I believe when he said "Nirvana" he was also referring to Seattle Center by way of the EMP exhibit. So pretty much everything he said except King Tut is closely tied to Seattle Center. I've lived here 5 years and I've never been up the space needle. Somehow I haven't been bored yet!

And think about how much more attractive the city will be to tourists when the downtown tunnel is finished and we have a waterfront park instead of the viaduct. The anti-tunnel zealots only talk about what the project costs. The fact is a new waterfront could help generate a lot of tourism revenue -- and that's money that will stay in Seattle.

I'm going to BC and Utah for vacation.

PR matters.

@2 you have GOT to be kidding ....

@2 Yes, come to Seattle and see our new tunnel! It may not be very useful, but we certainly spent shitloads of money on it.

#5 Your reading comprehension needs some work

http://waterfrontseattle.org/home/

#2: I'm sure you're joking, but the 9 acres of open space from the replacing the viaduct with the deep bore tunnel is less than the open space that would have been opened up by the surface-transit option (11 acres).

The waterfront park and renovating has to do with tearing down the existing viaduct (which the deep bore tunnel has delayed) and renovating existing land (paid by Seattle). The deep bore tunnel made the waterfront park smaller, later, and less accessible - not any better.

@2, don't be silly - as @8 points out, the waterfront park the legislature is actually funding is not as good as the one they aren't funding. Still confused? Think of it this way: a larger dream park is always better than a slightly smaller real one. It's logical!

#8 I know you are just having a laugh, but it sounds like you are suggesting that tourists to the city will not make use of a 9 acre waterfront park because there was once upon a time a surface-transit-freeway widening plan that promised two extra acres?

#9 Thanks, I like the way you put it better :)

I wouldn't mind the $2 fee, but based on my recent experience in Manhattan, like everything else here, hotel rooms are egregiously overpriced. I stayed in great nice hotel right near the center of things on Lex and 50th and a subway station was right on the corner. That cost $179 a night and included free parking! That's minimum for the cheapest downtown hotel and for a good hotel means staying far away from downtown.

Seattle needs get off the crack cocaine of its 90s heyday and cut prices swiftly.

@12, I admire your recent addition of "because I briefly visited New York" to your eternal theme of "here's why Seattle is doomed."

Why does someone staying in a $100 hotel room pay the same fee as someone staying in a $500 hotel room?

Perhaps our new slogan can be "Seattle: Aggressively Regressive".

9/10- Whatever doods, you brought up the tunnel as if it created or helped paid for the waterfront park. It didn't, it just shrank it and made it built years later.

Specifically #9, the "legislature" isn't paying for a penny of the waterfront park, it's being paid for 100% by the city.

Sorry to have been so dismissive, raku. I'm sure once surface/transit/I-5 backers have convinced the legislature to fund that plan instead, the city will be able to make two acres more park, and I'll enjoy that very much too.

Which of these charts includes the promotional budget of the Washington State Convention Center?

The only time I have heard "West Edge" used was when a friend described a bar/restaurant we were in as "Wedgie". I hope they hire a PR firm that ignites the imagination instead of producing snark-fodder.

@19, and also someone who wheatpasted flyers all over downtown a few years ago: "Welcome to the West Edge: Formerly Crack Central."

I live in Vancouver BC. I love coming to Seattle, but I refuse to stay in the city due to all of the taxes. This is just $2.00 of reasons to stay away. I wish it wasn't so. I's would dearly like to close down some of the restaurants and bars and walk back to my hotel. It's not that I'm cheap on the hotel either. I happily pay my $200+ a night but your taxes on out of state people are obscene!