Exhibiting the no nonsense attitude she has displayed for the past nearly two decades on the Port of Seattle commission, Paige Miller was blunt and direct when she said she not only wants to end the Richard Conlin's time on the Seattle City Council but openly covets his job as chairman of the council's transportation committee.

"I've accomplished what I set out to do with the port and I want to take my skill, experience, tenacity, and persistence to the city where they really need some help, particularly on transportation issues which I know a lot about," Miller says.

Miller says she decided to target Conlin as her opponent because he lacks the ability to get things done.

"Conlin is the transportation chair and the city is choking on its transportation problems - he has not helped to solve the problems." Miller says. "He loves to study stuff but he really does not put his shoulder to the wheel to help get to a solution and get projects built."

The two largest transportation issues Miller wants to address are the floundering Seattle Monorail Project and the contentious replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Both are interdependent and critical to the city's future, she says.

The Seattle Monorail Project should not be scuttled even though it needs a new interim director and a new board president and it cannot delay in working through it current problems.

"There are at least a couple of options to explore," she says. "One is re-bidding it, which I believe will bring the price down. Another is re-scoping to see if there is anything they can remove. I'm told that $150 million in capital cost reduction is a $4 billion reduction in financing because of the way the payments balloon at the end."

She says she is confident that solutions can be reached that don't involve re-bidding the project or greatly altering its scope.

"Build the monorail to King Street - bring it down to grade at King Street and end that segment there. (Then people can) hop off the monorail and onto Sound Transit which is also at grade right there," Miller says. "It can be staged. You get those segments in place, get revenue coming from them, and you get a way to get (West Seattle) people into town before we lose the viaduct."

Miller says the monorail must be in place before the viaduct replacement plan is underway. She says that the city cannot afford to take away any more road capacity without first compensating for that loss.

Miller has aligned herself with the most expensive option to replace the viaduct, a tunnel estimated to cost $4 billion.

"The tunnel is a solution that both moves 110,000 vehicles a day, which is the capacity we need, and does not put up another wall along the waterfront," Miller says. "The reason I decided to run against Mr. Conlin, frankly, was when I heard that he suggested that we should tear it down and put nothing in its place - and he was serious about it."

Tunnel opponents argue that the cost is too high and getting the funding for the $4 billion project upfront is not possible. Miller argues it is and proposes $2 billion come from the state; assuming voters reject Initiative 912, which would repeal the 9.5 cents-per-gallon gas tax approved in the Legislature this year.

"Without the state's money we are toast," Miller says.

For the remaining $2 billion, Miller proposes seeking $500 million from the city and the Port of Seattle; $500 million from the federal government and; $1 billion from the reconstitution of the Regional Transportation Improvement District

"It is a challenge, but you know, building multi-billion dollar transportation projects is not for the faint of heart," Miller says.

Another facet of the city that Miller plans to address is the growing amount of displaced citizens who cannot afford to live within the city limits.

"We are now becoming a city that has some amount of housing for folks who are very poor who live in public housing and we have housing for people who are quite wealthy. But if you are a nurse, teacher, police officer, librarian, or an office worker, it's becoming very difficult to find any place you can afford inside the city," she says.

Miller says that this displacement is part of the reason the city's traffic problems are so bad. Commuters who can't afford to live in the city travel from surrounding cities and congest the roadways.

"We really need to have a strategy for good quality affordable housing and we have the opportunity right now. We are building our transit lines and along the transit lines are the opportunity for mixed-use, multi-family, good quality housing," Miller says.

Brian Connolly can be reached at 783.1244 or bnteditor@robinsonnews.com.