Daily Archives: March 25, 2016

Sheffer quits 45th District race, says GOP favored Valderrama

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March 25, 2016: Charlie Sheffer, who last year began running for State Representative from the 45th Legislative District, has withdrawn from the race.

Sammamish City Council Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama declared his candidacy yesterday. He will challenge incumbent Democrat Roger Goodman, who has held the seat since 2007.

“On February 15…I informed the House Republican Organizing Committee (HROC) that we would be withdrawing from our 2016 bid for the state House,” Sheffer wrote in an email to Sammamish Comment.

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Sound Transit 3 does little for Eastside, degrades bus service

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ST3 Map

Click on image to enlarge, then click on it a second time for further enlarge. Source: Seattle Times.

March 25, 2016: The Sound Transit Board revealed a $50 billion (!) Sound Transit 3 plan that requires $27 billion in new taxes, or an average of $400 a year for the average home within the ST service area. This includes Sammamish, where the average home prices are higher than throughout the ST area, meaning we’ll take an even bigger hit.

Unfortunately, the Eastside in general and Sammamish in particular not only gets little from the new plan. Furthermore, our City Council members note that direct bus service to Seattle from Issaquah will be discontinued in order to route the buses to downtown Bellevue to boost ridership on the light rail trains.

A proposal light rail line also goes from Issaquah to downtown Bellevue, rather than direct down I-90, to connect to the transit hub in Bellevue. Part of this spur parallels the light rail line approved under ST 2.

Finally, Issaquah doesn’t even get this spur until 2041, nor does Everett and the Boeing plant south of Everett’s City Center.

All-in-all, the plans appear on their face to have a lot of flaws.

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