This morning, Crosscut.com published a story based on a discussion that editor David Brewster and I had yesterday. Among other things, we spoke about the deep-bore tunnel, and I want to clarify my position on this matter.  While I strongly agree with his assessment that this is an important issue for voters, I couldn’t disagree more with his characterization that the “horse is pretty much out of the barn” when it comes to the decision to spend $4 billion to replace the viaduct with a deep-bore tunnel.

In fact, I think the question of whether we should commit $4 billion to build a deep-bore tunnel that has no on- or off-ramps to downtown and doesn’t serve the city’s transit needs is very much alive. The mayor has committed the city to spend more than $900 million on the project and the state insists that the city must cover all cost overruns on top of that. But no one is talking about how the city will pay for all that. And no one is addressing the critical transit and traffic issues that are left unanswered by the deep-bore tunnel plan.

Instead, our current political leaders hope voters think the horse is already out of the barn so they will stop asking hard questions about why they’ve chosen this plan and how it meets the city’s needs.

In today’s blog, David writes that I “downplayed any role [I] might play in overturning the decision.” The truth is, as city council member I will fight to ensure that essential services are not cut to fund a deep-bore tunnel. Instead I’ll focus on finishing sidewalks throughout Seattle, keeping libraries open, and making our transit system more effective rather than spending city money on the largest deep-bore tunnel project in the world.