A conversation with Seattle
Historic Pier Walk: The big kahuna in the waterfront’s evolution. Expect a sprawling promenade extending from Pioneer Square Beach to Pier 63, filled with all Alaskan Way historic and commercial stalwarts. Continue reading Welcome to Your New Central Waterfront, Seattle
Sea-Tac airport is surrounded by acres and acres of “buffer” habitat — when the Port added a third runway, they also planted 158,000 native plants as part of an environmental remediation effort. No one lives, or is allowed to hang out, there for safety reasons. So that’s where six honeybee hives will sit at three different sites. Continue reading Hum of Half-Million Bees to Fill Sea-Tac Scrublands
The Port of Seattle is different from you and me. How’s that, you ask? Well, think of it this way. If you went in to work and spent $14 million illegally, you might expect there to be some repercussions when that was found out. Or if you checked your bank account and it had about $400,000 less than you expected, you might check into it. Continue reading Port of Seattle Rapped Again for Its Drunken Sailor Financials
The Port Commission agreed to an employment contract with Yoshitani that specifically permitted his appointment to a for-profit board. (Tarleton was against it, in fairness, but it passed a vote. Presumably she knows something about the stress of juggling two jobs, though, since she’s also running for state representative while acting as Port commissioner.) Continue reading Op-Ed: Making Political Hay Out of Port’s Tay Yoshitani
Art Thiel at Sportspress Northwest, which has become the go-to source for arena news, tackles the I-91 implications here. Oddly, back in 2008, when a “Save the Sonics” proposal that called for $150 million in public and $150 million in private funds was floated, Van Dyk said “he thinks the latest proposal could be a good deal for taxpayers,” according to the Times. Continue reading Op-Ed: Seattle Arena Proposal Beset by Paid Nabobs of Negativism
Yesterday a buzz started building that something new was afoot in the attempt to bring the NBA back to Seattle. Insiders were whispering about a game-changer. This morning, it’s clear what that is: Hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen revealed three big investor names on KJR Sports Radio: Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, and Erik and Peter Nordstrom. Continue reading Ballmer and Nordstrom Brothers’ New Triangle Offense May Get NBA’s Attention
But, faced with years of tunnel-construction and Viaduct-destruction, the Port and Mariners have decided a new stadium is a bridge too far. Why? Fears of traffic congestion. Here is a delightful section of the Port’s letter to all and sundry in which they discover that they never got their promised east-west connectors, that tolls divert traffic, and that they forgot to demand meaningful construction mitigation. Continue reading New Stadium Notion Leaves Port, the Ms Feeling Congested Even Before Tunnel Toll