STRANGER: Thank you for the article "Tortured Logic" [Eli Sanders, Nov 17]. As writers and publishers you are more aware than most of the dangers of censorship. Even so, you are demonstrating more bravery and common sense than most other publications when you undertake to inform the public of the efforts of the government to limit the right to write, read, look at, and think what we want.
Free speech is a right our fathers and grandfathers fought and died for. We MUST NOT let it slip away without our voices being heard. We are all in danger of being outlawed for what we write and what we say and what we think.
I can't emphasize enough that we all have to support the organization of our choice in the fight against censorshipâwhile we still have a choice. I suggest the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, or the American Civil Liberties Union.
Carl Bergstrom
SKIP AHEAD IF YOU'RE SICK OF READING ABOUT THE MONORAILEDITOR: What I find amazing is that the SMP and The Stranger can blame everyone under the sun for the failure of the monorail ["Mayor Gridlock," Nov 17]. Let's be honest: The monorail killed itself. I was active in the I-83 campaign to kill the monorail last year, and was humbled when we were defeated by such a large margin. With so much public support and momentum behind the monorail, this latest turn of events has to be the most unexpected. I am not surprised. The monorail was always ill-conceived, poorly planned, and grossly optimistic.
Now, can we finally make plans for a real mass-transit system?
Scott Huebner
MONORAIL, MONORAIL, MONORAILDEAR EDITOR AND WRITERS OF THE STRANGER: The painful demise of the Seattle Monorail Project has occurred, yet I want to share my heartfelt thanks to your paper. Since the humble beginnings of the grassroots effort in the mid-1990s, you have been a steadfast supporter of the monorail in Seattle. You have consistently brought out facts that other news organizations have not. While others bent over to political and business interests, which finally helped bring the monorail down, you never lost sight of the vision. We monorailists are forever grateful for what you have done for our cause.
Perhaps after further consideration, the wisdom of monorail for transit may someday return to the minds of Seattleites. It may then be too late, but at least Seattle has the advantage of having studied monorail in depth, and it still has a grassroots army of believers as well as one publication that "gets it." Despite the defeat, Seattle got much closer to an urban monorail system than any other non-resort, non-casino city, and that is to be commended.
Kim Pedersen
President/Founder,
The Monorail Society
Fremont, California
SKIP, SKIP, SKIPEDITOR: Yeah, Nickels did a job on the monorail, especially compared to his kid-gloves treatment of light rail. Greg to Mono and Lightie: "I love you kids both the sameâNOT." On the other hand, your portrayal of him as a car-hugging Kemper Freemanite? You gotta be kidding. (Full disclosure: I personally hug my Saab 9000 Turbo at least twice a day.) Here's the deal guys: Light rail is the professional politicians' boondoggle. (Nickels told me personally, prior to the first billion-dollar cost overrun, that he was watching Sound Transit's budget like a hawk. This particular species of hawk is blind, I guess.) The monorail, on the other hand (and as has been said elsewhere), was the people's boondoggle. Guts, feathers, and gizzards, both projects reportedly ring up to around a billion dollars per mile over 50 years or so. A billion a mile is big fuck'n money, and makes no sense at all.
Donald F. Padelford
YAWNEDITOR: The monorail wake must end. While most Seattleites warmed to the notion of kinda cute travel between Ballard and West Seattle (a very popular traverse for sure!), $11 billion was outrageous. Let's move on to light rail. Everyone grieving over the monorail should take a weekend in Portland where light rail began when Seattle's should have. Now Portland has a quiet, efficient system that actually goes to the airport and downtown. Drive south, stay at the Kennedy School (worth the trip), walk or drive to the nearest light rail station, get onboard, and just ride around for a couple of hours. Then decide if such a system can and will work in Seattle. Doing so should extinguish the rants about "surface-rail gridlock." Big, ugly monorail towers all over town might provide faster travel than surface rail, but at what cost? I urge monorail mourners to embrace Seattle's waterfront tunnel along with light rail expansion, both of which might actually affect gridlock and greatly improve our city. Mourning the monorail changes nothing.
