Even though parts of it are kind of hokey, I love the Seattle Center and enjoy spending time there. There are always things to do, really great people-watching, and sitting by the International Fountain reading a books is an excellent way to spend an afternoon during pleasant weather. The Seattle Center is run under the provisions of the Master Plan of 1990 but the people who manage the Center say that plan is outdated and have suggested some new versions of the plan, summarized below:

1. ‘No Action Alternative’–This is a straightforward plan with its title matching its contents; this alternative also includes a Theater District Plan and Theater Commons and the “triangle” property across the street that the Center doesn’t own but desires;
2. ‘Center of the Center – The Green Frame’–This plan organizes green space in a frame around the Center House and a band of buildings and spaces extending west from Fifth Ave. This does not include buying Memorial Stadium [for those who didn't know, it is actually owned by the School District] but would include demolishing the Fun Forest and using its space for a ‘water feature’ outdoor seating, and landscaping, amongst other changes;
3. ‘The Green Window’–Similar to the ‘Green Frame’, only the green space would be oriented towards Broad Street and downtown in a large green ‘window’. A secondary ‘window’ would face the ‘Uptown neighborhood’ at the NW corner of the campus. This plan would include acquiring Memorial Stadium from the Seattle SD;
4. ‘East West Axis’–in this plan, the green space would cover the entire east-west axis of the grounds, from Key Arena on First Ave N through the campus all the way over to Fifth Ave N. Memorial Stadium would be purchased and the Mercer Arena would be redeveloped privately as a hotel or commercial development.

You can read details about the proposals yourself online at the Seattle Center site and if you’d like to comment on them, well, you should attend the public meeting which is June 28, 2007, in the Lopez Room at the Center’s Northwest Rooms (at the corner of 1st Ave NW & Republican) beginning at 6:30 pm.

For someone who loves to cook, I eat out a lot. I’m sometimes asked to name my favorite restaurant. My stock answer to that question is that it’s almost impossible for me to pick one. After all, it all depends on what I’m in the mood for. Today it might be Tin Hat [#] for strong drinks, burgers, and awesome tater tots. Before the baseball game tomorrow, I might want Green Leaf [#]. Next week, I might want some fried pickles and head over to People’s Pub. Next weekend, I might be craving some upscale Italian at Volterra.

This past Saturday, my boyfriend and I were craving some mole. So we went to Alebrijes, a Mexican-Cuban place on Roosevelt Way NE. We got there around 1:00 and walked right in. The place was empty. There was one couple at the table behind us, and about halfway through our meal, someone else came in for takeout. That’s it. Disclaimer: I have no idea what their typical dinner crowd looks like. I certainly hope it’s significant.

We enjoy the food at Alebrijes and the few times we’ve been there, the service, presentation, and prices have also been quite good. Their mole is spicy, rich, and flavorful, and while the chimichanga was nothing compared to those I used to find in California’s Central Valley, it was easily the best I’ve had in Seattle so far. There is a large bar area that looks to be fully stocked. It’s clean, and the decor is pleasant.

While we were eating, we discussed how sad it would be if the place closed down. I can’t imagine they could afford to remain open with such a tiny lunch crowd. This got me (ok, him) thinking. What are some of the other local restaurants that you, dear readers, love and worry about losing? Let’s hear about them in the comments. Not only can we drum up a little business for these hidden gems, but we all might find a new place or two to try.

“be neat” by shawn / slightlynorth [flickr] via our group pool [#]. why not submit your own to keep our all-stars regular contributors company?

• ‘blogging the pages of the 1962 world’s fair program, one day at a time [paleo-future]
• Knute Berger makes a case for saving the Ballard Denny’s from destruction, citing its “Googie” architecture and relevance to the region’s chain coffee culture with hopes that DoCoMoMoWeWa will step in to help [crosscut]
• Speaking of chain coffee turning cafeteria, how about the Starbucks plan to expand their lunch options? [starbucksgossip]
• Defending Belltown property values one shooting headline at a time [horsesass]
• Transit creates density, and Seattle’s not that dense [seatrans]

Our sister site Metroblogging LA is rated “PG” but Metroblogging Seattle is safe as houses and rates a solid “G”, according to the What’s My Website Rated? site operated by a dating service called Mingle 2. Apparently the rating is determined by a quick scan for certain words–the software didn’t like our use of the words “death” and “dead” but otherwise found us nice and wholesome.

Good thing it didn’t reference the Enumclaw horse thing, I guess.

It’s easy to grasp why people are afraid to get tested for HIV. Getting a positive reading changes your life so completely that just thinking about it is overwhelming. Confronting one’s own mortality is frightening for just about everyone and the temptation to cope by making like an ostrich, well…it’s totally understandable. It’s also foolish. Bad news doesn’t go away just because you won’t listen to it and in this matter covering your ears makes the bad news even worse. There are treatment options and support for people with HIV and the sooner you find out your status, the more of them you have.

