It's a City of Seattle Cinderella story: where once there stood a sketchy motel, offering hourly rates along one of the city's main drags for johns, shall now, the Mayor has decreed, stand a vivacious low-income housing project, with 70 units and on-site assistance from Catholic Housing Services. more ›

Aurora's signs used to be boisterous and noisy. As cars have sped up, they've quieted down. more ›

You were warned, Seattle. But still, you broke the rules. Moral of the story? Speeders gonna speed, talkers gonna talk, and reading the news could spare you from a ticket. more ›

How did they take this aerial photo of Wallingford around 1925? The new photo isn't quite right. Can you figure out the real spot? more ›

The main impediment to bicycle commuting in Seattle is that there's no direct route from where all the bike people live (north of the ship canal, mostly) to where all the jobs are (Downtown). So why not just make Aurora bike-only? FACT: Anyone driving down Aurora in a car who needed to get Downtown could just cut over on 85th Avenue North and catch the freeway there. more ›

Last night at about 10:20 p.m., a bicyclist was struck and killed by a car taking the Dexter Way North exit from Aurora, says Queen Anne News. The police arrested the car's driver after "an evaluation showed signs of impairment." more ›

• It was just another case of the slow-going Mondays when a power line pole--and a live wire--came down early this morning after a garbage truck slammed into it. Power was shut down and Aurora Ave. was closed while crews cleaned up the busted pole strewn across the corner of Northeast 84th Street and Aurora Ave North.
• This weekend's street closures were for a just cause, as 2,513 dedicated people walked, jogged, and pedaled their way throughout Seattle in the LIVESTRONG Challenge, which raised over $1 million to fight cancer.

We're just trying to imagine how police will go about investigating this morning's fire at the 10500 block of Midvale Avenue N (just off Aurora, near N Northgate Way). The SPD Blotter reports that the fire, which began at 4 a.m., was the result of an accelerant being "sprayed on and underneath" the victim's front door. No one was injured. more ›

The intrepid Monica Cohn filed this report for us from the great northern hinterlands west of Greenlake. more ›

Organizers announced the course for the Seattle Rock and Roll marathon today, which will replace last year's bungled Seafair Marathon. The hilly June 27 race is a for-profit event run by a California company. It starts in Tukwila, near a casino and sexpresso stands, and will show off the industrial area around Boeing, and Rainier Beach, before heading up the Alaskan Way Viaduct and must-see Highway 99. And since there's a rock music theme, expect to hear "Smells Like Teen Spirit" approximately 26.2 times. more ›

The corner of Denny and Dexter represents the latest outbreak in an epidemic of uninspired developments destined to pollute our landscape for generations. more ›

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. more ›

One pancake house goeth, and another strip club cometh; but Aurora's tackiness abideth forever. Looks like Bob Davis, the guy who's plunking down cash for Cyndy's Pancake House, will be turning the into a kitchen-equipped strip club come spring. Seattlest knows not a few rappers who will be very happy at the prospect of food plus sexy naked ladies, that's for sure. Mmmm, bacon and boobs! Two of life's greatest pleasures, right? Together at last. more ›

Last night, concerned citizens met at Town Hall to discuss the remaining two viaduct replacement options on the table. Though there are some still holding out for options that have already been discarded, Gregoire, Sims and Nickels will be deciding between these two only: a surface transit hybrid (map [pdf], fact sheet [pdf])and an elevated bypass four-lane scenario (map [pdf], fact sheet [pdf]). We couldn't make it to the meeting, so we'd like to stage our own Seattlest version right here, right now: what do you think, and why? (Comments are welcome, poll closes at noon tomorrow.) more ›

The feds shut down three more brothels masquerading as tanning salons, this time in Greenwood, Tukwila and Renton. They're still using that cover story? Come on, people. Now that three more "salons" have bit the dust, we're sure Seattle will move further along the journey towards restoring the shining image of tanning salons as our community's beacons of health and moral rectitude. Also, our condolences go out to the undercover investigators who risked infectious skin diseases in the name of gathering evidence for this case. more ›

You may be under the impression that Seattle's numerous Than Brothers locations are equal to each other, each serving delicious pho in similarly disheveled and and unappealing dining rooms. We’re here to tell you that you are wrong. Over the past year, Seattlest David and Rachael have exhaustively toured Seattle's five Than Brothers to give you the best, the worst, and most importantly, the goldfish-iest of Seattle’s most ubiquitous of pho restaurants. Today we’ll be providing a brief overview of the distinctive features of each Seattle location. Friday we’ll be back with the first annual 2008 Seattlest Than Brothers PhO-dyssey awards! more ›

Rudolph Valentino. Ray Charles. Jerry Lee Lewis dancing on pianos, for God's sake! Dance in Seattle had anything but a boring 20th century. We were prowling around the internet this morning and discovered that today is the anniversary of the date the city banned a really bizarre but popular 1920s and '30s fad called "dance marathons" within its city limits. That was enough to pique our interest, and we've spent the day researching what was happening in the world of dance during the 20th century. Here are some of the highlights, thanks in large part to our favorite local history website: HistoryLink.org. more ›

Ahh, Aurora: what a beautiful name for Seattle's often-ugly, often-sketchy throughway! Why does it not surprise us to hear that an Aurora "tanning salon," located in the Oak Tree cluster, got busted this weekend for fronting a prostitution service? So, so tacky. more ›