Sound Politics: Monorail Meltdown

June 30, 2005

Monorail Meltdown

The Seattle Monorail Project is on the verge of a total meltdown of political support, as today's articles in the Times (here) and the P-I (here) would indicate. Today's columns by Robert L. Jamieson, Jr. of the P-I (here) and even longtime Monorail booster Josh Feit of The Stranger (here) have surprisingly harsh words for the Monorail and its leadership.

City Attorney Tom Carr and Councilman Nick Licata, two of the Monorail's biggest Kool-Aid drinking cheerleaders wrote a harshly worded letter to the Monorail Board yesterday:

your message is not working. The public seems legitimately angry about the plan as currently proposed. You must do something dramatic to change this perception. We do not believe that changes at the margin or more explanations will be enough

The letter concludes foolishly, however, by saying it is "[not] time to give up on a monorail transit option". Bombardier, the Canadian firm responsible for the problem-plagued Las Vegas Monorail now wants to jump back in and rebid on the Seattle Monorail. It's too late for any rebids, redesigns or refinancing. The Seattle Monorail had its chance. It blew it. The city has wasted enough time, money and attention on this stupid idea which no longer has any credibility. It's time to shut the project down and move on. Contact the Seattle City Council and encourage them to do the right thing and kill the Monorail.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 30, 2005 10:00 AM | Email This

Comments

1. Apparently the car tab tax will continue for about three years even if SMP's board votes immediately to ash-can the project (that is because BofA has loaned $110M to SMP, and the loan is secured by the tax).

If the SMP votes to disband itself completely and stop taxing, could we end up with the delicious outcome of BofA getting stiffed and the residents of this city keeping their money?

Posted by: ringo on June 30, 2005 10:11 AM

2. Did you notice that the letter said, "You must do something dramatic to change this perception?" Change the perception. Yeah. Right. The problem isn't that the plan has serious flaws. The problem is how people perceive the project.

Please.

Posted by: Heartless Libertarian on June 30, 2005 10:38 AM

3. Shouldn't they have some hard asset to sell to mitigate the $110M?

What galls me is that Licata actually (according to press reports) suggested that they (1) spin it differently and (2) consider more taxes to bail out this ungodly fiasco.

I'm also getting more than a little tired of Horn using my money to run ads to support his little fiefdom.

Why, oh why did it take years for the editorial writers to realize what some of us sniffed out from day one?

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw

Posted by: petec on June 30, 2005 10:44 AM

4. Joel Horn is a liar and a fraud.

Posted by: Rex on June 30, 2005 10:45 AM

5. When I read this article, I quickly came to understand what a freaking liar Horn is. Some people more familiar with the Commons knew long before I did, but this article enunciates what a load of populist schlock this SOB is trying to pawn on the "enlightened" masses.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=134605199&zsection_id=268448406&slug=monohorn30m&date=20021230

Once, for old time's sake:

Joel, Go Home.

Posted by: Rex on June 30, 2005 10:52 AM

6. Conlin is the only Council member talking turkey on the monorail. (See my blog for an e-mail he sent to me).

I hate to give money to one of these council member mini-mayors, but I would strongly suggest rewarding the fact that he is responsible. I gave some money to his campaign, and strongly suggest that others of you do the same.

We can't just beat up on those lunatics. We need to support the rare example of someone being responsible and not just feeding us another spoonful of sugar.

Posted by: BananaLand(aka Iguana) on June 30, 2005 12:23 PM

7. Seems to me the SMP has aquired millions of dollars in property in their land grap to build this monument to themselves. Shouldn't they have to sell that property to settle their debts

Posted by: just an ordinary self empolyed girl on June 30, 2005 12:32 PM

8. I found the full-page ad placed by the SMP was disengenuous for an additional reason that nobody mentioned. Where does the SMP get the gonads to compare itself to E470, JFK, and McCormick Place (Chicago Convention Center)???

Ten minutes on the internet, and I found the following:

* E470 reported average daily traffic of 131,000 in 2004. It reported revenues of $73 million for the year. It's also 47 miles long. It has already repaid debt to several member jurisdictions, and refinanced its debt in December.

* JFK hosts 32 million passengers annually. I can only imagine how many jobs this creates and how much tax revenue it garners for NY/NYC.

* McCormick Place is the anchor of Chicago's convention and trade-show industry. It brings in between 700K and 1.1MM business travelers annually. This is the main chunk of the 6 million business travelers that visit Chicago annually, bringing in over $6 billion in revenue to the city.

I think that SMP's forecasts of 69,000 monorail riders per day are inflated. It'll never have 131K per day, let alone 32 million annually. It'll never generate $73 million in fares. And it certainly won't bring 700,000 business travelers to Seattle each year.

But the SMP seems to think the Monorail is comparable to these other projects.

Posted by: Larry on June 30, 2005 12:36 PM

9. Odd we still haven't heard from 'Monorail Matt' on all this.

I guess he's too busy trying to convince us that Republicans who support boondoggle transportation projects, gay marriage and abortion rights are the future of the conservative movement.

Posted by: Jim on June 30, 2005 01:52 PM

10. Larry,

Don't forget that E470 is a toll road. I don't believe that it was funded by public taxes....

Posted by: A Moderate on June 30, 2005 03:10 PM

11. Oops. I was wrong... Denver voters passed a $10 car-tab fee back in 1981 to build E470. Still, that's $10. Or, as Joel Horn might say, "only a penny, in 1981 dollars!"

Posted by: A Moderate on June 30, 2005 03:17 PM

12. Seattle would be lucky to have a $10/year car tab increase for the Monorail. For most people it's anywhere from $10/month to $10/week.

But still - the difference between your two posts is 7 minutes. Can't the Monorail Authority spend 7 minutes on-line to get their facts straight rather than publish such garbage?

Posted by: Larry on June 30, 2005 04:08 PM