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Congratulations, Sound Transit!
By George Curtis
Mar 28, 2002 -- You finally have the go-ahead to begin taking properties in the Rainier Valley. Urban removal--that's really what this project has been about from the beginning. There's some valuable real estate in my neighborhood, close to downtown, with no bridges to cross, and you can get it cheap. Oh, this used to look like a transit project. Well, everyone knows now that the light rail alignment in the Rainier Valley isn't about transit, it's about real estate. Why else would you build a "regional transit system" (that is supposed to be fast and get people out of traffic) right in the middle of neighborhood streets, and in the middle of traffic? You know we could build an elevated alignment in the valley that would be much faster, safer and would get people out of traffic. The elevated Skytrain in Vancouver, BC is being extended for only about $50 million per mile, about the same or even less than the at-grade light rail in the Rainier Valley. We could have done that, but then you couldn't condemn the properties and get the real estate. Only with an at-grade light rail could you condemn almost 300 properties and drive the rest of the minority-owned small businesses out. The three years of construction impacts and the resulting loss of business will conveniently get rid of whatever businesses are left.You already got the city to create a tax abatement zone all along MLK Way so developers wouldn't have to pay real estate taxes for 10 years. Once all those Asian and African Americans leave the community, it will be a payday for the likes of Wright Runstad and the other developers. I can just imagine those condos and apartments along the length of MLK Way. Apparently, some white people just don't feel safe in a community that is over 60 percent minority. If you could just get those numbers down to 30 percent or less, then white folks will flock to new condos and apartment complexes close to downtown, Capital Hill and the stadiums. Yes, you just need to get those little ethnic businesses out of there, and then you can have three or four Starbucks along Martin Luther King Way, maybe at the stations areas if that light rail ever gets built.
What do I mean, "If it ever gets built"? Well, doesn't it appear now the project was mainly the means to get that real estate for your developer friends? Sims, Nickels, McIver and Sullivan all want to keep getting re-elected, maybe even run for a higher office. This project will spread a lot of wealth around to their contributors and the powerful interests that helped get them elected. The developers, contractors, labor unions, law firms (at least 52 of them to date), newspapers, radio stations, public relations firms, even the environmental groups--all of them--are either already on the dole, the Sound Transit gravy train, or waiting in line. You sure know how to spend our money to buy influence. I'm sure it will be appreciated come election time. Ron Sims often said he didn't want to "bury development in a tunnel". It wasn't that he couldn't have development with a tunnel or elevated train, he just couldn't take the property. It's all about taking the Rainier Valley from the minorities and the low-income folks. Everyone knows it, but no one will say it--it's like that story about the emperor without clothes.
Where are all those folks who now live and work in the Valley going to go? African Americans were segregated in the Central Area all the way up to 1960, and likewise, the Asians in the International District. Who gave them the Rainier Valley? No, you need the right kind of people close to downtown. You need the right "ambiance" so white folks will feel safe, then the developers will make money on their investments. Maybe the entire Valley can be just like Columbia City, where 90 percent of the customers in the trendy new restaurants and businesses are white, even though the community is 65 percent minority. The Sound Transit attitude seems to be, "Let those Asian American rice farmers and the African American sharecroppers go to Kent and Auburn or wherever."
Robert Bullard, author of the book Just Transportation and an expert on racism and environmental justice related to transportation projects, volunteered his services as an expert witness to Save Our Valley in the civil rights lawsuit against Sound Transit. He believes this project is a clear example of racial and economic discrimination. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment just filed a Friend of the Court brief in support of Save Our Valley's appeal in the 9th Circuit Court. They believe there is discrimination in this project. When will Ron Sims wake up?
George Curtis is a member of Save Our Valley, www.saveourvalley.org.
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