Editorial
Monorail's best route is through the Center

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If this city is to build a Ballard-to-West Seattle monorail, the route through Seattle Center is the most reasonable.

At the recent City Council hearing, most of the microphone time was spent on the proposed "northwest route" through Seattle Center. To opponents, it was a desecration comparable to the sewage plant at Discovery Park and the once-planned freeway through the Arboretum. As for the noise, one neighbor said, "We might as well stand under the Alaskan Way Viaduct."

Virginia Anderson, the longtime Seattle Center director, took the opposite view in lengthy testimony earlier in April. Her testimony was clear and convincing.

She opposed the original plan to run the monorail up Thomas Street, behind the Space Needle and in front of the main entrance of the Center House and the Children's Theater. That was a knife-cut through the Center, close to ground and out of scale. She opposed the alternative, which was to run the monorail all the way around the north edge of the Center, in an expensive, ear-shaped detour. That would create a wall along Mercer Street, besides adding to the commute time between downtown Seattle and Ballard.

The northwest route is an artful compromise. Yes, it passes through the Center, but in sweeping curves rather than a straight edge. It would not cut through the International Fountain Mall, but would swoosh around its northern edge, rising above the canopy of buildings, 55 to 60 feet, two lines in the sky.

As for the charge that this would desecrate the park, Anderson said flatly that Seattle Center is not a park. It is a civic gathering place, a collection of venues for basketball, hockey, opera, stage plays, science shows, fun rides and outdoor festivals. Millions of people come to Seattle Center every year. It is an urban place, and monorail has been part of it from the beginning.

That does not mean this page unequivocally supports the monorail as a whole. When it was last up for a vote, in 2002, we argued that it was a questionable investment of public money.

But it would be wholly appropriate for Seattle Center. Since most council members generally approve of the monorail, they should make it work with the most efficiency.