KEXP Presents Mind Over Matters; Sustainability Segment: Dow Constantine

this is diane warren your host on the sustainability segment of mind over matter is i'm katie xv seattle ninety point three fm a mobile app and on the web and katie xv died o r e j in the november eighth general election voters will be asked to vote yes or no an original proposition one the sound transit three proposal to expand mass transit in king pierce and stylish counties this measure would expand light rail commuter rail and bus rapid transit service to connect population growth centers and water ice on transit to increase sales property and motor vehicle excise taxes and use existing taxes to fund the local share of the fifty three point eight billion dollar estimated cost yet this measure be approved by voters to help answer this question i have is my guest out constantine king county executive in chair of the town transit board welcome what proposition one what are the benefits well really we need to create mobility for all of us so that we can access everything this region has to offer whether it's schools or jobs or entertainment we have

really become victims of our own success so many people coming here and very few people choosing to leave our infrastructures become overwhelmed and each of us now is spending hundreds of hours a year in traffic losing thousands of dollars and it's just not okay we should have built a transit system a high capacity transit system for this region a generation or two ago but we did we are we are today there's no time like the present we need to move forward with centrist three what is the estimated effect on greenhouse gas emissions if proposition one path of dirt and so there was a fascinating button we believe that by twenty forty this will take nearly eight hundred thousand metric tons of carbon out of the air every year we would be having thriller fourteen to four hundred eleven million

million fewer auto miles traveled by then and you think about the amount of traffic on the road right now can you imagine adding four hundred million hours of car trouble on top of that there's no push for more roads so that would just be shoe horning the men wherever they can fit this is a way in which we can really move toward achieving our shared regional goal of an eighty percent reduction in climate impacts climate emissions by twenty fifty transportation is our biggest contributor in this region and if we are able to change our transportation mode to one that really relies on a highly efficient electrically powered technology and one that can over time created a land use pattern that is also more sustainable and easy to serve with infrastructure we will be doing the biggest thing we could do to me our own climate goals whether additional environmental benefit from the soundtrack that yes

there are also create local and regional environmental benefits we were about the global climate but it's also local the ambient air quality air pollution from automobiles is a terrible problem here and this all electric rail takes a lot of cars that would otherwise be on the road off for the morgue we've spent so much time and money should recover our salmon runs trying to figure out how to clean up our rivers and are sounding we know to prompt the sound now is now the big schools worst part of all of us it's all of us and our cars and the tires and the metals coming off those cars washing down into the rivers and the sound the rail takes care of most of the time and so rather than having rubber tired vehicles rather be having all of those individual cars and busses to take care of a million more people having cleaner rail will be a benefit to our

waterways for a sound to our effort to protect the environment this place that brought many in this room for sports what will be the likely effect on job in education opportunities if more mass transit is available you know there are quite a few studies around now that show the relationship between mobility access to transportation and opportunity in society and one of our goals at the county and i know this is shared by elected officials across this region is to expand access to opportunity equity social justice so that every person regardless of whether their parents were wealthier there are born into a neglected neighborhood to have the chance to succeed but that doesn't exist you can get around it you can get to school if he can get to have higher education if you can't get to the job interview and your kids to daycare get back home again to your family is very difficult to get a leg up around here or anywhere in this country so this is a great levelers this is a way in which we can give each one of us there were

doing well or whether we're just getting started the opportunity to get around better reclaim hours of our lives but critically for those who have and have opportunity and passed this opens the door it opens a door to all that is going on in this economy in this region in this culture right now and that's an important reason to do a trance what process did their soundtracks and four years and coming up with a sound transit trade plan which will be voted on as proposition one well as you know we're quite famous for processed most part of the country and so france is no exception four years ago we launched a project to first describe the kind of general plan for the region are trance it is based on the growth plans and the peeps and regional counsel in from the canteen cities we know where we want the population and that jobs to go and one lecture we serve but when the paris are built out now but those will be in the future and they were out to the public and we said you

know what do you want we have like railway of commuter rail we have these express buses even bus rapid transit and what we found that was a little different than in two thousand at last time some transcripts on the ballot in past is that people now seen iraq in their own community even more so since the spring when the nearest washington and cobble hill opened and ridership sponsored rough and having seen it they want it they want in their community they don't want a way to get started and we heard that loud and clear from some forty thousand responses on the internet and in person and regional open houses and so it took all that information and we called through hundreds of options to come up with something really describes a regional system from everton to coal mine is a quad of collard in red mountain west seattle something the nets together what really is one big city that within the metropolitan region around seattle and the board worked

