I loved Danny Westneat’s pro-mass transit column today. But one thing bugged me. While praising Chicago for being sensible enough to strip down their transit stations, prioritizing utility over show, Westneat uses the monorail as Seattle’s ill-advised counter example:

[In Chicago] they’re utilitarian. Some stations are just wooden steps to a roofless deck. There’s no high-speed elevators to glass plazas 10 stories up, as planned by the monorail.

Blaming the monorail for being too fancy? Shit, Danny. The critics were trashing the monorail for being too stripped down. Remember all the complaints about unenclosed stations. Oy vey. The Monorail just can’t win.