Confused about Washington's federal stimulus money for highways and transit?

Here is a breakdown of federal money (Highways and Transit) allocated to Washington State and who decides how its spent.

Highways & Bridges  
Washington will receive about $493 million in  federal money for highways and bridges.

• The State Legislature will get about 67% ($330 million). Here is their Current Project List

• The regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations in Seattle, Spokane and Vancouver will get 30% ($148 million) PSRC Project List, SRTC Project List

• And 3% (15 million) will be used ...

A majority of the Bellevue City Council (Mayor Grant Degginger, Patsy Bonnicontri, Claudia Balducci, and John Chelminiak) have voted for utilizing an alignment (B3) for Sound Transit’s East Link light rail along Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue SE, that would require that the Winters House (see Eastside Heritage Center’s post #8, on map), a home on the National Register of Historic Places, be moved.

Moving the home would likely ruin its historical significance. It has yet to be determined if moving the home would be possible without destroying it. That could be a fatal flaw in the plan.

3 Council members- Dr. Don Davidson, Conrad Lee, and Phil Noble- voted to utilize the BNSF alignment (B7), which would not impact the Winters House.

Meanwhile, the Eastside Heritage Center (click here) has sent an email to Sound Transit during the DEIS comment period, asking for protection for the Historic home, as have numerous Bellevue residents and business owners.

Other sites recognized as architecturally and/or historically significant by the City of Bellevue that are potentially adversely impacted by the East Link project’s eventual preferred alignment are:

1. The Sacred Heart Church on Main Street (see Eastside Heritage Center’s post #5, with map), and

2. Numerous homes on the north end of the Surrey Downs neighborhood, which were designed by recognized architects Mithun and Neslund, and are quintessential examples of 1950′s Modernist architecture.

See the link to an organization that advocates for  Modernist architecture, docomomo-wewa here: http://www.docomomo-wewa.org/architects_detail.php?id=66

Also, here is the link to Historic Seattle‘s web page on advocacy: http://www.historicseattle.org/advocacy/default.aspx

The hybrid alignment the Council approved this week has not yet been adopted by the Sound Transit Board.

Washington Policy Center has released the results of a recent statewide poll that asked voters about the importance of traffic relief across Washington State.

This updated survey builds upon Washington Policy Center’s first poll conducted in December 2007. In both cases, voters continue to show strong support for making traffic relief a high priority. Two-thirds of respondents still feel the state’s role in reliving traffic congestion is important, but also believe the state is performing poorly at actually doing anything about it.

This information builds on Washington Policy Center’s Five Principles of Responsible Transportation Policy:

• Tie spending to congestion ...

In 1955 a writer named Robert Ruark wrote a bestseller titled, Something of Value. It's a story of the Mau Mau uprising in Africa. It describes white settlers, intent on "civilizing" the natives by imposing their own culture, education, and government on the tribe. The settlers failed to comprehend that their actions took away the values inherent in the tribal culture. Attempts to entrench Westernized notions of law, social structure, and material culture destroyed a way of life of a thriving tribal society.

Could something similar be happening here in Washington state?

We have our own group of ...