BACK IN 1997, we, the good citizens of Seattle, voted in favor of I-41, which said in no uncertain terms that we wanted the city to build a monorail system that stretches from the four corners of the city: 40th and Meridian Avenue North to Rainier and South Henderson, and 145th and Lake City Way Northeast to 35th and Southwest Roxbury. Since then, city officials--rather than doing what we expressly ordered them to do--have put up every roadblock imaginable to keep the monorail from being built. They've been uncooperative in garnering private money; they've tried to overturn the initiative; they've even blocked funding to the Elevated Transportation Company, which is supposed to oversee the project.

Then came a court decision last month that said the city either had to build the train or overturn the will of the people. An avalanche of e-mails and phone calls kept the council from overturning I-41, but still the monorail isn't being built. ("It's dangerous to read too much into what you're calling 'the will of the people,'" Council Member Richard Conlin told The Stranger. Conlin would do well to remember that the "will of the people" is all that keeps him in office.) Because the council has found itself in a tough spot, it's now proposing Band-Aid fixes, like a fun-size monorail route that would run from the Bell Street Pier to South Lake Union. All the while, the city is going further and further into the hole to build a light-rail system that's going to disrupt the city for years during contruction and be completely ineffective.

Well, it's obvious that voters don't want a miniature monorail system. We want the system we voted for. So, while most council members throw every argument they can think of into the path of the monorail, we've done our homework and come up with "Your Guide to Supporting the Monorail." The city council says the monorail's got no private support? Think again. Technology's too difficult? Think again. People don't want to live by a monorail track? Think again. Light rail's got it covered? Ha!