Frustrations boil over at West Seattle light rail proposal town hall

SEATTLE – Frustrations arose at a transit town hall meeting in West Seattle where locals wanted specific answers about how a light rail proposal might impact their homes and businesses.  

It was a chance for many to ask questions of transit leaders that some business owners and residents feel have gone unanswered so far. 

“We are going to do so much more planning than a retail space,” said Erin Rubin, Mode Music Founder & Managing Director.

Rubin is one of the business owners who spoke during public comment Wednesday night. She’ll have to relocate if the West Seattle Link Extension proposal moves forward as expected. 

“We are starting to get to the point, get to the feeling that if we are going to move, we are going to have to fund that move or be prepared to fund that move yourself,” said Rubin.

Laurel Trujillo, the owner of Ounces Taproom, also came to Tuesday’s meeting, hoping to learn more about what’s next for business owners who will be forced to relocate.  

“We’ve constantly been asking for concrete information,” said Trujillo. “It’s all kind of fallen on deaf ears.” 

Some members of the crowd asked Director of Community Relations, Leda Chahm, to get specific about what businesses would be impacted. She said they could keep it general. Another Sound Transit official added that the panel didn’t come prepared to speak about each property impacted by the project.  

“As we move forward, into design we will be doing a lot more exploration once we know what the project is that we will be building and learn more, about what that process is,” they said.   

During the question and answer period, one man asked why a proposal was made to send the light rail line through the West Seattle Health Club pool. 

“I’d love to know why the decision has been made to this point,” he said.

The owner of School of Rock in West Seattle also expressed frustration at a lack of clear financial support.

“It’s a joke that there isn’t more people helping. So, what is it that we have to do? What was the trick? Was it a lawsuit?,” said Philip Gustavson of School of Rock. “You guys have to answer this question. I asked it so many times.”

When Faith Roland of Sound Transit explained some of the ways that they calculate moving expenses, Gustavson said that the Sound Transit team had already told him he was out of luck.  

“When I said, ‘Are we basically screwed?’, your whole team nodded at me on Zoom,” said Gustavson.   

“Well, I’ll apologize in front of everybody today to say that that won’t happen again,” said Roland.   

Trujillo asked Roland for an estimate on how much it had cost in out-of-pocket expenses for other businesses that had been forced to move during previous projects. 

“Do you provide 100% of the relocation assistance needed for these businesses to fully and successfully relocate?”, asked Trujillo.  

Roland only said that transit has successfully relocated 1,200 to 1,500 residents and businesses in the past. 

Rubin is asking other businesses that have been forced to relocate due to transit projects to contact her directly.  She provided this email at contact@modemusicstudios.com for those businesses to contact her.

“I would welcome anyone that did have a successful story or unsuccessful story to reach out to us,” said Rubin.

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