One thing that we find delightful about the Seattle news environment is that occasionally it combines a small-town mentality with big-budget, big-city projects. This is one of those occasions. more ›

Long spoken of and rarely acted upon, the renovation and remodeling of The Seattle Center was again on the docket for Monday's City Council meeting. Center officials presented a number of new design ideas for the redevelopment of the Center. Central to these are the demolishing of Memorial Stadium and The Fun Forest. Proposed uses for the space include a new outdoor amphitheatre to replace Memorial Stadium, a brand new Center House, and plans to turn the asphalt of the Fun Forest into green space. more ›

"Spinning Away" by Melkir The Seattlest Flickr pool: Where doomed city installations go to die live on. Step right up! It's a feast for the eyes! more ›

This Seattlest started his carpet-bagging campaign here about ten years ago, so maybe we have an imperfect understanding of the Fun Forest and it's cultural baggage. When we heard that the City Council had elected to raze the Fun Forest in 2009 our first reaction was "What?! They're clear-cutting the Wenatchee National Forest?!" But then we caught on, as we occasionally do, and realized they were talking about the little carnivalette that lives in Seattle... more ›

To be fair, there are other reasons your travel might be delayed than long, slow freight trains -- they just may be more mysterious. After Alaska Airlines' troubles with depressurizations in the spring, they ordered a big inspection and -- headscratching all around -- found nothing much to report. Now the gremlin is back, and spewing smoke. (Shrug. These things happen.) At least an engine didn't go out, as with an American Airlines jet this morning. At 30,000 feet, you want all the engine you paid for. more ›

It's rained--hard--five out of the last six weekends. And after a week of beautiful weather, it's supposed to cloud over Saturday and rain Sunday. Along with the byplay of their weekend, the Seattlests answer the question "Why does God hate Seattle?" more ›

Yesterday while most of the city was all a-twitter about President Hu’s visit to the city (today he will get a tour of the Fun Forest, and attend a live taping of Northwest Afternoon), Ron Sims proposed a plan to pay for more buses by raising the county sales tax one tenth of one percent. more ›

Ron Sims graces the editorial pages of the Seattle Times today to dangle the carrot of a "re-imagined Seattle Center" in front of us. The Center sucks, he says, and it does. We can do better, he says, and we can. Some things like the Needle and the fountain should stay, but the Center House and the Fun Forest are crap he tells us in colorful metaphor: "Too much of Seattle Center remains like a relic from the '60s: a beloved but worn-out eight-track tape playing a dated, low-fi tune in an iPod world." more ›

With all this talk of indictments, World Series action, and last night's Gilmore Girls, it is easy to forget that we are about to pick a mayor. Well, not so much forget as not realize. more ›