Here is a letter from the president of Allied Arts:
The Governor Threatens our Waterfront!
URGENT! Governor Gregoire and the Legislature are threatening to deface our waterfront with another viaduct!
The Governor has said that creating a great waterfront as Seattle’s front porch is not a worthy investment and Seattleites must endure a bigger viaduct for another 50-100 years – or longer.
The only way to change the Governor’s mind is to win at the ballot box. On March 13th, Seattle’s voters can send a clear message to the Governor that we will not accept another viaduct. Voters can tell her that we want a great waterfront in which a tunnel handles through traffic, surface streets accommodate local trips and transit carries people efficiently.
You can do more than cast your vote. We’re asking you to make a difference by supporting Allied Arts’ Waterfront For All Campaign. Your contribution will help us run a grassroots get-out-the-vote and public education campaign.
This will be a confusing ballot for many people. We need to spread the word that there are two important votes that Seattle citizens need to make:
-NO on the Viaduct
-YES on the Surface-Tunnel Hybrid
Both questions will be on the March 13th ballot.
Many people don’t know much about the newly proposed Surface-Tunnel Hybrid. The Hybrid Tunnel works because it provides a blank canvas for the waterfront…for parks, promenades and great open-space, much like the new Olympic Sculpture Park.
There will be 13 blocks of opened waterfront from King Street in Pioneer Square to Pine Street near the Aquarium. A lid over the highway from Pine up to Lenora at Steinbrueck Park will reconnect the Pike Place Market to the waterfront with one of the world’s greatest views and promenades. And the new open waterfront will provide endless opportunities to remake Waterfront Park, the Concert Piers and ferry terminal – all into great places for people of all walks of life to enjoy.
The new Surface-Tunnel Hybrid offers other attributes:
The cost is $1.2 billion than the 6-lane tunnel option, making this “tunnel-lite” project more comparable in cost to another viaduct.
It adds bus service and bus rapid transit to carry an additional 21,000 riders daily in West Seattle, Ballard and the Aurora corridor.
It makes 3rd Avenue a permanent transit corridor, providing ample new downtown road-space for transit.
Many of Allied Arts’ friends and supporters such as the People’s Waterfront Coalition and the Sierra Club have been inspired by the “Surface & Transit” proposal. They saw a chance to enhance Seattle’s mass transit, to help us care for the waterfront environment and to create public green spaces.
The disappointing news for surface-only advocates is simply that the Governor and the Legislature made it illegal. They passed laws that tally capacity of the viaduct replacement by counting cars that speed through the corridor rather than counting people transported through. The end result: the Surface & Transit option – with its lower vehicle capacity – hits a dead end.
Clearly, these Olympian political maneuvers by a Legislature led by Frank Chopp & Helen Sommers are not thoughtful policy. WSDOT should have been charged with creating a plan that moves “people and freight,” not “cars and trucks.”
The good news for Surface & Transit advocates is that the new Surface-Tunnel Hybrid incorporates many of their suggestions. The People’s Waterfront Coalition should be congratulated for its work of getting new transit and better roadway connections incorporated into the Surface-Tunnel Hybrid.
There will be a temptation for some environmentalists to vote no on both ballot questions – against a new viaduct and against the Surface-Hybrid tunnel – "to send a message" to a car-dominated Olympia.
We advise against this "Ralph Nader" approach. The March 13 vote is our opportunity to send a united message to our elected leaders in Seattle and Olympia that a new viaduct is unacceptable and that people in Seattle see the value of a great waterfront. The Surface-Tunnel Hybrid allows us to say YES to the Waterfront, YES to moving people and freight in a rational way, and YES to leveraging this project to improve air and water quality in Puget Sound.
Allied Arts encourages all Surface & Transit supporters to vote YES for the Surface-Tunnel Hybrid and NO to the New Viaduct. If the Hybrid Tunnel doesn’t get more votes than the New Viaduct, the Governor and Legislature will surely force a New Viaduct down Seattle’s throat. We must not let this happen.
Allied Arts is asking you to think about your future, your family and your city’s legacy. A new viaduct, 50% bigger than what we have now, would be a shame upon our generation.
By contrast, a green waterfront with new public spaces enabled by the Surface-Tunnel Hybrid can create a place of destination, inspiration and pride.
Surface-Tunnel Hybrid Funding
Much has been written and said about the cost of the old tunnel proposal, specifically that it was too expensive and that approval for it should be contingent upon having all of the money pledged or in hand. Though many of these cries have had dubious motivations, they convinced the City of Seattle to find a scaled-down and cheaper option—$1.2 billion less than the old tunnel option.
Compared to the new viaduct and its blights, the Surface-Tunnel Hybrid is both affordable and a great investment. Using the same engineering and budgeting models as those for the old tunnel and new viaduct options, the cost of the Hybrid Tunnel is pragmatically just 21% more than the new viaduct.
Still the question remains, where will the money come from? The Legislature and Governor have agreed in the past that the state should pay for replacement of the viaduct: $2.8 billion. The state has already allocated almost $2.2 billion from past gas taxes ($2 billion of which voters upheld by rejecting I-912 in 2005). The Governor has said that the state, working with the federal government, would find another $600 million to rebuild the viaduct.
That leaves about $600 million to be funded. Here’s a list of sources that the City could tap:
City Light/SPU (to move utilities) $ .5 billion
Port of Seattle $ .2 billion
Army Corps of Engineers (seawall) $.15 billion
Local Improvement District
(waterfront residents) $.25 billion
Seattle Dept of Transportation $.25 billion
Total Potential Funds $1.35 billion
…this is more than double the money needed to complete the Surface-Tunnel Hybrid funding package.
Certainly our tax dollars, regardless of source, should always be spent wisely. The $.6 billion more for a great waterfront instead of a new viaduct is an investment that will pay dividends for decades, even centuries, to come.
Waterfront For All Campaign
The next six weeks will be a sprint campaign, culminating the end of six years of discussion, debate and hard work. Allied Arts is poised to do our part to set and lead the debate, educate the electorate, and get out the vote.
With your help we can win on March 13th and take a big step toward leaving a legacy waterfront for generations to come.
Please consider making a significant contribution to our work. Your donation of $100 or any amount that suits your passion and pocket book will move us toward creating a waterfront for all.
Thank you!
Laine Ross, President
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