Summer Nights at the Gasworks Park
It looks like the Summer Nights concert series is going to move to Gasworks Park this year after last season's flop on the other side of the lake and we say it's not a moment too soon. Gasworks is a fantastic park that has been underutilized for as long as we've been in the neighborhood. It's such a great space and it's so wasted on the handfull of kite flyers, slack liners, skateboarders and resting Burke Gilman runners that you find there on any given day.
Fourth of July is great and all, but it's one time a year. Gasworks should be drawing big crowds weekly during the summer and our only guess as to why it hasn't been is that the luxury condo owners in the area have been overly successful in blocking it. From what we've witnessed, though, the median age of those condo residents has been plummeting. It's not exactly the Fremontification of the Gasworks area but with all the new developments around there like the monolithic Regatta condos, prices have come down somewhat. Is it overgeneralizing to say that older condo owners are only concerned with where to park the damn Lincoln and thirtysomethings are still looking to rock it out in their neighborhood? Screw you, Grandpa. You own your 800 square feet, not the whole place.
Can we please open a few bars down there while we're at it? We love the PI and the Dock more than anybody and we hate to see the damage the non-smoking thing has wrought at those places, but a few more options would be nice. Maybe something on the water not named "Ivars."
As far as the actual content of these Gasworks Park concerts; the artists have not been released. Please, please, please let's get something a little more exciting than last year's deadbeats. We're not saying that it has to be Death Cab or the like, but Kenny Wayne Shepherd? Please.
