Seattle Streetcar Ten Million Dollar Plan

After the shock and disappointment of the election, I thought I would try to make a fresh start in my thinking and try to accept the fact that i just don’t fit into the way most Washington voters think. I thought I might just sort of give up and go with the flow, then the Times runs this big article that Mayor McGinn and the City Council are going to spend ten million dollars planning where some new street cars would go. This is just planning, and they don’t really have a clear cut idea of what they are planning so for sure they will run out of money fast. They say the city is broke. Had to re-do the bus routes and cut service to thousands of people. Georgetown had 3 buses and now we don’t have one bus along the highway or 4th ave. We have to either walk a half mile or so to get to the only bus stop in Georgetown that will get us to town without transferring. We have a little community of residents that the 131 got us downtown and to Burien for years but now it comes from Burien over the 1st Ave Bridge and the only stop at what they call their new and improved service for Georgetown is at 4th and Michigan. Well if that’s the way they plan God help us if they have ten million to squander on planning 3 street cars. Is that stupid or what?

Up until about 8 years ago we had a water front trolley.  Beautiful old fashioned cars.  They had Conductors on them and made stops all along the water front.  They were a real tourist attraction. You could get on one in Chinatown and it was always full. It helped people get to the waterfront and helped the businesses there. BUT all of a sudden they shut down the trolley’s because they decided that a glass sculpture park would be better. How could shutting down a tourist attraction, a fun way to get to the waterfront to shop and eat even be considered? If they could not keep a trolley line open why on earth do they need to lay street car lines, tear up downtown again, when buses can at least turn out a little and can pick up people just fine. The Mayor and Council members sure like to plead poverty and spend, spend, spend. They shut down the fun forest for the same guy to put up glass sculptures there too. Can we maybe get glass street cars? This is all pure waste and “screw the taxpayers” for sure. They got their Seattle seawall money so now they will pretty much ruin the waterfront businesses.