I began this week serving on Jury duty at the King County Superior court in downtown Seattle. At lunch time, I made a beeline to Ivars on the waterfront for some fast, delicious, and artery clogging seafood as only Ivars can make it.
To get there from the courthouse, I have to pass under the monstrosity known as the Alaska Way Viaduct—a noisy, ugly mass of concrete and steel that sits just east of the waterfront. On this beautiful Monday I ate my fish and chips in a little park a couple of blocks due south of Ivars, while enjoying the spectacular view and, of course, bathed in the deafening sound of traffic on the Viaduct.
I don’t spend a lot of time in downtown Seattle, so maybe I just don’t “get it.” But to me, the Viaduct completely and utterly destroyed any sense of beauty and serenity that might otherwise be found on the spectacular Seattle waterfront. Really…it stinks.
Apparently not everyone shares my opinion:
The 2.2-mile viaduct is viewed by many as an aging waterfront misfit but was considered unique and “very clever” as a structure and a highway bypass when it was opened in 1953. That makes it ‘historically significant,’ ” said Art Skolnik, a land use consultant.
Skolnik, a longtime advocate of repairing and preserving the viaduct, said he’ll ask the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation to on Friday nominate the viaduct for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
Historically significant my ass! It’s an ugly, dirty, noisy blemish on the landscape. In fact, it’s hard to imagine anything more disturbingly invasive, or more destructive of the potential for the Seattle waterfront, aside from, say, using the space to store dead bodies or nuclear waste (maybe…I mean, nuclear waste is much quieter).
At the time it was opened “it was a big solution to a difficult problem,” Skolnik said. “Back then it was cheered.”
…until people actually thought about being pedestrians on the waterfront!
We can learn from our mistakes. Tear the fucking thing down! And vow to never, EVER make that mistake again!
Right on!
I suggest we take the hammering man dingus and put it over the viaduct and let them fight it out!
“I began this week serving on Jury duty at the King County Superior court in downtown Seattle”
I take it that you actually made it onto a jury, assuming the system still works like I remember it. Folks come in either on Monday or Wednesday, and are subject to being herded into a jury pool for either King County Superior Court (or sometimes for the Seattle Division of King County District Court, which is in the same courthouse) for that day, and the following day. If not chosen to actually sit on a jury within those two days, they get to go home. (In rare cases, they may come back for a third day, if called to a courtroom on the second day, and jury selection has not yet been completed.)
Since you simply said “I began”, and made no reference to finishing your jury duty, I am guessing that you might actually be sitting on a jury, most likely trying a criminal case, but perhaps lucky enough to have a civil case.
If that is the case, please be sure to tell us all about it — but only AFTER the case is decided and your jury duty has been completed :)
Darryl
Like marital vows, vows of a member of a jury are sacred. Keep them. Richard’s advice above is good. Don’t tell us whether your case is civil or criminal until you’re done. Best wishes while you perform a task and a pleasure that defines, still, our democracy–jury “duty.” Why do Republicans hate juries?
Personally, I have lived here (and been registered to vote) since 1987. I received three jury summonses during that period of time, all of them during about the 1994 to 1999 time frame. All of them were for the Seattle courthouse of King County Superior Court. Nothing before, and nothing since.
The first time, I made it into one prospective jury pool late morning of the first day I was there. The defendant was charged with selling drugs, or something like that. There were actually two other attorneys (besides myself) in a jury pool of about 35 people! The deputy prosecutor went first, and asked me a couple of questions. He ascertained that I had once represented someone accused of selling drugs, and then stopped asking me questions. I figured he had already decided to use a peremptory challenge on me. The defense attorney didn’t even question me directly at all. I figured he decided that he definitely wasn’t going to challenge me.
However, we never got to the point where the prosecution and defense would announce their challenges. There was a break for lunch, and we came back a bit before 1:30 p.m. to the jury room. We waited for at least 30 or 40 minutes, while apparently the attorneys were arguing something before the judge. Then the bailiff came in, and told us the trial had been called off, because the charges had been dismissed. Apparently, the prosecution was unable to secure the attendance of a critical witness, who apparently was the informant.
I came back the next day, but was not called out for any prospective jury pools.
The second time I was called for jury duty, I sat in the central juror waiting room for the entire two days, without ever getting called out for a prospective jury pool. What a bummer!
