Dear General Manager White, Interim Director Simpson, and CEO Rogoff, CC: King County Executive Constantine, Seattle City Mayor Harrell, King County Council Chair and Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board President Balducci, Seattle City Council President Juarez, Seattle City Council Budget Chair Mosqueda, King County Council Member Zahilay, Seattle City Council Member Alex Pedersen The Seattle Times Editorial Board, the Stranger Editorial Board, The Urbanist Editorial Board We, the Board Members of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association (RNA), on behalf of the residents, property owners, renters, workers, and businesses in the Roosevelt Neighborhood, have serious concerns about the updated plans for the Rapidride J-line, formerly known as the “Roosevelt Line.” SDOT and Metro have decided to shorten the lign, failing to connect the Roosevelt Neighborhood to Eastlake and South Lake Union. We believe this shortened alignment should be rejected because: 1, Itis an inefficient use of public funds. Roosevelt and South Lake Union are the second fastest and the fastest growing neighborhoods in Seattle from 2016 to 2021.’ Failure to connect the two with this small extension is a tremendous waste of resources. The current alignment also leaves out the fast-growing northern portion of the University District 2. Its tied to outdated plans. In 2015, the Roosevelt Neighborhood was slated to grow by 900 housing units by 2035 in Seattle's Comprehensive Plan. It has already added 1695 Units, with 623 more permits issued.? In just six years, that's 188% of the twenty-year target completed and 288% permitted. With Sound Transit's significant investment in the Roosevelt Link Station, this is only going to increase, SDOT and Metro should further leverage this investment, not leave it to underperform. Furthermore, South Lake Union reached 72% of its twenty-year housing goal, and 253% ofits already ambitious twenty-year job targets.’ These neighborhoods need to be part of a completely connected grid, even more than when Move Seattle* was planned. 3. Itis unfriendly to the climate, Roosevelt and SLU are examples of car-ite, low climate impact neighborhoods. In fact, Roosevelt is seeing proposals for significant housing, sometimes with zero parking.* A Rapid Ride line from South Lake Union that extends up to Roosevelt could accelerate this and significantly reduce car trips on both our busy Roosevelt Way NE + 11th/12 Ave NE couplet, as well as |-5. ‘Urban Center-Urban Village Growth Report, Q3, 2021, City of Seattle available at hitps://www.seattle, gov/Documents/Departments/OPCD/Demographics/AboutSeattle/UCUV%20Growth% 20Report%2030%202021.odf ? See, Seattle Housing Growth Report, City of Seattle - available at hitps://sealtlecitygis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/1111d274c85e4ca48af7 19da4b26fe9f Ibid * Map of improvement available at https:/imww seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/seattle-levy-better-bus-service-or-a-bunch-of-gu ‘essiimates/, current project dashboard available at http:/iwww seattle. govitransportation/about-us/funding/levy-to-move-seattle ® httos:/designreviewoutreach,seattle,gov/2021/10/6500-roosevolt-way-nelShortening the line to the U-district will make transit rides for Roosevelt residents to EastLake and South Lake Union unlikely. This is because it will add a transfer, and we know that transfers add time (five to ten minutes), inconvenience, and uncertainty to transit rides. These are textbook ways to drive down transit usage. It is also certain to prevent anyone {rom arriving in Roosevelt by bus to connect to Rapid Ride because that would require two transfers. Almost no one is willing to do that This kind of poor planning is one of the primary reasons why Seattleites drive so much and walk and bike so litle. The problem extends beyond Roosevelt residents and bus transfers to Northgate riders and soon it will include those coming from the Lynnwood Link extension. A transfer to Rapidride at the U District rather than Roosevelt is more difficult for all riders, because it requires buses in the U District to be shunted off Roosevelt onto 43rd, to Brookiyn, onto 45th, and back, This will siow the transfer and make it less reliable, the perfect ingredients for keeping people in cars. In addition, the current plan adds significant strain to an already gummed-up University District, and moving Rapid Ride buses onto 43rd and to Brooklyn will ruin the significant efforts by local University District residents to build a safe, walkable neighborhood around the University District Station. 