Goldy

Outgoing superintendent Raj Manhas, of whom I have been rather critical, has a guest column in the Seattle Times today defending Seattle Public Schools.

According to Manhas, scores have improved for seven straight years, and the district now outperforms the state average on standardized tests, matching or exceeding many of our neighboring districts. Over the past few years the district has also managed to turn a $34 million shortfall into a $20 million reserve. Hardly an argument for a state or city takeover.

Given all the talk about a district in crisis, I think many people would be surprised by the reality. Take a tour of the city’s elementary schools and you’ll mostly find well maintained, recently constructed or renovated buildings with orderly, well behaved classrooms and a dedicated teaching staff. These are not the inner city schools of Detroit or Philadelphia — many would be virtually indistinguishable from their nearby suburban counterparts. There’s a reason why communities fought so hard to save our local schools from closure… we love them.

That’s not to say there aren’t problems. Seattle is an urban district with all that entails, but the image propagated through hyperbolic editorials only makes matters worse. At least at the elementary school level I believe it is often a complete waste of money in Seattle to send your child to private schools, but way too many families now do exactly that. This removes from the district the children of many of our most affluent and best educated parents — the children who are typically the easiest and least expensive to teach — leaving behind a disproportionate number of students who face additional educational and life challenges.

As Manhas points out, our schools have these children for only six hours a day, nine months a year:

For us to make true strides in academic achievement, we need to pay much more attention to basic quality-of-life issues for our children. Research confirms what test scores also reveal: Childhood poverty and racism are the biggest factors keeping our kids down.

Yes, hands-on parental involvement is perhaps the most accurate indicator of academic success, but some of our parents are simply unwilling or unable to participate in their children’s education. You cannot blame an immigrant parent who works ten hours a day and who has no formal education nor competency with the English language, for not helping his children with their homework. And you cannot blame a child growing up in an unstable household for being unprepared to learn. What you can do is attempt to intervene as early as possible. Headstart, pre-school, and full day kindergarten are all solutions that are proven to work, and the only thing preventing us from implementing these programs for all our needy children is the political will.

It is critical to recognize that all that has occurred in Seattle Public Schools over the past decade — both the successes and the failures — has occurred in the context of systemic underfunding. Washington state’s public education funding now ranks in the bottom ten nationwide, and Seattle’s teachers are amongst the lowest paid of any major city when adjusted for local cost of living. To hear many of the district’s right-wing critics tell it, our schools already waste the resources they have, so any increase in spending would only be throwing good money after bad. But as Manhas poignantly asks, “How can we demand that our children reach for the stars when the grownups have them in the nation’s basement in terms of education funding?”

Of course money is not the only answer, but not a single educational reform being touted from the right or the left or anywhere in between can possibly have a hope of succeeding unless we adequately fund it. Our educators, editorialists, elected officials and yes, even us citizens have given way too much lip service to the ideal of educating all our children. Now it is time for us to put our money where our mouth is.

What is it about “diversity” that seems to get conservatives’ nuts all in a knot? I can certainly understand the rational and legalistic arguments against say, “affirmative action,” but I have trouble grasping the vehemence in which some conservatives fight against any affirmative policy aimed at promoting racial equality and diversity in public services and facilities. They don’t only seem to disagree with the policy, but with the goal.

I got to thinking about this after laboring through the front page at (un)Sound Politics, which at last glance consists of forty posts over the past seven days, seven of which deal directly with racial integration at Seattle Public Schools, and three of which raise the issue peripherally. That’s ten out of forty posts, a full twenty-five percent of the past week’s drivel that just couldn’t stay away from the subject. You gotta love their passion.

To be fair, the posts occur within the context of Monday’s US Supreme Court hearing on Seattle Public Schools “integration tiebreaker,” but (u)SP’s contributors clearly show more than just a passing interest in the issue, coming back to it again and again. Our friend Stefan was so impassioned by the discussion that he had to comment on one Seattle P-I editorial twice. The offending passage…?

Unfortunately, the country has a long history of conscious, legal discrimination once justified by the pseudoscience of racial classification. The hateful, comprehensive U.S. apartheid system continues to affect how communities are organized, where families live and what schools children attend. Some Americans think that, because most apartheid laws were gone by 1970, the issue is closed. Ironically, at the same time, U.S. troops are at risk daily over issues dating from the Crusades.

