Lame that there's a "rent hike" yet the building remains the same brick, gonna-collapse-in-the-next-earthquake-anyway structure it's been since it was built.

What justifies the rent hike?
Predictably, nothing material.

So, what other cities have a thriving gay community with gay venues to go to?

I wish I could muster some optimism that the replacement tenant will offer something of value to (non-luxury-SUV-owning-type) people on the Hill, but we're probably looking at another four-$-sign cafe with six menu items; or a "Plantation Furniture Design" competitor...

I hope they go someplace other than Capitol Hill. I really think it's time to move on. Take back Pioneer Square!

Pioneer Square used to the gay neighborhood... and could be again.

Good God, who cares? Purr was and is a terrible, over priced stand and pose bar. Plus that place was a bar (Bad Bad VooDoo Lounge I think) before Purr and it will be again after Purr closes.

The only thing that is constant on Capitol Hill is change and Hill Queens, and Stranger staffers, wringing their hands because of said change.

Oops...it was Bad Bad JuJu Lounge.

@1 It couldn't possibly be related to the same, unexplained black magic that raises the resale price of the single family homes so many people in Capitol Hill have owned for years and are selling. Could it? It's almost as if the people selling those homes are selling at a price that the market will bear? Those heartless, capitalist pigs.

@5
When was Pioneer Square the gay neighborhood?

@9
Go google it, you lazy bum
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_…

@4, @5

Get a room, you two!

;-)

@1 Never, ever ask for a raise.

As your remain the same dim, might-show-up-on-time employee since you left in 10th grade.

What justifies the hourly wage hike? Predictably, nothing material.

RIP Purr, RIP Cap Hill, RIP Old Seattle and RIP Slog, now the home of sponsored fucking content. Stranger staff = cheap corporate whores

Welcome to more of blandy boring Seattle. Isn't this new wave of tech money fun? It's like the Microsoft boom except you're not losing gross old fisherman's shit.

@13: Nobody is being paid for this article, Purr is right across the street, and it's actually important for some of us to know where the hell culture is going to end up considering a lot of these spots leaving multiyear leases aren't going to find appropriate venues anywhere closeby.

If content about what's changing around the vicinity of Stranger HQ bothers you, don't read it? Nobody's got a gun to the head.

At least bitch in an actual sponsored content thread, FFS.

You know, I get as annoyed as anyone by the sponsored content, but how would you all propose a free paper generate revenue? I'm fairly certain you're all aware that print advertising is now generating a fraction of what it once did and that online banner ads and so forth aren't making up the difference. They already pay crappy wages, though I guess they could just cut some more staff. It's not ideal of course, but I'm actually OK with just scrolling past what doesn't interest me.

@16 is right.
Ad revenue is the only thing propping up the ENTIRE INTERNET.
Which is obviously really, REALLY bad (for art, journalism, research, discourse, you name it).
But hey, capitalism is the only option, right?

well they lost all of their talented writers years back and then put a lot of bets on a new Mr. Sardonic (good luck Ansel, lol) and are now at the point where the names on the bylines suddenly become new names one week without announcement. It was easier to make money off of standard ad revenues when it was actually a decent alternative paper more often than not. Would you want to work for the Stranger as a journalist? I sure wouldn't. The people who do are probably spending their writing time on insufferable Facebook posts after their Starbucks shifts.

I bet this paper folds inside of the next 5 years. Hell if you go to the Mercury's site you'll see names you used to see posting more often here!

@18: But the Merc is just a Stranger side job, same people.

@12 - Cute. However, wage raises occur because inflation constantly increases the numerical cost of living (despite that we live in the same house or apartment, and eat approximately the same amount of food).
And inflation happens... why?
Nothing material is making money less valuable, and yet the "price" of everything still increases. An apple 20 years ago isn't somehow "less valuable" than an apple today. Is there more "aggregate demand" for apples now as opposed to then? Maybe, but apple production has also increased. Yet today's apple costs notably more than 'yesterday's' apple, numerically speaking.

But inflation isn't causing the building owner to increase Purr's rent. They are simply expecting that they can get more income from the same space, while (presumably) doing nothing to actually improve the space and make it more valuable somehow. That's the "rentier" scenario Ricardo was talking about: more money extracted for no actual benefit provided. They will "see what the market can bear", sure. So whatever business goes into that space will have to charge increased prices. Which pressures us to require more income. And so it goes.

It's a situation particular to positive-interest currencies.

@15 uh comments are disabled on sponsored ads because the staff is mightily aware of how shorty a thing it is they are doing. Last time I checked the Stranger is like 60%+ ads but at least they are separate from content.