Backed by a lime-green metro bus outside the Olympic Athletic Club, Mayor Katie Wilson helped celebrate the completion of a years-long project to enhance the Route 40 bus line Thursday.
Civic leaders, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) executives and employees and a selection of area business people were present to commemorate the completion of a year’s long project to enhance the 13.5-mile bus line, which is one of the few public transit options connecting downtown Ballard to the heart of Seattle.
The snappily-named Route 40 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor Project focused on quality of life and safety upgrades, such as fixing broken curbs near bus stops and improving crosswalk signage, as well as improvements meant to shorten transit times like bus priority lanes. The project’s estimated cost is $39.2 million, funded through the Levy to Move Seattle, federal and state grants, and county and city services.
“A reliable bus can make a real difference in someone’s day,” Wilson said. “It means parents can spend less time commuting and more time with their families. It also helps people get to work, school, and neighborhood businesses. Investments like Route 40 are about making everyday life easier for Seattle residents.”
Fremont business owner Paul Shanrock, owner of Stampede Cocktail Club and Twist of Fate—both on 36th Ave in Fremont along Route 40—cheered the enhancements to the bus line.
“As a business owner, I can get more people safely to and from my businesses, which is fantastic,” Shanrock said. “I think they’ve done great work on the sidewalks in Fremont. Overall, it’s just a net positive and an upgrade.”
Shanrock, who has lived in Fremont for 15 years, said he wished that the light rail line to Ballard had happened on timeline, but that the improvements to the 40 were a step forward.
“Public transportation is a backbone to a great society … It’s hard because I think American culture is built on the car,” he said. “Getting that de-entrenched is tough, but you get more people riding the bus, riding the light rail, it’s only a win.”
Not all business owners applauded the Route 40 project. The owner of Pie Bar, Natalie Bleifuss, said that the ongoing construction was a factor in her decision to close her NW Market St location in 2025. “Due to the city of Seattle’s mismanaged street project, we’ve had to close this location,” she wrote on a sign in the window when she closed. Bleifuss still operates a Pie Bar location in Phinney.
What could have been a rote literal ribbon cutting turned into a chance for some civic engagement for the mayor and Ballard resident Lauren Holberg, who happened into the celebration on her way home from work and decided to see what the commotion was. After the official event ended, Holberg saw a chance to talk to the mayor and took it.
“I watched everyone in the crowd move over to take a photo with them and I went, ‘Oh, am I the only person … from the neighborhood?’”, Holberg said. “And so I just waited around, and then I saw the mayor walking towards me and I went, ‘Oh, here I go.’ And I just walked my bike right up towards her.”
Holberg, a Ballard resident and head brewer at a local kombucha company, said she was frustrated by the city holding an event in Ballard celebrating improvements to the 40 just a week after a separate meeting where residents learned that billions in additional funding would be needed to get the light rail to Ballard by 2042 at best, long after the original projected completion date of 2030.
“Y’all (Sound Transit) just had a thing at the Nordic Museum telling us that we’re not getting transit — like that we’re not getting the light rail,” she told My Ballard after the event. “So to have that in Ballard was like, to me, crazy.”
But light rail wasn’t on Holberg’s mind when she confronted Mayor Wilson on a beautiful fall afternoon in Ballard. Instead, another bugaboo of neighborhood residents, the Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail was top of mind. The Missing Link is a 1.4-mile gap in the trail which the city has been struggling to complete for decades.
There are two routes under consideration: One on Leary Way and another on Shilshole Ave NW. SDOT is currently conducting design work for completing the Missing Link on Leary due to multiyear legal battles with businesses on Shilshole, who say that putting a bike trail along an industrial route isn’t safe.
But the Leary alternative is far from a slam dunk. Earlier this month, a group of residents from Ballard Landmark held a protest to urge the city to reconsider Shilshole as a better route for the Missing Link.
Holberg said she wanted to make sure the mayor knew that a proposal to put the missing section of the trail, which she uses to commute to work to every day, on Leary isn’t the right move. Instead, she said it belongs on Shilshole.
“I live and work here, like, I need the Missing Link [to be] better,” she said. “It’s so unsafe. The most dangerous parts of my life are going to and from work just at that little part of the Missing Link.”
She said Mayor Wilson was all ears and said the mayor told her that she, too, was a proponent of the path being located on Shilshole.
“I think it’s more impactful for her to hear from her constituents face-to-face in a calm way rather than through the internet, which is mostly bots anyway.”
She also expressed frustration that the event was held in Ballard, but featured mostly Fremont and other Seattle area speakers. It pointed to a sentiment she said other Ballardians share that the neighborhood is only getting more isolated.
“You’re not connecting us … we don’t want to be an island. I want to live in a connected city.”
Featured photo: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, center right, and King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, center left celebrate the completion of the Route 40 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor Project Thursday in Ballard, Seattle. Also pictured, from left: Fremont Neighborhood Council Secretary Lydia Heard; Transportation Choices Coalition Executive Director Kirk Hovenkotter; King County Chief of Staff DeAnna Martin; Zahilay, Wilson, Seattle Department of Transportation Acting Director Angela Brady; Fremont business owner Paul Shanrock; King County Councilmember (District 4) Jorge L. Barón. Photo by Ben Wentz