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Seattle Monorail Initiative
WINS!. (11/19/02)
Seattle, Washington. With 100% of the ballots finally
counted, Seattle's Monorail Initiative has won by 868 votes!
Barring a shocking reversal in the vote between today and tomorrow's
election certification, a 14-mile transit
monorail system will be built in Seattle. TMS President
Kim Pedersen stated today that "this is the one a
lot of us have been waiting for. Since the founding of the Monorail
Society in 1989, I have felt the best way to prove to Americans
that monorails are indeed transit-capable was to have a full-scale
system built in a USA city. While the Las Vegas Monorail was
an enormous victory and step in that direction, the fact that
Las Vegas is a resort city with casinos as the major destinations
would always give monorail opponents ammunition in that it isn't
comparable to average cities." It was November 2nd of 1992,
ten years ago to the month, that the Monorail Society received
the first letter from the founder of the modern Seattle Monorail
movement. In that 1992 letter, Dick Falkenbury wrote to
TMS "I am very interested in the monorail approach, I would
appreciate any material you might send." He joined the TMS
membership and went on to add "perhaps you can let me know
of others in your society in Seattle and we can form a chapter."
Form a chapter indeed! Congratulations to Dick Falkenbury,
Grant Cogswell, Peter Sherwin, all associated with the Elevated
Transportation Company and the many, many volunteers that have
brought us to this historic day. Victory is sweet!
Final tally:
Monorail Yes? 94,787 50.23%
Monorail No? 93,919 49.77%
Voters
pass monorail initiative. Seattle P-I, 11/19/02.
Final votes give monorail a 'yes.' Seattle Times, 11/19/02.
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Unbelievable in Seattle-three
vote difference! (11/18/02)
Seattle, Washington. With one day left before the
final count, the anti-monorail votes in Seattle took over the
lead today by a unbelievably slim three-vote margin. As absentee
votes have been counted since election night, the yes vote lead
has been dwindling. While the vote lead takeover by the naysayers
may seem gloomy, folks in-the-know with the Monorail Yes camp
expected a bigger drop in numbers
today. They are also hoping that the remaining ballots will be
friendlier to monorail than previous batches. Bottom line, we
still have a shot at winning this puppy! Tomorrow the final votes
will be counted and announced. Today's tally is:
Monorail Yes? 92,435 50.00%
Monorail No? 92,438 50.00%
Monorail
margin: 3 votes. Seattle P-I, 11/18/02.
Monorail
losing by three votes in latest count. Seattle Times, 11/18/02.
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Joel Horn to head up Seattle
Monorail...if. (11/17/02)
Seattle, Washington. Elevated Transportation Company
(ETC) board members announced that Joel Horn, who worked
for the ETC for the last year, will lead the project of building
the14-mile Green Line monorail linking Ballard, downtown and
West Seattle. One major hurdle remains before the project can
officially get started, the vote count from the November 5th
election must be completed and Monorail Yes must be the winner!
Certification of the results are due Wednesday, November 20th.
If the monorail gets voter approval, a new Seattle Popular Monorail
Authority will be established to construct the monorail. Among
many accomplishments, Horn worked for developer Wright Runstad
and put together a deal that relocated Amazon.com into the high-profile
PacMed building on Beacon Hill. ETC board members lauded Horn
at the Friday ETC meeting, although they won't take a vote to
promote him to the position until a yes vote has been certified.
Board member Harolynne Bobis said "I firmly believe we would
not have had the plan available for voters were it not for Joel's
tireless tenacity in making it happen."
Up-in-the-air
monorail gets a new executive director. Seattle Times, 11/16/02.
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Seattle lead down to 329 votes.
(11/14/02)
Seattle, Washington. We're using up all our "anguish"
clip art here at the Monorail Society over the Seattle election.
49.9% of today's additional 15,539 votes were for the monorail,
yet the lead is now down to only 329 votes (less than 1/4 of
one percent). Reportedly there are about 5,000 votes left to
count. For the initiative to win, Monorail Yes needs about 47%
of the remaining 5,000. The next release of numbers will be on
Monday, November 18th at 4 PM Pacific Time. The election results
are to be certified Wednesday, November 20th. The latest tally
from Seattle is:
Monorail Yes? 89,899 50.09%
Monorail No? 89,570 49.91%
Monorail
lead grows razor-thin. Seattle P-I, 11/14/02.
Monorail
ahead by only 329 votes. Seattle Times, 11/14/02.
Winners and Losers in the Monorail Nail-Biter. The Stranger,
11/14/02.
Seattle election results page.
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Seattle lead down to 582 votes.
(11/13/02)
Seattle, Washington. Only a small batch of 6,162
monorail votes were added to the tally yesterday, but it was
enough to darken the skies over monorailist's heads. The Monorail
Yes lead is now hanging on by a 582 vote lead, less than 1/3
of one percent. The majority of the latest absentee votes reportedly
came from the 37th district, an area that includes Rainier Valley,
Beacon Hill, Mount Baker and Rainier Beach. These areas would
not be served by the initial Green Line proposed in the initiative.
