31 Replies to "Viaduct-to-Tunnel: Words of praise, poem of regret"

• austin January 18, 2009 (6:57 pm)

  The Olympic Sculpture Park (2901 Western Avenue) has excellent views from the other side of the bay which won’t distract you while you’re attempting to drive.

• tunnelislame January 18, 2009 (7:06 pm)

  Amen, poem writer. Boo tunnel.

• M January 18, 2009 (7:13 pm)

  Great Poem Carol!

  I love the view of the city as your driving north. My kids say “now we’re in the Big City”

  Hopefully we’ll get a few more years from the viaduct as a project like this will undoubtedly have many issues to be addressed before it is completed.

• Alki Res. January 18, 2009 (7:19 pm)

  that is a beautiful poem!!!! I almost cried!!! I will also miss the view from the viaduct!!!

• Mark January 18, 2009 (9:33 pm)

  As one who enjoys the stunning view from the Alaskan Way Viaduct, I appreciate the sentiment expressed in Carol Smith’s poem. But for those sentimental for the shaky old structure, please be reminded that the lovely view will still be there, sans concrete, after the embarrassing scar is removed.

• k January 18, 2009 (9:50 pm)

  But Mark– are you going to buy a nice condo and let all of us in it to see a working waterfront from above? Access will be denied for the vast majority.
  The public space that cost only a car ride or bus fare will be gone. Nothing else will replace the view.
  The developers will profit, the rest of us not so much.

  Thank you Carol, my sentiments exactly.

• Dave A. January 18, 2009 (9:58 pm)

  It’s funny, maybe it’s because I don’t own a car but I have the exact opposite take on the tunnel. To me the Viaduct ruins the view in Seattle. Maybe a tunnel isn’t the best solution but, in my opinion, it will be nice when that monstrosity that the car commuters love so much is out of the way.

• Mark January 18, 2009 (10:46 pm)

  K, poor post-viaduct planning is by no means a foregone conclusion. It’s the height of cynicism to suggest that a waterfront viaduct is the most equitable way for Seattle – or for that matter, any world-class city – to share the view. You really need to get out of that car! :)

• Meghan January 19, 2009 (9:16 am)

  “Cute” poem, but I just find it so hard to believe that anyone would advocate a big, ugly elevated highway cutting off our downtown from our precious waterfront, most especially to preserve views from a speeding car! How about you keep your eyes on the road when you’re driving, get out of your car, and enjoy the views from all the new open space we’ll have?? And remember, any NEW viaduct would be much wider and bigger than the current one! Let’s join the 21st century, West Seattle, and support the tunnel!

• westseattleite January 19, 2009 (10:23 am)

  Boo tunnel. Not only will I miss the views, but I’ll miss the efficiency too. When all of the pro-tunnel people are stuck in the tunnel during an accident and can’t get out we’ll see how much they love it.

• KatherineL January 19, 2009 (10:29 am)

  To all of you who castigate viaduct view lovers as not paying attention to their driving: the bus goes on the viaduct, too. I used to relax and watch the view on the way home every night. I’ll miss that. And I fiercely resent the fact that people with money will buy up “my” view and push me underground.

• villagegreen January 19, 2009 (10:33 am)

  Yeah, I’ve never experienced being stuck on the viaduct during an accident.

  There are a million and one places in the city to get breathtaking views, an obscenely loud concrete pollution spewing waterfront killer should not be one of them.

• Perspective of New View Points January 19, 2009 (10:46 am)

  I didn’t want to let go of “my” view either. But, I remembered and have embraced the fact that I live in the most view-heavy neighborhood in Seattle. West Seattle has more singularly spectacular views than anywhere else in the city.

  Maybe folks are just not accustomed to getting out of their cars and walking or biking around their own nearby neighborhoods to know and enjoy “our” Olympics and Sound vista views from a Different Point of View.

  Perhaps they don’t have the experience to realize that views of abundant nature are NOT BEING TORN DOWN — only a cumbersome State road way is being removed. Myself? I had come to assume that road and views was mine to keep. It wasn’t. Any sadness or grief or sense of entitlement I had was relieved by the recognition that stellar views remain and I don’t even have to leave the neighborhood, like most of the city of Seattle does.

  I can walk through more greenbelt paths than anywhere else in the city. Most of us can be at the beach or viewpoints to see the Olympics within a five minute drive. We have one of the best views of a metropolitan city in the country.

  Change can be uncomfortable. A fresh perspective will be a good thing, I believe, for every one.

• B-Squared January 19, 2009 (11:31 am)

  Thanks Carol – that pretty much sums it up.

  welcome to a “world class city” (whatever the hell that means) where public amenities are taken away to be enjoyed by only the privileged and the tourists. yay for us.

• Cami January 19, 2009 (12:09 pm)

  Can’t they make it 3 lanes?????

• d January 19, 2009 (12:30 pm)

  Cami –

  I think I heard someone credible write or say somewhere (maybe Vlad right here on WSB?) that the traffic engineers advise that in this scenario two lanes keep traffic moving better than three would. These aspects of high-volume traffic engineering are beyond me, but I will put my faith in their learned judgment.

  I suspect these and all the engineers will continue to turn over every rock to make sure others’ mistakes are not repeated and that this will be carried out to impeccable standards of efficiency.

  And, if they’re wrong? Well, maybe we’ll just have to run them out of town. I doubt we’ll have to do that though.

• firwave January 19, 2009 (2:17 pm)

  Again, the viaduct will fall down in an earthquake before Seattle and WA state every make a decision. Let’s form another committee, let’s have another meeting…it’s laughable. The only way to go is the tunnel.

