Slog
News & ArtsMonday, July 25, 2011
City Pro-Tunnel Campaign Receives $50,000 from Same Companies With $1.1 Billion State Contract to Build Tunnel
Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 3:14 PM
Let's Move Forward, the campaign asking voters to approve the tunnel referendum on the primary ballot, just reported to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission that it has raised a staggering $312,000. More than $216,000 was received within the last week. Two of the top three funders, which each gave $25,000, are Dragados USA and Tutor Perini Corp.
Do these national companies sound familiar? They're the same corporations that recently combined to form Seattle Tunneling Partners, which won a $1.09 billion contract from the state to build the tunnel. Practically speaking, these companies are essentially taking money they are collecting from the state—from state taxpayers, specifically—and investing it in a campaign to secure their future profits.
Meanwhile, Microsoft, which has also supported widening the 520 bridge, gave $25,000. The Downtown Seattle Association, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and Equity Residential each gave $15,000. Let's Move Forward has been busted repeatedly using lies to advance its campaign.
Anti-tunnel campaign Protect Seattle Now—which lacks any stakeholders bankrolled by your tax money—has reported only $78,000, most of which the group spent to get the referendum on the ballot.
2
How long until whatever referendums or council votes and whatver so they start digging and the anti-tunnel Slog Harpies can go sob in a beer and move on to some other issue?
3
Fortunately, Seattle voters have a lot of distaste for "human beings versus corporations" votes. If it wasn't clear before - this tunnel is totally the work of a bunch of big companies who want government money. We need to keep fighting this.
4
This is so disgusting. All of there business interests pissing all this money into a pot that does nothing but slow down transit. Tragic.
Power to the people. Donate: http://www.protectseattlenow.org/donate
Power to the people. Donate: http://www.protectseattlenow.org/donate
5
He forgot to include the part of the press release where nearly half of Let's Move Forward's contributors gave $50 or less! People power!
6
I've been told at work by the companies owner that we should all vote yes on this referendum.
And that alone is enough to make me vote no.
And that alone is enough to make me vote no.
7
@5 is Dan Nolte, campaign manager for LMF.
Ironically touting the more grassy parts of their astroturf in much the same way certain red hued groups do. Innerestin'.
Ironically touting the more grassy parts of their astroturf in much the same way certain red hued groups do. Innerestin'.
8
This is becoming more clear that there is a clear profit motive by a small number of individuals to make the city pay for an ill-conceived project. This has been well documented in the Stranger, but more people need to see that this project is a disaster in the making.
It costs too much, already projected to cost $4.2 billion, and none of that money will go to stem the cuts being made to bus service. It commits us to building more highway, which is both backward thinking and bad for the environment. It also does NOTHING to help congestion. Building the giant monstrosity is almost as bad as shutting the viaduct and then DOING NOTHING to replace it.
LMF's whole campaign is to capitalize on people's frustration with finding a good solution to the viaduct problem. People are tired of hearing about it, sure, but that's the fault of those PUSHING the tunnel, not those of us fighting it.
I've already donated once to Protect Seattle Now, but after today, I'm going to donate again. Donate: http://www.protectseattlenow.org/donate
It costs too much, already projected to cost $4.2 billion, and none of that money will go to stem the cuts being made to bus service. It commits us to building more highway, which is both backward thinking and bad for the environment. It also does NOTHING to help congestion. Building the giant monstrosity is almost as bad as shutting the viaduct and then DOING NOTHING to replace it.
LMF's whole campaign is to capitalize on people's frustration with finding a good solution to the viaduct problem. People are tired of hearing about it, sure, but that's the fault of those PUSHING the tunnel, not those of us fighting it.
I've already donated once to Protect Seattle Now, but after today, I'm going to donate again. Donate: http://www.protectseattlenow.org/donate
10
WOW!! I guess I'm not too surprise, since the chemical companies dropped similar amounts last year to kill the bag campaign. Still, it's astounding.
A pitcher of good beer says the Times won't run this story this week.
A pitcher of good beer says the Times won't run this story this week.
13
@7 No duh I'm Dan Nolte! If I was trying to be discrete I wouldn't have called myself out by my own full name in a past comment! I repeat: tons o' $50-and-less contributions to LMF, too! OK, I gotta get out of the blog comments and back to work. [p.s. The more I read Dominic's coverage, the more I think he may have a slight bias on this issue]
14
Read the linked disclosure report, @5's power to the people claim reveals 5 donations under $50 (1 from a non-resident).
