'Town-halled' to death on Highway 520

SEATTLE Mayor Mike McGinn wants to change the rules for replacing the Highway 520 bridge. Never mind that plans have been hashed, thrashed and negotiated for more than a decade.

McGinn wrote to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer inviting him to a joint town-hall meeting to discuss the project and the mayor's desire to put light rail on the bridge from the start.

That would be fine if other plans hadn't already been worked out during many years of regional negotiations and process before McGinn's election.

Sound Transit decided, and voters approved, light rail across Interstate 90 to the Eastside for many varied reasons. No money has been identified for additional light rail across the 520 bridge.

McGinn needs to stop, and the region needs to move forward.

The Seattle City Council asked — and Gov. Chris Gregoire agreed — to spend four months studying design and operational changes for the Seattle side of the project. City residents have to live with the impacts a long time, so that seems reasonable.

But only if the 120-day study begins promptly and doesn't become an excuse to not proceed. Plans call for two general-purpose lanes in each direction, and one in each direction for transit and high-occupancy vehicles with three or more passengers.

This battle has been fought, negotiated and processed to the max.

By adding light rail to the council study, McGinn clearly hopes to prove light rail can go across both bridges.

In the letter to Ballmer, McGinn cites Bill Gates' "tremendous leadership in addressing climate change" at a recent conference.

McGinn also cites a poll showing the public supports his view. He's been in office two months and has already abused the privilege of waving polls he and his supporters financed.

More information can be a good thing, hence support for some refinements on the west side. But McGinn may be stalling to get a bridge design he wants. He is already kicking dust at the deep-bore tunnel replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, presumably to block it.

Lawmakers in Olympia are moving forward with the current approach and need not be distracted by the mayor's latest assertion that his arrival as mayor means earlier plans must be torpedoed.