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Public Comment by Betty Lau, Sound Transit Board Meeting, Thursday, 5/28/26, 1:30 p.m., Union Station [below in-person comment not given because public comment was stopped after one hour, comments already limited to one minute]

I’m Betty Lau, co-founder of Transit Equity for All and board member of the Chong Wa Benevolent Association.

At the Executive Committee meeting, I was appalled to hear staff say that R2026-11 did not include a racial equity analysis in its calculations of what is unaffordable and what parts of ST3 should proceed.

Racial and ADA Equity Analyses must be part of any budget cutting to avoid continuation of historic harms to communities of color.

And that’s why I’m happy to support the amendments that restore Equity, Racial Justice and which are ADA friendly.

Go Graham Street Station, Build Ballard, Retain Renton! Complete the spine! Defer the 2nd tunnel!

Thank you.

Written Public Comment by Betty Lau for Sound Transit Board Meeting, Thursday, 5/28/26, 1:30 p.m., Union Station.

I’m Betty Lau, co-founder of Transit Equity for All and board member of the Chong Wa Benevolent Association of Washington.

At the Executive Committee meeting of May 14, 2026, I was appalled to hear staff say that R2026-11 did not include a racial equity analysis in its calculations of what is unaffordable and what parts of ST3 should proceed.

1. Skipping over financial impacts to communities of color in determining what’s “unaffordable” sends the message that historically marginalized people—low income, people of color, and non-English speaking don’t matter.

2. Shutting out “…meaningful access to public involvement and community outreach programs for minority, low-income and LEP populations” sends the message that ST policies on Public Participation mean nothing (Resolution 2011-15).

3. Failing to consider the needs of those using mobility devices, the frail and those with cognitive differences sends the message Sound Transit just doesn’t care.

Sidelining Seattle’s Racial Equity Toolkit, King County’s Racial Equity Toolkit, Sound Transit’s Racial Equity Tool and adopted Title VI mandates is a gigantic injustice!

“The purpose of the Title VI service monitoring requirement is to ensure that prior decisions related to the distribution of fixed route transit service and facilities have not resulted in a disparate impact or disproportion burden on protected populations” (Sound Transit Title VI Service Monitoring Report, 2022).

Most of you declared in your newsletters, websites, and town halls your dedication to protection of vulnerable populations. Keep your word!

Racial and ADA Equity Analyses must be part and parcel of any budget cutting and deferrals.

Unless amended to include racial equity analysis, vote no on R2026-11. Thank you.

Tour by Waterfront Shuttle, starting off in Chinatown.

Written Public Comment by Brien Chow, Sound Transit Board Meeting, Thursday, May 28, 2026 at Union Station, 1:30 p.m.


Dear Sound Transit Board,

I am Brien Chow, co-founder of Transit Equity for All (TEA) and Outreach Chair of the Chong Wa Benevolent Association.

Sound Transit is currently facing an unprecedented $34.5 billion capital funding shortfall.

Despite this fiscal crisis, Resolution No. R2026-11 offers three truncated approaches, as though no other options exist.

To pay for this redundant urban core infrastructure, the current plan forces severe project cuts, truncates lines, and defers vital neighborhood equity investments.

I urge you to reject the false binary that you must either build a truncated parallel tunnel or cripple the rest of the ST3 system…

Please amend Resolution No. R2026-11…
to defer the construction of DSTT2 from the "Fully Funded"wish list…
to a Deferred Project, and pivot to a
"Spine First + Ballard Stub" infrastructure model.

a. Nothing justifies spending $20.1-$22.6 billion on a second tunnel while the rest of the regional transit system is hollowed out by austerity cuts—think sub-area equity and the omitted racial equity; please amend the resolution to defer DSTT2 before the final vote on May 28, 2026.

Key System Categories
1. Funding Justice and Racial Equity for the South End
To offset the immense debt of digging a second downtown tunnel, the current draft of Resolution R2026-11 strips construction funding from the long-promised Graham Street infill and Boeing Access Road stations in the Rainier Valley… downgrading them to “unaffordable” status. [It wasn’t that long ago when the discarded 4th Avenue station hub, at $800,000 million, was deemed “unaffordable.”]

