From the Aug 5 – Aug 11, 2004 issue

News

In The Hall

by Erica C. Barnett

Defying the conspiracy theorists at the Monorail Recall campaign, the council seemed poised last week to put the monorail-killing initiative on the November ballot. Last week, only a handful of recall backers turned out to laud the council for moving the measure forward. "We are very pleased that the voters will have a say on the monorail in November," an unusually subdued Liv Finne said. That's a far cry from the frantic e-mail recall leaders sent to the campaign's supporters last week, which read in part, "The city council is dragging its feet!... WE NEED YOUR HELP, IMMEDIATELY!!!!"

The monorail sideshow--which includes rabid opponents, equally rabid fans, and a city permitting process as confusing and tendentious as anything that's come before the council--would be enough to send the most hard-nosed council staffer screaming all the way to the private sector. No word yet on whether that's why central staffer Martha Lester is taking a yearlong sabbatical (due to an unfortunate confluence of procrastination--mine--and timing--hers--Lester was unavailable when I dropped by council chambers Monday), but it wouldn't surprise those who know her. For five years, Lester has shepherded some of Seattle's most controversial transportation projects through the council's Byzantine permitting process, and no one could deny that the sometimes-snappish staffer could use a break.

Another, more permanent break from the council is reportedly being contemplated by council president Jan Drago, who can't escape persistent rumors that she plans to jump ship (to use an unfortunate, though apt, metaphor) and trade jobs with Port Commissioner Paige Miller, who's been rumored to be mulling a run for council for as long as some city hall columnists have been alive. Miller and Drago had plenty of time last week to talk, if they were so inclined--both women spent last week on a Port-sponsored junket to Taiwan. Neither returned a call for comment.

On Monday, with not much going on at City Hall, I shambled down the street to the Central Library, which stands out on Fifth Avenue like a diamond-decked starlet among Seattle's fleece-clad multitudes. But even with repeated visits, the labyrinthine library never seems to get less confusing.

Case in point: The library's spiraling warren of walkways and vertiginous overhangs culminates in a dead-end stop known to librarians as "the lint trap," where visitors pile up confusedly like pennies in a dryer. In recent weeks, the library's pristine brushed-metal walls have been covered in a confetti of paper signs directing patrons through the maze. The latest placards (yellow, with blue tape) identify the nine levels of the "book spiral" and direct visitors to the exit stairs with these rather, um, complex instructions: "Want to take the stairs? Stairs from levels 10 to 3 are located at the east end of the floor in the black stairwell. (A zigzagging arrow--sadly irreproducible--goes here). Thank you for your patience during these opening weeks." Welcome to Week 11.

barnett@thestranger.com