Slog - The Stranger's Blog

Line Out

The Music Blog

« "The Official Snack of Hip Hop... | Save the Sonics! »

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Yet Another Cost Overrun From Team Nickels

Posted by JOSH FEIT on April 20 at 9:25 AM

What’s going on w/ Team Nickels?

Today, Bob Young at the Seattle Times has quite a scoop, reporting that Team Nickels underestimated its South Lake Union Park giveaway to Paul Allen by about 16% or $4.2 million extra on the original $25 million project.

This Allen giveaway was suspect right from the start when Nickels crooned: “With the generous help of Vulcan, we’re going to create a magnificent park.” Now, it looks more like “generous help” from tax payers, who will be paying about $9 million to pretty up Vulcan’s investment in South Lake Union, where Vulcan owns about 60 acres of property.

Cost overruns are becoming a regular thing from Team Nickels this year. In January, it came out in the PI that Team Nickels had underestimated the cost of the Fire Levy by 40% or $67 million extra on the original $167 million project. It’s an alarming trend, especially from an administration that’s currently promoting two giant expenditures: a $4 billion tunnel & a $25 million street improvement property tax levy.

Get your act together guys. You’re running a 28% average on cost overruns.

Permalink

CommentsRSS icon

1

Didn't Jolly st. Nickels pull the plug on the monorail because of cost overruns?

Posted by ahura | April 20, 2006 9:33 AM

2

I say we give them the rest of the week to come up with an alternate financing plan before we pull the plug. It's only fair.

Posted by Aexia | April 20, 2006 9:34 AM

3

Meanwhile, according to today's S. Weakly,Allen is $20 billion in the hole and using bankruptcy to escape his various bad deals - while taxpayers continue to pay his freight.

Posted by Playboy Buddy Rose | April 20, 2006 10:33 AM

4

The mother of all cost overruns is also a G. Nickels Joint: Sound Transit. Promised on the 1996 ballot to cost $3.9 billion to to the saps who ended up approving it, that rogue government will end up spending close to $10 billion to complete the U-Dist. to Seatac airport line. And that light rail line will be 10 years late becoming operational.

Here's a suggestion, when the ST2 & RTID measure (with deceptive, vague cost estimates) comes up in Nov. 2007, remember history or we will be doomed to repeat it. Just say no.

Posted by roscoe | April 20, 2006 10:48 AM

5

I want my increased Seattle Bus Service back then, which we traded for Paul Allen's SLU Streetcar.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 20, 2006 11:18 AM

6

ROSCOE -

Thanks for the reminder of Sound Transit's broken promises and cost overruns.

It's also worth noting that the "regional light rail" proposal was defeated by voters its first time on the ballot, and just barely approved by voters its second time on the ballot.

Unlike the monorail, that one narrow approval by voters was enough to make Sound Transit's light rail fiasco unkillable and unaccountable to taxpayers.

Posted by Alvis | April 20, 2006 12:17 PM

7

Only 28% average on his cost overruns? He's still doing better than Joel Horn or Tom Weeks.

Posted by Napoleon XIII | April 20, 2006 12:20 PM

8

not really, Greg's average is around 200 percent - you forget his 400 percent overruns back in the day.

how soon they forget.

I know, let's tax the Sonics to pay for it.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 20, 2006 2:32 PM

9

It's funny how pro-monorail anti-ST stumps constantly run the cost overruns and delays out there as an argument, as if the monorail, if it got built, would've never had any cost overrun or a single delay.

Posted by Gomez | April 20, 2006 6:51 PM

10

Bob Young is a dick!

Posted by dunnit | April 21, 2006 10:20 AM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 45 days old).