12/12 12:12 pm

at 12:12 pm on 12/12/07, the streetcar made its first trip and I was there! uh, yeah, ok, so I am a bit of a mass transit buff...

Its 1.3 miles in length, running from 5th and Olive to somewhere down at Lake Union.

I, as everyone in Seattle, was curious why this was built. We know that Paul Allen owns most of South Lake Union, and that seemed to be the only reason. However, the Mayor, Gregg Nickels, spoke before the event and mentioned the fact that in the last year, 12,000 housing units have opened up in South Lake Union. I had no idea. I really don't get down to Lake Union very often. So, maybe this will be a success and they can expand it to somewhere I might actually want to go to, like say the Ferry dock?

I thought about that this am as I watched the commuters run off the ferry to try to catch one of the few busses that connect to the ferry. I am willing to bet we are the only Major city in the world to have a ferry system and bus system completely out of sync. the bus tunnel doesn't even have a stop for the ferry doc which unloads some 10,000 commuters in the city every day. How lame.

As far as the grand opening of the street car, I didn't see Paul Allen, but I did get some bumperstickers, a cup and some streetcar passport thingy. It was so worth it! GO MASS TRANSIT!