Today we're happy as clams because of a harmonic convergence of two pet obsessions: that damn Viaduct and the end of the world as we know it. Over the weekend, the Seattle Times asked, "Hey, uh, aren't there likely to be Indian burial grounds where the tunnel would go?" Not to be outdone, the Stranger reported that a $1 million WSDOT study has determined that Viaduct traffic can be dealt with for four years of planned construction in precisely the ways that the People's Waterfront Coalition claim can keep on dealing with traffic for even longer.
We'd like to imagine elderly, top-hatted gentlemen shaking the Stranger's pages furiously and flecking them with spittle as they roar: "IS THIS TRUE?" (But no, we can't imagine anyone fitting that description reads the Stranger.) The point is, whether or not it's convenient, the Viaduct traffic has to go somewhere during construction -- which is not currently planned to happen over a single slow weekend. So no matter what your preference (tunnel, viaduct replacement, surface street) you'd better fucking hope there's a good plan for traffic mitigation, and that it doesn't involve the people working on this.
But anyone can criticize. Seattlest prescribes solutions! That's how we scoot.
We suspect the main reason we're arguing so busily about the Viaduct is that it's the most obvious representative of our whole failing transportation system.
There is no viable transportation solution being offered to the Seattle public (that anyone's buying). A tunnel here, a Viaduct there: you've still got an I-5 chokepoint, a 520 chokepoint, probably people can list a few problem areas on 405 and I-90, too. Augmenting existing infrastructure could -- if we're lucky -- keep us in Los Angeles' rearview mirror. If our leadership was offering solutions currently seen to work, there'd be a lot less uninformed jawing over particular transportation decisions, resulting in the democratic gridlock mirroring the one we see on our streets.
Thanks to the Slog, we're aware that the Rapture is distinct possibility before leadership can deliver this kind of vision. But there are good reasons to believe that now is not the time to stick with business-as-usual when plotting multi-decade mega-transportation projects (think of those unfinished-in-mid-air freeway ramps built by people who never thought federal transportation money would stop flowing).
This week the Seattle Times is running a series on American dependence on oil, and peak oil. REE! REE! [Part One Part Two; Part Three, and Four to come] The series speaks to the growing awareness of the major economic shocks when you run short on pumpable oil supply. It doesn't have to be a worst-case scenario -- the world's economy is already performing like a drunk stumbling along a cliff. In that context, it's hard to see what good a $5 billion tunnel would do, except make it easier to leave Seattle during the recession.
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Hours of audio and video interviews about Peak Oil at:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid187832478