A new theater has been born in South Lake Union. Founded by the boom! theater company, a capable handful of mostly-Cornish-graduates, the boom! stage is currently being christened with a world premier show, Repeat. Repeat., the seventh main stage performance by the company. more ›

Seal pups, superheroes and stabbings. And a dog park! TGIM! more ›

Our Tweeter of the Week has an ear to the ground on the neighborhood you'd be wise to put stock in now. more ›

Tunnel_13411026 by f8stop from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

more ›

For over 50 years now, the Museum of History and Industry has quietly worked their magic on Seattle-area residents. Local history isn't always an easy sell, but the MOHAI has consistently found ways to make the stories of Seattle's past compelling through excellent curation and inventive cross-marketing (historians gotta get their name out there too, y'all). It's no surprise, then, that in order to celebrate the MOHAI's upcoming move to South Lake Union in 2012, museum coordinators have set up an event that promises to tickle the fancies of both your brain and liver - the MOHAI Crawl. more ›

Seattle recently got rated one of the top ten safest cities for pedestrians, yet many of our neighborhoods are so insular, they're separated by impossible-to-cross arterials or frayed edges that take pedestrians from sidewalks and storefronts to construction and no sidewalks. Enter the Lake 2 Bay Loop, a proposed pedestrian-friendly initiative designed to attractively and accessibly connect Elliot Bay to Lake Union. more ›

South Lake Union Blog just posted the news of another restaurant to join the growing conglomerate invading the neighborhood: Cactus. The local chain, which plates up Southwest-Mexican inspired food, already operates restaurants in Madison Park, West Seattle and Kirkland. The new 5,000 square foot eatery will be housed in the Phase IV Amazon building on Terry and Harrison, according to Discover SLU. more ›

Earlier this week Seattlest broke the news about Brave Horse Tavern, the second Tom Douglas restaurant to open in the Terry Avenue complex (along with Ting Momo dumpling house). Thanks to the power of the internet, it looks like we've discovered the name of the other main venue within Douglas's new complex: Cuoco -- a fine dining Italian restaurant focusing on handmade pastas. (Cuoco means "to cook" in Italian). more ›

Over here at Seattlest we are keeping close tabs on the explosion of dining in South Lake Union. The newest tenant we are most excited about: restaurant mogul Tom Douglas. Earlier this week we hustled down to the recently opened Westlake Serious Pie location and Dahlia Workshop for insanely delicious breakfast sammies. more ›

Remember in 2009, when Ivar's tried to ruin the Fourth of July by taking everyone's favorite fireworks away from all of us, essentially crushing the hopes and dreams of people of all ages? And then the year after that, the Family Fourth on Lake Union was in peril, too? more ›

Last week we closed out Crusty Capitol Hill Month with the former Auto Row Tavern. Seattle's Auto Row sprawled all down Pike Street towards the working neighborhood in "Uptown". When you see a cool old building from Boren to 15th, and ask yourself "what was this?" it was probably an auto showroom, machine shop, or warehouse related to the early days of the auto industry in the 1900s and 1910s. more ›

Talk about a changing skyline, here's a perfect example. Immediately below, the South Lake Union skyline two years ago. more ›

The intern over on the Slog has put together the stats on our brutal week of murders. There have only been eleven murders in Seattle this year--which is the good news; the bad news is, a quarter of 'em happened this week. more ›

FREE POP SODAS FOR SEATTLEITES: For quite some time, every Friday the folks over at Jones Soda handed out free sodas to their South Lake Union neighbors and passersby, dubbing the program "Free Soda Friday." Well, the soda makers are offering not just the parched and thirsty, but all of Seattle a free Jones Soda, if you stop by their SLU headquarters today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (And if you can't make it today FSF will take place at the Queen Anne Metropolitan Market the next two Fridays.) 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday // Jones Soda Co., 234 Ninth Avenue North // One free soda per person more ›

• This morning around 10:30 a.m. a woman found herself being rescued by rappelling firefighters and a city boat after her car plummeted 200 feet down a waterfront cliff in Edmonds.
• Two groups of car prowlers are making the rounds in Crown Hill. One group wielding a skeleton key seems to fancy cars with GPS units. In total, they've broken into 15 cars in five days.

colored by poopoorama, from the Seattlest Flickr Pool more ›

We took the I-5 Mercer Street/Seattle Center exit the other night and while waiting for the light to change, we noticed ten--a seemingly abnormal amount--construction cranes littering the South Lake Union neighborhood. (Yes, some probably dedicated to building the new Amazon HQ.) more ›

• South Lake Union's Terry Thomas Building is named as one of the most sustainable projects of the year by a group of pretty important architects.
• Bellevue Community College dropped the Community part of its name.
• Ballard has always had a thing for witty bumper stickers, but times have changed and now their witty t-shirts are taking over. Free Ballard!

