Viaduct TRL
Here’s Team Ceis’s latest campaign video for the mayor’s tunnel plan.
I have mixed feelings about the mayor’s heavy-handed campaigning for the waterfront tunnel.
Yea: I like that he’s a politician w/ an opinion (and one that rubs old school Seattle the wrong way); I like that he’s soapboxing about it; I like that he has a vision about Seattle’s future.
Nay: It bugs me that a mayor who’s already been busted by the ethics commission for campaigning out of his office is so obviously in campaign mode out of 7th floor headquarters yet again; It’s disappointing that the mayor isn’t behind the more progressive surface/transit option instead of the auto-accomodationist traffic option for a downtown freeway; and it’s annoying that Team Nickels/Ceis refuses to answer questions about paying for the tunnel (the real answer is: “We don’t have the money, but trust us, we’ll get it.”)
Ultimately, I wish this whole thing wasn’t going to a public vote. Columnist Ted Van Dyk makes his case against a public vote in this morning’s PI.
I like the humor, but let's face it, if we couldn't afford a monorail at one-tenth the eventual cost of the Mayor's underwater tunnel, we're sure not paying for a likely 40-60 percent overbudget underwater tunnel when the state is only going to pay for a viaduct rebuild.
The surface plus transit option looked pretty good, though. But the politicos want to hand out lots of construction jobs, so it probably won't happen. Maybe if we threw in a giant statue of them?