City And This Isn’t Campaigning… How?
posted by on March 5 at 16:35 PM
Marybeth Turner, a staffer for the (pro-tunnel) mayor’s office, just sent out a “media clarification” about today’s Seattle Times story on plan s for a rebuilt Alaskan Way Viaduct. The “clarification” contains two “corrections”:
The following statement in today’s Seattle Times article about the Alaskan Way Viaduct needs clarification:“The state expects a mere three months of total shutdown, keeping catastrophic congestion from becoming a way of life.”
Correction… [T]he full closure for the elevated structure could last up to six months.
[The state Department of Transportation]ss January 2007 plan set for the elevated structure also shows there would be up to 7 years when SR 99 would be closed nightly and weekends and 7 years that the corridor would be reduced to two-lanes in each direction. …
Additionally, the following statement in the same Seattle Times article needs clarification:
“Construction of a tunnel would close the highway completely for nearly three years.”
Correction:
The estimated full closure for the tunnel is 27 - 33 months. The article uses the low end estimate for the range of closure for the elevated structure (3-6 months) by stating it would only be closed, “a mere three months” while the high end of closure for the tunnel is listed. To use an equal comparison to the elevated structure, construction closure for a tunnel should be listed as 27 months.
First of all, dickering over three months-vs.-six and 27-vs.-33 glosses over the fact that, in any case, building the mayor’s tunnel will mean significantly longer shutdowns than the elevated rebuild.
Second, I can’t recall the mayor’s office ever sending out a clarification when it hasn’t served Nickels’s own political interests. (It’s hard to imagine them correcting misinformation that cast the tunnel in a positive light.) If they were in the business of issuing corrections every time the papers screwed something up, that would be weird (no other city office sends out blanket “corrections” to multiple media outlets), but it wouldn’t smack of campaigning the way this self-serving press release (and a similar one issued January 5) does.

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Carrie
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does the city charter allow for the impeachment of mayor big load?
How about a plain old recall?
neither are possible - the sheer fact you don't like him has no bearing on a recall
try to beat him next time - but remember c. hill is a low turnout area and can't elect the mayor at all
so stranger danger hipsters don't like him - so what?
run stephanie pure against him, or that guy from the U - elections for mayor are serious, not joking shit
NIckels had a vision, if it doesn't go - well - so much for that - after the fracas is over, people will connect with his hard work and record
and end up saying the tunnel idea was great, just could not afford it
erica, you are just getting boring on the topic. you did a good long feature, well done. now rest and let people vote
oh I know you think every fart is news, but really, it isn't
and mary kay is good stuff, glad to see it endorsed here, drag queens use it by the pound, ask dan
Yeah, Erica, you heard the man. Once an issue has been reported, you should stop covering it - even when there are new developments. Added facts and extra information just make it harder for voters to decide what's really going on. The only solution is to withhold further information until all the ballots have been counted, the referendum overturned, the ground broken, the construction completed, and all the bills paid - in 2050.
We, the United Readers of Slog, have reached our threshold capacity for any issue related to the viaduct (or transportation generally). Our utter exhaustion can by proven by the the URS's reticence over the past week to comment on any post related to the viaduct.
Thank you, Eric, for having the courage to face down Erica, who has a remarkably similar name, but a radically different set of priorities. Now, let's get back to the important business of looking at butt cracks and wanting for free booze.
ECB, pull your empty little head out of your fat ass. If anything the no replacement and tunnel people need to work together to prevent a rebuild (which I think both camps agree would be a disaster). Once the rebuild (which Madam Governor is all moist over) is defeated, then lets fight out when we put in the tunnel. (After your solution fails, or immediately.)
Yeah, that's a pretty cogent argument YGBKM.
Too bad you had to go and completely fuck up any semblance of credibility you might have generated, by penning that juvenile opening sentence.
Erica's bummed that none of her errors got a mayor response. Hmm.
Amen on the Viaduct stuff. Heard enough.
Can we get back to Darcy? Or Josh going bald?
going?
Congratulations, across the field of battle, to Erica Barnett for being honored as journalist-of-the-year by the Seattle Municipal League.
So you fault the Mayor's office for responding to the Governor's coordinated effort to minimize and distort the impact of constructing the new viaduct. Yes, the mayor's office is engaging in a campaign debate, but let's not forget the governor is doing even more campaigning with state resources.
No.11: I agree (and I don't like the elevated any more than the mayor does). But I wasn't talking about Nickels v. the governor - I was talking about Nickels's response to the Times, which seems entirely out of proportion to the "errors." It's standard for politicians to request corrections, including for extremely minor and nonsubstantive errors and mere differences of opinion; it's not standard for politicians to send those correction requests to media outlets citywide.
Fair enough. But that is a pretty tough standard to hold elected officials to. At some point they do have first amendment rights, no?
I think the bigger scandal is the complete co-option of the state transportation department by the governor. I say this as no fan of the mayor -- I voted no on the tunnel. I think her target at the moment is actually Ron Sims, hence this silliness that they can build a new viaduct around the old one with minimal closures and disruption. I guess if you can pretend that years of mitigation isn't needed, you can avoid having to invest in transit and build new lanes on 405 instead.
Erica, congrats on the award. And congrats on the hard core, well, semi-hard core feminist rap.
95 percent of your male readers are sexist pigs and need some of that stuff from an outspoken, take no crap, woman.
Sissy and mommie and simpy girlfriends did not do them favors by letting it pass.
And what is wrong with butt crack - especially with the Stranger slog, have the puritans arrived at last to save us from butt cracks?
Be nice, GW (Bush) - or I will explain what I do with them in graphic detail and get an award at the next porno fair.
ERICA, FROM YOUR NAMESAKE, PLEASE GET SOME BACKING FROM YOU EDITORS AND DO THE BIG STORY ON PROBLEMS AT OUR VERY OWN VA HOSPITAL - BEACON HILL, better than most but rumors of bad shit there too.....another award? Real journalism, you have the skills.
eric
No, you could recall him for lying about public works. If you had standing ...
"standing" or not - no. it is quite hard to get a court to order a recall election.
tried more often than we hear - rare to succeed
makes sense as in total chaos might ensue over mere differences in opinion - and the next election is the test/relief of the voters in a given district/city/electoral terrain.
you sound like the R hacks who were going to try to impeach Gregoire after the close election, just because they were unhappy
couldn't, cant't, he might retire anyway, given a job in the newly elected President Obama's cadre....
I'm glad someone is correcting the spin out of the state's highway department trying its best to build a big new freeway over Seattle's waterfront. You can't count on the Seattle Times to get things right on this story.
While the state's freeway engineers are busy hiding things from voters, the Governor and state legislators, I'm glad someone at City Hall is doing something to get better information out. The state has already spent over $60 million on its freeways dreams, none of which can come true.
Um, are you not familiar with politics? I hardly think this is worth any outrage.
Not that hard. I got in a shouting match with Ron Sims once about doing a recall.
I could file it. But I won't.
I'm confused why people are getting so uptight on here. Barnett is merely pointing out the oddity of such a mass correction by a government agency. It is rare for these things to happen. They nit pick all the time privately, but hardly ever send such information to all outlets out there.
I believe that was the whole point of her post. And for some reason, y'all got your panties bunched up into the butt cracks that Eric wants to discuss with GW.
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