ON THE HORIZON : SAVE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

April 17th at 5 pm there will be a Denny Hill Association community meeting to discuss Monorail and Viaduct issues. We suggest you be there at the new "Carpenter's Hall" under the MaGuire Apartments on 2nd Avenue between Cedar and Wall. If you aren't, say good-bye to 2nd Avenue because, according to rumors, if the community doesn't do something here quick, it will be monorail city.

OVER THE HORIZON : MAYORAL WALKS

Apparently Mayor Greg Nickles did a "Belltown Walk" Tuesday March 26th. The idea being to address questions about street crime and safety and to stop along the way to talk to business owners [read people with money] to address their concerns. Around here we think he might get more of a picture of "street crime" and "safety" if he took that walk after 9 pm. But hey, his Nikes, his hours.

IN YOUR WINDOW : THE SPACE NEEDLE TURNS 40

Okay we are not even sure if the Space Needle is actually in Belltown [we suspect it is not] but it is sure in every Belltown window facing northeast and probably we need to point out it is obvious the Space Needle was designed and constructed in 1962. At no other time in the history of the known universe has "Jetsons" architecture been so celebrated and the Space Needle is living proof of that. But hey, when people and objects turn 40, it is not a good time to point out they are not looking as pretty as they once did or exactly with the times and get ready that construct outside your window that looks like a space ship from a scary Japanese science fiction movie? Is turning 40 on April 21st. So send a card or something. Anyone or anyting turning 40 deserves it.

NOT OUR NEWS

Has anyone read April's Belltown Paper? If you have not, pick up a copy right now and read "The Mercer GirlsI: Part II" by Lindsay O'Donnell, it rocks and while you are at it track down a back issue of Part I in the March issue this is a great story.

IN STRANGER NEWS

The Stranger is running an interesting piece on Belltown. Apparently we are not hip anymore. Ooops. But maybe we could be again. Check it out at : belltown feature

UM, WHAT OWLS?

On the other side of the coin, we are really wondering about the Belltown Paper story about owls and pigeons. Do not take this wrong, Belltown Paper, but we're one block from the burnt out Speakeasy and have yet to see a single owl.

URBAN UPDATES: WHAT COMMUNITY CENTER?

The new community center is looking iffy. We have been hearing for three months that Seattle Parks and Recreation will be building a community center in Belltown in the near future and in the nearer future will be holding a community meeting to discuss center plans with interested community members. We sort of wonder why it takes three months to decide what Seattle Parks and Recreation is willing to discuss with community members though. And wonder more when we hear about future delays, angry correspondence, and that it just might cost more than the proposed and already voted on 1.9 million to pull it off.

PILFERRED NEWS : MONORAIL FOLLIES

Monorail plans are unhinged and we do not mind saying so. According to Belltown Community Council January 2002 Minutes, The Elevated Transportaion Company [ETC] has decided, in spite of everyone in the community being opposed, 2nd Avenue is just the best Avenue to rip up and install a mass transit monorail on. Forget the fact 5th Avenue already has a monorail so would be less effected. Forget the fact all businesses on 2nd Avenue will lose massive business during any [long term] construction. Forget the fact property values on 2nd Avenue will plummet because, well, when most people say "view" in real estate, they do not mean they are the view. Forget the fact people who live on 2nd Avenue maybe do not want a monorail zipping past the bedroom window. The ETC sure has. Why shouldn't you?

Questions and rude suggestions about monorail plans in Belltown should be directed to becky@balloug.com. You can also visit the [confusing and not informative] ETC homepage at http://www.elevated.org if you are feeling brave but take a compass. Personally, we think it's time to gather villagers and torches.

PILFERRED NEWS PART DEAUX : VIADUCT UPDATE OR, MORE BAD TRANSIT IDEAS

According to Belltown Paper Carol Hunter and Kristen Nielson from SeaTran presented three options for replacing the Alaska Way Viaduct to the Belltown Community Council recently. Those three options were "Arial like the existing viaduct, Boring like the Chunnel, and Cut and Cover like the Bus Tunnel." Also according to Belltown Paper, the most likely choice is "Cut and Cover" because that would replace the in-big-trouble-failing sea wall.

Is it just us, or is a "just kidding because we didn't want to buy a sea wall " tunnel a really bad idea?

YOU MIGHT ASK : WHAT'S WITH RUNNING MONORAIL AND VIADUCT NEWS MORE THAN ONCE HERE ?

This is a website. Not a paper. That gives us some leeway. We can put up new stuff whenever we want because we do not have to make a printing deadline or even deal with a printer at all. That means new stuff does go up on the spur of the moment, often mid month, and old stuff can get pulled whenever we want. Even though we do for tradition's sake label each month as a new issue, issues change regularly during the month because that is how websites work. BUT --

There are certain items we feel strongly about. One is how dump it is to try to ram a monorail down 2nd Avenue. So we keep running that and will keep running that or updates of that straight through November when they try to sneak that vote past. Another is, what a dumb idea it is to put a tunnel in instead of a new sea wall. Um, hello? A sea wall is a good idea. A tunnel full of people in cars instead of a sea wall is a bad idea. Enough of us grew up on the Pacific Rim to think this and have seen storms, when they decided to kick in, really kick in, and do not want to see Taurus sedans floating out to sea full of little kids. So. We will keep bringing those two issues up till you get on the phone and yell loud enough someone figures out maybe people do not want to drive through a phony sea wall or rip up Second Avenue to make a new monorail when there is already a perfectly good monorail on 5th Avenue that just should be extended. Our apologies to the contractors who would make scads of money putting in an entirely new monorail or building a tunnel instead of a sea wall but that is what we think about that here and we were never known for subtle in these offices.

US & YOU OR WHAT'S NEW?

Well we are not so new any more. We are three months old. Wow. Time flies. Also our golden haired editor [and do not think that does not come out of a bottle] is flying south so we are not sure what will happen with Belltown Central. Probably we will keep it going thinking maybe, perhaps, some community cohesiveness will come out of its existence. But we are skeptical. You can convince us otherwise by actually participating instead of sending us mail about how you think the site would be better except you do not participant. [wink]