- Tom Rasmussen, in the dark.
Thirteen handsome (and camera-shy) firefighters, a passel of labor and small business representatives, and roughly 100 other people eschewed the sun this evening to crowd into the Swedish Cultural Center, draw the curtains on a magnificent view, and toast Seattle City Council Member Tom Rasmussen and his quest for re-election.
Rasmussen tried to highlight his eight years of council experience working for seniors, park lovers, and small business interests, as people nibbled on cups of chicken liver pate and tuna tartare in the hot room. He spoke of cleaning up dirty alleys, renewing the parks levy, and creating the transportation benefit district last year to raise $6 million annually to paint new crosswalks and fill potholes. But judging by applause (and an informal straw poll), the room seemed united behind Rasmussen because of one cause: pushing through the deep-bore tunnel.
“I’m here in support because we want to make sure that tunnel goes through,” explained Russell Robinson, an attendee and representative with labor union Local 242. “That’s definitely a priority.”
“Tom is the chair of the council’s transportation committee,” explained Louise Chernin, Executive Director of the Greater Seattle Business Association, as she introduced Rasmussen. “Are we worried?” she asked, referring to the tunnel. “Yes!” the room shouted back. She then counseled everyone to give generously to Rasmussen’s re-election campaign because he “stands up [for the tunnel] regardless of the consequences.”
Donors have already given generously to Rasmussen’s cause. The council member has $245,867.56 on hand to fund his re-election, as of April 30. His challenger, Sandy Cioffi, has raised $8,715.02 since announcing her candidacy in early April.
For his part, Rasmussen seemed less than eager to speak of the tunnel in his vision for Seattle’s future, even though each reference to it clearly energized the room. Instead, he focused on bringing more electric trolleys to Seattle (“They’re clean, they’re quiet, and they cost far less than light rail.”) and finding money to preserve King County Metro Services in the city (“I don’t think people realize the trouble Metro’s in.”). But when he did get to the point, at the end of his long, hot, at some points rambling speech, his message was succinct:
“It’s irresponsible to rethink this project after so long,” he said. “There are only a few in the city who oppose it and they’re in the minority. I am committed to seeing this project through to successful completion.”
And the crowd went wild.
I thought I saw you there!
Things I learned:
Lili thinks Colby Underwood is cute.
Balconies are boss when there’s nice weather.
The Swedish Club is literally directly across the lake from where I live.
Fun times.
@2: indeed! The swedes have great balconies!
It’s pretty obvious that deep in the core of Seattle’s Founder Aristocracy there is sense of entitlement.
This is there Tunnel and no messy group of new comers — the 2 million who appeared in the last 20 years — is going to mess with it.
In the past they’ve gotten their way time and again.
But now?
I think someone’s got a bit of inattentional blindness..
It makes reasonable and perfect sense that the deep-bore tunnel is highly advocated by those who stand to most profit from the jobs and wages that the deep-bore tunnel would supply. Still, if each of the viaduct alternatives entailed exactly the same amount of jobs and wages for exactly the same construction unions, would the deep-bore tunnel option be the unions’ first preference? I suspect it would not.
I think they’ve made it very clear that Tom’s top priority and the priority of most of his backers is the tunnel.
Tom is the tunnel candidate. He is backing major roads and highways “regardless of consequences”.
I think we need to remember this quote:
It is overly confident, boastful, arrogant and should be remembered when you’re filling out your ballots.
#4
I’m not seeing the “unions” as the driver here. There’s plenty of work on all sorts of projects that the tunnel isn’t the be all and end all for construction.
This seems like a very specific narrow bunch who have a lot riding on the that specific project done with a specific technology.
The insane obsession of so many of these insiders and its overwhelming grip on so many of the top “leaders” of Washington State, seen as approaching near madness from an outsider’s perspective, points to something that some few feel is necessary for their survival.
Money talks. LOUDLY.
@4 Jobs.
The tunnel would probably produce more jobs. Mostly due to the fact that it would be used as a big ass utility conduit for city light, telecommunications, water, etc. Once partially completed, other companies would step in to lay down their cables before major walls or floors are sealed up. Same thing was done for the bus tunnels.
Remember in the 90s when streets were torn up every other month to lay down fiber for telecommunications?
@5 “There are only a few in the city who oppose it and they’re in the minority.”
The Elway poll suggest the surface street option (the option preferred by anti-tunnel folks) would come in dead last. Illustrating a clear minority viewpoint, would only be vindicated if gets on the ballot and citizens reject it in order to proceed with the tunnel.
@5 Quotes like that blow my mind. I work in downtown Seattle and i’m a bit of a chatty cathy on the bus and when i’m waiting around for things. The tunnel is one of my watercooler convos and I have yet to meet a single person who supports a deep bore tunnel.
It is really disgusting that a sitting Councilmember has received a quarter of a million dollars just to get re-elected. He is a known quantity and people will either vote for him or not vote for him. But then his partner’s a venture capitalist and that money didn’t come from “small” donors but from wealthy friends, which is even more disgusting.
Does Rasmussen know the difference between “the city” and “The City”?
Where’s the Debt?
You can’t build a Deeply Borrowed Tunnel without $10 roundtrip tolls and massive debt that means $10,000 extra property taxes for every household – renter or owner – in Seattle.
Period.
@8 except WSDOT figures show the DBT provides the least number of local jobs and the largest number of foreign jobs.
Both Surface Transit and a Rebuilt Viaduct create – yes, it’s shocking – MORE local jobs than the Designed By Terrorist (DBT) plan.