The SunBreak » chinatown

Giving It Away With Spectrum’s Miraculous Mandarin in the ID

Michael van Baker — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:25:36 +0000

Have you ever been tempted to take the leap into contemporary dance, but thought at the last moment, Wait, this costs money? Then do we have six free performances for you, featuring one of the Pacific Northwest's most viscerally exciting and intellectually daring dance troupes. Spectrum Dance Theater is taking The Miraculous Mandarin, composer Bela Bartok's one-act ballet about sex and the Mandarin, to Hing Hay Park ("the park for pleasurable gatherings") in Chinatown.

In Seattle, Parking is the Best of Times & Worst of Times

Michael van Baker — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:53:15 +0000

These two findings are not necessarily contradictory. It's possible that restaurants, lacking volume, have passed on higher prices to fewer customers, and gross receipts are up. It's possible that the changes have created distinct winners and losers among restaurants. Many things are possible. But what we can be sure of is that gross receipts are up, which you wouldn't assume was a bad thing, at first glance.

Chinatown’s Paid Parking Mystery Continues to Unfold

Michael van Baker — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:24:54 +0000

Let's not let an unhappily-framed Times story set this debate, though, or we'll be here all week, with precedent set for succeeding weeks. None of us has reason to suspect Chinatown restaurants of crying wolf over declining business--and the question of what's causing the decline can be considered separately from what's to be done about it. Blakeney himself mentions the impact from the "incredible amount of construction and loss of parking in South Downtown," having to do with the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project.

Is Chinatown’s Parking Jake or a Joke?

Michael van Baker — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:22:10 +0000

Sightline has taken things further, questioning the "50 percent off" decline in business itself. After all, nothing in the Seattle Times story indicated the reporter saw anyone's books. Celebrity chef-preneur Tom Douglas was allowed to join the protest, though he "said he couldn't cite a specific dollar amount or percent of decline." He was also allowed to say, "More empty spaces means fewer customers," which is simply wrong.