Steve Bunnell
MORE GRIPING AND PRAISE IN RESPONSE TO OUR NOVEMBER 17 MONORAIL OBITUARY
DEAR STRANGER: Love the Mayor Gridlock cover! I have witnessed at public meetings, as well as feeling the consequences, Mayor Nickels voting against our light rail station on First Hill and killing the monorail. If you would ever decide to make them into T-shirts, I will certainly buy several, and proudly wear them around Seattle. Too bad that more people did not "write-in" vote for Dan Savage for Mayor, like I did!
Brian Parker
DEAR EDITORS AT THE STRANGER: I may be naive and uninformed but, why is the monorail project dead and never to be resurrected? If Seattle voters said yes four times to the monorail and no on this last vote, why do we regard this last vote as controlling and, if I understand you correctly, to mean that Seattle will never have a progressive and modern (i.e., not light rail or trolleys or buses) rapid transit system? Why not look at this last vote as a merely an objection to those relatively few and discrete issues surrounding the botched financing of the monorail project rather than an outright rejection of rapid transit by a majority of the Seattle constituency?
Like Mr. Savage pointed out in his "Failure of Leadership" editorial, urbanites and suburbanites around the world like rapid transit systems because they hate sitting in traffic or, stated more plainly, because rapid transit improves quality of life. I moved here only two months ago after living in Washington, D.C. for ten years, so I cannot say that I have my finger on the pulse of today's Seattle commuter as might those who lived here through all five votes. Nevertheless, I can't believe that voters in Seattle and its surrounding neighborhoods are so different from voters in other cities like D.C. who embrace and identify with their rapid transit systems. Rapid transit, as a political concept, is an easy sell. People want and need it. You get there faster. It's good for the environment. It's good for the economy. It would make a cosmopolitan city like Seattle even more so. It's an issue unburdened by the moral, ethical or religious overtones that so deeply divide us on issues like gun control, or abortion, or welfare reform, or the war in Iraq. Controversy, if any, regarding rapid transit arises only in its implementation, or how best to make it happen.
Maybe this last vote merely indicates that the people of Seattle, whose record of support for the monorail and rapid transit is undisputed, do not want a poorly financed rapid transit system, or a rapid transit system promoted by a fractured and less than politically savvy leadership. Maybe this last vote indicates that people are simply fed up with ineptitude, may it be perceived or real. Rather than conclude that "Seattle is stuck without an inner-city elevated transit system, and we have no back up plan," I would suggest that we have more faith in ourselvesâthe voting publicâand our ability to get the things we want. If the SMP lacked the intellectual candle-power to draft a reasonable financial proposal that was not also politically linked to a fundamentally flawed financial analysis, or lacked the skills or willingness to navigate through and beyond the political hypocrisy of our present mayor, let us find different people to take the helm. If our mayor truly believes that this last vote signaled a rejection of rapid transit for Seattle, rather than a rejection of a poorly constructed, long overdue, and less than thoughtful plan for rapid transit, I believe our mayor will soon find himself without many friends and without a job.
In the meantime, Dear Stranger, continue to be among the hard working advocates, promoting ideas, supporting those who to propose solutions, rather than concede defeat and that we are forever condemned to creep in our cars at a glacial pace along Seattle's streets and highways. People are simply too astute to avoid acting in their own self-interest. Few would deny that Seattle will continue to flourish in years to come, and I think that even the most stark opponent of the monorail would not deny that Seattle will, one day, have a rapid transit system in place. Let's do what we can to make that reality sooner than later.
