96 hours have now passed since Hearst gave the P-I 60 days to live. And as I’m one to think, I’ve spent a lot of time dissecting what is happening and trying to piece together what is to come. We once had two strong regional papers, and now both of them could be extinct altogether by the end of the year.

I decided to start parsing together my thoughts into a post, but 1100 words into it I realized how huge and unwieldly it was becoming, so I’m breaking it down into smaller chunks for the sake of my sanity (and yours as well).
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photo by katharine moriarty [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• There’s a Tumblr Meetup tonight at Oddfellows. I can’t make it, but will someone please steal me a sticker? [tumblr/daryn.net]
• Cary Moon and the People’s Waterfront Coalition say that DeepBore is a win and a loss. At least there won’t be a new viaduct. [seattlest]
• A handy timeline of proposed massive construction projects could be replaced with “now until forever“. [capitolhillseattle]
• Vaguely relevant to our own slice of the impending death of print: the internet in newsprint form turns out to strangely beautiful and not all that expensive to produce. [magculture via distorte]
• Taco Gringos are on vacation in Mexico. [helloseattle]
• The explanation for Viceroy’s change of name to Rob Roy? The new name sounds more cockatil, less “belltown”. [voracious]

P.S. previous posts announcing and reminding you of our Metblogs meetup this week incorrectly identified Thursday’s date. The meetup will still be held on Thursday, which, contrary to my initial perception, will be the 15th of January at Oddfellow’s Cafe. Chat about stuff, including special focus on the future of Seattle news.

half of flight of the conchords at the gorge this spring for sasquatch [flickr]

Flight of the Conchords, Sub Pop’s funniest indie-comedian New Zealanders [#] are about to launch a second season of their show on HBO (18 January at 10 pm). Even if you don’t have the mountains of cash required to subscribe to premium cable television, the first episode is online [funnyordie, I say: decidedly "funny"] to help you catch up with their latest antics and they’re running a “lip dub” contest (sounds dirtier than it is, and features a special message from Mel).

As part of the promotion efforts to help their conquest for world domination, they’ve offered to give one of you a prize pack filled with swaggy treasures including:

• Season 1 of Flight of the Conchords (HBO) on DVD
• A Flight of the Conchords notebook filled with FOTC quotes and a “to-do” list to spice up your daily jottings
• FOTC-branded guitar picks for starting a band
• an FOTC poster + some FOTC postcards for displaying your fandom.

Want to win this pile of delightfulness? Send an e-mail to seattle.metblogs at gmail.com with FOTC in the subject line or leave a comment using your best New Zealandish accent. I’ll pick a winner by Thursday.

The Seattle Police Department’s Major Crimes Task force uncovered a ring of car prowlers and burglars that were all stealing your things in Seattle and Bellevue, which have all been photographed and cataloged and are currently cluttering up wherever it is that they put stolen things. So they would like you to come and pick your things up, please, if your car or home happened to be broken into before December 11 [PI].

In order to retrieve your stuff you have to have filed a police report, and some form of ownership documentation–a receipt or a serial number or probably the knowledge of the secret message you felt-penned under the stone of your grandma’s jewelery. You can go to one of three precincts–calling first to make sure they have the pictures on hand–and then if you see something that’s yours you can call a special telephone and leave a message with the case number, description, item number, and your best rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” (This seems like a lot of hoops to jump through, but then, I guess that’s not a surprise.)

The precincts that are awaiting your call are:

South Precinct: 3001 S. Myrtle St.; 206-386-1850.

West Precinct: 810 Virginia St.; 206-684-8917.

North Precinct: 10049 College Way N.; 206-684-0850.

Recently on CapitolHillSeattle.com, several posts have popped up
regarding the temporary residence of an infant President-Elect Obama
and his mother Ann Dunham on our very own Capitol Hill, to be specific
516 13th Ave E, in an apartment complex that no longer exists.

