I admit that I assumed that Seattle had maximized the diversity of its potential public transit options [mb]. With plans to build light rail, a monorail system, and a Lake Union streetcar I thought that we had run out of different ways to get around town. We already have a preservation fight for the waterfront trolley and the mini-monorail in the interim to complement the public buses, & ferries, and private converted ducks, seaplanes, and bicycle rickshaws.

Alas, Metro’s has a new plan to highlight my shortsightedness. They’re exploring options to add or take over passenger ferry routes to zip people around King County by taking to the water. [seattletimes] Under consideration is the continuation of the Elliott Bay Water Taxi and a takeover of the Vashon Island passenger-only service, as well as potential new options including a UW to South Lake Union route and routes across Lake Washington from Kirkland and Redmond. Of course, this is all still in the “pipe-dream” phase since no one seems to know how to pay for it.

Not that I’m complaining. This keeps my dream of getting from place to place in hovercrafts alive.

A few Seattle-related stories from this week have not yet mentioned on the Metblog, likely to increase your daily despair index:

• Which part of this story is most depressing? That the 9th Circuit acknowledges that it’s decision is “callous and unfeeling”, the Navy’s health care plan is allowed to not pay for the abortion of a Bremerton woman’s anencephalic fetus, or that the household income of a Navy family is less than $20,000? [nytimes]
• The Stranger and the Seattle Weekly don’t like each other and engage in childish pranks and silly mediafights. If only the “weekly weekly recap” hadn’t run off to join the circus over summer break. [p-i]
• “The world’s phattest `protestival’ has a burning desire to present you 6 stages of speakers and bands, all speaking up for justice.” That is, Hempfest takes over Myrtle Edwards Park this weekend. [seattlehempfest]

Talk amongst yourselves.

Stop by this afternoon, August 18th, 5:30 pm at Elliott Bay Book Co. and listen to the book presentation from Powerful Voices

Relocating from one side of the lake to the other shouldn’t be that difficult, or at least you would think.

Moving from the east side to Seattle has proven that assumption incorrect.

The utilities are different from neighborhood to neighborhood, the service providers options are different from street to street, and there is no definitive source for reliable information.

Manuvering through the mazes of beauracracy takes almost more time that it took to move cross country. Why can’t utility providers share information anyway?
Was this the promise of deregulation?

Now instead of having a single provider for service, when I complete this task I will have 4.

I doubt this is the last difference I will find between Seattle and the east side as I embark on this adventure. Stay tuned.

metroblogging authors face the light of day. pleased join us on Tuesday!
RSVP: [upcoming.org]

On the fourth Tuesday of each month, many of your favorite Metroblogging Seattle authors come out of their weblogging caves to have food and drinks at the Elysian. This means that we’d love it if you would join us there on the 23^rd. Come by if you have suggestions for the site, want to find out more about writing for us, or just want to talk and have a beer. To help us plan ahead, please sign-up for the upcoming.org event and let us know that you’ll be there:

Tuesday — 23 August
7 pm

Elysian Brewpub in Capitol Hill [#]

1221 E Pike St

If that “writing for the site” part sounds intriguing, please go ahead and check out the metroblogging.com application [#]. We’re always looking for new recruits who are mildly obsessed with things related to the weird, wonderful, or intriguing aspects of living in Seattle.

image: Seattle Parks & Recreation

The 21st Annual Emerald City Open Water Swim takes place this Saturday, August 20th, 9 am, at Andrew’s Bay-Lake Washington in Seward Park. First organized in August of 1984, the Emerald City Open Water Swim since then has had over 500 swimmers participating in this fun family event.

You can sign up for the

The August Full Moon is most commonly known as the Full Sturgeon Moon (sturgeon are most readily caught in this month), but also known as: the Full Red Moon, Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon.

A friend of mine from photography club was reminding us all last month — don’t forget to take a photo of the full moon. He proceeded to reel off a bunch of numbers: rising and setting times, altitude and azimuth. I don’t know what everyone else thought, but I kind of blanked it out.

But his suggestion did bring to mind the Moon Viewing that will be occurring on Saturday night at the Japanese Tea Garden (a.k.a. Japanese Garden and Tea House) in the Arboretum. I’ve never been able to fathom why the japanese tea garden exists as part of the Seattle Parks and Rec properties, and not as part of the arboretum. Personally, I think it’s rather unkind that the arboretum doesn’t appear to provide a link to the japanese tea garden page, even though the Seattle parks and rec people have kindly provided a link back to the arboretum website. It would be a good reminder to check both sites for special events. As it was, I overheard someone talking about it, went to the arboretum site (couldn’t find anything), did a google search (couldn’t find any details), and finally called the arboretum, who said, “oh, you need to call Seattle Parks and Rec.” Buh?

But that’s beside the point. Access to the garden at night is offered for a $10 fee, and it seems like a mightily cheap fee to pay, in order to see luminaries and floating boats. Tea and snacks are offered for another additional fee.

from the shawn wolfe gallery [#]

Starting on Friday, Capitol Hill’s uncontested best curiousity shop will be hosting a collection of art by graphic designer/artist/popularizer and creator of tthe InstallerRemover “. If you haven’t been to OKOK to check out the fantastic selection of clothing, Lomo cameras, home accessories, whimiscal and weird toys of the Kid Robot, UglyDoll, and Chris Ware variety, the art opening on the 19^th (Friday) is a great reason to pay the shop a visit.

You’ll probably recognize Wolfe’s style from some of the CDs in your collection or from posters advertising your favorite band’s shows. The show runs for a month; OKOK is located in the Loveless Building (709 Broadway E, across from Harvard Exit).

(via BoingBoing [#])

Finally, a concert close to downtown I’m interested to see. Have you noticed how many concerts for Seattleites are now held so far away

image: BrasilFest as part of the Fest

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