Jonathan Adam DeMella
EDITOR: With the final defeat of the Engorged Transit boondoggle I had hoped that The Stranger would finally get off its "mono-rail" about the need for mass transit in Seattle. Alas, Dan Savage is still suffering from a protracted Recto-Cranial Inversion about it ("Failure of Leadership," November 17.) Savage apparently doesn't know much about the city he now calls home. He compares Seattle's airport run with Chicago's, rightly concluding that Seattle's is a fucked-up mess. However, he fails to explain to his more-geographically-adept readers how a 14-mile monorail line from Ballard to West Seattleâboth amply served by excellent bus service BTWâwould have affected his trip to the airport. When did they move the airport to West Seattle? Many of us like the idea of a monorail, if it takes cars off the street and offers alternatives to SOV commuting. However, the proposed route was ludicrous in that it would have made things worse instead of betterâcompeting with existing and successful mass-transit (Metro) while doing nothing to alleviate persistent gridlock. Seattle's unique hourglass figure means that I-5 jams up from Northgate to Southcenter six days a week, from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. What is urgently needed is some kind of north-south relief (running along Burlington-Northern's ROW perhaps)ânot some frou-frou LattĂ©-line between bedroom communities. That the SMP was horribly mismanaged by a bunch of rank amateursâas detailed by Erica Barnettâis really only incidental to the monorail's demise. It was doomed from the moment the route was announced.
Robert Carlberg
Kudos to The Stranger for sticking it to the man and calling a spade a spade. Nickels, Conlin and McIver are the biggest political hypocrites in town these days - did you see that Conlin is now proposing elevated light rail to span the West Seattle Bridge?
Sadly, the last 12 years of working on the various monorail issues since I moved here in '94 and first met Grant and Dick has now become academic. Even with the 'used car salesman' approach of Joel Horn and the 'sticks and stones really hurt me' approach of Tom Weeks I still believed that 4 votes and the people's will could prevail, but I guess Dewey didn't defeat Truman this time, and the suckers are us.
Time to vote Green and leave behind D stupidity. D's run the place here and still can't get anything done, and they act like they need to be the next GiulianiâNickels, your end can't be too soon. Licata, Drago or Steinbrueck, PLEASE run and straighten this mess out!
Thanks for printing the truth!
Kevin Orme
Friends of the Monorail
DEAR STRANGER EDITOR: Your series of articles about the monorail demonstrates what is wrong with the media more than they explained what went wrong with the monorail. The articles by Erika Barnett, Josh Feit and Dan Savage demonstrates a complete merger between the worst government agency this state has ever given birth to and a media outlet, which has become little more than a mouthpiece for the government agency under the guise of journalism.
The media is supposed to serve as a watchdog for government agencies, not as lapdogs. City Councilmembers are supposed to be bulldogs who guard the public purse rather than trained poodles like Councilmembers Drago and Licata. Councilmember Richard Conlin stood strong under political pressure until the dam of lies told by the SMP burst into an explosion of public outrage.
How poetic that this colorful explosion of political ass covering happened over the July 4th weekend. Not even the rocket's red glare could hide the holiday firings of Joel Horn and Tom Weeks. They were the architects of this mess, not Mayor Nickels. You should be reporting on how Horn and Weeks gleefully wasted $182 million of taxpayer money. But apparently that's not the story that the SMP wanted you to write.
Richard Borkowski
STRANGER: I started reading your pieces on the death of the monorail with interest, but that turned to disgust. Just about every piece smacked of victimizationâit was the politicians that did it to us. They didn't support us. Wah, wah, wah. Sorry. If the management of the monorail had done their job we might have the mass transit system we so desperately need. Don't blame others for your ineptness. Hill says maybe she should have resigned when she heard that the political class was opposed to the monorailâever think about engaging the political class. Not when the problems became clear, but before they happened? Itâs hard to build a bridge when there is a flood. Even now the blame game whining of the monorail groupies make it less likely that politicians could feasibly make an about face and build a monorail themselves. It is time for those involved in the former monorail to quit their bitching. They couldn't lead, so now it is time to follow or get out of the way. Rather than behave like a spoiled child they should do everything in their power to make sure that it is easy for the political class to build mass transit. Or did they learn the wrong lessons from the politicos: If we don't build it then no one can?
