Results tagged “southlakeunion”

Neighborhood News And Local Blog Round-Up

The intern over on the Slog has put together the stats on our brutal week of murders. There have only been eleven murders in Seattle this year--which is the good news; the bad news is, a quarter of 'em happened this week.

Can't Miss It: Weekend Edition July 10-12

FREE POP SODAS FOR SEATTLEITES: For quite some time, every Friday the folks over at Jones Soda handed out free sodas to their South Lake Union neighbors and passersby, dubbing the program "Free Soda Friday." Well, the soda makers are offering not just the parched and thirsty, but all of Seattle a free Jones Soda, if you stop by their SLU headquarters today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (And if you can't make it today FSF will take place at the Queen Anne Metropolitan Market the next two Fridays.) 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday // Jones Soda Co., 234 Ninth Avenue North // One free soda per person

Seattlest Pix: 09May30

colored by poopoorama, from the Seattlest Flickr Pool

How Many Construction Cranes Does Your Eye Spy?

We took the I-5 Mercer Street/Seattle Center exit the other night and while waiting for the light to change, we noticed ten--a seemingly abnormal amount--construction cranes littering the South Lake Union neighborhood. (Yes, some probably dedicated to building the new Amazon HQ.)

Neighborhood Discount Cards Are Brilliant Idea


The Capitol Hill Community Council just unveiled the "Capitol Hill Discount Dollar," a printable coupon that qualifies the bearer for a sweet 10 percent discount at over a dozen participating neighborhood businesses. South Lake Union has the "SLU Card" with varying local discounts available to anyone renting, leasing, or owning in a Vulcan-affiliated building, and Vulcan owns everything down there (right?) so it's almost like a neighborhood card. That does it, we're going on record: this is a trend we can fully support. Buy local, get to know your neighborhood businesses, strengthen your community, don't feel so alone in the world. Fantastic idea, and we'd like to see more businesses participating.

      

Hope springs eternal, and a good thing, too. Over on Slog, Bethany Jean Clement takes attendance in the cemetery, counting off the headstones of restaurants dead or mortally wounded. Familiar names; we bow our heads and shed a tear. And then, our moment of silence over, Life Goes On.

John Cook reports on more layoffs at Rhapsody, a RealNetwork unit based here in Seattle. Fortunately, there's good tech news today too: a Brazilian tech company called Spring Networks is setting up shop in the city, and will be hiring some 35 employees. The Southlake is looking at possible upsides to the bored tunnel viaduct replacement option. West Seattle Blog has more updates on the Junction shooting, including photos of the memorial set up at the site. And over at Sound Transit Blog, there's a list of the major Sound Transit Express changes coming up in 2009.

Chamber music. Even the name loses you, doesn't it? Music for chambers? Why, it makes no sense! That said, Seattle is rich in terrific musicians who like to play music in small groups. The naming problem isn't really their fault, but it's hard to get people to try them out in a concert hall. Even classical music lovers feel like they get more music, on a per musician basis, at a symphony performance. It's simple economics.

Now's the time to rent office space in Seattle's business districts, apparently. Microsoft halted talks on a possible office space lease in South Lake Union, citing economic woes. From the P-I's report: "The loss for now of Microsoft as a potential tenant will put additional downward pressure on office rental rates in Seattle, according to Kip Spencer, the co-founder of OfficeSpace.com and an executive at JE Dunn Construction Co." Ouch. Even the giant is brought to its knees when it comes to money problems.

LIVE LOCAL RADIO: Seattlest Abbey joins Josh from Sound on the Sound (Abbey's other writing gig) to play over an hour of great local bands, who not only have great albums out but also put on an amazing live show. This celebration of the best local live acts of 2008 is courtesy of basement-dwelling Hollow Earth Radio, an internet-only radio station that's on 24 hours a day, despite the fact you've never heard of them.

Seattlest just got back from a really long walk. It was gorgeous down by the water, through some lovely residential neighborhood in Eastlake, past the house boats and around the bottom of Lake Union near I Love Sushi, etc. At some point, heading back up toward Whole Foods, we realized our phone was missing. It's a red Blackberry Pearl with our picture, name and phone number on the screen. We posted something on Craigslist, but figured we'd ask you, fair readers: is there a lost and found for the world? Did anyone find our cell phone?

"Jack's Thorny Beanstalk" by Jonathan Hanlon

..Comes the proposed 300-foot-tall Paul Allen statue. The coffee pullers and community activists at Kapow! Coffee have begun a (satirical) petition to erect a 300-foot statue of Paul Allen, destroyer of the Cascade neighborhood and creator of South Lake Union, in the middle of a local park. Jeremiah of Kapow!, who we've always appreciated as much for his wit as his divine espresso, ribs, "We have to show the proper respect for all the wonderful things he's done for the neighborhood." We support the Kapow! petition and believe they should include an addendum to just rename the neighborhood "Allentown."


  • Metroblogging Seattle reported bit-by-bit the developing story of a pedestrian cab-scooter-van accident, which proved to be fatal. A 60-year-old passenger in the pedi-cab was killed after the open-air cab alternative suffered a mechanical malfunction and ran a red light.
  • PhinneyWood stays purely hyper-local reporting on two missing neighborhood pets: Sadie (a dog) and Kaitlyn Marie (a pure bred cat). While it might seem tedious or tiny to report, you better believe we'd use every electronic outlet we had to find them if one of the Seattlest guard cats went missing. We hope these folks are reunited with their pets soon.
  • The Southlake reports that, even though everyone else had their block party a couple nights ago, they're going to have theirs this Friday. The Southlake Union Block Party will be hosted at the "South Lake Union Discovery Center" which is a neighborhood-positive sounding name for a Vulcan property advertisement. This year there is actually a draw, though. A few decent local music acts and it's free, until you want to eat or drink. Even then, it's just $1 (that goes to non-profits) from a variety of area restaurants. Money you can actually feel good about spending in South Lake Union.


