r/SeattleWA • u/HighColonic Funky Town • 23h ago
Question Will Dow Constantine Confront Sound Transit’s Structural Problems?
https://www.postalley.org/2025/04/04/will-dow-constantine-confront-sound-transits-structural-problems/12
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u/Daylight-Silence 21h ago edited 14h ago
Your reminder that Dow Constantine was the person who declared a homelessnessness state of emergency in King County in 2015. Ten years of Dow's ideas later, we're at all-time high numbers of homeless people, will continue reaching new all-time highs every year they bother to count, and would kill to be back at 2015 numbers. And we spent billions of dollars for the privelege.
We know his playbook. Sound Transit's fucked in perpetuity now in terms of usefulness to the general public, but the board will get their kickbacks and there'll be a few Dones-esque hires along the way, and isn't that what really matters? 🙄
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u/freedom-to-be-me 23h ago
“Prior to the vote on the ST3 plan Sound Transit produced an analysis showing the investment would not break even until year 2071. Since then, costs have increased by tens of billions of dollars while expected benefits have been delayed and scaled back. Using realistic assumptions it is highly unlikely the ST3 projects will ever produce benefits that exceed costs. In other words, the return on public investment will be negative by many billions of dollars. That is not the outcome the public voted for. “
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u/nateknutson 17h ago
Fuck him and every single person who voted for him. He's malfeasant at best and corrupt at worst. The future is bleak. He is incapable of doing what's right as long as there are optical wins to be had. https://www.kuow.org/stories/secret-payments-damning-audit-king-county-s-youth-violence-prevention-effort-mired-in-scandal
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u/my_lucid_nightmare Capitol Hill 1m ago
Fuck him and every single person who voted for him.
Dow won over Joe Nguyen in 2021, 54-44. Going a bit further back, Joe beat Shannon Braddock for State Senate position 34. Before then, Braddock lost a City Council race narrowly to Lisa Herbold.
Shannon Braddock was just appointed King County Exec, replacing Dow, who was appointed by the board he put in place for Sound Transit.
I am sure it'll be Joe's turn for something pretty soon, he just has to be patient.
So you see. The voters of Seattle and King County don't really have a choice. We have an unending cycle of Progressive Dems, all of whom agree with one another on 90% of the issues they're running on. All of whom have come up through the ranks of the Washington State Democratic Party.
So spare your sanctimony, sir. I would be delighted to vote for an alternative but another Progressive Dem. If they make it onto the ballot, they get from 10% to 20%. Running as anything but a Progressive Dem in King County, with the exception of that little awesome area around Puyallup, Auburn and Enumclaw ... is basically saying I have money lying around and want to throw it away. Money and time.
It's not a matter of "Vote Blue no matter who," it's a matter of Vote Blue and it don't matter who.
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u/Helisent 21h ago
There have been some odd shifts around transit patterns related to Metro and Sound transit routes around the east side. In Kirkland/Redmond, both Houghton Park and Ride, S. Kirkland Park and ride, and Totem Lake as well - used to be completely filled with commuter vehicles. Recently, they ended buses from Houghton and are converting the lot into a Kraken hockey rink. The 255 bus doesn't go downtown any longer and this really reduced use of S. Kirkland and Totem Lake so half the parking is open. Taking the bus has become less popular recently. Meanwhile, there is a $220+ million construction project at 85th st., taking several years to complete, which will install a Rapid transit freeway bus stop to take people to the Bellevue light rail line. I think the Bothell/Kirkland people were owed this connector line under the funding formula for Sound transit. I hope people actually can use it
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u/caphill2000 23h ago
Dows answer to any question