Letter-to-the-Editor of the Week

This letter to our local neighborhood paper, the West Seattle Herald, had Mrs. F in stitches last night.

"The mayor thinks there ought to be a public vote on the project" (and on the Key Arena), does he? So we can vote "no" and get it anyway? Maybe we'll have to vote "no" over and over and over until we all get fed up with how badly the project has been run, vote "yes," and the mayor finally gets the answer he wants. Great idea. Let's vote on it.

Then he says a rebuilt viaduct would be delayed because of "court action ... based on the claim a new viaduct would be ugly." Oh. I didn't know you could sue someone for building something ugly. I guess I better call my lawyer so we can haul whoever built that awful house on 47th and Oregon into court. That is one ugly house. I want it gone. Who knew the courts could serve such a purpose?

Nickels also says a number of other cities "remodeled their areas where city meets water." He cites San Francisco. I guess you could say that's true, although in fact, it was an earthquake that remodeled that area. The quake of 1989 took out that stretch of freeway down on the Embarcadero, and the city never rebuilt it. They didn't put in a tunnel either.

Yes, indeed--who knew you could sue for the uglies!?! Gawd, we love the Herald.

A bit of background for non-Seattleites...

Seattle has a raised highway--the Alaskan Way Viaduct, Highway 99--traversing its front porch. It was damaged slightly back in 2001 by the Nisqually Earthquake (I still remember how my Amazon office rattled and rolled), and is still usable. However, it needs to be replaced with one of a couple of options: another raised highway, a tunnel (a la the Boston Big Dig; which, funnily enough, I worked on as a public relations intern back in the late '80s), or just surface streets. I won't get into all the boringly local particulars, but suffice it to say that our Mayor, Greg "Kyoto" Nickels is for the more expensive tunnel option (which would enable Seattle's waterfront area to become more tourist and pedestrian friendly). I'm for a one-for-one replacement of the Viaduct--it's less costly, can be done more quickly, and, frankly, I love driving on that elevate structure and getting a bird's eye view of the Olympic mountain range looming in the west across the Puget Sound.

[PS - that image is old, but I like being reminded of the long-gone Kingdome from time to time.]