I'm a total asshole. I meant to post about last night's well-attended kickoff waterfront meeting (1,100 people RSVP'd!) at the Seattle Aquarium with design god James Corner... and then the day got carried away with me.

Here's the short version of what happened last night: Nothing new—no firm ideas, no solid time line (or price tag). These ideas will be fleshed out this spring. This was a push to get people involved and talking about what they want to see at the waterfront once the team starts redesigning the nine acres of public space we've got to work with (throw your voice in over here!).

BUT: Watching James Corner visually deconstruct access to the waterfront by hill grade, as well as land use, street design, and its historical time line (among other things), was amazing. I mean, the guy got me really excited about street grades. Really fucking excited!

You see, I have no doubt Corner's team will design a waterfront that people are drawn to and want to use. His portfolio is stunning. What I'm more interested in, at this point, is how he plans on making the waterfront more accessible—to downtown, to the stadiums, to the thousands of people who wander through the Pike Place Market looking for an access point to the water only to be thwarted by row after row of ethnic trinkets.

His presentation showed that he understands our challenges and he's working on them. Check it out: