{"id":363492,"date":"2010-02-25T16:40:34","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T21:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011188813_realigning520bridgeviewpoints.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-02-25T16:40:34","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T21:40:34","slug":"realigning-520-bridge-viewpoints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/363492","title":{"rendered":"Realigning 520 bridge viewpoints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stall hurts Microsoft, regional business<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more than a decade, the state of Washington, King County and cities surrounding Lake Washington have been forging plans for the replacement of the 520 bridge [\u201cCity tries to alter 520 bridge plan,\u201d page one, Feb. 24]. In the meantime, residents of the surrounding communities \u2014 particularly the employees of two out of the three largest employers in King County: Microsoft and UW \u2014 have less than patiently suffered through these additional years of gridlock. Both on the bridge literally and in the worst of political terms figuratively.<\/p>\n

Action has taken too long. Yet last year, that long-awaited action came closer on the horizon. The number of employers and organizations that have come together to support these plans says it is time to initiate this action now.<\/p>\n

However, newly sworn-in Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn now sees it as his place to selfishly spend $250,000 the city cannot afford to turn back the clock and restart the process. This would result in much larger expenses to taxpayers and affect the future productivity of the economy in the region. The mayor should be focusing on moving our economy forward, rather than what is obviously most evident: using his new political power to exercise the narrow agenda of the organization he led for years before his new career.<\/p>\n

Seattle City Hall should take note when Microsoft says \u201clet\u2019s move\u201d with a [full-page ad in The Seattle Times] of vehicles driving eastbound on 520. Microsoft not only means moving forward on the 520 bridge replacement, it also means that if this continues to drag onward, that they would fully encourage their more than 5,000 employees, their families, its consumer spending and the corresponding tax revenues to move out of Seattle. The company would find new and more viable communities elsewhere to expand their future business and employment. Boeing should be a lesson to the political leaders in our region.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kurt Westman, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Delayed action is timeless<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certain members of the quagmire that\u2019s called Washington state politics are trying to alter an already approved plan for a new 520 bridge. This type of action is nothing new for this city and state.<\/p>\n

In 1961, people were concerned about the pollution and noise of the new freeway. They proposed a lid to be added over the freeway where businesses and apartments could be built. Downtown interests were also concerned about the loss of parking spaces and the increase in traffic. The governor in 1961, Albert Rosellini, and then-mayor of Seattle, Gordon Clinton, were unwilling to delay the project \u2014 it also was over 10 years in the making. I\u2019m glad to see Gov. Chris Gregoire taking a similar stand.<\/p>\n

Too bad the current mayor is a political huckster who can\u2019t even work with his own City Council. It doesn\u2019t matter one iota to these people that it would cost additional millions to change the already approved design and delay the project another two years. We need to get moving on the project, there has been enough debate.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kenneth Aitchison, Redmond<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stall hurts Microsoft, regional business For more than a decade, the state of Washington, King County and cities surrounding Lake Washington have been forging plans for the replacement of the 520 bridge [\u201cCity tries to alter 520 bridge plan,\u201d page one, Feb. 24]. In the meantime, residents of the surrounding communities \u2014 particularly the employees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}