begin your presentation.

SPEAKER_12

Good morning, Lishwitson Council Central staff.

As you remember from your last meeting, Biomed Realty has petitioned the City Council for the vacation of the alley on the block bounded by John Street on the north, Taylor Avenue north on the west, Thomas Street on the north, sorry, John Street on the south, Thomas Street on the north, and 6th Avenue north on the east.

The vacation would facilitate the phase development of the T6 project, a two-tower research facility with shared below-grade parking and loading facilities.

The Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Design Commission have both recommended approval with conditions.

Attached to the agenda are the proposed conditions based on SDOT's recommendation.

These are generally consistent with conditions the council typically applies to street vacations.

The vacation would only be approved for the project that was presented to you at your last meeting.

Public benefits associated with the project are identified in the conditions and include payment of $2.4 million.

towards streetscape improvements along Thomas Street between the T6 block and the Seattle Center and streetscape sidewalk improvements including increased tree planting, enhanced landscaping, and pedestrian amenities along 6th Avenue and Taylor.

Other conditions protect public trust functions of the right-of-way including maintaining utility functions, protecting free speech on the site, and improving the right-of-way around the site.

Under the proposed conditions after development of phase one of the project, the West Tower, and providing the public benefits associated with that phase of the project, the petitioners would be able to return to the council to complete the vacation.

Completing the vacation would include vacating the right-of-way officially and approving a property use and development agreement that ensures that the phase one improvements continue to be maintained in good working order and the phase two improvements are installed and maintained.

If the committee supports the vacation, you should vote to add the conditions to the clerk file and vote to recommend approval as conditioned.

Do you have any questions?

SPEAKER_04

Colleagues, any questions, comments?

Hearing and seeing none, I will note, so thank you Lish for your presentation today, and being with us through every step of this journey, this is the last milestone that I anticipate as part of this long process.

An important one, but the last one.

I personally, colleagues, am comfortable voting on this today.

If anyone is not comfortable, please let me know.

And hearing and seeing none, I want to kind of tee up and just provide an overview of structurally how this is intended to kind of play out if we vote today.

The vote will proceed in two parts.

First, we will vote to add SDOT's recommended conditions.

And then if there are no objections, we will vote on granting the clerk file as specifically conditioned.

As a reminder to my colleagues, this matter was before us on our September 3rd committee meeting.

And final opportunity for any of my colleagues to ask any questions.

Hearing and seeing none, I move the committee amend clerk file 314497 to add SDOT's recommended conditions as shown under the proposed conditions for T6 alley vacation.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_13

Second.

SPEAKER_04

It's been moved and seconded to add the conditions to clerk file 314497. Will the clerk please call the roll on amending the clerk file?

SPEAKER_11

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_17

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_17

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Chair Saka.

Aye.

Chair, there are four votes in favor and zero opposed.

SPEAKER_04

All right.

Thank you.

I move the committee recommend city council grant as conditioned clerk file 314497. Is there a second?

SPEAKER_19

Second.

SPEAKER_04

It's been moved and seconded to grant as conditioned clerk file 314497. Will the clerk please call the roll on the granting of the clerk file?

SPEAKER_11

Council member Kettle.

Aye.

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Council member Wu.

Aye.

SPEAKER_13

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_13

Yes.

SPEAKER_11

Chair Saka.

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

SPEAKER_04

All right, the motion carries.

And the committee recommendation that council grant as conditioned, clerk file 314497 will be sent to the September 24th, 2024 city council meeting.

That's our final item of business.

Great job, everyone.

We have reached the end of today's meeting agenda.

Our next meeting is scheduled post-budget, December 3rd at 9.30 a.m.

Is there any final business to come before the committee before we adjourn for the good of the order?

Hearing and seeing none, we are adjourned.

It is 11.05 a.m.