The City Council Just Screwed Us
(But This Fight is Not Over)
Well, the Seattle City Council just voted to “not authorize the issuance of any construction permits for the Green Line now or in the future.”
In short, they screwed us. Evidently, four public votes isn’t meaningful to them. Mayor Gridlock aka Gridlock Greg is allowed to void the public’s decisions whenever he happens to change his mind. Perhaps we are learning a lesson here about democracy. It doesn’t work very well if the existing Mayor runs nearly unopposed.
Brian kindly comment blogged it over here as it was happening
Now What Do We Do?
I’m not sure, but it’s time to start talking to each other. It’s tough to build a monorail in a city where both the mayor and city council don’t support you, but that doesn’t mean we’re out of options. This project has been called dead plenty of times before and each time they were wrong. We know we need this for the future of our city.
One this is for sure though, Gridlock Greg is about to get his name dragged through the mud for what he’s done by a lot of pissed off voters. You can’t trample over years and years of votes like that and just assume we’re not going to give you crap about it. If he has any concern about leaving a positive legacy in the city of Seattle, he’d better just let that go right now.
Who needs a drink?
Update
Publicly elected board member Cindi Laws was just on tv and had some choice quotes.
“The City Council majority didn’t jerk the permits, they jerked the voters.”
And when asked if the monorail will dissolve itself, she responded with:
I see no intention of dissolving itself. We owe something to the younger generation of this city. About a third of the city council is going to be dead in ten years. I think it’s important to look at what we need to have for the people who are coming this generation, the next generation and the generation after them that we don’t leave them in the dregs of transportation that the generation prior to us left for us. We have a majority city council and a mayor who would sooner build roads at a billion a mile than invest in our future.
You can watch Cindi defend the project here.
You can also contribute to and volunteer for her reelection to the board here.
The board meets at 2 today to decide what to do. Keep in mind, that only two of the nine board members are democratically elected. The rest are, drumroll please, appointed by the mayor and city council.
Update:
The monorail board has put a shorter line on the November ballot. It’s been a dramatic day to say the least.
September 23rd, 2005 at 12:41 pm
I’d say lobby city council to do the independent financial audit of the current $7B with interest total finance plan.
September 23rd, 2005 at 1:08 pm
Ok, look at this from a positive framing perspective. What the City Council did is cancel the ability for the Seattle Monorail Project to build the Green Line and send a recommendation to the Legislature to disolve the SMP. That does not kill the dream, that kills a million dollar sink hole that was preventing the dream from becoming a reality. Now we have an opportunity. Instead of dissolving the SMP, we should lobby the Legislature to merge the SMP with Sound Transit, giving them access to all the research done. The Green Line route still needs high speed transit. The monorail was the best option, but now we can explore more of them.
Oh, and look at it this way. Now we won’t have to tear down the original monorail! I never thought we should in the first place, and now it’s safe.
What do we want to see Seattle become over the next 40 years? I’ll be 76 at that point, and I want to ride a fast transit line from anywhere in the city. I want to believe that I’ll be breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and be able to look south towards Mt. Rainier and the skyscrapers and think “This is a beautiful city.”
I’ll meet you on September 23rd, 2045 in Mertle Edwards Park. Are you with me?
September 23rd, 2005 at 1:17 pm
Can you say political backlash will be the flavor of the month for Oct.
On another note they went ahead and built two stadiums against the publics wishes to do so and they have been trying to cancel mass transit (monorail) against the peoples wishes..
Am I the only one who sees a re occuring theme here?
September 23rd, 2005 at 1:56 pm
Folks can come join me for lots of beer at the Fremont Oktoberfest tonight! Drink your cares away…
Well, okay, maybe not. But it’s fun to commiserate together!
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:05 pm
We need to start putting real money into an effort to select a new mayor and a new city council. These folks blow with the wind - and they swapped sides because they think the voters won’t hold them accountable. How about office hours for 2045 at a pub to start laying a foundation for a political action committee capable of raising and spending funds on behalf of urban transit.
Also - just a suggestion here - 2045 does the lord’s work by supporting the monorail, but what the city needs is a force to channel the generational issues into Seattle politics. Let’s build something that can talk about the monorail, but also bike lanes, waterfront redevelopment, and other issues impacting long-term livability in Seattle.
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:57 pm
Get together tonight at the Elysian Stop by if you can.