Robin Williams did it!
--Previous Message--
: SEATTLE — Officially, it’s the South Lake Union Streetcar. But in
: the neighborhood where the new line runs, it’s called the South
: Lake Union Trolley — or, the S.L.U.T.
: At Kapow! Coffee, a shop in the old Cascade neighborhood, 100
: T-shirts bearing the words “Ride the S.L.U.T.” sold out in days,
: and another 100 are on order.
: “We’re welcoming the S.L.U.T. into the neighborhood,” said Jerry
: Johnson, 29, a part-time barista.
: Some claim — incorrectly, according to representatives of Vulcan
: Inc., the company that is developing the area — that South Lake
: Union Trolley was the original name and that it was changed when
: officials belatedly realized the acronym.
: The $50.5 million project should be completed with streetcars
: running in December. Underlying the lighthearted opposition,
: however, is resentment over changes in the old working-class
: neighborhood.
: “There was a meeting with representatives from the city several
: years ago,” Johnson recalled.
: “They asked us, ‘What we could do for you?’ Most people raised
: their hands and said, ‘Affordable housing,”’ he said. “Then the
: people from the city huddled together — ‘whisper, whisper,
: whisper’ — and they said, ‘How about a trolley?”’
: Since then, Cascade has been ignored in Vulcan brochures that
: lump the neighborhood together with Denny Park and Denny
: Triangle under the term South Lake Union. With the streetcar,
: said Don Clifton, a Cascade resident, “We learned how fun it is
: to change the name of things.”
: