Elsewhere in the program, Douglas asked Councilmembers if they had any regrets about 2009. Councilmember Tim Burgess replied, “I was really disappointed that we did not do a better job of explaining why the bag fee was a very important step forward in our environmental protection work that Seattle has, in many ways, led the nation on. I also regret probably speaking out too soon before I was ready about downtown street crime problems and panhandling and not then being able to adequately back up what I was advocating for. But after the first of the year, we’ll re-launch that effort.”

Earlier he explained to host C.R. Douglas, “The Legislature was intent on jamming a new elevated highway down our throats. I could not look my children or my grandchildren in the eye if we allowed another elevated highway to mar that wonderful physical asset that we have in Puget Sound. So I stuck to my guns.”

See if you can match the statement to the pundit:

1. “I think [the McGinn] administration is going to be the most unpredictable change in Seattle politics since Wes Uhlman was elected way back forty years ago—a whole new generation, a whole new outlook, a whole new crowd.”

2. “The tunnel wasn’t as big an issue to ordinary voters in the general election as media types thought it was.”

3. “This [McGinn] vote was anti-establishment.”

4. Initiative-writer Tim Eyman “is the zombie of Washington state politics. His obituary is written after every initiative [that] loses and he comes back with something else.”

Answers: 1. Conservative John Carlson 2. Anti-tunnel pundit Erica. C. Barnett     

3. Centrist Joni Balter  4. Mossback Knute Berger.  

Doud versus Holland

Doud and Holland disagree over the Port’s proposed $300 million contribution to replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep-bore tunnel under downtown Seattle. “I like the tunnel,” says Holland. “I think that there are investments that should be made that continue to help move freight through the region.” Doud, by contrast, thinks that the tunnel decision is worth another look. “We need to evaluate other options,” he says. Moreover, he opposes the Port spending $300 million on the tunnel.  “I am not for the Port contributing to a state highway,” he says.

 Albro versus Vekich

City Inside/Out host C.R. Douglas asks Albro and Vekich about the backers of their campaigns. Albro’s critics, Douglas says, point out many of the candidate’s contributions come from big businesses that depend on Port contracts. Albro says, “I have many, many people who are supporting me from all walks of life—good government people, small business, friends—I am independent, absolutely, positively.” Douglas asks Vekich about the financial and volunteer support that he is receiving from labor unions. Vekich replies, “If you look at my record in the [state] Legislature, I’m nobody’s man—I’m my own man…I’ve even voted against my own union at times.”

A viewer named Randy asked, “You worked hard to push for the bore tunnel replacement for the viaduct. How secure do you think that decision is? Could it be undone at this point?”

Nickels replied, “A funny thing in politics is, it’s always easier to stop something than it is to get it done.”

The mayor said that the tunnel plan had broad support from the state’s political class. “We have the agreement of the governor, the legislature, the county and the city that this is the right approach.” He also thought that even among members of the public who would have preferred another option—a new elevated structure, the rehabilitation of the current viaduct or the surface transit plan—there is acceptance that the tunnel has triumphed. They “now say, ‘Okay, a decision has been made. Let’s not refight or redo this. Let’s move forward and then let’s fix the next problem,’” observed the mayor. Because of the political support and the public acceptance, Nickels said, “I’m confident that [the tunnel] will happen.”

In the next breath, however, the mayor added, “But it’s not guaranteed. A person who wanted to kill it and was dedicated to just that probably could do it.”

Douglas was asking, of course, about the state plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a 1.7 mile, $1.9 billion deep-bore tunnel under Seattle’s downtown. This summer, the initial stage of the project began as the Washington State Department of Transportation began drilling test bores throughout downtown.

Even Councilmember Nick Licata, a longtime tunnel opponent, says, “I find it hard to imagine undoing it at this point.”

Tunnel supporter Councilmember Sally Clark went further. “It’s not just a deal. It’s not something that is just a handshake,” she says. “This is a project. It has been approved through the Legislature by the Governor…It is dangerous to the rest of Seattle’s legislative agenda to make this a high priority and take it to Olympia and say ‘We want to revisit it.’”

Councilmember Licata says, however, that he can imagine a scenario where the state backs away from the deep-bore tunnel. “There is only about three to five percent design done and there are some pretty large gaps in where the money is coming from. If those gaps grow and the design looks like it’s not working out, the [state] Legislature may decide [the tunnel] is too big of a fish to swallow.”

The first video, four minutes long, takes the viewer on an aerial and an underground tour of the tunnel. From the southern portal south of Qwest Field to the northern portal north of Denny Way, the video shows the route, the on-and-off ramps and the emergency exits for the $1.9 billion, 1.7 mile tunnel.

The second video, also four minutes long, guides viewers along the new surface Alaskan Way without a viaduct overhead. The video begins at Battery Street in Belltown and cruises along Elliott Avenue, heads down south of the Pike Place Market and picks up Alaskan Way just north of Pike Street, near the Seattle Aquarium. It also shows how Alaskan Way will merge with the deep-bore tunnel traffic on East Marginal Way South near Qwest Field.

The Battery Street Tunnel was build to carry traffic to and from State Route 99 to the Alaskan Way Viaduct. According to HistoryLink.org, the 3,140-feet-long tunnel was originally called the Battery Street Subway and took WSDOT two years to build, from 1952-54, at a cost of $2.8 million. The tunnel opened to cars July 24, 1954. As the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) explains, the tunnel is actually “made up of two separate tunnels, or ‘bores’ that allow traffic to travel south and north bound along Highway 99.”

The future of the tunnel is unknown at this point. For certain, WSDOT states, the new deep bore tunnel that will replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, will bypass the Battery Street Tunnel and connect to Highway 99 (aka Aurora Avenue North) somewhere north of Denny Way. In addition, WSDOT states that the Battery Street Tunnel “will become property of the city after the bored tunnel opens.” WSDOT continues, “If the city were to bring the Battery Street Tunnel up to modern standards, it would require extensive repairs costing hundreds of millions of dollars.” WSDOT says it will “study the possibility of permanently closing the Battery Street [T]unnel” as part of its preparation for building the new deep bore tunnel to replace the viaduct.

The WSDOT website explains: “Crews begin each boring by drilling a shallow test hole, which is completed in approximately one business day. Crews will return to each location to drill a more extensive boring that will take five to 15 business days to complete.”