Live theater
More than 100 people signed up to speak, and I heard maybe 3 in favor and 50 against. Every commenter was sensible and articulate, which surprised me (although many obviously did not understand the concept of "present value," or pretended not to). I heard enough to convince me that the monorail is about 90% likely to be put out of its misery pretty soon. It fails scrutiny on so many levels--the concept, the route, the financing, the planning and execution by a pollyanna-ish group of non-specialists who seem to have come across as arrogant and condescending (or, if you prefer, as the Harvard administration did in modifying a student-edited course evaluation guide--almost 20 years ago, yikes!--"somewhat distant and firm in their opinions"). Among many other things, it was clear that monorail planners had completely hand-waved neighbor concerns that tons of people were bound to drive into station neighborhoods and park on the street (because stations provide no parking).
It would be hard to sit through a meeting like tonight's, even taking account of the self-selected crowd of monorail opponents, and not conclude that (a) this plan is going to have go back to the voters to go ahead, (b) assuming it doesn't die the death of a thousand cuts before then and (c) newly focused and attentive voters are going to reject it if they have a chance.
If you live in a jurisdiction that does not have a citizens' initiative petition process, count your blessings. It's not hard to guess what the authors of The Federalist and the U.S. Constitution would have made of citizens' initiatives. You don't see citizens' initiatives mentioned in the Constitution, and with good reason. They seem to lead to a lot of ill-considered, flawed laws. It was the initiative that prescribed a solution--a monorail--before the problem had even been concretized and studied. As one speaker astutely noted, the proper approach is always to identify the problem area (which should have been the I-5 corridor, of course), evaluate a range of possible solutions—closing onramps, high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes, light rail, monorail, etc.—-and then to pick the solution that will work the best. Here, this speaker observed, they did it backwards and it was no different than if petitioners/voters had declared "HOV Lanes!" and then a bureaucracy was entrenched to find a place to put HOV lanes ("ah, let’s put them on 15th!").
("Doctor, I don't feel well" "Great, this cool new device will fix you right up. Now what seems to be the problem.")
Only two people touched on my criticism that the "1.4%" motor vehicle excise tax is dishonest because it vastly inflates the value of vehicles and thus is a 1.4% tax only in the sense that a 20% tax on two times your income is a 20% tax. One man said he had just spent $2,100 to keep a 20-year-old car running and that was probably irrational, but he took satisfaction that the SMP would not be able to tax him on that $2,100. And a charming WWII vet said that he'd just received a tax bill of $110 for his 1996 Nissan Quest van with 125K miles on it, which meant the SMP thinks his vehicle is worth $7,857. Part of what I found charming was that the WWII vet drove a Nissan.
posted at 12:21 AM
1 Comments:
very funny. As a nerd I couldn't help but look up the Kelly Blue Book for a 1996 XL Nissan Quest - in Good Condition with lots of bells and whistles the private party price is recommended at $3740.
He probably fought in the European Theater and that's why he doesn't drive a VW. (Although the 99 Eurovan value is a whopping $8800)
I agree that the monorail is doomed, and a hearty bwahahaha to those of you who want a refund of the taxes already paid. Not gonna happen.
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