We will go on as businesses despite the media's negative coverage of the events of the past few weeks. I would like invite Seattle to come back and visit the wonderful and exciting shops on Western Avenue as well as the businesses in Pioneer Square. We are alive and well and open for business. I feel compelled to clarify some overlooked facts and erroneous assumptions made by Roger Downey in a recent Seattle Weekly article he wrote regarding my commitment to building a second suspension bridge over the Tacoma Narrows. The court made the right decision.
Public roads ought to stay public.
We have a long history in Washington state of repudiating privately operated toll roads. They have failed miserably, and our citizens have rightfully risen up in massive opposition. A private toll road is a device to skirt public control, and I'm against that concept. Investing in our schools and protecting human services for our neediest citizens are clearly my top priorities. But our transportation system needs major overhauling, and a second Tacoma Narrows bridge is critical to relieving one of the state's most congested arteries.