It all sounds too familiar.

A feisty public agency describes a grand vision; a future where north and south transit arteries whisk commuters away from the gridlock of street grade traffic. The project will revitalize neighborhoods along the corridor. A flowering pedestrian zone will emerge and commercial ventures will thrive in an area where goods and services flow in unblocked urban arteries. The agency gets out its pitch; in open houses, public meetings, charettes and neighborhood councils, with slides, animations, drawings and words.

But then, suddenly, the vision starts to bog down. Project costs seem glibly understated and details about financing are murky. The natives get restless and beyond these borders, citizens roll their eyes at Seattle's lavish ideas. "As long as we don't have to pay for it," they say. Soon, political heavyweights distance themselves as the project founders....

Is the Alaskan Way Tunnel this year's monorail?

There's no shortage of irony here. To monorail supporters, the idea of the mayor's tunnel being slapped down by bullies in Olympia probably couldn't get much closer to poetic justice unless the viaduct replacement had to stand as a ballot item for a few years, or the Governor appointed Cleve Stockmeyer to head up a tunnel feasibility task force.

But don't bet against the mayor just yet. There are lots of adjectives to describe his administration, but ineffectual isn't one of them. And let's not forget Seattle's Big Buddy, Senator Patty Murray. If the mayor gets the financing he needs, replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel could be his great legacy to the city of Seattle.

The mayor should be applauded for wanting what's best for this city. Let's hope that if he can't get what he wants, he'll know when to quit.