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ALLIED ARTS :: WATERFRONT COMMITTEE
January 4, 2006
David Della
Seattle City Council
PO Box 34025
Seattle, WA 98124-4025
Dear Councilmember Della:
RE: Seattle's Waterfront For All
Allied Arts read your December 27, 2005 editorial with interest. We concur with you that the Alaskan Way Viaduct corridor is a critical piece in our transportation system and that jobs and safety are serious concerns. And we further concur that the leadership in our region must act now to fix the aging seawall and viaduct. However, we strongly disagree with your conclusion that rebuilding the viaduct is the right solution. We believe that you and the majority of your council colleagues made the right decision last January when you endorsed the tunnel option. You got it right last year; unfortunately, your recent change of heart, however well intentioned, is ill conceived. We ask you to help us build the tunnel and thereby create a Waterfront for all.
Stay the Course: Build the Tunnel
Last January, the Council agreed (7-1) with the State Department of Transportation and the Mayor that the tunnel was the preferred option.
In addition to meeting the freight and mobility needs, the tunnel offers several other benefits, including:
Taking advantage of a 100-year opportunity to open up
Seattle's waterfront.
Creating a magnet to encourage urban housing and a
livable, walkable city.
Improving a regional destination for new businesses,
enhancing both the local and regional economies.
Capturing a cost savings by repairing the seawall with
the seaward tunnel wall.
The Tunnel Is Cost Effective and Affordable We have the financial resources in this region to build the tunnel, and as Initiative 912 demonstrated we have the political will to raise money when the public sees a benefit. Seattle voted 78% against I-912-many of those voters did so because of the opportunity to create a great Waterfront. Recent, validated estimates show that we are less than $310 million away from reaching the financial goal to build the tunnel.
(Please see funding
source sheet attached). We ask that you work with your colleagues to find the necessary funding to build the tunnel and create a great Waterfront.
Compare the Costs and Benefits of a Viaduct to a Tunnel Granted, building a new viaduct is estimated to be 15% to 25% cheaper than constructing a tunnel, but making a decision based solely on the basis of a low bid is fiscally and socially short sighted. If we rebuild the viaduct, we'll spend $3 billion dollars and get nothing more than a transportation corridor for our money. The new structure will be substantially bigger, leaving us even less space for people on the Waterfront.
In 2001, the Nisqually Earthquake damaged the viaduct so severely that engineers conclude it must come down. Because the viaduct is essentially out of the equation, we encourage you to consider the Waterfront as a blank canvass. We agree that Alaskan Way can be a major traffic corridor. However, the days of ramming a freeway through an urban neighborhood are long since past. We would not dream of erecting a new double-decked freeway on Alki, Shilshole or Lake Washington Boulevard, and we strongly object to rebuilding the viaduct on the downtown waterfront now.
By contrast, building a tunnel will maintain the traffic capacity required by the Legislature and meet the Council's 2005 guiding principles, as well as Allied Arts' goals for a Waterfront for all.
Allied Arts and its growing number of community supporters agree that keeping freight and people moving smoothly across our region is critical; at the same time we ask you to work with us to reconnect neighborhoods to the Waterfront, create new open and green space, increase habitat for marine life, and expand available land area for new housing and businesses. We can do all of this only with the Waterfront tunnel.
In the near future Allied Arts will introduce you to some exciting new architectural designs, including an extension of Steinbrueck Park north to Battery Street and south to the Waterfront, as well as the possibility of a new park near the stadia.
These visions, as well as other goals, are increasingly supported by community leaders and organizations in our region, including the Downtown Seattle Association, People for Puget Sound, Transportation Choices Coalition, Discovery Institute-Cascadia Center, Downtown Seattle Residents Council, Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau and various neighborhood groups including Pioneer Square and Belltown to name just a few. When the life cycle costs and benefits are considered the tunnel is the clear choice.
Because we are passionate about creating a great Waterfront, Allied Arts members and our colleagues have provided resources and political backing for the supporters of the tunnel option and will continue to do so. We call upon you and your Council colleagues to demonstrate the leadership and wisdom you showed a year ago. You can help us do
much more than just maintain the flow of traffic-your decision now can create both a legacy and a Waterfront for all generations to come.
Yours very truly,
Sally Bagshaw, Chair, Allied Arts Waterfront Committee
Laine Ross,President, Allied Arts Of Seattle
cc. Councilmember Drago
Councilmember Compton
Councilmember Conlin
Councilmember Godden
Councilmember Licata
Councilmember McIver
Councilmember Rasmussen
Councilmember Steinbreuck
Mayor Nickels
Tim Ceis
Nancy Lucks
Allied Arts Board of Trustees
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