On the latest episode, we cut through the fig leafs and happy talk from Sound Transit officials to lay bare the hardball political realities underlying their decision to kill the long-promised light line extension to Ballard, which has been left unfunded and postponed indefinitely. 

Who to blame? Erica says it is a systemic failure, pointing to ST's excessively slow, expensive, and politicized planning process, noting that it took approximately 30 years just to fund the relatively simple Graham Street Station. Sandeep argues that executives from Pierce and Snohomish County strategically outmaneuvered Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and King County Executive Girmay Zahilay to get their priorities addressed, at Seattle's expense. This successful political power play ensured the Everett and Tacoma segments of the Sound Transit spine were fully funded while leaving the high-ridership Ballard extension dead in the water.

Can some newly passed amendments promising to explore new approaches and find cost-saving measures somehow save the Ballard line? Or is this more political "bullshit" that will not address the agency's deeply flawed and entrenched status quo institutional culture or do anything significant to mitigate the multi-billion-dollar cost overruns plaguing Sound Transit projects? Neither Erica or Sandeep see much cause for optimism, though David suggests that will largely depends on whether the County Executive and Mayor follow through and turn the heat up on Sound Transit to deliver.   

The discussion then shifts to the latest "defenestration” in Mayor Katie Wilson’s office, with the forced resignation of her housing and homelessness advisor Jon Grant, the latest fallout from the breakdown in relations between the mayor's office and the Council. While critics on the right claim this is evidence of chaos at the top, we all give the mayor credit for demonstrating decisive—if "cold-blooded"—leadership by prioritizing her office's performance over personal loyalty as she moves to repair the seriously frayed relationships with councilmembers. And we suggest this is an indication of a shifting power balance within the mayor's office away from activist outsiders to more experienced city hands. 

Our editor is Quinn Waller.

Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Thanks to Uncle Ike's pot shop for sponsoring this week's episode! If you want to advertise please contact us at realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.