This is what a sham looks like, at least through the somewhat inadequate lens of my iPhone’s camera.
Last night hundreds of people gathered again to voice our opinions about the best public use of the Fun Forest site at the Seattle Center, and once again we couldn’t help but get the vibe that we were just being humored. Oh, the committee and the Chihuly gift-shop/catering-hall folks at least tried to make a better show of it this time as compared to the insulting propaganda-fest of the first public meeting, but it was still just a show. I didn’t talk to anybody who believed a decision hasn’t already been made.
The problem is, as much as the committee will ultimately claim that this was a fair and open process, there’s nothing fair or open about taking a year and a half to secretly negotiate the details of the Chihuly proposal, and then publishing an RFP tailored to the same while giving everybody else just six weeks to respond. And so yeah, I kinda resented being there last night playing the role of “Man in Auditorium” in the Seattle Center’s unintentional amateur production of Our Town.
And like most bad theater, it’s not hard to predict how this play ends.
Great post!
Is it the Times or the P-I who are running an article today to the effect of the proposals being down to respectable paying tenants (Chihuly) versus open grass for hipsters to hold free loud music events?
Being Goldy’s age, I don’t have much patience for hipsters anymore, but I’d sure rather have the flexible utility of open grass and trees (and even a kick-ass playground) than a museum dedicated to the work of a niche player in the dubiously interesting world of glass sculpture… Yuck!
It’s all textbook stuff:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sea.....1197867600^1562986
We need more open space! We need more grass! Think Central Park light; a nice place to stroll with the family, have a picnic, throw a ball.
You want glass, drive 20 miles south.
Tear 90% of the buildings down, plant a little grass, maybe a pond or two, some nice big Elm trees and there you go.
Most of those calling for more grass seem unaware that current plans call for returning another five acres to grass, including the Memorial Stadium, which will become a grassy amphitheater.
Those hoping for a super-duper playground should check out the play area that replaced the north Fun Forest. It’s concrete with a basketball court, a painted labyrinth, a tent and a straw maze. Pretty unappealing and disappointing.
Sounds like sour grapes to me.
Hmmm. Like the EMP and heh.. Science Fiction Museum? Not even John Curley could boost that one.
Best laid plans indeed…
Hello TEAM Horses Ass! Here is my Tacomic cartoon opinon on the proposed CThihuly museum: http://comics.feedtacoma.com/t.....eedle-fun/
enjoy! Where’s david horesy? Oh… he’s in the ladies room changing his adult diaper.
Let Chihuly gift-shop/catering-hall move into the NW rooms. The Center was for tearing down that building when the new monorail was in the works. So why rent it to the new grab-tourist-dollars Chihuly glass shop?
@4
I would much rather some money be put into Memorial Stadium.
I am sick of tired of hearing about war memorials, which Memorial Stadium is(to those seattle school district high school students killed in WW2) being shitcanned in the name of progress and the all mighty dollar.
Put some remodel money into the stadium and continue to use it as the HS football stadium it currently is, and open it up to outdoor concerts and other events.
Rather than tearing down war memorials, I would rather see more built.
Maybe we can find some reasonable compromise in a proposal for having both an outdoor Chilhully glass display and an adjacent kid’s playground with lots of rocks to throw.
great, just what we need…another “been there done that” amphitheater probably to be named after some asshole politician or community organizer….or even worse a company.
who needs war memorials, right? who needs a sense of honor and history, right?
makes me want to puke.
@10
your a bad man steve. lol
I keep getting Chilhully and Cthulhu mixed up. But then this is understandable. Neither one would be good for Seattle.
City council has to sign off on this. That’s where the leverage lies.
Ekim @13:
Actually, Ekim, it’s pretty easy to differentiate them. Cthulhu is the one without an eyepatch. And he actually does his own work.
@15
LOL….instant classic!
“And like most bad theater, it’s not hard to predict how this play ends.”
It ends in lawsuits, of course. Whatever else you might say about us lawyer, ya gotta admire our ability to tie up bureaucratic decisions for years in the courts.