Stefan only reproduced for his readers the second sentence, which he calls “over-the-top” and “completely unhinged.” Stefan writes:

It is preposterous to equate South Africa’s former enforced system of Apartheid and ethnic clustering in America, which is a function of non-race-based economics and voluntary home choices, and most importantly, permeable and impermanent. Any vestiges of legally enforced segregation were eliminated here decades ago.

Uh-huh. The impact of hundreds of years of slavery and nearly a century of legal apartheid was simply erased with a stroke of LBJ’s pen. To Stefan and his cohorts, the last “vestiges” of our nation’s long history of institutional racism “were eliminated here decades ago.”

But here’s the thing: it’s just skin pigment. We don’t “voluntarily” segregate ourselves based on hair color or height or breast size or any number of other physical characteristics. Only race. And while it’s true that much of the segregation has to do with economics, the fact that people with dark skin on average tend to be much, much poorer than people with light skin probably tells us something. I suppose it could tell us that people with darker skin are inferior. Or maybe — just maybe — these economic and educational disparities that so closely track along racial lines, are in fact a vestige of the “hateful, comprehensive U.S. apartheid system” that Stefan so snarkily dismisses.

Seattle schools are segregated, and in recent years increasingly so. That’s a fact. And to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what to do about the problem. It’s really, really complicated.

But the difference between me and the folks over at (u)SP is that at least I think it is a problem, whereas apparently, they don’t. They are certainly opposed to any sort of government sanctioned affirmative action or racial balancing, to the point that they would ironically argue that the 14th Amendment forbids taking race into consideration when attempting to correct racial inequality. Talk about a Catch 22.

But why so passionate? Well, I suppose it might be reasonably inferred that they are all a bunch of fucking racists. Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way implying that they are a bunch of fucking racists, I’m just saying that I can understand how somebody else might infer that. Personally, I think their position is more reflective of the type of cold-hearted social Darwinism that seems to afflict the most rigid, free market ideologues. It’s not that 94 percent of the students struggling to get a good education at Rainier Beach High School are black or hispanic or asian… it’s that they’re poor.

People make choices. They compete. There are winners and losers. And hell if the children of winners should be penalized or even inconvenienced on behalf of the children of losers. Other poor people in previous generations struggled mightily to give their children a better life than they had, and any mollycoddling of today’s underclass does them more harm than good.

Or so the thinking goes.

Personally, I believe that institutional racism is still rampant in our nation even if legal apartheid is not. And I find it “completely unhinged” and “over-the-top” to imply that “any vestiges of legally enforced segregation were eliminated here decades ago.”

In Exodus, God had Moses and the Israelites wonder the desert for forty years, waiting for the children of slavery to die. I’m not much of a talmudic scholar, but I’d say that this Old Testament God was a helluva better sociologist than Stefan or Eric, or even Matt.

Virgin birth?

Mary Cheney, the vice president’s openly gay daughter, is pregnant. She and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are “ecstatic” about the baby, due in late spring. […] The circumstances of the pregnancy will remain private, said the source close to the couple.

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Join us for some holiday cheer and hoppy beer as we devilishly plot our next strike in the War on Christmas.

Not in Seattle? Washington liberals will also be drinking tonight in the Tri-Cities. Here’s a full run down of WA’s eleven Drinking Liberally chapters:

	Where:	When:	Next Meeting:
Burien:	Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub, 435 SW 152nd St	Fourth Wednesday of each month, 7:00 pm onward	December 27
Kirkland:	Valhalla Bar & Grill, 8544 122nd Ave NE	Every Thursday, 7:00 pm onward	December 7
Mercer Island:	Roanoke Tavern, 1825 72nd Ave SE	(Starting January) Second and fourth Wednesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 pm	January 10
Monroe:	Eddie’s Trackside Bar and Grill, 214 N Lewis St	Second Wednesday of each month, 7:00 PM onward	December 13
Olympia:	The Tumwater Valley Bar and Grill, 4611 Tumwater Valley Drive South	First and third Monday of each month, 7:00-9:00 pm	December 18
Seattle:	Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Ave E	Every Tuesday, 8:00 pm onward	December 5
Spokane:	Red Lion BBQ & Pub, 126 N Division St	Every Wednesday, 7:00 pm	November 29
Tacoma:	Meconi’s Pub, 709 Pacific Ave	Every Wednesday, 8:00 pm onward	December 6
Tri-Cities:	O’Callahans – Shilo Inn, 50 Comstock, Richland	Every Tuesday, 7:00 pm onward	December 5
Vancouver:	Hazel Dell Brew Pub, 8513 NE Highway 99	Second and fourth Tuesday of each month, 7:00 pm onward	December 12
Walla Walla:	The Green Lantern, 1606 E Isaacs Ave	First Friday of each month, 8:00 pm onward	January 5

