Results tagged “westlakecenter”

Devastating news for most adolescents as their favorite malls--and parent-free hang-outs--are facing bankruptcy. General Growth Properties Inc., the nation's second-largest mall operator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which owns local mall properties: Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham, and Westlake Center in Seattle. With their stock prices cheaper than an on-sale pack of gum, financial reorganization will be key, for what's been claimed as the largest real estate failure. We just hope it can turn around, so it doesn't force a void (and access to the Monorail) in downtown.

Perhaps it's a resurgence of energy after the post-holiday blues that galvanized city activists to gather in solidarity against world problems this weekend. There were two rallies we know of: yesterday's 1,500-strong pro-Israel rally at Temple De Hirsch Sinai on Capitol Hill, and a gay rights protest march from Capitol Hill to Westlake Center on Saturday. The pro-Israel rally was the larger and better-organized of the two; as Dominic Holden over at Slog notes, the anti-DOMA march was poorly attended and organized by a small, inexperienced group without the help of Equal Rights Washington. (Our apologies if the headline makes it seem like the anti-DOMA and pro-Israel camps had anything to do with each other, because they sure didn't.)

"Seattle Macy's Christmas Star and the Merry-Go Round" by seattlerealtorgal

                 

Westlake Center, 2:16 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.

          

For today's Prop 8 march and protest, the weather cooperated nicely. Obviously, God loves a civil rights parade.

In fact, they've arrived nice and early.

Speaking of the gay, in case you haven't heard, tomorrow's the National Day of Protest Against Prop 8. Here in Seattle, the protesting festivities start early, with people gathering in Volunteer Park beginning at 10:30 a.m. and starting the march down to Westlake Center at noon. If you can't do that walk hungover, meet up at Westlake for the rally at 2 p.m. Please, make an effort to represent at some point tomorrow. For such an important issue, numbers matter.

Yesterday we mentioned the scuttlebutt about malled-up REIT General Growth Properties putting Westlake Center up for sale. Today GGP stocks were hammered after the company announced it "might be forced to seek protection from its creditors as it struggles to refinance debt," and are now trading at around $0.40 in after-hours trading. GGP has $958 million in debt due Dec. 1, but a "good price" for Westlake was quoted at just $150 million, so it's going to take more than that to right the REIT's ship.

NYT über-pundit Thomas Friedman is married to Ann Friedman (née Bucksbaum), whose family (still) runs General Growth Properties, a Chicago-based REIT heavy into malls (they own eight in Washington alone). General Growth is trying to make some hefty debt payments and has to unload some of its inventory, which means Westlake Center downtown may now have a For Sale sign attached. The price tag is estimated at around $150 million. Who wants to start the bidding?

THIS, OUR TOWN OF HALLOWEEN: Finally, we have reached the one day of the year when it's actually suggested that you gorge on candy and dress up like someone else! Check out Halloween party options over at The Stranger, and nod to the past by reading up on the history of this haunted holiday over at the History Channel's beautiful H-Ween minisite. This is Halloween! This is Halloween!

We're working in a building next to Westlake Center, and just heard about a bajillion emergency vehicles go by. Looking out the window, they're all Fire Dept cars and trucks, and smoke seems to be coming from a construction site next to Pacific Place. Not that horrific billowing clouds of black kind of smoke, but disturbing nonetheless. There must be at least 12 emergency vehicles blocking the street. Anyone in the area know what is going on? (Word to the wise: don't take Lenora Olive home if you work downtown...)

Yesterday at about six o'clock in Westlake Center square there was a protest going on. Matching shirts, coordinated singing and sign stamping; it was the most together group we've seen demonstrating since...ever, probably. Westlake's mix of teenager hanger outers, office workers and shoppers gave them a wide berth, hanging out on the fringes as if gulping a huge breath of air before darting for the entrance to the mall. Don't look, don't acknowledge, don't--for god's sake--stop when one of them has you in their sights. Dammit, Lush is right there! Is there another entrance?

Oh, how we hates them! Alright, we don't hate Greenpeace. Especially not the organization as a whole. When they're not out foolishly trying to save fierce man-eating whales, Greenpeace does a lot of good in the world. Happy happy joy joy. We do, however, hate their "street team" or whatever you might call them. May we suggest "clipboard toting nuisance squad"?

Last year's immigrant rights protest was out of character with the well-publicized, poorly-attended quick hitter marches that seem to be de rigueur in Seattle currently. Thirty thousand people came out for that one and snaked through the streets of Downtown for hours. Yesterday afternoon we left the office a few minutes early to try and track down the 2007 version and after chasing 5th all the way back to Westlake Center and coming up empty we found exactly one dude in the square with some immigrant rights flyers. "Yeah, they're already back at Seattle Center. I stayed here." That was 5:15pm, when the picture to the left was taken across the street from Westlake Center. C'mon guys, can't you linger a little while you're Downtown. You got the permit, take advantage of it. Camp out in the street a little, double back, do something to let us know that a couple thousand immigrants were here looking for their rights. Don't fly down your route like Eastern Washington is a half-block behind simultaneously trying to deport you and employ you under the table.

