A conversation with Seattle
The Sky View Observatory taking up the 73rd floor of the Columbia Center — more than 900 feet up in the sky — now offers a 360ish-degree view of the Puget Sound region for $12.50, adults. Continue reading Seattle Sight-Seeing from the 73rd Floor
MvB: This AP list isn’t terrible but it is “usual suspects”: Pike Place Market, the Locks, Discovery Park, Central Library, the Sculpture Park. What else we got? Doesn’t need to be “always on” — like the Port tours would be fine.
Josh: Their list definitely hits the major points. The one missing piece is probably the Volunteer Park Water Tower. Continue reading Free Seattle! Where to Sight-See For No Money
While the Senate budget proposal does include a “sales tax exemption on the purchase of clay targets by non-profit gun clubs,” there’s no money in it for the Washington Tourism Alliance or any tourism programs. Tourism, according to the New York Times, is the fourth-largest industry in our state. Continue reading Washington Senate: Hey, Tourists, Leave Our State Alone!
The reason for proposing to spend four times as much on a new First Avenue configuration may instead be that the deep-bore tunnel construction needs the real estate the old line uses. So the temporary requirements of a construction project may be dictating long-term transit planning. Continue reading Waterfront Streetcar Suffers Still From City Leaders’ Malign Neglect
The most pernicious misconception I had about cruising the Caribbean was the fantasy where I spent the whole time flat on my back on a lounge chair on the upper deck, working on a tan, harassing waiters for daiquiris, and making plans for “second lunch” at the buffet. You can do that, certainly, and cruise lines like to play up the pampering, but if you have an ounce of explorer in you, stopping at a new island each morning will have you up bright and early, ready to hit to the pier. Continue reading Shore Notes From a First-Time Caribbean Cruise
It looks as if the Legislature took the wrong lesson from the success of the tourism office. As they cut the budget the last few years, tourism dollars appeared relatively unaffected–at least from a tax-revenue viewpoint. It appears that a majority of legislators did not ask themselves if adding funding for tourism, the state’s fourth largest industry, remember, was an obvious way to increase revenue. They may not have eaten the goose that laid the golden eggs, but they seem to think that starving it is an ace idea. Continue reading Craziest Budget Cut by Washington State Legislature in 2011?