This should be yet another decisive tipping point against the Monorail:
An independent financial analysis of a proposed monorail system will take at least eight weeks to complete, meaning it won't be finished before the Nov. 2 election in which a monorail-killing initiative will be decided.The existence of an independent financial review will bring to the surface all of the lurking questions that people have about the project's financial feasibility. The fact that the report won't be ready in time for the election may cause some voters to wonder, rightly or not, whether damaging results are being intentionally postponed until after the election. Others will cast a conservative NO vote simply because their newly heightened questions about financial viability remain unanswered.
Another signal that the Monorail insiders smell doom: I saw one of the Monorail board members at a public forum Thursday evening arguing against the Recall. When I chatted with the same board member back in May, he was cocky and in good spirits. This week he looked tired and defeated. He even said in his public remarks that he's "tired of talking about the Monorail". He expressed frustration that people are still arguing about the same Monorail issues that they've been arguing about for years.
If the same issues keep coming up, it's probably because vast numbers of people remain unpersuaded. The Monorail simply doesn't command the broad consensus that's needed for a project of this scope to move forward. Sorry.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 08, 2004 11:50 PM | Email This