This stuff aint free, and I am getting tired of paying a levy for maintenance and capital investment for these "sites" if its intended audience are out-of-towners.
Who are we building the city for?
Where is the tax-benefit nexus?
No more levies for tourist traps. Let the hotelier's new Public Facilities District and the 7% hotel tax start paying for the upkeep of these Seattle-ish "public" parks.
The entire Seattle Center site, if this is the direction they really want to take that site, should get its capital money from the 2% sales tax credit on Seattle hotels that is part of the Convention Center tax revenue.
No more "park" money if this is the direction they want to go. Go ask the tourism industry for our tax money back while you are kissing their asses.
A citizens panel selected Dale Chihuly's glass-art exhibit Friday for a much-prized site at the foot of the Space Needle. The panel's conclusion, after months of meetings and debate, is the same as the one Seattle Center officials reached last spring.
Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams will study the panel's recommendation and present his choice to Mayor Mike McGinn. The City Council will make a final decision this fall.
The committee expressed skepticism about seven other proposals for the 1.5-acre site, and said the commercial and privately owned Chihuly exhibit would not cost the city any money and would attract tens of thousands of tourists in time for the 50th anniversary celebration of the World's Fair in 2012.
With city budget cuts coming, an unfunded master plan for the Center and a basketball arena that is missing its NBA team, Seattle Center will need something to celebrate in two years.
Panel backs Chihuly exhibit at Seattle Center, Seattle Times Newspaper
