School boundaries would have changed without closures

After the Shoreline School District’s decision to close two elementary schools, school attendance boundaries will change throughout Shoreline and Lake Forest Park.

The boundaries, however, would have to change even without the closures. The decline in district enrollment has been accompanied by an imbalance in that enrollment among schools in the district. Just look at the widening gap in enrollment between the district’s two high schools.

Certainly, there is a similar imbalance among the elementary and middle schools with some full and others way below capacity.

Don’t tear up Eastside tracks to build light rail

County leaders want to tear up the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks, and then spend years and billions of dollars building a light-rail line on the same corridor.

What a waste.

Wouldn’t we save time and money by running commuter rail trains on the existing tracks rather than tearing up the old tracks and building an entirely new system?

One argument seems to be that by replacing the railroad tracks with light rail, there will be room for bike trails. But there must be plenty of right of way for bike trails along the existing tracks, and, where there’s not enough room, King County could certainly buy it for much less money than it would spend tearing up old tracks and building new ones.

Another argument seems to be that we should have a modern system, but I’m sure we could get that faster and less expensively by repairing the old tracks and running modern Sounder trains on them.

Sonics build for the future – somewhere else

By trading all-star guard Ray Allen for an extra pick in last week’s NBA draft, the Seattle Supersonics have stocked their roster with young players who may make them a winning team in the future, but, by giving up their best known player, they’ve killed local interest in the team and prepared the team to develop into a winner in Kansas City or Oklahoma City or Las Vegas.

King County officials erred in letting dog vote

A south King County woman is fighting charges of lying to a public official after she successfully registered her dog to vote, but it’s the County officials whose conduct is suspicious.

Elections officials should have suspected any material signed with a paw print, but they also should have questioned the dog’s eligibility to vote because he had no proof of being of voting age and, as an Australian shepherd-terrier mix, he may not be an American citizen.

Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor. Send comments to entopinion@heraldnet.com.