The Shameful End of the Waterfront Streetcar
If for no other reason, the current end of the Waterfront Streetcar will be remembered for the stunning pile of absurdities that have accumulated to do it in.
The beginning of this story is reported now as the need of the Sculpture Park for the land the carbarn stood on- when in fact, the arty types simply objected to the appearance of the carbarn. Let that soak in a minute- people who buy 'modern art' complaining about the appearance of the carbarn.
When this story broke, business types a few miles north offered space for the carbarn and money to extend the tracks, to the new labs and businesses near Interbay. This was turned down. Apparently the Waterfront Trolley "no longer fit into the city's transportation plan". That's right, the same city that works overtime to attract cruise ships can't see the role of a heritage trolley line running past the point where the passengers get off the cruise ships (not to mention the ferries).
So, what is the plan? That's right- there isn't any. They don't know if the Viaduct will be rebuilt or replaced with a "surface option", and they intend to "service the transportation grid around the viaduct". Nickels said they would even be looking at streetcars as a way to carry the load during viaduct construction.
Gee, Mayor Nickels, you mean a streetcar like the one that used to be part of the transportation grid around the viaduct?
This is all doubletalk, and the reason they're trying to snow us is that they're ashamed of their real motives and their lack of ability to think or plan constructively for the future. Don't expect a happy ending from this crowd- in spite of their cocktail party appreciation of art, they simply don't get the big picture.
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It really is a shame that they couldn't integrate the barn into the sculpture park. I can't believe they allowed this to happen. The least they could do was replace it with a "modern looking" structure or get Frank Gehry or Rem Koolhaus to design it if they are that picky.
Well, all we really needed was a few art critics to say that the carbarn was "a coolly ironic metacomment on the underlying geometry of the passage from one public space to another" and the art lovers would have snuffled up those pearls of wisdom like pigs at a trough.
I'm not sure that Gehry or Koolhaus are actually competent to design something like a carbarn. If they did it, it would cost $100 million, leak, and fall down in a big windstorm. (Or alternately be so ugly and durable that only angry mobs with cutting torches could remove it.)
Yeah. I was being sarcastic.
And furthermore...Did Seattle ever have such a chance at transit excellence?
At the 'elbow' of the Waterfront Trolley line is the cruise ship terminus- each ship bringing a thousand tourists who don't have cars. To the east it goes perilously close to the train stations and almost to the International District. Extending the line east and up to the hospitals would take advantage of favorable gradients and existing public right-of-way- and allow West Sounders to reach healthcare directly from the ferry without bringing their car.
Going north from the 'elbow' the line passes the ferry depot, the Aquarium, and ends at two public parks, passing numerous private businesses that cater to tourists but don't have enough parking. If extended north it would continue to run past businesses that want better transit to downtown and the waterfront. Such a northward extension would probably be, in fact, the best route up 15th West to Ballard.
And all of this- the public investment in the parks, the Aquarium, the ferry depot, the trolley itself, the cruise ship terminus, and the private investment in businesses catering to day trippers and holiday-makers- all of this is sacrificed to SAM and a dead-ender cabal of die-hard trolley haters.
As you may have guessed, I'm 'bitter'. This all looks way too much like the bad old days on Lake Union in the early 70s. Something smells, and it ain't the fish.