The future of regional transit is on the table, and more than trains and light rail is at stake. This is a historic moment for the Sound Transit Board – and my question is, what history are its members going to make?
Like many agencies nationwide, Sound Transit faces rapidly escalating costs in nearly every area, and now it needs to decide how to close a $34.5 billion budget deficit. One option being considered is to delay the Tacoma Dome light rail extension.
A recent news article quoted me saying, “Honestly, I was pretty pissed off. I was angry for our region, our city, my district,” when the Tacoma City Council discussed its joint letter to the Sound Transit Board at its evening Council meeting on March 31, 2026.
While that quote accurately reflects my frustration, I want to share the full context of why I am angry. As I detailed during the preceding Council study session at noon on March 31, 2026, I’m angry because time and again, when governments face scarcity, people in power often choose the “haves”, those with access, resources, and opportunity, while leaving the “have-nots”, those further from power and whose voices are overlooked, to fend for themselves. Delaying the extension to the Tacoma Dome will continue to perpetuate this historic pattern of inequity.
We must center investments in areas where high-capacity transit will have the most transformative impact on working families. The Eastside of Tacoma, which I represent, is exactly such a place. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 11% of Eastside residents were able to work remotely compared to 40% up north. Not only must our residents physically commute to their jobs, 63% must travel outside of the city to do so. We’re more reliant on automobiles (82%) and HOV lanes (15%) to navigate an increasingly congested Interstate 5 corridor and cannot use alternatives such as walking and biking currently enjoyed at far higher rates by our northern neighbors. When looking at the data, the reality of the daily commute for my residents and the potential for light rail to alleviate it is stark. For my district, light rail arriving at the Tacoma Dome is not a convenience; it is an economic necessity.
Tacoma’s Eastside is a richly diverse, majority-BIPOC area where 33% of residents speak a language other than English and where the median household income is only two-thirds that of the north. It is also a place that demonstrates persistent voter apathy and abysmal voter turnout due to deeply ingrained distrust borne from generations of underinvestment. We at the City of Tacoma are tackling this issue head-on by intentionally centering equity in all of our work. We utilize our Equity Index to inform data-driven decisions and close the opportunity gaps created by historic disinvestment in low-opportunity neighborhoods.
Sound Transit needs to follow our lead.
Now is the time to put equity first and make transformational change for our region. The Sound Transit Board should prioritize closing the opportunity gap in our region, and connect those with the least resources to the regional transportation system.
This is the history we want to leave behind for the next generation.