Tell The City Council You Want Monorail
The usual well-funded monorail opponents are giving one last try to stop us from building a new monorail in Seattle. The last step is for the Seattle City Council to approve the use of city streets for monorail tracks. It is crucial that you let your voice be heard and tell the City Council that we've voted 4 times for monorail and you want it built. more...
We Must Build The Monorail
There are times where communities face critical tests: do they build for the future, or retreat to the past. This is one of those times for the citizens of Seattle. more...
Monorail MVET Growth Analysis
The SMP says the monorail tax will grow at 6.1% per year. The mayor has a more pessimistic view of his economic policy and says it will be 5% per year. We've got the details on the actual difference between the two.
Help Build the Monorail Message
We'll be publishing some print-your-own flyers and brochures here on the site. Help out by adding your suggestions to the comments in this thread. more...
We Must Build The Monorail
There are times where communities face critical tests: do they build for the future, or retreat to the past. This is one of those times for the citizens of Seattle. more...
Mayor and City Council Defy Will of the Voters
Once again the denizens of Seattle City Hall are trying to kill the monorail. more...
Equity Office's Anti-Monorail Activity Causes Employee to Resign
There's a triumvirate of wealthy property owners downtown that are bankrolling the anti-monorail campaign. One employee has had enough of her employer's questionable ethics and has resigned her job. more...
More Endorsements for the Monorail
The campaign to save the monorail from greedy landlords and corporations continues to rack up endorsements. The anti-monorail campaign is stuck at 0. more ...
WAMU Hit Hard By Boycott
Last week's protest against Washington Mutual's anti-monorail activities was a huge success, resulting in the removal of twice 10 times as much money from the bank than what they've spent to fund lies about the monorail. more ...
Boycott WAMU
Although the anti-monorail campaign is late as usual with their public disclosure filing, reliable sources indicate that Washington Mutual has donated $85,000 to the effort to permanently ban the construction of a monorail in Seattle. It's time to boycott WAMU. more...
Monorail Grassroots At Work
The monorail has won 3 elections due to the combination of a great, common sense idea and the dedicated efforts of ordinary, inspired, grassroots volunteers. See how they're back at work this campaign season. more ...
Get a Break From High Gas Prices
Analysts say that the age of cheap oil is over. If that is the case, why would we approve an initiative that will ban the construction of rapid, electrically powered monorail anywhere in the city? more ....
Anti-Monorail Campaign Breaks Copyright
The anti-monorail forces have made another ethically questionable, if not downright illegal move. Their recently launched television commercials feature video that was stolen from a monorail supporter's website. more ...
WAMU Turns To The Dark Side
A buildthemonorail.com exclusive: It appears that another billion dollar downtown business has turned against Seattle and the monorail. more...
Anti-Monorail Campaign Gets Extreme Makeover
In the last several weeks this website has cataloged the distortions, outright lies, and right-wing agenda of the wealthy forces working against the monorail. It looks like that may have had an effect. more...
More Ethics Problems for Monorail Opponents
The anti-monorail campaign has been characterized by two things: distortions of the facts and deceit about who is actually behind their efforts. buildthemonorail.com has filed an official ethics complaint that alleges further illegal activity. more...
Monorail Winning the Endorsement Race
A surprising thing is happening so far in the campaign to save the monorail from right wing extremists. Many of the groups that opposed the monorail in 2002 are now supporting it in 2004. more...
Are Monorail Opponents Simply Anti-Transit?
Monorail opponents say that they oppose the monorail because of their distaste for taxes and elevators. Is it possible that they're also opposed to all forms of mass transit? There's some interesting new data that could answer that question. more ...
Another Recall Lie Exposed
The Seattle Times recently quoted Tim Wulf as saying that his involvement started with his registration of their website domain last year. A simple internet search has revealed that it was actually registered by the chairman of the King County Libertarian party. more...
The Truth About Selig
The monorail opposition is almost entirely funded by a single wealthy property owner. Who is Martin Selig and why does he hate the monorail? more...
Pro-monorail Campaign Launched - Funding, Volunteers Needed
The official pro-monorail campaign has started up to defend the Seattle Monorail from its attackers. It's crucial that you send them any funds you can to run the campaign and any time you can give to help win in November. more ...
What would I-83 do?
Curious about what the anti-monorail initiative would actually do? Get the facts here. more...
Don't Let Tim Eyman Style Anti-Tax Politics Kill The Monorail
Do monorail recall leaders really represent Seattle? Or are they in fact nothing more than local versions of Tim Eyman? more...
I-83 Is An Illegal Initiative
Why vote for something that will only be thrown out after the election due to it's blatant illegality? more...
Monorail Opponents Lie about "Grassroots" Campaign, Fined by Ethics Commission
Remember back in the summer when the monorail opponents such as Liv Finne were collecting signatures and claiming the work was done by their "grassroots volunteers"? Turns out it was a huge deception campaign. more...
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What would I-83 do?
Contributed By Rob Ketcherside
I searched on the monorail recall website to find just what they want people to vote for. Strangely, the text of Initiative 83 is nowhere to be found, not even a link to it! I did some web browsing and searching other places but came up with nothing. Finally I went to elevated.org and "Asked Lars" for some help. He was nice enough to point me to the What's New page of the City Clerk, which has a link to the full initiative text.
