Sound Transit light rail: Do you want more?

Just as the region is poised to finally get the light rail system we have needed for years, Sound Transit has a question for area residents: Do you want more?

Light rail service begins next year from Sea-Tac Airport to the Rainier Valley, Beacon Hill, and downtown Seattle—with Capitol Hill and the University District being added to the system by 2016.

I say keep the momentum going and move forward without further delay to build new transit across the urban portions of King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties.

Sound Transit wants voters in the three-county area to weigh in on this issue as soon as possible. The agency mailed information to voters in May on two options for new light rail and express bus service and has asked for your opinion on when and how to proceed (this information is also online at http://future.soundtransit.org).

While the second phase of the light-rail system would not provide direct service to every neighborhood, it creates the backbone for future transit expansion to all of our underserved communities.

Both packages would extend the 14-mile starter line currently under construction to the north, south, and east, bringing quick and reliable transit options to hundreds of thousands more people. Both would increase Sounder commuter rail service, expand express bus service, and fund the construction of new transit stations and maintenance facilities.

Saving King County’s shelter animals

Few situations in my time as an elected official have proved more frustrating than my attempt to fix the tragic mismanagement of King County’s animal shelter system.

As they are in the county’s custody, we owe shelter animals at least adequate food and water, reasonable medical care, tolerable surroundings, and the chance to be reunited with a family or to find a safe and loving new home.

In recent months, the King County Council has:

• invited volunteer local veterinarians into King County’s two shelters;

• approved $965,000 in short-term funding to fix the most pressing needs we discovered in our investigations of the shelters, including new cat and dog enclosures, increased staffing, and expanded spay/neuter outreach; and

• established a four-month planning process with the Executive’s office to recommend whether King County should attempt to upgrade animal services within our existing system, change how we deliver these services, or allow certain services to be handled by outside agencies.

These steps are intended to ensure that animals in King County shelters receive humane care. But we must do more—much more—to implement the Council mandate that every healthy or treatable animal in county custody find a home.

Award honors effort to save downtown sanctuary

The best thing about holding public office is the opportunity to solve problems—the chance to leave the community better than it would otherwise have been. The icing on the cake is when one is recognized for those efforts.

Last month I received a true honor—a 2008 Washington State Award for Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation for my role in saving downtown Seattle’s First United Methodist Church sanctuary.

Appropriately, I shared this Special Achievement Award with Kevin Daniels, an unusual developer who appreciates historic preservation and who crafted the complex deal that saved the century-old sanctuary and is creating a new home for the church to continue its ministry to downtown’s homeless population from a new facility.

Also this month I was inducted as an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects Seattle, in part for my support of historic preservation, but also for work in the areas of growth management, waterborne transit, and environmental stewardship.

Kevin and I had a lot of help, especially from historic preservation activists in the community: people such as Jennifer Emerson, Anthea Hartig, Michael Godfried, Pete Mills, and Sharon Maeda. And we can’t forget Marietta Foubert, a member of the congregation who had the microphone pulled from her hands at a church meeting when she refused to stop her speech urging preservation of the sanctuary. I salute them all for their hard work and dedication.