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Ironic Sponsor

It is nice to see a little coverage on Burma, though even the press seems content to ignore some issues, such as the massive and systematic use of forced labor there, including forced labor to build tourist facilities.

It should be noted with a bit of irony, however, that "Democracy Travelogue" by David Lee Drotar [Sep/Oct] offers thanks for sponsorship to the "Road to Mandalay" operator Eastern and Oriental Express. The "Road to Mandalay" tour is the single worst actor in Burma's tourism industry, funneling hard currency directly to the ruling junta, while cooperating with the junta to isolate tourists from the grim realities of Burma today. The "Road to Mandalay" tour offers the equivalent of a holiday in a war zone. Nice.

Larry Dohrs, Seattle Burma Roundtable

Coastline Reality

As a citizen of South Florida I had to laugh at the remark concerning tearing down the coastline buildings ["Scientists' Global Forecast" Jul/Aug 2000]. Their future is being bought by developers as we breath. Money is talking down here and it's talking to the hands and pockets of those who never enjoyed a minute of the outdoors unless they couldn't find a parking spot in the nearest garage. Buildings and homes are so crowded now, you can stand beside your home and clean your neighbor's windows.

John Donahue

Monorail Red Herring

This light rail vs monorail argument ["Freeway Monorail" Sep/Oct 2000] is frankly nothing more than a Tim Eyman divide and conquer tactic to discredit transit technology. The cost of an elevated monorail is similar to that of an elevated busway, or rail. All require relocation of utilities, such as overhead powerlines, and underneath gas lines. The cost of a tunnel is still the same whether it is used by trains, monorails or bicycles. The cost of stations and impacts on surrounding business and traffic is still fairly much the same.

The major cost of any train, whether monorail or maglev, is "everything else." The track and vehicles are honestly not the hard part, it is the "right-of-way". We can put in an elevated rail system up I-5, just like we can build a monorail up MLK. There is a good reason why we are building the Capitol Hill subway: tunneling is "virgin" real estate.

Believe me, I am all in favor of building the elevated monorail, in that I was one of the early researchers of Morgantown, a monorail-like train built for the University of West Virginia. Today it operates reliably, but in the beginning years, we had to use a bus backup system, until the "bugs could be worked out." Like it or not, practically all non-car/non-oil ideas require real estate. Buses-In-Mixed-Traffic is not "rapid" when stuck in traffic. The nice thing about busways and trains is they have their own dedicated right-of-way, thus are not subject to delays. With light rail, it will mean the bus system will be less costly to operate, since buses can be rerouted to transfer to the light rail. It ties all the bus system together.

At first, I was opposed to the Capitol Hill tunnel, but the more I look at it, I see a return on investment much more than Microsoft stock. Note the price of gasoline lately. Streetcars operate on steel wheels, not oil-based rubber tires, you know the kind made by FireStone. There is a quick fire solution to financing both the light rail and monorail: paid parking. If we were to pass out free parking pases to all Seattleites, and make all out-of-town car drivers pay for parking, presto, we just transfered the entire tax base to Bellevue, Tacoma, Edmonds, and even Tim Eyman.

Right now, us local Seattleites, subsidize out of town drivers with our taxes. We would not need such wide streets, and so many parking lots if we did not have all these out-of-town drivers. You will find what I already know, the problems and cost of building a monorail are the exact same as that of light rail. In order to bring costs down, we have to ground level sometimes. Granted, being "grade seperated" is desireable, but it takes longer to build and is much more costly. Bus lanes can simply be painted in. Believe or not, monorails can be ground level, just like light rail. The technology exists.

With nearly half of our land area already streets and pavement for parking, all new transportation ideas will require conversion of existing street surface area to other "ideas." In short, it is time the Downtown Merchants Association got the message. The solution is fewer cars on the road, wider sidewalks, less parking, and if that does not get the message across, it will when the price of Gasoline is five dollars a gallon if you can find it. Note what is going on England. While I am a firm believer in the monorail proposal, and would love to build it, we have got to be honest about it. It is time car drivers stop believing what they want, and face reality. Stop lying.

martin e nix

May Day Stock Block

The Democratic Socialist Party of Australia has issued a call for a Global Strike Against Corporate Tyranny and a Blockade of Stock Exchanges on May 1, 2001.

We'll be raising this with all left forces in Australia, and want to link up with activists all over the world to make this May Day march on the stock exchanges a truly global day of action against the global capitalist system that condemns the majority of the world's people to a life of poverty and misery.