After stringing it along for months as to whether it would extend its lease another year, the City told management at the Seattle Center’s Fun Forest to clear out by January 2… despite the fact that the Fun Forest was prepared to hand the cash-strapped Center a $250,000 check.
You can read more, including Fun Forest manager Beth McNelley’s on-target email rant, over on Slog.
The intention was always to sell that public land off to the highest private bidder. There was never a fully “public” option, there wasn’t even any real discussion allowed on the subject. Makes you wonder whose palms were crossed with green, and how much was involved.
There is no better lubricant for the skids of bureaucracy than cold hard untraceable cash, liberally applied to the most strategically emplaced personnel.
Thanks a lot, Goldy. You told us to elect Greg Nickels. We did. And Nickels chose Robert Nellams as Seattle Center Director. And Nellams wants to tear down the Fun Forest and replace it with a Chihuly museum.
As I said over at the Slog, but I’ll repeat here because I think Goldy (who I usually agree with)is being so incredibly shoddy on this subject:
Goldy – you’re too smart for this sort of one sided “reporting”. Shoddy work.
Do a google search for “Fun Forest Debt” and get the whole story, not this one sided shit.
The Fun Forest is being closed because attendance is down and it was behind in rent payments. The City Council made this decision in 2007, long before the Chihuly idea existed, and before McGinn. This was not some surprise as McNeeley suggested. The Fun Forest has been paying rent, but a very reduced rent. The City was able to find a new tenant (another private company) that could pay twice as much rent, bring in millions for other projects on campus, and bring more people to the Center, benefiting all the other organizations.
from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…
The Fun Forest has known it would be closed for years. This wasn’t some surprise as “Under a proposed deal with the city, the Fun Forest amusement park, a remnant of the 1962 World’s Fair, would permanently close at the end of 2009.”
“The Fun Forest has lost business in recent years and fallen behind on rent payments to the city. In exchange for reduced rent, the Fun Forest would agree to shorten its lease, which now runs through 2014. The City Council’s parks committee is scheduled to vote on the proposal today.”
When this decision was made in 2007, “The amusement park owes $763,890 in back rent, fees and taxes to the city, and is projected to fall an additional $821,000 short this year and next.”
Now, instead of the 5 acres a private company paid low rent on (and apparently not on time), if the Mayor and Council go with the Chihuly option we’ll have a new $1 million playground with money for maintenance for 20 years (aren’t you happy someone listened to your idea Goldy?), a great stage for outdoor concerts, a revamped food court (hopefully with some decent food – can’t really feel sorry for the Pizza Huts and the like who will hopefully be replaced) and KEXP on a campus also home to Vera and SIFF, not to mention the Children’s Museum, Pacific Science Center, EMP, McCaw Hall, etc etc.
Yet Goldy, you would rather have some not as popular as they used to be kiddie rides that pay little rent, a very badly in need of updating center house, and a bunch of empty pavement? I’ll take Nellams’ vision over yours any day with the added bonus of millions in extra income for the City and many more visitors to the Center.
Fun Forest…it’s neither fun, nor a forest…discuss!
Money talks, and Wright money talks loudest of all.