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Love it or Leave it?
I've now heard two people threaten to leave Seattle if ST2 doesn't pass. I certainly understand the frustration, but is this a logical choice?
Despite the popular sentiment about what a given project would do for your commute, using personal benefits as a factor in transportation planning seems like a terrible way to decide things. Let's assume you live in Lynnwood, right next to the possible future station. The station won't be available to you until 2023. That's 15 years out. I don't know about you but I'm not sure where I'll be living in 5 years, let alone 15. I'm sure you don't know where you'll be working in 15 years. And even if you don't move and don't change jobs, you'll be living your life for 15 years in a way that would otherwise cause you to move?
The reason I'm a supporter of ST2 has nothing to do with my life. If I wanted only to experience a good transit system, I'd move to New York or the other Washington. Why I support ST2 has more to do with a beneficent feeling about how a city should work. We know we're running out of oil. We know that it's a waste of human life for millions of people to sit in gridlocked freeways. We know that cities with fewer cars are more enjoyable places to live and work. We know that efficient transportation systems increase quality of life.
I live here because I like Seattle. I'm voting for ST2 because as much as I like Seattle, it could be better.
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I think if you're a strong advocate for transit, then seeing your region repeatedly reject transit packages can be disheartening. It's not that the benefits would be coming soon if Prop. 1 passes, it's that if it fails one might feel that the region as a whole is out-of-step with their strong advocacy in transit. And people can lament, and fight boneheaded governance reform, and try to shape our region for the better -- or we can see our future in another region that doesn't have these battles anymore. One course of action isn't necessarily better than the other.
I lived in Seattle from 1970 to 1996, and I always knew where I would be living next year- in Seattle. Because of that, I never regretted making an investment in the city that would never repay me personally. Then something came up and we moved out and I got a chance to look back.
And what you see is a city of 'hipsters' who rejected the Seattle Commons because of some faux populism, and who continue to snark at the South Lake Union Streetcar. A city that pulls out the Waterfront Streetcar, a historical operation that was also the only transit link in the city to make money, so the art museum crowd can look at sculptures of cardboard boxes and trash cans without being disturbed by the sight of the streetcar barn. A city of people who are fighting right now to keep the Mercer Street Mess in operation.
There's gotta be a better way.
If you like it, stay. If you don't, leave. But there's no sense in sticking it out through thick and thin so that, in your old age, you can look back on a life filled with bickering and disappointment.
This is not really on topic, but I keep hearing that the waterfront streetcar was the only operation to make money, and that just doesn't ring true to me. It required two people to operate, didn't run frequently, and often seemed empty when it did come by. Was it really profitable?
I've also heard the monorail is profitable (or break-even, anyway), and I can believe that -- it costs a fair amount, usually seems to have a decent number of folks on it, and wouldn't seem to have high labor costs (absent recent breakdowns).
One of the guys who was a motorman on the trolley and is also a long-standing rail buff is pretty hot about the whole thing. He comments at the Seattle Transit blog once in a while. I haven't actually inspected the books myself, but he's pretty convincing and nobody has offered facts to contradict him.
I think it probably has to do with high tourist ridership at times when native Seattleites, for obvious reasons, tend to avoid the waterfront. Not that I've got anything against tourists, mind you, I just don't like crowds and lines.