Neither shrewd nor silencing

Gergoire's action is neither shrewd nor silences the surface/transit enthusiasts.

1. She could for example have said something like "I choose the Rebuild but if the City of Seattle can demonstrate in the next 90 days the firm ability to fund the Tunnel..."

In that way she would have demonstrated some leadership (though at the end of the day the Rebuild will not be a viable solution) and yet she would have given the Mayor/Counci one last, placating chance.

2, She has satisfied no one, certainly not silencing the PWC and guaranteed months of civic strife as the surface/transit folks lobby for putting their option on the ballot. What will she do in the face of an initiative to put the surface/transit option to the vote? She has created a monster for herself. She has made herself look weak and indecisive and a sitting duck for a Republican challenger who will have fun with the 'Democrats can't manage' theme.

•••

Gomez offers a summary of the surface/transit folks: "They have no concrete solutions for how to create their purported transit solutions or how to divert citizens into using those nonexistent solutions."

Comments

[kieth Nissen]

It does seem like it would have been smarter to do something like what you say.

The way I read the article the Governor is saying that if the tunnel option wins a (statewide?) election then that option would then be pursued by the state, with the state assuming the leadership role
in finding the money.

Now I do not think there is much chance of the voters choosing the tunnel option (even in a city election) but if they did it would be a complicated, agonizing, provocative mess to pursue all the funding options. She could have covered herself a lot better.

I think she read the Seattle Times poll and assumed the voters will go for the elevated highway. pretty safe bet.

[Gomez]

I think her reasoning was along that line, kN. Various polls showed a strong support for a rebuild, so she figured (wrongly) the best way to silence the City is to have a vote and show them that the citizens overwhelmingly supported a straight rebuild.

But in doing so, now she's fueled the fires of several very outspoken minority (in number, of course, not in demographic) groups.

[David Sucher]

One of those groups is the Seattle City Council. Don't you think that they will try to include the Surface option in the vote? Of course they will as they have gone on record as hating the Tunnel. And then the Retrofit people will also lobby, maybe even go to court, to try to gain the same thing. Gregoire has created a mess.

I myself, much as I detest the Tunnel, will find it very very difficult to vote for the Rebuild.