NEW ALTERNATIVE 'SURFACES' FOR REPLACING THE ALASKA WAY VIADUCT

The Alaskan Way Viaduct has earthquake damage, and is deteriorating. So is the associated Seawall that protects the waterfront area from the waters of Elliott Bay. Few dispute the urgency of taking action to protect safety and ensure that our transportation system keeps functioning. However, there is significant disagreement about the most effective - and affordable - action to address these issues.

Fortunately, in recent months a new alternative has 'surfaced'. Integrating the replacement for the Viaduct with the existing street grid could lead to opportunities to create a better and safer transportation system that works in harmony with the urban environment. The right kind of plan can bring together good urban design, efficient transportation, and environmental enhancement, and create a much healthier waterfront for future generations.

With a road on the surface, the downtown waterfront could be centered around a well-designed boulevard, like the Westside Highway in New York or the Embarcadero in San Francisco. These cities, where traffic congestion is much worse than it is in Seattle, took the bold step to reject aerial freeways and accept the challenge to liberate their waterfronts. We could do the same in Seattle, seizing the opportunity and challenge to encourage a Seattle downtown waterfront with more and better open space and well-designed mixed use development.

Many of those concerned about the urban environment believe the best alternative is a tunnel system. Unfortunately, projected costs for fully reconstructing the Route 99 corridor from Mercer to Spokane are estimated at over $10 billion, and even the current, scaled-down tunnel alternative is projected to cost around $4 billion. The dream many urban designers have of removing the aerial viaduct, which cuts off downtown from the waterfront and shadows and blights valuable urban land, is a powerful dream. But, a tunnel may be beyond our reach.

Given that, maybe we should take a long look at replacing the viaduct with an expanded Alaskan Way Boulevard, including a series of steps to reduce the amount of traffic using Alaskan Way and Highway 99. The surface alternative could cost much less than either a tunnel or aerial alternative. This could free up funding for transportation improvements to move freight more effectively through other corridors and shift automobile users onto transit. It would also provide views over Elliott Bay, like those that make the current Viaduct so attractive to drivers.

Plans for the Viaduct suffered a blow with the defeat of Referendum 51, which would have provided $450 million to complete the design and begin work. Planning is continuing with $5 million in City funds, enough to keep the project going through the spring. City and State officials will lobby the legislature to provide funds to move forward with planning and design, and then seek construction funding through the proposed Regional Transportation Improvement District or future state funding alternatives.

The setback in project planning could become a step forward if it allows fully reviewing a wider range of alternatives. Key questions include whether patching up the existing viaduct is the only realistic option in the current funding environment, whether a relatively low cost surface replacement can handle transportation demands and enhance the urban environment, and whether even the stripped-down tunnel alternative is viable, given the resources that might be available.

I am encouraging planners to widen their horizons and explore the surface alternative. This must involve examining how to manage crucial freight issues (possibly including a freight ferry from Pier 91 to Harbor Island?), as well as how to implement increased transit. Construction of the monorail could potentially remove many automobile drivers from the Viaduct. With the right kind of design and creativity, we could improve connections to SR 519, the Spokane Street Viaduct, and the stadium area, as well as reconnect the street grid in South Lake Union to improve access and mobility.

Replacing the Viaduct and reworking Seattle's downtown waterfront may be the largest civic investment that we will make over the next generation, and could reshape the future for our children. We must explore a range of options to find the one that works best for the whole Seattle community.

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRORISM

When the two planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, it was the New York City Fire and Police Departments who responded, and who suffered many deaths in the resultant catastrophe. As the United States enters an era of our national life when acts of terror are a possibility anywhere in the country, local governments will be the first responders, and local police, fire, and health departments will be on the front line. It won't be the staff of the Department of Homeland Security.

That is why it is so alarming that the debate on the national level has ignored the urgent need for funding for local governments, funding that can improve our real security, and instead has focused on ways to compromise the rights we are struggling to defend and to divert local law enforcement to that end rather than to its core mission of protecting public safety.

Cities and counties have spent more than $3 billion in preparation and precautions for possible terrorist attacks. More than a third of those governments have cut back on essential public services to fund these efforts. Yet, while the Homeland Security Act authorized $3.5 billion for a "first responder initiative", Congress and the President have failed to appropriate money to carry out this commitment. The very areas of government that have been hit hardest by the recession, that are required by law (unlike the federal government) to have balanced budgets, and that have the most limited range of potential funding resources, are being required to fund this national effort.

