Doubts on the Seattle City Council about the wisdom of routing the monorail across Seattle Center grounds surfaced again last week when council president Peter Stein-brueck announced that he was proposing a resolution that would prohibit such a move.
"Seattle Center is a centerpiece of our city's urban landscape and our most cherished green space for public gathering and reflection," he said in a press release. "We can't allow it to be ruined."
Council members Nick Licata, Judy Nicastro and Richard Conlin either support Steinbrueck's resolution or have serious concerns about the cross-Center route, according to Martin Munguia, Steinbrueck's aide.
The rest of the council remains divided on the issue, with two members supporting the cross-Center route and the others undecided, Munguia said. "This will force them to make the call," he said of the resolution.
Jane Zalutsky, president of One Reel and a harsh critic of the cross-Center route, said her organization supports Steinbrueck's proposed resolution. "We don't believe you need to sever the Seattle Center; you need to serve the Seattle Center," she said.
Zalutsky conceded that judging how much impact a cross-Center route would have is a subjective decision, but she also said hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in the Seattle Center. "In our organization's opinion, the risk is too great," she said of the group that puts together Bumbershoot every year.
It's not just festivals such as Bum-bershoot that will be affected by the monorail if it shoots across the Seattle Center; other events such as the 9/11 memorial services two years ago would have been disturbed by the monorail, Zalutsky said.
Seattle Center director Virginia Anderson said she was surprised when she heard about Steinbrueck's resolution. "He called and left a message," she said.
But Anderson isn't convinced the so-called Northwest Route would ruin or desecrate the Queen Anne attraction. "There's no perfect solution. There's a lot of subjective feeling about it," she added.
Some object to the idea that a monorail would run overhead every four or five minutes, but others say the potential disruption would last only several seconds at a time, Anderson said.
There are also tradeoffs if the Mercer Street route is chosen, she noted. Anderson also has another concern tied into the route choice: "I would worry the Center ... might get characterized as more pastoral than it is."
A look at the dense crowds that show up for Bumbershoot and other festivals at the Seattle Center disproves that notion, she said.
And Anderson denied that the Seattle Monorail Project is running roughshod over neighborhood and city sensibilities.
"I have to say, the monorail people have worked hard to make the design as respectful as possible," Anderson said.
Monorail Project staffers have been working closely with all of the Seattle Center organizations to come to a consensus on which route would be best, monorail spokesman Paul Bergman said. "So we think what we've got is a good decision-making process."
Cost estimates haven't been drawn up yet for the potential routes through or around the Seattle Center, he said, but the cross-center route is definitely still on the table.
"There's a lot of support for the Northwest Route," Bergman said. "Our hope," he added, "is all of the people will wait till all the information is in place before any decisions are made."
That information will include public comment gathered at two upcoming hearings. The city council's Neighborhoods, Arts and Civil Rights Committee has scheduled a public hearing about Steinbrueck's resolution on Sept. 23. The meeting will take place in council chambers beginning at 2 p.m.
In addition, the Seattle Monorail Project and the U.S. Coastguard will jointly hold a public hearing and open house about the Green Line's Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Sept. 29. That meeting and open house will take place in the Northwest Rooms at the Seattle Center from 1 to 3 p.m. and from 5 to 9 p.m., with city council members expected to arrive at 5 p.m.