The third time, I was called out in the afternoon of my first day for a prospective jury pool for the Seattle Division of King County District Court. None of the jury pool ever made it into the courtroom. All 16 or so of us ended up waiting in the relatively small district court jury room (designed for a jury of six people) for over a hour. The attorneys were apparently arguing things before the judge. Then the bailiff came in, and told us the case (which she said was a drunk driving case) had been resolved in some way, and that our service wasn’t required. The judge apparently felt sorry for us waiting so long, because the bailiff said the judge had done something so that none of us was required to come back for the second day of jury duty.
The flip side of the Viaduct is that it’s the only way the general public (i.e., those of us not sufficiently blessed with corporate power and wealth to occupy prime downtown view office space) can partake of Seattle’s breathtaking waterfront views.
Is the fishwrapper kaput?
The Seattle Times hasn’t updated their online news page since Wednesday. Frank Blethen has been poor-mouthing for a long time; did his crummy little shopper finally fold this week?
I’ve been summoned for jury duty several times, but have never served on a jury, and never will. The instant they find out I’m a lawyer, I’m gone! The judge and attorneys always eye my long pink ears nervously, too.
Lawyers prefer jurors with the intelligence of cookie dough. They’re looking for people they can sway with clever-sounding arguments. The last think they want on a jury is anyone capable of thinking for themselves.
Back in the old days when you had to serve 2 weeks, I was cooped up in the cattle pen with a respected Seattle U. law professor who suffered the same fate. We passed the time by swapping reading material (such as there was in the jury room) and lawyer stories.
The last time I was summoned for jury duty, I was frog-marched to the courtroom with 40 other potential jurors for a bank robbery case that apparently involved a bomb. At any rate, they asked for a show of hands of prospective jurors who had ever been involved in a bombing incident. That got me kicked out of the jury pool so fast I never had a chance to be peremptoried for being a lawyer, because during my long and illustrious public career I once found myself working in a building housing a parole office that was attacked with 5 sticks of dynamite by the George Jackson Brigade. [Rabbit brushes plaster dust off fur.] Anyway, during the questioning of this jury pool, one girl was asked to explain what bombing incident she had been in, but was began to sob uncontrollably, couldn’t answer any questions, and after a few minutes was escorted out of the courtroom by a bailiff. After a long silence, the juror who had been sitting next to her said, “Your Honor, she was in the World Trade Center on September 11.” And let me tell you, for the next 10 minutes, that room was silent as a tomb.
Bet you fascist goatfuckers didn’t know I was a victim of a terrorist attack, did you? Well, now you know.
The crumbling ugly and obnoxious viaduct was built by the same contractor that built the Embarcadero freeway thru SF that dissolved in an earthquake. The viaduct was constructed the same as the Embarcadero, and it is not safe…it should be torn down and a cut and fill tunnel should be built, with open green space over it…
Agreed with #9. As expensive at it was, the tunnel (with the badly needed seawall reinforcement) was the best solution to replace the Viaduct, which was useful once. And in today’s crumbling economy, ANY replacement is only getting more expensive.
I got thrown off a murder trial jury for stating that I believed marijuana should be legal and that “gun control” meant hitting your target. The trial was about some guy in a dope deal that got shot (allegedly) by another guy.
I’d already made up my mind to vote “not guilty” if I was on the jury. One low life shooting another seemed like an even deal to me. The prosecuting attorney obviously felt differently: I didn’t make it on to the jury.
I got thrown out of the jury pool once. When asked about expert witnesses I answered, sometimes you can believe them and sometimes you can’t.
Plaintiff’s lawyer did not like that.
Lying rabbit…..you’re so full of shit your ears are twitching.
As for the Viaduct, who cares? It’s there, deal with it Daryll. Put your big girl panties on, build a bridge and get over it.
As for you fucks relating your jury experience… Again, who cares what your experiences were? Darryl’s post was about the Alaskan Way viaduct not “What my KC jury experience was like” as if you mutts were required to complete a “what I did with my summer” school assignment. Give it a rest kids, you’re really not that important nor special.
I was on a jury 10 years ago. The trial lasted all summer long. I was a worker bee at the UW then, and this experience was as close to a sabatical as I ever got.
It was just luck, but there were no blowhards or ass****s on the jury. During all the time we spent in the little jury room we all had a great time laughing and doing jigsaw puzzles and telling jokes you can’t tell at work.
