Posted on 07/14/2004 10:14:28 AM PDT by SeattleNeedsHelp
Initiative 83, the "Monorail Recall" proposition, appears likely to have enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Initiative organizers yesterday turned in 22,300 petition signatures at Seattle City Hall.
To qualify for the ballot, the measure needs 17,229 valid signatures of Seattle voters. The anti-monorail group will continue collecting more signatures this week for a cushion, since all initiative petitions wind up including invalid names.
Still, there's no guarantee Seattle residents will go to the polls for a fourth monorail vote.
The Seattle Monorail Project, along with pro-monorail environmentalists and landowners, is continuing to fight the initiative with two lawsuits.
One suit contends that city-issued permits to build the proposed monorail are land-use decisions that cannot be overturned by an initiative. In the other case, the agency is trying to void the first 9,600 anti-monorail signatures because they were collected before a judge reworded the petitions for greater clarity on June 18.
"Even if they have their signatures, I think there's a lot of hurdles left to overcome between now and getting on the ballot," monorail board member Cindi Laws said.
If approved, I-83 would block or revoke city permits to construct the planned 14-mile, $1.75 billion Green Line linking Ballard, Seattle Center, downtown and West Seattle.
"If the monorail is still such a popular project, as the monorail authority believes, they shouldn't be afraid of a revote," said Tim Wulf, president of Monorail Recall.
Two years ago, a monorail tax passed by 877 votes, after voters had approved two previous initiatives to write a plan.
The City Council has the power to undermine I-83 by adding a weaker alternative to the ballot, but is unlikely to try that.
"We don't have time for nonsense," said Council President Jan Drago. The council already has put other issues on hold for half a year while reviewing the monorail, she said.
The council approved the route alignment by an 8-to-1 vote in June.
It also unanimously passed a permitting agreement for the monorail last week, although it requires that the project pass a financial review later this year. Project revenues from a new car-tab tax are more than one-quarter less than the original estimates.
The anti-monorail group has at least another week to collect signatures for Initiative 83. But it turned in signatures yesterday so King County election officials could get a head start on the counting, Wulf said.
Wulf said about one-third of the names were collected by paid signature-gatherers. He blames the monorail agency for his group's inability to run an all-volunteer drive, saying the effort lost steam when the Seattle Monorail Project filed its legal challenge.
Two teams of companies bidding on the project were dismayed at yesterday's announcement. Both say they still plan to submit their proposals on Aug. 15.
"It's tough to get a transit job in the U.S. done," said Tom Stone, who is organizing a team for Canadian train-maker Bombardier. "You get a strange alliance behind NIMBYs [people who say 'not in my back yard'] and anti-transit people funding them behind the scenes."
Monorail projects were aborted in Honolulu and Houston after Bombardier had spent millions of dollars preparing project designs, he said.
Monorail opponents contend the Seattle project has changed for the worse: Columns could be 6 feet wide instead of the advertised 3 feet, while single-track sections (rather than double-track lines) would slow the trains. They've also revived other controversial issues, including the size of the tax, at $140 per $10,000 of vehicle value.
At a news conference yesterday, I-83 leaders accused the monorail agency of misleading the public about the car-tab tax. The tax rates are based on a long-standing state valuation system that tends to overvalue newer cars.
I-83 campaign treasurer Liv Finne accused the monorail agency of rewriting the valuation rules after the 2002 campaign. But she backed off that statement under questioning. Before the election, monorail officials said they would use the state schedule. Still, the size of the tax caught many auto owners by surprise.
The Simpsons - Monorail
Lyle Lanley: Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
Like a genuine,
Bona fide,
Electrified,
Six-car
Monorail!
What'd I say?
Ned Flanders: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: What's it called?
Patty+Selma: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: That's right! Monorail!
[crowd chants `Monorail' softly and rhythmically]
Miss Hoover: I hear those things are awfully loud...
Lyle Lanley: It glides as softly as a cloud.
Apu: Is there a chance the track could bend?
Lyle Lanley: Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
Barney: What about us brain-dead slobs?
Lyle Lanley: You'll be given cushy jobs.
Abe: Were you sent here by the devil?
Lyle Lanley: No, good sir, I'm on the level.
Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can.
Lyle Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man.
I swear it's Springfield's only choice...
Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
All: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: What's it called?
All: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: Once again...
All: Monorail!
Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken...
Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!
All: Monorail!
Monorail!
Monorail!
[big finish]
Monorail!
Homer: Mono... D'oh!
America's Rail Fanciers will not be amused.
On November 5, 2002, 94933 voters voted yes to the Monorail Tax, out of 431203 registered voters, making it 22% of the electorate.
Now when they used inflated car values to base their tax on, and started to try to get neighbors tattling on each other, you knew it was heading for a showdown.
On November 5, 2002, 94933 voters voted yes to the Monorail Tax, out of 431203 registered voters, making it 22% of the electorate.
Now when they used inflated car values to base their tax on, and started to try to get neighbors tattling on each other, you knew it was heading for a showdown.
I seems to me to be no more than a subway in the air. Mass transit is needed for mass peoples. Less polution and better parking rates. On the other hand.... I wouldn't live in Seattle or a suburb thereof, if I got an annual check of $10,000 for doing so.
If you want real "Mass Transit" the answer are freeways. They cost less, move more people, move freight as well as people. And you get to sit in the privacy of your car, at the temperature you like, listening to the radio station of your choice without the homeless guy breathing on you.
You get to go directly from your house to your work without changing trains. Or make a stop at the store without having to wait on the next train/monorail in the Seattle rain or Phoenix sun at 115 Farenheit.
Any gripes about freeways can be fixed for less than any rail type of mass transit.
Even polution can be fixed 100% by hydrogen or electric power, and since polution has improved dramatically in the last couple of decades, it's not such a big deal anyway.
Trains and monorails are cool. But they belong in museums and Disneyland.
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