(And apparently there’s also an unaffiliated liberal drinking group in Olympia that meets every Monday at 7PM at the Brotherhood Lounge, 119 N. Capital Way.)

The righties had a field day attacking Senator-elect Jim Webb (D-VA) for the following exchange with President Bush:

“How’s your boy?” Bush asked, referring to Webb’s son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

“I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

“That’s not what I asked you,” Bush said. “How’s your boy?”

“That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb said coldly…

Republicans and their toadies in the media accused Webb of being rude to Bush and disrespectful to the office of the President. But as it turns out…

Today we learn that Bush was warned to be “extra sensitive” about asking Webb anything about his son. While Bush’s partying daughters were causing a diplomatic row in Argentina, Webb’s son had a close call with a car bomb and almost died the day before in Iraq. But Bush being Bush—and being Bush means being an asshole—couldn’t resist the opportunity to piss on Webb.

As the WP reported, Webb tried to avoid Bush but “it wasn’t long before the Bush found him.” So Bush sought Webb out, and asked him about his son.

Because, as Dan Savage points out, President Bush is an asshole. But then, that’s not really news, is it?

Of course the title to this post refers to the original horse’s ass, the man for whom this blog is named, my former foil Tim Eyman. I say “former” because as our respective relevance has moved in opposite directions, I’ve moved on to bigger, more challenging targets.

But I can’t help but feel at least a touch nostalgic reading of Timmy’s latest venture, especially since it is largely a retread of a measure he failed to qualify for the ballot back in 2003, around the time I first stumbled onto the scene with I-831, my feel-good initiative to officially proclaim Tim Eyman a horse’s ass. After failing this year to qualify for the ballot with a tried-and-true, sure-fire winner — the third or forth incarnation of his YATDCT Initiative (Yet Another Thirty Dollar Car Tab) — Eyman has been reduced to recycling one of his biggest clunkers, an initiative so dull and uninspiring that he quietly dumped it halfway through the signature gathering season for a paid gig on behalf of the gambling industry.

Sure, he’s gussied it up with some ready-made talking points about requiring disclosure of OFM estimates that are already disclosed, but for the most part he’s just putting lipstick on a equine anus. For the centerpiece of both his latest measure and his 2003 flop is a provision that requires a two-thirds super-majority vote in both houses of the legislature for any tax or fee increase.

Um… but we already have a similar anti-constitutional provision on the books courtesy of 1993’s I-601, a measure that has proven entirely toothless because the state Constitution clearly sets forth that bills are to be passed by a simple majority. When the legislature wants to exceed I-601’s limits it need merely suspend it with a majority vote. So what’s the point?

The point is, it gives Timmy something to run an initiative on, and that after all is how he makes his living. Eyman’s 2003 initiative failed because his grassroots run about as deep as his conscience, and thus he couldn’t drum up enough drones to volunteer time and money to the signature drive. Since then Tim has attracted a sugar daddy, multi-millionaire investment banker Michael Dunmire of Woodinville, who has nearly singlehandedly financed Eyman’s initiatives (and lifestyle) over the past two years. Should Dunmire fail to learn a lesson from this year’s YATDCT fiasco — proving yet again that in our land of opportunity personal wealth is not an accurate measure of raw intelligence — it seems likely that Eyman will be able to buy this dog onto the ballot. Though considering how Timmy and the Fagans inexplicably managed to flush $400,000 of Dunmire’s money down the toilet this Spring, I guess anything’s possible.

So come November voters could be asked to cast an up or down vote on an initiative that promises greater fiscal accountability, authored by a man who couldn’t even be bothered to keep an accurate account of the signatures he bought with other people’s money. But then, what do you expect from a horse’s ass?

