For Rent: A Shabby Little Living Room In The Heart Of Seattle
A constant source of stupefaction for Seattlest is the doings of the Seattle Center, which if it were a person, would look like the frenzied, spasmodic jerks of a seizure victim. As led by Director Virginia Anderson, the Center is oddly unable to restrain itself from embarrassing revelations of debt.
While the P-I covers the ongoing Key Arena debacle, the Seattle Times takes a hard look at the Monorail we've actually got. Whether it's "a big debt payment that comes due every year that is no longer covered by suite and luxury box sales as was originally planned," or "up to $100 million in reconstruction if the proposed monorail from West Seattle to Ballard is scuttled," the Center's plans never quite seem to correspond with reality.
This P-I story adds up the debt-ridden balance sheet, but doesn't mention the contretemps that developed over McCaw Hall funding when it was revealed that the Center "expected" $12 million from the state and $5 million from King County, but never got either commitment in writing before building the Hall. Currently, opera and ballet patrons (most of whom "gave at the office") are paying off the $9-million debt with higher ticket prices.
Now Anderson tells the Seattle Times:
While the old line is safe to ride, the city has found an "increasing number of cracks" in trains and equipment, Anderson said, which have been patched with "baling wire and chewing gum." ... The two existing monorail trains received $2.6 million in repairs after a fire last year that shut down the line for seven months.
[Note to Anderson from a messaging consultant: you can't say "safe to ride" and "patched with baling wire and chewing gum" and be thought a rational person. It's pretty much one or the other, okay?]
That was not, she says, a "long-term fix" for the Monorail. (Seattle Center, so far as Seattlest can tell, operates without worrying about the long-term in general.) You'd think the Center, as Seattle's low-rent Disneyland, would be floating in cash, but much of what goes on there is provided by private entities: they gouge the public, and the Center foots the bill. In a masterstroke worthy of the Port of Seattle, Seattle Center is meeting debt obligations by selling off property, but that's, yes, a short-term fix. Meanwhile, the bills keep adding up.
