News The Surface/Transit Letter
posted by on February 16 at 16:31 PM
I just interviewed Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, who organized the “anti-rebuild and study the surface/transit option already” letter that I Slogged about earlier today.
First, Senator Kohl-Welles says that more than the nine legislators who signed today’s letter actually support her position, but they weren’t ready to sign the letter. (Doesn’t sound like solid support to me, but….)
Senator Kohl-Welles (a board member of Transportation Choices Coalition, which, disappointingly, did not get behind the surface/transit option) says she too is not yet “completely convinced that the option is viable, but it’s an option that needs to be explored.” (Let’s see if TCC, supposedly an enviro group, will finally come out and support surface/transit.)
A supporter of Nickels’s bigger tunnel plan (the $3.5 billion to $5.6 billion one that got tabled for tunnel lite), Kohl-Welles says the surface/transit plan has “always been my fall-back plan.” She says the rebuild is “anathema” to her and she will not support it.
She explained that she and Senator Adam Kline (who also signed today’s letter) met with WSDOT last year and were convinced that the mitigation plans developed to accommodate drivers while the viaduct was closed during construction were similar enough to a surface/transit option that the plan has potential. “A lot of that will have to be done anyway,” she says.
I asked Senator Kohl-Welles if it was realisitic to halt the rebuild—given Governor Gregoire and House Speaker Representative Frank Chopp’s push to move forward with it. Senator Kohl-Welles said: “With all due respect, the speaker has excellent political skills, but we also have a senate.”
And we also have the local voters, in Seattle, who are unlikely to want to pay for all the cost overruns of the already too-expensive tunnel.
Unless they put the Surface Plus Transit on the ballot, isn't this a bit late?
Attagirl!
The state legislature is irrelevant in the Viaduct debate, unless both the House and the Senate take coordinated action. So what if the Senate can block Chopp. The Governor doesn’t need him anyway, she can impose a rebuild as things currently stand.
The only way the state legislature could stop a rebuild is if both the House and Senate passed legislation saying none of the gas tax money could be used for it.
Then what could be done for the surface/transit option? The $2.4 billion in gas tax money could conceivably be spent for a surface road, if the Governor agreed. However, none of it could be spent for transit, because the 18th Amendment to the Washington State Constitution prohibits it. Gas tax revenues can only be spent on roads.
What can the legislature do then? Dedicate the $400 million it has in the pipeline for the Viaduct this session to transit. Put a ballot measure before state voters to repeal or amend the 18th Amendment. Or amend the RTID authorizing legislation to mandate money for transit for this corridor, and backfill other road projects from gas tax money dedicated to the Viaduct.
Otherwise, there will be no funding for a surface/transit option, no matter how good it is, and the Governor will be able to say “there’s no money” and she will roll you. Unless your state legislators are doing these things, they are doing nothing for you.
Surface/transit supporters need to stop acting like 10th century astrologers looking to the heavens for hopeful signs, and examine how state government really works. I know leaving the Seattle cocoon is terrifying, but it will be worth your time.
We will if only the Governor and rebuild-supporters stop acting like GM executives and support options that aren't based on car capacity.
Since we don't have any real transit and even if we started tomorrow it will be at least 20-30 years before the infrastructure is in place, cars will have to be dealt with, like it or not.
It's pretty incredible that people think that these cars will go away. I'm sure those like Cary Moon who live downtown are fine with that. Most of the people in here don't seem to have to worry about how they get to work.
I'm calling my legislators and telling them that I don't care what they do as long as it connects to the Battery Street Tunnel. Surface, aerial or tunnel makes no difference to me. I'll also tell them they need to figure out mass transit now for the region and if the Seattle legislators can't get their shit together for the good of the city there will be people that will seek to take them out in the next election cycle. I care less if it's Jeanne, Jamie or Joe. At least some of them showed up at the 34th District Dems meeting the other night (Like Poulson, Dow Constantine, et al.) 200-300 people with transportation the key factor and nothing to report except in Connelly's column? Or was Barnett checking out light rail in another city?
Since The Stranger is sooooo pristine with their transportation thinking, what is that paper going to do to decrease the amount of transportation needs for distribution of the paper? Put your money where your mouth is. Yes Dan, I'm mocking your paper. It's a business with transport needs. Where's that perspective? Or will there be single driver vehicles and trucks doing the distribution?
I want to see transit done- and done now. But The Stranger and the surface people put the cart before the horse. Let's not kill our city by creating Manhattan style problems until we at least have some of the infrastructure in place. Or maybe the Stranger can start renting out some of its office space to those that will need places to live closer in.
Here's the thing about Chopp that makes him so funky -- he is NOT in face for the re-build, but this fact was completely transcended by his hate for/fear of the tunnel. Seems like he is a man looking for a way to be convinced that surface/transit will work. I think if someone spends a little time trying to convince him (Sims??) he'll come around.
As for funding -- I'm no expert, but the state was already planning to pay for a bunch of "stuff" that would have to be done during construction, which seems to me to be the place to start when it comes to the surface option. For me it has always come down to: If we can live without the capacity of the damn thing for 2, 3, or 4 years during construction, then we can live without that capacity in the long-term.... seems like a simple concept to me, but I'm sure it's more complicated than that...
