At the end of the day, Thursday brought several handfuls of items we've been expecting for quite some time. more ›

Five months ago, Brenda embarked on a perilous underground journey from Cal Anderson Park downhill to the Paramount Theater. The purpose? To build the tunnel that will one day house the Capitol Hill light rail line. Now, that journey is almost over; Brenda the Huge Drill (a.k.a., Boring Machine, in more ways than one) is expected to emerge victorious next to the Paramount today, marking one leg of light rail tunnel off the checklist. more ›

Infamous local anti-tax crusader and initiative-pusher Tim Eyman is at it again with this little nugget of anti-rail spite. On the surface, it simply requires that every toll increase be approved by a legislative vote instead of by the Washington Transportation Commission, but the implications run much deeper. If passed, it would block Sound Transit from being able to build light rail on the I-90 bridge through a little, hidden clause that says highway lanes funded by highway tolls and gas taxes cannot be used for "non-highway purposes," like rail. And, surprise surprise, 90% of its money comes from your friend and mine, the King of Bellevue* and notorious light rail opponent Kemper Freeman, Jr. more ›

Inside the Sound Transit train about to dock @ Westlake by Joe Kunzler from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

Seattlest hung out with the Mayor at his house last night. Talking points, highlights and photos from Mike McGinn's own summer barbeque at his house in Greenwood. more ›

As the region becomes accustomed to its fledgling mass transit system, signs of development along its line are starting to appear. As Seattle shifts to the next stage in Sound Transit's growth, it is increasingly important to remember to develop intelligently. more ›

Throughout all East Link Light rail negotiations and arguments concerning Downtown Bellevue, the City Council, pro- and anti-transit alike, could agree on one thing: they would all like to have the train run through a tunnel. The only hurdle was a big one -- an additional $329 million added to the project's price tag. At the beginning of negotiations a few years ago, the idea seemed like a pipe dream, even with the City of Bellevue kicking in $160 million. Sound Transit's governing board decided Thursday that the East Link Light Rail Downtown Bellevue route the Bellevue City Council could agree on, i.e., that tunnel, can go forward. We just still don't know how Sound Transit is going to pay for it. more ›

Whoa. It's not even 5am and this is quite the newsday. Today brings you promises of light rail on the east side, debt-ceiling inspired woes for UW, a dirty deed in a "very clean SUV", a strip club fire, Starbucks making big money and being bigger jerks, and finally, BABY CLOUDED LEOPARDS. Happy Friday. more ›

Have you met Brenda, the tunnel boring machine yet? Even if you don't catch a look at her, you'll definitely hear all about what she's up to in the coming weeks. more ›

Today's big news: A foiled plan to attack a military recruit processing center located in South Seattle, Jay Inslee is officially in it to win it for the Washington gubernatorial election, and a major Seattle construction project comes in on-time and under-budget. more ›

Kemper Freeman, Jr has given $500,000 to the inaptly-named Voters Want More Choices, the committee to pass Tim Eyman's latest measure, an anti-tolling initiative, the Seattle Times reports. Freeman says that he likes "the spotlight that I-1125 puts on" strengthening transportation, but this seems beyond just liking -- that kind of money is unprecedented in the developer's giving history, which rarely goes above a couple of thousand dollars, according to PDC records. His company, Kemper Holdings, had already given $25,000 to the initiative in March. According to PDC records, Kemper Holdings also gave a total of $500,000 in three separate contributions to Voters Want More Choices; since the Times article says Freeman's contributions haven't shown up in the PDC database yet, we're not sure whether those are separate from the contribution from Freeman. more ›

Were you burned by the demise of the Monorail Project and, with it, the Green Line from West Seattle to Ballard? Fear not - McGinn won't let it drop. more ›

The folks at Sound Transit must be in good spirits this week--the lowest construction bid for the University Link tunnel was $20 million lower than Sound Transit's original estimate. more ›

Link light rail is again visiting the Westlake station in the bus tunnel. Sound Transit got the "signal system" problem under control at about 11 p.m. last night. For riders complaining about the lack of information, set yourself up with a subscription to ST alerts. And then be nice and tell everyone else without a smart phone what's going on. more ›

We departed Seattlest world headquarters at 12th and John Street at 11:49 and landed at SeaTac at 12:45. Our trip included a ride on the #10 bus to Westlake, a light rail ride from Westlake Center to Tukwila, and a shuttle bus from the Tukwila station to the airport. For speedphiles, the actual train trip ride from Westlake to Tukwila was 34 minutes. It was also 34 minutes last Friday. It will probably be 34 minutes next week. more ›

Over the weekend and again this morning, a bug has been affecting Link light rail's ticketing system, telling aggrieved would-be riders no soup for you "transaction canceled." Bummer. more ›

None of Seattle's typical "too cool for school" stand-offishness. Tens of thousands of cheerful riders, oohing and cooing, tweeting and twittering along SoundTransit's light rail line. Dozens of staffers in dayglo green shirts directed (human) traffic, and the trains (speedy, quiet) ran every ten minutes or so, tunneling under Beacon Hill and emerging high above MLK in Mt. Baker. (Big crowds expected at the Stadium station, where the MLS Sounders played Chelsea.) more ›

