Mayor Nickels, speaking of the tunnel for which no cost overruns can be foreseen, noted that, "The design work and engineering on the 'mile in the middle,' which has been the controversial part, will go forward in about two years." Does that mean what it sounds like? Is the most controversial part really undesigned? (The Weekly's Damon Agnos has some terrific quotes from someone who looked like the Mayor speaking out strongly against a tunnel a little while ago.)
Our Champagne Tunnel and Hot-Potato Cost Overruns
The Viaduct Goat Has Been Slaughtered--Now Let's Read the Entrails
The advisory vote on the Viaduct is in and a crushing defeat has been issued to the “No and Hell No” campaign by write-in candidate “Hell No and No.” With strong turnouts in West Seattle, Magnolia and Capitol Hill, voters voiced their opinion on the mayor’s tunnel: as of 11:30pm, 69.88% responded in the negative to a tunnel-surface hybrid--a dramatic “Hell No” in our book. And voters rejected the elevated structure alternative with a less emphatic 55.48%-44.52%--a definite “No” by our reckoning, but definitely not a “Hell No.” Remember the scene in Dumb and Dumber when Dumb takes a one in a million shot to be good news? “So I have a chance!” We’re going to hear from Dumb regarding this 55%.
Seattle Times Stops Car, Tells Viaduct and Tunnel That He'll Turn Right Around and Endorse Surface Streets If They Don't Behave Back There
Holy crap are we not getting enough sleep. We woke up this morning and did battle with the dueling alarms we have to set to enforce our five hours of shut eye, slugged ourselves to the bus stop, inched our way downtown to the soothing sounds of Don Edwards and then experienced our first radical optical illusion since a beach rave and a handful of mushrooms five years ago. We peered into a newsbox and the letters of the Seattle Times headline picked themselves up from whatever arrangement they were in and realigned to read "Viaduct fight: Could streets be the answer?"
The State of the Viaduct
Ever since Mayor Greg Nickels sent out a letter back in mid-February about Viaduct replacement financing, everyone who pays attention has been trying to figure out the math. We're all used to spin from City Hall, but there was a huge, crucial problem. In the letter, Nickels claimed that, "Today, with $3.2 billion already committed to the project, we have the resources needed to start building the tunnel."
Seattlest Interviews: The People's Waterfront Coalition
Ok, this is a friendly interview, yes, and pretty straightforward. The People's Waterfront Coalition has a pretty straightforward approach to our problems downtown, though, and we wanted to give them an opportunity to talk.

