MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive IN THURSDAY'S NOOZE

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IN THURSDAY'S NOOZE

December 13th, 2007 by Clark Humphrey

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Paul Allen and Amazon will get to build 160-foot-tall office buildings in South Lake Union.
Can the Sonics be saved? Some say yes! Among them: MS head honcho Steve Ballmer. There’s a lot more dealmaking and haggling to go, though.
What should be done with the ex-Public Safety Building block downtown, which has been a big hole in the ground for more than two years now? Some city officials (read: Mayor Nickels) would like a “civic square” project. This turns out to be, as you might have guessed, a privately-developed office/condo tower with a bit of a bricked public plaza at the base.
Pike Place Market officials want to raise $80 million, presumably from public sources. They claim the money’s needed for essential infrastructure improvements, some of which weren’t done when the Market was “saved” in the ’70s.
How to save Pt. Townsend’s tourist biz: How ’bout a passenger ferry direct from downtown Seattle?
The SLUT’s first day of passenger service was interrupted for half an hour when somebody found a stray ball bearing in the track.
Meanwhile, Lake Union businesses are already helping pay for the next phase of transportation improvements–additional bus runs on two existing Metro routes.