Video: Mayor’s response to council’s tunnel resolution

(1:08 pm note – clicking “play” for the video will now take you to archived video of the mayor’s media event)

ORIGINAL 10:57 AM REPORT: As noted yesterday when we published the embedded live stream for the City Council’s discussion of the Alaskan Way Viaduct/Tunnel agreements – and their new idea of passing a resolution stating their commitment to it, while not signing the actual agreements till after the tunnel bids are in – Mayor McGinn is scheduled to discuss his view on this in detail at 11 am. Above is the Seattle Channel‘s stream – click “play” and it should take you to the live feed. The mayor had issued a brief statement yesterday suggesting the council was mostly trying to avoid another public vote (last week in a media conference call, the mayor said he wasn’t opposed to a potential tunnel referendum, given that the public “is used to” voting on Viaduct-related issues by now.)

1:08 PM UPDATE: Seattle Channel has just provided the archived video from the briefing. The mayor’s main point: “The risk (of Seattleites having to pay cost overruns) remains.” To the council’s delay point, he says, “Seeing the bids doesn’t tell us if there are cost overruns.” He also says he believes the council got a “wake-up call” from the public regarding the tunnel, but believes that with this resolution, “they’ve hit the snooze button.”

Blue Collar Enviro July 27, 2010 (12:18 pm)

Thanks to the mayor’s persistence, we finally have an answer from the state as to who will be paying the cost overruns:

…

We don’t know.

Alki Area July 27, 2010 (1:06 pm)

I’m tired of politicians chickening out on making decisions and punting it back to the voters. If you want me to vote on all these individual issues, then you’re fired and we don’t need to pay for your salary, you’re useless. We don’t have a direct democracy, we have a representative democracy. Every knew, asked and quizzed the mayor and council folks on their positions on issues JUST LIKE THIS when they ran for election and then voters made their choice. Don’t then punt BACK to me after you get elected just because you don’t want to get caught making a choice that may come back to haunt you.

The PROBLEM with asking the voters is you get the whim of the moment. On any issue (parks, libraries, taxes, trains, gay marriage, medical marijuana, etc) you can have a vote every year and it will go back and forth over and over. How MANY votes did we have on the monorail? Instead of just fixing the financing package (which was the problem, not the idea of a monorail) we voted on it UNTIL we finally got ONE no vote out of 5 different votes, so we killed. We could already HAVE a running monorail station in West Seattle right NOW if we hadn’t screwed that up with ENDLESS votes. Oh well. Maybe in 40 years (when I’m dead) light rail well come to West Seattle.

Joseph July 27, 2010 (4:34 pm)

This mayor has no vision for this city. He is wasting so much time on blocking it. We said yes to the tunnel now build it!
Can we recall this joke of a mayor ?

CB July 27, 2010 (6:32 pm)

Time for a recall. He lied to get elected.

Blue Collar Enviro July 27, 2010 (8:39 pm)

Um, we voted no on the tunnel.

Blue Collar Enviro July 27, 2010 (8:45 pm)

And since Governor Gregoire changed her mind on the tunnel, reneged on her promise to tear down the viaduct by 2012, and vetoed the ability of the county to raise more revenue to cover that part of the tunnel agreement that said the county would invest $190 million in downtown transit infrastructure, can we recall her?

If the two recalls were held today, Mayor McGinn would survive easily, and Governor Gregoire would go down in flames.

In part, it is because the mayor has stuck to his campaign promise to protect Seattle taxpayers against cost overruns on the tunnel.

As WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond admitted yesterday, no city has ever been on the hook for the cost overruns on a project administered by the state before.

CB July 27, 2010 (8:57 pm)

McGinn lied when we said he supported the tunnel during the campaign. Time for him to go.

bridge to somewhere July 27, 2010 (10:38 pm)

Recall McGinn . . .

JM July 27, 2010 (11:22 pm)

McGinn has always been against the tunnel, though “for” it enough at just the right time so he could get elected. The cost overrun scare tactic is a red herring. The longer the Viaduct replacement is delayed, the more expensive it’s going to be. The public has had its vote time & again & remains unable to agree on a solution. Consensus-seeking has had its chance. In the interest of public safety, this project must move forward.

mar3c July 28, 2010 (5:54 am)

it seems everyone has a comprehension problem.
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first, mcginn said he didn’t support the tunnel, but since the city council voted “yes,” he would not stand in the way of its progress.
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secondly, can someone explain to me how ensuring that the city isn’t on the hook for cost overruns is somehow blocking progress? seriously? one man asks all of those big brains, “who gets stuck with the tab if, say, a boring machine gets stuck?” and the whole flimsy charade of a “transportation solution” crumbles like a house of cards.
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i agree that mcginn isn’t any ball of fire, though. we need a true a-hole in the mayor’s chair who will tell the city council and the governor – flat-out – “no.”
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lastly, why wouldn’t a design like the west seattle freeway work downtown? it’s a big, beautiful structure with 3 legal-width lanes in each direction.

Baba July 28, 2010 (6:14 pm)

Hands off Mayor Mc Mumbles!!! Bread and circus is the order of the current times. We need our entertaiment!!! I can’t wait for the View episode tomorrow…

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