Dori: Sound Transit wants to demolish new Kent Dick’s Drive-In

Is Sound Transit going to mow down the brand-new Dick’s Drive In in Kent? That is a distinct possibility.

Sound Transit has just announced that they have to build a big staging area to store their trains in the South End.

A lot of community members want it by the Midway Landfill in Kent because — well, it’s a landfill. But Sound Transit is saying, “That would be so expensive and as you know, we love to save the taxpayers money.” Yeah, that’s been a primary concern for the most criminally corrupt public agency in the history of the United States.

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Sound Transit said that choosing the landfill would cost $1.3 billion because they would have to put a 3-foot concrete cover on top of the landfill.

So one of the cheaper sites they’re talking about taking over through eminent domain is the Pacific Highway strip mall where the new Kent Dick’s Drive-In opened just three months ago. This Dick’s Drive-In is a place that has already become rooted in the community.

Sound Transit wants to demolish all of the buildings in that strip mall, including the Dick’s Drive-In and a Lowe’s next door, forcing the people who work there out of a job. Of course, you and I get to pay for that takeover, because they have to pay market value for a property they attain through eminent domain.

Sound Transit said that this would only cost $800 million and that they want to save us money. Since when? This is the agency that is tens of billions of dollars over budget and 12 years and counting behind schedule in just their phase one plan, Sound Move. And the criminal corruption of Sound Transit might now tear down a newly beloved location in our community.

It’s mind-boggling to me. Sound Transit is so deep in the pockets of developers, and it’s the richest, most well-connected people who are using Sound Transit to funnel a big chunk of the billions we’re spending on this agency to themselves. I don’t know if the politicians are getting financial kickbacks, I really don’t. I do know that they’re getting power kickbacks, at the very least, which may be even more important than money for them. Once you get into politics — even if you got in the game with the best of intentions — it becomes such a corrupting influence.

I’ll tell you what, you’ve got the greasiest criminals moving into your neighborhood when Sound Transit comes in. They don’t shoot people in the head — they just destroy neighborhoods. And it’s all so developers who are connected to Sound Transit can get filthy rich.

Eventually, this is all on you, if you voted for Sound Transit. When you vote for a criminal agency, don’t be surprised when they commit crimes. And that’s what’s happening here.

It is unbelievable how this entire agency was constructed to give developers money and politicians power. And you and I, the taxpayers, get to pay for all of it.

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