Monorail foes’ rhetoric overblown
Finally, a voice of sanity in the monorail debate. It’s nice to see in a week when the anti-monorailers have been extra loud and smug.
I am so tired of the constant anti-monorail drum-beating in certain circles. (Seattle Weekly, this means you. I know you feel you have to be different from the Stranger, but this is a really stupid way to go about it.) What’s especially frustrating is the amount of dishonesty in some of the naysayers’ arguments — for example, the monorail isn’t cutting right through the green space in Seattle Center (it’s going to run along the access road at the north end of the fountain area), and the Center is far from being a site of silent meditation as some would portray it. Seattle Center is active and raucous, and full of life. Anyone going there expecting quiet will be disappointed. There’s an amusement park on the grounds!
This week’s fire in the old Monorail does tell us that safety should be emphasized in the new one — but it’s going to be. It will be new technology, with new safety improvements that didn’t exist in 1962. The old Monorail is 42 years old, and has been very safe in that time period. Statistically, it’s a much safer ride than being in a car or bus on Fifth Avenue below.
I am so tired of the “Seattle process.” Stop talking the monorail to death and just build it. Now.
