The monorail properties: where they are and who will buy them

We were not happy when the Puget Sound Biz Journal ran a few bone-picking obituaries for the monorail way back in August. But they were on the right trail. Always follow the money, we guess.

Those PSBJ pieces are very interesting now that the will is about to be read and the monorail project's acquired real estate is set to be auctioned off. The Journal apparently ran a map of the monorail properties sometime in August but we couldn't find it on the Web. Today's Seattle Times map (which we borrowed and modified for the graphic on this phine post) is not very detailed but does give some highlights. Anybody know what restaurants these are?

From what is online, in August 5th's Land grab: Property at issue if the monorail dies, we learn that the process has created super-lots that will likely attract a great deal of commercial interest:

• "For instance, the agency was able to fill in the Fiorito family's "U"-shaped parcel by buying the abutting properties, creating the larger site the agency believed it needed for its plans. One consequence: The combined property would be much easier to develop if it is later sold, making it far more valuable."

Reporter Jeanne Lang Jones also asked a question that should be asked again -- The monorail portfolio: Would city consider buying some of the lots?

• Some of the smaller properties along Fifth Avenue in downtown may be the most sought after, fetching prices perhaps as high as $210 a square foot.
• Likely bidders: Neighboring property owners hoping to increase their holdings and businesses looking for new headquarters.

But it's also possible that the city should and could step in to preserve this valuable land for its citizens.

• "If the city is smart and logical they would look at that before they let any of it go to the market," he said. "It's hard to find little properties like that."

Let's see if we can be both smart and logical.

Meanwhile, the little guys and gals who may have bought a home with the monorail as a draw are SOL. The real estate vulture quoted is licking his chops: "If I am an apartment or condo buyer and I bought in anticipation of being along the monorail route -- especially at a station ­-- I'm going to see a drop in value associated with my property," Laycock said, "especially if I bought closer to when the monorail was being planned rather than five years ago when it was just an idea."

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, monorail, realestate

New in Belltown: Rockin' Burrito

Newbie Rockin' Burrito (no g, please) claims they will wrap 'all your favorite foods' in a tortilla. We have doubts -- we love Wheat Chex, so bring it, sucka. Rockin' replaces Sids Deli at 4th and Wall. It's new so it's still too clean and un-funky to be truly rockinG -- perhaps that is what they mean by Rockin'.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, belltown, restaurant

The least interesting picture of Ballard

BardahlSign
Originally uploaded by Chas Redmond.

Of course, when you have the most interesting things that means, somewhere out in the universe, there must be least interesting things. This is currently the least interesting photograph of Ballard according to flickr. We love the caption: "The Bardahl neon sign in Ballard. It was not lit."

Kind of says it all, no?

-- j


Tags: uptown, seattle, flickr, ballard, leastinteresting

The most interesting picture of Belltown

exposure
Originally uploaded by vsz.

Need to cleanse your palette after reading so many election posts over the past few weeks? We do. Yahoo's flickr, our favorite photo site, has a groovy algorithm to determine which photos users find most interesting. This is the 'most interesting' picture of Belltown. Here's the rest of the Belltown images that rise to the top. Hop over there and play with the tags to see other cool things like the Space Needle and Ballard's most interesting.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, flickr, belltown, mostinteresting

OK, Mayor, you win -- tunnel!

Time for new realities. With the absolute rejection of the monorail and the state's decision to not roll-back the gas tax, the mayor's transportation wishes have been granted. There was no reason for Ballard or Capitol Hill or Wedgewood or, heck, even Queen Anne to back the Green Line with no clear path to its extension -- let alone the addition of a ROYGBIV's worth of connecting lines. So it goes. The mayor, now that he is done with his political strangulation, will have to start building. Everything is on the table again. We're even willing to reconsider the tunnel option for the viaduct -- sorry People's Waterfront Coalition, new realities.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, election, monorail, viaduct

Need to know where to vote?

Ballot Box, Broadway, Seattle, WA
Originally uploaded by djwudi.

The King County elections site has a handy tool to look up your polling location. Now you have one less excuse.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, election

Return of a classic: Boat Street born again

The re-birth of The Boat Street Cafe and Kitchen on the edge of Seattle's city core is an exciting development for our neighborhood. This just might be the most serious restaurant in the business. In a world full of disposable garbage, we need people who aspire to be indisposable -- to aspire to the classic.

You descend to the new Boat Street down a concrete rampway -- above you, retail and office spaces, behind you, one of the busiest intersections in the city. Stepping inside, you are transported out of the urban and into the urbane. The ethos is classic -- clean white walls and crisp table settings. A comfortable but looming formality envelopes and the restaurant has the confidence to seal it all with a classical soundtrack of Ravel.

The food befits a classic -- dishes that emphasize craft and effort without being hip, dramatic or showy (though some of the effort does emerge from behind the scenes -- the vegetable flan menu entry notes a wait for the dish's extra prep time). Best of the bunch at our table was the oysters in cream sauce with its rich saffron pool and an island of crisp biscuit. The menu emphasizes the expected but with less-explored classics like the oyster dish. The plates offered, as a collective, won't read as 'exciting.' It is the details like perfectly ripe pear slices atop the salad where Boat Street wins the day.

Dessert? Like any great restaurant, the sweets transcended the classics. The crisp, vanila-y bread pudding was devoured nearly as quickly as the perfectly balanced sweet-tart berry cobbler. Two desserts were perfect for a table of 5. Another body and we would have had to try three.

We are excited to have Boat Street in the neighborhood so know that enthusiasm colors our experience. But it's nice to meet a classic and find out that she deserves her legendary status.

The Boat Street Cafe
3131 Western Ave.
Date: Friday, Nov. 5, 2005
Time: 6:30ish
Mood: Party of 5
Wine: a spicy viognier
Starters: pear & blue cheese and several organic greens salads
Entrees: crab cakes, oysters in cream, salmon, veggie flan, braised beef
Dessert: pread pudding, berry cobbler

-- j/k

Tags: uptown, seattle, restaurant, boatstreet

Make The Stranger's Slog better, please

It's a grey and rainy Monday so I have a need to pick on something. Fortunately, there's a flawed victim that might actually deserve the criticism. The Stranger's Slog blog is oh-so-close to a great experience -- progressive, counter-current posts in a mildly wacky stream-of-conciousness flow that ebbs from trickle to explosion through the day and days of the week. And it's mostly focused on Seattle. Those are the parts we like. Here are the parts we don't.

• It's (dis)organized by time. You can keep your huge stream of ideas format but also give us the ability to view and link to individual posts categorized with a simple tagging structure. Without some kind of non-time structure, your good thoughts and work waste into the past. Oh, also add dates to the timestamps on the posts -- you guys post so often that it's easy to get lost.
  
• Attach the comments streams to the post. When Savage accidentally goes bourgeois in his posts, we want to be there when the proles rise up and drop some choice comments his way. Today, comments are sent off into some kind of separate message board purgatory -- there is no context in the post, no trail of thinking that keeps the ideas moving.
• Stay on Seattle. Ok. You can hit Alito now and then but we get to hear lots of voices on things on the world and national stage. Commentary on Beacon Hill? Only in the Slog.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, thestranger, slog