Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

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Space-Age Meter Reader
 
Hugging the Monorail: Counting Noses
 
Seattle: Hugging the Monorail
 
Education: What Does Student-Centric Look Like?
 
Seattle: Through New Eyes
 
What did you do in the electoral wars of 2004, Daddy?
 
Dave's Welcome to Rain City
 
Urban Zoology: Will Work for Cherries
 
Education: It's About the Students
 
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Space-Age Meter Reader

I saw my first Segway HT the other day. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and I was walking home from an errand.  I heard a whirring noise and this fellow passed in the street, pulled up behind a parked car, and dismounted.  While he checked the water meters along the parking strip, I watched the HT e-series unit quietly bob back and forth in a gentle rocking.  Of course, I thought to myself, balance is perpetual falling over the same point.  It was beautifully done.

The transporter seems ideal for scooting around neighborhoods and performing this task.  The Public Utility worker said it worked great.  I liked that he seemed to be enjoying his curbside work.  It is also a clever application that doesn't use the pedestrian walkways.  I'm impressed.

posted by orcmid at 10/2/2004 11:15:21 PM

Hugging the Monorail: Counting Noses

In the previous note, I expressed enthusiasm for the Seattle Monorail Project.  I also said that some facts might help clear the air.  Here's what I have in mind with regard to the claims about the November 2002 election that gave the public go-ahead to the Monorail Authority.

In his September 19, 2004 rant on the Monowail, Stefan Sharkansky asserts the following:

"I blame the process which enabled the Seattle Monorail Project to go forward in November 2002 when only 22% of the registered voters bothered to affirmatively vote for the Project.  That should have been a clue that the other 78% of the city didn't really want the Monorail, even if the other side managed to get a few hundred more people to the polls on that particular day."

Having voted in that election, I was a tad irritated to have my vote diminished in this manner.  However, Stefan's lament did lead me to wonder about the basis for those observations.  I checked the election returns myself.

November 2002 Voting

In November 2002, the voters of Seattle responded in the following manner to the Monorail Authority Initiative that was on their ballot:

Table 1: Election Results for the November 2002 Seattle Monorail Authority initiative

431,203	100.00%	Seattle residents were registered to vote on election day.  This is the basis for all percentages here.
196,360	45.54%	came to the polls and voted.
94,993	22.03%	voted YES (for 50.23% of the votes cast) for the Monorail Authority initiative
94,116	21.83%	voted NO (for 49.77% of the votes cast) against the initiative.
189,109	43.85%	of registered voters cast a vote on this initiative.
7,251	1.68%	of registered voters came to the polls and did not cast any vote on this initiative.
877	0.20%	more votes were cast for the initiative than against it.

This might be a very useful demonstration of the simple fact that every vote counts.  More than that, every vote matters.

What does this show us?

• The initiative passed fair-and-square.
• The margin between the YES and NO votes was smaller than the number of people who came to the polls and did not vote on this measure for whatever reason
• We know nothing about what was or was not in the minds of those registered voters (and eligible but unregistered voters) that did not arrange to cast a ballot in that election.

The ballot initiative was no surprise.  It was not even unexpected (being a follow-on to a measure that was approved in November 2000).

More Perspective

After insinuating that if you didn't come vote for the Monorail Authority, you must have been against it, Sharkansky concludes with a peculiar observation:

"Maybe in the future we can tighten the rules so a tiny band of fanatics can't so easily abuse the democratic process to foist another stupid and expensive project on an entire city that is overwhelmingly indifferent to it."

Somehow, if there is an abuse of democratic process that is being foisted on us somewhere, I don't think that's it.

