Mayor Nickles is near Sighted

Crosscut - News of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest: "I know who sank the Wawona

Posted Thu, Mar 5, 6 a.m.

By Joe Follansbee

For 45 years, preservationists have tried to save Seattle's historic Pacific schooner, but this week, their efforts finally failed. And one man deserves to be singled out for giving up the ship."

Mayor Nickels said the ship was "not beautiful," adding: "We're not looking for [Wawona] to be a permanent part of [Lake Union Park] unless it's restored, and given the last 20 years of experience, we don't think [supporters] are going to have the capacity to restore it."

This is sad. What is worst is that this is nothing new. Seattle is a young city built on a history of extinctions and eruptions that rivals the great asteroids that wiped out much of Earth's life.

Look at how little of what was here has survived ... the Black River once stained Lake Washington into Puget Sound, the Sammish and Duwamish peoples, though still extant, are almost invisible despite their great cultures and contributions to Seattle history, the dynamic art community has been driven from Pioneer Square, to Capital Hill, to Bell Town to Fremont to limbo. Our few historic buildings are either closed to the public, eg the Merrill mansion, or decaying venues for catered affairs. Few in Seattle even know of the great heritage of Bill Holm or the Wobblies. If anyone still knows that Quincy Jones and Gordon Parks had roots in Seattle .. they are not telling.

And local art? We decorate the Seattle Art Museum with The Hammerin Man, edition 7/35. Wha? In a city with a wonderful sculptural tradition .. ranging from Coastal artists like Mungo Martin and Marvin Oliver to modern artists like Tsutakawa and Horiuchi we bought a tin can toy as our symbol.

I know I am making Seattle sound like LA. That is unfair. People here do care about culture and want a livable city. Yet our leadership, including the current mayor, seemingly has no connection to our history. Instead of what might have been the Seattle Commons, we have Vulcan's Urbana. The historic seaport honoring indigenes who lived on the south shore of Lake Union and Seattle's history in logging and ship building will be trivialized by a postal stamp sized parklet and a new home of the Museum of History and Industry .. a larger version of the community attics one sees in really small towns in rural America.