Destroying telephones will help face to face communication...

Destroying the internet will help overall penmanship...

I like the way you think...

Provided you doubled local transit in the affected region within 5 blocks. Yes, that includes the streetcar and the waterfront taxi service.

In addition, it will greatly reduce the need for commuters to use it and will open it up for trucks and busses.

Unless the city makes a bus only corridor, like 3rd ave, permanent 24 hours a day, if there's no replacement of Alaskan Way Viaduct, you can kiss goodbye all of your express buses from W. Seattle into downtown.

Next step, the CG will publish the proposal in the Federal Register soon - could be as soon as this week, Austin Pratt told me.

I guess until we get a decent set of options, my carpool buddy and I will just have that much more time to talk about how perfect the world would be if only we were in charge...

If you think the "rapid ride" is gonna do anything for West Seattle you need to get off the crack pipe. California Ave SW and Alaska St are already busy and backed up. What do you think will happen when you add even more traffic because of condo and business development in the Alaska Junction corridor? Those buses will be mired in the same traffic- nothing rapid about that.

It isn't BRT if there aren't dedicated rights of way. Once you leave the 5th Ave corridor, these buses are mired in the same traffic as cars. I also won't vote for another ST package until us yokels that live west of Hwy 99 actually get some real fucking transit. Rapid Ride ain't it. Most of the people I have talked to in West Seattle feel exactly the same way.

In the meantime, till that is sorted out, I'll be opposed to any option that doesn't keep Hwy 99 moving through the city. I don't care if it's on the ground, in the ground or above the ground but it has to tie into the Battery Street Tunnel and have limited access.

That being said, I do have business downtown and other matters in places that are not in West Seattle. And @12, maybe I'm tired of subsidizing you. After all, my business run in West Seattle contributes quite a bit in tax revenue, not to mention employing 8 people. I'm sure those 8 people would like to enjoy a good economy, even if it's West Seattle based. They probably bring home dollars to your neighborhood as well.

All of this means that I'm tired of those that say "live closer to work" While I'm financially able to do it, a lot of people I know aren't that lucky. As for the "subsidy" arguments... either roads or transit will get subsidized. But I won't ride a bus that smells like BO and vomit. If we're gonna do it, let's do real transit. Everything else if just fake horseshit.

The bridge openings have very little to do with West Seattle's woes. At best, they are a tiny part of the puzzle.

I like him too, but the issue is still capacity north to south.

And, what about trucks? These discussions are always framed in "car" terms. Of course, neither Erica, Dan, or Josh, have ever driven a truck for any real reason, like delivering food all day long to hundreds of outlets.

What does NOT come into the city on a truck? Gulls, crows, ferry boats - we survive on trucking, and no amount of bicycles in the neighborhoods will change that.

Yeah, there's not gonna be any problem, with only one road to Downtown from West Seattle.

None at all.

On that note, let's just knock down 520 right now and just run a few extra buses to Kirkland and Redmond to compensate. That'll work, right?

I doubt it. I'm sure, if she did, that she wouldn't be seriously peddling this line of reasoning.

As a Ballard resident, believe me, I've got some sympathy for the West Seattle-Downtown commute. The Viaduct, Ballard Bridge, and W. Seattle Bridge should be much higher on our list of priorities than fucking 520.

It won't shift the priority to the Westside; ST will either get broken up or come with an even smaller package.

If something like the current proposal on the table gets approved this year, sub-area equity will force ST to build to Ballard and West Seattle in the next round, meaning you might see rail by the early 2030s.

That's a long time, but a lot less time than if you just vote against everything that doesn't serve your immediate needs.

Do we really want a busy boulevard running through our increasing dense downtown neighborhood? No way.

Pedestrians already have a difficult time crossing Alaskan Way, and if you route traffic down Third Ave. you're degrading conditions for the large amounts of low income housing on that street.

Get real, and think of a proactive idea instead of trying to take Seattle back to the 1950s. This idea is ignorant at best.

There won't be any resolution to the crumbling Viaduct until it collapses on commuters and kills thousands of people. It could be replaced before that, but people like you will not allow it and do everything possible to stop it. Thanks much.

1. Viaduct removal without replacement was not on the ballot. Only 22% voted for "no" on both the replacement and the tunnel option (and the majority of them--on capitol hill and downtown). The tunnel option on its own got more support then the no/no option, and a full fledged replacement got twice the support. Do the math.

2. Now that West Seattle has only begun to be part of the discussion in the Stranger, now we can talk about all of the northbound traffic from SR509. This commuter route crosses the 1st Ave S. bridge, sits at the light, and 90% of those cars bear left onto East Marginal Way, which becomes hwy 99, to the viaduct. No discussion of this is not complete without the mention of the northbound traffic on East Marginal Way from south of Michigan Street.

3. The gridlock during peak hours is bad enough, especially during the summer, and especially considering all of the heavy truck traffic. What the "surface" option would do is dump even more congestion into the Duwamish corridor, irregardless of any mitigation for the folks in SoDO and even West Seattle. The result is a classic case of merely displacing pollution from one part of town to another; in this case, South Park, Georgetown, and Mid Beacon Hill. In other words, dumping more pollution on a part of Seattle that already has more then it's share of air pollution from the concrete manufacturing industry. All of this is exacerbated by Boeing traffic coming in from the north, via the Viaduct (not to mention all of those people who take the viaduct from the north end, to get on I-90 to head east--they will be screwed also)

5. The irony of all of this is that even in the dream-case scenario, where everything is oh-so-fine downtown, the valley will fill up with this pollution, and will linger for everyone in the bowl around the river and Elliot bay to breathe all day. Interbay will see its share too.

The only people who benefit are the developers and property owners along the 99 corridor, and the handful of people trying to build a political career from pushing this poorly-conceived proposal.

For those that don't live in or near this part of town it might be difficult to visualize the above. But that's the reality that keep getting in the way.

But then I was laid off, so I had to take whatever job I could get. But the only places hiring were on the MFing Eastside. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?

So unless you've actually been faced with a choice between homelessness and taking a job in the hated eastern suburbs, please pour yourself a nice, cool glass of STFU.

1.) continue to live where you are and drive to work
2.) move to the Eastside and shorten your commute
3.) continue looking for work closer to home
4.) bitch, moan, and complain about a ridiculous commute that's well within your own power to change

You've chosen option 4.

Anyway, the transit problem isn't magically solved by your being an asshat. Even if my personal situation did not exist, the underlying problem still is there. Downtown is not the only employment center anymore. There are jobs in Redmond, Eastgate, Issaquah, Sammamish... and no way to get there without a car. Tearing down the viaduct and assuming that people will somehow get to their jobs via mass transit--without, I dunno, actually providing transit options--is completely retarded.