Dear Boston, You're Boned
"Second Avenue repaving, 1914" courtesy of our friends at the Seattle Municipal Archive, who contribute to our Flickr pool.
Recently, while reading the current issue of The New Republic, we came across an interesting article on the current Boston mayoral race, pitting the four-term incumbent, malapropism-prone, Democratic machine stalwart Tom "Mayor Mumbles" Menino against upstart candidate-of-change and current city councilor-at-large Sam Yoon. This would be of little local interest if it weren't for the following tidbit:
Yoon's platform seems designed to stroke these voters' erogenous zones: building educational partnerships between the city's public schools and local universities like Harvard and MIT; creating a 311 number to call for non--emergency municipal services; replacing the city's motor fleet with Zipcars; and, in general, looking to Seattle as a model for urban policy.
Seattle as a model for Boston's urban policy? Lordy, Lordy. Don't get us wrong--we love Seattle to death, but having been a less than passive observer of our local political trials and tribulations over most of the last decade, we tend to love Seattle in spite of, not because of, its apparently noteworthy urban development policies. So while we're in no position to tell Bostonians who to vote for, we thought we would take a moment to share some highlights of Seattle's laudatory "urban policy," just in case this really turns up in the campaign.
- THE ALASKAN WAY VIADUCT In 2001, the 6.8 Nisqually Earthquake damaged the Alaskan Way Viaduct, Seattle's raised, double-decker bay-front highway. For years, debate centered on how to replace it: a new raised highway, a street-level option, or a large tunnel. Despite a vote in 2007 by Seattle residents opposing both a rebuild or a tunnel option, generally interpreted as an endorsement for the cheaper and greener "streets+transit" option that wasn't on the ballot, the state eventually bowed to the mayor's will and agreed to build a tunnel. The cost projection is $1.2 to $1.9 billion, a figure which excludes related projects, including replacing the damaged seawall which supports the structure; the total project is estimated around $4.2 billion. Not that Bostonians have ever, or will ever, have to deal with a large tunnel project.
- MONORAIL! In 1997, a citizen's initiative sought to deal with Seattle's long-standing transportation problems by proposing a city-wide, five-line monorail system. For years, various public transportation projects had languished in bureaucratic hell, and the monorail, whatever its faults, was the public's solution. The project won subsequent ballot support in 2000, 2002, and defeated a repeal by a wide-margin in 2004. However, city and county leaders, deeply attached to other options (including light rail, the first line of which is scheduled to begin this week), never supported the monorail. Ultimately, untenable funding rules forced the independent product to seek a ridiculous funding package, which led to its final defeat at the hands of the voters in 2005.
- AFFORDABLE HOUSING Over the housing boom of the 2000s, Seattle utterly failed to take real measures to preserve affordable housing. Despite near constant construction both in the city and the surrounding communities, between 2004 and 2006, due in large part to condo conversion, Seattle gained only 179 rental units, which is itself an estimate based on the idea that at least 20% of condos remain on the rental market. Although the picture has changed since the subprime bust, with dozens of condo projects abandoned and transformed into rental units, the damage is done. While housing prices in the greater Seattle area have begun to recover, the condo market remains in tatters. Again, not that Boston knows anything about that. (For more info on Seattle's woeful real estate boondoggles, visit Seattle Bubble.)
- GREEN INVESTMENT Seattle, like many cities, has jumped on the green bandwagon (which we wholeheartedly support), but like many cities, its various initiatives have been, to say the least, lacking. Not only have local utilities tried to meet Kyoto Protocol compliance through questionable offset programs, but several ballyhooed green investment strategies have fallen through. Last year, city employees took a hit when local Imperium Renewables cancelled its IPO, threatening the city employees retirement fund's $10 million investment in the company. (That company was still struggling last October.)
- BIOTECH Starting in 2003, the mayor's office began pressing for funds to help facilitate the transformation of the Cascadia Neighborhood (generall known as South Lake Union) into a biotech hub. Vulcan, a real estate development company owned by billionaire Paul Allen, owned large amounts of property there. Originally, this was to be part of an 80-acre park; Allen lent the project $20 million in loans to acquire property, which he would forgive in the event that the Commons were created. When voters rejected the project in 1996, Allen was left with the properties and set about acquiring more with an idea to making the area a biotech hub. Today, Seattle has all but fallen off the map when it comes to biotech. While several large institutions have enjoyed the benefits--including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the UW Medical School--the biggest client the area has thus far attracted is Amazon.com, which is building a campus there. In exchange, the city lost dozens of affordable rental units, as well as investing millions in questionable projects, most notably the "SLUT", as the South Lake Union Streetcar has become known. The city's share was around $25 million; the streetcar frequently runs near empty.
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