Last week flew by. I'm not sure if it's always true that I was having fun, but the week was over before I knew it. Three things I thought at the time, "I should blog about this" and then didn't.

1. The joint meeting last Monday night of the Pike Place Market Constituency and the Pike Place Market Public Development Authority Renovation Committee. We all voted last year for a small property tax bump to fund infrastructure replacement, seismic and ADA upgrades for the Market and the work is under way. If you've tried to go up Western Ave. on the west side of the Market, you've seen the big excavation pit where the new utilities and elevator will go. This was painful during the summer as tourists wandered trying to find a direct route up from the waterfront. Climbing gear probably would have been the best way. While this summer was painful, 2010 promises to be more painful for merchants as big seismic and utility work gets under way along Pike Place. Next year you'll start to see, hear and feel installation of bracing and pipes. Go down to the Market anyway. Spend a few bucks on gifts Down Under, fish up top, cheese, flowers, crafts and more. It's going to be tough on Market shops and vendors in the recession and with the construction impact.

The big thing I learned last Monday night was that the renovation has meant a net loss in storage for Market shops and vendors. All those carts and small shops need some place to keep inventory. When you're trying to figure out where new electrical utilities go in a very tight campus those storage areas get eaten up very quickly.

2. The Civic Square Client Group meeting on Wednesday. This is a semi-regular staff meeting to figure out what's happening with the empty hole to the west of City Hall. The short answer? Not much. With the evaporation of major financing the tower and public plaza designed for the block is on hold. In the mean time, though, the City will receive $40,000 a year from the developer to upgrade the plywood wall surrounding the block. Early next year you'll see large-scale artwork on the wall. The art will change every 6-12 months. I think we should fill in the hole and make it into a temporary soccer field, but this is probably the best we can do for now.
3. The graduation ceremony for the latest classes of welders and officer professionals from Seattle Jobs Initiative Thursday night. I was honored to be the commencement speaker for roughly 40 new graduates heading out into the workforce during the worst recession in decades. You would think the room would be pretty somber. You would be wrong. I've spoken at commencement before and this was definitely the highest energy group I've seen. The room was boisterous and supportive. People were excited to be graduating and resolute about sticking with the job search. Many of the welders have already landed gigs. It's going a little more slowly for the office skills grads, but they were as up as the welders. (That's saying a lot because the welders can be pretty out there.) It was inspiring to hear people talk about who they were before they decided on Seattle Jobs Initiative and gaining the skills to get a better wage, benefits and a better life. Employers make their world go round. If you're an employer looking for skilled, together new employees of any kind, contact Seattle Jobs Initiative.

I toured the University of Washington South Lake Union building near Mercer and 9th this morning with Councilmembers Drago and Rasmussen and saw things both cool and creepy. The main reason for the visit was to better understand their use of their existing South Lake union buildings and to understand their proposal to expand into potentially three new buildings to the west. We looked at development charts and boards, we talked about research funding and search for the cure for cancer, we talked about height and open space, and we talked about land use planning and neighborhood goals.

And then we put on white lab coats and blue paper booties in order to enter the research lab and look through microscopes at real stem cells -- the controversial little things the Bush Administration was ambivalent about and the Obama Administration has more openly embraced for research. We looked at basic, run-of-the-mill stem cells. It was, frankly, a little difficult to figure out what we were seeing under the microscope.

Then we looked at stem cells that had been made into cardiac cells. And they were beating. Under the scope it looked like a light green sea of cells with waves moving through at a regular pulse.

Weird. Why? How are they beating? What's telling them to beat?

If the lab coats, booties and cells are meant to impress and distract from the more difficult land use questions, they succeeded. We have the first discussion of the UW proposal at the Planning Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee meeting Wednesday, September 23, at 9 a.m. in Council Chambers.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy about Russell's more than 900 employees moving into the WaMu/Chase Tower (soon to be the Russell Investment Center) next year. We're awash in vacant office space in the central part of the city. That may not seem like a big deal to some people, but it has a ripple effect. Empty office space due to recession-related business failures means fewer workers seeking to spend a bit of money downtown. It signals less business activity and less business-related tax revenue. It means fewer workers circulating in Downtown adding to street-level life. Some Russell employees will no doubt chose to remain living in Pierce County, but some will move to Seattle, renting or buying homes, enrolling their kids in new schools and folding themselves into our neighborhoods. The Russell announcement is great music in Seattle.

But I feel guilty, too. Tacoma's loss is Seattle gain, but it's a mixed gain. For all of the work that each individual city does to attract new business, our success as cities (as great places to live, work and play) will ultimately be tied to our success as a region. In order for Seattle to achieve its growth management goals, we need for the other cities in Puget Sound to be successful, as well. Seattle's neighborhoods can't and shouldn't take all the growth predicted to come into Puget Sound in the next 30 years. We need for people to choose Everett and Bellevue and Kent and Tacoma for their new business ventures, their new non-profit agencies and their homes.

It's so much easier when we talk about luring a big employer from someplace far away where we don't share regional goals, where we don't know each other so well. When it happens between neighbors I feel like a jerk if I say I want them to move to Seattle and I feel like an idiot if I say I don't. If I could would I give Russell back to Tacoma? Not on your life. However, this whole scenario isn't the way we should do regional economic development.