One has to wonder what our leadership is up to concerning negotiations with Sound Transit on permanent changes that are set to happen on June 3. So many secret meetings for so many years and still more. Are our own Mayor Bassett and Councilmember Bertlin looking to move to Olympia for positions there if they basically give our island to Sound Transit?
Permits were signed last year without any demands placed on Sound Transit to honor agreements like building extra ramps for Mercer Island at 77th and Island Crest Way were somehow left out of Sound Transit’s plans in the end and SOV access was not guaranteed. What about our Island’s very own Rep. Clibborn who says she is powerful and can help? Where are these peoples’ interests?
Bertlin wrote in an email, “It is not my position to comment on the specifics of the construction and WSDOT/Sound Transit obligations, but rather along with Jeff and Dan to negotiate as comprehensive a solution as possible based on council consensus.” Council consensus? What about citizen consensus? You are representing us, not the council.
There is a petition that was signed by over 2,700 individuals that clearly states that the citizens are asking for extra ramps for their only access onto and off the Island to replace those that are being closed, which was part of the original Sound Transit plan and somehow is not being honored now. We have asked for a better Park and Ride that makes sense for the community, and better intra-island bus transportation. We’ve asked for transparency and no more secret meetings. We’ve asked for term sheets, and to know what is going on before the June 3 closure. Certainly we deserve to know, but again this is not the case here and we are being done a disservice and full transparency is not being honored.
My observation: For all who are protesting the administration in D.C. for its lack of transparency to support their positions, this all seems applicable here too. These leaders who live here seem to have their focus on something else besides the citizens’ safety and access to their only way on and off our Island. East Link is coming despite the fact that nowhere on the voting ballot did it include six to seven years of closure for the I-90 center roadway, permanent closure and no replacement of on and off ramps to I-90 for Mercer Island, and the implementation of R8A, which will leave no adequate shoulders and inadequate lane widths on a highway below federal standards permanently for our Island and the region. This from an un-elected transit board that conducts its meetings in private with our leaders and doesn’t honor what it says it is going to do. Where is the accountability and what is going on here?
I personally spent over two hours driving a Seattle Times reporter yesterday around Island. When I showed him how three types of traffic streams will all soon be using one entrance, he started to become visibly concerned and then flabbergasted by understanding what we are facing. He also couldn’t believe that we have no paramedic on the Island and recounted a story where he remembered a school girl died here a while back because no one could legally administer epinephrine to her.
The fact is that basic life support EMS on the Island through our Fire Department cannot push medicine or provide airway clearance assistance. We have to wait for Bellevue or Seattle paramedics. With a reduction in access points and the dangerous augmentations to our highway system, this is only going to lengthen response times. Our first responders have acknowledged this. They know the dangers we are facing here. Many in our leadership seemingly don’t care at all. They dismiss this time after time.
Why is all of this being allowed? What does our leadership owe us in protecting our safety and agreements that were made many years ago? What if they aren’t protecting us, but have their eyes on their own political careers or something else? Do they owe us, our children, our schools, businesses, community and first responders anything or are we simply to proceed in blind faith that this will all work out when the warning signs are there that it won’t? To me it all seems like a disaster in the making. A plan that is both reckless and negligent. What does the community think is going on here?
Maintain Mobility and Transit Options for I-90 Petition:
Elizabeth Buckley
Mercer Island
