Posted by BigBallaJ at 6/25/08 3:56 p.m.

Wait so the identity of a neighborhood is reflected in a nationwide fast food chain? Hmm.

Oh noes! Modernization is coming!

Posted by sonofemmett at 6/25/08 4:06 p.m.

it has nothing to do with the national chain, it has to do with the uniqueness of the building and it being replaced by another vanilla, unoriginal set of bird houses.

Ballard is losing its identity left and right, it's pretty sad. BCC Mikie Ballard LLC has some fences to mend indeed.

Posted by themodpoet at 6/25/08 4:37 p.m.

When are y'all going to realize we don't live in a democracy and that the interests of the people are irrelevant to our form of government? Big business and corporations make the rules. It doesn't have to be this way, but until we recognize this basic state of things, we won't be able to change it for the better.

Posted by Morrow at 6/25/08 4:38 p.m.

Manhattan is a pretty cool place. People seem to like it. I think Frank Sinatra sang some songs about it too.

Posted by unregistered user at 6/25/08 4:51 p.m.

Wow, is the PI an online opinion blog, or is it an unbiased news source? Sometimes it's easy to forget.

Posted by unregistered user at 6/25/08 5:48 p.m.

Where are all the bums in Ballard going to pee, crap, get drunk, smoke crack, and hang out now???
Oh, the "humanity"!!!

Posted by unregistered user at 6/25/08 6:45 p.m.

Believe it or not some of us Ballard residents wanted the Denny's to stay instead of more bland UNAFFORDABLE cookie cutter monstrosities.

Posted by Morrow at 6/25/08 7:31 p.m.

If they're unaffordable, then who is buying them?

Posted by Face Reality at 6/25/08 9:37 p.m.

Morrow: You are right, I used to live there (Manhatten)

When it was affordable, diverse in every respect and vibrant.

Now it's almost entirely a homogenous, bland, incredibly expensive, white, gentrified ghetto.

Like Seattle is has become.

Museum's are still the best. Unlike our provincial one (as in ONE).

Gotta go to parts of Brooklyn and Queens if you want the real city life Manhatten used to have.

In our case, Tacoma. Laugh, sure.

They laughed at me in NYC when I moved here 30 years ago.

Agree with SONO: However, nothing stays the same. Change is one of the few constants in the universe.

That is also an empty, hoary cliche.

It's not that change happens: It's who controls that change and for what end.

Look at the physical manifestation of "change" in Ballard and elsewhere in town: It's forensic evidence of who controls the change and to what end.

Who makes the money, who controls local Government, who has a say and how influential they are, etc.

Not hard to figure out the answers in Seattle.

Posted by Roosevelt at 6/25/08 9:45 p.m.

Hey Morrow, no one is buying them. They sit empty. No one can afford them. Check out "Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto" by Gilbert Osofsky for more information on this case study of overpriced housing, accompanied by real estate crashes. Seattle will be an interesting place in 10 years, for sure.

Posted by unregistered user at 6/25/08 9:53 p.m.

If they wanted it to stay they should have bought it. Anti-choice crazies

Posted by ericslocum at 6/25/08 11:07 p.m.

It's a Denny's-- not the Statue of Liberty. Please.

Posted by unregistered user at 6/26/08 1:13 a.m.

I always thought that building was weird and an eyesore. But what irks me more is the way the people with the money get to push around the rest of us. So what else is new?

Posted by voiceofcommonsense at 6/26/08 6:20 a.m.

ericslocum - "It's a Denny's-- not the Statue of Liberty. Please." AMEN! No other city would debate a Denny's closing down only here. That tells you something!