Seattle, Seattle, Seattle... where art thou viaduct?

Seattle... as I put is full of liberal, laptop-toting, Starbucks fixed, bus riding retro-hippies, and very proud of it. This isn't to 'all' Seattlites, but it's the image projected by the thronging majority. Everytime I go to Seattle, usually, I take the 510 from Everett to save money, and when I arrive in Downtown Seattle, I can figure out where to catch my next bus north to Green Lake to meet a friend aka the 358 Express or the 5. I've learned quickly, buses arriving into Seattle go down 5th Avenue, and if you want to leave, you go one block to the waterfront to 4th Avenue. If want to travel King County Metro to nearly anywhere, you hop to 3rd Street. Seattle is a really bus-heavy mass transit system which is just getting other modes of mass transit.

Anyhow, I've strayed off topic, for this is about the viaduct and not sub-par mass transit options. So as an observer of Seattle politics (I'm living not close to Seattle to the point where a normal person who go, "why care?"), chuckle a little at the craziness that is Seattle's mayor race. Incumbent Greg Nickels is out, which was expected from a city that likes to mix things up. Now the race drops to two newbies: Mike McGinn: Local Environmentalist and Tunnel opponent (left) and Joe Mallahan: T-Mobile Executive and tunnel supporter (right).

It's a race about how Greg Nickels pushed the tunnel option ever since the Nisqually earthquake damaged the Viaduct and won, after WSDOT and Governor Gregoire opposed it. WSDOT initally opposed the tunnel because they had a lot on their plate of potential megaprojects like Hood Canal and SR 520 floating bridge replacement.

Now, Seattlites put their two cents in various public meetings and such, but my personal experience of how "uppity" Seattle is over the tunnel was on a WSDOT blog on two new videos simulations on the project. I gawked at stupidity when people commented on the red brick placeholder and going, "WHERE'S THE FOLAGE!!! A FEW TREES WON'T DO!!!" and I placed a palm in my face. Then it got better with, 4 lanes isn't enough, or for the bicycle elites, "No bike path, WHAT!?!?!" They treated the simulation like it was the real deal... noting how low Seattle's IQ was on the internet.

Another thing that's a big deal is the amount of lanes, the tunnel is four lanes wide, instead of the current viaduct's six. However, in the replacement plans, the new viaduct would only be four lanes, so regardless of the options in front of them, WSDOT engineers stuck to four and I see why. The Viaduct traffic, they assume will get off at either end to enter downtown via surface streets.


I support the tunnel, it's a good thing in the long run for Seattle transportation, although I agree with the six lane lobby, it's the only thing I wish WSDOT and City of Seattle to consider. If I were a Seattlite, I would vote Joe Mallahan, over Mike McGinn. Why? Mike McGinn is not thinking like an engineer and more like tree-hugger, no offense. He supports the 'surface-option' with an expanded Alaskan Way and huge increase in buses and other mass transit items. No offense to the man, the surface option is bad for congestion and business. It just leaves I-5 as the only through way pass downtown. How I-5 is engineered and constructed, there isn't much room for expansion and Seattlites will soon either a) all move to bicycles or carpool or b) recognize surface option folly and strike down McGinn from being mayor.

Seattle does need to take advantage of lower construction costs the recession is offering to meet possible cost overruns and on-time delivery. Viaduct replacement should have started on Nickel's watch, but too much bickering on the option. If Seattle "wants" green over another viaduct, take the tunnel option, since this is only going to happen once.

And no, Seattle SR 99 Tunnel does not equal Boston Big Dig Project.

Stay informed, know both sides before voting. Do your part to be informed.
~ Tanis

Links:
--- Seattle Mayor Candidates 2009 ---
Joe Mallahan Campaign Site
Mike McGinn Campaign Site

--- Undying Facts from Washington Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) ---
SR 99 Viaduct and Seawall Replacement project home
WSDOT Viaduct Solutions Process
Project Libary

-- PDF File of Scenarios (Note the four lanes agenda) --
Scenarios Summary
Scenarios Description
Scenario A: Demand Management and Low Capital
Scenario B: Surface Boulevard
Scenario C: Alaskan Way/Western Avenue couplet
Scenario D: Four-lane elevated
Scenario E: Four-lane integrated elevated
Scenario F: Four-lane bored tunnel
Scenario G: Four-lane cut and cover tunnel
Scenario H: Four-lane lidded trench

The Debate Goes On...

So much polarization... so much. I've never stumbled upon such a divide in politics... well, there was 'always' a divide, it just wasn't as vocal, that is until Barack Obama became POTUS.

I was talking to a person that developed his life in politics working as an aide in this state and we talked politics. We dabbled on for hours about Bush, Obama, foreign policy, defense budgets and such.

Yet the one thing we both agreed upon was the overblown reactions from Republicans, especially from "evangelical Christians" over President Obama. However, I'll say plainly, that I don't like Obama, but the level of... to put it bluntly, fear-mongering is disturbing. I know I've done my share of jabbing back in October, but this is now and we have to live with what we got. Unfortunately, for many in my system of beliefs, they would disagree with me and say biblical quotes that support Obama is the anti-Christ at the most extreme spectrum to "like Israel didn't like it's king, we don't support Obama" and etc.

Honestly, I don't know what makes George W. Bush a good president... maybe because he was so embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan, he nearly forgot about domestic problems? In a later blog, I'll discuss my views on Bush's legacy in a deeper degree. In a short statement about Bush, Iraq was a bad, ill-planned war with no long-term implications... while Afghanistan was in the right direction that was all but forgotten until Bush nearly left office. Bush, in my honest opinion, should have been impeached or Congress should have strongly considered it for his administrations actions with the Patriot Act, questionable Justice Department wiretapping and other things to domestic "anti-terrorism" measures that could be breaking constitutional law. However, that is for another blog.

We conversed on dabbling about Obama's appointments were very shrew, with him quietly silencing Hillary Clinton in a non-criticizing post of Secretary of State (looks good on her resume and it's a post where you can't criticize the president much), keeping moderate SecDef Robert Gates, Vice President Biden for his foreign affairs expertise where Obama lacks strength in, and kept Ben Bernake as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Conversing further, we both agreed on that Obama's foreign agenda was pretty solid with plenty of foreign affair expertise handling the world while Obama focuses on the raging debate on health care and other domestic issues. What conservatives seem to underestimate that some folks seem frayed under pressure, but can thrive on pressure. He 'can' get his party bandwagoned together in Kennedy's death, but it will take time.

We dabbled on McCain's failed campaign and Sarah Palin. McCain is a good Senator, but noticeably old. He was an obvious person to go to the White House after being snuffed by Bush in 2000 election. However, I do the remember the day he picked Mrs. Palin as his running mate and my thoughts were, "What the hell, who in their right mind would pick someone from Alaska, a place which has no political stake in the electoral college?" As an observer of politics, her interactions with the media was alway "sub-par", it made me cringe harder because of painfully easy questions that she horribly deflected answers off to. I know, I know... it's how bad politics has sunk and how cutthroat the media is. Yet, I listened to the Katie Couric interviews and Vice Presidential debates and as a conservative, I was not amused by the McCain-Palin ticket. Sarah Palin, in her own right, is good for Alaska, but not for as McCain's running mate.

Why I facepalm

Me and my friend covered a huge spectrum of politcs, some of which we approved of, and some of which we disagreed on, but one thing for me is that Obama was what I thought America was going... and what I heard in my time chatting in IRC (internet relay chat), "America is only a decade or so behind Europe."

First topic... more to come.
~ Tanis