Kent Johnson, the operations director for William Ryan Select, the local distributor of AHA TORO Tequila, was pretty pissed off about my post linking alleged sexual predator Larry Corrigan to his company:

Larry Corrigan did work as an outside consultant for us up until April of this year, however he has not been involved in any way with AHA TORO Tequila or our company since we let him go 8 months ago. We are also not involved with his work with the state on behalf of the Tequila industry. I understand that due to his political connections, he was solicited by larger Tequila companies to work on their behalf with the state. We have 0 connection to this campaign.

We are a small business run by 3 lifelong Seattleites, who are all heavily involved in the local community and numerous philanthropies. What we are is a small business trying to succeed. What we are not is a politically entrenched/motivated/connected company on either side of the aisle.

[…] I hope in the future you will see fit to not recklessly tie a small local business trying to succeed to the alledged gross crimes of a former consultant.

My apologies to Kent and his partners. I never intended to imply any connection between their company and Corrigan’s alleged crime. I did however imply a connection between Corrigan’s work on behalf of AHA TORO and his initiative to liberalize liquor sales. I’ll take Kent’s word that his company is not involved in the initiative campaign at all.

So I stand corrected. In sponsoring his liquor initiative, Corrigan was not working on behalf of William Ryan Select. He was working on behalf of the Tequila industry.

And oh yeah… despite some half-hearted attempts from our good friend Stefan to label Corrigan a Democrat, everybody I’ve talked to describes him as a loyal Republican who often boasted of his party ties, and who was integrally involved in several of Dave Reichert’s campaigns. So there.

I don’t generally relish driving traffic to (un)Sound Politics, but since Postman has already linked to Eric Earling’s post on what Republicans need to do to win in the suburbs, well, why the hell not?

Earling thinks Republicans are losing on the issues, specifically, education and transportation. Well, duh-uh. It’s not chicanery or ballot fraud that has led to Democratic dominance in the GOP’s former suburban strongholds, it’s the fact that the Republican Party as a whole has grown increasingly out of touch with suburban voters. But as Earling is discovering in his own comment thread, it’s more than just issues, it’s ideology.

For despite all the complaints from political extremists and unengaged independents about not being offered a distinct enough choice at the polls, the two parties actually sit on either side of a substantive ideological divide: at their core, Democrats believe in government… whereas Republicans don’t. Sure, this is a broad generalization, and the ideological divide does not always manifest itself in practice (hence the Bush administration’s profligate spending and relentless encroachment on privacy,) but it dominates the rhetoric in which the two parties frame the issues.

Earling seems to lament the region’s affection for light rail and other mass transit solutions, but advises his fellow Republicans to accept it as reality and find a way to give the voters what they want. The problem is, the GOP’s stubborn opposition to transit stems not just from a policy dispute or a revulsion to higher taxes, but from a revulsion to big government programs in general… and what could be bigger than the physical and social engineering involved in building a commuter rail system? The free market cannot and will not build the Puget Sound region a modern transit system, and so to the free market ideologues who dominate the GOP base, Sound Transit just reeks of Soviet-era central planning.

Likewise, Earling laments the failure of vouchers and charter schools to catch on with voters in our “blue state,” but once again pragmatically advises his fellow Republicans to just… well… deal. But I think the more interesting question to explore is exactly why vouchers and charter schools hold such a strong appeal to the GOP base? Of course, these are market-based solutions, and as such reveal the party’s fundamental distrust of the government they seek to run.

The fundamental problem for Republicans is not that they picked the wrong issues, but that on issue after issue both their position and their rhetoric reveals an anti-government meme that is simply out of step with the majority of suburban voters. None of this should be news to Earling or anybody else; the trends have been apparent for years. Indeed two years ago, in the wake of the disastrous 2004 election I expounded on this theme in a presciently titled post: “Subdivide and conquer: a strategy for a new Democratic majority.”

Families move to places like Mercer Island for better public schools, cleaner streets, safer neighborhoods, and all the other public services that a higher property tax base provides. These are people who believe in government because they benefit from it every day, and they routinely tax themselves to pay for the services they want.

These are people with whom urban Democrats have common ground, and we have an opportunity to exploit the wedge the neo-cons have provided, to expand our base politically and geographically. For in addition to a shared belief that good government is necessary to maintaining a high quality of life, suburban and city voters have a mutual interest in maintaining an economically and culturally vibrant urban core.

