Taking a Moment to Look Back Before Moving Forward
It’s important to take a look back at everything we did. With most of us extremely new to this sort of thing, it’s important to take a look back at everything we accomplished.
We started with buttons, a website and a message. I don’t think anyone thought it would grow like it did and involve so many people in their community in a way they had never experienced before.
We sent letters to our representatives. We called the Kirkland Chamber of OnTrack the mock organization they were on KUOW. We got news stories on Q13 Fox and Komo 4 News. We managed to get quotes and comments and letters in the Seattle Times and Seattle P-I. The Stranger called us idealists.
We made sure the blogger community was involved. We launched a Google Adwords campaign. Boingboing wrote about how cool they thought our posse stickers were.
We tried to inject new solutions into the debate. We fought to give people ways to support the project with a bricks and bonds campaign. We brought a progressive and constructive voice to a very serious debate.
We reminded people that this wasn’t just about getting from point A to point B. We reminded people that this was about the health of our community, the cleanliness of our air and water, the desire to spend more time with each other instead of in traffic. We reminded people that it’s time stop talking about our ideals and start living them.
We designed and distributed 10,000 amazing brochures. We flooded our neighborhoods with posters that reminded our communities why clean rapid transit is so important and showed bus riders just how much better transit can be.
We criticized the mayor with the weight of his own words. We called him Mayor Gridlock to make it clear the legacy he’s leaving us. We were invited by subversive supporters to confront the mayor face to face and we jumped at the opportunity.
We staged a race between a dog, a runner, a car and the monorail. We joined with other groups to march the length of the green line. We marched around in wetsuits to remind people that West Seattle shouldn’t have to swim to get downtown.
We even attended insanely boring government meetings. Sometimes we even spoke at insanely boring government meetings. At one point, we had 25 people down to a monorail board meeting (a first for most) hoping to show the press that there was support for the project.
We made sure to have an honest and articulate message. We tried to figure out how a lot of people each with only a little time could be a part of the process. Not a single one of us was paid for our time. We were all volunteers contributing our energy and ideas and time.
We should thank each other for all of these things. It took a lot of people, each giving something big or small, to make 2045 Seattle into something more than an email between friends. We started with words and ideas and concerns, and we turned them into something real.
We gave people hope. We had the right message. The only thing we didn’t have enough of was time.
Cleaning Up After Ourselves
It’s important that we clean up the remains of our work. If you dropped brochures at a local coffeehouse, go get them to free up the space. If you postered your neighborhood, grab a bag and retrace your steps to make room for someone else’s words.
We’re Not Letting Mayor Gridlock Off the Hook
If Nickels thought we were going away or that MayorGridlock.com was going anywhere, he’s in for a surprise. Ever heard of a Googlebomb? Add a link to your blog, website or whatever like so:
<a href="http://mayorgridlock.com">Greg Nickels</a>
If enough of us do this, whenever someone searches for “Greg Nickels” they’ll find themselves at MayorGridlock.com
Not Helping Those That Harmed Us
The opposition spent a lot of money over the years to get the result they wanted. They had paid employees. A lot of private business interests contributed, but one of the largest was Washington Mutual.
Make an example of them. Don’t do business with those companies that don’t support the future of our city.
Where We Go From Here
In a few days, 2045 Seattle’s website will transform to a new phase, a meditative one. All of our monorail content will be preserved for posterity. We’ve already begun talking about what the next thing might be for our little group. When a consensus arrives, we’ll take everything we’ve learned and fight again for a better Seattle.
November 14th, 2005 at 3:29 am
Bravo! and Thank You - ALL. See you in the future, the one we both want.
November 15th, 2005 at 1:07 am
The Monorail seems to me to be such a rational desire. Why did all those others vote against it? Having lost, would it be useful to know what part of the pro monorail effort was effective and what parts were not? Also, what parts of the anti monorail effort were effective and what parts, if any were not? Is the Monorail Authority conducting this sort of an after action review? Is it in their budget? If they don’t, will some industrious grant writers have access to the Monorail Authority’s data and all the other publicly available data to prepare a comprehensive AAR? My votes are often cast for lost or losing causes. As a consequence I think most of my fellow voters are either self deluded or simply simple. On the other hand, maybe I’m the self deluded simpleton. In the case of the grass roots monorail malfunction an I’d like a panel of experts to review the data and prove who the idiots are. Them or me?
November 16th, 2005 at 5:18 pm
To Whom It May Concern: While watching the 10:00 o?Äôclock news on Tuesday night. I saw the story about the West Settle Meeting, regarding the rejection of the new Mono Rail that was turned down by the voters of the city. The news people asked about any ideas that could help or improve systems like this. That made me think of a gentleman out in Custer Washington that is working on a system along the same lines of public transportation.
