No, after raising our vehicle registration fees to astronomic levels, then collecting stratospheric taxes for a few years, then using "eminent domain" to take away businesses and homes for the monorail stations, and after frittering away hundreds of millions of dollars.......
.......they finally trashed the whole process. All of that time and money was wasted.
The people who lost their businesses and homes in the land grab were given the option of buying BACK the very properties that were taken from them...but only if they paid what the government decided was the "current fair market value", which after a few years of Seattle's booming real estate market was often three times what the poor sap was given when the government took the property in the first place.
Here's how that worked. Let's say you had a family-run business that was about 35 years old. It was doing great because of its location and loyal clientele. Then the gov't walks in and says "Hey, we've decided that this would be a great spot for a monorail station! We're shutting you down and confiscating this property. Oh, and we've decided that the property is worth, say, $350,000".
Then, three years later, the whole Monorail project comes crapping...I mean, crashing down. Great! You can restart your family business! Only, the government will only sell you your property back for, let's call it $750,000 now. Seems fair, right?
Seattle...jeez.
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