Political activist gives up on Seattle

Friday, September 22, 2006

Political activist gives up on Seattle
Monorail backer moving to Mexico to work on film

P-I STAFF

The new monorail died, the push is on to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with another highway and Seattle just isn't the same, says Grant Cogswell.

So the writer turned political activist is pursuing more promising dreams and moving to Mexico City.


	Cogswell

"This was a worthwhile place to be for a while -- the first monorail vote, the musical culture that's still here," said Cogswell, 38, who is selling his antiques and eclectic book collection Sunday in preparation for his move.

Now, "with the absence of a lot of that stuff, there's so many people who have left. This isn't the place it was."

Cogswell once had his foot firmly planted in alternative solutions to Seattle's nasty traffic mess. He ran the first pro-monorail campaign and was involved in three subsequent ones that kept the proposal alive.

More recently, he was part of the Peoples' Waterfront Coalition, a backer of a proposal to tear down the viaduct and not replace it, dispersing traffic to surface streets and into an expanded bus fleet.

Now, the monorail project has been killed by city voters, and Cogswell is disillusioned.

"I really felt like there was something special going on here ... that has been dissipated and destroyed," he said.

So, it's on to the Mexican capital and completing "Cthulhu," a 90-minute science fiction-horror film with an environmental and political angle that he's written and is in post-production.

He's having a going-away book-and-antique sale Sunday to finance the move.

And he's looking forward to Mexico City, despite its reputation for smog and overpopulation.

"It's a very pleasant place to be when you get down on the street level," he said, adding that it has a growing film industry he hopes to fit into.

He also has learned from his life in Seattle.

"I won't make the mistake again of falling in love with what I can do to a city."

THE BOOK SALE

Prospective buyers should e-mail Cogswell at cfcseattle@yahoo.com, or call 206-324-6400.

Up for sale: Antique furniture and pottery; a collection of 400-odd books, including an Oxford book of ballads, old Bibles, signed first-edition volumes by William Vollman, a Blake poetry collection and a first-edition volume by Thomas Pynchon; and photo books of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

Soundoff (Read 53 comments)
Which Seattle issue could drive you to Mexico?

Add P-I Local headlines to