"Occupy Seattle: Octogenarian activist Dorli Rainey on being pepper-sprayed by Seattle police, importance of activism" (with video)

"Countdown" (Current.com), with video (09:26):

Eighty-four-year-old activist Dorli Rainey tells Keith about her experience getting pepper-sprayed by the police during an Occupy Seattle demonstration and the need to take action and spread the word of the Occupy movement. She cites the advice of the late Catholic nun and activist Jackie Hudson to “take one more step out of your comfort zone” as an inspiration, saying, “It would be so easy to say, ‘Well I’m going to retire, I’m going to sit around, watch television or eat bonbons,’ but somebody’s got to keep ’em awake and let ’em know what is really going on in this world.”

H/t to Revel Smith.

Howie P.S.: Dorli puts the Occupy Movement in historical context by recounting her experiences living in Nazi Germany. She gets in a few jabs at the tunnel project that is under construction on the Seattle waterfront to replace the Alaska Way Viaduct.

Attention Seattle drivers---"SR 99 construction bypass: Keeping traffic moving through SODO" (video)

wsdot, with video (03:44):

On Oct. 21, we will close SR 99 and begin demolishing part of the viaduct. When SR 99 reopens to traffic on Oct. 31, both north and southbound traffic will be traveling on the first of two new bridges currently being built to the west of the existing viaduct. Drivers will pass through a large bypass located between South King Street and South Royal Brougham Way. The bypass will connect the new SR 99 bridge to the existing viaduct at South King Street. It also keeps traffic on SR 99 moving while giving central waterfront viaduct replacement crews enough space to work.

South of South King Street, SR 99 will have two lanes in each direction. North of South King Street the viaduct will remain in its current configuration with three lanes in each direction.

Howie P.S.: Is this a "temporary" viaduct?

Goldy on the Viaduct: "it's gonna fall the f__k down."

Photo (above) is NOT the Alaska Way Viaduct.

Goldy (SLOG):

The High Line is an amazing park, and I'd love to have something like that here in Seattle. Except, in all fairness, the whole reason we're replacing the Viaduct is that it's ready to fall the fuck down. Next big quake and the top level of what could surely be a world class park would pancake the food carts and the porta-potties—and oh yeah, all those precious tourists—beneath it. And even if there's no big quake, the western supports of some sections of the Viaduct are slowly subsiding, meaning that eventually, it's just gonna topple over onto the waterfront, potentially killing even more tourists. And killing tourists just can't be good for business. MORE...

"Anti-tunnel group turns in signatures, demands vote"

Chris Grygiel (seattlepi.com):

Protect Seattle Now has "asked the Mayor, the City Council and the City Attorney to pledge by 5 p.m. today that they will place this referendum on the ballot and not silence the voice of the people of Seattle."

McGinn an City Councilmember Mike O'Brien, the lone tunnel opponent on the Council, have done so. O'Brien said the City Charter makes it clear that the City Council has no choice in the matter, once the referendum signatures have been verified.

In an e-mail to the media, McGinn said he would "pledge to uphold the City Charter and recognize the Seattle public's right to have a vote on the deep bore tunnel. They are the ones at risk for paying for all tunnel cost overruns. They should have a say."

City Council President Richard Conlin hasn't yet indicated what he will do - and it's almost certain that lawsuits from various groups on all sides of the issue will now be filed. MORE...

"Amid hoots and hollers, City Council rejects McGinn’s tunnel veto"

Chris Grygiel (seattlepi.com):

Before a packed chamber filled with emotional and often rowdy people, the City Council on Monday overrode Mayor Mike McGinn’s veto of a deal between Seattle and the state to proceed with the tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

The eight to one vote was a foregone conclusion, but the arguments in the audience and between the Councilmembers were acrimonious and pitched.

“This is not Seattle at its best,” Councilman Bruce Harrell said before the eight to one vote.

Councilman Mike O’Brien, who will push for a public vote on the project, was the lone Councilman to support McGinn. McGinn vetoed the legislation Feb. 17. The veto was McGinn’s second as mayor. In April he nixed an ordinance the Council passed that would’ve allowed police to ticket aggressive beggars. That veto stood. MORE...

Howie P.S.: The Seattle Times story today features comments by Nic Licata, Vlad Oustimovitch, Chris Gregoire and a local labor representative.

(Seattle) "Council Meeting on Tunnel Resolution" (live video)

They're running behind schedule (GASP!) but the Seattle City Council will be discussing a resolution on the Alaska Way Viaduct, as soon as they conclude their "regular" council meeting. Live video here from the Seattle Channel. H/t to SLOG.

