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Seattlest Pix 09Nov06
Can't Miss It, Weekend Edition: Nov 6-8
Fall Flashback
Magnolia is getting a new bridge, if the city can get some money to pay for it.
Damaged in the 2001 Nisqually Quake, the current Magnolia Bridge is in a race with the Alaskan Way Viaduct to fall over. While it will probably take decades for something to be done about the Viaduct, the city will move ahead with the Magnolia project in 2009.
Two options were proposed: rebuild the bridge in its current location, or build a costlier bridge further north. The upside to the costlier bridge was an earlier completion date. The downside was opposition from local businesses, and well, the costlier thing.
The cost of the new bridge will be around $164 million, and since the city has $10 million for the project, it will apply for federal grants and hold a couple civic car washes. Money will also be sought from the Port of Seattle and, because of a contract signed in 1929, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (suckers).
Following the earthquake in 2001, the Magnolia Bridge was closed for six months, forcing us to sit in horrible traffic jams every morning. Luckily, 2009 Magnolia residents will be able to take the Monorail into Downtown and avoid all of the congestion.
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I like the Seattle tradition of starting massive projects without a way to pay for it when you only have a small fraction of the costs and then expect everyone else to pitch in once the financing goes south. It is exactly like if I want to buy a million dollar house with only five hundred bucks in my bank account and everyone else is expected to pitch in when project runs into money problems.
So there is the
1. massive light rail project.
2. paying off the never to be built Monorail
3. paying off the Kingdome and corporate welfare for corporate sports projects
4. What ever the hell Paul Allen is doing in South Lake Union
5. Gridlock Greg’s pipedream to have a super expensive super secret under ground car tunnel
6. The failing Seattle Seawall
7. The Floating bridge that needs work or replacing
Yeah. I am just glad that my car is registered in Kitsap and we only have one massively bad transportation problem in the Tacoma Narrows bridge now semi-unblocked.
ALERT: BORING HISTORICAL FACT
The reason why Magnolia is such an inacessible place, despite being as connected-by-land to Downtown as Ballard is to Fremont, or Norway is to Sweden, is that our wise city fathers, in their desperation to please railroad magnates, let them build six rows of track in what's now known as Interbay. That track might as well be a river--you can't build through it, and the railroad is guaranteed right-of-way, so we have to go over it with bridges. On the bright side, it keeps the riff-raff out of Magnolia.