with an eye toward the individual jurisdictions from which the board members held a really worked with a regional lance's well considering that their constituents they live in their bergh but they my workaday boeing plant ever or they might work at microsoft and radman or they might work in the current value or income and they needed to be able to get around an opportunity in this world we did get an overview of our current transportation infrastructure in the region what has been the progress up to now in terms of light rail commuter rail and buses so are in land use in this region you know originally was certainly described it rail we had an extensive streetcar system we had to convert them and the region grew up around those routes but after the war we built interstates and we wrapped up the rails and the land use patterns began to change because the key is

that the transportation infrastructure you choose to build creates the land use you live it is not merely building transportation to respond to demand you were creating the development pattern to them going to need to hear answers and those a grow up around a fixed highway system like railed r compact their oriented toward the station and most people can walk two were bike to or easily be dropped off at that station and services and jobs and all of the things that we need to get to and from car repair and so to date three sam transferred the first measure passed in nineteen ninety six we built what was then referred to as a starter system and that's one that goes up through the river valley in soto went to westlake and then we expanded north and now we are on the cusp of some major expansions have already been approved by the people and be very excited about them what new mass transit improvements every

person that scientifically plan the existing sound transplants closer to already been approved in nineteen ninety six and two thousand they are taking us out to her trial in bellevue and all the way to the microsoft campus and that will open in twenty twenty three and north not just north kate the tool in what and we'll go to north gate in twenty twenty one and wounded in twenty twenty three and south to highland college can't mourn road and that will open in twenty twenty three so there are a lot of miles and a lot of stations already on the books and either in final design or under construction but more than that san francisco three will create a truly complete system and there will still be places where for school wants additional rail but when you think about the fact that we could knit together everett with linwood in seattle or redmond with bellevue er nurse reiland and bad justin this proposition sixty two

miles of track and thirty seven stations as is a significant statement that this region wants to have a successful economy and a healthy environment and be a place where people can maintain the quality of life even with a growing population were looking at a million more people here of course is next i'm diane horn and my guest is dow constantine king county executive and chair of the sound transit board are tough because proposition one a sound transit three proposal to expand mass transit and king pierce and salvage counties proposition one will be submitted to voters in the november eight general election and you know i tend to sustainability segment of mind over matter is he and on the land we know it well what other mass transit improvements are part of the soundtrack to a plan well listeners may be familiar with the sound or commuter rail and commuter rail was a different cup role that runs on the freight rail tracks is a

berlin to northern tracks from lakewood south of tacoma to seattle and then up to michael to uncover the south one in particular has been very popular in oversubscribed and we've managed even just this year to add a new mid day run in each direction but some friends and three would expire and the platforms so we can have longer trains would give us the opportunity to add more capacity and that service is one that used existing infrastructure to really great effect before we never had a chance to build a new light rail restructure suit serves the whole industrial ballad are earning can swim between talk will and rent and right straight up into downtown seattle they will be able to extend all the way south now to george business record and to depart and that is been on a trajectory for a stakeout although that's outside the central district bus rapid transit will be added very early in the plan to four or

five the entire length of four five linwood all the way to be around with stops along the way and that will carry a whole lot of folks much more quickly than the news to now allow more capacity and also a highway five twenty two if you don't know where that is that runs from lake city all the way out to a bottle and the universe to washington post and awful and we'll have the opportune korea true bus rapid transit their early in the program what were your rationale for choosing the specific mixture of light rail commuter rail and bus service in the sentence at the polls all really comes down to capacity we're trying to create the capacity we need now in the capacity we will need in the future between these various growth notes are rigid and light rail can carry up to sixteen thousand passengers per hour in each direction but the general purpose free willing to carry about two thousand cars on a good day when things are going well and the same is true of buses you cannot replicate that kind of capacity that light rail has with buses but in certain

corridors you can quickly add capacity not sixteen thousand or you can add capacity early and so we chose some things the delivery early not as much something's going or later but created past you're going to need all the way down the line and then the commuter rail is great because it not only is successful at something that people like add to that serves a different north south quarter hour south of seattle than iraq does lay real goes the airport and bewildered am a federal way and five and calm three rail goes through our industrial ballet and how past few albums down to tacoma and then on itself como almost her first interview what is your response to those who say that that from transit the proposal won't reduce traffic congestion i asked you if we do not build this where we're going to put those million people and all of the cars that they would meet it is a

