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1

Crowley was a good man, but also a typical Seattle person. He talked and talked and talked and accomilished little.
Nothing ever gets done because of this liberal nuttiness, a need to debate everything until everyone is tired.
RIP Walt, but hopefully, the need to debate until dead is also gone too.

Posted by liberal media | September 22, 2007 9:46 AM
2

lm - What a stupid ignorant ass

RIP Walt

Posted by whatever | September 22, 2007 9:51 AM
3

hey Josh, would you write your own perfect obituary or suicide note for
us? i had to do both on the way to getting a 'worthless' LIBERAL arts degree. depressing exercise, but i
could always submit it to Miranda
July as an 'assignment' suggestion.

Posted by June Bee | September 22, 2007 10:15 AM
4

...and with this post, SLOG commenters have officially jumped the shark.

Jesus H.

Posted by Name, indeed | September 22, 2007 11:25 AM
5

He died too young. Walt as a very old man would have been a number.

The Helix was hardly "underground" (adds glamour post era) - more counter culture. Passed out and sold on the streets of the U Dist and the Hill ... and he get all the credit but there were a lot of folks involved.

Too bad he didn't stay rad, and the bow ties were sickening.

Posted by Andrezel | September 22, 2007 11:34 AM
6

@4: ...and with this post, SLOG commenters have officially jumped the shark.

Really…

Let me respond to "liberal media's" allegation @1 that Walt Crowley was in the "all talk no action" camp. Crowley was pretty strong on building stuff. I recall he supported the monorail project, and he was pretty contemptuous of the local left's opposition to the 1968 and 1970 mass transit measures that went down to defeat.

I don't know if he bothered to take a position on this year's ST2/RTID joint ballot, but it's hard not to see a parallel between the opposition back then and the Sierra Club crowd of today. They're the same players in the same play, and even if none of us had ever heard of anything like "global warming" or "climate change," these folks probably would still playing the same roles in the same tragicomedy, just reading from a slightly different script.

Posted by cressona | September 22, 2007 11:40 AM
7

All-time favorite Walt Crowley quote, from a Seattle P-I story, Viaduct vote reflects a city at a crossroads:

"The local leftist distrust of big capital and land use projects goes back to Metro and Forward Thrust. The counterculture left actually opposed light rail in 1968 and 1970, proposing bridle trails instead (I kid you not). The aim of creative government should be to expand the commonwealth for all classes."

Hey, if these "holier than thou" types like Mike O'Brien and Tim Gould of the Sierra Club think that grade-separated mass transit is too good for the people of Pierce County, then perhaps they should propose bridle trails as an alternative.

Posted by cressona | September 22, 2007 11:45 AM
8

I'm going to miss Walt Crowley and his bow-ties. I remember when he and John Carlson duked it out on Point-Counterpoint so many years ago. Thank you for Historylink and all you did for Seattle, Walt!

Posted by Deacon Seattle | September 22, 2007 11:49 AM
9

I once had the privilege to serve with Walt on a regional committee, and I can honestly say that poster # 1 like most ignorant conservative bores does not know what he is talking about; and like most conservative douchebags he/she is just repeating a standard, conservative "liberal media" rant which only makes sense to stupid ignorant douchebags.

Ignorant fucks who take any chance they get to let out their venom.

If ever there was a man that wanted to get to the point of things, that was walt. rip walt.

Posted by Louie | September 22, 2007 12:21 PM
10

cressona, I didn't know that the left was against Forward Thrust rail. Thanks for the history.

I never knew Crowley personally, only traded voice messages with him once to get his recommendation on a Seattle Center historical speaker, but he seemed like a vibrant guy who really knew this city's (and region's) history. As we try to grow smart without becoming generic, it's sad that someone so embedded in this region died 20-30 years before his time. HistoryLink is a great accomplishment - too bad Walt couldn't have laid off the cigarettes.

Posted by Ebenezer | September 22, 2007 12:36 PM
11

Ahhhhh!!!!

Posted by Mr. Poe | September 22, 2007 12:47 PM
12

Too bad Walt didn't do his sucking urges in a more healthy manner - and - that would have been cool too.

His obsession with his favorite beer joint was almost morbid. Been to the Moon many time, just a beer joint.

Very low key, but could always pick up men there. Big secret, I think, some of us are excellent trollers.

Walt, about now you have some answers, wish you could call home .... or, if you can, please do ....

Posted by all knowing Mary | September 22, 2007 12:53 PM
13

"...and took great joy in sometimes being an overlarge garlic fragment in baba ganoush of Seattle nice."

There is no such thing as an overlarge garlic fragment. Also is this guy dissing baba ganoush? For shame!!

