A muddied mandate for political vacillation

Argggghhhh!

Like Charlie Brown on his back after Lucy pulls away the football just before he kicks: Splat. That is how I feel after the ridiculous vote on the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Seattle voters gave politicians a free pass to spend more political capital on a one-mile stretch of highway, when a vote for the elevated rebuild could have ended the debate. All Seattle voters had to do was use reason on a nonbinding vote to let Olympia, the Seattle City Council and the mayor's office know that a rebuild is the best option for the city and region.

The outcome should not be a surprise, though. Voters were given a ballot crafted by the City Council that could result only in a muddied mandate for political vacillation: yes or no on a slimmed-down tunnel and yes or no on a rebuilt viaduct. The majority of voters were against a rebuilt viaduct and overwhelmingly against a tunnel.

The differences between Gov. Christine Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and other electeds have not been bridged despite the vote. At a love-in press conference held Wednesday in Olympia, Gregoire, Nickels and King County Executive Ron Sims took turns at the microphone saying nothing, and saying everything.

Gregoire: "We all agree on one fundamental thing: that the viaduct must come down before it falls down."

What a daring statement.

Nickels: "Now we are all united in a common goal to find a better solution for our city and for our waterfront."

Our city, our waterfront. What about our region? This is a road of regional significance.

Sims: "In King County, we find consensus."

Really? Then why are we stuck with this dog of a viaduct-election result?

Gregoire said that work on parts of the viaduct would begin this summer and any final decision will be made in two years. This two-year cushion and vote have positioned the surface-street option as Tuesday's winner.

With the tunnel seemingly dead, a good portion of its supporters might make the logical switch to the surface street. Tunnel supporters seemed more interested in ridding the waterfront of the viaduct than in increasing mobility and maintaining capacity. A green-splashed boulevard is their only alternative.

Tuesday's losers? The region and neighborhoods dependent on the viaduct. The region loses because more political sweat is going to be dumped into figuring out some convoluted solution that will supposedly make everybody happy. This, while the super-regionally important Evergreen Point Floating Bridge waits to be replaced.

I live in Magnolia, one of the loser neighborhoods. My family is not different from other families in Magnolia, Ballard and West Seattle that use the viaduct multiple times a week, if not daily. The highway is our easiest way to Interstate 90, to points south like the airport, and maybe most importantly, to Costco on Fourth Avenue South.

The anti-elevated people say that by getting rid of our city's road capacity, drivers will turn to transit. A misguided hope. I might take the bus to a Mariners or Seahawks game from Magnolia. An easy straight shot. I will not load my family on a bus and make a number of transfers, then wait to get picked up at a park-and-ride lot to go visit the grandparents and other family on the Eastside. Do not even try to convince me that my family's errands can be done by bus.

I was hoping Seattle voters would give a majority, no matter how slim, to the rebuild. It did not happen. Instead, politicians were given license to dither while the surface-street option fills the void.

The viaduct is about more than opening up the waterfront. The debate is really about how the region works together. So far that work has been provincial and destructive.

Argggghhhh!

Ryan Blethen's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is rblethen@seattletimes.com