Results tagged “downtown”

"In the frame" by Bjørn Giesenbauer ( giesenbauer ), from our Flickr pool

The Pink Door has large black canvas shades to keep the sun out of your eyes, but said shades don't keep the heat out. All evening we were patting our temple with our cloth napkin like a 19th-century lawyer.

A vision of beauty to some, while others, including tourist site TripAdvisor find Seattle's gum wall to be one of the grossest and germiest tourist attractions in the world--second only to the Irish Blarney Stone.

An interesting take on the Hammering Man from Espressobuzz in the Flickr Pool.

      

Indeed, we are talking about the alpha-pork mobile Maximus Minimus, the newest mobile food creation by Kurt Dammeier of Beecher's and Pasta & Co. and local designer Colin Reedy. We spotted--hard not to--the giant metal pig-mobile parked truck at the corner of 2nd and Pike, selling a simple menu of pulled pork (and veg) sandwiches and a few of its fixins.

We usually opt for the Pike Place Special or the Rachel's All-American (both are fantastic), but today we spotted a sign declaring the special of the day as a Prime Rib Sandwich (cue drooling). We placed our order, gave our name, and paid at the register. When we told the guy up front what we'd ordered, he shook his head and said, "Man, everyone is ordering that. There's not going to be any left for me." He seemed genuinely upset by this.

        

All in all, opening night of SIFF this year wasn't half-bad. The movie was good, the weather cooperated, and unlike last year, there was actually free food and drinks. Of course, the program didn't start until 20 minutes late, which means after all the introductions and thank yous, the film was on at 8 p.m. instead of 7. You know, SIFF stuff.

"New Hive @ Night" by Ray Hutchinson, plucked from our Flickr pool

Devastating news for most adolescents as their favorite malls--and parent-free hang-outs--are facing bankruptcy. General Growth Properties Inc., the nation's second-largest mall operator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which owns local mall properties: Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham, and Westlake Center in Seattle. With their stock prices cheaper than an on-sale pack of gum, financial reorganization will be key, for what's been claimed as the largest real estate failure. We just hope it can turn around, so it doesn't force a void (and access to the Monorail) in downtown.

The survey will be conducted throughout certain pockets of the city; volunteers are asked to avoid drunk people (there goes Belltown), don't wake anyone up, and knock only once on campers and cars before they begin gathering additional information about the needs and issues that the homeless face to find permanent housing.

KIRO 7 says many people parking downtown are cheating by using handicap placards that do not legally belong to them. Those with placards have the ability to park for as long as they like in pay spots on the street, and since it's illegal to tow handicap vehicles in the state of Washington, have little to worry about.

We just got an email about this event from the folks at Sound Magazine, so thanks for the seven-hour heads up, we guess: "Sound Magazine presents The Song Show, an evening of amazing music and riveting onstage conversation with the Northwest's best looking artists and audience, filmed live!" The lineup is as follows: 7:30 p.m. Ross Beamish, 8:15 p.m. Kyle Bradford, 9 p.m. Betsy Olson, 9:30 p.m. Betsy Olson band set with Sera Cahoone. It's tonight at the Can Can, with tickets $5 GA and $10 VIP seating (with a better view).

• A Redmond-based firm's high-tech biomaterial is being used to treat dogs with glaucoma, reports TechFlash.
• Rainier Valley Post has a story about a woman whose laptop was stolen right out of her lap as she was working in a Southend coffeeshop.
• CHS is celebrating the release of a new infographic (!!) showing the busiest pedestrian areas of downtown, and wishing we had the same kind of map for the Hill.

If you're anything like this Seattlest, fancy haircuts aren't exactly budgeted. Sure, any swanky Seattleite can trip into a downtown salon and fall into its charm, but it's us young, broke, and fabulous folks that need a good reason to splurge.

Friends, it's time we put aside our differences and came together in the name of an hour that is happy. This "happy hour" will consist of finely mixed beverages and tasty snackers from the good people at the Zig Zag. We shall brave the cold and the rain and the hellfire just to reach the fun. This month's happy hour also serves as our quasi-4th birthday pseudo-celebration, so join us from 5-8 p.m. Oh yes, there is also a prize pack to give away (including a $10 gift certificate to Barrio, t-shirt, beer mug, shot glass, and bottle opener), courtesy of the app-happy people at GoTime. Drop us an RSVP on teh Facebook, and head on down to the Zig Zag tonight.

As part of a push to clean up downtown, Seattle Public Utilities will be reclaiming 700 dumpsters from the alleys south of Denny and west of I-5. In order to maintain some kind of order, they'll increase the number of daily trash and recycling pick-ups from that area. We mandated a roundtable discussion of the move at Seattlest HQ so our readers can more intensely experience every facet of our hive blog-mind.

CommuteSeattle is an "initiative of the Downtown Transportation Alliance (Downtown Seattle Association, King County Metro and the City of Seattle)" which is responding to the fact that driving in and out of Seattle on a regular basis begins by giving you a twitchy eye and ends with a Glock in the glovebox which you promise to only use on people who drive up beside you and try to merge. It's for commuters, employers, and property owners, and it tries to assemble all the information any of them might need to help people choose life (outside a car). We count ten little car-alternative icons on the home page for commuters. Ten! Maybe they should add one for Snow Day.