4. It misses a historic opportunity to knit together several significant sections of the bike network. Given the exploding relevant populations, and given strong east/west biking connections on Ravenna Boulevard + E. Greenlake Way N, and NE 65th Ave.~the Roosevelt, Greenlake and (Norther) University District neighborhoods have tremendous potential for shifting trips from cars to bikes, if they had a safer way to access downtown and South Lake Union. Right now, they don't, and bike traffic is light because of it. Failure to extend Rapidride to Roosevelt and the promised accompanying northbound bike lane on 12th kneecaps much of the value of all those expensive eastwest connections, and the current southbound protected bike lane on Roosevelt as well. tis foolish to fail to finish the job. 5. Itis inequitable. While the Roosevelt Neighborhood is whiter than average, itis also one of the fastest diversifying’ neighborhoods in Seattle, while having among the highest access to opportunity, and the lowest displacement risk.’ Failure to connect our minority citizens, current and future, to the life science, cloud and other tech employment opportunities in this Rapid Ride corridor would add yet another example of our governmental authorities ignoring equity in their long range planning. “Seattle 2035, Growth and Equity, page 9: available at owthandeauityanalysis.pdf, page 9. "bid, 22Our concern over equity is heightened by the large affordable housing developments that will suffer from this rescoping. Unlike many high-opportunity neighborhoods, Roosevelt welcomes large scale affordable development. This is best exemplified by Cedar Crossing,” over 250 deeply affordable homes, including 87 two and three bedroom unis for larger families, currently under construction in the heart of our neighborhood, coupled with a subsidized child care center. We are also grateful for our bus connection via Metro Route 62 to Mercy Magnuson Place, with over 100 affordable units, many also family sized, right alongside Magnuson Park. These families are the most burdened by car costs, and we need to make it easy for them to use transit to access the biggest job center in the Northwest, Stopping this Rapidride in the U District prevents this, 6. It spends most of the money and fails to get most of the value, which is both wasteful and harmful to the reputation of our local transit agencies. The big expenses, like bus prioritization and intersection redesign in South Lake Union, the bridge replacement in Eastlake, crossing the University Bridge and moving up through the University District, remain. Failure to deliver the last mile doesn't save that much. And it leaves out the fastest growing residential neighborhood in the city, cuts off all those eastiwest bus and biking connections, leaves out all that affordable housing, and makes all the link transfers less convenient and reliable. In other words, it starves the project of much of its value. This is only compounded by the fact that the Roosevelt transit-shed includes tens of thousands of neighbors in Green Lake, Maple Leaf, Ravenna, Wedgewood, etc., who are quite likely to be South Lake Union workers. The famous tendency to “not-quite-finish” has earned Sound Transit a reputation for shortsightedness among voters, as exemplified by at-grade crossings in South Seattle, expensive capital projects with too infrequent service to make them effective, or even the recent bike ramps at Roosevelt station that are too close to the handrails to be usable. As transit enthusiasts, we do not relish this erosion of trust, and we would like to see it reversed. ‘We think this is an opportunity for Metro and SDOT to buck the unfortunate trend, 7. Itignores key changes in the funding picture, like the fact that the administration's “Build Back Better” infrastructure bill includes the largest transit allocation in US History. We understand that Covid has created funding shortfalls that were not anticipated in 2015, particularly because of low ridership, But we also understand that 80% of Seattle voters passed a supplemental transportation levy in 2020, despite a down economy at the time. We understand that since the original projections for tax receipts bottomed out, they have rapidly recovered, erasing almost 90% of the shortfall, atleast at the state level.® And we understand that the federal funding picture for transit has suddenly become the most promising it has been in decades, if not ever. Both of these latter * Deeply affordable means tied to 30% of area median income. For more information on Cedar Crossing, see hitos-/imm bellwetherhousing.ora/cedar-crossing * See, for example: hitps:/iwww.thecentersquare.com/washinaton/latest-washinaton-budaet-forecast-eases-deficitfears-beas- nnew-questions-on-proposed.taxes/article_c16335bc-875b-11eb-Gab4.8b40cb’3d625 him]