Connelly on Hizzoner McGinn: "create chaos, then conquer."

Chris Grygiel (seattlepi.com):

One gets the feeling that if Mike McGinn were an advisor to Napoleon, he would've told the French emperor that the British, Spanish and Russians weren't enough of a challenge. Why not take on China and Japan as well, just to make things interesting.

Seattle's mayor on Wednesday forcefully renewed his objections to the $4.2 billion tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, saying he'd veto a technical agreement between the city and state that will likely be signed in the next few weeks. McGinn, who is fighting battles on multiple fronts right now, wants a controversial provision requiring Seattle to pay for cost overruns removed from the legislation state lawmakers approved two years ago. Considering the city's precarious budget situation, the mayor says it would be irresponsible to move forward with the provision in place.

"Don't you wish that someone at Washington Mutual had said, "Maybe we shouldn't make those sub-prime loans?'" McGinn said during a briefing with reporters. "That is where we are right now."

Nonsense, say City Councilmembers and Gov. Chris Gregoire.

"I think this is just another effort on McGinn's part to try to slow down and stop the project," said Tom Rasmussen, chairman of the City Council's transportation committee. "If there are cost overruns - and we're doing everything we can to prevent that - the state would have to take further action to make Seattle area property owners pay for those...I wouldn't stand for a veto, I wouldn't support a veto. We're working to develop agreements with the state that will protect the city's interests."

Viet Shelton, Gregoire's spokesman, said the mayor's delaying action "actually increases the likelihood of increased costs and overruns."

McGinn is also battling the Council and Gregoire right now over the State Route 520 bridge replacement. Most Councilmembers and Gregoire favor a six auto-lane option for the Lake Washington span; McGinn wants two auto lanes now dedicated to buses and carpools reserved for buses only and wants greater assurances that 520 will be able to take light rail in the future. And he and the Council are engaged in an increasingly testy war of words over Seattle's busted operating budget, which is at least $120 million in the red through 2012.

The mayor cast his latest objection to the tunnel as an appeal to frugality. If the project goes just 1 percent over budget, city taxpayers could be on the hook for $31 million, he said. If it goes 50 percent over cost estimates, the bill could be $1.5 billion - which exceeds the city's operating budget for this year by more than $600 million.

Unlike last month's debate over the aggressive panhandling bill, this is a fight McGinn is unlikely to win. He vetoed the panhandling bill and the Council seems unable to muster the six votes needed to overturn McGinn's rejection. On the viaduct tunnel, it looks like there will be enough votes to stymie a mayoral veto. McGinn acknowledged this fact Wednesday. "If the Council votes to proceed under any circumstances, I am bound by their vote."

What the mayor is trying to put his rivals on the Council in a politically awkward position. He wants them to own future cost overruns by reserving the right to say: "I told you so."

Not surprisingly, this is driving his many critics nuts. The Council played nice with Gregoire on the 520 bridge. Not without justification, Councilmembers point to the significant concessions state planners made to the city in final bridge design unveiled last month. Its better to work with people, not against them, they say.

City infighting about the tunnel is counterproductive, according to Councilmembers.

"It's a huge benefit for Seattle to get this thing done," said Council President Richard Conlin. "The surest way is to create cost overruns is to create delay."

The viaduct fight makes everything else that much more difficult, Conlin said. "We really need to work together. This budget is going to be a huge challenge. It's just not helpful when we have this kind of cross purposes."

The problem for Conlin and others is the mayor is most happy when he's duking it out. And this latest skirmish brings McGinn back to his original campaign issue. "I don't like the tunnel. I never liked the tunnel," the mayor said Wednesday.

My seattlepi.com colleague Joel Connelly has described McGinn's overarching strategy as "create chaos, then conquer." He has succeeded with the former. Whether he can accomplish the latter remains to be seen.

Howie P.S.: Once again the comments are instructive. And Erica C. Barnett (Publicola) tells the story; the headline is "McGinn Says He’ll Veto Tunnel Agreement; Council President Says Mayor is “Grandstanding.”

"McGinn's move raises more questions about viaduct tunnel"

Chris Grygiel (seattlepi.com):

Will the tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct be built?

Last year the Legislature OK'd the $4.2 billion project, including $2.8 billion in state funding. Major construction is slated to begin next year. But both the House Speaker and Seattle's new mayor won't say whether the tunnel is a go.

On Wednesday Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, declined to answer a direct question about whether the project lawmakers signed off on would become reality.

