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Thursday, April 29, 2010

City Gregoire on McGinn (And McGinn on Gregoire)

Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 5:52 PM

As I mentioned earlier, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn was conspicuously absent from Gov. Christine Gregoire's big event this afternoon.

Why wasn't McGinn there to toast her "preferred alternative" for a new 520 bridge? Well, for one thing, he had his own press conference scheduled. But here's what the governor had to say about how McGinn reacted when he was given an advance-briefing on her plan:

Word from the mayor's just-finished press conference, though, is that he didn't seem quite as "positive" about the plan as Gregoire made him out to be.

UPDATE: Stranger news intern Erika Broad reports from the mayor's press conference that he outlined three major areas of continuing concern: the project is not, in McGinn's mind, light rail ready from the start; he's not satisfied that questions about the protection of natural areas have been resolved; and he's still worried about the impact a new six-lane highway will have on the Montlake neighborhood.

"There’s still work to be done," McGinn said. "I believe there is still time for us to do more work and make changes to the plan. Again, I think this is evidence that if you dig in and start looking at alternatives you can make changes. I don’t think this is an issue of who’s willing to compromise. I think this is more an issue building the best bridge for our future."

Comments (8) RSS

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Jan Drago must wash her hair with Ivory bar soap, I swear.

Posted by gloomy gus on April 29, 2010 at 6:14 PM

@1, my dad used to use Dial soap. No lie. Dandruff like croutons until we forced him to switch to something in a bottle, probably Prell.

Posted by Fnarf

on April 29, 2010 at 7:01 PM

McGinn is a mammal compared to the reptilian Gregoire. He can see the writing on the wall -- decreasing urban population, an angry exurbian tax base.

Gregoire is on auto-pilot with the door locked, partying like its 1998 and everything's hunky dory.

Guess who'll be around longer?

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on April 29, 2010 at 7:08 PM

How did the mayor make the situation better today?

Unlike McSandbag, the governor gave the mayor advanced information on what she was going to say. He might want to try that some time.

Posted by MrBaker

on April 29, 2010 at 8:50 PM

@2 Ancient and inexpensive though it may be, Flex still smells the best.

Posted by seandr on April 29, 2010 at 9:05 PM

Mayor McGinn showing up would have dragged the media coverage away from the positive changes allowing light rail to the usual Black-White discussion of Gregoire vs McGinn and served no positive purpose.

Wise call on both their parts.

he'll be at the ribbon cuttings when construction starts and when the ST LINK LR construction starts for 520 - and that's all that matters in the end.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on April 30, 2010 at 10:26 AM

@2 - I used to love Dial. Nowadays I use Ivory, though.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on April 30, 2010 at 10:27 AM

Will, given the pace of progress around here, McGinn will be long dead of old age before any ribbons are cut for light rail along 520. I thought the state made some very thoughtful modifications (deleting the arboretum ramps, shrinking and slowing down the Portage Bay segment, and expanding the Montlake lid).

McGinn has demonstrated that he has no practical understanding of how the 520 corridor works-- all he's relying on is dogma.

Posted by Joe M on April 30, 2010 at 12:59 PM