How about using money to fix up all the roads that have potholes. We have a great transit system,
and maybe could add more bus routes and light rail. I would vote no to gondolas. They improved
mercer street, so how about improving denny way?? That would be a good place to start traffic
improvements.
Rob E. - 11 years ago
Please let this idea die a quick death before the mayor tosses like a bone to business like he did with the SLUT. Maybe we could figure out a wat to call it the GONAD?
Clav Purpurea - 11 years ago
Use the money to fix EXISTING ROADS...and not bike lanes..POTHOLES AND BRIDGES
This Gondola is for Tourists. Look where it goes.
Dean - 11 years ago
There isn't anything wrong about considering Gondolas for easing traffic congestion but proposals should take it many other factors including how to effectively help ease travel for the MOST people instead of a small cross section. Personally I would like to see ways of easing travel on 167 into the city or see a rail option extend into Bellevue. I gladly rode the Sound transit when I worked in Seattle but do not have the time to use mass transit into Bellevue. Lets see faster progress on light rail and extending that service.
james - 11 years ago
Let's see how many short, unique public transportation systems we can have -- monorail, trolley, light rail, and now a gondola? How about instead we build an integrated public transportation system rather than a patchwork of disparate systems so that a user can travel across the city without having to purchase different tickets or switch modes of transportation. How hard is that? Scrap the gondola (and the trolley to nowhere) and instead expand the light rail. One system.
Mel Taylor - 11 years ago
Why is it that so many people in Seattle over the years seem to have been against any new suggestion about transit. That's why Seatle is finally getting to a point about rail where Portland and Vancouver have been for THIRTY years. i have ridden the gondola in Portland and it is the perfect solution for getting workers and patients between the Medical University/Hospital and the big new clinics, dormatories and high rise community on the South Waterfront. Yes, it is a tourist attraction of sorts, but the destinations at both ends are very practicle and it's used mostly by Portland residents. I suspect it will take thirty years for Seattle to get on board for this, too. It's no wonder Seattle is sometimes called L.A. with fir trees!
Ken - 11 years ago
Extend the Monorail from Westlake Center down 5th Ave. to the Stadiums. Connect Seattle Center, the center of downtown and the stadiums.
KeithY - 11 years ago
For now I'm voting "No". Before we start spending millions of scarce public dollars to do studies we need to think back to the debacle that was the monorail project. It was a project in which there was no standard for performance or measure of accountabilty. Project leaders, administrative employees, planners and third party contractors and study groups were collectively tens of millions in tax dollars for a project they ultimately couldn't deliver. Do you remember paying $100 or more on your car tabs toward that project only to ultimately have it scrapped. The authority that collected those tabs couldn't refund any of our money despite the project's cancellation because they had spent everything they collected. Recall that the original project as originally approved was supposed to service all four corners of the city. An eastern line was supposed to intersect with a western line at a downtown terminal. But over time it became apparent that the project cost had been vastly underestimated. Consequently the project shrank to just a single line line that started in West Seattle and ended up on the northeastern corner of the city. The lines servicng the NW corner and SE corner of city were omitted. In addition, in order to cut costs the number of stations and the size of the boarding stations or platforms was reduced. Smaller platforms couldn't accomodate the large, high passenger capacity trains that were originally planned so they revised the plans around smaller trains. So we were left with a watered down project in which half the tracks were deleted, and in which there were fewer platforms and smaller trains with far less passenger capacity. Yet the price tag remained the same and the bureacracy just kept growing. The city spent hundreds of millions to acquire properites for stations that were never built and the agency created to oversee the project spent tens of millions on payroll. Moreover, in order to ride the monorail, prospective passengers had first travel to the boarding stations. There was no comprehensive plan to coordinate bus routes to link to the stations or to provide parking for passengers who chose to drive to the stations. The whole thing smelled of mismanagement and hiring cronyism. I hesitate to say the project was being run by corrupt officials who were protecting their turfs in order to bilk the public. But I do think they were so heavily invested emotionally in the project they want to complete it even in its watered down form. But I was repeatedly stunned by votes that continued to show public support for the project despite these issues. When the system shrank to just one line leaving two corners of the city unserviced without a major reduction in cost, it should have been the "end of the line" so to speak for the project. But most of the people I talked with admitted that they voted yes also admitted they weren't paying attention to the details. They had fallen in love early with the idea of a monorail then they stopped paying attention. They were totally unaware of the fact that there had been dramatic cutbacks on the scope of the project without commensurate cutbacks on the cost. The last thing I want to see is a groundswell of support for a project based on emotion rather than a careful, thoughtful and transparent vetting of the project. I urge voters to avoid falling for a romantic notion of gondolas swaying over the city and force a serious discussion of how sensible it would be to spend even tens much less hundreds of millions of dollars. We are crying for government accountability and this just gives our city one more project that is ripe for mismanagement.
