Local-Only and the End of Regionalism
On our podcast this week (iTunes link), we discussed Rob Johnson's local-focused transit tax idea broached by Josh Feit on Slog. The result was a pretty lively discussion of the future of transit, the Sonics and more.
Although the idea has merit, as my guest Eugene pointed out, it's more or less another end-run around "regionalism." Or, rather, it's an attempt to keep a facade of regionalism alive long enough to get light rail built across Lake Washington. In that respect, it's not much different from the sub-area equity principle, and is therefore subject to many of the same problems.
Pierce County, for its part, seems focused on (1) extending SR 167 to the Port of Tacoma and (2) building the Cross-Base Highway. It's not clear whether offering hundreds of millions of dollars in bus service is really going to get the leadership down there on board.
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Hi Frank,
Sorry, I was actually just looking for a way to submit an email.
(1) I just looked at a map. 167 to Port of Tacoma makes sense. Is there a plan or website where I can see those plans? (Are you for or against or just mentioning?)
(2) What is the cross-base highway?
Thanks for your time/sorry for posting this here. Hoping you'll be able to address both in a future post or respond back to me. Thanks! tvjames@gmail.com
Hi there tvjames,
Both projects supposed to be part of Proposition 1, which the voters killed in November. The 167 extension would have cost $2B. Here is WSDOT's page for the project:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR167/TacomaToEdgewood/
...and the cross-base highway proposal (aka SR 704):
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR704/CrossBase/
It would have run in between McChord AFB and Ft. Lewis (hence the name), but would have run directly through an oak prarie, so it was very controversial. Here are some more posts about it:
http://www.orphanroad.com/tags/crossbasehighway
I didn't have much of an opinion on SR-167. It would have certainly accelerated development and sprawl in East Pierce County, but would have also provided a lot of jobs and connected the Port of Tacoma with the last large manufacturing area in Puget Sound.
I added those links to the post.