Delaying/killing advanced transit: Monorail, I-912
What does transportation have to do with being a man of color and gay or with being an “AltBrother” issue? I belive that mobility is a form of liberty and access to opportunity. In the hope of being mobile and connected to opportunity, brothers of color and limited income living in metropolitan Seattle are forced to 1) waste thousands of their hard earned dollars every year to own, store and maintain a car or 2) depend on spotty and traffic-vulnerable bus service. This can hamper access to work, community events, and thus his ability to be productive for himself, his significant partner and/or family, and his world. Further the degraded environment, and unfolding energy crisis impacts man of color gay/same-gender-loving men just as much as it impacts black men who are straight.
The following is an attempt to clarify the brief letter I wrote to the Seattle PI newspaper on October 13, 2005.
Also included is the original letter.
——————-
Dear Seattle PI,
I recently wrote a letter to the editor at your paper
in response to an article you published regarding the
financial costs of delayed construction that
Washington now faces because of Initiative 912 (anti-
gas tax initiative).
Below is the (I feel) incorrect and misleading title
that you gave my letter. My response was intended to
draw the connection between the cost of delaying
construction of roads to the cost of manufacturing
special hurdles to delay or kill construction of the
Green Line monorail. The costs are real, and in the
case of the Green Line monorail, no acceptable or
equivalent alternative is ready to take its place.
Not only this, but in these opening hours of the
global peak oil storm, Seattle and Washington State
should live up to the myth of their progressiveness.
The petroleum-based and sprawl enabling roads industry
is not the way to an efficient and prosperous let
alone sustainable future.
So, Seattle PI editors, the title of my letter should
have at least read “DO worry about tax, AND vote for
monorail”.
Marcus Stringer
Seattle
————-
October 19, 2005
Title: Don’t worry about tax, vote for the monorail
Comment: This is regarding “Gas tax delay pricey:
I-912 uncertainty could cost state millions,”
(Thursday).
I can almost feel your pain, says this soon to be
five-time voter for the monorail.
Marcus Stringer
Seattle
