Once again, proving that the war between the Billionaires and Millionaires and the other 99.9 percent of Seattle Citizens who aren't either is going strong, aided by Seattle City Council's actions.

Their words are meaningless.

Only actions matter.

Yes, it is so horrible that a tenant no one in the community supports by spending money at and who hasn't paid rent in 20 years is asked to make way for something relevant. More hippy pottery now!!!

KEXP, SIFF, Chihuly, More Open Space, a revamped Center House with good food, a huge Pride Party, Vera...this is the future of Seattle Center. NOT a bunch of left over crap from Seattle's post hippy days.

um, @3, you do know when the Space Needle was built, right?

god, it's like trying to teach a baby pitbull to bite sometimes ...

Fuck Chilhuly and his banal bullshit. I'm sure it'll make plenty of money from tourists, but it's virtually worthless artistically.

"..fairly obnoxious.." pretty much sums up my feeling about the Seattle Center's owners and their agenda.......

@5 -

Need to disagree on the "plenty of money from tourists" scenario. Why on earth would tourists spend like fools for misshapen breakables that won't fit into their travel bags anyway? I wager the Duckmobile bus brings more tourist dollars than Chihuly's museum ever will.

Seattle Center was built on a bold vision for the future. That vision was deeply flawed and 50 years later we're left with a pretty useless space except during a handful of annual festivals.

Some old elements have transcended the original vision and should stay: the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center plaza, the International Fountain, maybe the original monorail, and not much else (and a lot of the appeal is retro-future kitsch). I think we should retain those few things and basically redo the entire thing based upon our current notions of what the future will bring.

I don't have a lot of specific ideas, but we should make it more accessible by adding a light rail subway tunnel, connecting the street grid across Aurora to the east, and adding a bike path on Thomas through the site. Put all parking underground and turn all existing surface parking into mixed residential/retail ringing the perimeter. Get rid of the Center House and other fair-era buildings (or newer buildings in the same mold) and build new structures that are more inviting and draw in people from the neighborhood 365 days a year. Move away from a collection of event-oriented uses and move some of those off-site, so that there's a better mix between occasional-use buildings and daily-use buildings. Make sure every event-based building has alternative uses for the community. Have the city take ownership of the site and lease only parts of it to private groups to run. Keep Paul Allen and Dale Chihuly and the people that operate the Space Needle as far away from the place as possible.

@7 i'd back that bet. The Ducks rock.

Now, if we wanted to look to the future, I'd recommend Paul Allen and Bill G spend their tax-exempt foundation dollars on building some electric plug-in versions of the Duck, slap some electric green paint and some logos on them, and promote the enviro that way instead of asking the rest of us who actually pay taxes to subsidize their insane Tunnel of Debt.

@8 -

Sensible well-written comments. Thank you for sharing them.

OH COME ON!!!!! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GET THE F#@K OVER IT??? Like him or not(which I do not) he is THE GAME in NW Art in recognition and dollars and has been since the old school days when Graves and Tobey reigned supreme. Sure its gaudy crap but have ya been to Vegas?? (see Bellagio)
Oh yeah, I remember you celebrating your fab crazy trip and perceptions of Vegas a while back soooo...HELLO!! ! Why can't you see the whole schtick that this production is and stop hatin'?!?!? Its business, BIG BUSINESS, and just because the Craft Center has to go, (BTW, when was the last time you featured it or any of its contents?) thats the big BAD world we live in. Life's tough and being an artist, TOUGHER. So grow up and start helping and QUIT BITCHIN'!!!!

Except for the cheesy, outdated Fun Forest, & the nicely packaged crap that is EMP, the Center is pretty good the way it is. I personally go to Seattle Center a lot. I enjoy the park & fountain, I'm a Pacific Science Center member, I see movies at IMAX, I go to the indie crafts fairs, SIFF Cinema, Center House (yeah...the food mostly sucks, except for the burgers) and I support the NW Crafts Center. I'm definitely NOT a hippie, nor richer than fucking God. It is tough to be an artist. I don't see how supporting the for-profit Chihuly Ashtray Factory is going to help @12. Kicking out the NW Craft Center is just one more in a long list of bad decisions the Seattle Center is making. If you talked to any of these people (I have) you would realize just how utterly clueless as a group they are.

I figure Seattle Center should be the city's living room, not its guest room... but even if, ultimately, we do decide we'd rather emphasize tourism, I think people don't come to Seattle to see what they go to Vegas and LA to see. We're short selling ourselves, and our tourists, with this Chihuly shit (which, by the way, people are more than welcome to go browse in spades 45 minutes away in Tacoma o.O).

I like what #8 is saying... too bad it'd be 15 years of arguing and watering down and arguing and watering down before any of it ever broke ground.

As the lady said, "Well, if it isn't art, then I like it." -John Cage