Today, Capitol Hill is synonymous with diversity and acceptance. On
November 4th, 2008, we banded together in celebration of the election
of our first African American president. A drag queen sang God Bless
America from the Neighbours rooftop as people of all colors, creeds,
and sexual orientations wept with joy in the streets below. Many had
become one, our community unified by a “change you can believe in”.
This is the Capitol Hill and the Seattle we are familiar with.

Unfortunately, the history of Seattle’s Capitol Hill is not quite as
uplifting. On the website Segregated Seattle, one finds a deeper look
into our city’s sordid past of racially restrictive property and
neighborhood covenants, real estate and job lockouts for African and
Asian Americans, as well acts of violence on their homes.

The Capitol Hill Times briefly courts the subject of race in their article “Barack Obama: from Capitol Hill to Capitol Hill”by commenting on the likelihood Ann Dunham “came across many social
prejudices in the predominantly all-white campus” when in reality,
just three years previous to her move to Seattle, a mixed-race couple
Ray and Marion West, found a cross burning outside their house U-
District home. CHT continues “[p]erhaps Ann Obama felt more at ease in
the diverse neighborhood of Capitol Hill”. It’s doubtful she had much
of a choice.

Map of residential patterns for African Americans in 1960 from Segregated Seattle.

* 6:30 PM: UW Bookstore presents science writer Dava Sobel at UW’s Kane Hall, room 130, for “Galileo and the International Year of Astronomy”, as part of the John & Jesse Danz Lecture Series. Did you know that 2009 was the International Year of Astronomy? Yes, indeed, the United Nations says so! 400 years ago Galileo Galilei recorded the first astronomical observations made with a telescope and Johannes Kepler published Astronomia Nova. So 2009 is the year to rock out with your… telescope out.
2009 is also the International Year of Natural Fibres (not fibers, fibres. Because it’s international.) and of Reconciliation. Neither of which have anything to do with Sobel’s lecture, I just think it’s funny.
[LINK]

* 6:30 PM: Local writer Molly Gloss, author of The Hearts of Horses, will be at the SPL University Branch to read and discuss the novel. I haven’t read it, I’m afraid, but several horsey acquaintances adore the book.
[LINK]

* 7:00 PM: I think we all know how I feel about “business” books, particularly those of the self-help type. Nonetheless, I dutifully report that David Allen, author of Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life, is making an appearance at the U-District UW Bookstore. Obviously, my many and varied failures have made me bitter and jaded.
[LINK]

* 7:30 PM: Elliott Bay Book Co. hosts Jayne Anne Phillips, author of Lark & Termite: A Novel. Phillips produces about one novel a decade, which means only one author tour per decade, so fans of her work have few opportunities to hear her read or ask her to sign. Phillips’ writing has been described as “incandescent and utterly original” [NYT]
[LINK]

7:30 PM: Poets Jenny Browne, author of The Second Reason, and Matthew Dickman, author of All-American Poem, read at Open Books.
[LINK]

* 7:30 PM: Cherie Calbom, “The Juice Lady,” will be downstairs at Town Hall Seattle, talking about juice. She may also mention soup. Mmmm, yummy soup. Who doesn’t like soup? $5
[LINK]

photo by Rachel Barsness [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• In an excellent and moving piece of journalism, Eli Sanders chronicled the view from the P-I newsroom following the grim, question-free address by Steve Swarz. [slog]
• A proposal for bringing the newspaper into the tunneling business, a reminder of the beginning of the countdown chronicle [bigblog], and a round-up of a bunch more “future of the P-I, if it has a future” links that have been passing around since the FOR SALE announcement went up. [seattlest (now with a flashier interface)]
• the Vera Project taught kids how to podcast, now hear the results. [kexp]
• This potentially nifty application from the city allows you to overlay all sorts of data over a map of your neighborhood. Right now, it’s too overwhelming for me. [seattle.gov]
• Ben Gibbard reflects on the early days of Death Cab for Cutie. Aside from the nostalgia, my favorite part is how Chris Walla didn’t realize he was in the band until 2001. Corollary: how long will it take for Zooey Deschanel to realize she’s engaged? [avclub]
• The state of Washington is only third in the US in terms of ninja appreciation. Look out Hawai’i and Oregon. [laweekly]

This weekend, I moved out of Ballard.