Any one getting that creepy feeling that Josh Feit, the Taliban leader for the Monorail, is similarly gone nuts over a new transportation project?
It would be comforting as a reader and a citizen if the Stranger just bullshit-tested its own presumptions. Doug MacDonald of WSDOT raised a number of legit issues about the surface/transit/lovechild. Example: if there is no new corridor, how do the buses move better on arterials taking more vehicles. According to MacDonald, the city council's own consultant flagged this issue.
The viaduct issue is really important as a land use and transportation question. The Stranger's foot-stomping on this question is not the leadership that's needed in the news media.
Josh has zero credibility. He goes crazy on a topic and everyone else who sees it differently is ridiculed.
Dan Savage--here's a dare: Pick a decent writer to pick apart the surface/transit/lovechild concept. See what they find and what they report.
Double dare.
The Rebuild will never happen. I have explained why extensively on this blog and my blog. The anti-Rebuild uproar I hear now (and with which I heartily agree) simply confirms my opinion.
The "Repair & Prepare" will be the last man standing and a compromise -- albeit grudging, as are most compromises -- which can be accepted by all parties.
I know that Peter Steinbrueck supports such an approach and I wish he would discuss it more often.
It is tragic that the Governor's office doesn't seem to be listening.
A friend wrote and asked if all the politicos have their heads buried in the sand when it comes to the Viaduct.
Every politician in the State -- even Frank Chopp, I have to say with sadness, who is doing heroic work killing the Tunnel -- seems to be blind to the obvious.
• The Tunnel died because there was no money.
• The Rebuild will die because there is intense opposition which Gregoire et al will not find worth bucking.
• The "naked" Surface/Transit will not gain enough support because it will be perceived as too vast & risky an "intervention" (as the architects put such things) -- which it is.
• Because of political exhaustion, other options (such as the Cable Stay bridge) which might have been truly viable, will never be fairly assessed.
• Repair & Prepare will be "the last man standing."
That's the story, folks.
Can someone explain how the surface option is more "green" than the tunnel or rebuild?
As far as I can tell, 6 lanes of traffic is 6 lanes of traffic, whether it's above, below, or at the surface.
@10: Sean- agreed- with the added component that a lot of the same traffic will be moving much more slowly in average MPH, which means more unclean air.
@6: The "can live without the capacity for 2-3 years so we can live without it long-term" idea doesn't sit well with me for a couple of reasons: (a) we're going to be packing in 1m+ more people over the next couple of decades and while single occupancy vehicle trips need to be lessened there will still be a great many of them, and (b) people like me are more than willing to live with a lot of pain for a few years but don't want to do so for the next 30-40 years. Like I've said before, tearing out roads capacity should come AFTER we establish the transit infrastructure, not before. To do otherwise risks our economy and people.
Dave Coffman: "people like me are more than willing to live with a lot of pain for a few years but don't want to do so for the next 30-40 years."
Funny - that's the same sentiment that leads me to support the tunnel. I'll happily bear the short term tax burden so that I can enjoy the long term benefits of a public, pedestrian-friendly waterfront.
In any case, my original question is an honest one - how exactly do six lanes of slow moving surface traffic benefit the environment? How does it improve the ambience of the waterfront?
I'd be truly grateful if someone from the surface crowd would explain this.
SEAN Wrote:
"I'd be truly grateful if someone from the surface crowd would explain this."
Sean, nobody can and nobody will because, frankly speaking, there is no plan....only vague ideas.
The fact that Senator Kohl-Welles is a supporter is no surprise, but then she was an ex-officio board member of the Seattle Monorail Project who has never explained her role and responsibilities in the SMP disaster. I suspect her engineering experience and insights are limited to what WSDOT or other agencies will tell her, and I don't believe she has been willing to study and ask and/or challenge the difficult questions regarding the various proposals before us. She is the state
senator in my district, and I think her analysis of Viaduct issue to be exceptionally shallow to date.
---Jensen
Jensen,
She was also a member of the Kingdome Stadium Renovation Task Force. You know, the group that was totally suckered into accepting the study Paul Allen had ginned up after the original study King County had commissioned was buried by Ron Sims when it inconveniently illustrated that renovating the Kingdome was in fact a cost-effective option (this is the cover-up that Armen Yousoufian has succesfully challenged in court under the Open Meetings/Records act).
When I accused her of not doing her due diligence while participating in the Stadium Demolition Task Force (which is what it turned out to be), she got real mad at me. Of course, the buried study later came to light and proved my point, but I just don't think she has the technical expertise and/or inclination to go beyond whatever GIGO information she is spoon-fed by staff on this kind of stuff.
Armen Yousoufian. There is a name you often don't hear, however by anyone's definition he should be considered a local hero. Considering the Stranger's fear of Sims, it is unlikely we'll ever hear much of Armen in the Stranger's pages. Rather sad too, as Armen's hard work and personal risk is a fascinating and courageous story. It completely turned me away from Sims. I now think the guy is a out of control.
---Jensen
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