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Move Forward on 4th!

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Move Forward on 4th!

Move Forward on 4th!Move Forward on 4th!Move Forward on 4th!
Home
Sign the Petition
Email Sound Transit
News
Presentations
Exclusion History
Contact
More
  • Home
  • Sign the Petition
  • Email Sound Transit
  • News
  • Presentations
  • Exclusion History
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Sign the Petition
  • Email Sound Transit
  • News
  • Presentations
  • Exclusion History
  • Contact

About Transit Equity for All (TEA)

Our Cause

Another major project is harming the Seattle Chinatown International District (Chinatown, Japantown, Little Saigon): Sound Transit wants to take 3 blocks from the National Register Chinatown Historic District again. Transit Equity for All aims to protect the historic Chinatown International District neighborhood while improving access and quality of public transit for all residents, visitors, business owners, and community members.

RIGHT NOW: Our concerns with North/South options and our reasoning for continuing to Move Foward on 4th include:

  

 

  • For CID residents, it’s a farther walk to N of CID Station on 3rd and James to get to other parts of the region
  • The extra distance to get to transit from CID is difficult for frail seniors and those with mobility or neurological challenges, considering the numerous up and downhill slopes just between Pioneer Square and the CID.
  • Loss of accessibility to transit for those using walkers, canes, and wheelchairs.
  • In by-passing the CID, it isolates CID businesses from economic opportunities that was introduces during 4th and 5th Ave options in the first place.
  • N & S of CID do not spare CID from construction impacts, considering the immediate proximity to historic Pioneer Square, Japantown, and the former Immigration and Naturalization Services building.
  • Choosing 4th means the city can coordinate with Sound Transit on other major infrastructure projects at the same time: re-builds of 4th Ave. Viaduct, 2nd Ave. Extension South, Jackson St bridges, and Main Street Bridge.
  • Denny Transmission line instead of serially tying up the CID with one major project after another.
  • Equity issue in that other neighborhoods benefit while CID does not
    4th is the only station that connects to the 2 Line and 3 Line and is closest to other transit modes (trains, busses, ferries, streetcar)
  • 4th Avenue has been studied the most and is in the DEIS; the others are not and will require up to a year to do a supplemental draft EIS and public comment period
  • ST studies of 4th Avenue have already reduced business and resident impacts and shortened construction time by a year


See & Send Our Latest Comment Letter

In 2022: Sound Transit says it has the choice of building on 4th or 5th Avenue and has yet to decide. However, their actions show they prefer 5th Avenue:

·         Emphasizing 5th Avenue is a better route than 4th Avenue in presentations through selective criteria, e.g. resident displacement: 120 for 4th Avenue, 0 for 5th Avenue.

·         Blocking community members from being in the CID Community Advisory Group.   

·         Not explaining what “full closure of King Street or Weller Street” means to the CID.

·         Not explaining how businesses on King Street, Weller Street will be permanently moved, disrupting community life, residents; 1200 elderly and 300 businesses.

·         Sending agents to 5th Avenue and King Street business owners, offering moving money to begin 5+ year construction plan.

·         Incomplete plans presented for 4th Avenue options. 

·         Concluding that demolition and construction “will not impact neighborhood cohesion,” AKA community life.

In 2023: Sound Transit introduces North and South of Chinatown International District alignments, in addition to 4th and 5th Ave options still on the table. While being proposed as more "hands-off" options away from the CID, they pose new concerns:

·       Introduced no more than 3 months ahead of the announcement of a Preferred Alternative (March 2023), there simply have not been enough studies and analysis of North/South options impacts compared to the years-long review and community education about 4th and 5th Ave options.

·       North/South options will include the removal of stops and potential connections from the existing Link station, which extends travel time and complicates transfers that "will mystify and anger riders of all incomes, backgrounds, and home counties for decades."

·       The "hands-off" assumption about North/South's placement dismisses their potential disruption to historic Pioneer Square, which includes portions of the former Chinatown prior to early 20th Century displacement, as well as the northern edge of current Japantown, the National Register of Historic Places listed/eligible King County Administration building to the north and the former Immigration and Naturalization Services building to the south. 


Construction on 5th Avenue in Chinatown to Japantown means:

·         Full closure of King Street, S. Weller and 5th Avenue for several years.  

·         Re-routing cars, buses, to 6th, Maynard, 7th, 8th, 10th & 12th. 

·         Gas, water, electrical shut offs to businesses, nonprofits and residents.  

·         Traffic detours throughout Chinatown, Japantown, Little Saigon.  

·         Daily dump trucks, cement trucks, cranes, supply trucks, delivery vehicles in CID.  

·         Construction workers taking parking from businesses.  

·         Increased noise & air pollution, dust, dirt, vibrations.  

·         Taking property from owners of color for demolition and resale after construction.  

·         Endangering lives of 1,200 elderly by blocking access/egress for emergency vehicles with street/sidewalk closures and detours.  

·         Permanent changes to National Register Seattle Chinatown Historic District—loss of 3 blocks, in addition to prior loss of 3 blocks for Transit Tunnel

·         Disruptions to 300 businesses already battered by the pandemic, higher than ever anti-Asian hate crimes, criminal violence.  

·         Disruptions to 30 immigrant businesses permanently closed or forced to move.  

·         Disruptions to schools, daycares, programs serving thousands of children and youth.  

·         Disruptions to programs, classes, recreation for 1,200 elderly non-English speakers.

4th Ave Tunnel Station avoids 5th Ave impacts while North and South options extend travel times and complicate transfers and not without adverse impacts of their own!

Please email, call, sign the petition, and forward this message to your network: "Move Forward on 4th!" 

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