  • My Ballard and Phinney Wood shared a post on the annual Dead Baby Bike Race. With the recent fear-mongering regarding bicyclists in the local media--the bike race could likely have not come at a worse time. We're sure already freaked out Subaru drivers, aren't thrilled to think of the idea of a crudely named (see: hilarious) bike race that celebrates "Mutant Bike Culture."
  • Rejoice Francophiles and hipsters not allergic to the sun! Capitol Hill Seattle reports that Cafe Presse has opened a deck to accommodate outside seating. Few things are more French than enjoying a delicious and refined meal at a neighborhood sidewalk cafe, so we're thrilled to have a chance to mimic the experience at our neighborhood pseudo-Parisian cafe.
  • The Central District News breathed a sigh of relief and celebrated that this year's Umoja parade was bigger and better than ever.

If you didn't get enough of Sub Pop during all the recent twentieth anniversary festivities, tonight's another opportunity to salute the local label. Starting at 8 p.m. tonight, Mudhoney and No Age play a free show in the KEXP parking lot (113 Dexter Avenue N.) as part of the Toyota/Urban Outfitters Free Yr Radio concert series benefiting independent radio stations, including KEXP. The event's free, but you gotta print our your e-ticket at freeyrradio.com.

With all the construction, trolley tracks, and "Motorcycles Use Extreme Caution" signs around South Lake Union, this sounds like an accident (or numerous accidents) in the making. "Scoot About" is looking to become the ZipCar of the scooter market in South Lake Union.

This Seattlest finds it slightly alarming that Paul Allen has a functioning fleet of war planes, even if they are vintage ones. Starting this Friday, for a fee--because Paul Allen really needs more money--you can see Allen's private vintage warplane collection. Again the phrase "private warplane collection" makes us quake in our boots just a little bit, and raises all kinds of questions: can Paul Allen launch these war planes from his gigantic boat? How does one begin collecting vintage war planes? Is this just a rich man's version of "boys love their toys?" Is having a fully functioning fleet of bombers the secret to Paul Allen's power? Are they the real reason that NFL and NBA owners would never consider trying to steal the Seahawks or the Trailblazers? Are they his insurance for one day owning all of South Lake Union? (If they won't be bought out, they can be bombed out.) Why is Paul Allen organizing and restoring a fleet of warplanes considered a collection and not an air force? On the other hand, if he ever decides to buy a country, rather than a neighborhood--he's all set for aerial battle.

On Friday evening, Seattlest made our way down to the fashion event of the season: Product Runway at the South Lake Union Naval Reserve. Nineteen teams competed to show the best couture creation made of interior design elements.

Has the failing economy not touched you? The housing crunch not gotten you down? Would you enjoy tourists taking photos of your home or even planning sight-seeing trips to see it? Then do we have the home for you! The South Lake Union houseboat made famous by Sleepless in Seattle, is on the market. It could be yours for just $2.5 million.

The South Lake Union Trolley has struck again! Literally. Yesterday, the trolley struck its fourth car since its December debut. That averages an accident every month of the S.L.U.T.'s short existence, although this is the second accident we've reported in April. Yesterday's accident occurred when a car leaving the Center for Wooden Boats' parking lot hit the streetcar's right front bumper. No one was hurt in the accident. The collision shut down the streetcar for about half an hour, but then it returned to service.

While the printed media may be calling it the "Seattle streetcar" now, it will always be the S.L.U.T. to us. Yesterday afternoon one of the South Lake Union Trolleys struck a parked truck its backend was hanging over the streetcar's path. While the accident did not seriously damage either the streetcar or the parked truck, it did shut down service for 25 minutes, and the streetcar has been removed from service for minor repairs. No one was injured in the accident.

Those folks responsible for the "Ride the S.L.U.T." t-shirts--the fine, tiny coffee vendor next to Taco Del Mar in the SoLa neighborhood (or is it SoLu?)--are going to be charging you more from here on out. Kapow! Coffee is paying the price of gentrification, condos and slutty streetcars. According to the , the 200-square-feet of splendid coffee making real estate has been feeling the push-and-pull of larger nearby coffee vendors and the sudden boom of SoLa building.

It's not that development in itself sucks; it's that our county and city government doesn't believe in development for art's sake, despite all those studies about the half billion the arts return to the community. When we look around, we don't see a lot of public investment in the single most expensive thing that artists and smaller arts organizations have to face: a place to work, rehearse, show, perform.

The South Lake Union Streetcar will begin an eight-week test period soon, according to the Seattle Transit Blog.

#1 on our list of events for the weekend is the Elysian Pumpkin Beer Festival this Saturday up at the Capitol Hill location. There will be 13 different pumpkin beers on tap, including the GABF silver-medal-winning The Great Pumpkin Ale. Festivities begin at noon with the tapping of the Great Pumpkin at 4pm; a huge pumpkin in which a batch of Night Owl carried out its secondary fermentation. Yum.

Sometime this week it's going to be announced that Seattle's soccer team the Seattle Sounders will be entering the MLS. GOALSeattle says tomorrow. Our friend in Chicago who knows about these things says it'll be announced at MLS Cup, which isn't until November 18, so we'll discount that and say tomorrow. It seems pointless, by now, to argue whether or not it will be announced. The Sounders aren't selling 2008 season tickets, Paul Allen is involved, Qwest Field, although not a fan favorite as a MLS venue, is ready and willing. It's happening. Tomorrow.

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