On Thursday at a news conference concerning the viaduct seawall I asked Mayor Mike McGinn: "Do you think the tunnel will be built?"

He said: "This is about the seawall today, issues around the viaduct I'll be happy to address at another time."

The City Council says the tunnel will be built, the governor says the tunnel will be built and the state Department of Transportation says the tunnel will be built. But the reluctance by Chopp and McGinn to answer in the affirmative has interested parties worried. What, exactly, are they up to?

McGinn's feelings about the tunnel are well known. He hates it, preferring a surface option he says would be cheaper and move the city away from its car-centricity.

But just before November's mayoral election McGinn said he wouldn't stand in the way of the tunnel being built, a shift many credit with propelling him to victory. Since then, however, the new mayor has said he doesn't want to fully commit to the project until a clause in the legislation requiring Seattle to pay for cost overruns is removed. Chopp, who insisted the stick-it-to-Seattle clause be included in last year's legislation, and other leading lawmakers say that's not happening.

Critics of the tunnel - and there are many - point out that there are still concerns about how to get the $4.2 billion needed. The state's kicking in the $2.8 billion, with federal funds and $930 million from the city expected to make up a good chunk of the rest.

On Thursday McGinn announced plans for a $241 million property tax levy to help pay for replacing the viaduct seawall - a key component of any viaduct replacement and part of the $930 million needed to pay for the tunnel project. But far from assuaging those concerned about McGinn's plans for the tunnel, the announcement only created more questions.

Publicola reported City Councilmembers were surprised by the seawall plan. They'd need to sign off on it by March to present it to voters by May, as McGinn wants. Also, the ballot measure would require a 60-percent supermajority to pass - hardly a slam dunk for a tax hike during a down economy, even with Seattle's famously levy-loving populace. And just as the viaduct replacement issue is charged by intense debates about the future of the city - so is the seawall project. There are competing constituencies - from the Port to environmentalists to urban planners - who will want more than two months to review it.

There was significant speculation Thursday that the levy proposal was actually part of an elaborate scheme by McGinn and Chopp to stop the tunnel. McGinn spoke forcefully about safety concerns associated with the seawall and the need to replace it sooner rather than later, something his proposal would do. He also correctly noted the seawall is something that has to be fixed, regardless of the viaduct debate.

But until McGinn and Chopp flat out answer whether right now, a year before work on perhaps the biggest construction project in city history is scheduled to begin, they support the tunnel, people will continue read what they want into their actions.And the drama will only fuel the anti-Seattle sentiment in Olympia. Ten state senators have introduced a bill that would basically preclude Jet City from having any significant say in big state transportation projects being built in town.

Howie P.S.: If you need more tunnel talk, check out the comments.

"McGinn, Council at Odds on City’s “Official” Tunnel Position"

Erica C. Barnett (Publicola):

Today, the city council adopted the city’s official legislative agenda for 2010. On the list: official city opposition to doing anything that could jeopardize an agreement between the city and the state signed earlier this year. That agreement puts the city on the hook for any cost overruns associated with the tunnel.

As we mentioned in today’s Morning Fizz, Council members worry that reopening discussions on the tunnel will threaten the entire project, because many legislators only voted for the project because it kept the state off the hook for cost overruns. Reluctant tunnel supporters, like house transportation chair Rep. Judy Clibborn (D-41) and her senate counterpart, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10), seem certain to oppose any proposal to make the state pay for overruns.

Of course, there is at least one prominent city official on record opposing that agreement: Mayor-elect Mike McGinn, who had no say in crafting the city’s tunnel-friendly legislative agenda.

Judging from comments his administration made this afternoon, McGinn is prepared to press legislators to revisit the cost overruns decision this session, in direct conflict with the city’s “official” agenda.

New McGinn staffer Ethan Raup—rumored to be in the mix for Team McGinn’s political shop—who said he was speaking on behalf of the McGinn admin at the council hearing this afternoon said, “Mayor-elect McGinn believes that it would be irresponsible to get to the point of no return on the tunnel without resolving who will pay for cost overruns.”

House speaker Rep. Frank Chopp (D-43), who opposes the tunnel, did not return a call asking whether he would support a McGinn-led effort to revisit the tunnel decision. And McGinn media staffer Aaron Pickus responded to an email asking whether he would support revisiting the tunnel decision by sending us a copy of Raup’s statement.

Nickels, Gregoire Sign Tunnel Agreement (photo)

Signing ceremony for the agreement to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with the bored tunnel, held earlier today (Saturday). Photo by Vlad Oustimovitch.