I wonder about the bull-headed quality of the numskulls who are elected and supposed to represent those who reluctantly elected or appointed them ... simply because there wasn't much better being offered who carry the vote.

I speak of the so-called light rail transit. The people have NOT voted for the 19th century exciting mode of transit. We HAVE voted for a 21st Century means of travel. And the "powers that be" seem to ignore the people's choice sorta like a pesky fly.

Light rail ... how many street crossings, say, between Northgate and Southcenter? Every one of these potentially unsightly street hazards will require unsightly street crossing warning signs, flashing lights, maybe some barricades which the younger drivers may like to ignore. So we have a cumbersome ugly looking mess adding nothing to the esthetics of this touted great city which is already overburdened with overhead power lines and washboard chuck-holed streets throughout our neighborhoods. Why TRASH us some more? And, of course, tunneling under the U of Dub won't be cheap. Is there no pride in our local government ... or who is paying off whom?

What is wrong with the people's choice? Why is it being ignored? Why not extend the monorail on down to Sea-Tac? Why not eventually extend it on to Vancouver? To Portland? The more remote extensions of course can be added later. But certainly we can be a little more sensibly progressive in our today's planning for the future. This is now supposed to be the 21st Century, I think. the rails first arrived back in the 19th Century (Civil War times) and used extensively in the 20th. Time marches forward. Why can't we? The people have voted for it.

We read of other countries having high-speed monorails capable of going well over 100 miles per hour. Use your heads! I would like to envision a huge centralized airport, say in Moses Lake. High-speed monorails spoking out there to Spokane, Yakima, the Tri-Cities and to Seattle. With the available right-of-ways, and today's technology, there's no reason why this 21st Century mode of traffic should not be seriously considered, or come up with a good understandable reasonable explanation as to why not.

I think someone or group should be concerned enough to do an investigation followed by an explanation and clarification to the voters. But from my vantage point, none of the proposals favoring investing good tax-derived money into outmoded rail makes much sense, or any sense.

Talk about the quality of planning, I see miles of freshly laid street paving being dug up to install what? Under the center of the street and then patchwork for the new streets. What's so important that there's no other place to lay whatever it is. Talk about "good use" of our tax money. What other programs are being chopped, because of these snafus? But there's today's blatant example of our salaried planning responsibility groups.

- D. SMITH, Ravenna