News
World’s Fair 50th-Anniversary Celebration Activities
Six months of commemorative festivities begin on April 21. Here are our picks.
On April 21, 1962, visitors from close by and around the world streamed through the gates of the Seattle World’s Fair to witness a future they’d never before imagined. It seemed that soon we’d all live in Plywood Homes of Living Light, commute by monorail and dine at revolving restaurants in various Space Needles piercing…
Mind the Gap
Poor and minority kids are falling through the cracks at Seattle schools. Can a Supreme Court ruling
Imagine receiving a telephone call from your child’s teacher asking you about your family’s academic goals and how you can work together to achieve them. It’s happening in areas of Seattle as part of an innovative new strategy to turn around a troubling trend among local schoolchildren. These “sunshine calls,” along with home visits from…
Gridlock! Seattle’s Transportation Issue
A comprehensive guide to what's really slowing the Seattle commute. Plus, encouraging updates on the
It’s the least sexy, most flammable cocktail-party topic around: transportation. The horror story about a one-hour crosstown crawl. The strategy swap about how best to cross the lake during a Mariners home stand. And the sharply divisive rhetoric about which multibillion-dollar projects our region really needs—and how to pay for them. Transportation touches us all,…
Crime Central: Can Belltown Make a Comeback?
Can this downtown Seattle neighborhood bounce back from a serious crime wave?
When Tim Gaydos takes visitors on a walking tour of Belltown, where he lives with his wife and two small children, he’s always a half-step ahead at a pace that can leave an out-of-shape companion gasping. As you catch your breath at a crosswalk while waiting for the light to change, he speaks in language…
So Long, Viaduct. Hello, Ultimate Boring Machine!
Once the flashpoint for heated debates, the Viaduct now lies partially in ruins, and the changes tha
A Wrecking Brawl For nearly 60 years, Seattle’s polarizing north-south thoroughfare, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, crouched in concrete splendor along Elliott Bay, carrying 100,000 cars a day the length of the city, from SoDo to Belltown and beyond. Irreparably damaged in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the thing has since been at the heart of a…
Transportation Solutions to Look Forward To
Reducing car traffic takes persistence, determination and innovation. Here are three hot new technol
NOW Many big employers, such as hospitals, build parking garages and charge employees to park in them. But garages cost millions of dollars to construct and they encourage people to drive. Enter Seattle-based Parkio, which offers a way for employers to discourage driving while encouraging alternate transportation. Instead of a monthly fee, Parkio’s software tools…
Solutions for Stressed Seattle Commuters
Eco-conscious (and frugal) Seattleites are finding alternatives to car usage, from the basic to the
ELECTRIC COMPANYCharging stations are popping up all over the city, making it easier for Seattleites to turn to green, clean electric-powered cars. Perhaps you’ve considered buying an electric car, only to be haunted by “range anxiety”—the fear that your battery will die without a charging station in sight. In Seattle, that’s becoming less and less…
Gotcha! 3 Parking Rules to Remember
These little-known laws will get you a ticket in Seattle faster than you think.
Every month, 97 Seattle Police Department parking enforcement officers print around 45,000 citations (about 7 percent of the city’s total population). While most tickets are for commonsense infractions—the most common: not paying or letting your time expire—there are a few lesser-known ways to end up with the dreaded envelope tucked under your wiper. Seattle Municipal…
The Big Idea: Transportation Edition
What locals would do to fix Seattle's transporation problems, if they had a blank check.
If money were no object, what single thing would you do to improve transportation in the region? We put that question to dozens of local transportation thinkers and limited their responses to 150 words—short answers to a long-debated question. Here are a few; add your own idea in the comments section below, or write to…
The Evolution of Seattle’s 520 Bridge
Big changes are under way on the 520 bridge, the longest floating bridge on Earth.
Just when you thought cross-lake commuting couldn’t get any more fun, tolling on the S.R. 520 bridge went into effect. Now, crossing the floating bridge can set you back as much as $5 one way, depending on the time of day and whether you have a prepaid “Good to Go!” pass affixed to your windshield….
A Fair to Remember
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Seattle's 1962 World's Fair.
Fifty years ago, Seattle threw a party for the world. The World’s Fair—called The Century 21 Exposition—was a celebration of Space Age innovation at a time of hope and futuristic yearnings. Our city, once regarded by many as a muddy Wild West outpost, was thrust into the world’s spotlight, suddenly becoming sophisticated and cutting edge….
Seattle Remembers the Japanese Internment
Seventy years ago this month, hundreds of Bainbridge Island residents were given 6 days to leave the
A wrenching chapter in our region’s history was written 70 years ago this month: the internment of thousands of Japanese Americans. In 1942, in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, amidst war hysteria, racism and fears of sabotage, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcing the evacuation of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry (two-thirds…
Cruise Ship Control
Disney Cruise Line pulls into the port on the Seattle waterfront this spring. Do these behemoth boat
They pour into Seattle by the hundreds of thousands: cruise ship passengers from all over the world, clamoring to board floating cities for slo-mo luxury tours of Puget Sound and points beyond. Seattle has become a major launching spot for cruise ships setting sail to southeast Alaska, with its cavorting whales, calving glaciers and staggeringly…
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