The remainder is specks of slushy-sounding money with no realistic papertrail.
And hey, check the titles on many contributors... Pretty sure the typical Seattle resident isn't a venture capitalist.
The remainder is specks of slushy-sounding money with no realistic papertrail.
And hey, check the titles on many contributors... Pretty sure the typical Seattle resident isn't a venture capitalist.
15
@13: most people haven't read your past comments, Dan ;)
Funny that you reference media bias, though!
Funny that you reference media bias, though!
17
"which lacks any stakeholders bankrolled by your tax money"
What about the Mayor? Last I heard he made his living from tax money too.
What about the Mayor? Last I heard he made his living from tax money too.
18
P.S. since this mentions Dragados, I'm shoehorning this in: the NYT had an article this weekend with the marvelous headline "Deep Below Park Avenue, A Monster at Rest". Dragados just finished up the four-year subway extension tunnel boring project, and is proposing that instead of the original plan to extract the borer for scrap by digging a giant hole in a fancy street, maybe they'll do as European cities do, and just leave it down there forever. Obviously here in Seattle Dragados will just push out into daylight at the other end when they're done, but I thought the story was interesting from a mechanical perspective anyway:
Rome has the catacombs; Paris has its sewers. Now New York will have its own subterranean wonder: a 200-ton mechanical serpent’s head.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/nyregi…
It is a gargantuan drill that has been hollowing out tunnels for a train station under Grand Central Terminal. As tall as four men and with the weight of two whales, the so-called cutter head — the spinning, sharp-edged business end of a tunnel boring machine — is usually extracted, dismantled and sold for scrap when the work is done.
But the Spanish contractor overseeing the project is taking a different approach. It believes it can save time and money by simply leaving it behind, dormant and decayed, within the rocky depths of Midtown Manhattan. The drill’s final resting place: 14 stories beneath the well-tended sidewalks of Park Avenue.
19
I downloaded the CSV file and I'm seeing 234 total contributors to LMF, 23 (or just under 10%) under $50. 48 are exactly $50.
63 of them are $1,000 or over, of those, 36 are $5,000 or more.
They have 16 contributors at the "Plaque on the Tunnel" level of $10,000 or more. Sure sounds like "Power to the People" to me.
$10,000 or more donors:
$25,000 MICROSOFT
$25,000 TUTOR PERINI CORPORATION
$25,000 DRAGADOS USA INC
$20,550 DOWNTOWN SEATTLE ASSOCIATION
$20,050 GREATER SEATTLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
$15,000 EQUITY RESIDENTIAL
$12,500 KING COUNTY LABOR COUNCIL
$10,550 DOWNTOWN SEATTLE ASSOCIATION
$10,050 GREATER SEATTLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
$10,050 DOWNTOWN SEATTLE ASSOCIATION
$10,000 WRIGHT RUNSTAD ASSOCIATES
$10,000 MARTIN SMITH INC
$10,000 SHERATON HOTELS
$10,000 HNTB CORPORATION
$10,000 MARTIN SMITH INC
$10,000 URBAN VISIONS
63 of them are $1,000 or over, of those, 36 are $5,000 or more.
They have 16 contributors at the "Plaque on the Tunnel" level of $10,000 or more. Sure sounds like "Power to the People" to me.
$10,000 or more donors:
$25,000 MICROSOFT
$25,000 TUTOR PERINI CORPORATION
$25,000 DRAGADOS USA INC
$20,550 DOWNTOWN SEATTLE ASSOCIATION
$20,050 GREATER SEATTLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
$15,000 EQUITY RESIDENTIAL
$12,500 KING COUNTY LABOR COUNCIL
$10,550 DOWNTOWN SEATTLE ASSOCIATION
$10,050 GREATER SEATTLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
$10,050 DOWNTOWN SEATTLE ASSOCIATION
$10,000 WRIGHT RUNSTAD ASSOCIATES
$10,000 MARTIN SMITH INC
$10,000 SHERATON HOTELS
$10,000 HNTB CORPORATION
$10,000 MARTIN SMITH INC
$10,000 URBAN VISIONS
20
(Don't know why several donors are listed multiple times, but that's how it shows up on the SEEC list.)
