Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels either loves condos or he hates renters. The Mayor's Office has indefinitely frozen a $350,000 fund created to compensate Seattle area renters who'd been forced out of housing due to condo-conversions. Mayor Nickels wants to wait and see if the legislature passes a statewide bail-out funded by developers this winter. Because it makes perfect sense to rely on the people who are profiting most off of Seattle renter's misery. If......

The great thing about Switzerland -- we'll tie Seattle in shortly, hang on -- is that there's no convenience too small for the Swiss to consider. Everywhere you go, some Swiss person has already been there and added a neat little touch. Not that we don't show that consideration here in Seattle -- last night at the Hopvine we noticed they have little coat hooks just beneath the bar so you don't have to throw......

Yesterday Seattlest said the following: Sally Clark has pulled her nightlife plan citing the fact that everyone from the mayor to the other city council members to the lowliest 1st ave drunk hates it. Which is only vaguely true. Clark pulled the licensing portion of her nightlife plan that would require clubs to receive a license from the city which could then be revoked at the city's discretion. Kind of like a liquor license,......

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. Austinist wasn't as the NY Times dissed them and a local Tex-Mex institution sold out. Making them feel better was music, sweet music and the local theater getting name checked on "Heroes" Chicagoist tried to wrap their heads around a religious movie being banned from a Christmas themed park. To wash that......

-Green Tortoise Hostel's time is up. Who won the dead pool on that block going condo? -Defective Yeti figured out the key to effective spam yesterday: brevity. -In some places a Starbucks cup isn't a sign of affluence and excess; rather it's a signifier that the neighborhood's gone to hell. -The Mayor's budget allocates some doubloons to displaying the Wawona, so apparently the city is reneging on that threat to send it to the bottom......

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. Where do ist editors go when they hang up the 'editorial we'? They take on MySpace, apparently. At least Ben Brown does. Austinist reminds of the just rewards of less savory careers this week and then they witness the Arctic Monkeys and We Are......