There goes the old neighborhood

There are probably going to be howls about this from some doctrinaire, neo-Luddite quarters, but I'll go ahead and make the following statement.

I like trains.

I loved traveling on them when I was little (it was the late 60s, was that Amtrak?), and I was disappointed around 1970 when Seattle said No Thank You to the Forward Thrust rail system that eventually went to Atlanta. A few years ago I rode intercity trains in Europe, and I wouldn't have wanted to see the Continent any other way.

I also (here come the howls) don't object to the existence of Seattle's Central Link light rail. I have a problem with the cost, parts of the route, and a number of accompanying consequences. But it will function, and I certainly welcome the service it will provide to those who live and work near the stations. I predict it will have no trouble meeting its 45-50,000 per day rider projection -- in the first year it will probably beat that.

That said, I really feel badly for people like Jessie Jones:

Light rail is meant to bring redevelopment and prosperity to Seattle's Rainier Valley, but three years of construction has nearly ruined a small hair salon along the route.

Visions of Beauty has lost more than half its customers, predominantly African-American, since Sound Transit work crews arrived on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South (MLK) in 2004, according to owner Jessie Jones. She has cut hair there for 22 years.

Closed lanes and torn-up pavement have made her clients think twice about trying to get there. For a business already reeling from a decline in the neighborhood's black population, construction is making the challenge even tougher.

The shop used to open five days a week. Now, Jones cuts hair two days and works a second job. If the mortgage wasn't already paid off, Jones said, the salon would have folded.
. . .
To survive, she said she must "upscale" her salon, in an effort to entice new customers, including whites and Asians. She may repaint the brick-colored interior in bright white and maroon, replace the lighting and advertise more.
. . .
[Jones' son, Andrew Love] ...aspires to run the salon, remove some clutter in back and appreciate the follicular diversity coming his way.

"For us, it's just a matter to keep with it, to keep the lights on," he said. "I think things will get better, after light rail is finished." Source

Then there's Steve and Debbi Mullen:

At first, neighbors weren't so sure they wanted a Grocery Outlet store in their Madrona neighborhood. It smacked of cheap; they thought they wanted something more upscale.

Steve and Debbi Mullen, the husband-wife owners of the Madrona Grocery Outlet store, understood -- and were undaunted. While they invested in their local communities, supplying food for PTA barbecues, planning neighborhood celebrations, and donating money for Little Leagues, they kept educating increasing numbers of customers.

Then they took on another store -- in Rainier Valley -- that had seen sagging sales because of nearby light rail construction.

As the Mullens hoped, the locals began to embrace the concept of saving money on groceries and hundreds of other items not because they're of inferior quality, but because they are simply manufacturer overstocks.
. . .
"The store was doing really well under the previous owner -- customers were very loyal -- but then light rail construction started. It really hurt," Steve Mullen said, citing a 20 percent to 30 percent drop in sales.

When the previous owner decided to sell and retire, the Mullens were determined to turn the store around -- and hope to turn a profit when light rail is finished. The Mount Baker station is about 75 feet from the Rainier Grocery Outlet's front door.
. . .
"We're operating this store at zero profit to improve conditions. ... I didn't want this store to close," Steve Mullen said. "We had a store up the street that was doing very well, and the Rainier Valley store had strong customer loyalty and great potential. Once light rail is done, we think the area will revitalize really quickly." Source

This consequence -- the impact on existing neighborhoods -- is the biggest problem I have with light rail. Not so much the disruption of construction, assuming things return to normal afterward, as Andrew Love and the Mullens hope. But odds are they won't return to normal, because one of the selling points of light rail has always been the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) that comes along with it. Fine. I like the little urban villages, their little shops and cafés -- although I am long past tired of the repetitive, cookie-cutter deployment of corrugated metal + shingles (and sometimes brick) "Northwest Style" townhouse & condo clusters that are springing up everywhere like little bitter cress (shot-weed).

This would be a good time to mention that I have a special fondness for the North Beacon-Garlic Gulch-Mt. Baker area, because I grew up there.

I don't think merchants in the Valley were fully apprised of the complete implications of TOD. It means higher densities and therefore the potential of more customers, yes. But it also means higher land values, higher property taxes, and higher rents. For many retail businesses, already fragile, and those operating on narrow margins -- such as grocers -- TOD really should be TOR: Transit Oriented Redevelopment.

In some cases it means Better For Business, But We Didn't Mean Yours. Sound Transit has offered assistance to imperiled businesses to cope with disruption from construction -- but what about after that? Will the City step in with innovative zoning that could keep small-business rents affordable? Will design review be given teeth?

Certain howling Luddite stalkers are going to accuse me of "transit bashing." Is what I'm writing anti-rail (and why would rail care)? It would be, if I were advocating not completing Link, or stopping the construction and tearing it out. Jeez, that would be stupid. True, before the final-final decision was made to start the Link project I advocated for my preferred TRANSIT mode, automated peoplemovers, as well as pointing out the economic consequences. But that was the public decisionmaking process; that was neighborhood democracy. Seattle is going to have light rail, let's use it if we can, and enjoy it if we can (of course, the matters still remain of what we're going to do about congestion, and transit for areas outside the Link corridor -- people who are paying for Link but not getting a benefit).

So howl away, Luddites. I maintain that we must have realistic, civic-minded thinking. I'm looking beyond the mere acquisition of a sleek new train, and at long-term economic effects on real people.