Putting a price on memories

The ride lasts just minutes, but geez, do the memories hang on.

The first time we saw it. The first time we rode it. The first time it caught fire. The first time it scraped to a stop, and we peered out, wondering if we'd ever get the heck down. The fact is, the Seattle Center Monorail is gasping like an old man. It stalled twice this month alone — with people on it. Now it's undergoing tests with no date set for reopening.

Nothing to do, folks, but weigh our monorail memories against the repair estimate we just got from the shop.

There are numbers that say do it: Forty-four years of history. Two million riders who take it between Seattle Center and Westlake Center every year.

And there are numbers that say don't: The $4.5 million Tom Albro, executive director of Seattle Monorail Services, says is needed to keep the trains up and running.

And, again, 44 years. Would you keep a car running that long, especially when the repairs started to cost more than what you spent to buy the thing?

Sure, if it was the first car you learned to drive. If the very sight of it tells people where they are, and that you're the kind of person who respects things old and true.

Mayor Greg Nickels must have been kissed pretty hard in one of those cars. He has compared the monorail to the San Francisco cable-car system, calling it not only an "icon" but a "functional" part of the city's transportation system.

Nickels is putting his money where his mouth was. His proposed budget will include the $4.5 million Albro wants to improve the monorail's mechanical system and parts of its rail.

I won't argue with those who are hanging tight to Seattle's history.

Let the 2 million people ride it, the history buffs praise it, and the countless folks along Fifth Avenue and inside Experience Music Project watch it zip by with George Jetson in their eyes.

But as a taxpayer and a lug nut, let me be clear: We need to keep our fiscal wits about us.

For that kind of scratch, I want the monorail fixed.

I don't care who does it. If the Seattle Opera can fix the doors, maybe they can make the whole thing sing. No more letting it sit above the street, like we're on a lot at Universal Studios. No more enlisting the Fire Department to help spooked riders to the ground.

The high cost. The long wait. The stops and starts. All feed into our ever-growing civic frustration.

I know there are no guarantees, especially when you're expecting new life from an old train — and a slow city to speed up and make it happen.

For now, the city is seeking advice from consultants. I'm hoping that's why Nickels couldn't come to the phone.

His spokesman, Marty McOmber, is optimistic.

"I think they'll figure it out and they'll move forward," he assured me.

"We're a young city," he added. "We shouldn't be too quick to get rid of the things that make this a special place."

No, we shouldn't. But let's be sure that what we keep works, and doesn't create the kind of memories we'd rather forget.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Wednesday and Sunday.

Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

What's his name? Booz? Geez.