fact that we all need to get out of traffic and sound trance and three will you and me and those who come after us get out of the congestion and get where we need to be it will in places make traffic better and the fact is that some people will see their traffic getting better and come to those highways from those shortcuts and they've been taking elsewhere but there is no alternative you cannot build an off road where there's no real estate on which to build that in order to take care of the kind of increased demand we have to have an alternative that does more compact and more reliable and clean air and ultimately is going to create the conditions for continued economic success and allow us to clean up our normal actor we've alluded to disavow ready the word cities are included the center of the district goes from the north end of average down really sell public world without a dupont air goes to the foothills of the cascades to redmond and

this one particular and to the shores of pizza seattle is the biggest either but bellevue is going to have a light rail lines coming in from kirkland in redmond and isikoff and settle in mercer island all converging and downtown bellevue that is it tremendous statement about buildings future as an import center in this region cover it is a great old town that my family came from and i'm so glad that there where the commuter rail comes in ross going to have a light rail station in the opportune for people uncovered catch a train conductors to seattle but to the boeing plant where folks are still able to make a family wage building the airplanes that we are able to sell around the world tacoma is going to have a commuter rail and light rail and the tacoma link train which was the first country it's a drink without all converging right there near the tacoma dumps we'll have a transit hub that can be accessed by people from all over pierce county these are the kinds of investments you need to make to describe the

future city you're going to bet he can't wait for the growth to happen haphazardly and then figure out how to come up with the money to serve that inefficient growth pattern and so if people love those places i think they do they came here because of the economy they came here because the environment this is the way in which we can protect the things we love about the pacific northwest future is coming and you need to be able to mold it to your vision you need to be able to anticipate it and make sure that rather than being run over by it you're benefiting from the changes that our environment our economy are benefiting from the changes and this is probably the most important we will do this and our generation how will the plan help the defense in rockland county not a broken counties in central to district so they neither vote on or pay taxes for the transit however a lot of people from outside san transit

district use the service for example the commuter train the concert hall vernon can't people can come from mabel ballet meaningful on beyond and lead their car there ever be dropped off there and then take the train to seattle or two to come so it does benefit people from a much bigger radius than just those living in the district what is the timeline for implementation which you go into more detail so central to two is now under construction and the final projects without to win would downton redmond and how a college can be delivered and twenty twenty three and then soundtracks at three would deliver its first projects the very next year and every year or two or three there would be new station openings as we moved further out toward ever to call my hand the other places i mentioned and even as for building a light rail as they said the bus rapid transit would be put in place so

that we could have more mobility while we're building rail so couldn't get work and keep making a living you're tuned to the sustainability segment of mind over madison katie x p seattle might point three of them by mobile app and on the web add k e x key data or gee i'm diane warren and my guess it's dow constantine king county executive and chair of the sound transit board i don't think it's a proposition one the sound transit three proposal to expand mass transit in king hears and stylish counties proposition one will be submitted to voters in the november eight general election how proposition and the fact that the legislature created a mix of funding sources for centrist three or racial proposition one it is a motor vehicle excise tax a point eight percent a sales tax of half a penny and then tape property tax twenty five cents per thousand i believe that would continue until the construction is completed and bonds are paid off road

construction and those taxes would go away and we can also at that point repeal one tenth of the scent of the existing sales tax because then once the construction is done we will only need the money for operations and maintenance and a stop a minimal maintenance here because there'd been transit systems around the country that didn't pay enough attention to long term maintenance when the trains were new and shiny and they're paying the price now our ceo peter rogoff was the head of the federal transit administration has seen all of his challenges across the country so when we put together this plan he made it clear that we needed to build in long term maintenance from the get go them is we're not going to run into the problems they've seen in places like washington dc where they focus so much on providing the service that they forgot to two minutes they need and keep place shipshape how much will discuss the average citizen so the average citizen would pay

about fourteen dollars a month for this it all depends on whether you own expense of inexpensive puppy or no property it depends on whether you have an expensive car or an inexpensive car or no car and for sales tax in most people but by a certain range of thanks and obviously people who spend more will pay more but the sales tax is the least progress over the most progressive of resources the three together belts out reasonably well in terms of progressivity unfairness that's the package that we're going to vote on the legislature may well at some point get its act together and fix washington state's tax system and that is all well and good and we encourage them to do that but we can't wait for them to do the hat to get started building a transportation we need what is your response to the concern that was so much of our tax incapacity spend on transportation it will be hard to find money for other key needs like education for example well that turns out to be a superficially concerning argument until you dig into

