When I walk on it, it unbalances me, like the deck of an ocean liner listing slightly to port.

University lore says designers also had student protests protests on their mind (esp in the 1960s). Easier to hose down protesters on the slick surface

It's true that everyone who goes to UW realizes that red square is a huge slippery trap, but when even the editor sticks to the Personal Anecdote Followed by Wiki Link format, something needs to be done to spice things up. The only way this could be a more perfect distillation of Slog over the past year or so would be if you let Mudede write the part about how its the fault of automobiles.

@2 When I was in undergrad at UW I was told it was the same bricks used in some prisons so if prisoners got out of hand they could hose them down and they would have a hard time standing. Your UW lore seems to make perfect sense.

What kind of grades did the profs give for papers that used Wikipedia at UW?

It is especially bad in brand-new Chucks. Also, my hiking boots. Jesus, those are a nightmare on that brick.

best street skate spot in the city thx UW

@5: http://www.livescience.com/32950-how-acc…

In 2005, the peer-reviewed journal Nature asked scientists to compare Wikipedia's scientific articles to those in Encyclopaedia Britannica—'the most scholarly of encyclopedias', according to its own Wiki page. The comparison resulted in a tie; both references contained four serious errors among the 42 articles analyzed by experts.

And last year, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that Wikipedia had the same level of accuracy and depth in its articles about 10 types of cancer as the Physician Data Query, a professionally edited database maintained by the National Cancer Institute."

At any moment anyone can edit Wikipedia, rendering one fact in one article inaccurate, but many and varied studies have shown remarkable accuracy, on aggregate.

Now, if you're calling someone out for using just one source, that's an entirely different and much more valid criticism.

I read articles like this and suddenly feel superhuman. I have walked and ridden my bike across Red Square (and down and up the stairs) hundreds of times in all conditions and never felt like I was slipping at all. I guess I should join up with the X-Men. They have a West Coast branch, right?

What a moron.

Everyone knows you use your skateboard on the streets instead.

@9: It all depends on the specific shoes. Some I have no problem with and can walk like I do anywhere else. Some are a nightmare.

I've walked across that square hundreds of times and I've never actually fallen, but I've had my shoe slip and had to catch my balance countless times.

My office was tabling an event there last fall and it was raining and I wore TOMS... still shocked I didn't break myself to pieces that day.

Are you sure you just don't have a neurological disorder? Or maybe you're just wearing the wrong shoes?

I have lived here for almost 15 years and have taken classes at UW, gone to concerts at Meany, and taken many a lovely long walk through campus over these many years, and have never once slipped on Red Square. And I am truly uncoordinated. I think "focus" is the watchword. Keep trying, Christopher. You can make it.

Another fine chapter in The Stranger's tradition of altering the public to the hidden dangers we take no notice of. Remember the shocking news allowing dogs in Norm's was responsible for no less than zero deaths from dog cooties, and sickened on the order of zero unsuspecting patrons? Since that bombshell was written and Seattle authorities were given no choice in the media glare but to do nothing, hundreds more dogs have existed in the restaurant -- and perhaps others! -- and the dog cootie death toll continues to mount, reaching zero last year.

I can't say I'll never walk on brick paving again, but if I do my first thought will be that I could fall down. I could even fall down to death, just like the thousands of UW students almost do every day, without even knowing it.

Hug your babies tonight, everyone.

Wow, breaking Education news Stranger. Maybe no one told you about this. http://dianeravitch.net/2015/09/29/joel-…

You know, the company SPS has contracted with for math programs? Wonder how much of "there is no money left" went into this venture?

@2 See, if this were written by a journalist interested in *why* something is, instead of bitching about it, they would have run this down. Other colleges have it as well, and it's caused the same horrendous burden on everyone. And the deeper idea of how state paranoia affects us all.

An even deeper insight would be on why Americans are more interested in bitching and moaning instead of actually discovering why the situation is what it is. Why they don't ask questions and why administrators are able to get away with crap like this.

Seeing how foreign enrolment has skyrocketed at UW as of late, most notably Chinese students, Red Square seems apropos, no?