Monorail supporters again demonstrated optimism and suggested
that the next batch would be more reflective of polling on election
day, in which 54% of voters said yes to monorail. The measure
now needs at least 48.5 percent of the remaining votes to win.
The next tally will be released Thursday, November 14th at 4
PM Pacific time. The current totals are:
Monorail Yes? 82,256 50.18%
Monorail No? 81,674 49.82%
Small
lead for monorail vote grows even tighter. Seattle P-I, 11/13/02.
New count erodes monorail's lead. Seattle Times, 11/13/02.
Seattle election results page.
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Razor thin lead in Seattle.
(11/10/02)
Seattle, Washington. With 26,000 monorail votes
added Saturday, the lead for the Seattle Monorail Initiative
is now down to a razor thin margin of 1,526 votes. The lead is
now ahead by about one percentage point. To win, the measure
needs to capture about 47 percent of the remaining votes left
to be counted. King County elections officials will release new
numbers on Tuesday. Another count will be released Thursday and
the county hopes to give a final vote tally on November 19. The
election must be certified Wednesday, November 20. Despite another
narrowing of the lead, monorail proponents closely following
the process are optimistic of a win. Joel Horn, ETC staff
member and mover and shaker in the monorail campaign, responded
to Saturday's count by calling it "great great news."
Even the opposition sees a trend towards monorail victory. Henry
Aronson, with the monorail opposition group Citizens Against
the Monorail, estimates that if the vote trend continues, Monorail
Yes will win. "It's really hard to read at this point. It's
going to be so very, very close. It's a cliffhanger," he
said. "No one's going to get a mandate in this. It will
be a sliver, whoever wins." Mandate or not, a win still
means a 14-mile monorail system Mr. Aronson. :-)
Monorail Yes? 79,647 50.48%
Monorail No? 78,121 49.52%
Monorail
tally still a 'cliffhanger.' Seattle Times, 11/10/02.
Seattle election results page.
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Stadium link proposed in London.
(11/10/02)
London, England. A new stadium is being proposed
for Brentford FC at Lionel Road South. The stadium will be part
of a leisure complex that will attract visitors throughout the
week, not just during games. Linking the stadium with a park
and ride parking facility at Western International Markets, a
monorail is envisioned to shuttle stadium goers during events.
During the week the monorail will continue to attract passengers
from the busy West London roads. Ambersham Group is the United
Kingdom representative of the suppliers of the modular system
for building the monorail. Millhouse Group is a land development
company which is working with Ambersham on a monorail system
for Portsmouth as well as the plans for West London. It is believed
that the monorail can be100% privately financed. A number of
intermediate stations are planned along the route, including
a station where passengers can switch to and from the Piccadilly
Subway Line at Osterley.
Bees United Website
(see stadium story).
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Vote gap narrows again, proponents
still optimistic. (11/08/02)
Seattle, Washington. As of Friday, Seattle election
officials have counted 132,095 votes on the monorail initiative.
The yes votes are ahead by a razor-thin margin of 2,207. While
this reflects another narrowing of the gap, monorail supporters
are still optimistic of a win. In a Thursday e-mail to Elevated
Transportation Company board members, ETC Chairman Tom Weeks
stated "We have developed a model to predict the outcome
of the race. According to our model, we will win, but it will
be very close. The model is based on patterns from previous elections,
blending rates from poll voters and early absentees." Despite
the narrowing of the vote gap today, Weeks told board members
"These are great numbers for us. On Tuesday our absentee
totals were 44.5% yes. On Thursday our absentee totals were 45.1%
yes. On Friday our absentee totals were 46.6% yes. This trendline
is even better than expected. Anything can happen, but we should
be very optimistic." The November 8th numbers are:
Monorail Yes? 67,151 50.84%
Monorail No? 64,944 49.16%
Seattle
election results page.
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Seattle vote lead diminishing.
(11/07/02)
Seattle, Washington. The current lead is now down
to 2,830 votes. The numbers are:
Monorail Yes? 62,833 51.15%
Monorail No? 60,003 48.85%
Is it a trend, or just a batch of votes from a naysayer district?
Stay tuned.
Seattle
election results page.
Monorail
lead reduced in latest absentee count. Seattle P-I, 11/8/02
Monorail
lead slips. Seattle Times, 11/8/02
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Seattle Monorail Yes leading.
(11/06/02)
Seattle, Washington. As the saying goes, don't
count your chickens until all the eggs are hatched. The proposal
for a 14-mile starter system is leading in the count as of mid-Wednesday,
the day after the election. Here are the numbers...
Monorail Yes? 54,477 votes 52.15%
Monorail No? 49,976 votes 47.85%
These numbers reflect 97.92% of the Precincts counted. While
the polls closed at 8 PM Tuesday night, absentee ballots were
being dropped off at mailboxes up to midnight. Elevated Transportation
Company (ETC) Chairman Tom Weeks cautioned monorail supporters
at the Monorail Yes election party that it might be a while before
we know for sure what the outcome is. Early absentee votes went
against the monorail. However, optimism abounds that victory
is at hand and that Seattle will finally arrive at the future
it promised 40 years ago when it hosted the Century 21 World's
Fair. It was that year that the one-mile Seattle Monorail first
opened for business, dazzling fair visitors and city residents
alike.
