The Weekend Wrap: An Early Spring Brings a Rush to Transit and Pursesnatching

West Seattle's Lincoln Park beach view

Publicola and Seattle Transit Blog are down on the Senate rushing through a bill that would allow private transit to travel in transit-only lanes and use park-and-rides to pick up and drop off passengers. Me, I'm still stuck on "rushing through a bill." In other political news, Mayor McGinn rode his bike.

Meanwhile, it's spring outside. Daffodils and dandelions are coming on. Your allergies are in full swing. We're seeing twenty degrees difference between our daily highs and nightly lows, says Cliff Mass. You may be tempted to sit in the park, but (deep breath) bring a tape measure. There's now a 25-foot rule in effect for smoking in public parks. This eminently enforceable and I see no possible problems with it.

Check the chimney before you light a fire against the night's chill--someone may be stuck in there. The chimney burglar is a sign of the times; the Seattle Police Department released the latest crime statistics. Burglaries are up a bit, but more troublingly, increases in robbery, aggravated assault and larceny/theft were mostly responsible for the seven percent rise in the "major crimes" category. Residential burglars have made off with loot worth $14,000 from Capitol Hill homes so far in 2010, reports Capitol Hill Seattle.

South Lake Union news, in contrast, is that an influx of new restaurants on the way, including a Tom Douglas eatery. (Twitter tells me Douglas was at Capitol Hill's new Unicorn last night. Research on "French-circus" themes?)

If you live in West Seattle and develop a mysterious rash between now and March 8, check your vaccination records to make sure they included measles. Now, get ready for this segué: realtors say Alki real estate is acting like it's in quarantine. Only six condos over $500,000 have sold in the last six months. That's probably because everyone in West Seattle is spending their money on the giant burgers at Zippy.

Here on the SunBreak, we covered the general acclaim for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, Governor Gregoire's $605 million sin tax proposal, Bill Gates's controversial climate change talk, Seattle's transportation funding quagmire, and the ex-Seattle police chief supporting I-1068's marijuana legalization.

Seth dug into the stats and discovered that Seattle is the NBA's happiest hunting ground for talent, and commented that, despite the complaints about NBC's Olympics coverage, people were watching like crazy. In A&E, Jack reviewed the Rep's Glengarry Glen Ross (thumbs up), Audrey broke down the Sasquatch 2010 festival lineup, Jeremy interviewed Donald Byrd and then reviewed Spectrum's high-concept Farewell, and Josh alerted everyone to Lynn Shelton's $5 Cover's big-screen appearance this March.