While I was at Fred Meyer on Monday, I noticed that the front page story of the Seattle Times was about the Ballard to West Seattle light rail line. The title (“Call to add light-rail tunnels would boost light-rail costs”) and the summary (“Ballard to West Seattle | Neighborhood groups and politicians say tunnels would be less disruptive that elevated routes, but no one has yet identified funding sources for them.”) hinted at potential NIMBYism on the part of those who were suggesting the tunnel options. Desperately wanting to know, I eagerly paid for a copy of the newspaper (I’m not a Seattle Times subscriber at the moment, but I do buy a copy at least once a week) .
After reading the article I was disappointed to discover that the vast majority of it was devoted to the potential effects on West Seattle. I don’t mean to suggest that their concerns aren’t valid, and indeed I wanted to know what was happening there, but the article hardly mentioned Ballard at all. Inspired, incensed, or perhaps a bit of both, I wrote a letter to the editor and sent it off.
To my surprise and delight, they published my letter in the April 4, 2019 print and digital editions of the Seattle Times:
The letter has received a few comments thus far. I will go over them after the comments close in a few days.