The jury reunion party is a week from next Saturday and the judge might even come.
Peak oil will result in the drastic reduction in the number of cars on the road, so tearing this ugly urban scar down makes sense to me…maybe do the seawall repair, but no tunnel.
And I really could care less if Rick D. doesn’t care what you others think. I’m sure you feel likewise.
A friend of mine, an attorney, was called for Jury duty – some 25 years ago. She was in solo practice at the time, and putting everything in her office on hold was a considerable hardship for her, but the judge wouldn’t excuse her.
Anyway, she had to sit for the entire week in the jury pool, was called in for a couple of cases, but excused both times as soon as the lawyers found out she was an attorney. The fact that she used to be a prosecutor for the IRS probably had something to do with that fact, also.
On the last day, however, she was selected for a trial. Not just any trial, but a jury trial. The prosecutors loved that she used to be a prosecutor herself. The defense attorneys hoped that she would understand the nuances of their rather technical defense. But she was unable to work for ANOTHER two weeks. I can’t remember how she said the case ended.
I know that Goldy is lucky enough to live in a diverse neighborhood rich in African American culture, but in light of the death of the 60 year old traffic circle man in the Rainier Beach area, I just want to ask him to be careful when watering his plants. Part of that richness if filled with a large dose of violence and crime.
Great post by Darrly! People who want the viaduct to stay are insane. Open up the waterfront.
Back to the viaduct….
I understand and support the process of listing special places of historical significance, to protect them from careless development.
But I don’t like the way some places are targeted for listing because they are an “example” of a particular construction design. I remember some years back, when some old brick warehouses in Tacoma were nominated on that basis.
The historical listings shouldn’t be used as “examples” of something or other, it should be reserved for items which go above and beyond the ordinary.
As for the viaduct, take some pictures of it for the history books, then tear it down.
The viadujct carries only a very samll part of the NS traffic through Seattle. Most 99 traffic is into or out of Seattle.
If we get rid of it we can IMPROVE access to Seattle.
As for the 20%, WTF would any sane person use precious city space for a highway? BUILD 605!
Richard,
This time I was in a jury pool for an auto theft case. I was dismissed by the prosecutor (I think) as I was walking up to the jury box to take a seat among the 12. I’m not sure why, except, perhaps, that they didn’t want someone with a PhD or long hair on the jury. No further calls, so I finished Tuesday afternoon.
A few years ago, I served on a jury in an “Assaulting a police officer” case in the KC Superior court. We convicted on one charge (injured officer during a struggle) and dismissed the other charge (which stemmed from a cop accidentally tasering himself).
17 Troll
White people might punch you too, if you block the road, spray people with your hose, and slap girls. I know you think only black people would, but you’re wrong.
So Rick D think RR is lying about his experiences (without any evidence), that Darryl should realize the genius of Rick D. and agree with his favorite AWV replacement, and that we commenters should only post what he thinks we should.
Just like a Republican. A totalitarian prick.
Oil is up to what $147 now? It seemed like it took quite a while to get to $100 oil. Now it won’t take nearly that long to get to $200 oil.
Pretty soon only rich people will be able to afford to drive.
Tear the thing down before it kills a bunch of people. We’ll cope. Maybe later we can build a tunnel.
@9 “a cut and fill tunnel should be built, with open green space over it…”
Fine with me if you pay for it, but don’t come to me with a tin cup.
@13 (1) Your stupidity doesn’t change the facts. (2) I don’t give a fuck what you believe. (3) In fact, I don’t care whether you exist.
Any questions?
Skolnik is high on crack.
Well, Darryl, we agree on something…Ivar’s. Real fish (cod not hake), good chips, and better than decent chowder, even at the fast food outlets.
In 1999 I did a two week stint on a jury down at the Kent Regional Justice Center.
A particularly ugly rape case where all the parties were linked by the South King County meth culture.
The victim was the girlfriend/ex-girlfriend of a guy who owed money or drugs or both to one or more of the defendents. To make a point to the “debtor,” who then was in the King County Jail, they took it upon themselves to grab the victim when she went to the trailer (they all lived in various trailer parks in or near Auburn) of one defendent for a reason I can’t recall.
Taking her inside, the defendets then dragged her to a back bedroom and proceeded to gang rape her.
