People's Waterfront Coalition: "You Win Some, You Lose Some"

Dear Friends,

Well, we lost and we won.

The good news -- great news -- is that there will be no highway on the waterfront. The City has fully reclaimed authority for the public land at the water's edge. The opportunity to create a civic heart for our city, with parks, event spaces, a local four-lane urban street, bordered by active edges and integrated into a functional shore ecology, is safely in our collective (local) hands. The People's Waterfront Coalition is excited to work with the City, civic leaders, and other organizations to create an amazing and beloved place.

The City, County and State have divided up responsibility and authority for the transportation solution, and will each move forward independently with their own projects. The City is going ahead with Mercer and Spokane projects, the new waterfront street, other street improvements, the First Ave streetcar line, and investments to increase transit speed and reliability downtown. Funding sources have been identified, and the package looks viable -- if Seattle citizens are willing to stomach some new taxes. The County gained the authority to levy a 1% MVET tax for transit, which can be spent to boost transit service countywide. Some of this money will be invested in increased service to West Seattle, Delridge, Ballard, and Aurora north. We are looking forward to helping the City and County get these excellent projects underway.

As you have surely heard by now, the State is going to build a bored tunnel under downtown from King Street in the south to Harrison Street to the north at the cost of about $2 billion. They will pursue this project on their own, without much involvement from the City and County.

An immediate concern (for all of us) is that it looks like the Governor's promise to close and remove the viaduct in 2012 may not stick. It will take at least 4.5 years to build the tunnel, and the State plans to keep the viaduct open until it is complete. As we've said all along, the first priority for public safety should be to complete all the surface and transit improvements to prepare for closure, whether in 2012 or earlier by an earthquake.

Another loser in this decision seems to be our State's leadership in climate solutions. Recognizing that most of our emissions come from vehicles, and clean fuels and clean cars only get us about halfway to the minimum emissions reduction necessary, our State committed last year to reducing our collective driving 50% by 2050. You don't have to be a climate expert to understand the role transportation infrastructure plays in shaping travel habits, energy consumption and growth patterns. Our region, along with every metropolitan region in the country, should be reorganizing transportation investments around transit, compact growth, and providing people real alternatives to driving. Spending $2 billion or more on tailpipe capacity is not a step toward this better future.

Within a few years, our region will have light rail in place, tolling on highways is likely, and the nation may have a cap and trade system. People are already driving less, and these economic game-changers will likely accelerate our cultural shift toward less car-dependent lifestyles. With the recommendation of the Surface / Transit/ I-5 solution for viaduct replacement, our region was on the verge of embracing these changes and pursuing a 21st century solution that positioned us well for mobility and access within the new energy economy. Instead, with a bored tunnel, we may be burdened with infrastructure we don't need and find ourselves less able to afford the smart investments we do need to provide the alternatives people want.

The bored tunnel still has lots of unanswered questions about its feasibility. Details about its cost, constructability, schedule, and funding will be refined over the next few months. If it ends up not looking like the silver bullet people envision today, People's Waterfront Coalition will be happy to help figure out Plan B. Until then, it looks like we'll mostly focus efforts on ensuring the street and transit projects are done fully and quickly, and keep collaborating with others to lay the groundwork for the best possible future waterfront.

Call or email if you have questions, or other good ideas. And thanks for all the good work of the last few months especially.

Cary Moon and Julie Parrett
Co-founders, People's Waterfront Coalition