Upper Left: From the "Wouldn't it be nice…" file.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

A local note from Christopher Frizzelle at Slog...

Deep thought: Could we just turn the viaduct into an elevated bike path? Wouldn't that be insanely cool? Holy expletive, it's beautiful up there.

Yes it is...

Terry Parkhurst said...: The beauty of the Viaduct is that it truly does allow for anyone and everyone to enjoy a tremendous view of the Puget Sound. You can drive a VW Beetle or a scooter or a BMW on the Viaduct and it doesn't matter in terms of the view you get.

Also important, and something hardly anyone brings up, is the fact that it is a major corridor for trucking delivery firms or firms such as Ballard Oil. Since Seattle is no longer a city whose leadership - if you want to call it that - cares about working class people, trucks and truck drivers aren't considered. If they are mentioned, it is only in the most negative way, bleating about their "carbon footprint." It is never mentioned that a new generation of hybrid trucks - diesel/electric - are available that would negate those assertions. (Likely, no one in the Sierra Club knows such trucks exist, nor that the Hybrid Truck Users Forum took place in Seattle, during September of 2007.)

If the Viaduct is indeed torn down, despite the claims that it will become a "waterfront for all," the odds are that the fix is in; and a pack of developers, backing either Jan Drago or the incumbent mayor, will be at the ready to make millions, building condos and commercial development, on the waterfront. Those might become "shovel ready" jobs, ripe for some stimulus funds.

As Joni Mitchell once sang, "Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you got, 'till it's gone?"; 12:15 AM