News Roundup: Finally

• Don't believe the hype on microtransit.
• 144 affordable homes going in at Mt. Baker. Finally.
• Construction beginning over Capitol Hill Station. Finally.
• 3,000 Metro drivers, an all-time high.
• Tweaks to Lynnwood Link Station designs.
• ST has a new deputy CEO ($), Kimberly Farley, a veteran of many large construction projects.
• UW Station escalator purchase was penny-wise, pound-foolish.
• Downtown Bellevue getting serious bike lanes.
• Study of Center City Connector overruns ($) and delays is itself delayed. There's a metaphor in there somewhere.
• JUMP bikeshare eyeing Seattle, but a $2 fee plus docking stations sounds like a loser.
• Three fascinating articles from The Economist ($): a convincing (!) defense of gentrification, declining public transport ridership worldwide, and e-bikes and scooter companies may be lucrative after all.
• Dow Constantine proposes $100m from lodging tax to build subsidized housing, on top of $87m approved in 2016.
• Good points about why affordable housing is especially important around transit, though I have a somewhat more nuanced take.
• Tacoma Council reviewing Route 1 BRT.
• Island Transit narrowly rejects fares. The minority is concerned that this leaves the agency dangerously exposed to the next recession.
• TriMet chief is thinking big.
• Eugene, OR reducing frequency on its BRT line to four per hour due to low ridership.
• Oregon now paying a statewide tax for transit. Such a measure is inconceivable in Washington.
• Roads are subsidized, part XXIV: the opportunity cost of giving up all that land.

This is an open thread.