The date is set! I will arrive in Seattle on March 1st and I'm very excited to be home again.
Coeur d'Alene is a beautiful little town with lots of fresh mountain air. But there is not any public transportation to speak of. Plus, the temperatures get down to nearly zero in the winter. That alone is a deal-killer for me. Call me a wimp all you want, but I'm me, not you.
I'm looking forward to seeing my friends again and getting back to my favorite restaurants. I think the variety of food in Seattle is the thing I like the most. The traffic, the pollution, the homelessness, and the crime are real turn-offs. The downtown Public Library is simply depressing. The Metro bus system is a superior service compared to other cities I've lived in, even if it is standing room only on many routes.
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| City of Light |
I remember Seattle from when I was a little boy in the 70s. It was big, colorful, and had an unusual personality. I remember walking behind a pimp in a bright orange suit with a huge feather sticking out of the headband. He was walking this jaunty, funky strut. I got in right behind him and started imitating him. My mother was caught between a gasp and dying of laughter. I was about seven or eight years old. Down at the Pike Street Market, the Cuban Communists were on the sidewalk, selling their propaganda. In the UDistrict, record stores were staffed with people that wore black eyeliner and purple hair, among other things. You could buy a crepe with apple butter from a chef behind a pass-thru window. The Greyhound station was dirty and dingy. Hustlers would stand in the doorways of the restrooms. You had to pay a dime to use the stalls. (My brother and I just slipped underneath the door.) Drunks could be found in the gutters of Pike Street on Sunday mornings. Well, most mornings. But Sundays in particular. I remember walking through the UDistrict Safeway with my mom and piping up "Hey mister! Why do you have a dog in the store?!?" My mother was mortified, but the man shushed her and told me he was blind and that was his seeing-eye dog. So, I peppered him with all kinds of questions about the duties of a seeing-eye dog.
But the thing I remember the most was Seattle's friendliness. I keep hoping for it's return. I'd love to see these chilly people warm up, just a little bit. I'd certainly feel much more at home. Still, I'll be glad to be back.
The warmest night in Seattle that I can recall was during WTO, the crowd outside King County Jail.
ReplyDeleteTo become a true city again, not just a clear cut mail, Seattle needs squats. Housing for everyone and food for sale on every street.
We've discussed how ridiculous the condo virus has become, and yet that's all the city can advise. More boxes, dense as possible, but not for everyone. No discussion of where the rest of us go. Kent? Just keep moving south.
They're everywhere, boxes built for the moneyed or single Google income. $400K for a box, a poorly built box. Lucky buyers know they'll lose on the deal, and might not have neighbors, but it's enough until they move elsewhere. For them, it's the same as renting. That's the part the city doesn't address: the theory of mixed-use, high density housing is a sham. Housing used to symbolize stability. Today, it's the opposite, the very cause of massive instability. How many people really have a true home anymore in any large city?
Sorry if this sounds like a granny rant, but consumerism is killing everything. All cities look the same. Ours looks like every other skyline, it's just harder to self-medicate after 7 pm with state stores and the war on medical grow houses. I only know I'm in Seattle when I stand under the towers on Capitol Hill or look at the lights from Gasworks. Then I can see and feel what's really here.
All that said, welcome back! We missed you.