2020/12/16 Council Agenda Packet

Joe A. Kunzler RE: EVERETT TRANSIT PROPOSAL TO TERMINATE ROUTE 70 With all of that, I really hope there is a plan to use any rescue funding out of Congress to keep Everett Transit's Route 70 around. 1 don't want to be "Save My Bus" but rather make clear we need to stop the dismantling of the regional transit network if at all possible. Riders and potential riders simply do not care if the bus is a red Everett Transit bus or a blue -white Community Transit bus. Second, the failure to connect the Mukilteo Multimodal Terminal to Everett Station via Seaway Transit Center with limited stops every hour and preferably every half-hour is going to haunt the region in the economic recovery. There should be a plan to properly connect multimodal terminals that state and county and local taxdollars have paid handsomely into. It is theatre of the absurd that for a community that champions Paine Field so much at every opportunity will not serve with transit in the recovery the Future of Flight — the # 1 Snohomish County tourism attraction — hourly. Finally, it is the premier theatre of the absurd that we have a transit network that has Everett Transit have responsibility for serving Mulcilteo via routes 70 & 18 — the latter of which a necessary backup to Sounder North — and seemingly no plan as of 14 December 2020 to hand off those regional routes to a regional transit agency like either Community Transit or Sound Transit. That's something worthy of discussion with the Rethink Transit teams in the next few months. So, I guess this is the premier torch I will have to carry while lobbying for fixing Everett Transit's fiscal crisis. Very thoughtfully; Joe A. Kunzler growlernoise.gmail.com Page 3of3