CNU continues fight against the Big Dig West
The battle in Seattle continues. Standing united with Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, CNU has been at the forefront of the fight in opposition to the $3.1 billion bored hole tunnel that is slated to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
As CNU has stated before, with supporting evidence from Scott Bernstein of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the tunnel comes at a time when driving as a main means of transport is on the wane, even as the metro area continues to grow in population. Using data directly supplied by the Seattle DOT, Bernstein has noted that while automobile trips have declined by 6% over 2000-2009, population has increased by nearly 10%. The resulting 14% drop in trips per capita is proof enough that the tunnel is an inessential project that will at most create a small number of temporary construction jobs, while leaving Seattle’s core economically worse-off than before.
Recently, the conversation over the tunnel has been ratcheted up by a flurry of public relations efforts from WSDOT. In response, CNU CEO & President John Norquist, writing in an op-ed piece for Seattle weekly The Stranger articulated the common-sense approach: “’When you’re in a hole, stop digging.’ Advice like that comes cheap and sometimes ignoring it can cost billions of dollars. For Boston, ignoring it cost $22 billion to be exact.” Norquist goes on to state that “Seattle taxpayers are sliding down the road to building the “Big Dig West” but without the critical federal money pot...with eight of the nine Seattle City Council members supporting the tunnel plan, it looks like city taxpayers will be on the line for likely cost overruns. After all, you only find out what’s really down there after you start digging.”
CNU continues to urge its members and like-minded supporters to stand behind Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn in preventing the tunnel project from moving forward. Don’t let Seattle get boondoggled.