National HIV Testing Day is an annual campaign produced by the National Association of People with AIDS. Around 30,000 national organizations–representing all 50 states and Puerto Rico, too–will participate in events to encourage early diagnosis and routine testing for HIV/AIDS. Locally there are a number of places you can get tested; if you go to the NHTD site, you can use their search function to find a clinic near you. (Some public health departments are offering free or reduced cost tests, contact yours for more information. )

I moved into my apartment in Eastlake four years ago, back when everyone was practically giving apartments away in this town, and since then I’ve been watching the yuppiefication (ok, fine, “upscaling”) of South Lake Union with a little bit of dread. I’ve been, selfishly, hoping for the condo market to collapse so that the “upscaling” won’t continue the creep up the street and my building won’t be converted or rents raised past what I can handle, so that my more colorful older neighbors won’t be squeezed out of the neighborhood.

Today’s P I has an article about the slow transition of South Lake Union. Since I live in Eastlake and work in South Lake Union, I spend a lot of time here, watching the changes. The Lobo has turned into the Victory (and I promise not to sneer until I’ve actually visited, because maybe it will charm me. But if it sucks as much as Feierabend, then that’s not likely.). The new Vivace is lovely, on the other hand, and I’m glad it’s there. No one has touched my beloved Mars Bar yet, and I still hope that MOHAI moves into the Reserve building. But the part of the article that makes me laugh is this: “The neighborhood still lacks some basic staples — there’s no barber shop, library or farmers market. But a gourmet deli and upscale pet supply shop have moved in to serve the new residents.” Gourmet delis and upscale pet shops are basic staples in a neighborhood that’s supposed to be “affordable to a range of people”? Seriously? How about a regular corner store, or a Pho joint?

I’m not against all of the changes, because that would be silly–they’re going to happen, and they’ve certainly happened everywhere else. There is a lot of empty and run down space in this neighborhood that could use some improvement. I’m just against pretending that all the change in South Lake Union is going to benefit anyone who could actually use some affordable living space.

But perhaps I’m too close too it all and am having trouble seeing the forest because all these damn trees are in my way. I still hope that the neighborhood will defeat my fears and turn into something more than a sea of overpriced beer and striped button-down shirts. I hope I’ll still be able to go to a bar and hear stories from people who have stubbornly refused to leave the home they’ve lived in for the last 30 years, or run into half a dozen people with their kids on my way to the park.

It’s only that the way things look now isn’t very hopeful.

Oh, boy — the University of Washington is about to start playing nice with the Recording Industry Association of America. As a “service to students”, they will be turning over individual names so that students will have the opportunity to pay thousands of dollars to settle allegations of illegal downloading out of court. From a letter apparently sent to all students [uw.lj] from the Vice Provost for Student Life: :

… The University has been notified by the RIAA that we will be receiving a number
of these early settlement letters. After careful consideration, we have decided
to forward the letters to the alleged copyright violators. We do so primarily
because we believe students should have the opportunity to avail themselves of
the settlement option if they so choose. Not forwarding the RIAA letter to
students could result in their being served with a lawsuit, with no chance to
settle it beforehand. … [uw.lj]

not necessarily related: Two years ago, the University entered into a one-year relationship with Napster to provide legal downloads to residence hall students [register]. The following year, they partnered with something called Ctrax [#] and opened it to the entire UW community. Both services, primarily tethered-download based and only available on Windows, have since been discontinued.

update: Based on the discussion in the comments, I was planning to e-mail the U.W. for clarification on their level of co-operation with the R.I.A.A., but it looks like this statement to the Post-Intelligencer answers the main questions (maybe they saw this post and the related conversation and decided to follow-up for us!):

“The university is not going to give information about the students to the industry,” spokesman Robert Roseth said.

But, he added, the school will pass along letters from the Recording Industry Association of America to UW students accused of illegal downloading. [p-i]

So, it looks like R.I.A.A. won’t get the student contact information unless they decide to take the case to court. This still doesn’t answer the question of why the University is passing along the letters now instead of waiting for a court order, but it does clarify the issue a little bit.

Over at the Seattle Livejournal Community, mcfnord just posted a picture of a fire in the U-district [lj]. It looks like Flowers is burning:

Here’s hoping it’s less major than the clouds of smoke suggest; Flowers is one of the better restaurant/bars on the Ave.

update: the P-I says that it was a chimney fire, confined to the roof, and estimated to have inflicted $100,000 in damages [#]

photo by Bryan Gosline [flickr] via a search for the most interesting photos matching seattle and pride, licensed under the Creative Commons and taken after 22 june 2007 [#]

• Sunday rainbow coincides with Pride parade. [westseattleblog]
• Seagull parking [ballardavenue]
• Finding “interesting” Pride photos, speculating on where it will be next year [capitolhillseattle]
• More Pride photos and videos [alexgarcia]
• the Northwest Bears win the affections of the Stranger [slog]

“paper mario”, photo by eric meyer [flickr]; art by “AIOUA, DudeMan007,[7T/L], RyanTheWawkStar” [#]

It’s things like this that make you all the happier about the demise of the poster ban: 1UP to the construction paper mosaic artist who turned this telephone pole into pixelated Super Mario Brothers street art! Does anyone know where in Seattle this is located?

edit: from the comments and the geotagging, looks like this was on Elliott between Bell & Blanchard.

(thanks to John of cooklocal.com who saw this at kotaku [#] and passed this along by way of our nifty Suggest a Story link.)