Here are our endorsements for the upcoming Seattle and King County elections:
Mayor of Seattle: MIKE MCGINN
Seattle City Council Position 2: KSHAMA SAWANT
Seattle City Council Position 4: SALLY BAGSHAW
Seattle City Council Position 6: NICK LICATA
Seattle City Council Position 8: MIKE O’BRIEN
King County Executive: DOW CONSTANTINE
King County Council District 1: ROD DEMBOWSKI or NAOMI WILSON (no preferential endorsement)
King County Council District 5: DAVE UPTHEGROVE *
King County Council District 9: SHARI SONG
* Dave Upthegrove’s opponent, Andy Massagli, did not respond to our survey for local candidates. However, he did respond to our 2012 survey for candidates running for state legislature, and expressed the opinion that a “bicycle or walking shoe tax” would be a more appropriate way to fund public transit than taxing cars. Or better: “an alcohol or gang tax would target the riding demographic beautifully. Maybe a sagging pants that shows your underwear tax is in order”. Vote for UPTHEGROVE, people!
I am writing about the low income fare. If I understand correctly, the impetus for exploring a low income fair was the shift to payment upon boarding a bus. This coincided with illumination of the ride free area and made movement in the downtown area difficult for very low income/homeless people. Now the low income fair has become something that the committee would like to be applicable to 25% of the population, people with incomes far above this original group. Given current Metro funding I think it is unrealistic to go after this goal at this time. I recommend, instead, that the Transit Rider’s Union support a low income care for people below the poverty level at $1 per ride. this would cost a moderate amount of money, have minimal impact on bus service, and reach those that are having the most difficulty paying the fare. Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this further. I do analysis for a living. I am an economist.
my apologies for the occasional “misspellings” in my previous post. I use voice recognition software and sometimes it doesn’t understand me. The main correction I want to make is “…elimination (not illumination) of the ride free area.”
Laurel