• Meghan January 19, 2009 (2:20 pm)

  Perhaps B-squared and others so adamently against a tunnel and in favor of an elevated structure (with VIEWS from our speeding cars and buses!) are right. Instead of using the technology and building a hidden tunnel under our city, let’s instead tear down the Viaduct, cut off West Seattle from downtown for 8 years or so (goodbye, property values!), drive hundreds out of jobs and businesses along the construction zone, and build another big, elevated highway along our waterfront. Of course, it’ll have to be much wider and bigger than our current Viaduct, but hey, it’s already huge, deafening and pollution spewing — what’s another 50 feet of shadows cast over downtown all day? And let’s be sure to always drag class warfare into it (like all development projects in Seattle). After all, it’s ONLY the rich people and tourists who will enjoy all the new open space, right?? Regular people don’t use parks, do they? And yes, let’s go out of our way to NOT be a “world class city” (whatever that means). Let’s let a fondness for a concrete highway built back when the auto reigned supreme inspire us to build an even bigger one – and yes, make us the laughing stock of the developed world! It could be fun! So “small town” and independent of us! Oh, wait… I just applied common sense to the situation — and no, they’re NOT right.

• Megan January 19, 2009 (4:35 pm)

  But won’t we have our skyline back
  without car of whir and street of black?
  Moved underground, the view doesn’t die –
  it just won’t distract us while we drive!

  Tunneling will change the scene
  from concrete structures to hills of green –
  and it will be for all to share,
  not just those living in the air,

  for the man-made transportation device
  will be out of the way for longing eyes.
  We will no longer have to see
  the two-teared obstruction of natural beauty…

• Carol January 19, 2009 (7:57 pm)

  A View Last Thoughts

  Ms Meghan I commend your rhyme
  And can’t help notice that the time
  You’ve spent in deep and honest thought
  Requires I now, ignore you not

  I’ve so enjoyed the robust way
  You all have written this last day
  About your views against or for
  This thing I call the “Great Big Bore”

  But I, unlike a lot of you
  Have never found it to be true
  That there was so much to malign
  About the viaduct’s design

  And none that I know shed a tear
  Or sadly cried into their beer
  Because the waterfront from town
  Was kept by viaduct too far down

  For me, these reasons we’ve been told
  Sufficient water do not hold
  To justify we now should hand
  Out most on what we can’t expand

  And yes I could go to that part
  Where big erasers stump for art
  But none’s the same as when the view
  Is every day a part of you

  I really do know after all
  There is no doubt that she will fall
  But when she’s gone I’d rather be
  Above, where life look’s good to me

• B-squared January 19, 2009 (8:08 pm)

  Bravo again, Carol:)

• litlnemo January 19, 2009 (8:12 pm)

  Exactly how is the waterfront “cut off” from the city by the Viaduct? People keep saying that. I wonder if those people have ever been to the waterfront. Having worked in the area, I do not have any difficulty accessing the waterfront at all. You can walk there or drive there, no problem.

  And, of course, historically the waterfront wasn’t some pretty park-laden promenade; it was Railroad Avenue, a busy strict full of shipping and industry. It’s still busy, active, and pretty damned healthy.

• litlnemo January 19, 2009 (8:16 pm)

  err, a busy street, that is. Darn fingers.

• d January 19, 2009 (8:23 pm)

  A poetry throw-down about the viaduct!

  Most excellent!

• Ken January 20, 2009 (12:06 am)

  I’ve driven the Viaduct many times and never noticed the view. Because I was driving!

  The tunnel will give us the opportunity to create a long waterfront park, the sort of park the Commons should have given us.

• Megan January 20, 2009 (9:45 am)

  Again comes at me competing rhyme,
  what can I say that’s different this time?
  I appreciate the challenge to my view,
  but the point here is Seattle’s blue
  and green and beach and wind and wave,
  and oh what trouble we would save
  if we knew the big picture, wide and tall,
  then maybe we wouldn’t have cars at all!
  But since we do and they’re here for good,
  I’d rather look at strengths of wood
  than what, to me, seems a disfigurement
  on the panoramic face of natural elements.
  I’d rather have sea’s sighs to breathe,
  the car fumes lace that salty breeze.
  I’d rather watch sun tickle sea,
  the be trapped behind bars of thick concrete.
  Us city dwellers, stuck in the dark,
  will now be able – from our parks! –
  to see what beauty sweet abounds
  and the song the city loud surrounds;
  undergrounding will finally be when
  we can see the beauty’s that has always been!

• Megan January 20, 2009 (10:48 am)

  Right….”beauty’s” should (obviously) just be “beauty” – not attempting anything fancy there…:-P

• hellno January 20, 2009 (11:01 am)

  This new waterfront park will have no beach or view. It will be just like it is now, walk up to the railing look at the seaweed and trash floating in the murky abyss, and move on. Do you think the piers and shops will make way for access? The mixed use viaduct will provide the much needed traffic flow and will have an elevated park to look beyond the waterfront businesses.

• Megan January 20, 2009 (12:17 pm)

  If it’s really just the same,
  the either way, debate is lame:
  tunnel under or streets up high,
  they’ve already said good-bye
  to The View we’re all to miss:
  history laid railways and blew a kiss.
  Why be stuck in such lament?
  We’ve only replaced rails with cement –
  there was no view to obstruct
  so why does it matter what we construct
  in place of the rickety, condemned road
  above our heads? We’ll never know
  since we’ve been slaying for so long
  The View that has long been gone.

• Carol January 20, 2009 (12:23 pm)

  Done Gone!

  These minds will never be as one
  And I must to my duties run
  Although it’s been a lot of fun
  Like Shakespeare, I’m done, done and done.

• hellno January 20, 2009 (2:42 pm)

  Please be aware of the devastation and corruption to follow the tunnel project. Boston, Charlotte, and L.A. have had similar problems. http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-pblie.htm

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