Comments

1
I'm designing my poster as I type. "City Council to Seattle Citizens: Fuck You!"
2
Screw peaceful, politicians need to learn how to be scared of the people. It's time to show the council that they're OUR bitches and it's not the other way around!!
3
End the Bore-ish Council
4
"Tunnel to nowhere".
5
Right, because building an underground roadway to reclaim the waterfront is an act of evil. A vibrant waterfront is tantamount to apocalypse. There really is no other valid perspective on the subject.

Everyone, storm city hall now and demand our waterfront be paved over with a big surface highway!
6
@5 some of us aren't against the tunnel per se, but the idiotic, "opposed to dissent", and other screw ups of this tunnel. And still the question remains, who pays for it?
7
How can they doubt the sincerity of the mayor's deeply held beliefs about the overwhelming power of the overrun clause? I don't think they should be allowed to keep above the fray. Why won't they risk what remains of the council's ability to deal with the governor and legislature on all the other issues our city needs their cooperation with, in order to draw a line in the sand over the remote possibility that the overrun clause could ever mean anything real?

I mean, if I'm afraid, shouldn't everyone have to be or else?
8
@5, a vacant waterfront is not a vibrant waterfront. What makes a waterfront vibrant is one thing: tons of boats going in and out. Not vast flat areas right downtown.
9
@6
Right, Chopp's overrun clause could bankrupt every citizen in the city!

Far better to pave over the waterfront at our own expense, and discourage any more tourists from coming here and paying the enormous hotel, car rental, restaurant, and bar taxes that fund our local government.
10
@8: Perhaps we should expand the protest north to Bellingham and Fairhaven. They seem think that parks, boardwalks, cafes, restaurants, hotels, residential property, and bars make for a vibrant waterfront. Same goes for Vancouver, BC. And Portland.

Seattle is the last bastion in the PNW to keep its waterfront from having any appeal. Good people, we must stand our ground.
11
For anyone interested in any peaceful protests: Pipl.com lists a Richard Conlin as living at 706 34th Avenue.
12
@11 Thank you anonymous commenter for bravely providing those personal details. Let's all go harass evil, power-mad Richard Conlin and his evil family!
13
The sooner we get the recall petitions printed, the better.
14
seandr, you do recognize that we can get all those nice things by just tearing down the viaduct, right? And by building a tunnel, with all its "air rights" and arbitrary valuations, we'll get property so insane in cost that we'll end up with an overpriced Miami-style waterfront district, right?

You did know about the heavy lobbying by real estate associations, right?

You do know there won't be a park, right?

Okay, good :)
15
Who's for shoving this up our ass and who's against? I already wrote Conlin an email: richard.conlin@seattle.gov.

Let them know this failure will be their legacy.
16
@14: I agree, Baconcat, it would be a disaster for Seattle to have a waterfront where people can live. I say pave the damn thing over and let all the showoffs and spendthrifts stay in Miami. That'll show the fancy-pants set.

Perhaps you haven't heard, but Richard the Terrible does indeed plan to build a waterfront park, as if his personal tunnel wasn't bad enough. No other viaduct option would do that.

We must stop it. This is The Inquisition, Stonewall, Little Rock, Montgomery, Rodney King, The Chihuly Museum, and all the other historic battles for social justice all over again, right in our front yard!

I'll meet you at Conlin's place - I'll bring the megaphone and you bring the squeaky voice and trite protest chants. Today is a bad day for oppression!
17
This is what happens when Seattle politicians try to do something without letting every idiot and his dog weigh in. The Stranger now and forever has zero credibility when it whines about Seattle "process."
18
@17 we are the Seattle process. The Powers That Be, who we pretty much kicked out the door in the last election cycle, are still trying to pretend Seattle citizens are their serfs, not their masters.
19
@17 Me and my dog have addressed the public concerns more than this council has.
20
@10, Vancouver's central-city waterfront isn't what you'd call "vibrant", certainly not compared to the many parts of their downtown that ARE vibrant, and are not directly on the water. Most of it is brand-new hideous buildings surrounded by nothingness -- which is exactly what every plan for our waterfront entails.

The beach at English Bay is pretty nice, and Granville Island -- which resembles the waterfront WE ALREADY HAVE. And they're not central-city.

Conlin's "waterfront park" is an abomination that will sap the life of the city into Elliot Bay to drown. I cannot say the words "windswept plaza enough". Maybe "national homeless encampment" will make it clearer. Not to mention the fact that there's no money for a park.

What makes waterfronts interesting is activity, not the absence of activity. The kinds of "parks" imagined for the waterfront are more appropriate for the countryside than the center of supposely important city.

If they tear down the viaduct, they should fill the entire space with a rabbit warren of little alleyways, like Pike Place (the street, not the market), where cars are allowed but difficult due to the crowds of people crossing everywhere. Four-story buildings, with shops below, offices above, and a few residential places. The kind of place that has proven over and over again to be what makes cities valuable.

What we're getting instead is pure Bellevue.
21
@20 If your rabbit warren includes whorehouses, then perhaps the idea has some merit.
22
I'll be making my sign to say, "COUNCIL TO CITY: DROP DEAD," in snarky reference to this:
File:Ford_to_City.PNG">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_t…
24
This is what our Waterfront should be like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fells_Point…
25
Could have the best of all worlds and build not an above ground rabbit warren of alleys, but an underground rat warren of tunnels! Just think of it: hundreds of tiny tunnels riddling the earth under all of downtown, filled with interesting people working, shopping, gathering together. Pale, sightless people who communicate with hypersonic squeaks, yes, but interesting pale, sightless urbanite mole people living a vibrant underground urban life.

I know you think I'm being silly but think about it. Name one truly great city that doesn't have a vital mole people population. The mole people are the hallmark of the new urbanist vision of a healthy city.

All I'm saying is mole people rock my world. Always have.

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