21
Is it supposed to be some kind of surprise or shock that the local business community supports the tunnel? I thought everybody knew that already, and I don't see how that is a bad thing. Surely one of the reasons the surface transit never was seriously considered is because you couldn't convince the business community (not to mention the great majority of the public) that it was a good idea. And I think if by some miracle you could have gotten the business community behind the surface street, you would have been very happy to have their support.
22
@21, shush now, take the long view. Surface/transit/I-5 supporters will too win over the support of the Microsofts and Chambers of Commerce and developers of the world.
Right after they've swung the legislature to fund surface/transit/I-5, which will follow once they've finished convincing the legislature it's worth revisiting at all, which they hope will be the result of their Olympia lobbying effort, that they plan to start from scratch just as soon as they've swung the city council around, which they'll have to get around to once they finish beating down the rebuild-the-viaduct crowd they've allied with, which will be their focus once they've begun to swing everything their way following a big victory in the non-binding advisory vote on Referendum 1.
Honestly. Patience, people. Patience.
Right after they've swung the legislature to fund surface/transit/I-5, which will follow once they've finished convincing the legislature it's worth revisiting at all, which they hope will be the result of their Olympia lobbying effort, that they plan to start from scratch just as soon as they've swung the city council around, which they'll have to get around to once they finish beating down the rebuild-the-viaduct crowd they've allied with, which will be their focus once they've begun to swing everything their way following a big victory in the non-binding advisory vote on Referendum 1.
Honestly. Patience, people. Patience.
23
Don't worry: the surface option will be added after the tunnel is finished and everyone is outraged at the ensuing traffic mess.
For the record, I'm not anti-tunnel; tunnels can be marvelous. I'm against a tunnel whose only exalted merit is that it's "better than nothing." Way to aim high, tunnel supporters.
For the record, I'm not anti-tunnel; tunnels can be marvelous. I'm against a tunnel whose only exalted merit is that it's "better than nothing." Way to aim high, tunnel supporters.
26
Just fired up my calculator and found that getting a payout of $1.1 billion on a $50,000 investment is a return 22,000 times your initial cost. That's pretty awesome. Seems like they're still doing in on the cheap. I mean, they could probably guarantee a win with an investment of $1 million, and that's still a pretty good return.
27
I am actually surprised that downtown business groups support a tunnel that bypasses downtown. Doesn't that just make it easier for businesses to relocate from downtown to areas north or south. Doesn't it encourage people to skip past downtown and shop in other areas? Cities all over the country are full of examples where a bypass highway kills the economic vitality of the area being bypassed. If the tunnel had downtown exits it would serve a lot more people and make more sense, but I don't see why downtown would support making it more attractive to just skip past downtown.
28
@27, you're right that it's hardly ideal for downtown business from that perspective. They can't be blind to the facts that the tunnel does reduce capacity and will require drivers to shift access points. To them the bright side would be that after a decade of wrangling the legislature has actually funded it, they see work already underway, and it will at least open up the waterfront. They may be unpersuaded that stopping work somehow wouldn't do more harm than good, since neither the surface/transit/I-5 or new-viaduct proponents seem to have bothered to do any legwork in Olympia to fund something better.
Maybe if Ref 1 goes strongly enough against the tunnel the people behind it will start doing some effective pressure work in the legislature. It would be high time. But I'm not sure many business owners downtown are holding their breath expecting it.
Maybe if Ref 1 goes strongly enough against the tunnel the people behind it will start doing some effective pressure work in the legislature. It would be high time. But I'm not sure many business owners downtown are holding their breath expecting it.
29
Maybe business owners just believe that maintaining access to our urban industrial areas and opening up the waterfront is good for the city, whereas pretending that Boeing, Ash Grove Cement and Nucor Steel can transport their goods on bicyles, light rail and buses is a fantasy that only Sloggers believe in.
30
Dan's a lying piece of shit.
Of 275 donations, the average is $2576, for a total of $706.345.
There are 187 donations under $1000, average is $141.
There are 88 donations $1000 and above, and they average $7750.
So basically, the LMF headquarters is a giant bukkake scene with downtown developer interests unleashing on good old Dan here. Slurp it up Danno.
Of 275 donations, the average is $2576, for a total of $706.345.
There are 187 donations under $1000, average is $141.
There are 88 donations $1000 and above, and they average $7750.
So basically, the LMF headquarters is a giant bukkake scene with downtown developer interests unleashing on good old Dan here. Slurp it up Danno.
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