Posted Wed, Apr 25, 5:57 p.m.

The problem with Mr. Oschsner's response, is the very problem with Seattle's response. The article doesn't call for a protection of neighborhood character. Rather it calls for a different approach to the GMA and density. It is not an abrogation of property rights or private property to ask something from ...

Posted Wed, Apr 18, 9:25 a.m.

This piece badly misperceives the fear that the news of the razing of the Melrose block has engendered. Valdez is correct, there is fear about what the loss of this building means, but not because those who are fearful or angry are afraid of change. The community is upset because ...

Posted Tue, Nov 15, 5:21 p.m.

I wasn't in the audience for the library talk, but I did hear Simon go on and on on air about how great the Iraq War was as it was unfolding. I haven't listened to his program since. I also dropped my subscription to The Economist for their support of ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 10:18 a.m.

Mr. Ochsner is correct that the economics (and I would add the politics and social realities) in Pioneer Sq are quite complex. For example the city and county have for years put social service providers there that were not wanted elsewhere. It is easy to go on-line and look at ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 8:08 a.m.

The building of the football stadium (and as the article points out) the luring of Pioneer Square businesses to South Lake Union has been nearly fatal to Pioneer Square. When the stadium was proposed, the art galleries in the Square banded together to argue that the sports crowds would muscle ...

Posted Mon, Aug 29, 9:32 a.m.

This piece is more balanced than Westneat's, which it mentions, primarily because it doesn't repeat the big mistake of claiming that SLU has increased jobs in Seattle. It does however quote Mann, saying that the area has attracted 13,000 jobs. Mann is reflecting on the difference between pre-development in the ...

Posted Thu, Aug 4, 9:17 a.m.

Good piece, good start on looking (via the buildings, which in this case give us a view of both Vulcan and Amazon) at what these corporations mean to us in the city. Vulcan, as Cheek makes clear, missed a huge chance to make South Lake Union into a compelling place. ...

Posted Fri, May 27, 6:58 a.m.

This is really excellent news. All those who worked so hard for its passage are owed a huge thank you from the rest of us. Having worked with many arts organizations in many places over a few decades, I can report that 4Culture is the best-consistently very well run, intelligently ...

Posted Tue, Apr 26, 8:45 a.m.

Admiring Skip as I do, its hard to understand how he glosses over one of Allen's major failures, and one that apparently Allen himself is unaware of, and therefore cannot discuss in the book: his lack of urban vision. He may be interested in science and science fiction, and we ...

Posted Thu, Mar 3, 8:44 a.m.

re animalal- your point is in my opinion very poorly taken. I have had many dealings with 4culture over the years and have found them to be highly imaginative, very well managed, and extremely clear on how their monies can and cannot be spent. I have no idea what you ...

Posted Fri, Feb 4, 2:39 p.m.

Granted that the fountain is getting the butts because its in the smoking zone- but that is hardly the fault of the sculpture. Re-moving the smokers would be better and healthier, easier, and decidedly less cost-effective than re-placing the sculpture. Dismantling, and re-installing the piece, at a place that is ...

Posted Fri, Feb 4, 8:38 a.m.

Skip- your pieces are usually so very good. But I respectfully submit that you have mixed up some of the issues of the Tsutakawa sculpture and the library. The water is off, as it is with several outdoor sculptures this time of year, so that the internal pipes won't freeze. ...

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 8:02 a.m.

In the same day we hear that Seattle Center is going to be saved by renting it to the Wrights and Chihuly, and that the state is unwilling to keep open the institutions that offer us all a look at our collective past. This is not about budgets- it is ...

Posted Mon, Nov 22, 8:52 a.m.

Barcelona is a fine city, but I beg to differ that it isn't the human 'statues' that make it so. I first visited the city in the mid-sixties, and it certainly wasn't a 'grimy' Mediterranean city then, nor in any of the other times I've visited. It was a lively ...

Posted Tue, Sep 28, 7:34 p.m.

I admit to not having yet spent the necessary time there to know whether Hinshaw's judgement of the new park is justified or not. I do hope its as good as he says it is. But unfortunately the article doesn't mention how come the financing for the park was done ...

Posted Thu, Jul 1, 8:44 a.m.

Thanks to Stuart for providing a useful summary of the argument for re-fashioning the waterfront. It helpfully demonstrates what I find a fatal flaw in the discussion. I've visited many of the waterfronts he mentions, and most have dulled quickly and considerably since their hoopla unveilings after mega-redos. This is ...

Posted Thu, Mar 18, 6:21 p.m.

The fact that something has been going on for years doesn't make it right or good. Once again, its not that property owners shouldn't be trying to stop the landmark process if they want to do a tear down- obviously they have a right to present their building in whatever ...

Posted Thu, Mar 18, 7:48 a.m.

Leah- the fact that Boyle or Skolnik is being paid is not the issue at all. As consultants of course they should be paid. But that doesn't change the fact that she (and he on plenty of occasions) is paid to subvert the process- which is the real problem. The ...

Posted Wed, Mar 17, 11:29 a.m.

As a person who has looked at the landmarks submissions of many buildings later torn down around the Seattle area, I find it absolutely remarkable that Susan Boyle has any credibility whatsoever in the historic preservation nomination process. She has been hired by many many developers, Vulcan repeatedly, to write ...