Michael Dohan
TO THE EDITOR AT THE STRANGER: I would like to express my thanks for the way The Stranger has covered the monorail and all the issues surrounding it over the last several years. My respect for The Stranger has grown steadily as I have seen the way that you have highlighted the need for rapid transit in our area, the way you have given strong support to monorail project, and also have the way you criticized the monorail management when they messed up. I am way outside the typical demographics of The Stranger (for example, Iâve been a minister in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. for 30 years), but every week when the new issue comes out, I always make sure I grab one. Keep up the good reporting. I donât agree with all of your positions, but you obviously truly care about solving many of our biggest problems in Seattle.
Alan Beasley
Wasn't it just a couple weeks ago that The Stranger was editorializing about how they wanted Nickels to be more like Hizzoner Mayor Daley (the current) of Chicago, because then he'd just do what he wanted full speed ahead damn all the doubters, and he would have kept pushing the monorail?
When I read that, as an until recently long time resident of Chicago (why are there so many of us in Seattle if we all insist we like Chicago better, I wonder, but anyway) I thought, ha!, these Left Coast Seattleite weenies couldn't hack it for a SECOND in Chicago politics, they'd be complaining about how the mayor doesn't care what they have to say within a week of living there. Because indeed he truly doesn't, but, like, how is that a GOOD thing? Here in Seattle, everyone's used to being coddled by their politicians.
So, now in this week's Stranger, we find much carping about how Nickels doesn't care about what the people want, how he doesn't mean what he says, trickery, double-dealing, "disingenuous rhetoric and double standards", "suburban values"âman, you realize, that's exactly what you were asking for when you said you wanted Daley as your mayor! You just wished you had a double-dealing, disingenuous, two-faced guy in charge ON YOUR SIDE instead. Oh, except one difference: in Chicago, the Mayor's people wouldn't have to "show up at community meetings and campaign against the monorail."âcause it doesn't matter what happens at community meetings in Chicago, it just matters what happens in the Mayor's office. You don't believe me, go out to any corner in hip Capitol Hill, grab the first person you see, chances are about 1 in 3 they'll be a former Chicagoan as far as I can tell, and ask âem.
If you want to blame an excess of democracy in Seattle for the monorail debacle, you can do that maybe. I'm not too impressed with the referendum process myself. But your problems with the mayor here are exactly THAT the Seattle mayor started acting like a Daley for once (my way or the highway), not that you want him to be MORE like Daley, for god's sake, you couldn't take it.
Jonathan Rochind
MR FEIT: I read your article on Mayor Gridlock and felt I had been totally redeemed. I cannot believe that the City of Seattle had been duped again. First on the "Kingdome" and now by a Fatty from Chicago. I tried to contact SMP to offer any help I could in promoting the cause but received nothing in return so I was totally disappointed by their response to free help. I have lived in this City all my life and have been waiting since 1962 for the Monorail. I have seen this City fill up with the garbage of the world but I stayed to see the Monorail. Now, having voted against the lying bloated pig Mayor Gridlock, I am ready to pull up my roots and leave. I do not want to see another one of my tax dollars go to support this idiot who is ruining our gorgeous city. I hate the looks of Chicago. Its only redeeming features is it's public art. I have traveled around the world and have never found a city as beautiful as Seattle. It has everything anyone could want but a City council and a Mayor that are capable of serving the people of this city. They had to serve the Monorail up five times before they could get the vote they wanted. I own a small retail store in Fremont, it isn't much but it makes me and a few employees a living. I have a wide range of customers who come into the shop and all of them voted for the Monorail. So who voted against it? I swear the damn thing was fixed! I also heard on NPR, that Nickels was part of the group who put together the budget for the Light Rail. Makes sense he wants his legacy to include those things that he authored. I would love to get a petition