Why Bellevue & gamblers hate the monorail

Just so you know what you're voting for on Tuesday, here is what you get. Look at that solid green line and imagine a dependable schedule of trains traveling up and down the system. Think of how much more liveable this artery will make the city core. Think of how much more connected and unified this will help make the pieces of the city -- and the potential to connect more without putting more cars on the streets and crap in the air. The risk is a continuing fracture. While there is charm and great things in the various neighborhoods and chunks of the city, it's the cohesive whole that makes it something bigger and more important.

Maybe that isn't important to you. Maybe you don't believe in the vibrancy of a true urban city vs. the distributed pallor of a suburban city. If that' s the case, vote no. Maybe you believe in true cities but you don't think the monorail is the vehicle to get us there. You can vote no, too, if you're a gambler. There are so many forces that push a city like Seattle toward fracture; we hope you're a lucky one.

Probably not much more on the election from us but you never know. Metroblogging Seattle has a good round-up of endorsements from local media outlets. Check it out if you're in need of guidance.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, monorail

The nicest thai restaurant in Seattle

Usually, when people say something is 'nice,' those people don't really mean it. But when we say Rice N Spice is the nicest thai restaurant in Seattle, we're sincere to the bottom of the bowl. Nice is definitely the right word. We defy you not to like the greeters and servers that run the place. It's imposible because they smile and seem genuinely glad to see you. Every time. At every moment through the meal. The food is two or three ticks up above your typical thai fare with nice touches like actual Som Tam papaya salad on the menu. Everybody needs a dependable thai joint in their neighborhood. We're glad to have Rice N Spice in ours.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, thai, restaurant

Protest today on the streets of Seattle

Your kid might have skipped school today but it was for a cause. It looks like today's student walkout to protest war in Iraq actually happened. There are so many attempts to make a statement that it's sometimes hard to separate effective, organized efforts from somebody with a lot of time to make flyers.

Here's an eyewitness account via instant messenger from a downtown highrise:

K: the kids are marching and they are loud
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2002596673_protest01m.html
Sent at 12:44 PM on Wednesday
j: a lot of people?
K: not a ton, but it's not embarrassing either
j: 200?
K: yeah, at least - twoish blocks worth
in the street, not on sidewalks
they had drums

Eyewitness K reports the crowd is headed up Capitol Hill if you want to join up.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, protest

The best empty commercial property on 1st Ave.

Sometimes we have to admit it. We're naive. Case in point: We can't figure out why some places in our neighborhood have a new business in place nearly the day another goes out of business, while other properties just kind of sit there. Forever. So it is with what seems to us to be a prime Seattle location at 1st Ave. and Wall Street, directly across from the El Gaucho and neighbor to the wonderful Marco's Supperclub. Since the closure of the At.31 Gallery, this corner slot has sat empty with little activity beyond the homeless guy sleeping in the front doorway and the sad hand-printed FOR LEASE sign in the window. What gives? Are the owners holding out for a too pricey lease? Do the snobs from unincorporated Snohomish county waddling into El Gaucho scare off prospective buyers? The logic doesn't jive -- how can somebody afford to sit on empty property? But, to be honest, we don't need to be delivered from our naivete. More important to us, letting this place sit idly denies our right to be 100% fully entertained at all hours of the day, every day for the rest of our lives. Please, please, please rectify this situation.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, realestate

One restaurant bites the dust, another takes its place

Arrivederci Nonna Maria. In somewhat warmed-over news, the big white sheets of butcher paper in the windows signify that the Lower Queen Anne italian spot is no more. We missed note of the closure when we made this recent posting about Veil -- getting all hot and bothered instead about the new restaurant over in Crow's neighborhood (Crow review). Nancy Leson's Taste of the Town says we're in for a treat when Nonna's replacement shows up in December -- Moxie sounds like a good concept. We especially like the idea of a "strong appetizer bent."

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, Moxie, restaurant

Live downtown? You don't want a bridge

More bad ideas to replace the viaduct. Seattle Times report today describes a bridge concept to replace the crumbling section of Highway 99. The bridge would be similiar in style to the Highway 509 bridge in Tacoma, pictured here. While there are many drawbacks to the idea, the biggest problem we see is that there would be no downtown exits. It would add insult to injury to erect a curtain of cable and concrete in our face that we can't even use. Groan. Until we hear a better idea, we're with the People's Waterfront Coalition. Who says we need to replace the viaduct at all?

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, viaduct, peopleswaterfrontcoalition

The quietest Halloween.... ever

Last night was, indeed, Halloween but you would not have known it walking down 1st Ave. at 11p -- the streets were 100% dead. It could have been Turkey Day for the pure lack of humans. K& I, being brave souls and undaunted by poor scheduling, put on our classiest blond wigs and coolest shades to hit the pavement in search of at least a little tiny morsel of Halloween spirit. We didn't want some throbbing Pioneer Square disco extravaganza -- just a little bite-size chunk of the holiday. The thought had been to find a quiet but bustling non-bar and sit to grab a little food and drink but man oh man did we have a hard time in the bustling department. We walked by the Black Bottle but couldn't bring ourselves to enter the empty restaurant with nobody there to appreciate our wigs. Black Bottle wasn't alone in its loneliness so we punted on our primary mission and settled for a quick drink at the Cyclops where there were a few other warm bodies, if nothing else. Wandering home through the rain, we saw the occasional wandering costume-wearer. We wanted to point each of them toward the Cyclops but also lower their expecations accordingly. Instead, we walked on by, went home, and packed our wigs away for next year. We're sure Halloween on a Tuesday night will be much more interesting.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, halloween, cyclops

More Seattle's haunted places

grave1
Originally uploaded by kemikore.

Our previous post about the haunting of the Butterworth Building has drawn a lot of interest. Here's a roster of other purported poltergeist across WA state, including this nearby highlight:
-snip-
Seattle - The Rivoli - a turn of century building where the spirit of a young Eskimo girl who came to Seattle to start a new life has been felt and seen. Her mentally ill Cuban boyfriend stabbed her to death and her body was hidden behind a Murphy bed. The door to her apt. was padlocked and she wasn't discovered for several weeks until her neighbor noticed a strange smell.
-unsnip-

Yikes. For the creepiest account of the Trundle Bed Ghost and other downtown spirits, check out this Real Change article.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, haunted, ghosts, trundlebedghost

Our corporate neighbors: RealNetworks, Dendreon and Eddie?

You're probably already aware of two of the more interesting gigantic corporations in the neighborhood: Real Networks lives down on Elliott while cancer-fighter Dendreon makes its home on 1st Ave , across from Minnie's. But is there another corporate gang hanging around uptown these days? Way back in July, the Puget Sound Biz Journal reported that Eddie Bauer was considering a move to the big city from its Redmond HQ but there has been no follow up. The 3101 Western Building definitely has tenants (sorry about the other morning, all - I really didn't mean to drop my towel) but we haven't gotten close enough to them to check out the labels on their shirts, yet.

- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, realnetworks, dendreon, eddiebauer

View insurance

Belltown Bent's sad little goodbye to a 1st Ave Space Needle view includes some fascinating info about the city's "view protection activities." Turns out, Seattle has a plan to maintain view corridors of the landmark from various points through the city. Prospective condo hunters might put the info to good use to alleviate concerns that the parking garage across the street might become a high rise. In the meantime, we join Belltown Bent in waving 'buh bye' to the Needle with added hopes that residents of the new condo building might occasionally entertain us by hanging out interesting laundry.

-- j


Tags: uptown, seattle, spaceneedle