Photo: Sound Transit
Sound Transit on Saturday launched full 2 Line service across Lake Washington, completing the first light rail connection between Seattle and the Eastside. The Crosslake Connection — the world’s first light rail line on a floating bridge — adds stations at Judkins Park and Mercer Island, extending the 2 Line from downtown Redmond through Bellevue and north to Lynnwood. The regional network now spans 50 stations across 63 miles.
Tens of thousands of riders turned out Saturday, with the line at Judkins Park stretching nearly a mile along the I-90 Trail. Downtown Bellevue and Seattle’s Chinatown-International District are now a 20-minute ride apart, with trains running every 10 minutes.
The 2 Line runs from Downtown Redmond through the Microsoft campus at Overlake, the Spring District, downtown Bellevue, and South Bellevue, then crosses the I-90 floating bridge to Mercer Island and Judkins Park before continuing north through downtown Seattle to Northgate, Shoreline, and Lynnwood. It connects to the 1 Line at Chinatown-International District, adding frequency on shared segments.
King County Metro, Sound Transit Express, and Community Transit restructured bus routes on the same day to feed the new stations. Riders who previously needed a two-bus commute across the lake now have a single-seat ride.
Voters funded the East Link project through the ST2 ballot measure in November 2008, with an original opening target of 2023. Construction required novel engineering — crews bonded roughly 9,000 concrete plinths to the floating bridge deck with industrial adhesive, since drilling would have compromised the structure’s integrity. Quality defects in those plinths forced demolition and rebuilding of large sections, pushing the opening three years to 2026.
The 2 Line was designed to serve the region’s fastest-growing employment corridor. Microsoft oriented its Redmond campus expansion around the Overlake Village station. Bellevue has approved thousands of new housing units near its downtown stops. At Judkins Park, residents told KUOW they chose their apartment for rail proximity — replacing $30-per-day parking and 20-to-30-minute bus transfers with a direct ride across the lake.
The line also changes daily math for the roughly 70,000 workers who cross Lake Washington each direction on I-90 and SR-520. For those near a station, the 20-minute Bellevue-to-Seattle trip now costs a transit fare instead of bridge tolls and garage fees.
Saturday’s opening delivered one piece of the transit package voters approved. The rest faces a widening gap between commitments and revenue. Sound Transit has disclosed a $30 to $40 billion funding shortfall in its ST3 capital program, prompting an agency-wide reassessment called the Enterprise Initiative. The West Seattle and Ballard light rail extensions, approved by voters in 2016, face possible delays or scope reductions. A downtown Seattle tunnel is under scrutiny. The board is expected to present revised ST3 scenarios later this year.
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Cities must now permit residential development in strip malls, office parks, and retail corridors, opening roughly 30% of commercially zoned land to apartment construction.
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Washington, one of 14 states that accepts ballots received after Election Day, could be forced to overhaul its all-mail voting system if the court bars the practice.
An estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people marched from Capitol Hill to Seattle Center on Saturday in the third nationwide “No Kings” demonstration, according to the Seattle Police Department. The rally, which drew millions to more than 3,200 events across all 50 states, marked the largest of the three protests held since June 2025.
Demonstrators gathered at Cal Anderson Park starting at noon for speeches and live music before marching through downtown to Seattle Center. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown addressed the crowd before the march began. The Seattle Department of Transportation reported all streets fully reopened by 4:30 p.m. Seattle police reported no arrests or incidents.
Saturday’s protests came amid an expanding list of federal policy concerns: the U.S. military conflict with Iran, rising gas prices, a partial government shutdown, and continued immigration enforcement operations. Signs and speakers referenced unlawful detention practices, anti-trans legislation, and congressional inaction. Attendees described the events as both a political statement and a civic gathering — local bands played, attendees wore costumes, and organizations distributed information throughout the route.
More than 3,200 events were held across all 50 states, with millions participating nationwide. In Washington, dozens of rallies took place beyond Seattle — including Tacoma, Everett, Olympia, and Bellingham. Saturday’s protest was the largest of the three No Kings demonstrations since the movement began in June 2025.
The NBA’s Board of Governors voted Wednesday to formally explore expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas, advancing the league’s first addition of new franchises since 2004. The vote, which required approval from 23 of 30 franchise owners, opens a bidding process that could bring professional basketball back to Seattle for the 2028-29 season — 20 years after the SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City.
The vote authorizes the league to evaluate ownership bids exclusively for the two cities. Expansion fees are expected to range from $7 billion to $10 billion per franchise, delivering roughly $500 million to each existing owner. Seattle Kraken owner Samantha Holloway positioned for the bid days before the vote, forming a new parent company called One Roof Sports and Entertainment and acquiring majority ownership of Climate Pledge Arena from Oak View Group. Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke is expected to lead the expansion effort. Gov. Bob Ferguson, who met with Commissioner Adam Silver twice in the weeks preceding the vote, said he spoke with both Holloway and Leiweke on Wednesday and called the Sonics’ return “a top priority.”
The original departure hinged on the aging KeyArena, which the city declined to renovate to NBA standards. That facility underwent a $1.15 billion private reconstruction and reopened in 2021 as Climate Pledge Arena, now home to the Kraken, the Seattle Storm, and the Seattle Torrent. The arena seats 18,100 for basketball, removing the infrastructure obstacle that drove the Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008.
The Board of Governors must hold a second vote to finalize any expansion transactions. Commissioner Silver said the league will evaluate bids over the coming months, with a final decision possible by this summer. If approved, Seattle would rejoin the NBA after the longest absence of any former franchise city in league history.
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King County assessor data shows the city’s premier skyscrapers have shed more than a third of their value in three years, led by Amazon’s Doppler Tower (down 62%) and Day One Tower (down 59%). Seattle’s office vacancy rate sits at 26.6%, compared with the 18.5% national average.
The annual wage gap between men and women in Washington state
An analysis from the National Partnership for Women and Families found Washington has the second-widest gender wage gap in the country, behind only Utah. The gap represents the difference in median annual income between male and female workers statewide.
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Inventory is flooding the market as spring arrives, but buyers are not following. Closed sales fell year over year even as listings climbed, per Northwest MLS data. On the Eastside, where the median price hit $1.4 million, listings jumped nearly 50%.
Ballard FC and Salmon Bay FC will add 267 aluminum bleacher seats to the southeast section of Interbay Stadium starting April 6, a 25% increase in seated capacity for the 2026 season. The privately funded Phase 1, built by Enumclaw-based Nor-Pac Seating, is scheduled to finish by April 17. A potential Phase 2 would add another 267-seat section on the southwest sideline with the stadium’s first covered seating, bringing the total increase above 50% from the current 1,000 seats.
Seattle Central College plans to sell its Wood Technology Center, a $25 million purpose-built facility that opened in 2012 as the largest woodworking training center in the Northwest. The district cited structural funding challenges facing community colleges statewide. Degree programs in carpentry and boat building would stop enrolling this fall, with a pre-apprenticeship construction program relocating to a sister campus. Faculty and industry partners have pushed back, noting programs are at full capacity with strong job demand.
Residents delivered a 1,032-signature petition to City Council asking the city to keep and expand surveillance cameras in the neighborhood. The petition, organized by the Chinatown-International District Public Safety Council, cited ongoing violence and seniors afraid to use neighborhood parks. Mayor Wilson has paused camera expansion pending a data security audit but has kept existing cameras running.
The park at South Cloverdale Street no longer carries a name. Seattle and King County removed “César Chávez” from the South Park park effective immediately after a New York Times investigation revealed the labor leader groomed and sexually abused girls within the farmworkers movement. Mayor Katie Wilson and Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Teresa Mosqueda urged the action. Seattle Parks is now accepting community suggestions for a new name; the Parks Naming Committee will evaluate proposals based on the land’s history, natural features, and cultural significance.
For years, the most reliable cross-lake transportation plan has been: leave early and hope.
