Ben Gant, the man trying to breathe new life into a rundown newsstand in downtown Seattle, has finally gotten the city permits he needs to revamp an aging blue shack on the corner of 3rd and Pike.
“After 18 months of kicking and screaming, SDOT has issued me my permits,” Gant says in an email.
Gant has proclaimed his newstand as the “most historically significant newsstand in U.S history” and is apparently working with groups like Historic Seattle to get the newsstand—originally built in 1919—landmark status.
Gant says he expects to start construction on the newsstand this week.
It’s not a newsstand. It’s a kiosk, barely. There is a perfectly fantastic, real, actual, functioning, working newsstand a mere one block away at Pike Place Market with, you know, actual newspapers and magazines.
But without any papers what will he sell? Downloads for Kindles?
We should have had the funeral for newspapers in America after the public was conned into the Iraq war.
That was the the end of what the papers used be good for. Since then it’s been nothing but handwringing over the loss of the physical paraphernalia associated with but never essential to what newspapers once were. Stick all this quaint old crap in a museum and be glad we at least aren’t wasting so many trees.
Maybe that kiosk can be used as a base for spying on the Discovery Institute.
#1 – that newsstand you speak of in the Market is one of my favorite newsstands of all time.
Newsstand has got to be one of the weirdest words in the English language.
Good luck sinking money into that thing.
@5, me too! They carry my faves like Russian GQ (guilty pleasure), Hello! (again, guilty pleasure), and more interior design journals, Serbian newspapers and travel magazines than you can shake a stick at. Plus I love going next door to De Laurenti afterwards for a panini and coffee while I peruse my fresh glossy-print lovelies.
Only place I know of in the city to get the Shotgun News (newstand in the Market). Hate their politics (SN) but can’t be beat for ads for accessories for yer AK
I use to sell papers for Ben. At the time he was running an operation selling subscriptions on the street from the newsstand/kiosk. He’s got an awesome attitude: both can-do/laid back. He’s quite improv but incredibly persistent. He’s also put up with bunches of crap, including the time that some asshat burned out the kiosk. He’s got permits? You can probably look forward to seeing some good things.
ben is a tenacious newsman, you may not be able to get your fancy euro rags here but you will get a taste of old school unions and copy of the constitution. I think this thing has street creed, where else can you get a bag of popcorn and a coffee at 4 a.m.