Viaduct Vote

Last week, Seattle held a meaningless "advisory vote" to see what citizens of the area wanted to do regarding the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct. The citizens were given two yes/no propositions: whether to replace the viaduct with another elevated highway or whether to replace the viaduct with a four-lane underground tunnel. The elevated highway garnered a total of 45% of the vote, the tunnel went down like a stack of bricks: out of nearly 100,000 votes, 30% voted for it.

The problems with the vote were many and storied. Firstly, as an advisory vote, it held no sway with what might actually happen. Secondly, with only two measures, each as yes/no, it left out options such as "I would prefer a bridge spanning Elliott Bay," or "I would rather retrofit the viaduct."

Even after both measures go down to defeat, Seattle's very own Mayor Quimby takes the microphone and proclaims "The voters said we do not want another freeway along our waterfront. They want us to find a better answer. Now we have to work hard on how to get it done." Never mind that the voters basically said that they didn't want the tunnel, Mayor McCheese is getting up in front of everyone, and he won't let go of his pie-in-the-sky idea.

What's interesting about this whole thing is that it took me until yesterday to find the quote from the day-after press conference. All quotes I found from Mayor Nickels were from a later speech he made, bloviating about how he is now looking to compromise with everyone on this issue, completely covering up the fact that he got smacked down in the voting booth only a few days ago.

The problem here is a failure on the part of the voting public to toss this guy out. Clearly, he's working for his own self-interests, and the people of Seattle can go screw. Only after they get a vote of no-confidence, or something similar, will the state of affairs improve in the northwest.