UnCommon Coverage
- Seattle Commons project maven Joel Horn, while stumping for signatures in front of Wallingford's Food Giant Oct. 9, complained (of all things) about how his proposal hasn't gotten a fair shake in the media. Particularly, Horn said, the local media haven't done a good job reporting on his plans for low-income housing in the Commons area. "We've worked our fucking asses off," said the visibly flustered Horn while trying to convince several Saturday-morning shoppers of his good intentions. Maybe the media realize, like we do, that the Commons Committee's low-income housing plans are an afterthought, and that in order for the whole project to succeed, property values around the new park have to dramatically increase in order to pay back the bonds that the city of Seattle ostensibly would sell in order to build the park. This is no recipe for holding down housing prices. Come to think of it, maybe the local media should look into this apparent paradox.
- Speaking of the Seattle Commons, the Free Press wants to thank the Commons committee for sending us a "Share the Vision" card, which people are supposed to sign and send back as a way of casting a vote in favor of the half-billion-dollar, public-private venture to obliterate the South Lake Union/Cascade neighborhood and build a questionably necessary park and Eastside-style residential/commercial spread. The good folks at the Commons office apparently think, despite the critical story on the project that ran in our July/August 1993 issue, that we still support the park and related high-priced amenities. Needless to say, we recycled the card.
New Ink
- Take a typical supermarket "shopper" newspaper crammed with ads. Add some steamed milk and hazelnut syrup. Put it on a free newspaper rack and you've got something called the Seattle Dealer. It's new! It's free! It's even free to place ads in! Promising to feature the work of a different local artist on the cover of every biweekly issue (the first had the work of Rachel Lord), the Dealer has everything that a paper without anything better to say usually has: personal ads, classifieds, even a review of Nirvana's new album written by a guy who bought the record after he and a friend "got espressos & walked down Broadway past spare changers & homosexuals" on the way to the music store. No offense to the advertisers - one of whom is in the Free Press - but the Northwest ain't big enough for the Dealer and the spotted owl.
- The Communication Thing out of Bellingham is based on one of the most bizarre convergence of ideas that we've seen in recent years. Its first issue, a four-page newsprint tab, features a story that discusses intimacy in the context of Christianity ("If intimacy was not God's goal, then he could have just sent us letters, a book, but he has sent more than that...), and another piece saying that people should fornicate less and, among other things, have more conversations about the Christian subtext in records ("This can manifest itself in a deep discussion over U2's Zooropa lyrics with a double mocha espresso down at coffee shop (sic), to a quick drive out to a lake for a romantic rowboat ride and ending the evening with a meaningful hug and thoughtful word"). Conveniently, grist for such a conversation can be found on the previous page, where Zooropa is reviewed (It's a good review, by the way). Thing can be reached at 1318 Sudden Valley, Bellingham, WA 98225.
[Home]
[This Issue's Directory]
[WFP Index]
[WFP Back Issues]
[E-Mail WFP]
Contents on this page were published in the October/November, 1993 edition of the Washington Free
Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1993 WFP Collective, Inc.
