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The Monorail Is No Pipe Dream

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On May 29, the Irvine City Council finally approved the half-mile monorail project for McDonnell Douglas Realty Co.

On June 9, the headline on a Los Angeles Times story read: “County Says Airport Monorail Ad Is Premature.”

And on June 17, the public received additional wisdom from a Times editorial: “Dreams of a Monorail and Reality: Irvine’s Plan for a Half-Mile Link to Airport Deserves Study, but Details Are Needed.”

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Apparently some in the community expect immediate results. Once we received approval, they expected to be riding on the monorail almost overnight, like one of those homes that’s built in 24 hours.

Well, I am sorry to say it just doesn’t work that way.

Also, I wasn’t aware that we should continue studying the monorail. Instead, we went immediately into design drawings and, frankly, we are ready to pour concrete right now.

But our recent ad in The Times did one wonderful thing: It got our message and an illustration of our beautiful monorail and twin 23-story office towers (the tallest ever built in Orange County) to the public.

And boy, did they respond. Of more than 500 responses we received, only one was skeptical.

We never anticipated the outpouring of sentiment and enthusiasm that we got from a tiny coupon in the ad.

Our monorail constructor, the Transportation Group Inc., has the design of the cars and the equipment well under way. Just last week, I inspected some of their beautiful new cars at Walt Disney World. These cars handle almost 200,000 people a day, more than Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco.

So you see, fortunately, we are dealing in reality, in concrete and steel and electrical equipment that has already been tried and proven and that will soon be in operation. And, by the way, George Rebella and the airport staff couldn’t be more cooperative. They’re on the monorail train saying “full speed ahead.”

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I just read where we are close to getting a $1-million federal grant for a five-city monorail study. And, of course, the passage of Proposition 116 providing $125 million for the city of Irvine is a giant step forward.

But I know what you are all saying: “I will believe it when I see it.”

I urge The Times to keep a sharp eye on the foundations and guideway at the airport.

Close your eyes tightly and dream of a world without smog and gridlock, but instead filled with silver, silent, gliding vehicles transporting the rich and the poor in air-conditioned comfort.

A mirage may appear in the form of an actual car on top of the guideway. This beautiful vision will become reality later this year with the installation of the initial guideway.

BOB YOUNG

President, McDonnell Douglas Realty Co.

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