{"id":385673,"date":"2010-03-03T18:54:22","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T23:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011248625_520bridgeandseawallfingerpointing.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-03-03T18:54:22","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T23:54:22","slug":"520-bridge-and-sea-wall-finger-pointing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/385673","title":{"rendered":"520 bridge and sea wall finger pointing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legislative committee backtracked before McGinn<\/strong><\/p>\n

The legislative committee, not Mayor Mike McGinn, is responsible for negating 13 years of planning on the 520 bridge [\u201c.\u2018Town-halled\u2019 to death on Highway 520\u201d Opinion, Jan. 26].<\/p>\n

McGinn\u2019s bait-and-switch on the future 520 option \u2014 focusing on rail and transit \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

The legislative committee presented Option A+ ahead of the release of the supplemental draft environmental impact statement\u2014 a premature action apparently not based on adequate environmental information \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Given a choice, I prefer Mayor McGinn\u2019s bait-and-switch to that of the legislative committee.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Annie Stixrood, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Option A+ creates a bridge to nowhere<\/strong><\/p>\n

I beg to differ with The Times\u2019 editorial that we are \u201cTown Halled to death on 520.\u201d 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 \u2014 hardly adequate time for a decision of this scope.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cabate\u201d the noise, we could probably receive the \u201cugliest bridge in America\u201d award.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kathleen O\u2019Connor, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Sea-wall decision should go to the voters<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article regarding Mayor Mike McGinn\u2019s sea-wall proposal effectively addressed the mayor\u2019s plan to pay for the wall, but I remain unclear about the City Council\u2019s plans [\u201cCouncil balks at sea-wall vote,\u201d NWWednesday, Mar. 3]. I personally believe that they should include this measure on the May ballot so that the people can decide.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t replace the wall soon enough \u2014 money that could be spent replacing the entire sea wall.<\/p>\n

There is a 10 percent chance that the wall will fail should another earthquake occur in the next 10 years. If we don\u2019t experience a severe earthquake, there is still the possibility that it will fail due to Puget Sound\u2019s corrosive nature. Did Mayor McGinn\u2019s $243 million proposal consider the environmental ramifications of replacing the wall?<\/p>\n

In the wake of Haiti and Chile\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alena Borgatti, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legislative committee backtracked before McGinn The legislative committee, not Mayor Mike McGinn, is responsible for negating 13 years of planning on the 520 bridge [\u201c.\u2018Town-halled\u2019 to death on Highway 520\u201d Opinion, Jan. 26]. McGinn\u2019s bait-and-switch on the future 520 option \u2014 focusing on rail and transit \u2014 is a bold and refreshing response to the […]<\/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-385673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385673","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=385673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}