Most of these annual service hours are coming from the deletion of Route 41. One area of Metro’s proposal that has been controversial is the redeployment of 47,000 annual service hours from the North End toward other areas, particularly Southeast King County, where ridership has stayed steadier during the pandemic. The North Link connections map showing how the service change will look in October. Perhaps it is, but it’s still a hard-to-love outcome for riders. Our earlier report panned last fall’s proposal as a devolution into pandemic-induced austerity cuts, but Metro cast the changes as just a normal consequence of process: “Metro adjusted and refined its proposed network changes as part of the network refinement process as is normally the case prior to submittal of the final proposal to council following analyses, discussions with partner agencies, and extremely robust public engagement.” The process feels oddly reminiscent of the broken U-Link bus connections restructure process from 2015 that forsake big ideas and the failed SR-520 bus restructure process from 2017 that never came to be. But it falls far short of the bolder cross-town bus service concepts that had kicked off the process and for which North Seattleites have yearned for decades. The adopted changes are similar to the draft plan we shared last year. Metro will delete 14 routes, create 7 new routes, and revise a further 10 routes. In some cases, routes are being consolidated and deleted in favor of light rail.Īpproved in early May by the King County Council, the bus restructure will go into effect on October 2nd instead of around the usual fall equinox service change time. Over 20 existing King County Metro routes are affected by the changes, which means a big shakeup to local and commuter service as many routes are fed toward the new Link light rail stations. This blog post was written by our summer Bus Intern Amulya Cherala.Major changes to bus routes focused in North Seattle and other North End areas are coming in the fall to coincide with the opening of the Northgate Link extension. Last week, San Francisco’s mayor proposed a measure that, if approved by voters in the fall, would increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 by 2018. San Francisco is already following in the footsteps of Seattle. Their victory will serve as an example for many cities and states across the country. Although there will continue to be conflicting views and many challenges, there is no denying that the organizational efforts of those who were part of the increased minimum wage movement were successful. The hope is that the increased minimum wage will give low wage workers some room to breathe.
![seattle bus 15 seattle bus 15](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eme-rfrXYAAEF5K.jpg)
City council members have worked hard to reach a compromise which they feel “recognizes the harm caused by stagnant wages and the harm to local businesses should move forward too quickly.” Starting April 1st, 2014 the minimum wage will increase to either $10 or $11 depending on the employer. Still, the city is taking the aforementioned concerns into account by implementing an incremental plan. Seattle is the first major city to take such swift action in addressing the issue of income inequality.
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SO…what is Seattle doing to address these concerns? However, others worry that it puts a lot of stress on small business owners and reduces the number of jobs because higher wages would force employers to try and compensate for labor costs.
![seattle bus 15 seattle bus 15](https://appassets.mvtdev.com/map/41/s/522/144619899.jpg)
Some people believe an increased minimum wage will be good for Seattle’s economy and will lift thousands out of poverty. What does it mean now that Seattle has approve the 15 dollar minimum wage?Ĭurrently, low wage workers in the United States struggle to pay bills and provide for their families because they don’t make enough money to account for those costs. The plight of low wage workers has been put on the shelf for far too long and Seattle’s push towards better pay has been an important step forward in recognizing the problems these workers face. On June 2nd, 2014 the Seattle City Council approved the $15 minimum wage. This vote serves as a milestone decision and gives hope to many low wage workers in other cities around the United States where income inequality is hindering their daily lives and driving them to poverty.