Results tagged “harborisland”

Princess Cruises and Holland America are both currently in a kind of limbo in Seattle. They use Terminal 30 by Harbor Island which the Port wants to convert back to something that can be used by container ships. The plan is to move the cruise berths to Terminal 91 in Magnolia where they can be properly outfitted with shore power and whatnot, but the cruise lines aren't excited about it because that will mean a bigger moorage bill for them and they'll have to schlep their passengers that much farther from the airport. Last month the Port announced that it was delaying the project, uh, until construction prices come down? Does the Port know something we don't? Construction prices don't come down.

Last year artists Sarah Kavage and Nicole Kistler collaborated on an art installation called The Living Barge Project that opened Seattlest's eyes two facts. One, Seattle has a river. Two, that river sucks. We took a tour of the Duwamish to hear about some of the environmental nightmares that exist in and around it and to see Sarah and Nicole's Living Barge, which was exactly what it sounds like: a barge, planted and beautiful. We crushed on it so hard that we were one industrial accident in the Bay away from absconding with it under cover of night and breaking for open water. That was a year ago. Now the Barge has been dismantled and replanted in South Park and while the river may still suck, at least a whole lot more people are aware of it. Seattlest for one. Rivers never actually suck, of course, and the Duwamish is no exception, but the lower five miles just before it empties into Elliott Bay around Harbor Island are a Superfund site. PCBs, PAHs, mercury, phthalates, blah blah blah. You're a bitter pill, industry.

The Tacoma News Tribune had their big Seattle cruise season preview a few weeks ago: 191 cruise ship calls, 3,000 busloads of passengers from the airport to the cruise terminals, 14,082 cruise industry jobs created in 2005, 1 article we couldn’t get completely through. Harpers index it ain’t. Unless this is it, we’re still waiting for the Seattle dailies to publish their yearly love poems to the cruise industry.

These pictures have a distinct "Usual Suspects" air about them, like something's about to happen and it's going to involve automatic weapons fire and European accents with a few mutants or extraterrestrials on the side.

-The president of China is hitting Seattle for a little vacay next week and you absolutely cannot come to Seattle without stopping by Bill's for a little of Melinda's casserole. Hopefully he'll be taking a few souvenir Boeings home with him.

Last week a commenter pointed out Flood Maps which pairs NASA elevation data with Google Maps and show us the various lands we'd lose if the ocean were to raise a variable amount of meters. Worldchanging hit on this at the end of March:

It's not easy to get to the South Park neighborhood of Seattle. At least it wasn't for us. We had directions to a marina where we would get a guided tour and we still had problems. With a guide! Last Saturday we drove around Harbor Island a little, saw some sights, met lots of friendly Chinese and finally arrived at the Harbor Marina just in time for a Duwamish river tour and the opening weekend of the Living Barge project.

-Smith Tower, Seattle icon and Seattlest logo participant, was sold today for $44M by the Samis Foundation to a Chicago investment group.

In 2000 or 2001 a number of shipping containers showed up at Harbor Island filled not with stereos and Nikes, but with hopeful new residents. Local author Jonathan Raban was so affected by the human smuggling operation at that time that he wrote it as central to his 2003 novel Waxwings in which an entrepreneurial-minded transplant from "Everett" arrives on our shores the sole surviver of a similar container cruise and sets about making good. If the news pieces from 2001 didn't cement human trafficing via shipping container into our regional mythology, Raban's novel did.

From time to time we residents of this unique/Northwestern/American city develop blindspots into which it's difficult to see. Jonathan Raban has made a good go of assisting us in these situations --sometimes just by nudging the mirror a little-- so we contacted him hoping he could help with a little perspective on our viaduct dilemma. He doesn't disappoint. Discussed are the Viaduct, the waterfront, South Lake Union, Aurora Ave North, the Tube, traffic, money, legacies, neuroses, wagers against the future, Seattle's misconceptions, Seattlest's misconceptions and, finally, Jonathan's upcoming books.

While Seahawk fans were cheering on the home team and celebrating a trip to the most Super of Bowls yesterday a nearby tug boat gave up on life and sank. The 101' Island Brave went down in 30' of water near the mouth of the Duwamish on the west side of Harbor Island with 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel and nearly pulled another tug down with it. We're guessing the accident was not a result of marauding Seahawks fans, although if it's painted blue and green with "12"s all over it when they raise it we'll let you know.

Yesterday a man died after he accelerated past three stopped cars, crashed through two barriers and plunged off of the open edge of the Spokane Street swing bridge. The Volkswagon Jetta landed on its roof, killing the driver on impact, on Harbor Island below. According to witnesses the car had been waiting in line behind several others, but suddenly pulled out and ahead through the two barriers. The bridge will be closed through today as repair work is done on the apparently ineffectual barriers.