Seattle's "Big Ugly"

SEATTLE — When Mayor Greg Nickels uses the phrase "the Big Ugly," he is referring to the 2.2-mile-long Alaskan Way Viaduct, the aging, earthquake-vulnerable elevated expressway that separates much of downtown Seattle from Elliott Bay, one of the city's iconic natural features. But the Big Ugly also is an apt characterization of the political debacle unfolding here over whether — and how — the 54-year-old concrete roadway should be replaced. On an all-mail advisory ballot that many voters here complain is confusing — not to mention "a sham and a fiasco," as City Council Member Peter Steinbrueck puts it, or "meaningless," in the view of state House Speaker Frank Chopp — Seattleites are supposed to weigh in with a yes or no on two separate measures.One would replace the viaduct with a tunnel. It would be a visionary reclamation of Seattle's somewhat neglected waterfront, according to proponents, and a Boston Big Dig-style construction nightmare, according to opponents. The other measure would replace the viaduct with a new elevated expressway.