Posted Wed, Jun 30, 9:35 a.m.

Allyson - UNCLE! Seriously, I screwed up on the timeline. My apologies. I've fixed the first paragraph. Lest I be misinterpreted, I'm on your side. I really want this maritime heritage area to happen. But I'm deathly afraid the poisonous political environment and disastrous budget constraints are going to delay, ...

Posted Wed, Jun 30, 7:11 a.m.

Allyson, The report is dated April 2010. I had checked several times for the report at the DAHP website over the past months and could never find it. I attempted to contact you by email on June 13 with no response. However, I should've followed up with a phone call. ...

Posted Wed, Oct 28, 11:07 a.m.

Nice piece, Skip. One thing, however, you didn't explore is how the candidates engage with the voters, which could indicate how they might deal with citizens once elected. McGinn has been all over the city holding town hall meetings, meet-and-greets with interest groups (I was invited to one), and he's ...

Posted Sun, Sep 27, 7:23 a.m.

I checked Mr. McGinn's website for the position paper on culture and the arts mentioned in the article. Can't find it, and a Google search of the site turns up nothing in the way of a issues document. Where is it?

Posted Thu, Sep 24, 2:53 p.m.

Best KJET memory: Listening to Art of Noise's version of "Money (That's What I Want)" while delivering auto parts for a Crown Hill tire shop in a blue 1970s Chevy LUV pickup circa 1983.

Posted Thu, Jul 16, 7:50 a.m.

I am personally grateful to the Soviet Union for launching Sputnik in 1957, which set off the space race. That event led directly to a moment about five years ago, when I met William Anders, who commanded Apollo 8, the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon. He was one ...

Posted Wed, Jul 15, 6:58 p.m.

MJH, I'm surprised at your statement that a strategy of lobbying for small heritage organizations "is probably not useful." This seems to suggest that building coalitions of like-minded organizations to solve problems (in the case of heritage, inequity in funding) is wrong-headed. But this is precisely what arts groups have ...

Posted Fri, Feb 15, 6:43 a.m.

Growth Rules Result in an Environmental Surcharge: I'm gratified by your quote from my article in Seattle magazine. Thanks! I'd like to add something that was also in my article. In my view, these rules result in something that environmentalists have wanted for decades, a price on the impact of ...

Posted Thu, Jan 3, 8:51 a.m.

We Won This Battle, But Will We Lose the War?: Congratulations to the Ballardites and others who care deeply about maintaining their community's uniqueness in the face of the creeping sameness happening in the rest of the city. While groups such as DoCoMoMo WeWa may appear to be David against ...

Posted Fri, Dec 28, 7:56 a.m.

Go Geoducks!: I, too, am a graduate of Evergreen, 1986. And I attended all three main types of college before getting it right at Evergreen. I went to community college, a mainstream four-year university, and finally Evergreen. If I had it to do all over again, I'd spend all my ...

Posted Mon, Sep 17, 1:57 p.m.

Too Many Nominations? Compared to What?: The suggestion that Seattleites are nominating too many buildings as landmarks is ludicrous. While the number has spiked with the addition of 38 planned nominations with another 50 or so in the wings, the total nominations is miniscule compared to the thousands if not ...

Posted Wed, Aug 29, 7:55 a.m.

KUOW Story Part of Long-Term Trends, Complainer Culture: I spent eight years in public radio, starting as a volunteer at KSOR-FM in Ashland, Ore., and ending as a reporter/producer at the Minnesota Public Radio station in Rochester, Minn. Though some of the details are different, the complaints about KUOW and ...

Posted Wed, Aug 1, 3:09 p.m.

An Anguished Cry For a Lost City: Everyone should condemn the senseless namecalling represented by this banner. Shame on the trespasser and his words. Unfortunately, the action and words reflect the feelings of many, if not a majority of Seattleites. People are disoriented and frightened by the rapid pace of ...

Posted Wed, Jul 25, 7:47 a.m.

