Belltown Messenger

It's May 18th, and I'm sitting in a corner of the intimate Cafe Paloma in Pioneer Square, where the Prople's Waterfront Coalition is holding a fundraiser. For those interested, the PWC is doing pretty well these days. Cary Moon, one of the founders, had good news to announce to the crowd of faithful supporters. For one thing, the PWC is in the process of getting some significant funding from an, as yet, anonymous donor, to further the cause of their "no highway" solution to the crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct. Also, Moon confirmed that a (once again, as yet unnamed) high-ranking, elected city official is on-board with the program.

If it seems odd that people aren't standing up for the most sensible solution currently being proferred to one of the city's most pertinent transportation problems, it's a sad sign of Seattle politics. For God knows what reason, the officially endorsed solution remains a $4 billion tunnel. Mayor Greg Nickles is marshalling all the influence and support he can for his misguided, elephantine project, which means that at the local level, he can silence dissent but on the state and national level - where the funding is supposed to come from - he's up the creek without a paddle. Sen. Patty Murray has made her opposition to the plan clear and has refused to seek federal funds in excess of the cost of replacing the existing structure (which leaves the Mayor a little over $2 billion in the red for the project). Gov. Christine Gregoire, for her part, has recently suggested that her administration views a revamping of the 520 bridge - largely a handout to Microsoft - as a higher priority, leaving the Mayor laargely on his own.

At the fundraiser, I approached PWC founder Julie Parrett about her opinion of the Governor's nonchalance. Her response actually surprised me. "I think it's a good thing," she said frankly. In Parrett's opinion, Gregoire's opposition was a recognition of the tunnel project's unrealistic goals. My take was slightly different. Before retreating to the cafe for a pleasant meal of Meditterrannean food and wine, I took a moment to stroll around the block and stand under the Viaduct. Like most people, I avoid doing so as much as possible; the highway itself is a hideous behemoth of gray concrete running the length of the waterfront, rendering the property nearest it virtually worthless and cutting off the piers - revamped recently at considerable public expense - from the city proper.

The Viaduct was, of course, damaged during the Nisqually Quake several years earlier. Experts have given it a one in 20 chance of being rendered unusable due to seismic activity over the next decade. One section is already sagging several inches, a none-too-insignificant feat for a relatively inflexible hunk of concrete and rebar.

The PWC is more than just a group advocating the elimination of a waterfront highway - Parrett, Moon and Grant Cogswell view it as an opportunity to deal with Seattle's long-term transportation problems - but the other side of the coin is that the Viaduct is a menace. Facilitating over 140,000 car trips a day, a partial collapse could claim dozens or more lives. Put that way, Parrett actually admitted that she now refuses to drive it out of safety concerns.

I chuckle to myself and think of the anonymous city official waiting to support the PWC when the time is politically fortuitious. So much of the issue has to do with politics, and the political elite, in typically myopic fashion, view real-world concerns in the abstract. Our politicians may be waiting for it to become politically viable to do the right thing, but will the Viaduct? If it collapses and claims even a few lives, will the politicians who hewed and hawed out of fear of the Mayor's retribution survive the fall out?