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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
You may be correct about their intentions but the problem is that the Democrats have indeed been the ones responsible for this massive screw-up.
And I am a Deep Blue Democrat.
So let's not do stupid shit like this in the first place, eh?
Let's see if our local Dem politicians are smart enough to admit that they were wrong. Remember the old adage about public relations: Get the bads news out as quickly as possible. Don't let the sore fester.
Hooray.
Agreed. I am aware.
But we should defend stupid Democrats?
Democrats with a herd instinct and no common sense?
City Councilmembers who disliked the Mayor so much that they couldn't overlook personalities to defend Seattle?
To defend banalities like Gregoire?
It's too bad that too many Democrats went along with the parade. But they did. They fucked up, and badly.
Step 2: Build a massive new viaduct with bigger-than-ever ramps that screw up the waterfront more than ever.
Step 3: Blame liberals, Democrats, and Muslims for cost overruns and refuse to ever pay a penny to any major projects in the Seattle metro area, particularly transit projects.
Step 4: Blame the same people for the fact there are no projects in the area.
Step 5: Spend billions of Seattle's tax dollars in rural Eastern Washington counties, forever.
I'd add a step where they somehow use anger about this to win support in the city and turn it Republican, but that will never happen because the whole point is they hate Seattle, liberals, Democrats, and everything we stand for and would rather destroy us than rule us. That's an even bigger factor than most of the non-Dori Monson demographic of the city would never fall for their bullshit.
https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill/5646
Maybe if enough Seattlites support it, our stupid, stupid legislators will actually listen to us for one. Fear of losing their base seems to be the only thing that motivates them.
There, wasn't that easy?
You can't just walk away from something like this.
Also, if this tunnel fails, you can forget about ever having another tunnel project in downtown, which means no more transit projects ever. We're going to be stuck with the shitty Bus Tunnel forever.
Huh? You missed some of us on your reference to Kohl Welles.
And yes, the whole political establishment was stupid. But Seattle tipped the balance to a deep-bore tunnel.
The Democratic establishment and bright lights like Bruce Chapman were responsible.
I bet that STP is laughing all the way. The only thing which we can hope for is that they drop Bertha - literally, but of course with all workers safely out of the way - so that STP agrees to just walk.
And it's absurd to think that this project will doom other, lower-risk, transit projects. The Downtown Tunnel is proof that tunnels downtown can be done if they're planned correctly. Plus, Sound Transit has a much better track record than WSDOT, as evidenced my the slightly ahead of schedule and under-budget tunnel from downtown to U-Dist.
Supporting this boondoggle won't get us a transit tunnel any quicker, and may in fact waste funding that would be better spent improving our street grid, waterfront, and transit network.
I'm disappointed this bill was sponsored by out of town Republicans, but I will support almost any effort to stop throwing good money after bad for car infrastructure we don't need.
@21 - Uhm, Democratic Gov. Gregoire pushed the fuck out of this project against the popular will? Just a guess.
This is only going to get more hilarious as it circles the drain.
I do wonder what the tunnels could be reused as. It would be this generation's ramps to nowhere (Remember, there were two those originally also)
Your approach is easy but a non-starter.
The vast majority of the population want an additional auto route. (I personally think that a surface arterial -- think SR 99 from the north end of the Aurora Bridge to say 145th -- could work fine. Think of it and design it as a boulevard.)
But lots of cars at the surface between the Waterfront and First/Western doesn't fulfil the waterfront fantasy and in fact cuts off the upper CBD from the waterfront even more than the Viaduct ever did.
So at some point exhaustion will triumph.
You heard it here first.
We will repair the Viaduct.
So how many bills get passed on a state wide vote to be the only district that voted yes and the only one it would benefit was Seattle, that get crammed down Eastern Washington, increased taxes and obligations for something that they will never see or benefit from. Time to end the bottomless pit of money for tis.
Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle) says she doesn't anticipate the bill passing the Senate. "I glanced at the bill and found it interesting right away that the two sponsors, Senators Baumgartner and Ericksen, do not represent districts in Seattle or, for that fact, anywhere near Seattle," Senator Kohl-Welles wrote in an e-mail. "I’m not sure how they would respond if Seattle legislators were to introduce legislation to stop large projects in their jurisdictions."
DUH? It happens on a weekly basis, Eastern WA gets stuck flipping part of the bill for Seattle endless pit perks by higher state taxes, and other things.
ST collects money from sales tax revenue. The construction times were pushed back because not enough revenue was coming in. According to project timetables that arent very very old, Ulink is about 8 months ahead of schedule.
Like I said before, if you want to talk to folks about transit, head over to STB. It has very informed writers and commenters, and I've learned a lot there; as well as being pointed to a bunch of interesting source documents.
STB is a recycled Sound Transit talking point zone. You'll never learn anything about Seattle transit from it. That's like listening to the Downtown Seattle Association about "urban renewal". STB is the same talking heads saying the same things. All style, but no substance. I've met some of the writers. This isn't my first time at this rodeo. They weren't informed then, and they're not informed now. You'll find more substantive conversation over at the pi.com.
If Bertha continues to fuck up after the repairs, then she should totally be put down, but let's at least give them a chance to get back on track.
Welcome to Slog!
I know it's fun to hop on the old "East is Paying for the West" roller coaster, but do you care to explain? Because it's actually the other way around. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/K…
This is why I refuse to claim a political party.
I don't care what party someone is from or where their district is (the entire state is paying one way or the other for this debacle)
Bertha needs to be dead and buried
Or at least be turned into a cool underground bar.
This pit needs to be filled in and the groundwater pumping which is destroying property and threatening public safety needs to stop.
I don't care what political party the people stepping up to make that happen are from.
It won't stop.
It will get MUCH worse.
Just end it and get real.
Time to wake up and realize the Whale is dead and rotting under the Ferry Terminal.
And I want to LIVE!
@BerthaDeBlues
Tons of people, including this very paper, thought it was all a bad plan.
If a light rail line were already under construction and close to completion, I could see doing away with the viaduct/tunnel entirely, but that line isn't even coming up for a vote until 2016 and wouldn't be in service for another decade even if it does pass.
It's nice to think that because people live in the city that they never move more than they can carry in a backpack on the light rail. But I'm guessing those people have never tried to haul thousands of pounds of building materials from one spot to another, repeatedly.
I-5 is already impassable when the reversible lanes are heading in the opposite direction, and driving I-405 adds close to 100 miles to a round trip between North Seattle and say West Seattle. There are few good options aside from tolling the crap out of I-5 through downtown at this point if the tunnel fails.
The contractor broke their drill bit off in the hole. It's their responsibility to run down to the hardware store and buy a new one.
Who pays for that? Apparently the WSDOT director didn't answer the question very convincingly for the senators.
If STP has racked up 200 million in unknowns over 10% of digging, then a simple calculation leads to 2 Billion over budget for soil and hidden debris unknowns for the taxpayers. Very ugly.
the ballot had two questions: 1. tunnel yes or no? 70% voted no tunnel. 2. new viaduct yes or no? something like 55% voted against a new viaduct. did you even live in seattle when this vote took place???