The problem facing Eastside suburban Republicans is not tactical or strategic, it’s philosophical. The KCGOP was once dominated by “Rockefeller Republicans” (or in the local parlance, “Dan Evans Republicans”)… socially liberal fiscal conservatives who, like their Democratic counterparts, believed in using government as a tool for promoting the public good. But today’s GOP is dominated by ideological purists who would, if given free reign, dismantle and privatize the public services that define suburban life, while imposing the moral strictures of their right-wing, fundamentalist Christian allies.

Okay, again… perhaps I’m generalizing, but the larger point remains. Suburban Republicans are losing elections because suburban voters simply don’t trust Republicans to run a government they clearly profess to despise. Read the comment threads on (u)SP or the righty trolls here. The problem with education? Those greedy teachers and corrupt, incompetent administrators. Transportation? Self-aggrandizing government officials, wasteful civil servants, and self-serving special interests. Crime? Liberal judges who care more about the rights of criminals than the rights of victims. Even when it comes to social issues Republicans have adopted the rhetoric of blame. The gay civil rights bill wasn’t about a class of people demanding the same legal protections as everybody else, it was about a bunch of perverts seeking to impose their disgusting lifestyle on the rest on us.

Meanwhile, at the same time Republicans are putting so much time and effort into maligning government as incompetent, inefficient, and sometimes, downright immoral, suburban voters enjoy the benefits of a functioning local government everyday. They love their schools, their libraries, their parks, their police and their firefighters, and they consistently choose to tax themselves to improve these services. Thus the main problem for suburban Republicans is that the reality of suburban life simply doesn’t match the bulk of Republican rhetoric.

I appreciate Earling’s efforts at introspection. But it’s going to take a lot more than a shift in tactics to revive the GOP on the Eastside.

United Nations Ambassador John Bolton resigned his post today in the face of bipartisan opposition in the US Senate.

Bush had bypassed the Senate in August 2005 by appointing Bolton to the position when the lawmakers were in recess, avoiding the confirmation process and angering senators concerned that Bolton had a temper and intimidated intelligence analysts to support his hawkish views while at the State Department.

The Bushies blame Democrats for Bolton’s failed confirmation, but in fact it was opposition from several key Republican senators that ultimately killed the nomination. And with Democrats preparing to take control of the Senate next month, Bolton’s chances for confirmation slipped from slim to none.

Or will the Democrats take control of the Senate after all?

One rumor flying around the punditsphere has Bush appointing Sen. Joe Lieberman to the UN post. Should Lieberman accept the nomination, Connecticut’s Republican Governor would appoint his replacement, thus swinging control of the Senate to the GOP. Lieberman, who clearly harbors a great deal of bitterness towards Democratic colleagues who in the general election supported Ned Lamont (you know… the Democratic nominee,) couldn’t really devise a bigger “fuck you” scenario.

But it seems doubtful. Lieberman isn’t stupid or suicidal, and after struggling so hard to win reelection it seems unlikely he would throw away a six year Senate term for two years at most as UN Ambassador.

Still, it’s fun to consider the intrigue.

Today the US Supreme Court will hear arguments concerning the Seattle Public Schools assignment policies, specifically the “integration tiebreaker” the district suspended in 2001.

In 1999 the district switched to an “Open Choice” plan in which incoming freshman could name their preferred high schools. Not surprisingly, some schools were preferred over others, with Ballard, Nathan Hale, Roosevelt, Garfield and Franklin getting more applicants than they could accommodate. In order to achieve a racial balance that more close matched the city as a whole, the district used race as one of the tiebreakers in assigning students.

Also unsurprising, many of the district’s high schools have become significantly less diverse since the integration tiebreaker was suspended. Franklin has dropped from 21 percent white to only 10 percent, and both Cleveland and Rainier Beach are now over 93 percent non-white.

I know these figures will elicit a big “so what?” from those on the right who consistently argue against any color of affirmative action or diversity policy, but I think it speaks to a much larger issue, an issue that I believe is at the heart of many of the district’s structural problems: the undeniable disparity between the district’s various schools, an inequity that clearly tracks economic, geographic, and yes, racial boundaries.

