Whether it be trying to de-incentivize hiring within Seattle with her “Employee Head Tax,” handling the homeless problem, or delivering her promise of building “1,000 tiny homes” (of which she has only completed 97), Seattle’s Liberal Mayor Jenny Durkan can’t seem to do anything right.
While she has repeatedly bashed President Trump and continues to stick her hands into national politics, she doesn’t seem to be able to competently handle the local issues she was elected to oversee. Recently, her plan to connect the South Lake Union tracks with the First Hill tracks, known as the “Center City Connector Project” has, as most of her projects, been extremely mismanaged.
The initial costs for the project were $197 million. Now, the city of Seattle is estimating the costs of the project to run up a bill of approximately $286 million. Most of the funding is not yet guaranteed, and should the expected grants not come through, the city will be on the hook for a $140 million funding gap.
Not only is the funding gap deep and increasing by the day, the project is not being handled by competent professionals. Streetcars that don’t fit on the rail lines and are much heavier than the original cars were ordered. These cars will not be able to handle the tight corners present in Seattle with the current rail system. The city now has to replace most of the rails altogether to make up for their blunder, continuing in their quest to rack up additional costs on our behalf.
While the idea of new rails will serve to better connect the city, we need competent management at higher levels so that the Seattle taxpayers can finally stop footing the bill for the incompetence of Seattle City Officials.
Statistics and data come from the following sources:
https://seattle.curbed.com/2019/1/17/18187191/center-city-connector-downtown-streetcar
https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/25/seattle-mayor-wrong-streetcars/