Seattle Streetcar: Keep the trolley rolling

Seattle's waterfront will be seriously degraded if it loses its trolley. As much as the city, King County and the Seattle Art Museum might like to think otherwise, there's no way around that sad fact.

As SAM moves the waterfront and the region forward with an exciting new sculpture park, nobody seems to have a clear idea of how to avoid a huge step backward with a shutdown of the trolley. That threatens to inflict a wound that wouldn't be healed quickly, and perhaps not at all.

The museum hopes to open its new Olympic Sculpture Park on waterfront property next year. The plans are genuinely world class, even adding a beach on Elliott Bay. But part of the design covers city parkland that now houses a maintenance facility for the trolley.

Ideally, the land would be a perfect part of the sculpture park. But King County Metro, which owns and operates the trolley, has failed to come up with any replacement site for the maintenance facility that can be available for a reasonable price anytime close to when the museum expects to begin work on the site.

The issue has been looming for years. Despite lots of talk about various options in recent months, however, a resolution seems further away than ever. With work on the nearby Alaskan Way Viaduct also expected at an indefinable time in the future, there's no denying that a year-plus shutdown of the trolley could turn into an indefinite or permanent suspension of service.

It's baffling to watch city leaders sit quietly as the trolley is lost or suspended. From all outward appearances, the city hasn't been particularly concerned about trolley-ferry commuting connections, maintaining a tourist draw, keeping a transit option popular with football and baseball fans or even serving the Pioneer Square neighborhood's urban residents -- the citizens Seattle always says it wants to attract downtown.

And here's something to add to the cognitive dissonance: A new trolley between Lake Union and downtown seems to be a top priority for Mayor Greg Nickels and much of the City Council. All over the country, indeed, cities are talking about adding trolleys, but not -- so far as we have noticed -- while shutting down ones they already enjoy.

The waterfront trolley runs because the late City Councilman George Benson was ahead of most everyone in realizing that rail still has a big place in moving people. He and hundreds of supporters fought tirelessly to get the service started in 1982.

HistoryLink.org, Seattle's pioneering online organization, has launched an electronic petition to save Benson's brainchild. Its petition form concludes: "We urge all parties to find a 'win-win' solution." That's our minimal expectation.

On the Net:

www.historylink.org

www.seattleartmuseum.org