Oh Boston, you silly over-reacting bunch of Nancys. Who can't tell the difference between a LiteBrite and a real bomb? Seriously, getting riled up and freaking the fuck out over some strange marketing thingies?

ART: If your bachelor pad is depressingly bare of wall, catch the last day of the Seattle Print Fair. News to Seattlest, there's a variety of different print types and techniques: relief printing, intaglio printing, lithography, screenprinting, and monotypes.

No, the Other Theater: The new movies out this weekend are shite, so this is your chance to catch up on the wealth of quality films already in theaters. Babel, Borat, Casino Royale, For Your Consideration, The Fountain, Little Children, Marie Antoinette, The Queen, Stranger Than Fiction, and Volver are all continuing their Seattle runs. Go now before you get back-logged further with the scads of Oscar contenders released later this month.

John Richards from KEXP was there MCing and of course Secret Machines were what we came to Westlake Center at noon on a Monday to see, but neither of those were the highest-priced talent that Microsoft would throw up on stage for their first Zune launch event yesterday. None other than the wizard king of Redmond Bill Gates himself stood before us to extol the wonders of the Microsoft mp3 player and pantomime a demonstration of its song beaming technology. Who knows, maybe he really sent a song from his Zune magically through the air to John's Zune - Regardless, it would be more visually exciting to stand there and watch Bill's brain grow.

The Secret Machines show we mentioned on Wednesday will go down at Westlake Center on Monday at 11:50am, just in time for you to rock over there for a while during lunch. It's a Seattle Zune Launch Party and we're hoping there will be a few of Microsoft's iPod killers on hand for us to poke and prod at with our greedy little gadget-loving fingers, but remember: music first, tech toys second. We'll see you there.

Man, Seattle can not get over the monorail. Not the new monorail that was going to hasten our commute into the Utopian future - We seem to have gotten over that one. It's the monorail from Westlake Center to the Seattle Center that we won't give up on; Monorail Classic or Monorail 1.0 or whatever you want to call that leftover from the World's Fair. It was a good little train once upon a time, but we've come to the realization that it's time to take it out behind the wood shed and put it down. It can join up with its aborted friend the Green Line in monorail heaven (monorail life begins at conception, apparently), but its days of suggestively penetrating the EMP should be officially declared over any day now.

Why is it when we're depressed, we insist on listening to depressing music? Seattlest has been playing "Fuck it Man" by Mellowdrone and "Eli, The Barrow Boy" by The Decemberists all morning.

Occidental Square has always been kind of awesome and uniquely Seattle, to this writer at least. It's walled in yet open, yet cluttered, yet ordered. There's a distinctive sense of wood, but the predominant building material is stone or brick. There are no people, but there are trees! Have you ever been to a square in Europe? They're great in their own quaint little way, but they're somewhat of a celebration of treelessness. "Hell yeah there was a forest here when we showed up - We fucking hacked it down and replaced it with all these cobble stones and scary churches and shit." That kind of thing was cool a few centuries ago.

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.

That giant snapping sound you heard this week was the gay and lesbian community splitting in two over the proper way to celebrate Pride Weekend in Seattle. On the one hand the festivities, particularly the Running of the Gays, have gotten too large for Capitol Hill. We have a sense that the phrase "too many straight people" belongs in that last sentence somewhere. On the other hand, there’s a strong feeling that the proper place for Pride events is the Hill and only the Hill. What to do, what to do...

Today, everyone's showing their Seahawks pride...including:

Staunch defenders of Christmas manned the wall this weekend in Westlake Center in an effort to turn back the heathen hordes, a move Seattlest likens to trying to stop the tide from rising up the beach at Golden Gardens with a Maginot Line of sand. The enemy isn't the silly complaints that lead to the sillier municipal renamings of trees, parties, etc, but that's probably a more winnable fight than the actual "problem." The "problem" is the mass of people who aren't necessarily celebrating the birth of a god who still want to get down with friends, family and a little egg nog around the end of the year. "Backoff, Godless Wonders - This is our party. Go celebrate the solstice or something." Right.

We spent Sunday morning sitting in front of Top Pot donuts downtown just watching the world go by. There were tall people, short people, a lot of white people, but absolutely no monorails. The concrete tracks which whisk people safely from Westlake Center to Seattle Center ---and, thank the good Lord, nowhere else in this city (oh and by the way, we're being sarcastic)---remain unused as a result of the humpin' and bumpin' of two trains back in November.

There's a lot to do this weekend if you're a concerned citizen wanting to make some noise about the war in Iraq, unfortunately most of it is in D.C. If that describes you, though, there are a couple of options. You can fly to Washington, bearing in mind that this might not be the best weekend for air travel. We know you're hard core, we're just sayin. Option B requires that you accept your lot in Seattle. You're here, make the most of it.

A South Lake Union streetcar route was given the thumbs up by the City Council yesterday and could be in operation by 2007. Don't confuse this mass transit with the perpetually embattled monorail - The street car will be surface level light rail running from the Hutch to Westlake Center; a whopping 2.6 miles. With this new line and the city's historical monorail already in place, Seattlest has to wonder what new transport will spring up next to feed Westlake Center. Maybe a hovercraft route three miles in from Beacon Hill?