UPDATE:

The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce hosted a sold-out brown bag lunch Jan. 26 with a presentation entitled “Why the Tunnel Works” at the Kenney.

The event featured John Creighton Commissioner, Port of Seattle and Dave Gering Director, Manufacturing Industrial Council and architect and West Seattle resident Vlad Oustimovitch, who each provided, quoting from the Chamber invitation "facts about keeping our economy moving and why the Deep Bore Tunnel is both critical to the economic health of our region and the best choice."

"(Consider) the dangers of doing nothing. We have two and a half billion dollars out of the State Legislature which reviles the City of Seattle,' said Gering. " The state politically can't stand the city. This is probably one of the biggest appropriations in state history. We're at risk of losing that money I think at damn near every session of the legislature, and I think when we get into (...) visiting old options nobody every calcualtes what do we do if we lose that state funding. None of the alternatives that sound great on paper have a commitment from anybody for funding (...) I think you've got to move ahead with what you've got and hope for the best..."

SCAT (Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel) representative Elizabeth Campbell berated the panel one by one toward the end of the luncheon. She said to Creighton, "The Port money is not secure. You have misrepresented to the people gathered here today the true matter with what's going on with the Port."

She told Gering that he represented manufacturing, "but not the people".

She told Oustimovitch that he "presented a very revisionist history about how the deep bore tunnel came."

Creighton responded, " "If we kill the north-south capacity we kill the Port, and hundreds of thousands of jobs that rely on the Port. (The deep bore tunnel) is not a done deal. By having people poking and prodding and really looking at things I think it makes it a better project."

Said Oustimovitch to Campbell, "I know why you want another elevated viaduct and I understand why."

She responded that it was not just she, but 25,000 others whose signatures for Initiative 101 who also had concerns. She is the coordinator of the initiative.

Oustimovitch had mentioned earlier that he had once seriously considered building a new viaduct, but that it was not viable and that such a plan had too many deal-breaking obstacles. All panelists agreed that one of the biggest advantages of the tunnel option is that the viaduct would remain open for traffic during its construction.

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Reporter's Note, I challenged Mr. Oustimovitch on a point at the end of the luncheon when time ran out, and now believe my question overreached and did not allow him to respond. Also, I recognize that he took time out of his busy day to volunteer on the panel as a favor. I consider Vlad a friend and want to apologize to him.

Thank you. Steve