Now you can see the big money starting to tell you how to vote: almost a half-million dollars has been raised to promote destroying the viaduct and replacing it with million-dollar condos and a waterfront park. Vote for the people who live and work here, not the downtown interests, developers, architects, and lawyers planning to make millions from this new development.

Ten hours a day of downtown gridlock and the Interstate a parking lot. Without the viaduct that's what we would have today if 110,000 cars are forced onto existing city streets. The city council is planning on doubling our population while cutting back on our ability to drive through the city, which means their alternative plan to build the surface street/park option will have to handle at least 150,000 cars a day.

Business deliveries throughout the city will take longer, reducing services, driving up costs and causing many businesses to fail. Residential real estate values in northwest Seattle and West Seattle will decline as the livability of these areas declines. Think of the environment in 10 years with 150,000 cars are trying to get through the city. All those cars caught in stop-and-go traffic on only three downtown streets or the clogged interstate, spewing exhaust as they sit tied up in one traffic jam after another. Providing efficient transportation such as the viaduct into and through Seattle would be the environmentally proper thing to do.

A majority of the City Council (Drago, Conlin, Rasmussen, Godden and Steinbrueck) wish to build the surface street/park option. Why? The answer is simple - their first priority is to get re-elected to their $117,000 a year jobs, and that takes big money in upcoming elections. Each one must raise at least $250,000 to run a successful campaign, and they expect to get it from the same downtown interests who have already raised over $450,000 to destroy the viaduct.

Whether you use it daily or not, the viaduct contributes to your quality of life as it is the quickest, most efficient way to get into and through downtown Seattle. Vote for the people who live and work in Seattle, not the greedy developers who have visions of the millions in profits they will make selling to the wealthy living by the waterfront park in their million dollar condos.

Vote for the viaduct.

Frank Bradley

Gatewood