Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project - On the Road to Construction

What: Open House
When: Thursday, March 2, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Where: The Seattle Aquarium, Pier 59, 1483 Alaskan Way, Seattle

Get the latest news on the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall. Learn how the city of Seattle is closing the funding gap. Find out what parts of the project may get built first. Provide feedback on the construction. Special introduction by WSDOT Secretary Doug MacDonald and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.

For more information call the hotline at (206) 269-4421, or e-mail viaduct@wsdot.wa.gov. Send your comments to:

Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project;
999 Third Ave., Suite 2424;
Seattle, WA 98104.

Visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/viaduct for up-to-date project news.

The High Cost of Free Parking

Featured Speaker:
Donald Shoup, Professor of Urban Planning, UCLA

Thursday, March 2, 2006
6:30-8:30 p.m.
UW Architecture Hall, Room 147
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Free event; no registration required
View Event Flyer

About the Event
Guest speaker Donald Shoup will argue that the average parking space costs more than the average car. He asserts that when we shop, dine out, or see a movie, we pay indirectly for parking because its cost is included in the price of everything from hamburgers to housing. Shoup will demonstrate that free parking has other costs: it distorts transportation choices, warps urban form, and degrades the environment. Shoup estimates that (1) if all U.S. parking spaces were combined into one surface lot, it would be the size of Connecticut; and (2) every year we spend as much to subsidize off-street parking as we spend for Medicare or national defense.

Don't you hate it when a bunch of stuff all happens at once? I can't go to any of the three events tonight! But maybe some of you can.

Tonight at Town Hall, KC Executive Ron Sims will debate Rev. Ken Hutcherson on gay rights and whether the gay-rights movement is like the civil-rights movement. According to a Times article, the debate is sponsored by the Stranger, since both have been prominent figures in this debate in our region. This ought to be something to see! Although, is it really pessimistic of me to think that this is just going to boil down to Hutcherson saying "being gay is an unnatural choice and it's bad" and Sims saying "being gay is a way people are born and there's nothing wrong with it"? Isn't that what's always at the bottom line of this issue?

Anyway, the details:

Sims vs. Hutcherson debate
Town Hall
7:30 pm
$5 at the door