The Monorail Yes! campaign volunteers did an amazing job in
the final days, up to and including election day. Sign waving
on major intersections was met with enthusiastic horn honks and
thumbs up from people in passing cars. Volunteers at campaign
headquarters made 1000s of phone calls to remind people to get
out and vote. They did vote, turn out for the election was strong
and some theorized that the popularity of the monorail was the
reason. In a late night TMS
Discussion Group posting, Dick Falkenbury, the man
that started the Seattle Monorail movement, said "If, by
some chance, we lose, we will have won. Monorail is no longer
a joke--here or elsewhere. It is now on the table as a serious
consideration wherever traffic is a problem. It will never go
back."
ETC Chairman Tom Weeks announces incoming results to monorail
supporters.
Monorail
leads. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11/6/02.
Monorail
ahead in count; 14-mile 'Green Line' would be biggest such system
in U.S. Seattle Times, 11/6/02
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Seattle election coverage.
(11/02/02)
Seattle, Washington. Starting Sunday, November
3rd, TMS Vice President Keith Walls and President
Kim Pedersen will be in Seattle to partake in the final
campaign days and witness election day firsthand. For this reason,
an update of election news won't be posted on the TMS
website until late Wednesday afternoon, November 6th. In the
meantime, the following links will have updates on events, including
election results. Good luck Seattle and all monorailists hoping
for victory!
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Final stretch in Seattle.
(10/29/02)
Seattle, Washington. One week from today, Seattle
voters will say yes or no to building a 14-mile monorail system,
a system with plans to expand to an eventual 58 miles. Campaigners
are busy distributing pro-monorail materials and preparing to
get out the vote. Radio ads are being broadcast to voters frequently
with citizens on the street proclaiming their support for the
monorail. Joel Horn, formerly on staff at the Elevated
Transportation Company (ETC) and now with Monorail
Yes!, has pulled off a dramatic promotion for the monorail.
While at the APTA Expo in Las Vegas,
he coaxed Bombardier into loaning the mock-up nose of a new MVI
monorail train to the campaign. The monorail nose is now prominently
on display above the heads of Seattle commuters on a billboard
proclaiming "Monorails Never Get Stuck In Traffic."
Meanwhile, Seattle Citizens Against the Monorail (amusingly known
as SCAM to some), has not let up in their efforts to find scandal
in the ETC's plan. SCAM doesn't have the same amount of money
to spend on a vote no campaign, but they have been very successful
in getting negative articles about the monorail published in
local papers on almost a daily basis. It's an exciting race,
and come November 6th we should know if Seattle will lead the
USA into a new era in urban transit.
Billboard at Denny & Pontius. Photo by MIA
(Monorail Intelligence Agency)
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Dubai progresses towards monorail.
(10/28/02)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai Municipality
commissioned Wilbur Smith Associates to do a preliminary study
for a proposed new monorail system. The study is nearing completion
and ten out of eighteen bidders have been shortlisted to bid
for the project management consultancy. Among those interested
in supplying a system to Dubai is Hitachi of Japan. If selected,
the Dubai project would be their second overseas urban mass transit
project. Hitachi has been showcasing a video of what the Dubai
monorail might look like. A model of their two-car Okinawa Monorail
train has also been on display. The proposed system is targeted
for a 2008 opening. It would parallel the existing road network.
Japan
team to bid for Dubai monorail. Gulf News, 10/28/02.
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Surprise endorsement for Seattle
Monorail . (10/19/02)
Seattle, Washington. It was beginning to look pretty
obvious, the mainstream press was going to beat the monorail
mercilously in the last few weeks before the election. Article
after article, editorial after editorial proclaimed the evils
of the monorail plan. This was with exception of the so-called
"alternative" newspaper The
Stranger, which has been unwaivering in it's support of the
people-popular monorail movement. Just when monorailists were
ready to put all of the mainstream press into the category of
conspiritors, along comes the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with
a glowing endorsement for monorail. On two previous monorail
intiatives, the P-I asked for a no vote. This time however, the
P-I editorial staff says that "the measure before voters
Nov. 5 is no longer pie-in-the sky and what-ifs. This time, monorail
proponents have offered a solid plan to carry out the passion
that has been the charm of this project all along." The
P-I editorial concludes "It's fitting that the people of
Seattle will make the decision about whether to build the monorail.
It was their idea in the first place. We hope they vote yes."
Monorail
rises above the grassroots. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/20/02.
Architects
Endorse Monorail as New Seattle Landmark. KIRO TV, Seattle.
Monorail Yes Website
Seattle Elevated Transportation
Company Website: the plan!
Citizens
Against the Monorail Website
Marge
Simpson, Smack Dab In The Middle Of Controversial Seattle Monorail
Proposal. KCPQ TV, Seattle.
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