KOMO reports this week on the heart-wrenching tale of Nick and Marilyn Papini, long time Beacon Hill residents who are suffering the "big scar" of Sound Transit's new power lines now crossing their view of downtown Seattle. "My heart sank when I saw this," said Marilyn Papini. "It's like a big scar." For more than 50 years, the couple has enjoyed a picturesque view from their home. In one afternoon it was taken away. more ›

The trains will open with service from Westlake to Tukwila on July 18. It will be free to ride on the 18th and 19th with paid service starting on Monday, July 20. The base ticket price will be $1.75 with a .05-cent increase with every mile. When the Tukwila to SeaTac section opens in December, it will cost $2.25 from Westlake to the airport. Trains come about every 7.5 minutes during peak times, and every 15 minutes otherwise. more ›

Employees of Sound Transit were understandably filled with a certain pride yesterday morning as they showed off the new light rail operations and maintenance center for the collected media. more ›

Last night we dropped in at the Seattle Transit Blog meet-up, and ran into Sound Transiteers Andrew and Rebecca, who were filling us in on their crowd control preparations for the July 18 opening of the Westlake-Tukwila light rail line. more ›

Yesterday Sound Transit invited "news media" to take a preview of the 14-mile light rail trip to Tukwila and back--the last segment to the airport won't open until next January. We weren't invited, so we're poaching the Seattle Times video of the big moment. more ›

Pulling into Westlake Station in the bus tunnel this morning, our driver announces over the speakers, "Gonna be a train in here on Monday morning. Should be interesting." We look around at one another and laugh a little. Driver then says, "I give it no more than thirty days before we have a bus-train incident." more ›

We got a postcard on Saturday that there's a "Restaurant, Retailing & Business Seminar" today at 3 p.m. at Seattle Central Community College for businesses around the Capitol Hill light rail station. "Come learn proven techniques to increase sales and profits," it says, and is co-sponsored by the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. Two restaurant consultants, a retail consultant, and an HR executive will be there to talk about taking orders over the noise from the backhoe...uh...branding and reducing employee theft. more ›

Asphalt 'n' Anarchy Edition: What would you do, CHS asks, with three acres of asphalt that will be exposed temporarily as Sound Transit makes way for a light rail station on Broadway? Being an an anarchist, you probably want to turn it into a free store like this one. What's that? You only look like an anarchist? Then PhinneyWood suggests you head to tonight's audition for The Anarchists Songbook, an opera about Seattle's WTO protests. If you live in Wallingford, odds are you're a fauxhemian Marxist, and you already know about tonight's art reception at Hiroki in Tangletown. Green tea tiramisu for the people! more ›

[ED. NOTE: Seattle Transit Blog strongly disagrees with Brad's characterization of their conclusions. They did some back-of-the-envelope figuring based on Brad's premise, with the intent of downsizing his initial estimate of the possible tax error. They are not interested, apparently, in the looking into the situation further: "But a figure in the low tens of millions of dollars is serious money, enough to do a freeway ramp or other practical project. I’d rather use that money to build a project they participated in the vote for than attempt to reconstruct 12 years of purchase records."] more ›

We love the bus. We ride it whenever we can. We try to convince our friends, family, and neighbors to ride the bus. We even offered favors to our girlfriend if she would start riding the 41 from her Northgate crib to her downtown office. (She declined; we broke up. Draw your own conclusions.) more ›

• Burien is busy branding--and the city is using très fancy technology to do so. B-Town Blog posted the latest video and offered a bullet-point summary of the very nice branding elements you will see, should you choose to spend minutes of your life watching a YouTube about all the wonders Burien has to offer.
• PhinneyWood would like you to donate your watches to charity via Jody Laine of the Tiempo Watch and Clock Shop. Why not? You probably use your cell phone for time-keeping already, anyway.
• Care for some Irish Knockers? Why, yes, thank you for asking! Magnolia Voice had the skinny on the new menu at Mulleady's, including photos of the restaurant's interior (they have a very inviting fireplace!).

Thank you all for participating in our Seattlest Vote 2008 Polls over the last week! Though the polls were informal, they still give us a fairly good reading on how the Seattlest community will be voting today. more ›

The Seattle Times says Sound Transit Proposition 1 "retards our economy" and "hurts the poor" by boosting Washington's sales tax to 9.5%, an unconscionable hike when "most people don't want to get out of their cars." The Stranger says Prop. 1 is a great idea, and "If you think $69 is a lot to spend on transit in tough economic times, think about what you've been paying for gas lately." King County Exec Ron Sims is opposed and would prefer that we wait until 2010. But what do you think? Yea or nay to Sound Transit Proposition 1? (More info about Prop. 1 here.) This poll closes at noon tomorrow, and as always, comments are more than welcome. more ›