To calibrate your own perspective on that election day, what it determined, and what the level of indifference of Seattle voters is, the following additional results from the same election day might be of some interest:

• Representative Jennifer Dunn was elected to the U.S. Congress with a 46.85% voter turnout in District 8 and with slightly over 3600 votes more than the 95,000 who approved the monorail initiative.
• Four amendments to the Seattle City Charter were passed with fewer total votes cast for each than for the Monorail Authority initiative.  Amendment 3 passed with fewer YES votes than the Monorail Authority initiative.
• Fire Protection District 50 (where 133 voters comprised 45.08% of those registered) passed a property-tax levy renewal by 65 to 63.

High-Turnout 2000

I don't think Seattle voters are notably indifferent.  For example, in the year 2000 general election (remember that one?), there was also a monorail initiative, the one that authorized the work that led to the Monorail Authority initiative in 2002.

Table 2: Election Results for the November 2000 Monorail System initiative

377,599	100.00%	Seattle residents were registered to vote on election day.  This is the basis for all percentages here.
285,458	75.60%	came to the polls and voted.
148,629	39.36%	voted YES (for 56.36% of the votes cast) for the Monorail System initiative.
115,101	30.48%	voted NO (for 43.64% of the votes cast) against the initiative.
263,730	69.84%	of registered voters cast a vote on this initiative.
21,728	5.75%	of registered voters came to the polls and did not cast any vote on this initiative.
33,528	9.93%	more votes were cast for the initiative than against it.

And still, we have only meaningless speculations about what those who abstained from voting on this initiative (whether at the polls or not) had in mind.  The only sense I have about abstentions is that it means that I am indifferent to the outcome.  That is, I am completely willing to accept the outcome that people who care more arrive at.  That is how the system works, whether we were thinking something else or not.

So, are you passionate enough about the Monorail Authority, how it is doing, and what it is doing, that you will vote?  What are the facts (or allegations) that concern you the most?

Here's my speculation:  I notice that Sharkanksy speculates today that the monorail will lose.  Rather than dwell on the soap-opera that bubbles through the debate, I expect people to recognize the same self-interest that has persevered on this journey thus far.  I'll be specific:

• Over 500,000 eligible voters will be registered to vote in the November 2004 general election in Seattle.
• Over 80% of those registered voters will cast a ballot.
• The "Monorail Recall" initiative will fail, with over 72% of registered voters casting a vote on that initiative.

posted by orcmid at 9/29/2004 11:48:57 PM

Seattle: Hugging the Monorail

    I'm proud of the initiative that Seattle is taking to build itself a monorail as part of the city's expansion of mass transportation capacity and reduction of petroleum dependency.  I was pleased to vote for the Monorail Authority in 2002, the first election where I cast a ballot as a Seattle resident (although I am a native Washingtonian).  I am delighted to observe the development of the project and how it is maintaining high standards of accountability in terms of the project and in the response of the City of Seattle planning and development organizations.

Although the construction of the monorail was approved in a sequence of public ballot initiatives culminating in the November, 2002, go-ahead for the Monorail Authority, there are those who want a do-over and repeal.  This is instead of holding to the built-in accountability and cost-tracking that is part of the oversight for this long-term project.  The device by which the monorail is to be blocked is by preventing the City of Seattle from providing any public right-of-way for use by a monorail.  It's a devious parliamentary-end-run maneuver to earn reconsideration where it is neither available nor warranted.

Some people have concerns and objections that are perfectly sensible.  These are masked by the outlandish shouting against the continuation of the project.  It's also costing all of us in Seattle almost another million bucks to have the latest initiative on the ballot.  Those funds would have been far better spent in seeing how to address the genuine, practical questions that people directly impacted by the plans might have. 

Because there is so much noise sprayed at the Seattle Monorail Project, I wanted to satisfy myself about the actual facts without taking anything on faith.  Most claims are easily checked and either verified or refuted through public sources.  My responses take the form of small articles that address specific questions and concerns.  Sometimes they are my questions, sometimes they are the questions to which others are offering too-easy answers.

I'll begin, in my next post, with the simplest question of all: Exactly what was the vote in 2002?

posted by orcmid at 9/29/2004 05:32:32 PM