We lose our NBA team, our biggest bank, our oldest newspaper, and now the biggest and greatest remnant of Seattle’s “working waterfront” era, the Alaskan Way Viaduct. At a Tuesday signing ceremony, city and state officials finalized the deal to build a “deep bore” tunnel to replace the elevated highway, and to redevelop the Viaduct land for more lucrative, corporate-friendly uses.

I’ve been involved in a heated Facebook discussion/argument over the project’s merits or lack thereof. I could reiterate the many various points of view presented in this discussion (why wasn’t this done decades ago; why isn’t there more transit in it; why etc.).

Invariably, two semi-inter-related arguments arise:

• San Francisco got rid of its elevated highway, therefore Seattle MUST do likewise; and
• This town totally, forever, SUCKS if it doesn’t do exactly what I want it to do.

My responses:

• No, Seattle DOES NOT have to do everything exactly the way they did them in Egoville USA. This place is its own place, with its own needs. Get used to it.
• The infamous “Seattle process” is not about achieving consensus, I’ve concluded. It’s about delaying consensus (or the imposition of political will) for as long as possible, so all parties can fully vent their emotional feelings of righteous superiority. (“This town totally forever SUCKS, man, because it won’t do everything the way I think it should do them.”)
• The Viaduct is a relic of the era of our maritime-industrial heritage, prior to the developers’ dream of turning the waterfront into a “harbourpointe.” That’s part of what I love about it.
• However, that day’s gone and it’s not coming back. Cargo’s now in containers. That action’s on and around Harbor Island and Interbay.
• If the central waterfront and environs must be remade, let’s remake them in a friendly, funky way, not in a pompous Olympic Sculpture Park way. Bring on the tacky tourist stands, the hot dog vendors, the skateboard ramps, the buskers, the “fine art galleries” selling kitschy oil paintings of whales and herons. The last thing Seattle needs is another impracticable monument to the declaration of world-class-osity.
• I still like the Viaduct. I always will. Even when it’s gone.