A handful of Northend schools are oversubscribed, while Southend schools like Cleveland and Rainier Beach suffer steadily declining enrollment. Why? Because these Northend schools are better. Everybody knows it, and even if it isn’t true in all areas, the very perception is more than enough to make it self-fulfilling. These schools attract better teachers, better students, and many of the most active and engaged families. They provide a safer, more stable learning environment, and their students produce significantly higher test scores. Of course the parents filing the lawsuit that challenged the integration tiebreaker were pissed off when their kids didn’t get their top choice. Who wouldn’t be? It just isn’t fair that your kids get a crappier education and fewer opportunities due to luck of the draw let alone the color of their skin.

But none of this would be an issue if all our high schools were equally good. Or at least, good enough. But they’re not. So it is.

When John Stanford was superintendent he made it clear that he was willing to sacrifice integration to some extent, in the interest of promoting neighborhood schools. The trick was to take away from parents the incentive to bus their children cross-town in search of a better education, by bringing some degree of equity to all of the district’s schools. If Rainier Beach for example, was pretty much as good and as safe as any other high school in the district, why on earth would I want to bus my daughter all the way from South Seattle to Ballard?

As it stands, the district now spends millions of dollars a year busing students from one part of the district to another, money that could be invested in the classroom rather than transportation. But we can’t in good conscience move to a neighborhood school model at the elementary, middle or high school level until we guarantee a greater degree of equity between all our schools.

Yes, there are many, many complicated factors that make one school better than another, but some of them are quite tangible, and thus can be tangibly addressed. For example, at some high schools there simply aren’t enough text books to go around, so students share. At other high schools each student has two copies of each textbook, one for school and one for home, so they don’t have to lug them back and forth.

How is this disparity even possible, let alone tolerated?

Coming up, our education funding system’s dirty little secret.

Goddamn Seahawks. Goddamn NBC “Sunday Football Night.” Goddamn preemption.

You’d think by now that 710-KIRO management would realize that most Seattlites would rather listen to me talk politics than listen to the Seahawks and the post-game coverage. But no.

Anyway, I won’t be on the air tonight, but I’ll be back next Sunday in my usual 7 to 10PM slot. And mark your calendar, as I’ll be filling in for Dave Ross and Ron Reagan during Christmas week. That’s 10AM to 1PM, December 25th through 29th.

To reiterate, I agree with Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen in opposing proposed FCC rule changes that would permit greater media consolidation. But…

The changes would have increased the number of TV stations a company can own in one market, and repealed the cross-ownership ban, which blocks a company from owning a TV station and newspaper in the same town.

You know, like the owners of KING-5 or one of the other local TV stations buying the Seattle P-I and making a competitive run at the Times by consolidating their news gathering operations. That, according to Frank, just wouldn’t serve our local community interests as much as, say… driving the P-I out of business and turning Seattle into a one-newspaper town.

Of course, what the current regulations don’t do is prevent a local TV station from expanding its news operations and transforming its website into an online Seattle Times killer.

I’m just saying.

The US Supreme Court is preparing to hear the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case:

The controversy erupted in 2002 after Joseph Frederick, then a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School, displayed a banner proclaiming “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” while standing across the street from the school as the Winter Olympics torch was passing through Juneau.

Then-Principal Deborah Morse confiscated the banner and suspended Frederick from school for 10 days.

Well, I’m pretty sure you can all guess where I stand on this issue, but I just enjoy hearing the righty trolls coming to my blog and argue for repressing the First Amendment rights of others.

I’ve pretty much pooh-poohed Viaduct retrofit proposals, mostly because WSDOT engineers had insisted it wasn’t a cost effective option. No doubt we can extend the life of the Viaduct — we’re doing that now — but at some point it just becomes safer, less disruptive and cheaper over the long haul to replace the thing than it is to constantly repair it. Damn entropy.

Now comes a new WSDOT report that suggests a retrofit might be possible, though it doesn’t yet project the cost or the serviceable years added to the life-span of the structure.

Does this change my assessment of the various options? Well, sorta.

Money aside, there’s absolutely no doubt that given the choice between a tunnel and a bigger, wider rebuild, the former is by far the preferable option… and anybody who tells you different is either lying or crazy. The current Viaduct is a gaping wound through our city, a hunk of crumbling concrete that physically separates the downtown from the waterfront. It is a dirty, noisy, ugly monstrosity that lowers property values and offends both the physical and the aesthetic senses. It is an embarrassment to Seattle’s aspiration towards being a world-class city.