Here's the law that Initiative 83 would create:
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SMC 15.54.030. Use of Public Right-of-Way for New Monorail Facilities Prohibited.
From and after the effective date of this enactment, the construction, operation or use of City right-of-way for monorail transit facilities is prohibited. Any agreement, contract, permit, license, grant or other authorization for use of City right-of-way for monorail transit facilities shall be revoked and declared null and void. This enactment shall not extend to any monorail transit facilities in operation prior to December 31, 2003.
Section 2. If any one or more portions of this enactment shall for any reason be held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect any other portion of this enactment, but this enactment shall be construed and enforced as if such invalid portion or portions had not been contained herein.
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So what will this law do? It will:
• Prevent any monorail line from ever being built in the City of Seattle
• Stop any new monorail facility, such as any extension to the existing monorail, from ever being built
• Preclude any adjustments to the existing monorail that could legally be constituted a 'new facility,' possibly including replacing damaged columns after an earthquake
It does this by not allowing the city-owned "right-of-way" to be used for new monorail facilities. The right-of-way is essentially streets and sidewalks. A state-owned highway, for example, wouldn't be excluded from monorial use. I think that the Seattle Center wouldn't either, because it's a park not a road.
I-83 supporters are simply billing this initiative as a "monorail recall." Perhaps you've seen their "23 Reasons for Recall?" They put together a list of every complaint that's ever been raised against the monorail in order to try to convince as many people as possible to vote to "recall" the plan by voting for this initiative.
Most of the "reasons" are misinformation or misrepresentations. They're just not right about the budget, funding methods, parking, and other topics. Interestingly, the majority of their complaints focus on design decisions (which incidently, most are optional recommendations to the DBOM team), and their assertion that the Green Line might not meet the expectations set in the plan that voters approved.
This last point is very significant. Monorail recall's "23 Reasons for Recall" goes through alot of hand-wringing about how there might not be enough escalators (replaced by elevators which is a good thing, making them smaller), the stations could be less spectacular than some people expected (this is baseless as we've seen no architectural diagrams yet), and even that the rest of the city might never enjoy the benefits of monorail (SMA has actually begun second phase planning). Their solution? Stop any monorail from ever being built!
The drafters and backers of Initiative 83 are desperate to stop the monorail. They've written a law that will destroy the monorail plan and not allow it to be recreated. Meanwhile, they present arguments that make it sound like they just want to change details.
If you are absolutely opposed to the concept of monorail, against real rapid transit in Seattle, and never want any monorail to ever be built, you should vote for this initiative.
Everyone else should vote no on I-83.
Unfortunately I think that Initiative 83 proponents have successfully confused people who want some plan details changed. Now those people think that Initiative 83 will help them revise the plan to their desires. It won't. It will elminate the possibility of their desires ever being met.
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Real reasons not to have a monorail
by Ben Schiendelman on 10/17/04 |
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I really dislike the "monorail recall" proponents and the reasons they state for "recalling" the monorail. I understand what the implications of I-83 are. However, I am voting yes (already did, actually) on I-83. I've used light rail in both Portland and Vancouver BC. Denver has a light rail system. Many cities in the US, Canada, Asia and Europe use the same standards and the same hardware - I've ridden narrow and standard gauge light rail systems in Japan. The monorail project wants to use proprietary parts - there's only one company bidding on this contract anymore. Sound Transit's light rail plan, which is already under way, includes plans to extend to West Seattle and Ballard in the long run, and is already operating in Tacoma. The same arguments for a monorail apply to light rail - it can be raised or lowered, it's about the same weight as a monorail, it can climb as steep of a grade. We've already seen that Sound Transit can operate a viable short-run light rail in Tacoma, as well as a heavy rail system (Sounder), at a much lower per-mile cost. The monorail group seems to be trying to reinvent the wheel. They do not have coherent plans for moving people between monorail and light rail systems, and there's no guarantee that their fare structure will match the light rail's fare structure. Light rail is tried and true in many cities across the globe, uses standards and structural engineering vetted for over a hundred years, and the larger market ensures better parts and maintenance availability for a lower cost. I-83 doesn't quite match what the monorail recall proponents are claiming, but I feel that it's something that needs to be done to keep our transit system on track. |
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RE: Real reasons not to have a monorail
by John Stewart on 10/21/04 |
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Ben, I'd sure love to see the funding source for Sound Transit to ever build light rail to Ballard or West Seattle. There is no money at present to get light rail to Capitol Hill, much less the U District or Northgate! The reality is Sound Transit's limited dollars will be taken up by its 3-county area's desire to connect with each other. The next line built, if they ever get to Northgate, will go east to the employment centers in Redmond and Bellevue. And then the more distant suburbs will want lines running north towards Everett and south towards Tacoma. They aren't building an in-city transit system - they're building a regional transit network. We need both, of course, but Seattle voters have already said, three times now, that we want a monorail to connect us with our neighbors. Even if you think it's a bad idea, this initiative is an absolutely terrible way to 'stop' the monorail, as it neither stops the tax collection nor disbands the agency. It's a recipe for more gridlock and no solutions - vote no. |
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