The Capitol Hill Community Council just unveiled the "Capitol Hill Discount Dollar," a printable coupon that qualifies the bearer for a sweet 10 percent discount at over a dozen participating neighborhood businesses. South Lake Union has the "SLU Card" with varying local discounts available to anyone renting, leasing, or owning in a Vulcan-affiliated building, and Vulcan owns everything down there (right?) so it's almost like a neighborhood card. That does it, we're going on record: this is a trend we can fully support. Buy local, get to know your neighborhood businesses, strengthen your community, don't feel so alone in the world. Fantastic idea, and we'd like to see more businesses participating. more ›

Hope springs eternal, and a good thing, too. Over on Slog, Bethany Jean Clement takes attendance in the cemetery, counting off the headstones of restaurants dead or mortally wounded. Familiar names; we bow our heads and shed a tear. And then, our moment of silence over, Life Goes On. 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 ›

Chamber music. Even the name loses you, doesn't it? Music for chambers? Why, it makes no sense! That said, Seattle is rich in terrific musicians who like to play music in small groups. The naming problem isn't really their fault, but it's hard to get people to try them out in a concert hall. Even classical music lovers feel like they get more music, on a per musician basis, at a symphony performance. It's simple economics. more ›

Now's the time to rent office space in Seattle's business districts, apparently. Microsoft halted talks on a possible office space lease in South Lake Union, citing economic woes. From the P-I's report: "The loss for now of Microsoft as a potential tenant will put additional downward pressure on office rental rates in Seattle, according to Kip Spencer, the co-founder of OfficeSpace.com and an executive at JE Dunn Construction Co." Ouch. Even the giant is brought to its knees when it comes to money problems. more ›

LIVE LOCAL RADIO: Seattlest Abbey joins Josh from Sound on the Sound (Abbey's other writing gig) to play over an hour of great local bands, who not only have great albums out but also put on an amazing live show. This celebration of the best local live acts of 2008 is courtesy of basement-dwelling Hollow Earth Radio, an internet-only radio station that's on 24 hours a day, despite the fact you've never heard of them. more ›

Seattlest just got back from a really long walk. It was gorgeous down by the water, through some lovely residential neighborhood in Eastlake, past the house boats and around the bottom of Lake Union near I Love Sushi, etc. At some point, heading back up toward Whole Foods, we realized our phone was missing. It's a red Blackberry Pearl with our picture, name and phone number on the screen. We posted something on Craigslist, but figured we'd ask you, fair readers: is there a lost and found for the world? Did anyone find our cell phone? more ›

"Jack's Thorny Beanstalk" by Jonathan Hanlon more ›

..Comes the proposed 300-foot-tall Paul Allen statue. The coffee pullers and community activists at Kapow! Coffee have begun a (satirical) petition to erect a 300-foot statue of Paul Allen, destroyer of the Cascade neighborhood and creator of South Lake Union, in the middle of a local park. Jeremiah of Kapow!, who we've always appreciated as much for his wit as his divine espresso, ribs, "We have to show the proper respect for all the wonderful things he's done for the neighborhood." We support the Kapow! petition and believe they should include an addendum to just rename the neighborhood "Allentown." more ›

• Metroblogging Seattle reported bit-by-bit the developing story of a pedestrian cab-scooter-van accident, which proved to be fatal. A 60-year-old passenger in the pedi-cab was killed after the open-air cab alternative suffered a mechanical malfunction and ran a red light.
• PhinneyWood stays purely hyper-local reporting on two missing neighborhood pets: Sadie (a dog) and Kaitlyn Marie (a pure bred cat). While it might seem tedious or tiny to report, you better believe we'd use every electronic outlet we had to find them if one of the Seattlest guard cats went missing. We hope these folks are reunited with their pets soon.
• The Southlake reports that, even though everyone else had their block party a couple nights ago, they're going to have theirs this Friday. The Southlake Union Block Party will be hosted at the "South Lake Union Discovery Center" which is a neighborhood-positive sounding name for a Vulcan property advertisement. This year there is actually a draw, though. A few decent local music acts and it's free, until you want to eat or drink. Even then, it's just $1 (that goes to non-profits) from a variety of area restaurants. Money you can actually feel good about spending in South Lake Union.

• My Ballard and Phinney Wood shared a post on the annual Dead Baby Bike Race. With the recent fear-mongering regarding bicyclists in the local media--the bike race could likely have not come at a worse time. We're sure already freaked out Subaru drivers, aren't thrilled to think of the idea of a crudely named (see: hilarious) bike race that celebrates "Mutant Bike Culture."
• Rejoice Francophiles and hipsters not allergic to the sun! Capitol Hill Seattle reports that Cafe Presse has opened a deck to accommodate outside seating. Few things are more French than enjoying a delicious and refined meal at a neighborhood sidewalk cafe, so we're thrilled to have a chance to mimic the experience at our neighborhood pseudo-Parisian cafe.
• The Central District News breathed a sigh of relief and celebrated that this year's Umoja parade was bigger and better than ever.