We went legit? We’ll get to that in a second.

Many protests are coming and our first is on Tuesday at around 4 pm downtown. It’ll run as long as we feel it needs to. It’ll be a good time to catch people walking home from work and let them know that the Mayor isn’t a leader. He’s just a politician. Full details will be posted tomorrow on the protest, but if you can make it to downtown between 4 and 6ish on Tuesday, drop us an email.

We are doing a number of protests over the weeks ahead and each will focus on a specific issue that is important. In the weeks ahead, we’ll challenge Mayor Gridlock, find out just how bad a commute can be, show how great clean elevated transit really is and remind us all how important this is to our city.

This may be our last chance in a generation for rapid transit in Seattle. Here’s hoping we’ll be heard.

Volunteer to Hold Banners Over Highways

We’re looking for people in the Woodland Park area to help hold banners on highway overpasses between 3:30 and 6 pm on weekdays. The roads are packed at that time and it’s a good time to remind people that their vote can make our city better. A group of dedicated folks up there is already working hard and looking for some volunteers. If you live in the area and can give some time, drop us an email. Also, if you know of a good overpass in your are where you can hold a banner during rush hour, let us know and we’ll get you a banner.

2045 Seattle Goes Legit

The big news is that in the last week we’ve been doing all the leg work to make 2045 Seattle a legitimate organization. State paperwork, federal paperwork and bank paperwork have all been filled and filed and we are now official.

Why would we bother with such a thing? An unexpected thing happened on the way to the monorail. Someone offered us money. $5000 to be exact. Yeah, we think they’re a little nuts too.

We immediately had two questions when we got the offer.
1. Who are you?
2. What strings are attached?

Here are the answers we received, in writing of course.

1. Lea+Elliott, Inc. - A transportation consulting firm that is currently a contractor to the SMP. Their website is www.leaelliott.com. Take a look.
2. There are no strings. The success of the project could have direct and indirect benefits to the Company, but it is not looking for any commitment in exchange for the contribution.

Much discussion ensued, but the thought we kept coming back to was this: If we could cause this much trouble with just a few bucks and a website, what kind of trouble could we cause with $5000? It makes us giggle just to think of the fun we’ll have in the weeks ahead.

The money should be available starting Tuesday or Wednesday, at which point we’ll be able to get a ton of things we need including staple hammers, basic supplies like paper and ink, and some seemingly strange items too that will pop up in our various protests. I warned Lea+Elliott that if they wrote a check, they shouldn’t be surprised if we spend it on monkey costumes and balloon animals. They didn’t seem concerned and we thank them for the vote of confidence.

If you are among those who can give money, but not time, we can now legally accept donations. Here’s our mailing address.
2045 Seattle
PMB 1007
1122 East Pike Street
Seattle, WA 98122-3934

Update on Supplies

Staple hammers, nice brochures, posters and other materials will be available later this week once the money becomes available. We’ll have a gathering to hand them out as soon as we can.

We’re going to buy a bunch of staple hammers so that everyone has a good one, but I need a count of how many people will put one to use. This is our last chance in a generation for rapid transit in Seattle, so now is the time to adopt your neighborhood and get the word out.

In the next 24 hours or so, drop us an email or a note in the comments and we’ll make sure a hammer finds it’s way to you.

By the way, the Thursday monorail board meeting is postponed. The meeting is now on Monday at 6 pm.

Three quick things.

1. If you have the ability to be downtown in the afternoon on a weekday for a protest, let us know so we can include you in some upcoming fun.
2. We’re looking for a person who knows Macromedia Flash to donate a couple hours of time.
3. The Tuesday Night Meeting has been postponed to 6:30 pm on Thursday.

Posters

We’ve designed a series of posters to get the good word out there. Print these out and staple them to every telephone pole and bulletin board you can find.

Download the Vote Yes on Monorail Posters

Adopt Your Neighborhood

Adopt your neighborhood and make sure it’s covered. Post in the comments as to what area you’re going to be responsible for. If you don’t have a way to print these out yourself, just let us know and we’ll get some to you.

Have a thought provoking line you think would work on these posters? Send it in or leave it in the comments.

Some General Advice on Postering

1. Get a good staple hammer. If you don’t have one and need one, let us know. We’re filing with the PDC to become an official group so that we can buy a bunch of them and hand them out to those who are ready to paint the town monorail.
2. Don’t poster over someone else’s stuff. Their band is important to them.
3. There are actual city rules on postering. It’s worth printing them out so that when someone yells at you and claims you can’t poster, you can hand them a copy and just keep walking to the next pole.

A Quick Look at All the Posters