The immediate issue is the viaduct that carries traffic some 105,000 vehicles daily -- along Puget Soundthrough Seattle. It was damaged in the 2001 earthquake and is being undercut by a failing 70-year oldseawall.

The state Department of Transportation wants to replace the road in its present location, which separatesElliott Bay and the city. They have presented five different plans, including one for a tunnel. Because itseems to connect the city to the bay, the $4 billion tunnel proposal rose to the top of the pile and is thecurrent darling of industrial and governmental powers. They claim it satisfies every constituency, openingviews, creating open space, improving the environment, and letting cars zoom through downtown free ofcongestion.

PWC points out that the tunnel only reconnects a short stretch of downtown with the water, and createsenormous roaring tunnel mouths in the heart of the historic district at one end, and at Pike Place Market onthe other end. Plus, they say, the ability to speed through a city just encourages driving, which is estimatedto cause 2/3 of the greenhouse gas emissions in the northwest.

The PWC has placed its own alternative on the table: a four-lane roadway. PWC also would link up existingroads, improve existing arterials, untangle I-5, and integrate the state's transit systems; strategies thatalready have been proposed by SDOT. PWC says their comprehensive approach would spread traffic overroads that presently operate at only 60-70% of capacity.

Traffic experts in Washington's capital say PWC's plan would paralyze transportation, but PWC points outthat during the seven years it will take to build the tunnel, the state plans to re-rout traffic to these samealternate roads.

If we can live without that highway for seven years, doesn't that mean we can live without it? PWC asks.

If there weren't a highway there now, high speed-high capacity transportation would never be considered awise use of this extraordinary shoreline today, says Cary Moon, a PWC founder.

Ecologically, a tunnel is probably a bad move, says Moon. The shore is a complex set of processes: tides, waves, freshwater replenishing beaches, beach material migration, flora and fauna in the intertidalzone, etc. Tunnels need to be dry, fixed, and stable. Building a tunnel in a dense urban area in poor soil overa fault is already complicated, risky and expensive. Putting it next to the sea runs counter to logic.

Re-building a massive transportation project in the currently failing location will only perpetuate the errorsof the past and solidify the grasp of concrete on the city's greatest feature: its waterfront. PWC maintainsthat re-thinking the use of the land from the bottom up provides Seattle with unprecedented opportunities. Bulkheads, which have destroyed functioning intertidal zones and near-shore habitat, could be removedfrom the shoreline so Elliott Bay could be a functioning ecology once more. In addition, Seattle's goals ofexpanding residential density and quality of life downtown would be better aided by dedicating prime realestate to parks, beaches, cafes, restaurants; not roaring highways.

Great cities are known for their great destinations, not their convenient highways, says Julie Parrett,another PWC founder. This is an amazing example of a place that should be a core of our public life andcivic energy.

PWC's No-Highway option won second prize in a national design competition sponsored by Metropolismagazine, but it may not be a prizewinning vision that wins the nod; it may be a matter of money. The statelegislature says it will not fund a project that carries less capacity than the existing viaduct.

PWC says making operational improvements to get better efficiency out of existing resources will cost lessthan the megaproject solutions being offered by SDOT.

To do park development and our stormwater strategies is cheaper than the kind of heavy undergroundinfrastructure typically put into building a highway. Ours is a simpler solution, a lower-tech solution, moreprogressive and more sustainable, says Moon.

After two years of advocating for their plan, Moon is gratified by what she sees as a growing popular desirefor a more sustainable city. Grant Cogswell, PWC's third founding member, is a firm believer thatgrassroots power can work to convince City Hall. He cites Seattle's history of citizen activists determiningthe kind of community they want.

Pike Place Market was to be razed and replaced with high rise buildings and parking lots, Cogswell says. And the same with Pioneer Square, the historic neighborhood. Then they were going to put a new freewaythrough one of Seattle's most important parks, the Arboretum. It took citizens to say no, that's a stupid ideaand we're not going to let that happen.

I think a lot of people don't get into politics because they feel helpless. It's so painful to stay engaged andfeel powerless at the same time. But it's important that we do this right because we're making a place, and we're deciding what the place is going to be like.

Download a .pdf about the People's Waterfront Coalition

Click to www.peopleswaterfront.org

and check out these additional web resources:

http://www.northwestwatch.org/

http://cascadiascorecard.typepad.com/blog/sprawl/index.html

http://citycomfortsblog.typepad.com/cities/2005/05/he_is_an_excell.html

Do the Strand

THE FOUR CITIES OF EDENS LOST & FOUND:
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