"I Love Seattle" by James Hall (seattleye)

What a breaking news afternoon we're having. We were alerted by @thesouthlake's tweet about a 3:30 p.m. bank robbery at the WaMu at 5th and Union downtown. KING 5 says the robber says he left a bomb behind, which means he has also left a lot of snarled traffic behind. The suspect is "in his 30s with no facial hair and no glasses," which leaves us out because we're wearing glasses and have been all day. Anyway, that block of 5th is shut down until they sort it out.

Friday night, in the midst of gorging ourselves on approximately one shit-ton of deep-fried food, conversation turned to pimps and hos, as is our wont. Our host for the evening, a kindly trucker, started gushing about downtown men's boutique Leroy's, which has somehow escaped our attention up till now, even though it's right at 2nd and Pike. The following ridiculous description from Yelp convinced us that we must drop by this fine establishment posthaste.

According to this visualization of the tunnel viaduct replacement option, downtown is about to get very, very clean.

You still have time to get downtown for the parade, according to Seattlest Kim, who is at Fourth and Pine waiting for the march to start in earnest. The advertised start time was 10 a.m., but according to her sources, the parading will commence at 11 a.m. At last count, Kim was one of eleven gathered at the intersection--"eleven and the mighty spirit of Dr. King," we reminded her. If you're not chained to your desk, make an enthusiastic sign, put on your most comfortable sneakers and join Kim downtown. It will be fun! UPDATE: The parade was canceled due to low turn-out....Seriously.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will be providing a huge chunk of financial support for Seattle's light-rail project--to the tune of $813 million. That's about 40% of the total cost, says the math-savvy P-I this morning. Doesn't sound like the extra federal funding, an increase from initial promises, will make the work go any faster; we're still looking at 2016 as a finish date for the main light-rail route from downtown to the UW. Reading all the details about tunneling in different kinds of soil is exciting, though, and reminds us that this is really happening. We're really getting light-rail! 2016 is only seven Christmases away!

"Seattle night-lights" by Scott Cahill Rude

Never know what you're gonna find when you climb down a manhole. It could be your average sewer, or... well, this guy found a huge, once-luxurious, 120-year-old Turkish bathhouse hidden under downtown Tacoma. The kicker is that the property was at times owned by famous vice lords Peter Sandberg (7th paragraph down on this page) and Vito Cuttone (11th paragraph down). How fantastic, in the traditional sense of the word! Really, who woulda thunk? It seems ripe for some sort of historical romance novel about a prostitute, her pimp, and the logger who loves them both.

"Seattle Macy's Christmas Star and the Merry-Go Round" by seattlerealtorgal

(First, did you get our Herb Alpert reference? This is the kind of thing that gives us the eye-twitch.) Spencer Alpert--he's a real estate developer, he owns a 2008 all-electric Tesla--says on his website that he's "partnering with a major New York developer on an iconic high rise tower project in downtown Seattle." Now the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce reports (thx, Jesse!), that Alpert is courting the Donald, and wants to build a "strikingly tall marquee two-tower condo project." It seems like perfect timing: "With five new buildings, encompassing about two million square feet, opening next year, the vacancy rate [in Seattle] is expected to hit 15 percent. Most of the new space has not been leased."

Is your vita not so dolce? Go to Stella on First Avenue across from SAM, order a doppio, and drink it at the bar just like those I-talians do. It's cheaper than taking a seat at one of the marble-topped tables, and makes you feel all cool and Euro. Owner/barista Rob Wilson wants to encourage customers to sip and chat, rather than sulk behind laptops. Don't worry--we'll still be here when you log on again. Ciao.

A tipster tells us of a rumor that Apple is moving into the old Sharper Image digs downtown, substantiated by a "We're Hiring" post on Monster that mentions a 98101 ZIP code. We've asked our iPhone for comment, but so far we've gotten nothing and we're afraid to try waterboarding. Meanwhile, TechFlash is chronicling Microsoft's Live Search Cashback debacle, in which a promised 40 percent discount on HP products failed to materialize. Live Search query volume "has actually declined 7.8% since last year." Let's see how this "Step Two: Create Thousands of Angry Customers" strategy works.

Seattle 911 shows a massive response to something going down at 810 Virginia downtown. The call came at 1:13 p.m. and if we're counting right we see almost 30 units on the response, including air. "Lots of fire engines and two helicopters," says a tipster in the area. UPDATE: KOMO reports that, "Dozens of fire and medic units were sent to a building in Downtown Seattle Monday afternoon after reports of a strong smell that made some feel dizzy." "KING 5 says pepper spray," says wakingjonas in the comments...and now they're back to an "unknown substance." The building in question houses the 911 dispatch center, it turns out. UPDATE: As of 2:30 p.m., the emergency part is over. Now comes the hardest part: creating scary evening news teasers to boost ratings.