Regional Answers

The central issues in this debate are the need for the Region to move traffic N and S and the need for Seattle to develop its downtown.

The NS issue effects a lot more than I99. In fact I99 is a lousy solution! What dimwit would want to use any sort of I99 .. that is Aurora with tis dstop lights and cross traffic .. to transport a widget from Everett to Vanc WA? A real plan would address the regional needs. What does this mean? 405 and a new "ring road" .. a "605," should be taken seriously. So should rail based solutions.

The Seattle part of the equation changes once when addresses the NS issue this way. The parameters are fairly clear:
1. Seattle needs to maintian or expand its capacity for NS traffic between commercial districts on the N and the S side of the city. Part of the solution should be a COMMERCIAL toll road that would only be open on a limited hours basis to the rest of the drivers. Another part may be other NS traffic, esp. martin Luther King. Currently connections on the east side of the Seattle peninsula are terrible. You can easily get into the Central District from the North via Montlake or the South via MLK, but these routes do not interconnect in any efficient manner. Finally, esp., North of the canal, there is no good way of getting across Seattle.

That brings us to the real idea .. creating a NS waterfront boulevard. This debate would be a lot easier if the damn Seattle newspapers would publish some realistic numbers on costs. Mayer Nickels' claims about costs are fanciful. We need to know what the thing would really cost. That said, we also need to know the benefit from all this to real estate developers and ow best ti optimize their efforts in terms of both the k,ind of city we get and their willingness to contribute $$ to the effrot.

The obvious example is Allantown ... or Vulcan Villas, my nasty name for South Lake Union. Vulcan/Allan are engaged in a classical visionless development. There is no regional plan for Vulcan Villas, no plans for amenities, very limited retail, no transportation plan (other than the silly street car), and certainly no plans for families to live there 9aka schools). In Vulcan's defense, access to and from SLU is horrible. Mercer s unusable most of the day and the current way the viaduct works makes access form Aurora almost impossible,. This issue grows immensely if we are to take seriosly Vulcan's claim to want mixed development with commercial and residential properties.

So, by going regional and figuring on the benefit to Vulcan and other developers, we could three very important questions:

1. how does all this development effect all of our taxes?
2. If improved transport will help Vulcan make $$, what should Vulcan contribute to the costs?
3. How does the viaduct issue effect the region and how should the region help defray the cost of NS traffic?