The Binary Circumstance

Not to be outdone by Boston, Seattle and Washington State politicians have decided the solution to the Alaska Way Viaduct rebuild is a four lane tunnel going under downtown. The viaduct is six lanes and the tunnel will have only four.

The price tag is expected to be $4.24 billion and the project is expected to take nine years. I guarantee you that price will go way up before the project is completed if it ever gets started.

Gov. Christine Gregoire wants the jobs.

“Building a deep bored tunnel will support a strong economy today and in the future,” Gregoire said. “This decision will improve public safety, help ensure Seattle is a 21st Century international city, and generate thousands of new family-wage jobs in the Puget Sound region.”

Mayor Nickels said the agreement will help ensure that the city of Seattle remains economically competitive.

I don’t see how pouring billions into a hole in the ground will keep us competitive, especially when it provides less lanes of traffic than we currently have. Yes, there will also be a surface street on the waterfront but it won’t be very useful to people who want to zip through the city quickly. And the tunnel can’t be exited while in the city, like the viaduct.

Money would be better spent fixing existing roads and sidewalks which are in horrible shape.

They should just tear down the viaduct and replace it with a surface street.

When San Francisco tore down the Embarcadero Freeway along its waterfront after it was damaged in the 1989 earthquake, people said it would be disaster and create all kinds of traffic problems. It didn’t. All it did was connect the city with the waterfront again and created a beautiful promenade.

There’s got to be a better solution than this. Building more and more roads just leads to more growth and more congestion.

If Seattle really wants to leap into the future they should follow the lead of Abu Dhabi which is building a green city in the desert called Masdar.

The leaders of Abu Dhabi have declared that petroleum belongs to the 20th century, so they are making an investment in the 21st century by building Masdar, the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city, powered almost entirely by the desert’s plentiful sun.

I know we don’t have much sun but there are other alternatives I’m sure. Why not do something really visionary for a change? There’s nothing original about digging a big tunnel under the city at huge expense to create jobs and more traffic congestion.

Check out this funny and infectiously joyful video on YouTube of Seattle resident Matt Harding dancing his way around the world.

He’s made several other similar videos of himself dancing alone in far away places but in this one, which is already one of the most popular videos on YouTube, he has a lot of company.

For more info, check out WheretheHellisMatt.com.

The Dalai Lama is in Seattle and there are several big events scheduled while he’s here. The biggest event took place yesterday afternoon at Qwest Field.

When most people think about being compassionate they run straight for their emotions, looking to help somebody that they feel pity for.

For me, compassion is nice but it doesn’t solve a lot of problems, it doesn’t cure diseases or eradicate poverty. It might make us feel better and it may assist in the healing process, but holding rational premises does much more to solve individual and global problems than just feeling compassionate.

If you want to be compassionate, fill your mind with rational ideas that are supported by evidence. All the ideas that you hold that are not supported by evidence will ultimately create problems for yourself and many others as well.

Knowledge is the seed of compassion.

There is nothing to be known about things that aren’t there, so stop wasting your time and your brain cycles thinking about ideas and concepts that are not connected to reality. Religious delusions prevent people from solving problems because they require that the mind disconnect from reality. In order to solve problems you must connect to reality. That is where the solutions lie.

I hate to break the news to the weather gods but winter was over last week.

Today it was snowing in Seattle with temperature in the mid-30’s and an icy cold wind. The snow didn’t stick but it was much more than flurries and quite heavy at times. It’s totally inappropriate weather for spring, even by Seattle standards, which are extremely low when it comes to nice weather.