I didn't even vote on the tunnel. That's how indifferent I have become. Just to be contrary I'm rooting for an earthquake to topple the viaduct and kill hundreds of people.
Anybody who said there'd be no hitches has they head up they ass. Don't worry. There are gonna be problems all along, this being a huge public infrastructure project. Lots of good copy for us on the way. Just remember, keep focusing on the problems, not the solutions. Don't want to suddenly go all Oprah on us, sir.
I want to use it as a cross-mall expressway so I can get quickly between Southcenter and Northgate avoiding all the dieselly buses and other "transit" and not have to deal with that fish smell that wafts over the Viaduct.
Looks like the far left crowd underestimated the pulse of the citizens of Seattle. SCAT/PSN/SLOG were screaming bloody murder about how obscene the deep bore tunnel was to the citizens, that the majority were on your side.
Now McGinn faces being voted out of office and if he screws up again, he wont survives the primaries.
The mayor didnât even have the class to go down fighting with his troops as they campaigned hard for his cause all summer. McGinn, who had spent the previous year-and-a-half attacking the tunnel and maneuvering for this exact voteâwhich was supposedly going to be a referendum on the council as they faced the righteous anger of âthe peopleâ (to use McGinnâs favorite words), stepped away from the campaign, abandoning a cause he was fundraising for and donating staff to as recently as last spring.
Also not too classyâor professional anywayâhe didnât release a statement last night until two hours after the clear cut numbers came in. (The quiet press release said: âI worked to give the public a direct vote on the tunnel. The public said move ahead with the tunnel, and thatâs what weâre going to do.â
On the classy side, McGinn did call around to the media yesterday afternoon to set up individual sit downs with reporters to debrief today. PubliCola is meeting with McGinn at 11. Weâll report back.
All we have left now will be the smug satisfaction of being right when something goes wrong in the future. That and 5 dollars will get you through downtown. Maybe.
Oh goddammit. With no traffic mitigation, and Sound Transit still not running regular and frequent commuter trains between Everett and Olympia, it looks like Seattle is on track to become the country's Worst City for Traffic. Glad I ride a bicycle for my daily commute. My condolences to all drivers, especially in the I-5 corridor.
I'm glad the tunnel will be dug. However, thank you for the debate, Dominic, Baconcat, et al. I admit, it even got me thinking. Now let's build some good mass transit as well, something like the BART. I use the BART whenever I'm in the San Francisco Bay area, and I really like it. If money becomes an issue, just print some.
Listen, I'm not just a transit supporter, I define myself politically as a transit advocate. I've campaigned for transit. I've contributed to pro-transit campaigns. I've campaigned against a new viaduct when we had those advisory measures a few years ago. And I voted for Referendum 1.
I'm ashamed of the anti campaign for running such a cynical, evasive, misleading campaign where they threw all the FUD they could up against the wall just to see what could stick, never mind how self-contradictory that FUD was.
To me, the worst part was how they attacked the tolling plan like they were a bunch of anti-transit Tim Eyman acolytes. Tolling, my friends, is a good thing--not because it sticks it to drivers but because it contributes to a sane transportation system that, in the end, helps drivers too.
You know how you mitigate against toll avoidance in a way that actually suggests you're sympathetic to transit? Dedicate to transit certain rights-of-way that would otherwise receive spillover traffic. Don't take it from me; take it from Nelson\Nygaard, the city's consultants on viaduct replacement mitigation.
Let's hope that all the surface+transit supporters turn their attention to advocating for constructive, transit-promoting, density-promoting ways to reshape downtown Seattle the tunnel--you know, like the way Madrid did with its waterfront and its tunnel.
Like Gloomy Gus @6, though, I'm not holding my breath: Just remember, keep focusing on the problems, not the solutions. Don't want to suddenly go all Oprah on us, sir.
Why am I not holding my breath? Look at the half-assed job McGinn has done "championing" rail in this city. And let's not kid ourselves about The Stranger and Slog: their job is to generate page views and clicks, not to advance transit in this region.
Oh, and just to qualify my criticisms of the anti-Referendum 1 campaign @24, the pro campaign was hardly better, if at all. If you took their literature at face value, you'd think we were voting for a new bus tunnel.
Now I'm sure that the tunnel's core supporters will return to their regularly scheduled programming of fighting against any effort to spend a dime on transit as part of this project.
Dominic, I think your arguments against the tunnel would've been more persuasive if you had been willing to acknowledge and report on the positive aspects of the project. But your diatribes (even now) against the tunnel and the people who support it (Idiots!) simply reveal you to be a shill for the Mayor and not credible on transportation issues.
Only in Seattle is it right wing to support infrastructure spending. Let's work for more infrastructure/transit spending in a post-tunnel environment and a world-class waterfront which goes above and beyond just a place for tourists to get clam chowder.
Meanwhile, the 0.5% restaurant sales tax used to finance the construction of Safeco Field will expire four years early. So starting October 1, you can afford an extra drink when you go out. Yes, government never does anything right. (And that was the project we voted against!)
I am surprisingly unperturbed considering how much I hate the idea of the DBT. It will get built, and those who opposed it will either be proved right or not (and hopefully not--it would be great if the tunnel actually improved the city somehow). Life will go on. The sun will continue to rise and set. And we still need surface and transit improvements downtown, which we'll get someday when the economy isn't in such a mess.
I am once again feeling that familiar feeling that I've felt so often on the morning after an important election: abject disgust with my fellow voters.
I want to use it as a cross-mall expressway so I can get quickly between Southcenter and Northgate avoiding all the dieselly buses and other "transit" and not have to deal with that fish smell that wafts over the Viaduct.
Now McGinn faces being voted out of office and if he screws up again, he wont survives the primaries.
That is rather a problem, isn't it?
I hope Dom's pseudo-conciliatory tone is the start of a different tact for the Stranger. Hah.
No, just center-right of the Stranger and McGinn.
Remember, these are the same idiots that voted down the Seattle Commons.
I'm ashamed of the anti campaign for running such a cynical, evasive, misleading campaign where they threw all the FUD they could up against the wall just to see what could stick, never mind how self-contradictory that FUD was.
To me, the worst part was how they attacked the tolling plan like they were a bunch of anti-transit Tim Eyman acolytes. Tolling, my friends, is a good thing--not because it sticks it to drivers but because it contributes to a sane transportation system that, in the end, helps drivers too.
You know how you mitigate against toll avoidance in a way that actually suggests you're sympathetic to transit? Dedicate to transit certain rights-of-way that would otherwise receive spillover traffic. Don't take it from me; take it from Nelson\Nygaard, the city's consultants on viaduct replacement mitigation.
Let's hope that all the surface+transit supporters turn their attention to advocating for constructive, transit-promoting, density-promoting ways to reshape downtown Seattle the tunnel--you know, like the way Madrid did with its waterfront and its tunnel.
Like Gloomy Gus @6, though, I'm not holding my breath: Just remember, keep focusing on the problems, not the solutions. Don't want to suddenly go all Oprah on us, sir.
Why am I not holding my breath? Look at the half-assed job McGinn has done "championing" rail in this city. And let's not kid ourselves about The Stranger and Slog: their job is to generate page views and clicks, not to advance transit in this region.
Now I'm sure that the tunnel's core supporters will return to their regularly scheduled programming of fighting against any effort to spend a dime on transit as part of this project.
I'd love to be disabused of my cynicism.
WTF is wrong with people, anyway?
Well, like I say, it's a familiar feeling...