What a coincidence that everything that’s “unaffordable” happens to fall disproportionately on communities of color from the CID to Tacoma!

The burden of the agency's fiscal mismanagement directly falls onto historically marginalized communities.

1. Obviously, the 2nd downtown tunnel (DSTT2) is what’s unaffordable!
Preserving an expensive downtown tunnel at the expense of building long-promised Rainier Valley stations is a direct violation of transit equity; the Board must reallocate tunnel funds to fully restore construction dollars to the Graham Street Infill and Boeing Access Road station .

2. Regional Carbon Reductions and Suburban Timeline Protection
To meet our urgent regional climate goals and remove vehicle miles traveled (VMT), we must get commuters out of their cars quickly…

By maximizing our existing public asset…the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT1) under 3rd Avenue via advanced automated signaling and traction power upgrades, Sound Transit can safely interline and deliver a continuous, uninterrupted 1 Line spine from Tacoma to Everett.
a. Deferring DSTT2 protects suburban subarea dollars from inflationary cost overruns, ensuring outer extensions are delivered on schedule without cuts to parking or station access.
b. Prioritizing an upgraded, shared single-tunnel spine (DSTT1) honors your commitment to voters in Pierce and Snohomish counties and reduces regional car emissions decades faster than proceeding with an unaffordable parallel tunnel.

3. Protecting Universal Accessibility and Local Neighborhoods
The current "shifted" deep-station configurations proposed for DSTT2 to bypass the historic Chinatown-International District (CID) create immense physical barriers…

Forcing elderly, disabled, and transit-dependent riders to navigate underground, skyscraper-depth transfers.

Connecting the Ballard line via a high-efficiency Westlake Stub directly into the shallow, highly accessible DSTT1 footprint provides fast, reliable platform transfers.

• Utilizing a shallow Westlake Stub alternative honors design principles of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) while shielding the historic heart of the CID from total structural disruption.
Most importantly, this alternative completely protects the CID from catastrophic, years-long cut-and-cover construction displacement while keeping the promise of accessibility and connectivity for the CID, as well as the Region! A win-win! True Transit Equity for All!


Structural Mandate for the May 28, 2026 Vote
At the May 14, 2026 Executive Committee meeting, staff explicitly reported that comprehensive racial equity analyses for these altered alignments have not been conducted.
Proceeding to finalize project construction pipelines while skipping these crucial federal evaluations violates Civil Rights guidance and leaves the agency highly vulnerable to federal funding freezes and costly litigation.
You have a difficult decision ahead of you. I hope that some of you will have the courage to also amend R2026-11 to include the omitted racial equity analysis. Without such, you reinforce what communities of color have known all along-- racial equity is just a matter of feel good lip service to those in power.

It’s time to protect our urban neighborhoods, and build the continuous regional spine first: 1) Amend R2026-11 to include a racial equity analysis and 2) defer DSTT2.

Thank you for your attention to this critical regional mandate.
Sincerely,
Brien Chow
Co-Founder, Transit Equity for All (TEA)
Outreach Chair, Chong Wa Benevolent Association

Here are the primary sources, legislative records, and community documentation that ground the facts, timelines, and arguments outlined in the letters:
1. Primary Agency Records
1. Sound Transit Board Resolution No. R2024-06 (PDF)
Verification: Documented the historical framework Sound Transit used to establish its "Adaptive Program Management" system and baseline project tiers when navigating early post-pandemic revenue and inflationary adjustments.
2. Sound Transit Board Motion No. M2024-17 (PDF)
Verification: Confirms the formal designation of the preferred alternative for the Ballard Link Extension, including the shifting of station locations near the Chinatown-International District (CID) to "CID North" and "CID South" to bypass 4th Avenue, which initiated the deep-station engineering debate.
2. Operational Feasibility & Capacity Studies
1. Sound Transit Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) Capacity Study
Verification: Details the structural, power, and automated signaling upgrades (such as Communications-Based Train Control) required to reduce train headways down to 2 to 2.5 minutes, validating the engineering feasibility of routing three lines through the single existing DSTT1 tunnel core.

2. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Circular 4702.1B
Verification: Establishes the federal legal mandate requiring transit agencies to complete comprehensive Title VI Service Equity and Disparate Impact analyses before making major service or structural alignment changes, underpinning the warning regarding federal funding freezes.
3. Public Architecture & Community Response
a. The Urbanist: "Sound Transit Board Selects South CID Shift for DSTT2"
a. Verification: Details the initial political and financial friction surrounding the $34+ billion long-term affordability gap, the decision to split the downtown hub into deep-bore northern and southern stations, and the resulting pushback from riders concerned with transfer times.
b. South Seattle Emerald: "Community Coalitions Demand Equity Stations in Rainier Valley"
a. Verification: Documents the ongoing mobilization of the Southend Transit Justice Coalition demanding that infill stations at Graham Street and Boeing Access Road remain funded for immediate construction rather than being deferred during budgetary realignments.
3. Sound Transit Executive Committee meeting video on YouTube, staff report, May 14, 2026.

Day 2 of riding the Waterfront Shuttle from Chinatown! At the Seattle Center, we dropped into the Chihuly Museum of Glass. We were both curious about glass blowing and were blown away by the beauty of Chihuly creations. Each element of the chandelier pieces is wired onto a central core, thus solving the issue of how to pack and move a sculpture! Then we moved on to explore Pike Place Market, the very first Starbucks store to the famous Boon Boona Coffee shop, steeped in Ethiopian coffees. Ethiopia is reputedly the "inventor" of coffee, when a goatherd noticed his goats getting livelier after eating berries from a certain shrub. The goatherd gathered some of the mystical berries, took them home, boiled them, and voila, coffee the beverage entered human history! Upon returning to Chinatown, we admired the new banners by Stevie Shao.

Day 1 of showing a house guest around South Downtown via the Waterfront Shuttle! In Chinatown, we visited Chong Wa Hall, Jade Garden, Tai Tung and Hing Hay Park, hopping on the Waterfront Shuttle at the 5th Avenue S and S. Weller Street stop, almost directly across from E Jae Pak Mor! Another nearby stop is 5th and Jackson also in Chinatown, then on to the Seattle Center where we had to get off instead of doing a full loop ride. But we discovered the Shuttle does not go in a loop but stops and starts near the Seattle Center; all good since the Folk Life Festival was in full swing!

Cathay Post Memorial Day Observance in Hing Hay Park, Chinatown:

Annual Pride Asia in Hing Hay Park in Chinatown:

Exciting news from People magazine, May 2026 issue ("Connie Chung, Kumail Nanjiani and More Reveal Hard Truths Behind Their Rise to Fame")! Seattle native Lori Tan Chinn, actor, dancer, singer, and two others recognized by Bowen Yang for paving the way:

"Being on a set [Awkwafina is Nora from Queens] with other Asian actors--B.D. Wong, Awkwafina, Lori Tan Chinn--and not having to...be like peripheral or ornamental...I took that comfort and confidence into my last audition for SNL....I was with a bunch of Asian people when this thing in my life changed, and everything else did in its wake."

The Waterfront Shuttle is back, with not one but two stops in the CID, one in Chinatown at 5th & S. Weller St. and one in Japantown on 5th & S. Jackson: https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/05/06/king-county-executive-zahilay-announces-free-rides-on-waterfront-shuttle-starting-may-21-ahead-of-fifa-world-cup-26tm-in-seattle/?fbclid=IwY2xjawR3s9VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeNP7Bi2Z78h0TgT73RP9FW21Mi5hkDKqdhLBtyddhtMUk20JbA7hehBLyw6E_aem_olRvknHByT7txQFBzTQYkQ -10700

King County Executive Zahilay Announces Free Rides on Waterfront Shuttle Starting May 21 Ahead of FIFA World Cup 26™ in Seattle King County Metro service, with free fares sponsored by SeattleFWC26, and $500k investment from the City of Seattle, will offer fast, free connections across downtown and on Match Days this summer …