Seattle Press on Line - Seattle, Kafka Style

Small Ideas for Seattle

Seattle, Kafka Style

By Dick Falkenbury

Feb 21, 2001 -- In the early 20th century, Franz Kafka wrote novels of irrational people, set against a nightmarish background where everything was dark and confusing. Almost a century later, Franz Kafka seems to be running things in Seattle.

In 1993, a judge ordered that the Metro transit and sewage operations should become part of the King County government. Since that time, King County has not been able to reconcile the two payrolls of Metro and the county employees—even though they've spent over $37 million on computerization. The county recently announced that they have to throw out all previous work and begin again.

The Seattle Aquarium is about 30 years old and has apparently worn out. Apparently, it was designed in such a way as to be unfixable, impossible to expand or remodel. Current plans are to build another aquarium that will tower six stories above the water line and prevent Seattleites from seeing the Puget Sound. The city does an annual poll asking voters what they want done; the aquarium came in dead last in a list of 20 possible projects. Yet it is at the top of City Hall's list.

The city plans to spend $92 million on Magnuson Park. Virtually every square foot of land and every plant in the park will get worked over. This is a park that already functions well as a park, if attendance and use are any indication. The Parks Department plans to spend millions to restore some wetlands there—the problem is, these are wetlands that they filled in. They are restoring the wetlands that they destroyed.

I must admit that this Kafkaization of Seattle stumped me for the longest time.

I do not believe in conspiracy theories. Besides, I've met a lot of our civic leaders. They are not corrupt—they are truly honest people trying to do a good job. Besides, real conspiracies and corruption are terribly complicated, requiring a lot of work and thinking. These people are playing it straight; they think they are doing the right thing for the right reasons.

No, the reason for the apparent flight of common sense is found in their travel itinerary. These people have flown to Singapore, Berlin and Los Angeles. They view these cities and think that their solutions would fit in Seattle.

Each of these cities has 10 times the population of Seattle. They have the attention and money of their national governments. The foreign cities have vastly different laws and cultures from ours. Singapore is a benevolent dictatorship that can command obedience in a way Schell can only dream of. L.A. can soak tourists to build and buy whatever they want. Meanwhile, we only have enough tourists to pay for a stadium or two, and we've nearly worn our visitors out.

Seattle is a city. But it is a city of only 500,000. The federal government is no longer in the business of giving away the store. We need to build what we need, at a price that we can afford. We can think outside the box—we just need to check the price tag on the box first.

The proponents of the new City Hall have called it a "signature piece," a "statement of the Pacific Northwest" and other catch-phrases of hate design; but no one that wants us to build a new building has ever said, "It is a building that will serve citizens well."

Kafka rules!

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chris	Sep 23, 2003	bulletmore,muderland	gemcutter
hello from waterworld,you in seattle think you have got nimrods at town hall,you should try liveing in this third world city!baltimore sucks!the blowstorm last week filled our habor with over a 100 tons of trash.baltimore NATIVES DROP THEIR TRASH EVERYWHERE BUT in TRASHCANS.every time it rains our streets get cleaned ,and the harbor looks like a landfill!