Joni Balter / Seattle Times editorial columnist
Monorail's stark reality beginning to sink in

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Imagine Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels driving under the monorail uprights on Fifth Avenue downtown and pondering how intrusive a new monorail will be.

It is not the imposing physical structure of the old, 1-mile track that may give him vertigo. It is how much people might blame him for all that ails the new Seattle Monorail Project. And a lot ails the project.

Some columns supporting monorail tracks could be 6 feet wide — considerably bulkier than the 3 or 4 feet anticipated. In a town that adores scenic vistas, views will be blocked. Count on it.

The 14-mile monorail was sold as a train running north and south on separate tracks. Now, the talk is of trains running on double tracks in some locations, single in others, such as the crossing of the West Seattle Bridge. Riders will have to get used to trains that slow to wait for a clear track.

The monorail will displace around 500 downtown parking spaces. Is it outrageous to think non-riders who used to find downtown approachable will stay away or curse Nickels for the lack of access?

The most pressing problem for the monorail is money. The project is based on faulty financial assumptions. Revenues from a motor vehicle excise tax supporting the project are coming in at two-thirds the amount projected. Low revenues drive a lot of decisions.

This humdinger project will change our city forever.

Mayor Nickels is in a tough spot. It is not fair to blame him for miscalculations of the monorail agency. The Seattle Monorail Project is a separate entity with a governing board that has only two people appointed by the mayor.

But Nickels has been a key booster. He is the man who loves trains, anything with a whistle, tracks and cars that whisk by. He favors Sound Transit light rail, the monorail, even an unnecessary trolley for South Lake Union.

The monorail, sources say, is beginning to make Nickels especially nervous. He worries about iffy financing assumptions as well as route adjustments that will take up more space than originally planned.

It does not take much to envision the Nickels' coronation — I mean, re-election — sullied because the true story of the monorail is beginning to sink in. Or because the city is ripped up by construction on too many projects all at once.

Sound Transit light rail will be under construction in several locations, including the Rainier Valley and Pine Street near the Paramount Theater. The monorail aims to start digging at Interbay and elsewhere beginning in 2004 or 2005. And the retrofit on the downtown bus tunnel begins in September 2005, two months before the mayoral election, dumping 140 extra buses onto downtown streets during rush hour. Oh, joy.

There is a chance optimists among us will look at all the impassable streets and say, Ah, at long last, progress. Something is getting done.

But more likely, people will get cranky about torn-up streets and congestion. Remember the ire over the building of the downtown bus tunnel.

A relative of mine who voted for the monorail was reading about the project the other day and offered the only sane response to a news report listing differences between monorail hype and monorail reality: "Can we take our vote back?"

Perhaps.

A group of monorail opponents is forming and may propose a recall vote this November. The group will argue the project is not the same proposal approved by voters. The group, started by Tim Wulf of West Seattle, boasts about 600 members.

It is not a light-rail proponents' group, nor part of the West Seattle loyal opposition to everything. Monorailrecall.com is a group of citizens worried about changing communities. They probably don't like paying the monorail tax, either.

"My concern is looking at the way this thing has been presented to people. I feel it is an outrage," Wulf explained. "They're not being honest with Seattle. It's not what we voted for."

I have never liked that Seattle strain that approves a project, then wrings its hands after the fact. I tend to be a booster of new ideas that make the city more livable. I voted for Sound Transit light rail, the baseball stadium, new parks, community centers, libraries, all of it.

The idea behind the monorail is fanciful and fun, but I have long doubted the ability of this project to pull this off at the stated price.

Publicly, Mayor Nickels has been quiet about the monorail in recent months. Sooner or later, he has to get in front of this train and be more candid about his own doubts.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com

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