It was a hard decision, leaving the neighborhood that I’ve called home ever since I moved to Seattle, but a necessary one. We bought a house, and the house we found that was the right size, shape, price, timing, and feel, just wasn’t in Ballard.

I will miss a lot about Ballard. I will miss Green Market, a wonderful and friendly shop at the top of Sunset Hill. I will miss running down Shilshole and out to the beach. I will miss being walking distance from Aster Coffee Lounge.

I will also miss the sheer amount of Internet media coverage that Ballard received from the 5 neighborhood blogs located there.

Yes, you read that right. I said 5. More after the jump.
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Last week we told you about our January Meetup [mb]. To recap: it’s at Oddfellows on Thursday 15 January at 6:30 pm. In the intervening days, the agenda has been expanded from us gossiping about danceoffs and cocktails to have some actual focus. Namely, some people are interested in talking about the implications of the changing news landscape of the city. Business so serious that it even comes with a Facebook event page and a co-host of Mónica Guzmán:

Save the News?

Seattle is on the verge of losing one of its two daily papers. What does that mean for the city? For news readers? For local media and bloggers? Dylan Wilbanks of Seattle Metblogs had an idea that there should be an event in a month or so that gives people a space to talk about this. The objective of this meetup, other than to discuss these things ourselves, is to begin planning that larger event. [facebook]

Of course, if you just want to hang out and help us welcome a fresh crop of new Metbloggers, there will be plenty of time and space for that too. Plus, you should be aware that Oddfellows’s pastry case is home to peanut butter & jelly cupcakes and fruit-loop-enhanced rice krispie treats. You can get your tater tots at the Wildrose [slog] before or after.

Oddfellows Cafe // 1525 10th Ave (between Pike & Pine) // 15 January

Once again, the combined forces of state and municipal government have come up with a solution that pleases no one, costs more than any other option, is wildly complicated, and will take eons to complete. This time the subject isn’t mass transit or athletic stadiums, it’s what will replace our decrepit, old Alaskan Way Viaduct. Elected leaders have looked deep into their hearts and managed to wrest failure out of the ashes of consensus.

The current plan, to be announced tomorrow at an 8:30 AM news conference at the waterfront Trade Center, calls for a deep bore tunnel that will connect the stadium area to Aurora, with access at Royal Brougham and north of the Battery Street Tunnel. Transportation officials supported either another elevated highway or improving existing surface routes: there are a number of current surface routes that are now nearly unusable. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce, among others, supported the tunnel option. I wonder how many of the business owners currently members of the Chamber commute daily between downtown Seattle and points south.

About 100,000 cars travel the viaduct daily. Large commercial vehicles have been off-limits for years, diverting along Marginal Way, due to the frailty of the current structure. Other alternate routes include 1st Avenue South, 4th Avenue South, and I-5. I-5 is a parking lot, and quite a detour for those who live and work along the west edge of the city, while 1st and 4th need major surface and traffic management improvements. Western Avenue and Alaskan Way are also being offered as alternate routes for surface traffic. Both are also overdue for serious maintenance, even overhaul.

With all of these “alternate routes,” why do we need a tunnel at all? Apparently, so that sports fans in Shoreline can get to and from football games without ever having to actually see the downtown. The city might as well name the new tunnel the Seahawk Express Chute and ban actual Seattle residents from using it.

Tune in tomorrow to find out how our fearless leaders plan to pay for this white elephant. The deep bore tunnel is projected to cost about $4 billion. The state has $2.8 billion allocated for a replacement to the viaduct, leaving a $1.2 billion shortfall, minimum. Anyone who was around from the beginning of the bus tunnel project can recall how well projected costs actually line up with observable reality. In Seattle’s case, a big part of the bus tunnels’ problems came from the fact that Seattle is built largely on three things: old Seattle, sand, and garbage. Not really stable materials for tunneling through, but maybe the “deep bore tunnel” is really, really deep. Like, Iceland to Italy deep.