On Feb. 27, dozens gathered outside the King County Jail in Seattle, wielding signs with slogans like “Care Not Cages” and “Dow, Keep Your Promise.” In the summer of 2020, King County Executive Dow Constantine did indeed pledge to close the jail, calling it “decrepit.” Since then, conditions have worsened. In 2022 alone, six people died in the jail, or after being moved from the jail to a hospital, more than in years prior. Four of those deaths were suicides, putting King County well above the national average.
For community activists in the Chinatown-International District (CID), the date of March 9 looms large. That’s when Sound Transit will make a recommendation to its powerful board of directors on the location for the new CID light rail station, an anchor for the future line connecting West Seattle and Ballard. On March 23, the board will then pick its “preferred alternative” of four current options, which Sound Transit will write up in its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). As Paul Wu, an architect and cofounder of Transit Equity for All (TEA), says, once the EIS happens, “the train has left the station.”
