I’m writing you as one of the few honest tunnel supporters who doesn’t seem to hate Seattle. One who opposes the cost overrun provision and has said at public forums that you think it matters and should be repealed. I know the cost overrun provision wasn’t on the agenda for the special session: how to fuck over education and public health slightly less badly than the Republicans tops the list. But now the tunnel will go to Seattle voters, and Seattle voters probably will reject it. This is probably your last chance to keep the tunnel, but the state is going to have to pick up the cost overruns.
I’m asking you to lead the charge to repeal the cost overrun provision and kneecap tunnel opponents like me. Repeal the cost overrun provision and commit the state to paying for a state highway. Repeal the cost overrun provision and take away an argument that resonates with Seattle. Repeal the overrun provision and stem the tide of anti-Seattle nonsense that the legislature keeps pushing.
Now, a repeal of the cost overrun provision won’t be enough to get me to support the tunnel project: it’s a bad project and Surface/Transit/I-5 is a much better option. Hell, the shit rebuild option is a much better option, at least I get to keep my on and off ramps. But repealing that provision would give some certainty to the process and would mean that for once in God knows how long the state isn’t actively trying to fuck Seattle up. It would make it more likely that city voters let the tunnel go through.
And yes, I know: Voters rejected a stadium and we got stadiums. Voters rejected a tunnel and we got a much bigger tunnel. But I wouldn’t count on that if you’re a supporter of the tunnel. The difference between those and this vote is that there wasn’t significant opposition to those things among elected officials. The only elected official who really opposed the stadiums, Maggi Fimia, got King County off the hook for cost overruns (at least for Safeco) despite most of the rest of county government supporting it. Imagine what you can expect when McGinn will veto any tunnel provision and has shown an ability to get anything that overrides his veto on the ballot.
Finally, this should give you a reason to confront the people who keep saying that the overrun provision is meaningless (while, oddly, not wanting it repealed). I know you don’t share that view, but it’s pretty common.
While this isn’t what you want to spend your time in the special session on, you’ve been given a time crunch by Judge Laura Gene Middaugh. And, of course, you’ve been given a time crunch by the Seattle voters (myself included) who signed the ballot measure. Please make the best of it.
Love,
Carl Ballard
Dear Ed Murray and other tunnel supporters,
The Sea-Tunnel was conceived at rather historic period of time, that being the peak of am economic bubble bigger than any ever seen in the history mankind. That bubble has burst. The riches that we had while planing to build the tunnel were mere illusions of wealth, not real wealth. They have evaporated. The tunnel might be The Greatest Idea Ever Hatched, but that no longer matters as we no longer have the wealth required to build such things.
The surface street option, may not be your favorite option, but it is the option that fits our current fiscal state.
Michael
Of course, I’d argue that the “anti-Seattle nonsense that the legislature keeps pushing” is a direct result of the leadership vacuum that’s presented by legislators from Seattle.
The way to end the “nonsense” is to replace Murray, Chopp and the like.
On a somewhat related note. I was once making calls for a candidate who was running for the state senate. You know how that goes, you read down the list, you punch in the numbers, say your spiel. After a while things become a bit of a blur.
That very night there was a fundraiser for the candidate I was supporting, a fundraiser that I knew not a thing about and there was an error on my list. Somehow the host of the fund raiser, Mr Ed Murray, got included on my list. So I’m calling down the list “Hi calling from the _____ campaign hope you’ll support us…” You know it goes. When all of the sudden I’m loudly interrupted on the other in of the line. “What??? Do you know who I am???” I’m all “Sorry sir, would you like us to take you off our contact list?” And Mr. Ed Murray, starts to ream me, a hapless volunteer that’s trying to help get his guy in office, out. I hung up on him. He called the campaign office back complaining. I picked up my stuff and walked out. Never worked on that campaign again.
Fuck Ed “Do you know who I am” Murray, he’s a worthless piece of shit.
2 – Doesn’t sound like the Ed Murray I’ve met.
More likely a right wing Ed Murray.
You know there’s been right wing Michaels here in the threads:
http://horsesass.org/?p=1117#comment-87957
@3
In fairness to Ed Murray, maybe he was just having a bad day and that’s the one and only interaction I’ve ever had with the man. But, that one was enough and he really isn’t that spectacular of a legislator. Seattle reallyneeds some new blood in its electeds.
I’ve only had good interactions with him.
http://www.podcastingliberally.....-2006.html
First, you do not build infrastructure for the future based on today’s economic conditions. You are making a long term investment.
And second, Seattle is proving why the overrun provision is there- endless arguement and diddling over every decision driving up risk and cost.
Yup, exactly. And that’s, in large part, do to Seattle’s shitty electeds.
Yup, again. But, you also shouldn’t build things that you can’t afford to pay for and we’re in a long term economic contraction and can’t afford the tunnel. And anyway VMT in King County, both per capita and total, is going down. The future we need to be building for will have fewer cars traversing the Seattle waterfront, not more.
“I’m FOR the tunnel!”
“I’m AGAINST the tunnel!”
This is truly exciting stuff.
Don’t forget the monorail the city voters approved three times and still isn’t running. Elections in this berg exist to allow the voters to validate decisions that are made by Eastside business interests. That’s the real ‘Seattle process’, waiting for the voters to take our medicine.
What @9 said. It is routine for the will of Seattle voters to be ignored after every election.
The voters have never voted against building stadiums. They very narrowly defeated a lousy funding mechanism for building what would be Safeco Field. The much better funding plan that was approved by the legislature almost certainly would have passed in Seattle and even statewide at the time it was signed by the governor.
And the voters of the state voted in favor of building Qwest Field by a narrow but not terribly close 51.1% margin.
Quit picking on the stadiums. To me the monorail is a much worse example, wherein people clearly voted for it three times and the naysayers just kept bringing up measures to kill it until finally one succeeded. Enjoy thinking of riding the monorail while you sit stuck on the Alaskan Way Parking Structure while they replace it.