Photo by Sea Kay from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

Boston made waves in the '70s with its Little City Hall program. Heck, MIT even published a book about it. It's time for Seattle to cash in: we beat their patent by a half century. more ›

Sometimes nothing's more eloquent than silence and nothing's more beautiful than negative space. This hand-cut map of Seattle from studiokmo takes advantage of that fact, turning the water and the places people live into empty space and making our roads into vast expanses of white. It's stark, it's elegant, and it shows the beautiful flow of our city. Less loud than the neighborhood maps, it still speaks volumes about Seattle. It's yours for a cool $1,000. more ›

Many residents resisted the idea of annexation, and actually voted it down in 1905. However rapid population growth left the City of Ballard struggling to provide municipal services--particularly water--to its residents. A rumor of a dead horse found in Ballard's reservoir might have swayed some voters. more ›

• Seattle Metblogs sent Josh over to The Croc for last night's Soundcheck, and true to form, he brought back a report and some photos. Jealous!
• Mmm, fry bread. And mmm, justice! West Seattle Blog gives ups to the Duwamish tribal "Fry Bread For Justice" event happening this weekend.
• Andrew over at Seattle Transit Blog speaks up in support of the federally funded overpass between Microsoft's campus sections.

Miller is a Maple Leaf resident, and is--oh, it's all coming back to us now--declaring for city council member Richard McIver's old spot, since McIver is retiring. "Based upon input from hundreds of Seattle residents, David Miller’s campaign is focused on four priorities: Grow Responsibly, Strengthen Neighborhoods, Prioritize People, and Return to Basics." Strengthen neighborhoods? Jesus, can you imagine? If the neighborhoods were any neighborhoodier, we'd have armed raids between the duchies of Wallingford and Fremont, just like in pre-Risorgimento Italy. No, we're afraid on that basis alone we'll be voting for the candidate who runs on Irresponsible Growth, Deprioritizing People, and Striking Out Toward the Hideously Complex. more ›

In the "State of the City" address on Tuesday, Mayor Greg Nickels introduced his new plan to make housing more affordable in Seattle. Definitely something Seattle needs to tackle with verve and determination, we just don't think anyone is going to take the "Affordable Seattle Strategy" (ASS) that seriously. Then again, partially thanks to Mayor Nickels a few Seattlites do ride the S.L.U.T., so maybe it's right on par. The State of the City address also featured other great Mayor Nickels acronyms like SNAP (Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepare), SCAN (Seattle Climate Action Now), and while it's not an acronym ... "carbon taxes." Emphasis added, we assure you, by Mayor Nickels. more ›

We love lists. Which is why we're a little sad that we didn't know about Amazon.com's UnSpun until we read The Paper Noose's post on Georgetown's place in the Top "Hip" Neighborhoods to Live in Seattle, WA. There's nothing we love better than completely arbitrary lists with no discernible criteria beyond kneejerk personal opinion -- except maybe passing them along. According to UnSpun users, the top 10 "hip" neighborhoods are: 1. Capitol Hill (surprise,... more ›

, columnist Joel Connelly blithely goes along with the argument that if Prop. 1--the tax-heavy plan to breathe funding-life into the Regional Transportation Improvement District (RTID)--fails, the entire region will continue tottering along to complete and total transportation infrastructure collapse. more ›

"After two years, it's definitely moving," writes invaluable neighborhood blogger Captain Columbia City. He talked to the market's coordinator, Karen, on Wednesday, the last day the Columbia City Farmers Market will be open this year.

Of course, Columbia City Plaza was sold to a development firm on the east coast recently, and so when the Plaza owners lease expires early next year, they'll sign a new one with the new owners. The new owners are planning on putting in a mixed use retail & condo development, but they realize that the planning & permitting process will take years, so they've very kindly offered the current space rent free for the next two years while the permitting process takes place. more ›

Outfit called Not For Tourists has just published a guide to Seattle. It's a handsome book, looks just like Moleskine journal, complete with oilcloth cover, fat elastic closure, gorgeous paper. The Seattle version is tenth in a series, cobbled together by a design staff in faraway Noo Yawk with input by a locally based "city editor" named Fred Beldin, who contributes occasional music reviews to The Stranger. more ›

Sunday, we were the belle of the Ballard Farmers' Market. We’d like to attribute it to our warm countenance and general appeal, but really it was our Brussels Sprouts. For $3 paid to Sidhu Farms we became the proud mama of a majestic stalk of Brussels sprouts. more ›

Are full of passionate intensity. The Dems betray us with wimpishness while the radio rethugs rush to attack phony soldiers. more ›

