Call to Action: Urbanist Phonebank for Prop 1 with Yes For Transit Campaign

We invite you to join us for a Yes For Transit phonebank in support of Seattle’s Proposition 1. The Urbanist co-hosted phonebank night is this Thursday (October 22nd) 5:30pm to 7:30pm, but there are plenty of other nights if you can’t make it. Prop 1 is vital to maintain our transit system. It would raise about $39 million next year and last six years, replacing the expiring six-year measure that Seattle passed in 2014.

The 2014 Prop 1–also know as the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD)–set Seattle on a course for growth in ridership and access. Seattle led the nation in transit ridership gains and 70% of Seattleites lived within a 10 walk of frequent transit by 2019, as the STBD continued to augment bus frequencies on the busiest routes around the city. The expiration of this measure without replacement would mean deep cuts to bus service and the loss of the ORCA Opportunity program which offers free ORCA transit passes to high school students and Seattle Housing Authority residents.

The Urbanist Election Committee endorsed Prop 1 (#YesForTransit!) in its General Endorsements. Our organization also fought to get a bigger measure put on the ballot after Tim Eyman’s Initiative 976 temporarily blocked car tab fees and Mayor Durkan proposed doing nothing to make up for the lost car tab revenue, which had been the primary funding source for Prop 1 previously.

If you’d like to go the extra mile, don’t just vote for Prop 1, please join us to make some calls. Register with Yes For Transit here to get an invite with the Zoom link. To start the night, we’ll get an update from the campaign and refresher on phonebanking and key points to highlight. Afterward, we’ll debrief too if you’d like to share how it went. Hope to see you Thursday evening!