Missed the news this weekend while you were partying your heart out at Capitol Hill Block Party? (Or avoiding Block Party like the plague and complaining about it online?) Well, then check it out: Seattle's going to see another vote on a monorail this fall, thanks to activist Elizabeth Campbell.

Mike Lindblom at the Seattle Times spells it out:

Magnolia activist Elizabeth Campbell and her allies collected more than the 4,582 signatures required to put the issue on the ballot, after two years of off-and-on signature gathering...

If voters approve Proposition 2, it would create the Century Transportation Authority, a new government entity run by an independent board of directors with the power to place taxpayers on the hook for bond debt.

The measure also imposes a $5 annual citywide car-tab fee on vehicles at least 1 year old, raising an estimated $2 million a year.

The money would be spent writing plans and environmental reports for an approximately 16-mile line connecting Ballard, the waterfront and West Seattle as far south as Westwood. Construction, pegged at $2.4 billion, would require a follow-up tax measure.

The proposition also envisions a separate gondola-like system to carry people along a loop between downtown and a waterfront monorail stop.

Note, if you're not reading carefully: This measure funds planning, not an actual monorail. Taxes for a building phase would come later and require another vote. Due to a state law regarding city transportation districts, Campbell only needed to get signatures from 1 percent of the city's registered voters, an easy feat that apparently took her about two years of sleeper-campaigning to lock down.

Connecting outlying neighborhoods like Ballard and West Seattle with the rest of the city is an ongoing transit discussion, as it should be; Sound Transit has been studying potential Ballard light rail recently, and, of course, Seattle Subway is still around ('member them?), with a dreamy map that links outer neighborhoods into a main subway system.

As you can see at right, a monorail in Seattle is a brand-new idea that we haven't discussed before, so it's all new and exciting. I mean, sorry, wait—as Lindblom points out, this will be the fifth time Seattle votes on monorail-related business. (Last time we totally failed at building a monorail, taxpayers lost over a hundred million dollars.) So hey, there, Seattle!!! Are y'all SO EXCITED for another mass transit option? Or are you having the most intense, annoying déjà vu?

I think this calls for a legally binding Slog poll, my friends.