Seattle Monorail: Piñata, Anyone?

I'm sick and tired of the Seattle Monorail. The plan to build an elevated transit system in Seattle, approved on November 2002, has suffered piss-poor planning from the beginning. Some interesting background here, here, and, amusingly, here.

• In June, the Seattle Monorail board revealed the project would cost $11 billion dollars over 50 years, including $9 billion in bond interest. That's four times the initial estimated cost.
• The revised financial plan assumes car tab taxes will grow faster than most experts predict, according to Mayor Nickels.
• The "shortened" line that's currently being put to voters is, in my opinion, a hastily-drawn compromise that doesn't have clear cost/benefit numbers, and doesn't reflect any qualities of a well-planned, financed, and sustainable public project.

So, instead, I propose the following: let's cut the Monorail, and instead use the money we've collected to date from the car tab tax to throw a big party.

• We'll have an entire weekend of free food and fun in different parts of the city that the monorail could have (but won't) serve - Seattle Center, Ballard, Queen Anne, Alki.
• We'll have information about Sound Transit's light rail plans (which is actually being built) and alternatives to driving in the city.
• We'll buy a bike for everyone who needs it. No excuses for leaving your car at home for a quick errand, people.
• And, best of all, we'll make a humongous, life size, piñata of a monorail. Then, we'll hand everyone large sticks, and then tell everyone to beat the living crap out of the piñata.

Come on, Seattle: what better way to release some aggression over this most mis-planned, mis-handled, and embarrassing public project in recent memory?