Category: Public Planning

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Bellevue City Council votes to approve East Link agreement with Sound Transit

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Sound Tran­sit’s East Link project has just moved one major step clos­er to becom­ing a real­i­ty. After many months of dis­cus­sion and nego­ti­a­tion, Belle­vue’s City Coun­cil has vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to autho­rize the city to enter into a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) with Sound Tran­sit regard­ing the project, one of sev­er­al major expan­sions of the Link […]

Posted inElections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

For the first time in years, Port Commission will remain unchanged after an election

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

If last night’s ear­ly elec­tion returns are any indi­ca­tion, the five-mem­ber leg­isla­tive body that gov­erns the Port of Seat­tle is going to remain unchanged in the wake of this year’s elec­tion — the first time that has hap­pened in a long time. Incum­bent Com­mis­sion­ers Bill Bryant and Gael Tar­leton, who each oust­ed incum­bents back in 2007, […]

Posted inElections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Keep Washington Rolling launches final NO on I‑1125 television ad, starring State Treasurer

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Keep Wash­ing­ton Rolling, the broad coali­tion fight­ing to defeat Tim Eyman’s Ini­tia­tive 1125, has launched its final tele­vi­sion ad of the cam­paign, with Elec­tion Day only a few hun­dred hours away. The spot, titled “Too Cost­ly”, stars State Trea­sur­er Jim McIn­tire, who ably sum­ma­rizes the con­se­quences of Tim Eyman’s lat­est scheme. “As State Trea­sur­er, I rarely […]

Posted inElections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

When is a public vote not a public vote? When it doesn’t go Tim Eyman’s way, that’s when

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day, KING 5 aired a sto­ry on the pro­vi­sion of I‑1125 that attempts to sab­o­tage Sound Tran­sit’s East Link project. The pro­vi­sion in ques­tion, Sec­tion 3, would  for­bid WSDOT from trans­fer­ring part of the Homer M. Hadley Memo­r­i­al Bridge to the agency for light rail, which obvi­ous­ly would pre­vent light rail from reach­ing Belle­vue and […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Bellevue City Council deadlocks as to whether to take a position on Tim Eyman’s I‑1125

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Last night, the Belle­vue City Coun­cil had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to take a posi­tion against Tim Eyman’s I‑1125, which places impor­tant trans­porta­tion projects that would improve mobil­i­ty in and out of Belle­vue at risk. The city coun­cil sched­uled a hear­ing, as required by Wash­ing­ton State law, pro­vid­ing pro­po­nents and oppo­nents with an equal amount of time […]

Posted inElections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Washington has always trusted an expert commission to set tolls — why change that?

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Hav­ing been in the busi­ness of sell­ing ini­tia­tives for more than a decade (and pos­sess­ing a gift for media manip­u­la­tion) Tim Eyman has become a mas­ter snake oil sales­man. Every year, he devel­ops a remark­ably slick (yet shal­low) sales pitch for his lat­est ini­tia­tive. This year’s sales pitch has stressed a com­fort­ing theme — continuity. […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Public Planning

NPI research prompts Rob McKenna to reveal that he’s a NO vote on Tim Eyman’s I‑1125

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Reg­u­lar read­ers may recall that a cou­ple week­ends ago, we pub­lished a post crit­i­ciz­ing Rob McKen­na for refus­ing to tell Wash­ing­to­ni­ans where he stands on Tim Eyman’s anti-tolling, anti-light rail Ini­tia­tive 1125. The Seat­tle Times had just pub­lished a sto­ry by reporter Andrew Gar­ber on I‑1125 the day before. For his sto­ry, Gar­ber had tried to […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Tim Eyman loses first round in lawsuit against the City of Redmond over traffic camera vote

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A law­suit recent­ly filed by Tim Eyman against NPI’s home­town over the city’s deci­sion not to for­ward peti­tions seek­ing a vote on the issue of red light cam­eras was dis­missed today by King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge Lau­ra Inveen, who held that the mea­sure, “exceeds the law­ful scope of local ini­tia­tive pow­er.” The rul­ing means that […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Seattle Port Commission adopts resolution opposing Tim Eyman’s I‑1125

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

The Port of Seat­tle’s gov­ern­ing leg­isla­tive body today joined with the city coun­cils of Red­mond, Kirk­land, and Ren­ton in urg­ing a no vote on Tim Eyman’s Ini­tia­tive 1125, which would jeop­ar­dize cru­cial trans­porta­tion projects around the state by impos­ing sense­less restric­tions on tolling. In a unan­i­mous vote, the five port com­mis­sion­ers respon­si­ble for gov­ern­ing the […]

Posted inElections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Microsoft invests $600,000 into NO on 1125

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Keep Wash­ing­ton Rolling, the coali­tion that is fight­ing Tim Eyman’s I‑1125, has just received a huge finan­cial boost from one of Wash­ing­ton’s largest employ­ers: Microsoft (which, like NPI, is head­quar­tered in Red­mond). The com­pa­ny had pre­vi­ous­ly donat­ed $100,000 to the cause, but last Fri­day, it wrote anoth­er check for six times that amount, bring­ing its […]

Posted inElections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Tim Eyman is wrong: Variable tolling is fair

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

On occa­sion, Tim Eyman inad­ver­tent­ly does us all a ser­vice by devi­at­ing from his well-rehearsed talk­ing points and reveal­ing just how lit­tle he knows about the sub­ject mat­ter of his own ini­tia­tives. This hap­pened again last week, when Eyman sent out a mis­sive attack­ing vari­able tolling, which is cur­rent­ly per­mit­ted by state law, but would […]

Posted inElections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

I‑1125 campaign site admits that 1125 was bought and paid for by Kemper Freeman

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Not long ago, Tim Eyman began pro­mot­ing a new “Yes on 1125” web­site that appears to have been com­mis­sioned by his No. 2 all-time wealthy bene­fac­tor Kem­per Free­man, Jr., the man respon­si­ble for more than eighty per­cent of the mon­ey behind Ini­tia­tive 1125. I say appears to have been com­mis­sioned by because its text bears […]

Posted inElections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Tim Eyman tries to hit back at Jay Inslee after Inslee urges Washington to vote down I‑1125

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day morn­ing, at the Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Vot­ers’ annu­al Break­fast of Cham­pi­ons in Seat­tle, Demo­c­ra­t­ic guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date Jay Inslee took aim at Tim Eyman and his ini­tia­tive fac­to­ry, call­ing for the rejec­tion of Eyman’s lat­est scheme, I‑1125, and declar­ing, “It’s time to start build­ing bridges instead of fund­ing Tim Eyman’s bank account.” His speech, which was […]

Posted inBreaking News, Policy Topics, Public Planning

City of Redmond adopts resolution opposing Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1125

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

As reg­u­lar read­ers may remem­ber, two weeks ago, NPI urged the City of Red­mond — which we proud­ly call home — to join us in tak­ing a stand against Tim Eyman’s lat­est scheme to par­a­lyze our com­mu­ni­ties and wreck gov­ern­ment, Ini­tia­tive 1125. (I‑1125 made the bal­lot back in July thanks to a boat­load of money […]