One can forgive city planners a half-century ago. I mean… who knew? But absent the existing Viaduct from our current city landscape, nobody in their right mind would ever seriously propose building one today. Such a proposal would be a nonstarter.

The only serious argument against a tunnel is the cost — at least an extra couple billion over the $2.8 billion estimate for a rebuild. But even that calculation is shortsighted. The tunnel option would dramatically increase property values in the area, and with more than double the serviceable life-span of an elevated replacement, a tunnel could end up saving future generations many billions of dollars in early replacement costs.

If we can afford the tunnel — if we can find the extra money to pay for it — we would be nuts to pass up this once in a half-century opportunity to reshape our downtown and waterfront for the better.

Which brings us back to the retrofit option.

If in fact we can safely extend the life of the Viaduct for another couple decades at the relatively bargain-basement price of say, only a billion dollars… given our region’s unique consensus-driven political culture, perhaps such a half-assed stopgap measure is the best solution we can come up with at this time. It would not only be less expensive, but less disruptive, as a retrofit is presumably the only option that doesn’t require tearing the damn thing down.

And best of all, it would give us the twenty years we obviously need to make a major decision in this town.

With a retrofit temporarily preventing the Viaduct from toppling over onto the waterfront, we would now have several years to develop complete engineering plans for the tunnel, rebuild and no-build options, which can then be put out for a public referendum by 2011… and again in 2013, and 2017. It’ll take a few more years to get the contract bids in place before voters approve the final project in 2021 and again in 2023, before repealing it only one year later in 2024. At which point the Legislature will finally step in and override the will of the voters. At this rate we can expect construction to begin sometime shortly before we’re all eaten by the Morlocks.

I know that’s not much of an endorsement of the retrofit option, but if the perfect is the enemy of the good, that’s about as good as you’re going to get from me.

Darryl’s already hit the story, but I wanted to come back to it after reading this snippet in the Seattle P-I:

A former longtime employee of the King County Prosecutor’s Office was caught in an Internet sting this week, when police say he arranged to meet someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl for sex.

[…] The Seattle P-I is not publishing the man’s name or details about his work on local political campaigns because he has not been formally charged.

We shall call him “Pervert X.” Although his real name is Larry Corrigan, a GOP operative and former Director of Operations and Budget for King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng. Why the P-I thought it should protect his identity and political affiliations I don’t know, especially after KIRO-TV had already shouted his name all over the airwaves.

The Seattle Times was less discrete. It not only described him as the deputy treasurer for Dave Reichert’s 1997 and 2001 runs for King County sheriff, and as a “supporter without an official role in Reichert’s congressional campaigns,” they also went on to get comments from Reichert and a Maleng spokesman.

So, should Corrigan’s identity have been revealed? It strikes me that either the Times or the P-I must have erred in judgement, and reluctantly, I’m leaning towards the P-I. After all, Corrigan’s political pedigree is the only thing that makes this story rise above the usual din of dirty old men propositioning teenagers, so if it was too soon to reveal his identity, it was certainly too soon to publish the story. But then, who am I to question the journalistic decision making of our local media? I’m just some unschooled blogger.

Now I suppose it’s unfair to use yet another scandal involving yet another GOP mucky-mucky to make some assertion about Republicans in general. So I won’t. Instead I’ll just leave the implication dangling out there without comment.

But it is fair to note that Corrigan wasn’t just some low-level party loyalist. He was incredibly well connected. “Very wired,” I’m told. “Unbelievably so.” And apparently, got along great with folks on both sides of the aisle. I mean, for a Republican.

He was also in the process of using his political connections for personal gain. KIRO reported that Corrigan had left the Prosecutor’s Office two years ago to pursue private business interests… and that business is apparently the local distributorship for Aha Toro Tequila. (Go to the Contact page and you’ll find some other state GOP loyalists. And click on the address for “Kent Johnson” and you’ll find your email addressed to “larry_corrigan”.)

Which explains why Corrigan was also leading the effort to run a statewide initiative in 2007 that would liberalize WA’s liquor laws so as to allow big box and other stores to sell liquor. You know… like Aha Toro tequila.

Of course, we’ve come to expect the character of our initiatives to reflect the character of their sponsors. Here’s hoping this particular initiative is dead.