Mr. Howard Andreasen of Custer, has been working on a new innovative project for the on the fly transfer of modules, containing fright or passengers on to or off of a moving train. This transfer of containers could be done in a one step, non stop motion from a moving train to a moving truck, making it in to a bus. Eliminating extra stops and the need for large storage areas by the transit sites or by railroad yards would help to keep people moving in a more eficiant manner.
I think this would go a long way to solving the problem referred to in the industry as the Last Mile. This would make it very easy for people to leave the train and get to where they need to be with out even giving up their seat or having to hall goods or children around a busy bus station.
Mr. Andreasen has applied for a grant from the (IDEA) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis Programs. He has been working on the design of this system over five years and is now ready to make presentations of this system to the public.
You can contact Mr. Andreasen at his home, his number is 360-366-3331 or on line at andreasen@juno.com I hope this will be of interest to you even if nothing more than a very interesting approach to the problem.
Ray Gilbride
Publisher of the Weekly Construction Reporter Bellingham Washington
360-738-0370
November 21st, 2005 at 11:41 am
I don’t know if I mentioned it here, but what do you guys think of a joint project of a viaduct replacement with the monorail somehow utilizing its columns? How about if the northbound lanes are underground, the southbound lanes are elevated and the monorail actually shares the columns?! Among many other combinations?! Innovative thinking!
December 8th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
Something good needs to come out of the ashes of the Monorail. Seattle needs mass-transit, particularly down the Westside corridor, and we have a still-working institution with the funds and resources to change over to a light-rail project. So I am proposing making a Seattle Transit Authority out of the Monorail project to keep the MVET for Seattle only mass-trasit purposes. We may not be able to fly over the traffic, but going down the medians, in the center turn lanes and along the Waterfront, would make the light rail plan fast enough and cost-effective. Daren’s idea is good but it would work better if a light rail system were integrated into the rebuild of the viaduct, along with some of the money from the MVET. Leaving out Ballard from the last vote was its death knell. We need a good political and mass-transit solution for this town and maybe the monorail was not just not the right fit. But we shouldn’t just give up.
December 31st, 2005 at 9:44 am
I suppose it is too late (Dec 31, 05) to make constructive comments that anyone will hear, but personal problems have prevented earlier submittals and actions. In my opinion there are viable alternatives to monorail routing and financing that have not been explored. If anyone is still around to read this, I would very much appreciate obtaining the email addresses of one or more people who are connected to the monorail activist group.
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Ok is the whole city of Seattle blind? Hmm lets ee if you see what I see? Voting to approve sound transit after first voter approval…none!!! Now how many times did we have to vote for the monorail? Hmm wasn’t one of the projest leaders for sound transit appointed to run..(over run) the monorail project? How many times did the monorail vote go back to the voters before it was finally voted down, even when they boosted our tabs!!! Come on folks if you wont file a lawsuit or sick the feds on the city of seattle then tell me who I can contact to make this happen. If you cant see that this whole debacle was mastermined and criminal..can you spell collusion? Ok I cant but I know it when I smell it.
March 12th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
A few months ago, after the election, Nickels was interviewed on public radio, and was asked about transit alternatives to the monorail. He replied that he “might look into adding a bus lane somewhere.” He went on to say that “we’re not interested in a substitute for the monorail.” He explicity rejected the idea of expanding light rail to Ballard or West Seattle. So as of now, the future of transit in this town consists of one light rail line and lots of dangerously overcrowded, glacially slow buses.
This seemed like a bombshell to me; after all, even the anti-monorail activists claimed to support some kind of transit system, and I believe a lot of people voted against the monorail under the assumption that there would be a “plan B.” But Nickels’ comments went totally unreported (I notified the PI and the Stranger, in case they were unaware of the radio interview, but nothing was ever printed about it).
I’m getting the feeling now that everyone who cares has given up. I don’t blame them, but this moment is too critical for that. If Nickels’ “big dig” (which makes no provision at all for transit) goes forward, we’ll be paying for it so heavily, for so long, that any new transit ideas will be out of the question. By the time we finish paying for the tunnel, it will be due for renovations, and once again people will choose highways over transit. By that time, Seattle will be a smog-choked, congested, depressing has-been of a city (maybe thirty years from now people will finally approve transit as a means of revitalizing what will by then be a dying city). As far as I can tell, there is no organization in Seattle that is currently agitating for transit. If we don’t get transit back into the agenda now, it will be locked out for a very long time.
I don’t know the first thing about organizing this kind of thing, but I’m very interested in trying to get the ball rolling, somehow. If anyone from Seattle 2045, or anywhere, is reading this and still interested in the idea that cars and highways are not the only possibility for the future, please contact me, especially if you have any knowledge or ideas about a plan of action.
jason styles
firefly@burntmail.com