• Sarah Lloyd
• Fred Savaglio of Virginia Mason and Sherry Williams of Swedish Medical Center discuss the proposed alignments.

Last night, about 100 people gathered at Seattle Central Community College for the first public meeting about the streetcar that will run from the International District light-rail station to the station on Capitol Hill. The issue, as I write about in this week's paper, is which streets the new line will take. Arranged as an open house—where free cookies and staggering amounts of coffee lined a back wall—easels of illustrations showing several streetcar routes were set up around the room like a transportation science fair. I had an outstanding oatmeal raisin cookie and checked out the maps.

At the heart of the disagreement: whether the streetcar should primarily serve the hospitals on First Hill or should run along 12th Avenue to aide the strip's economic development. You can see maps of all the alignments here.

Many people who live along 11th Avenue, one street where the alignment is almost certain to run, were concerned about the noise. And others thought the route should extend past the light-rail station on Broadway, all the way to Aloha Street. "If it doesn't extend all the way to the end of Broadway," said concerned transit advocate Shaun Darragh, "you're encouraging more businesses to move to Pike and Pine, leaving the north end of Broadway to slowly die."

More routes and a schedule for more free cookies and coffee after the jump.

“I feel like Capitol Hill is one of those neighborhoods that really gives a shit about transit,” said John Jensen, a writer for the Seattle Transit Blog. Others who gave a shit gathered around the displays to express their concerns.

The thickest crowd jammed around the displays of the 12th Avenue, First Hill and Broadway routes (rather than the International District diagrams), manned by SDOT project manager Ethan Melone. Melone said the crowd was relatively split on which alignment they preferred, but he heard no negative comments about the streetcar itself.

Some disliked the 12th Avenue route for its lack of simplicity, splitting between Broadway and 12th, with one end running north and the other going south. Members of the First Hill Improvement Association, who advocate for a route that better serves the hospitals, were also present at the meeting. And others were on the fence.

"I think having a route that's easy for people to understand, like having it run north and south on the same street just to make it as easy to use as possible... will help leverage ridership opportunities," said Capitol Hill resident Paul Symington. "I don't think there's a silver-bullet right answer, but I think it's important since this is a long-term, capital investment that's expensive that we are thoughtful about it, and do it in a manner that's as forward-thinking and long-term and serves as many people as possible."

The next two cookie giveaways are as follows:

Wednesday, December 16, 2009
6:00 pm — 8:00 pm
Yesler Community Center
917 E. Yesler Way Seattle, WA 98122

Thursday, December 17, 2009
6:00 pm — 8:00 pm
Union Station
401 S. Jackson Seattle, WA 98104

Posted by news intern Sarah Lloyd.