How about using money to fix up all the roads that have potholes. We have a great transit system,
and maybe could add more bus routes and light rail. I would vote no to gondolas. They improved
mercer street, so how about improving denny way?? That would be a good place to start traffic
improvements.
Please let this idea die a quick death before the mayor tosses like a bone to business like he did with the SLUT. Maybe we could figure out a wat to call it the GONAD?
Use the money to fix EXISTING ROADS...and not bike lanes..POTHOLES AND BRIDGES
This Gondola is for Tourists. Look where it goes.
There isn't anything wrong about considering Gondolas for easing traffic congestion but proposals should take it many other factors including how to effectively help ease travel for the MOST people instead of a small cross section. Personally I would like to see ways of easing travel on 167 into the city or see a rail option extend into Bellevue. I gladly rode the Sound transit when I worked in Seattle but do not have the time to use mass transit into Bellevue. Lets see faster progress on light rail and extending that service.
Let's see how many short, unique public transportation systems we can have -- monorail, trolley, light rail, and now a gondola? How about instead we build an integrated public transportation system rather than a patchwork of disparate systems so that a user can travel across the city without having to purchase different tickets or switch modes of transportation. How hard is that? Scrap the gondola (and the trolley to nowhere) and instead expand the light rail. One system.
Why is it that so many people in Seattle over the years seem to have been against any new suggestion about transit. That's why Seatle is finally getting to a point about rail where Portland and Vancouver have been for THIRTY years. i have ridden the gondola in Portland and it is the perfect solution for getting workers and patients between the Medical University/Hospital and the big new clinics, dormatories and high rise community on the South Waterfront. Yes, it is a tourist attraction of sorts, but the destinations at both ends are very practicle and it's used mostly by Portland residents. I suspect it will take thirty years for Seattle to get on board for this, too. It's no wonder Seattle is sometimes called L.A. with fir trees!
Extend the Monorail from Westlake Center down 5th Ave. to the Stadiums. Connect Seattle Center, the center of downtown and the stadiums.
For now I'm voting "No". Before we start spending millions of scarce public dollars to do studies we need to think back to the debacle that was the monorail project. It was a project in which there was no standard for performance or measure of accountabilty. Project leaders, administrative employees, planners and third party contractors and study groups were collectively tens of millions in tax dollars for a project they ultimately couldn't deliver. Do you remember paying $100 or more on your car tabs toward that project only to ultimately have it scrapped. The authority that collected those tabs couldn't refund any of our money despite the project's cancellation because they had spent everything they collected. Recall that the original project as originally approved was supposed to service all four corners of the city. An eastern line was supposed to intersect with a western line at a downtown terminal. But over time it became apparent that the project cost had been vastly underestimated. Consequently the project shrank to just a single line line that started in West Seattle and ended up on the northeastern corner of the city. The lines servicng the NW corner and SE corner of city were omitted. In addition, in order to cut costs the number of stations and the size of the boarding stations or platforms was reduced. Smaller platforms couldn't accomodate the large, high passenger capacity trains that were originally planned so they revised the plans around smaller trains. So we were left with a watered down project in which half the tracks were deleted, and in which there were fewer platforms and smaller trains with far less passenger capacity. Yet the price tag remained the same and the bureacracy just kept growing. The city spent hundreds of millions to acquire properites for stations that were never built and the agency created to oversee the project spent tens of millions on payroll. Moreover, in order to ride the monorail, prospective passengers had first travel to the boarding stations. There was no comprehensive plan to coordinate bus routes to link to the stations or to provide parking for passengers who chose to drive to the stations. The whole thing smelled of mismanagement and hiring cronyism. I hesitate to say the project was being run by corrupt officials who were protecting their turfs in order to bilk the public. But I do think they were so heavily invested emotionally in the project they want to complete it even in its watered down form. But I was repeatedly stunned by votes that continued to show public support for the project despite these issues. When the system shrank to just one line leaving two corners of the city unserviced without a major reduction in cost, it should have been the "end of the line" so to speak for the project. But most of the people I talked with admitted that they voted yes also admitted they weren't paying attention to the details. They had fallen in love early with the idea of a monorail then they stopped paying attention. They were totally unaware of the fact that there had been dramatic cutbacks on the scope of the project without commensurate cutbacks on the cost. The last thing I want to see is a groundswell of support for a project based on emotion rather than a careful, thoughtful and transparent vetting of the project. I urge voters to avoid falling for a romantic notion of gondolas swaying over the city and force a serious discussion of how sensible it would be to spend even tens much less hundreds of millions of dollars. We are crying for government accountability and this just gives our city one more project that is ripe for mismanagement.