OK, Euell Gibbons is not exactly the metaphor or spokesperson I'm looking for, but he'll do just fine. Those of my generation may remember watching those Euell Gibbons television commercials in the 1970s for Grape Nuts cereal. Gibbons was a natural foods advocate and author, but his popular image centered on a "return to basics," hence his pitching of Grape Nuts.
I thought of Gibbons today when I read this excellent piece over at Crosscut about the importance of paying attention to our nation's crumbling infrastructure. The author, Michael Godfried, argues that it is especially important during down economic times to focus on the basics, like fixing bridges, transportation systems, dams, public buildings, the core infrastructure of our nation.
Godfried's argument certainly applies right here in Seattle. The City Council recently completed an assessment of major capital projects across the city, everything from the central waterfront seawall to police and fire facilities to sidewalks we've hoped to bring to the outer reaches of the city for decades. The list was long and expensive, very expensive. Prioritization of the list is our next step. It will be a difficult process.
Later this morning, several of my colleagues and I will join the Governor and Senator Patty Murray, among others, at the two-way Mercer Street groundbreaking ceremony. This is an essential infrastructure project that is about so much more than transportation. It will reconnect the South Lake Union and Uptown (lower Queen Anne) neighborhoods. It creates three additional east-west crossings of Aurora (SR 99) at John, Thomas and Harrison Streets, meaning there will be five such crossings between Denny Way and Mercer. It recreates an open vista leading to Lake Union Park. It vastly improves pedestrian and bicycle mobility. And, with the eventual completion of the West Mercer phase of the project, it protects freight mobility and gives Magnolia, Interbay and Ballard residents easy access to the north portal of the new SR 99 tunnel.
Infrastructure projects will be part of our fall budget deliberations for 2011-2012. In addition, I will be focused on these major areas in this priority order:
- Public Safety services, the city government's highest priority
- Safety-net Human Services, essential protections for those with the greatest survival needs
- Protecting transportation corridors, expanding alternatives
- Preserving jobs and creating opportunity, especially for locally-owned small businesses
- Public education, a vital and important area for the city to be further engaged
- Quality-of-life features, such as parks, athletic fields, arts, music and cultural enhancements
These are tough economic times and we face some very difficult decisions that will result in good people losing their jobs and services being cut back. At the same time, as Godfried successfully argues, we must not lose sight of the long-term. Investing in our core infrastructure is necessary and will pay huge dividends long into the future.