Random Seattle Thoughts
By In my last days as a resident. . .
For those not native, Seattle lacks good mass transit. We have no trains. Part of the reason for this lies with the fatal terror of any reasonable taxation.
Nevertheless, Seattle approved a monorail a couple years ago. This was supposed to link Ballard and south Seattle, a noble goal and a good start. Unfortunately, the monorail has run into difficulties, and now faces the prospect of oblivion.
Why is this?
I think that Seattle lacks sufficient corruption to maintain a major public works project. Organized crime hasn’t played a big role in Seattle politics since the late 1960s, when the police could apparently execute anyone they liked (See McQ, which is a terrible movie but a nice glimpse of late 60’s and early 70’s Seattle). We like to think of corruption as a phenomenon that limit government activity, and not as one that enables it. Yet, let me suggest that if Seattle were MORE mobbed up, then whatever construction agency won the bid for the monorail would have significant contacts with organized crime. These organized crime organizations would have the coercive capacity necessary to intimidate property owners along 2nd Avenue (one of the premier opposition groups) into terrified submission. The monorail would then proceed without difficult, with much of the public funding ending up in mafia hands. Yet, the monorail would be built, and Seattlites would have mass transit.
Thoughts?