Monorail skeptics multiply

In the Post-Intelligencer this morning (Jane Hadley reporting):

Concern at City Hall about the financing plan for the Seattle Monorail Project escalated yesterday, with one City Council member calling for "an exit strategy" and others seeking a major change in direction for the transit agency.

City Councilman Richard Conlin, a longtime skeptic of the monorail plan, was the most direct, urging the council to deny the monorail use of city streets and rights of way.

NWPT55

Although the monorail has enjoyed popular support in four citywide elections, political opposition has been building since last week, when officials announced a financing plan for the 14-mile Green Line between West Seattle and Crown Hill. The $2 billion monorail would carry an additional $9 billion in interest payments, with taxes collected until 2050 or beyond, officials said.

Seattle City Councilmembers are becoming increasingly concerned, as the article notes, and are taking a variety of actions:

"I cannot in good conscience vote to approve a financial plan that will saddle Seattle taxpayers with a project that has an $11 billion burden and so little benefit," .... Conlin said he has received 700 e-mails, with opponents of the monorail plan outnumbering supporters 40 to 1.

Also yesterday, Councilman Nick Licata and City Attorney Tom Carr, both longtime monorail supporters, wrote the monorail board that the agency should "do something dramatic" to change the public perception of the project.

And it's not just city councilmembers, either:

The monorail also took a hit from two newspapers that have long supported the project. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said in an editorial yesterday that the borrowing costs were unacceptably high and that the board should reject the contract negotiated with the Cascadia Monorail Co. to design, build, equip, operate and maintain the Green Line.

The Stranger, a Seattle weekly, has been especially strident in its support. Columnist Josh Feit described himself as "a diehard monorail supporter" but said in yesterday's edition that the monorail has lost his trust over the $11 billion projection. He said the agency has been misleading, and he called for the resignation of Executive Director Joel Horn. A separate article by Stranger editors said the current project design along with a "new, rational financing plan" should be sent to voters for an up or down vote.

There's good reason to be skeptical - we think the monorail agency and its board have done a poor job planning, explaining, financing, and attempting to execute this project. There are several camps rapidly emerging in the monorail fight:

1. Build the monorail, period. These are the diehard monorail supporters who will defend the monorail at any cost, and are intent on moving forward with the financing package, despite the huge cost.
2. Concerned supporters. These people are monorail supporters, but believe there needs to be review and scrutiny over the current proposal, and would support changes that would solve problems while allowing the monorail to be built.
3. Friendly skeptics. This is the category we fall into. These are the pro-transit folks who would ordinarily support the monorail, but can't under the current circumstances and will call for the project to be stopped until certain changes are made. This is the real "build it right, or don't build it at all" crowd.
4. Unfriendly skeptics. These are the people who were skeptical of any monorail proposal to begin with and formed the bulk of the opposition before the 2002 vote took place several Novembers ago. They don't believe in the value of the project, hated the idea of paying for it with car tabs, or had some other concern. They're even more concerned, and angry, now.
5. Monorail haters. These are the people that gleefully scream "DIE, MONORAIL, DIE" and are likely to label any big transit project a "boondoggle", period, whether it really is or not. They're car, truck, and SUV lovers who favor more and bigger roads. Their motto: "More asphalt and concrete." They hate everything about the project, and that idea of hate translates over to other areas well.

So there you have it. There's the monorail camps, and they'll be battling it out over this proposal over the next weeks and months. But as you can see, there's some kind of skepticism in four of the five camps. There's going to have to be discussion, a lot of changes, and compromise, before this project can move ahead.