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Re: “Sound Transit examines the cost of making South Seattle crossings safe” [July 11, A1]:
Sound Transit now realizes that building light rail on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South at grade was a bad decision. During the light rail planning years I volunteered with a South Seattle neighborhood group called Save Our Valley. SOV vigorously advocated building that segment of the system below grade. We gathered petition signatures and distributed yard signs, alerting our community to the dangers at-grade rail would pose to the MLK corridor.
I attended five community meetings held by Sound Transit at the Filipino Community Center on MLK, in the course of which literally hundreds of attendees spoke out to insist that the line not be built at grade. Few favored at grade. We were politely thanked for sharing our views, and then completely ignored. The meetings were an obligatory sop tossed to South Seattle residents — there was obviously no intention to seriously consider our concerns.
It cannot be a coincidence that this plan was imposed on historically redlined neighborhoods occupied by a high percentage of immigrants and people of color. Seattle’s history of discrimination persisted in ST planning. In addition to fatalities, at grade has increased traffic congestion, road rage and speeding on MLK.
Paul Cabarga, Seattle
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