little bit realize that this property tax or describe would only be about two percent of the property taxes collected in king county for example it is the fact that the state has far more property tax capacity than they could possibly need for their obligation to fund mccleary and i believe that they must figure out in the session how to pay for public education in the state of a two year old daughter and i am anxious for them to make short that she's entering a school system that was appropriately funded and that we're able to really count the fact is that people who are against transit are thrown the kids out there some reason not to vote for but the numbers don't hold up what efforts are being made to connect rail stations to the rest of our transportation infrastructure what's being done to provide access to the transit stations there's a great deal going on i launched a couple of years ago an initiative to integrate the operations of planning coupled

structure of sound transit and metro transit which is largest local positions and in or severance and three and the metro long range plan that innocent council there's a great emphasis on transit centers in your mortal facilities on helping people transfer between loads seamlessly and now in making sure that there's good transit oriented development around each station but that the buses commuter trains and the bikes can meet the buses and pedestrians can get there safely and there's a place to drop people off even if it's not a park and rides inside the cities held as a place known especially in this industry is kiss and rides so that in a drop off in the morning where reporters on the way to work how i mean several when confidence in his own interests i guess intrinsically proposal first altruistic inherently has a benefit to those of limited income because owning cars are tremendously expensive things and ten to thirteen thousand dollars a year in this region you're able to do without that your household income your household but chad has

benefited from alec lee but even more than that we have gone through the process of creating a low income fair or the left and we started at a king county in el centro as it has joined in with us and so if you make less than twice the federal poverty level you couldn't qualify to buy discounted passes discounted worker card that works on all of our transit and that is a real benefit when you're trying to get an education when you try to get to the job interview on time which you can do on the train when you try and he had to work on time after dr brigitte off the daycare all of those things become dramatically less difficult when you have reliable transmitted doesn't get blocked by traffic at this point in time has endorsed proposition one everybody with a couple notable exceptions the stalemate one chamber of commerce and microsoft and others have really led the way in the business community and they realize that this is the key to continued economic health and our region and the people coming here from around the world expected to

address it but also the labor community has stepped up those who work on this system and there are a lot of great jobs or will be people who are able to work their way into the working class middle class because of these long term jobs but also just only remains what of everest we will get to work like the boeing machinists have stepped up to help out the environmental community has come up big as has the social justice committee social justice advocates who understand that in order for people to have a chance to succeed here they gotta be able to get around it is for me really heartening to call a big ceo or an advocate for the poor and hear the same thing from them which is thank you we have to do this thing let's get it done this time they should have done it a generation ago and i have to say because of that we have been really successful in this campaign so far and i am very optimistic it will be successful a november he was against proposition one there's a few individuals

some beside developers who is more illogical in economic because the economics are pretty favorable for and thus and so there are scattered opponents who show up at every sound transmitting and i have to say that they thrive on a specious arguments that busts could do just as well which of art explained they can't that this wouldn't serve enough people in that would serve hundreds of thousands even millions it is not the reasonable thing to think that we can keep doing the same thing we've been doing with the situation we have now and a million more of us and it defies logic so i have to again said it's heartening to see people from the right and the left in business and social justice and the environment all linking arms and sang oh come on let's get this done or what some message you'd like to let our listeners where we have been waiting a long time to get started on this the voters in the late sixties and early seventies had a chance and they didn't take that chance and we're suffering the consequences that we see every day

you may not realize how much time you're wasting but it adds up if you commute from cover to seattle for example you waste about four hours a week or about two hundred hours a year in traffic extra time on the road so vermont of work that's two hundred hours away from your kids at home that is utterly unacceptable even if it wasn't lost wages or the business losses with environmental degradation the time out of your life is unacceptable we can build a system would dedicate right of way that will serve this region for decades and decades to come and will give people their lives back this is the moment but to get any easier to do the way only makes things come later we need to have this happen now what are you so much for being here thank you you were just listening to dow constantine king county executive and chair of the sound transit board for more information check on the web at some trends of three

dot org and i am one thanks for listening and be sure to turn into the sustainability segment again next week unless new card ninety point three of them by mobile app and one k e x p nut allergy