America: the yellowish, blinking, buzzing beacon of Democracy

Vancouverites who have been routinely pummelled by the jackboot-style of economic development practiced by the NPA and the BC Liberals can only watch developments just 200 miles to the south of them with a sense of distraught amazement. It appears that in Western Washington, there is something that still resembles a system of checks and balances when it comes to building and financing controversial megaprojects.

Let's compare the developments leading up to the construction of Vancouver's Canada (formerly RAV) Line, and the debate surrounding the fate of Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct. In Vancouver, Gordon Campbell's BC Liberal government was bound and determined to build a privatized rapid transit system to Vancouver International Airport in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The board of directors for the regional transportation authourity, Translink, opposed the project because the new line would not deliver a significant number of passengers at the cost of cannibalizing the regional bus fleet. After the Translink Board voted the RAV line down twice, the Liberals in Victoria got their way on the third try, and only because they passed The Significant Projects Streamlining Act, which empowered them to shove any pet projects they chose down the throats of objecting municipal governments.

In Seattle, the Alaskan Way Viaduct has provoked similar, if not greater volumes of debate given the number of commuters, truckers, and travellers who use the earthquake damaged artery every day. Governor Christine Gregoire and the Democrat - controlled State Legislature in Olympia wants to exercise the cheaper option of simply rebuilding the viaduct, much to the chagrin of Seattle City Council and Mayor Greg Nickels. Nickels (and this page) see the Viaduct as a big, noisy eyesore which cuts off Downtown Seattle from its waterfront. His alternative is to replace the Viaduct with a tunnel, and is putting the issue to a referendum, even if the Washington State Department of Transportation has already rejected the tunnel concept.

Direct democracy doesn't always work perfectly in Seattle - if it did the proposed monorail would have been built and Safeco Field wouldn't have. However, it is comforting to know that somewhere out there, there are local and regional governments who are willing to take into account what the voters and taxpayers think, rather than impose their will through parliamentary hegemony or the pulpit bullying of media toadies. 65% of Vancouverites voted in 2003 for a Winter Olympics bid because it included provisions on Social Housing and Sustainability. Since the right wing ambushed and extinguished the COPE City Council that insisted on the vote two years later, it will probably be the last time that kind of democracy will be practiced in this city in our lifetime.