Two weeks ago, I saw the light and converted - to supporting a tunnel to replace to Alaskan Way viaduct.
I am not insane, drunk, or criminally negligent. As a community organizer recently informed me, I am one of the least popular people on Beacon Hill. I assure you I belong to no inner circle. I'll not be invited to His Honor the Mayor's next celebrity ball, or offered a cushy gig on the public payroll, or asked to the ribbon cutting should "tunnel-lite" make it to the finish line, except to pick up the recycling.
When I confessed my new perspective to activists I know, they pitied me, and pointed me to websites containing truth as they see fit. "Vote no and no," one confided, using San Francisco's teardown of the Embarcadero Freeway as an example. "It had no effect on the city."
I agree with city council member David Della on the need for a state Route 99 connection because Seattle, unlike San Francisco, is a working port. The argument that the Port of Seattle is south of downtown and doesn't need a north-south connection doesn't wash with me. The notion that surface routes and I-5 can absorb the traffic is wishful thinking.
Council member Della is a public servant of integrity and intelligence, who has championed causes that made a difference for my neighborhood. So has Nick Licata, another leader I hold in high esteem and gratitude for helping my community out of a tight spot with a notorious apartment building. Yet, on this one, I'm respectfully on the other side of the aisle.
A lot of arguments have come my way. Some are founded in well-intentioned reality. Social service programs are desperate for funding: our nation's safety net has been dropped in favor of a foreign war. Seattle schools should be solvent, yet the tax base for making up the $1.4 billion difference between the tunnel and state and federal funds slated for a viaduct would never apply for social spending. It's sad but true.
Other arguments reflect anger, and there's reason for anger in Seattle. A few years ago, when Sound Transit foisted its dysfunctionality on us, the main reason offered for the Beacon Hill tunnel was the route Seattle had voted on - through the Dearborn cut - was an engineering impossibility. Today, Dearborn is the preferred route for light rail to the Eastside, down to I-90, over to Mercer Island and Bellevue.
Fast, loose agency talk, plus politics of personal destruction pushed by a handful of supporters of that tunnel, did not make me a lover of big holes in the ground. Last fall's levy to fund basic services and the ongoing public safety budget crisis don't make for a lot of faith in City process.
In Seattle, blood pressure rises with collective consciousness turned sour. The monorail became a battle between powerful downtown real estate interests; it was finally killed by incompetent management. Light rail bureaucracy wasted $1 billion of taxpayer money before Senator Patty Murray got the feds to bail it out. We have two stadiums we didn't want.
I love going to home games I can't afford at Mariner Stadium. If I had the chance to vote on it again, I'd still say, "no." Now the Sonics want new digs at public expense, even if they are in Renton.
The "Seattle Way" is a euphemism akin to what popular girls told me in high school when I asked them out: "No way!"
Some arguments favoring the tunnel are red herrings, too. My favorite is the dig will make Seattle a "world class city." Ordinary citizens can do that, not sports teams, art commissioners, pieces of infrastructure, or pronouncements from politicians who assume if they use the phrase, some class will rub off on them.
So, why vote for the tunnel?
It may be a symbolic gesture, it's an advisory vote, after all, but I believe our city is better with more public space than less. The tunnel offers that, over seven acres; the state's larger viaduct proposal will compromise what little public waterfront space there is today, and a surface solution will turn Pioneer Square into a parking lot.
The tunnel can be designed so emergency vehicles can access drivers and vehicles who need assistance. A tunnel could be converted to better use, like light rail, when our future demands it. It will be safer than a viaduct, as the speed limit - and so gas guzzling - will be less than it is today, and if you really care about gas consumption, you should buy a hybrid.
Yes, that view of the mountains will be denied drivers, but you shouldn't be looking at the scenery, gosh darn and golly. Keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road, and get off the phone.
At best, a vote should reflect your best vision.
As for my personality, you'll just have to excuse me for now, and any past mishaps. I suffer from a little known but often noted medical condition, OPD: Obnoxious Personality Disorder. I've talked to doctors; one wrote me a prescription for happy pills, but as they were chocolate flavored and sugar coated, I doubted their efficacy. I understand I can get a transplant, so I'm saving up and looking for a more popular donor: Maybe a raccoon or opossum, or maybe yours.
Beacon Hill writer and activist Craig Thompson may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.
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