together to put the Monorail back on the ballot. I would love to have someone put the two budgets Monorail and Light rail side by side, point by point to show the people of Seattle they have been duped. Duped by a man who is so concerned about his image that he lied to get himself elected. I voted for him the first time but boy I sure voted against him the second time. Doesn't anybody wonder why the bus tunnel was closed before the vote? What is anyone doing to keep the other tunnel from being built? Dees Fatman think he now has a mandate to build a tunnel? Is there any hope out there that folks will see through this hokey pokey flim-flam man? How dare he call himself a democrat he is a sure fire Auto-crat following in the shoes of the little big jerk in Washington DC. People of Seattle what the hell were you thinking? Aren't you paying attention? You no longer count! You now get to pay a tax for something you will never get. I am not a mad woman, I am a sane businesswoman watching Seattle go down the tubes because everyone chooses to follow a City Council and a pompous Mayor. A tunnel, I can't believe you want a fucking tunnel. I hope it caves in the next earthquake and the fatty from Chicago is in it at the time. I need a direction for my anger, any suggestions? If not I am going to join the exodus to Costa Rica. Why should I work my butt off to support egotistical self-righteous jerks. After 30 years of voting, I have determined my vote does not really count. Why vote, it is already determined ahead of time? They have more money and connections then the real folks so they will shape the city into the slums of Chicago. The last frontier has finally succumbed to the greedy creeps from the East Coast. Can you tell how angry I am? Please keep writing articles that highlight Mayor Gridlockâs greed and ambition. Thank you for letting me vent. It really hasn't satiated my anger, but as soon as I can I am getting away from the stupidity that seems to surround this city.
Kathy Goodwind
STRANGER: First time I have read your paper. I was attracted by the cover. I read all of your articles about the monorail. Very good! Good journalism ! You are very correct relative to the travesty of its apparent demise. Your writers are very accurate in their analyses. But I ask you: for whom did you vote into the positions of local "leadership"? My guess is that you liberals most likely elected the very clowns that are now doing stupid things that are ruining this city. The mayor, the city council, the King County Executive, county council, the governor⊠all of their combined IQs would not break 100. This city and county are the result of the numbskulls that liberal, socialist democrat dopes elect to office. You get exactly what you vote for.
W.G. Mangan
EDITOR: Let me see if I've got this. Your most recent series of monorail articles paints a picture of the monorail agency as nothing short of inept on multiple levels, if not dysfunctional. Yet the conclusions offered by Barnett and Savage (not to mention Kristina "Who's Complaining Now?" Hill and Stockmeyer) are that this was a failure of the "political establishment" to support said inept dysfunction. If only the politicians had been on board we could have collectively swept the secrecy, defensiveness, isolationism, and bungling aside, rather than selectively; asserted the will of the agency, I mean, the people; and had Hill's "soul" thrown into the bargain, not to mention the "devil incarnate" on the board (I didn't know Billy Joe Hobert was looking for work). Wow, where do I sign? So it's the "will of the people" each time the monorail won at the ballot (most recently by 28 points in defeating the recall), but when it's put out of its protracted misery (by practically the same margin) it's because the mean old politicians were, well, mean and old? I wish I could get away with being that lame. How do you guys do it? Does writing in a taxi cab help?
Josh Parks
DEAR STRANGER: Nice job on the monorail obituary. Fascinating perspectives. I would have noted that the 2002 vote was extremely close. It should have been a clear sign that professionalism and political nurturing were essential. Instead we got Joel Horn, Tom Weeks, Cindy Laws and Kristina Hill. Grassroots campaigners, dreamers and PR specialists don't morph into builders of a complex transportation systems the day after the election. Unfortunately the monorail leadership didn't grasp this fundamental shortcoming. Say what you will about Mayor Nickels, the project proponents inflicted the most damage themselves.
Peter Scholes
