Rivera Pushes to Slow Down Light Rail Construction, Make it more Expensive.

Maritza Rivera, the Seattle City Council Member with an abysmal 14% approval rate, is at war with the future-yet again. In a characteristically clumsy move, she threw an elaborate last-minute “walk on amendment” amendment to legislation proposed by Mayor Harrell. 

Harrell aims to speed up permitting for Sound Transit Stations, one of the many contributors to our transit system’s cost overruns and failed construction timelines.

Rivera’s additions would do exactly the opposite - requiring layers of additional and often redundant documentation for community outreach, which is already onerous and extensive and part of the problem. It would also require the city to use its permitting leverage to push Sound Transit to incorporate the random demands of local elites–as these people almost always dominate “community” feedback– into their construction plans. 

This is a great way to ensure we build transit that is less effective and more expensive, and that we take longer and spend more to do it. In short, it’s a numb-skulled proposal that will weaken the efficacy of local governance. 

By driving up the cost of public construction and reducing its quality, we feed the flames of the national exodus of left-leaning voters toward MAGA in the blue cities that are failing to actually deliver housing and public goods to citizens. 

According to the Urbanist, Rivera says she is “stunned” by the concerns raised by her last-minute proposal, and claims it isn’t intended to slow permitting. 

Of course, this is exactly what it will do - and so has either continued to fail to understand basic meaning of legislation or she’s lying–something she does with some frequency. 

(As an aside, after I wrote up her history of dissembling, it also emerged that Rivera had, in fact, lied about her intent to gut funding for affordable housing, childcare and health clinics in marginalized communities, and lied yet again about her interactions with city staff. Her votes on the city budget also confirm that she was brazenly lying about her budget plans during her campaign. This shouldn’t shock in the age of Trump–but it still grates).

As I’ve said in the past, “whether she is maleficent, or just maladroit, or some combination therein–is up for the reader to decide. Either way, she sure is proving malignant.”

In any case, Rivera has specifically weaponized community outreach in order to delay and scale back Seattle’s growth plan, which will precipitate zoning changes–after years of comprehensive community outreach and feedback of over 6000 comments from the public.

Given Rivera’s familiarity with using public comment as a delaying tactic, and her history of brazen deception - it’s tough to conclude that her motives in the case of Sound Transit stations are anything but deceptive. 

If you live in Seattle, please contact your three city councilmembers, and let Mark Solomon, who chairs the Land Use Committee, know that you oppose this.  

Photo Credit - The Seattle Channel via The Urbanist