A third individual, who never was charged since he couldn’t be found, first watched through a window, then came inside and joined in.
The victim didn’t report the crime until an Auburn police detective heard about it several months after the fact. He convinced her to file charges, and two scumbags were then arrested and brought to trial.
The sole evidence was her testimony, which we found credible. I remember one older black woman on the jury who leaned her chin on her cane as she repeated, “Why would she lie?”
Fascinating how the older women on the jury instantly identified with the victim’s story and found it truthful.
The defendents offered alibi witnesses that did them more harm than good. We later facetiously joked how we wish we could have had them charged with something too, since the truth and their testimony were miles apart.
One younger woman on the jury simply was afraid to convict, and one smart-ass “educated” younger guy got punctilious about what he regarded as “proper” evidence such that he went on an Internet fishing expedition to find some of his own, which earned him the admonishment of the rest of us.
We came close to being a hung jury, but when we began to break the issues down one by one, we eventually reached a unanimous verdict to convict.
As the foreman, I was responsible to announce the verdict, and I did so while staring the defendent’s in the face. One of them had taken great pains throughout the trial to be in visual proximity to us during recesses or breaks. He was frequently heard to loudly proclaim his innocence and play the part of doting father to his knocked-up 15-year old daughter who had been a witness.
After the verdict was announced, I was summoned back into the courtroom on an allegation of juror misconduct. The judge asked me if I had ever had the occasion to “dine” (her words) in Auburn at a specific restaurant where the wife of a defendent worked.
“Dine?” In Auburn? Is that oxymornic or what? With great confidence, I was able to tell the judge that not only had I never “dined” in Auburn, I had never eaten there under any circumstances in my life.
The father of the other defendent claimed that the whole fact pattern was made up by the victim. He knew this because he’d seen exactly the same story played out in a porn movie, the name of which seemed to escape him.
The stink in the room became palpable.
The judge told us our verdict was reasonable based upon the facts, ordered the defendent’s back to jail, and offered all of us police escorts to our cars.
Without question, we were convinced well beyond a reasonable doubt that these two cretins were guiltier than sin. Nevertheless, some months later, the verdicts were tossed when it was revealed that the victim had been in the Auburn city jail on the date when she claimed the rape took place.
That she was never fully clear as to the date in the first place – my opinion is that she simply settled on one within the time frame in which the attack took place – didn’t serve to mitigate in favor of upholding the convictions.
The KC Prosecuting Attorney’s office moved to dismiss the charges with the story featured prominently in The Seattle Times together with a picture of one defendent hugging his Auburn waitress wife.
The Times reporter who wrote the story called me for comment, and I told him I was still convinced the attack took place as alleged, but that given the date screw-up, I understood the necessity of dismissing the charges.
Accuracy in media being what it is, he identified me as “Steve Johnson.” Wonder what else he got wrong?
All this and we got $10/day to boot!
The Piper
But the Viaduct is one of the last vestiges in Seattle of the working-class community it once was. It should be either retrofitted or replaced in kind.
That some 110,000 vehicles traverse it daily going to and from places where people do real work is significant. Why should they have to endure some silly surface-street, stop-light-ridden snail crawl through downtown?
Getting rid of the Viaduct for mere esthetic reasons will be one more big nail in the coffin of Seattle being a town open to middle class families.
And it will be one super-expensive boondoggle.
Driving north to south on the Viaduct is one of the most scenic routes around…and worth preserving.
The Piper
@7 “The instant they find out I’m a lawyer, I’m gone!”
Same here, as engineers don’t seem to be favored either.
@9 “The crumbling ugly and obnoxious viaduct was built by the same contractor that built the Embarcadero freeway thru SF that dissolved in an earthquake.”
Actually, it was the Cypress in Oakland that collapsed. However, your point is well taken, and there was certainly plenty of damage in San Francisco. I also agree that the viaduct should be replaced with the lidded cut and fill tunnel. Heck, I’ve wanted to see that for at least 20 years.
I agree with Roger that the view driving north is one hell of a view. Although my personal favorite was the view north from the old East Duwamish bridge.
@27 “Skolnik is high on crack.”
I used to know the guy. At the time he owned a building on 2nd, down by Pioneer Square. He’s long been into historical preservation. He knows his stuff and did some good things. An odd fellow, for sure, but definitely not high on crack.
