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Monorail News

Monorail agency officially dissolves; cost taxpayers $125 million

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 1/18/2008: The authority's last meeting was a final financial accounting. All 33 properties the authority bought had been sold, all lawsuits settled. The authority closed up shop with $425,963.07 in the bank, which the board voted Thursday to give to Metro for bus service in the communities that would have been served by the line.

Dec. 15, 2007

The Stranger, blog entry by Josh Feit -- 12/17/2007: For those of you that live in Ballard or West Seattle and work downtown, how long did it take you to get to work today?

Mourning the monorail; looking ahead

West Seattle Blog -- 12/15/2007: So on this Opening Day That Wasn't, you might wonder, what's next for mass transit in West Seattle, considering that Sound Transit light rail isn't pointing our way? Some interesting ideas can be read on the Sustainable West Seattle Transportation Action Group blog; regarding more concrete plans, two public meetings are set in West Seattle next month for the "RapidRide" bus plan (both dates are on the WSB Events page).

I want my monorail ride

Andy MacDonald, Blogger at Sound Politics -- 12/15/2007: For five years I've kept that magnet on my fridge, waiting for our glorious transportation future. Now that the day has finally arrived, where is my monorail ride?

The monorail's opening day

The Big Blog, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 12/7/2007: Not many pieces of history are stuck to refrigerators.

New request for monorail documents is likely

Puget Sound Business Journal -- 11/30/2007: The Washington Coalition for Open Government is considering submitting a new request for records the agency had refused to release, citing attorney-client privilege.

Documents Will Be Buried With Monorail Authority
And that just about wraps up the monorail. Seriously.

Seattle Weekly -- 11/14/2007: Dead but awaiting final rites, the Seattle Popular Monorail Authority apparently will be allowed to take some of its most treasured internal documents to its grave, as a King County Superior Court judge recently tossed a lawsuit seeking disclosure of the agency's records.

Suit delays shutdown of monorail agency
Authority accused of violating public records laws

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 8/17/2007: In the lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court, the coalition argues the monorail authority violated state public records laws when it refused to release "the vast majority" of 1,007 documents requested by the coalition citing attorney-client privilege.

Monorail is in 'repose'

West Seattle Herald -- 5/29/2007: For private businesses, the law provides a roadmap for shutting down the monorail and creates finality and certainty to Seattle taxpayers that the Seattle Monorail Project no longer exists. It also protects taxpayers from any liabilities and obligations that may arise once the agency is dissolved, and for this reason, the current board of directors remains in place, eliminating the need for and cost of elections for board seats.

Shit’s in the P-I: Who Is Queen of the Viaduct Haters?

The Stranger, blog entry by Dan Savage -- 2/13/2007: And getting back to the monorail: All reasonable people everywhere agree that the failure/assassination of the monorail was for the best. Because now that we’re faced with tearing down the viaduct and living without it out for years—at least five, maybe seven, could be longer, regardless of what we build in its place—the last thing Seattle needs is an efficient mass-transit system carrying people from West Seattle to Downtown and back. I mean, really! What were we monorail supporters smoking?

Failed Monorail project's legacy may be a denser Seattle

The Puget Sound Business Journal -- 2/9/2007: Spurring interest, the sales coincided with a time of unprecedented institutional investment in commercial real estate. Then, too, the public agency's exercise of its power of eminent domain enabled Seattle Monorail Project to assemble certain parcels into larger sites, which has made redevelopment more feasible in some instances, under new owners.

Local News Highlights: The Last Weeks of the Seattle Monorail Project

KUOW -- Local News Highlights -- 1/17/2007: After almost five years, the Seattle Monorail Project is nearing its end. State lawmakers are expected to pass legislation that will allow the agency to legally close it’s doors. Then the S.M.P. board will meet one final time to end operations. KUOW’s Derek Wang has this look at the transit project’s final weeks.

WHERE ARE THE MONORAILS?[video]

AutoChannel.com -- 12/16/2006: In 1997, Dick Falkenbury authored an initiative to 'build, operate and maintain' a forty mile monorail system hat ould span the city of Seattle in a huge "X". With a handful of volunteers and no support, the initiative gathered 18,500 signatures while spending only $2,000--and it won the first election. He served as a volunteer as a member of the Board of Directors without missing a single meeting for six years. In these six years, there were two more successful elections for the monorail in Seattle, and a fourth election approved a tax on vehicles to pay for the project. Inexplicably, the staff padded the contract to the point where 14 miles of monorail, with interest, would cost $11 billion and the Seattle voters rejected the project. Had it come to fruition, it would have been the only transportation system drafted, planned and implemented by the citizens of a city.

Seattle Center's future begins in nod to past
Retro-named panel to make plans for World's Fair site

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 12/1/2006: Jan Levy, executive director of Leadership Tomorrow, and co-chairwoman of the committee, said the new group will continue the work of its predecessor, the Mayor's Task Force for Seattle Center Sustainability.

A running Monorail puts holiday shopping on track

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 11/25/2006: "When the Monorail doesn't empty people into our escalators, we have fewer pedestrians," said Roger Fredericksen, the owner of Millstream.

In Seattle, a Dream From the Past Has a Hazy Future

The New York Times -- 9/25/2006: And during the four decades after the fair, the Seattle Center Monorail, elevated and alluring along its one-mile course to the fairgrounds from downtown, became something more than just a mighty cool mode of getting humans about: it was an aerodynamic dream from the past that symbolized this city's romance with the future.

Seattle Monorail: Transit bargain?

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board -- 9/5/2006: A contributor to the Seattle P-I's online "Soundoffs" weighed in with this: "There is zero possibility that we could replace this transit corridor with any different transit system (or road construction) that would move as many people for $4.5 million. ... Let's also compare the Monorail with the South Lake Union Streetcar that the mayor so proudly supports: SLU Streetcar -- $50 million, 1.3 miles, expected to carry 350,000 passengers in the first year; Seattle Center Monorail -- $4.5 million, one mile, regularly carries 2.5 million passengers annually (when running)."

A Case of Voter Overkill
The death of Seattle's monorail plan is a telling tale

Governing -- April 2006: I suspect the Seattle monorail would have been a great asset to its city and region if city leaders had allowed it to live. But that's not the only reason I believe Mayor Greg Nickels and his allies in the business community made a mistake when they helped kill the populist transportation project last November. In working to shut down this grassroots movement, Nickels and allied business leaders were also shutting down democracy and civic engagement. And in the long run, that's more important to a healthy city than any specific transportation project.

	Another Example of An Expressway Teardown - Seoul Korea's Lost Highway by chadman_98126 on 11/21/06	Reply
	Interesting piece I received in my inbox today ********************* Here is a good article describing yet another EXCELLENT success story of this approach to urban mobility. Seoul, the 5th largest city in the world, removed a double-deck freeway that carried 160,000 cars a day. Business opposed the removal project, and residents feared increased congestion. Now, one year later, people love the change. http://www.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2006/11/20/lost-highway [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/friendsofthemonorail/ <> Your email settings: Individual Email \| Traditional <> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/friendsofthemonorail/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:friendsofthemonorail-digest@yahoogroups.com mailto:friendsofthemonorail-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com friendsofthemonorail-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

	Re: Another Example of An Expressway Teardown - Seoul Korea's Lost Highway by cleve206 on 11/21/06
	note what else Seoul has: a well developed rapid transit system with about 12 rail lines + a very large networks of other highways and arterials. see http://www.johomaps.com/as/korea/seoul/main.html both of which are lacking here.