Legislative committee backtracked before McGinn
The legislative committee, not Mayor Mike McGinn, is responsible for negating 13 years of planning on the 520 bridge [“.‘Town-halled’ to death on Highway 520” Opinion, Jan. 26].
McGinn’s bait-and-switch on the future 520 option — focusing on rail and transit — is a bold and refreshing response to the first bait-and-switch by the legislative committee that inserted the new car-oriented Option A+ at the very end of the study and planning process.
The legislative committee presented Option A+ ahead of the release of the supplemental draft environmental impact statement— a premature action apparently not based on adequate environmental information — and negated 13 years of planning and two years of work by a state-led mediation group of stakeholders who had already reached consensus on the principles of several options.
Given a choice, I prefer Mayor McGinn’s bait-and-switch to that of the legislative committee.
— Annie Stixrood, Seattle
Option A+ creates a bridge to nowhere
I beg to differ with The Times’ editorial that we are “Town Halled to death on 520.” The final design recommendations for the Legislative Workgroup were issued in a report on Nov. 17 with the public comment time to end on Dec. 4 — hardly adequate time for a decision of this scope.
The A+ design would have a major negative impact on the Arboretum. At 40 feet above the lake with a 10-foot concrete wall to “abate” the noise, we could probably receive the “ugliest bridge in America” award.
Also, there is no room for all those cars to drive into Seattle because there is no capacity to receive them. 520 is the new bridge to nowhere.
— Kathleen O’Connor, Seattle
Sea-wall decision should go to the voters
The article regarding Mayor Mike McGinn’s sea-wall proposal effectively addressed the mayor’s plan to pay for the wall, but I remain unclear about the City Council’s plans [“Council balks at sea-wall vote,” NWWednesday, Mar. 3]. I personally believe that they should include this measure on the May ballot so that the people can decide.
According to the Department of Transportation, more than $3 million has been spent repairing sections of the sea wall since the 2001 earthquake. More repairs will follow if the city doesn’t replace the wall soon enough — money that could be spent replacing the entire sea wall.
There is a 10 percent chance that the wall will fail should another earthquake occur in the next 10 years. If we don’t experience a severe earthquake, there is still the possibility that it will fail due to Puget Sound’s corrosive nature. Did Mayor McGinn’s $243 million proposal consider the environmental ramifications of replacing the wall?
In the wake of Haiti and Chile’s earthquakes, CNN listed the Pacific Northwest as the fourth most likely area to experience a major earthquake. We are less prepared than other major cities along our coast, but a new sea wall is a promising step in the right direction.
— Alena Borgatti, Seattle