Time for light-rail expansion is now | Letter

Published 2:50 pm Tuesday, April 25, 2017

I was looking at the cost of the new car tabs and my initial response was shock. After picking myself up off the floor, I started remembering a little history in the Seattle area and decided that if we don’t build it now then when?

Ten years ago, former Gov. Albert Rossellini came to the school I was teaching at and talked to the economics class. I decided to listen in. During part of his discussion he remarked that when he was governor, he wanted to extend the monorail down I-5 all the way to Olympia. And then as he said, “Politics got in the way.” What if he had accomplished his goal? How much less would it have cost, and how easy would it now be to get to downtown Seattle?

Forty-seven years ago, voters turned down a rapid-transit system that would have served Seattle well. The federal government said it would pay for 75 percent of the cost, but Seattle voters rejected it. You can ride it today if you take a trip to the South. It is in Atlanta.

So, here we are today in virtual gridlock and complaining about our increased taxes to pay for a mass-transit system that we could have had years ago. I took out my checkbook and paid my car tabs.

If we don’t build now then when?

If we don’t build it, then who will?

Walter Kostecka, Federal Way