Friday, May 25, 2012

Light Rail Accused of Driving Minorities Out of A Puget Sound Neighborhood

A new report says many Rainier Valley residents on Washington's West side are being priced out of their neighborhood- thanks to the addition of light rail in their community.


The community and labor advocacy group Puget Sound Sage says a Sound Transit light-rail line completed in 2009 has dramatically increased property values and raised rents near stations, thereby hastening gentrification and displacement in one of Puget Sound's most racially diverse neighborhoods.

The report is apparently a big surprise to light-rail advocates who lobbied for the line partly to provide working-class folks an affordable transportation option.The Stranger has the full story.

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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.