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September 24, 2005

The Monorail Soap Opera Continues

My head's been down with work this week, so it's a little surreal to see how much the Monorail has been in the news while my attention's been diverted.

It's a freakin' soap opera!

First, as I said last week, Nickels has come out against the Monorail. On Friday (yesterday), the City Council (in its infinite wisdom) then voted unanimously to put the monorail on November's ballot. If the ballot measure fails, the city council will pull the project's permits. Game over. (BTW, HorsesAss.org has a funny proposal for a new Seattle mass-transit system. I'd ride it.)

Despite the Council vote, the Seattle Monorail Project still has some say into what the ballot measure will be. But on Thursday, the SMP board voted against putting language on the ballot, saying they were instead focusing on fixing the financing plan:

In a 6-2 vote, the board decided to proceed as planned to try to come up with a new finance plan and contract improvements in an attempt to save money. The board said they would try to put a measure on the ballot in February. Last week, Nickels said if the board didn't act to put a measure before voters in November, the city would do it for them.

BUT!

Just one day later, the SMP reversed itself and submitted language for the ballot after all ... and just a scant hour before the 4:30 filing deadline. The new language calls for a shorter line:

The Seattle Monorail Project board yesterday agreed, under duress, to ask voters to either trim the Green Line by three miles so it runs from Alaska Junction in West Seattle to West Dravus Street in Interbay, or shut the project down.

Meanwhile, Dan Savage over at The Stranger is pissed off at Nickels, demanding his $300 campaign contribution back and going after Nickels in this week's paper:

You're no Mayor Daley, Greg. Not even close. Daley, as Newsweek said, knew how to run a city. Daley would have told the anti-urban whackos, the opportunistic hacks (yes, I mean you, Jamieson), and the naysayers—not to mention his deputy mayor—to go get fucked. "We're building the monorail," Daley would have said. "The city needs it, it'll create jobs, and we're a city that works, not a city that sits on its ass year after year while a problem like gridlock gets worse." Seattle's Daley would have found a way to make it happen. But you, Greg? The going got tough and you pussed out. Mayor Daley? No way, Greg. You're not even Jane Byrne. You're barely Michael Bilandic.

Bill Virgin over at the PI agrees, it seems:

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels took a hard look at the proposed monorail and made a tough call: Let's have another election!

And not just any election, but an advisory election -- in other words, one that has no legal bearing on anything and doesn't really count.

Meanwhile, gas prices continue to climb, Metro buses are getting increasingly full, and now we've decided to - wait for it - close the bus tunnel for the next two years:

About 100,000 bus riders who catch buses downtown will be affected when the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel closes for up to two years beginning today at 7 p.m.

More than 70 bus routes will change routes or stops, especially the 21 that now go through the tunnel and will be moved to surface streets. They will go mostly onto Second, Third and Fourth avenues.

God, I love this town. You can't make this stuff up.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at September 24, 2005 10:23 PM. Posted to Politics | Transit.

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