22 Key decisions

The 1976 interlocal agreement authorizing the last link of INTERSTATE 90: Once upon a time, Boston motorists could hop in their cars, get on I-90, and drive across this great country all the way to Bellevue. Getting into Seattle, however, proved tougher. "For more than 20 years, the state and federal highway departments have attempted unsuccessfully to complete the highway into Seattle," wrote the Weekly's Dan Seligman in 1978. The second Mercer Island bridge was finally completed in 1989, opening the floodgates for a wave of Eastside development and new traffic. Auto counts along the I-90 corridor jumped by 60 percent in the first month of operation.

The 1976 DECISION OF SEATTLE CITY LIGHT not to participate in WPPSS electric plants #4 and #5: OK, we're obviously scratching for a happy angle to the Washington Public Power Supply Service (WPPSS) debacle, in which about a hundred Northwest utilities and many large companies lost money by the bucketful. When WPPSS had its bond rating downgraded in 1981, many worried that the financial markets would lose their taste for municipal bonds in general. "Neither Seattle nor the state are legally responsible for WPPSS's financial condition," wrote the Weekly's Bruce Brown. "But a number of Wall Street sources have threatened that other bond issues, for purposes such as parks, sewers, and health care facilities, will suffer guilt by association."

The 1977 MAYORAL ELECTION: The crowded primary field yielded a classic final matchup of young comers, pitting television commentator Charley Royer against Paul Schell, director of the Seattle Department of Community Development. The Weekly was squarely in Schell's camp, endorsing him in both primary and final. Wrote Editor David Brewster: "It is difficult to imagine that [Schell] would be anything other than an extraordinarily good mayor." Royer won anyway, serving three terms as mayor and presiding over the high-growth decade of the 1980s; Schell returned to the mayor's race in 1997, and got the job.

The 1977 decision to FIRE SONICS COACH BOB HOPKINS: After the supposedly promising Supes stumbled to a 4-14 start, new coach Hopkins was unceremoniously sacked in favor of Lenny Wilkens. For the record, the Weekly hated the call. "Wilkens is no coach," wrote an angry Roger Sale in a story headlined "Hopkins, Si! Wilkens, No!" Despite such criticism, the Sonics went on to make their first finals appearance under Wilkens in 1977-1978, and won the NBA title the following year—an event that still represents Seattle's peak team sports moment.

The 1979 ARRIVAL OF MICROSOFT: Sure, it was just a little company owned by a couple of local boys (Bill Gates, Jr. and Paul Allen), but the future software giant's decision to relocate from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bellevue (and then to Redmond) would profoundly influence Seattle and the region. Nobody noticed the arrival of the new kids, but a couple years later the Weekly observed that "Microsoft has been making a name for itself with state-of-the-art system software."

The approval of the 1981 SENIOR HOUSING levy: As federal social service and housing funding ebbed under the Reagan Administration, Seattle joined other cities in working to bolster the social safety net. "It would be a marvelous thing if Seattle, rather than hunkering down under Reaganism's mean-spiritedness, were actually to dare enact a humanitarian program, now that the feds have bowed out ungraciously," wrote Editor David Brewster. The several buildings constructed under this levy have since been joined by dozens of low-income projects subsidized by city taxpayers. The city has also taken a leading role in social service funding.

The 1983 siting of the CONVENTION CENTER: Plopping the new home of trade shows in the middle of downtown (and eliminating several First Hill apartment buildings in the process) was unpopular with many in the city—including the Weekly's editors, who favored a Seattle Center site. David Brewster and Rebecca Boren acknowledged the eventual victory of the downtown forces, saying that "building a great Seattle Center, a crusade of the '60s, has been replaced by the Great Downtown Dream of the 1970s and '80s."

The 1983 SEATTLE TIMES/SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER joint operating agreement: The Weekly was the leading media watchdog as the city's daily newspapers joined business operations. Even after the two papers merged their backshops, advertising sales operations, and Sunday newspapers, writer Eric Scigliano maintained his scrutiny. "Before the ink dried on the first issue, other promises which the Times and P-I have long and loudly made to their employees and customers were, if not broken outright, then badly bent," he wrote, days after the conjoined dailies published their first joint Sunday edition.

The Metro Council's vote to construct the downtown BUS TUNNEL: Years of construction followed years of planning for Seattle's big dig under Third Avenue. By the late 1980s, the torn-up streets, struggling storefront businesses, and tangled finances resulting from the project made it the target of many gripes. The Weekly's Rebecca Boren scolded downtown property owners who had pushed for the tunnel as a way to get buses off the street, but then sought to escape their share of a $20 million assessment for construction. "The public question will be whether business, having helped get us into the mess that is downtown today, can renege now that the shovels have hit the streets," she wrote.