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Friends of the Monorail | 2/5/12 |
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Friends of the Monorail | 2/5/12 |
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.
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).
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 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.
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.
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
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.
Retro-named panel to make plans for World's Fair site
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.
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RE: Another example of ???
by chadman_98126 on 11/22/06 |
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no, no switcharoo - actually I was being candid. I really didn't bother to read what you'd wrote, nothing personal. you need to lighten it up. btw: I didn't say Seoul wasn't relevant, I was saying that having 12 transit lines probably wasn't relevant since they are an order of magnitude larger than we are. with transit along the West Seattle Ballard corridor, a surface approach seem to me entirely doable we don't need 12 lines to do it Of course, I'm biased and can easily envision the possibility because I grew up in a city that doesn't have a single express way within it's city limits and that dumps many tens/hundreds of thousands of cars onto it's city streets - Vancouver. To: friendsofthemonorail@yahoogroups.comFrom: cleve206@aol.comDate: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 10:12:40 -0500Subject: Re: [FoM] Another example of ??? Chad: ha ha . That ol' "my eyes glazed over" technique -- ha ha, great way to duck & personalize. If you need another version of what I said it is this: don't use Seoul as an example to prove something about Seattle, then do a 180 switcheroo & say it is not relevant, when it is poitned out that it is different from Seattle. As you seem to agree, it is too big to be a good comparison. Mitch & everyone: are we about facts (& logical argument, etc.) or just factions?a. By responding on a factual and argumentative level to a post, one is showing respect, presuming that the sender takes his or her own argument seriously. One is not saying "because I disagree with the statement made in support of proposition such and such, I also disagree with the proposition." Haven't we learned you ahve to be a good critical and skeptical thinker even about the option you support the most? That you have to listen, esp. to those in your own camp, who point out things that are weak or wrong in the positions you take? Sometimes it seems folks just want to engage in faith based cheerleading/faction herding/just want to get to the result they prefer -- not argue about it. Or at least not seriously. Cleve -----Original Message-----From: cmaglaque@hotmail.comTo: friendsofthemonorail@yahoogroups.comSent: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 11:27 PMSubject: RE: [FoM] Another example of ???arguing? I'm not even sure what Cleve said. my eyes glazed over about 2 lines in.________________________________> To: friendsofthemonorail@yahoogroups.com> From: mgitman@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:42:30 -0800> Subject: Re: [FoM] Another example of ???> > particular solution. It just expresses opposition to the rebuild. Right now,> the rebuild is the common and most imminent threat, and so it bothers me to> see factions who should be natural allies arguing amongst themselves.__________________________________________________________Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [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 |
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Seoul
by raia1us on 11/23/06 |
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Seoul situation is not one that can be used to show that removal of viaduct will work. If anything, it seems to show that we need to prepare for it. Repair the current structure to make it safe, not permanent, and put the bulk of the money into real transit. "The best way to travel in Seoul if you want to be on time, by subway of course. Seoul Metropolitan Subway Cooperation provides all the information." The daily average number of vehicles passing through downtown amounted to 1.13 million, down 9.1 percent from last year's 1.25 million, and that of vehicles using main roads in the city decreased 6.3 percent with 2.71 million from 2.89 million in 2003. The daily traffic volume in areas adopting the bus-exclusive main line system, launched as part of July's new mass transit system, dropped considerably. Only buses can use the center lane under the new system. Gangnamdaero, or the Gangnam Road in southern Seoul, witnessed a traffic volume decrease of 26.3 percent in October from September last year. Songsanno in Susaek, northwestern Seoul, recorded a 23.3-percent decrease, and Miaro in northern Seoul recorded a 27.2 percent drop. "Several factors, such as the implementation of the bus-exclusive median lane system, the oil price surge and encouraging drivers to not drive one day a week, pulled down traffic volume in Seoul and increased the number of mass transit users instead," a city official said. The average number of mass transit users per day rose 12 percent from last year's 9 million to 10.1 million in Seoul. The number of Seoulites using the subway amounted to 4.71 million per day, up 10.6 percent from 4.26 million a year ago and that of bus users came to 5.44 million, up 13.3 percent from 4.8 million last year. 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 |
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Re: Seoul
by garylambda on 11/24/06 |
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viaduct will work. If the current structure to transit. I tend to agree with this statement. When I first looked at the surface proposal, the core of the argument makes sense. Which by my understanding is this: "any tunnel, or rebuild/replacement, will shut down the current traffic and force drivers onto alternative routes for a number of years. There are no businesses which rely on the Viaduct which can survive this long term shutdown. Therefore why not just remove the viaduct permanently, instead of temporarily?" Now when I first read the article in the Guardian about the Seoul experience I too thought that this was an exact comparison. But I can see that with all of those subways, commuters have a large number of choices. So it is not an exact match. However we can glean from the article that people will always be afraid of change beforehand and that once things have changes, are not always resentful of that change. So if there was a Greenline Monorail, I would be 100% behind a teardown and no replacement. But since it doesn't exist, I'm 100% behind a temporary repair job, and work toward building the elevated rapid transit system that is still and will be even more needed. -Gary- 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 |
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