Seattle Coffee Shop

[RMacherat]

I'm curious about the source of that ranking, BG, as well as the scoring. It must have caused a lot of furious nerd-angst typing, that's for sure.

[bgwah]

Originally Posted by Backstrom

A Seattle PD officer was gunned down last night in Leschi in a random shooting. God, I hope whoever did this is caught and more.

Disturbing.

If a couple Seattle cops had to be gunned down, it could have at least been these guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl67FmVRjYs

[Backstrom]

BIG news day. The possible suspect who killed Officer Brenton was shot by Tukwila police. We're hoping we got the guy.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ukwila06m.html

[Darkhyperchaos]

Thats good news. I was starting to worry that all this effort and time would have gone into nothing.

[Seasun]

Until this morning I didn't realize I could look up Seattle Municipal Court records on-line. (Came across this when reading an article about the SPD assassin). You can see every speeding and parking ticket plus other worse offenses going back quite a ways (like 1989). You just need last name (b-day and first name are optional). You can also lookup vehicle license plate numbers.

http://web1.seattle.gov/courts/cpi/

[RMacherat]

Superior Court too. I am a guardian and it pisses me off that everything we've ever done (over 100 entries over some 25 years so far) is right there for anyone to look at. It's mind-boggling what can be looked up in our city/county/state as compared with other states. If you're breathing, you're on a list somewhere. (Well, even if you're not! - check out the SSDI.)

[Seasun]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ylight12m.html

A few things I want to express about SCL and this large rate increase:
1. I can't claim that SCL doesn't need this rate increase but...
2. Have you tried to get a streetlight working? Here's an Oct. 8 e-mail from SCL about some lights I reported out:

Thank you for reporting this problem.

YOUR TROUBLE TICKET CONFIRMATION NUMBERS ARE:
[4 ticket numbers]

Repairs are averaging about 60 days. (Sometimes repairs may take longer, depending on the nature of the problem. More complicated repairs, such as no power to the light take more time.)
We apologize for the delay. We are currently working through a significant backlog of streetlight outages; our budget for streetlight maintenance was reduced for this year due to the overall cutbacks the City has had to make. If your light has not been repaired in 90 days, please feel free to email us again at street.light@Seattle.Gov or telephone at 206-684-7056. Please provide the ticket number of your original request.

Customer Care Division

3. These lights are still out more than a month later and I'm supposed to re-contact them if they haven't been fixed in 90 days(!). This isn't just one light - it's a block of Western Avenue. In recent days I've noticed that near Westlake and Stewart there are about 10 lights out and it's dark.

4. My experience is probably justification for the rate increase but it does seem incompetent that some downtown streetlights can't be relamped within a week or two. SCL has a reputation for bringing 4 big yellow work trucks to a site to do much of anything and if you watch their crews it's a little surprising how much time they spend on break in the cabs of the trucks. Is it possible that SCL could modify the Pothole Rangers or Graffiti Removal approach to handling streetlights (if those programs still exist)?

Don't be surprised that your rent or condo assessments are going up for next year even if the economy is down. And I don't think this is limited to the City of Seattle. I expect that all of SCL's service area gets this rate increase.

At least by the time 90 days elapses we'll almost be into more daylight!

[RMacherat]

This kind of report - not good for the blood pressure

" .. our budget for streetlight maintenance was reduced for this year due to the overall cutbacks the City has had to make .. "

and they're going to stamp their feet and hold their breath and not fix streetlights until they get what they want. It might be interesting to find out how much in the way of "cutbacks" they've actually had to endure. arghhh

[alexjonlin]

I read that they had to endure a couple million dollars of cutbacks. Why does everyone always suspect something is behind this? We're in a recession, revenue's down, so they had to cut, and therefore have to replace lights more slowly.

[Seattlelife]

Video from the top of the spire on the Burj Dubai. The towers WAY below are about the height of dt Seattle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWVLzVhnYE0

[CrazyAboutCities]

Damn! That's insane! Too bad, we will never see world's tallest building to be built in Seattle anyway.

[Darkhyperchaos]

No kidding. Its hard just to get a 1000 footer around here.

[meku]

Seattle doesn't need the tallest building in the world, what it needs is better architecture. Or more bold if I may say so.

[just4ivaylo]

I don't think Seattle needs anything higher than the 1000 foot mark. If we could only get more of those...

[Grayproduct]

How many more blue glass buildings will we get?

[Darkhyperchaos]

Originally Posted by meku

Seattle doesn't need the tallest building in the world, what it needs is better architecture. Or more bold if I may say so.

I agree. Last time I checked Dubai was a relatively flat line with a hulking tower in the middle. It looks so unbalanced and awkward.

[Darkhyperchaos]

I think Seattle would look really good if it gets a few more buildings around Columbia Center height. Emerald city tower, I wonder if it will ever be reality.

[CrazyAboutCities]

I think Seattle only need few supertalls including one tower that go up to 1,600'. That will be good enough for Seattle. That would be nice if Bellevue get a several supertalls too. Around last decade ago, 1,600' tower would be world's tallest building just before Burj Dubai. I can't imagine Seattle to have any taller building than Burj Dubai... It will ruin Seattle skyline.

[alexjonlin]

I think a couple between 1000 and 1500 would be good. Maybe one as the Emerald City Tower and the other on the Clise properties. Don't think Bellevue's getting supertalls, but I suppose it could do with some 800-footers.

[Backstrom]

I'm all for more density downtown, but I'd rather we rezone the low-density single-family areas and get more mixed-use multifamily developments first.