Long Live Our Whoring Past!: It's gloriously ironic in this context that Seattle's preservation movement has actually protected part of its whoring history, in the venerated sense of the word. Just two blocks from the King County Courthouse, there's a bronze plaque honoring the Pioneer Square building at 3rd Avenue ...

Posted Mon, Jul 16, 7:11 p.m.

RE: Well-Preserved Worries about Preservation...: Stuka, you worry too much. Historic preservation is not an arbitrary thing. To avoid this, local, state, and federal regulators and preservation professionals follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for historic preservation. (See this page and this page, for example.) They don't have the ...

Posted Mon, Jul 16, 7:58 a.m.

Preservation is a Fundamental Northwest Value: Historic preservation is rooted in the same impulse that drove John Muir to call for the protection of natural landscapes for the education and enjoyment of future generations. The only difference is that historic preservation is geared toward man-made environments, such as cities. People ...

Posted Wed, Jul 11, 9:38 a.m.

Old Seattle Doesn't Have to Be Sacrificed: Thanks, Skip, for staying on top of this example of the need for Ballard and every other neighborhood to preserve continuity with its built past. It's easy for density fanatics to sneer at Denny's/Mannings as a remnant of a working class and industrial ...

Posted Mon, Jul 9, 8:58 a.m.

Time to Talk About Class: The Supreme Court decision forbidding the racial tiebreaker opens the door to a discussion of an issue even more painful than race: class. One of the fundamental purposes of schools is to give students the intellectual tools to exploit economic opportunities. The focus on race ...

Posted Wed, Jun 27, 2:28 p.m.

It's Not About Pretty vs. Ugly: Again, mhays and others miss the point. Preservation is not about beautiful versus ugly. That's purely a matter of taste. Preservation is about maintaining continuity with past built environments in the same way we preserve daguerrotypes of the 1850s to understand the growth of ...

Posted Wed, Jun 27, 8:38 a.m.

Piper is Wrong About the Costs of Preservation: The Piper seems to suggest that the prospect of preserving Mannings/Denny's would cost the taxpayer money and force the property owner to spend his/her own money. False. False. False. In fact, preservation could actually save the property owner money and create jobs ...

Posted Wed, Jun 27, 7:19 a.m.

You've All Missed the Point of Preservation: Virtually every poster on this column has missed Skip's point! You don't really understand the purpose of historic preservation. The movement is not about buildings. It's not about New Urban versus older enviroments. It's not about "density" versus "suburban." It's about memory, and ...

Posted Mon, Jun 18, 7:52 a.m.

Where Are the Fresh Faces and Ideas?: The progressive agenda promoted by Thom Hartmann is likely to appeal to the political left in its remaining enclaves in traditionally liberal cities, but I'm skeptical on its appeal to the broader political middle, not to mention the economic middle. Words such as ...

Posted Mon, May 14, 6:52 a.m.

Proms Are The Strangest Thing: I was with my wife and two children downtown on Saturday evening and saw dozens of promsters. I was struck by how awkward everyone looked. None of the dresses and tuxes seemed to really fit. Some of the girls wore heels so high they couldn't ...

Posted Thu, May 10, 6:36 a.m.

Bicycle Enthusiasts Should Focus on Changing Long-Term Behavior: I have never found the "Seattle ought to be more like [fill in city name here]" argument persuasive. It's always apples to oranges, in my view. I think bicycle enthusiasts might get more traction if they focused on changing long-term behavior. If ...

Posted Sat, Apr 28, 7:41 a.m.

RE: Community Benefit Agreements: Thanks for the compliment, Paul. I agree that there didn't seem to be a lot of excitement in the room about CBAs, although that might be a bit of that familiar Seattle reserve. It may take someone, perhaps a local coalition, to try the concept here ...

Posted Fri, Apr 27, 3:10 p.m.

Community Benefit Agreements: The presenters at today's brown bag introduced the idea of what they called "community benefit agreements," legally binding documents meant to push property developers into what the presenters termed "equitable revitalization" that benefits low-wage working families, as well as investors. When large property developments are announced, social ...