City Hall
McGinn Meets With Tunnel Advocates, One Day Before Promised Veto
As I noted earlier, Mayor Mike McGinn agreed to meet with about a dozen pro-tunnel members of the viaduct replacement stakeholder committee this afternoon.
Last week, 17 stakeholders sent McGinn a letter urging him not to veto three agreements between the city and the state on the tunnel, arguing that "the time has long passed to second guess the bored tunnel decision made by the Governor, state legislature, County, Port and past and present City Councils." Today's meeting was the first time McGinn had met with the tunnel supporters.
The meeting was only supposed to go 45 minutes, but it ended up lasting more than an hour (McGinn kept parks superintendent Christopher Williams and city finance director Beth Goldberg waiting in the lobby.)
I waited around and got a chance to debrief with the tunnel proponents after the private meeting. By their account, they spent most of the meeting painstakingly explaining to McGinn that the yearlong stakeholder process had recommended not just the surface/transit option, which McGinn supports, but two other alternatives---a rebuilt viaduct, and a study to see if the deep-bore tunnel was feasible. (That study, by the state Department of Transportation, found it was).
"There were a number of mischaracterizations of the stakeholder process," said stakeholder group member Vlad Oustimovitch. "We wanted to make it clear [to McGinn] what the stakeholders recommended."
McGinn has said consistently that the stakeholders recommended the surface/transit option, a claim anti-surface/transit stakeholders have since denied.
Sitting on a leather chair in McGinn's office lobby, stakeholder Oustamovitch seemed frustrated that the meeting came so late---just one day before McGinn's promised veto---when McGinn has met repeatedly with surface/transit advocates on the stakeholder group.
On the other hand, Oustamovitch said, "The landmark event was that he met with us at all. Of the stakeholders, he has close relationships with a few who are surface/transit advocates, but this is the first time since he's been in office that he's actually met up with a greater diversity of opinions than that."
Former Pike Place Market PDA director Carol Binder said she felt McGinn had heard their version of events and their concerns., but that they didn't go in expecting to change his mind. "We were really appreciative of him meeting with us and hearing these arguments," Binder said. "Better late than never."
Last week, 17 stakeholders sent McGinn a letter urging him not to veto three agreements between the city and the state on the tunnel, arguing that "the time has long passed to second guess the bored tunnel decision made by the Governor, state legislature, County, Port and past and present City Councils." Today's meeting was the first time McGinn had met with the tunnel supporters.
The meeting was only supposed to go 45 minutes, but it ended up lasting more than an hour (McGinn kept parks superintendent Christopher Williams and city finance director Beth Goldberg waiting in the lobby.)
I waited around and got a chance to debrief with the tunnel proponents after the private meeting. By their account, they spent most of the meeting painstakingly explaining to McGinn that the yearlong stakeholder process had recommended not just the surface/transit option, which McGinn supports, but two other alternatives---a rebuilt viaduct, and a study to see if the deep-bore tunnel was feasible. (That study, by the state Department of Transportation, found it was).
"There were a number of mischaracterizations of the stakeholder process," said stakeholder group member Vlad Oustimovitch. "We wanted to make it clear [to McGinn] what the stakeholders recommended."
McGinn has said consistently that the stakeholders recommended the surface/transit option, a claim anti-surface/transit stakeholders have since denied.
Sitting on a leather chair in McGinn's office lobby, stakeholder Oustamovitch seemed frustrated that the meeting came so late---just one day before McGinn's promised veto---when McGinn has met repeatedly with surface/transit advocates on the stakeholder group.
On the other hand, Oustamovitch said, "The landmark event was that he met with us at all. Of the stakeholders, he has close relationships with a few who are surface/transit advocates, but this is the first time since he's been in office that he's actually met up with a greater diversity of opinions than that."
Former Pike Place Market PDA director Carol Binder said she felt McGinn had heard their version of events and their concerns., but that they didn't go in expecting to change his mind. "We were really appreciative of him meeting with us and hearing these arguments," Binder said. "Better late than never."
