The Times probably referred to him as an agitator because he was convicted a while back of cracking the mayor over the head with a bullhorn.

http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/406…

Being from Lexington, Massachusetts, I have a hard time with almost anything in Seattle being considered "historical". I like the idea of the plaque in this instance, or maybe even a mural inside or outside about it.

By all means, tear it down. It's low density in an area that shouldn't be low-density anymore. Seattle is too young of a city to have history worth saving, as the person from Lexington, Mass. says. Seattle has no room anymore for such rank sentimentality. (Comments selected from 1971 urbanists in their campaign to tear down the Pike Place Market and replace it with high-rise hotels and office buildings.)

@4 This bank, sir, is no Pike Place Market.

If the Times wants to tear it down, somebody is getting fucked. And you can bet it's not the rich.

If Tahir-Garrett's fur it, I'm agin it. Plaque it.

This sounds like a great location for a plaque. Put in a plaque about the architect and the previous building. I think we could use more plaques and fewer 1-story suburban banks.

@9:

I don't think, in this context, suburban means what you think it means.

@3:

Hey c'mon, we got historical buildings here in Seattle, why some of them are over 100 years old!

It's a nondescript building that will likely lay empty if the property isn't redeveloped. We don't need another abandoned, fenced-off property in our neighborhood.

@5, my point in @4 is that there are values to consider other than density alone. The current urban redevelopment conversation needs to be broadened. All neighborhoods have local structures that are worth saving, and this may be one of them for the Central Area.

And I especially dislike white folks from another part of town telling a minority community that their history and their values aren't worth respecting.

Citizen R, what other buildings should we try to preserve in the neighborhood? I agree with you in principle, but maybe this building is not as good a candidate as others.

I think "agitator" is a charitable description of Tahir-Garrett. Asshole would be less charitable but more accurate:

Seattle schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson and School Board President Cheryl Chow are seeking permanent court protection after saying they were threatened by Omari Tahir-Garrett, who went to prison for striking then-Mayor Paul Schell with a bullhorn in 2001.

Goodloe-Johnson and Chow allege that Tahir-Garrett has disrupted School Board meetings with threats, obscenities, racially charged remarks and, at one point, pushed a school administrator to the floor. Chow and Goodloe-Johnson say they fear for their safety.

At one meeting, Tahir-Garrett allegedly warned Chow, an Asian American, that the Wah Mee Massacre could happen again, a reference to the 1983 fatal shooting of 13 people at a Chinatown International District gambling club.

I bet if that bank were still around, it would gladly finance the redevelopment of the lot into affordable housing with street-level retail for the benefit of the African American community in the area.

@14, It's not for you or me to say what buildings should be preserved in any neighborhood but our own. There should be a neighborhood planning process in Seattle where such issues can be addressed, where different voices and opinions can be heard, where the neighborhood is fairly represented in the process.

We can avoid having these issues descend into a shoving match between property owners, developers, and urbanists, vs. preservations and traditionalists.

The last two mayors had no interest in such a neighborhood-driven planning process. Perhaps this new guy will.

@17, this is a city, not a collection of gated communities masquerading as "neighborhoods". And if you think Ed Murray is more neighborhood-minded than Mike McGinn, you're even more naive than your comment demonstrates.

@17
What? Every hood should get to completely control their own zoning? That is honestly just crazy. Zoning laws are decided at the city-wide level, and absolutely should be. Whether or not this bank gets replaced with apartments doesn't just effect the hood, it also effects the city in a multitude of ways: transportation, power, sewage, rental rates, schools, etc...
And in this particular instance, that building is vacant, which means it's not really functional for the hood as it is. If it was a cathedral or something, sure, keep it, but architecturally it looks like any suburban bank anywhere. A preservation fight to keep a vacant lot in the hood instead of building apartments sounds a lot like just not wanting apartments to get built.
On McGinn; he was probably the mayor most involved with the community I have ever seen in Seattle. Full Stop. I hope and pray that Murray will do half as much.