As Mayor Michael Guido of Dearborn, Michigan, recently noted: "I don't think anyone could have predicted that national defense would be paid for by property taxes."

The overwhelming majority of law enforcement officials are responsible to locally elected bodies, and enforce laws passed by state legislatures and local councils. Effective cooperation between national and local law enforcement is important to address real issues of threatened or actual terrorist acts. However, it is also important for local governments to stand up for basic human rights. Local authority must not be misused in ways that threaten those rights or compromise our basic mission of public safety.

Many Americans are disturbed by the sweeping authority given to the federal government by the so-called "Patriot Act", which has many troubling clauses that essentially suspend rights in the pursuit of terrorist suspects and allow widespread surveillance of Americans in their daily lives, even if no crime is suspected. A number of cities have passed resolutions critical of the Patriot Act. The Seattle City Council will soon consider a resolution sponsored by Councilmember Heidi Wills taking a similar stand. I am cosponsoring the resolution, and strongly support it.

We have already had several incidents in Seattle, including attempts to suspend the use of food stamps at grocery stores owned by Somali immigrants, threats to individuals who post information on the web about travel to Cuba, and the detention of people like Nadin Hamoui, a Syrian college student who was detained for nine months along with her father and mother. We have also had requests from federal authorities to modify or repeal Seattle's police surveillance statute, which provides civilian oversight over the collection of data about individuals when no crime is suspected or being investigated. These actions do not protect us from terrorists, but allow the harassment of people in the pursuit of their daily lives or the exercise of their rights of free speech and peaceful dissent.

We have also had suggestions that local law enforcement should enforce immigration laws. In response to this, on Monday, January 27, the Council unanimously approved an ordinance codifying current procedures used by the Seattle Police Department. These procedures make it clear that the City's role is to protect public safety and enforce local criminal laws. Under the Police regulation and the statute, City employees are not enforcement agents for federal immigration laws, and only inquire about immigration status if a Police officer has reasonable suspicion to believe that a person is committing or has committed a criminal-law violation. This is consistent with current federal law regarding local responsibility in relation to immigration statutes.

This ordinance will encourage persons who are victims or witnesses to crimes to come forward without fear of possible irregularities in their immigration status. This will not only make it less likely that immigrants will be victims of crime, but will protect the public safety of all Seattle residents.

It will also make it clear that it is not appropriate for City enforcement resources to be spent on federal immigration violations, ensuring that these resources will be used to protect public safety in Seattle. Questioning the legal status of immigrants has nothing to do with preventing or fighting terrorism - it would only be another unfunded burden on local authorities that have more important things to do.

Public safety is the first and primary responsibility of government, and we must effectively and intelligently conduct the struggle against terrorism. But we will have already surrendered without a struggle, regardless of what terrorist acts take place, if we abandon our democratic ideals and our civil liberties. That is what we are fighting to protect, and what terrorists are fighting to eliminate. As Benjamin Franklin warned: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

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QUOTE:
"Let America be the dream that the dreamers dreamed - Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. O, let America be America again - The land that never has been yet - And yet must be-the land where every man is free. O, yes, I say it plain. America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath- America will be!"

-- Excerpts from "Let America Be America Again" Langston Hughes

DEEP THOUGHT:
"In Iran, there is beautiful poetry and everything turns out a disaster. Here the poetry is not so beautiful, but people are free to discover the best in themselves; that's why America has happy endings. Here it's a negative system: there is no entrenched despotism, no will to dominate. We immigrants can remake the whole country if we want to. It's ours for the taking, as if there is a perpetual clean slate where nobody is ever owed anything. I'll tell you, the Iranian revolution was a disaster for Iran and a success for America, because it brought a lot of talented, ambitious Iranians here. Every time there is a disaster in the Third World, it's a good thing for America, since the best of the middle class finds its way here."

-- Iranian immigrant Jamsheed Ameri

Citizen participation and engagement are critical for maintaining democracy -- fostering it is a key task of elected officials. It's my hope that this newsletter will inform you about issues, inspire you to get involved, and that together we can make things work better in this great city. Please send me your feedback, so we can keep things lively, interesting, and useful. And please forward it along to friends who might be interested.

Richard Conlin
Your Seattle City Councilmember

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