But the Viaduct is one of the last vestiges in Seattle of the working-class community it once was.
LOL! Driving on the viaduct taking in the inspirational view to a job in the Duwamish or on Aurora is a vestige of “a working class community”. Yeah right!
Delusional as usual. The viaduct was early 50’s solution to a crisis – pre I-5!
The viaduct is a symbol of this region’s failure to adopt sensible mass transit options and plan for the future when it had the opportunity.
Lee might appreciate this.
I got on a jury panel for a drug case. The prosecutor opened it up and asked if anyone favored legalizing drugs. The majority of the folks there ranted and raved about the waste and injustice of the “war on drugs”. Of course I favor major de-criminalization and reform. Obviously jury selection was going nowhere so the judge cleared out the courtroom for a while and when he brought everybody back in, the prosecutor and defense attorney must have asked half of the pool to leave.
My one and only experience with jury duty.
29 I’m with Piper on this one. The real issue is that the definition of “waterfront” is changing from a place of commerce and industry to a playground for tourists and rich condo dwellers. Right now there’s a debate going on over whether the Port should sell Pier 48 to the state DOT to use as a construction stating area for crystal-palace makeover of the Colman Dock that nobody really needs and the state can scarcely afford. We’re seeing several major docks being used for loading cruise ships instead of freighters.
The real irony of what’s almost surely going to happen is that the wall of condos that will fill the space once the Viaduct is removed will create just as much of a barrier between downtown and the bay. Further, assuming the tunnel’s a dead issue, all those glass-walled buildings will reflect the traffic noise back toward the piers, and the din will be as bad as it is now, if not worse.
@35…AF…
Nice to see we agree on something.
But trust me on this: there will be no Crystal Palace do-over of Coleman Dock at the behest of Washington State Ferries.
After the Steel Electric fiasco of last fall and the failure of WSF to get a new ferry, let alone the five it was supposed to have under way after passage of the Nickel Package, most all the big plans for terminal make-overs have been scotched.
Boats that float are more important than luxurious waiting rooms.
Some contend that the land under the viaduct is too narrow to support development. But we all know that when it comes to Seattle, where there’s a buck there’s a way.
And at what point will we sacrifice pure and oft-times abstract esthetics for the safety of the public? It’s been over seven-years since the Nisqually quake, yet succeeding administrations in Olympia plus the City of Seattle have dithered instead of acted.
When we will commuters and the tax-paying public reach a critical mass on this and insist that the sky is not the limit, but that their wallets do have a limit.
If the Viaduct can safely be retrofitted, do it. Next best is replace it. We have neither the luxury of time nor a bottomless well of riches.
The Piper
Hmmm. Gas taxes have risen over the past 6 years or so a whopping 15 or 16 cents a gallon.
So right now (according to gasbuddy.com) regular gas here is about 4.21 or so a gallon and gas everywhere else is?
4.09 or 4.10?
Oh the pain, the agony, the angst of the right wing voter in this state!
Geez, Piper. That sucked hard (#28, that is). All that work, tossed out the window on a technicality, then insult added to injury.
All I know about the Viaduct is that something’s gotta be done, no matter what. Retrofit, cut-and-fill, whatever. SOMETHING needs to be done before that old relic topples to the ground. And unfortunately, no single entity has the political will (or resources) to do the job alone anymore. I can only hope that something is done before some poor schmuck dies when it does collapse.
In the words of Rodney King, “can’t we all just get along?”
#37:
Reno’s cheapest comes in at about $4.05/gal, for the record.
Anyone who thinks that the Viaduct should be torn down is a CUNT. (A Stupid CUNT)
You must be new here. Roger?
(Sometimes I swear to god I’m Gary Owens to his Rowan & Martin…..)
Art @ 35: IF we DO tear down the viaduct, we need to put some serious height restrictions on the buildings between Alaska Way and 1st Ave. Otherwise, I agree that the only view from most of downtown will be of a wall of steel and glass.
Piper Scott @ 28
The story also convinced the 12-member jury, although it never learned Birindelli had been jailed that weekend.
“She was an admitted methamphetamine user, and we took into account whether or not her recollection of specific facts and events was credible,” said jury foreman Steven St. Claire. “We decided it was.”
http://community.seattletimes......ug=free22m