I never thought I could be overwhelmed by royalty, but I certainly was in awe Wednesday night. The event was the Mayor’s Seafair Party, held in the Norman B. Rice Room at City Hall. Guests included naval personnel resplendent in dress whites. Also on the guest list were prominent Seafair Board Members, as well as [...]
Author: Jean Godden (Jean Godden)
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Seawall meets its nemesis, the gribble
Originally published July 20, 2012, on Crosscut.com
There’s a piece of wood on desks down at City Hall. The chunk, with its dozens of air pockets and traverse cavities, resembles a rotting wedge of Swiss cheese. But, in reality, the crumbling wooden chunk is a piece of the Seattle seawall, the nearly mile
and a half wall that separates downtown Seattle from the salty waters of Elliott Bay.
That barrier, built between 1916 and 1936, extends from South Washington Street to Broad Street. It was never designed to withstand earthquakes or heavy tides. Nor to resist invasion by generations of gribbles, a tiny marine worm.
The city has been patching breaks its seawall for decades, but there is no getting around reality – … Continue Reading »
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Tears for an Icon
J. P. (short for Julius Pierpoint) Patches left us Sunday morning. The clown — real name Chris Wedes — was a hero to children of all ages, but especially to baby boomers who grew up watching the KIRO-TV children’s star from 1958 through 1981. J. P. styled himself “mayor of the city dump.” J.P. starred [...]
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Chris Hansen’s Sodo arena plan: Seattle Storm should be more than an afterthought
Originally published July 15, 2012, in the Seattle Times,
AMID all the hoopla over a potential new arena, there has been one forgotten player. No one, it seems, is talking seriously about what the addition of another professional sports franchise or two — and another sports emporium — would mean to the future of the Seattle Storm.
Failure to talk with, and about, the WNBA franchise is quite an oversight. For openers, it’s worth reviewing the team’s history. Remember that in 2008, when the Oklahomans were determined to hijack the Sonics, it looked as if they were going to drag the Storm off, caveman style, to Oklahoma City as collateral damage.
At almost the eleventh hour, a group of professional women miraculously came to the team’s rescue and managed to scrape … Continue Reading »
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Quick Thoughts On The Arena
I have received many thoughtful letters and emails, both in support and in opposition, to the proposal to build a new arena for a basketball and potentially a hockey team in South Downtown. Like many who have written in support, I am thrilled to think that there may be a way to bring the Sonics [...]
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We’re thinking global
The Globe’s orphan plight has not gone unnoticed. Three years ago, three Seattle councilmembers, all former journalists, realized that, if the Globe were to escape the scrap metal heap, it would need protection as a landmark. And, unlike process as usual, the three councilmembers vowed to themselves nominate the globe for landmark status.
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My call for an independent financial review of Seattle Public Utilities
“We need to move forward now to immediately fix this problem. Ratepayers demand and deserve financial accountability from the utility. And they will get it,” said Councilmember Jean Godden.
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The Fair that Launched the Future
It was the 1962 Worlds Fair – this year celebrating its 50th anniversary – that did something surprising for a mostly forgotten city: It branded Seattle in a way no advertising campaign could ever have done. The fair said that Seattle was a happening place, a place celebrating science and bent on opening the doorway to the future.
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All Roads Lead to Downtown
Still there was a lot of good news. Never shy about Seattle’s accolades, she noted that Seattle is one of the “best cities for young professionals,” “No. 1 post-recession mecca for young skilled workers” and picked as “one of the geekiest cities in America” by the U.S. National Science Foundation.”
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Wayne’s World
January and February are often months of culinary news: word of new restaurants opening, old favorites moving to new locations, changing menus and staff. This year is no different. And the big news is that Wayne Johnson, Andaluca’s Executive Chef, is leaving to take over the kitchen at Ray’s Boathouse.