Real estate search engine Rotten Neighbor promises to help you "find bad neighbors before you move." What evils have users uncovered behind the closed doors of the Emerald City? more ›

Seriously, a 14-minute commute by bus to downtown Seattle? That’s lucky, you must live in Seattle city limits, you are probably thinking. Well, we would like to inform you that thanks to Seattle’s improved underground roadway and the Eastgate Park & Ride, (which is a place we hold dear to our hearts) you can get from Bellevue to downtown Seattle in 14 minutes or less. We did it this morning and even had enough time for a frittata breakfast sandwich at Frontier Café. It doesn’t get better. more ›

Last night's Arcade Fire show was rife with problems. Not with the Arcade Fire, Lord knows they can do no wrong, but with the opening bands, and most of all, with the venue. Somehow, even though the scheduled time for the show was 7:30pm, the time published everywhere---on the Ticketmaster site, in ads for the show, in UW emails, on the goddamn tickets---doors actually opened at 6:30pm and the Gossip started playing right around 7. This would explain why no one was there for their set. more ›

Biodiesel drivers rejoice! There's a new place to fill your French-fry-smelling tanks thanks to Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuelwerks grand opening of a new, and may we say much more accessible, location, in the Ravenna neighborhood on Friday. more ›

Once upon a time Seattlest considered North Aurora to be a shithole, to be avoided at all costs. But, eventually, we had to go to Home Depot and a used car lot, and that car rack store, and (doh) the unemployment office, and the movie theater, and IHOP and the European deli and Computer Stop and Chubby & Tubby (so far not Stupid Prices, though) and Kmart, Burgermaster, the cemetery and a hundred other tiny places the memories of which have congealed into one big impression of Aurora Avenue North. Now we consider it one of the most organic, vibrant and honest places in the city. more ›

"Neighbors fear development" has become the Seattle equivalent of "dog bites man." Of course neighbors fear development. That's what they do. more ›

Municipal WiFi was once all the rage in city governments, but the networks currently in place are falling down where it matters most (poorer neighborhoods, of course) and those cities with time to back out are doing so. Chicago just called it quits. more ›

We want to know where's the scariest place to live or hang out within Seattle city limits. (Sorry, Skyway and White Center. Check again after annexation.) more ›

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If the sampling includes exactly Seattlest's commitment-phobic friend who just bought his first condo and the participants in a recent office conversation, then absolutely everyone is moving to West Seattle. Per that conversation there are only two things West Seattle doesn't have: wedding dresses and a Trader Joes. Oh, and jobs. And pull with the city government. Four things! Yes, if it weren't for weddings, two-buck chuck and work there would be no reason to ever leave the burrough. It must truly be a paradise. more ›

We got our first link to WalkScore in the email a week ago and the idea of a mapping site that scored the walkability of neighborhoods sounded interesting, but when we tried to visit the site we found that it didn't work in Firefox. more ›

Yesterday Seattlest said the following: more ›

When Fremont News closed last November, our hearts wept a little. We prepared to write another snarky post entitled something like "Fremont Ave. Prepares for Much-needed New Over-priced Boutique". We hate over-priced boutiques because, for example, they make us buy high-quality, cute shoes at appropriately expensive prices. The last thing we needed was yet another over-priced boutique to tempt our paltry pocketbooks; the last thing Fremont needed was yet another over-priced shop to cater to more ›

News from a day where we spent hours looking for a two-cent stamp. more ›

Neighborhood-centric blog aggregator Outside.in released its list of "America's Top 10 Bloggiest Neighborhoods". Seattle, tech-centric 2.0tropolis that it is, must've cracked the top 10 with at least one neighborhood (cough Capitol Hill cough cough), right? more ›

Shortly before our car exploded, we were looking for a new place to rent. After our car exploded, our apartment search took a back seat to car shopping. But in the last few weeks, once our new car was settled, we returned to scanning Craigslist and strolling through neighborhoods. After spending all of our time in Seattle living above the cut (Wallingford, Wedgwood), we were hoping to move to the Rainier Valley (better work commute)... more ›

For some reason we can conjure up a lot more empathy for longtime Seattle residents getting priced out of their neighborhoods by an incoming tide of people with longer lines of credit than we can for the Boise couple who complained to the P-I not so long ago about not being able to afford their dream cottage in Seattle. On the other hand, we're not quite ready to erect a barricade on the Hill, bring the AKs down from the attic and memorize the manifesto either. We do feel for the Nerd's Eye View blog, but neighborhoods do change, as her neighbor says and as we've said in the past. more ›