HOUSING AND TRANSIT
GET MORE FROM WHAT WE BUILD
King County and our region are investing billions of dollars in transit. We should make sure those investments produce more than just trains and stations.
They should help us build more housing, create safer and more reliable transit, and support neighborhoods where people can get to work, school, groceries, childcare, and everyday needs without having to rely on a car.
If we're going to invest billions in transit, we should build around it, protect it, and make it work for everyone.
01 - MAKE TRANSIT SAFER AND FAIRER
THE PROBLEM
TOO MANY RIDERS AREN’T PAYING — AND THE SYSTEM ISN’T WORKING AS WELL AS IT SHOULD
Sound Transit has struggled with fare compliance even while offering reduced and subsidized fares for people who need them.
That creates several problems:
It undermines basic fairness. Riders who pay should not feel like following the rules is optional.
It reduces revenue at a time when Sound Transit faces enormous financial pressure to deliver the transit system voters were promised.
Open stations make it harder to manage behavior and maintain safe, orderly platforms and trains.
It weakens public trust in a system taxpayers are spending billions of dollars to build.
A compassionate transit system should make sure people can afford to ride.
An accountable transit system should also expect people to pay when they can.
MY SOLUTION
ACCESSIBLE FARE GATES + AFFORDABLE FARES
Install modern, accessible fare gates at Link stations while expanding reduced and free fare programs for riders who qualify.
The principle is simple:
If you can afford the fare, you should pay it. If you can’t, we should make sure cost isn’t the reason you can’t ride.
Other transit systems, including BART in the Bay Area, are increasingly using modern fare gates to reduce fare evasion and improve station conditions.
King County and Sound Transit should pair:
Accessible fare gates that work for people with disabilities, luggage, bikes, and strollers.
Reduced and free fares for low-income riders and others who qualify.
Clear expectations and consistent enforcement instead of a system where the rules frequently feel optional.
Clean, safe stations and vehicles that people want to use.
The goal isn't to keep people off transit.
It's to make transit affordable enough that everyone can use it — and orderly enough that everyone wants to.
02 - BUILD MORE HOUSING NEAR LIGHT RAIL
THE PROBLEM
OUR ZONING DOESN’T MATCH THE SCALE OF OUR TRANSIT INVESTMENT
We are spending billions of dollars building light rail, but in too many places we still treat the land around stations as though nothing fundamental has changed.
That makes little sense.
The areas within walking distance of frequent, high-capacity transit should be among the easiest places in the region to build substantially more housing.
Instead, our current approach is often too timid:
We underbuild around some of our most valuable public investments.
Development requirements can make projects difficult to finance, meaning less housing actually gets built.
We push housing growth farther into surrounding neighborhoods because we don't allow enough density immediately around transit.
We miss the opportunity to create neighborhoods where many daily trips can happen without a car.
MY SOLUTION
SUBSTANTIALLY MORE DENSITY NEAR LIGHT RAIL
Allow significantly more housing within several blocks of major light-rail stations — including buildings of roughly 15–20 stories where appropriate.
We should be ambitious about putting housing where our infrastructure can support it.
That means:
Thousands of additional homes in places with excellent transit access.
More opportunities for people to live with one car or no car at all.
A larger customer base supporting transit ridership and nearby businesses.
More housing supply without placing the same development pressure on every surrounding residential block.
More property and sales-tax revenue generated from the infrastructure we've already paid to build.
We have made a generational investment in light rail.
Our zoning should reflect it.
03 — CREATE COMPLETE NEIGHBORHOODS
Housing density alone isn't enough.
If we're going to build substantially more homes near transit, we should also make those areas excellent places to live.
That means creating space for the things families and residents need every day:
Grocery stores
Childcare and daycare
Restaurants and neighborhood retail
Pharmacies and basic services
Parks and public spaces
Safe sidewalks and crossings
Bike connections
Schools and community facilities
Too often, we talk about housing and transportation as separate policies.
They aren't.
A family that can walk to childcare, take light rail to work, and pick up groceries on the way home has a fundamentally different transportation burden than a family that needs a car for every trip.
That can mean lower household costs, less traffic, higher transit ridership, and stronger neighborhood businesses.
We shouldn't simply build apartments next to stations.
We should build complete neighborhoods around them.
THE RESULT
This is how we get more value from the billions we're already investing:
More Housing → Safer Transit → Higher Ridership → Better Value
Build more homes around transit.
Make transit safer and fairer.
Create neighborhoods where people can meet more of their daily needs close to home.
And make our enormous transportation investments work harder for the people paying for them.
MORE HOUSING. SAFER TRANSIT. BETTER NEIGHBORHOODS.
This is possible with the right political will.
A DIFFERENT STANDARD FOR KING COUNTY
Practical. Compassionate. Accountable
If you believe government should be ambitious about helping people and equally serious about measuring results, join the campaign.