History speaks and Seattle's region listens

That was some kaffeeklatsch the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce threw on Thursday: a thousand or so people filling one of the town's watering holes and buzzing about the state of the region — and whether Ron Sims had just turned in his King County citizenship.

County Executive Sims had, that morning, released a column on his strongly held opposition to the Nov. 6 roads and transit package — $18 billion or so of new stuff for transportation from Snohomish County to Tacoma. Sims would have been hissed at had he entered the room. But the theme of the day was the history the region shares — of resources, technology and the march of aviation across our skies. It was a portrait of everything good about Seattle and, to be fair, warnings from some smart people that the future could close on us like a clam.

The first of these Chamber gatherings took place in 1882 and daringly secured $12,000 for Seattle to become the mail-delivery base to Alaska, beating out Portland.

Seattle has not looked back. Soon, the Gold Rush came, and then Pacific commerce, then the wars and commercial aviation's birth.

Scott E. Carson, executive vice president of Boeing, took us on a little trip to the days of forests and fish, up to the new Boeing 787, a miniature model of which was on table after table. Carson remembered the old, noisy jets and their plumes of black smoke that trailed the skies.

"We blew it," he said of the aviation industry, where quieter airplanes, more efficient and cleaner, are now entering the market. Carson's talk was about the aviation industry's responsibilities in a world where global warming touches every move we make.

Carson also called on the region to invest in a "single, integrated transportation plan" that would help rid Puget Sound's communities of their bottlenecks and mind-numbing congestion.

Speakers before him entertained the same theme of history, about some bad decisions in the past and the steadfastness needed for decisions to be made soon.

But this is a region uncertain what its leadership wants, what is expected of us and where the milk went sour.

The Sims commentary on these pages was a precis on the faults within the transit-and-roads plan. Like Carson, Sims also speaks of global warming and the impact of effluents in the air.

Strangely, leaders of government and industry are saying we truly do have a choice in November about what to do: Build more, or take a pause and build differently.

I take Sims at his word, as I do Carson and others who ask us to think this through before the vote.

"If we do nothing in November, we will do nothing for years" is a common refrain from the pro-vote bloc. "What's your answer instead of these taxes and investments?" they ask. Well, that's a fair question but also one government should now immediately address.

This is what a newspaper should do in running the Sims commentary just at the cusp of a major community debate. Without contrivance or conspiracy, The Times Opinion page presented a view from Sims hardly whispered aloud in the region. Bomblets have gone off before over the Cross-Base Highway near Fort Lewis, the cost of getting to Northgate and the use of light rail to connect Seattle to the Eastside.

Yet, never have we been asked to think very hard about it. You were either for or against it based on old arguments of taxes and other forms of mobility. Carson's linkage to history, mobility and education was a strong motive to make it easier for Boeing to stay here. History is on our side, he seemed to be saying, but maybe not the future.

Today, we present the last piece of both future and history written by populist historian Walt Crowley. In the adjoining space we saved for Walt, his final etchings on the mirror of our region emerge. They may be prophetic words, or you may find them alarmist. But in this turbulent past week, it's nice to have someone pull some of the pieces together.

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: jvesely@seattletimes.com for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Opinion at seattletimes.com