I DO love historylink.org. Too bad I never met this garlicky Walt!!

Posted by Katelyn | September 22, 2007 1:18 PM
14

Rest in peace, Walt, and my condolences to his loved ones. Walt and Marie designed the logo for the Friends of the Monorail after the 1997 win. When the project had few friends he was one of them. Funny, rooted and smart guy, and it is only in respect to his spirit of constantly challenging what passes for thought in Seattle that I must respond to Cressona's totally backwards slam on the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club folks would have been SUPPORTING Forward Thrust transit, and would be supporting the new light rail proposal were it not weighted down with the freeways that the original Forward Thrust opponents wanted. No roads in those packages. This is some crazy, crazy spin, that the opponents of RTID are anti-transit. I hope it doesn't work.

Posted by Grant Cogswell | September 22, 2007 1:32 PM
15

Didn't know Walt - the history site is great - but - the self righeous insider Seattle thing has now reared its ugly head.

Is there NO free thought in this city? Or quibble with the orodox view of his life? I thought the Blue Moon Tavern thing was trivial and silly - of no consequence to the larger city at all.

And Grant, if Crowley was indeed an early key person in the Monorail, can we blame him in part for its failure? Were it under construction as we post, he would get a lot of credit. Non?

He was a sorta old rad who joined the establishment. Very common. And had considerable talents in journalism and promotions.

And an untimely death, too bad.

Posted by T. Donald Overfield | September 22, 2007 1:48 PM
16

Grant, if the Sierra Club comes out against extending light rail from SeaTac to Tacoma, then they deserve to get slammed. Seattle and Tacoma aren't the only ones who should get light rail. Perhaps Mike O'Brien does PR for the City of Seattle on his off time.

#9, I know a lot of good conservatives who will debate on the merits and not stoop to name calling. I'd call "liberal media" a Neocon. Neocons can't stand arguing on the merits, because they'd get squashed 9 out of 10 times. So they resort to name calling, misrepresentation, and lobbying the U.S. Senate to condemn citizens who criticize their government. And they spread lies about the "liberal media" that spread lies about WMDs in Iraq, Whitewater, and Wen Ho Lee spying for China.

Posted by Ebenezer | September 22, 2007 1:58 PM
17

For those who want to watch interesting videos of Crowley discussing the history of various Seattle neighborhoods, they are available at HistoryLink. Just turn the volume down.

Posted by Ebenezer | September 22, 2007 2:02 PM
18

Mike O'Brien doesn't work for the City, nor fall in line with the establishment movement to build more roads than transit. The roads are the poison pill, and should be. Put the light rail on by itself, and the project will (and should) pass.

Posted by Grant Cogswell | September 22, 2007 3:17 PM
19

My sincere condolences to Walt's loved ones.

Grant, it's great to hear your voice on this issue. People need to know that it's not just the Sierra Club (and Kemper) that oppose RTID, and that some noted pro-transit folks aren't willing to swallow the bitter pill. Please keep it up!

Posted by Gidge | September 22, 2007 4:17 PM
20

Grant, I thought you pulled your dick out of Seattle. Go away.

Posted by BART | September 22, 2007 4:48 PM
21

Grant at #18 makes an anti- argument I hear a lot on the left, one that happens to be wrong: echoing the Sierra Club, he says if we kill this package, we can soon bring back transit on its own and, when decoupled from roads, it will sail through to victory at the polls with ease.

The first problem with this line of thinking is that if this package fails there are serious political hurdles that almost certainly will keep light rail expansion off the ballot for years, and even when it does come back it will surely do so in significantly truncated form. No one who knows anything about the anti-transit sentiment in Olympia believes we'll never see 50 miles of light rail, and nearly $11 billion in light rail investments, on the ballot at one time again.

But leave this aside for now. Assume for a moment that we could magically put the same level of light rail expansion back on the ballot on its own. Guess what? Contrary to Grant's faith-based pronouncements, the polling demonstrates clearly that it would lose. The latest Elway poll, for instance, tested public support if the transit and roads portions of the package were run separately. It is true that transit is slightly more popular than roads, but neither alone garners as much support as the two joined together (nor is this an aberration; previous polls have all shown the same thing). In fact, the poll found, as have previous polls, that BOTH ST2 AND RTID WOULD FAIL IF RUN SEPARATELY, though when joined together roads and transit passes with 54 percent support.

So, until someone can produce some data to the contrary, let's put aside wishful thinking and face reality: when it comes to transportation, each side needs the other because neither can muster 50 percent support on its own.

By the way, Grant is also incorrect in his claim that the bulk of the investments in this package tilt toward roads. More than 60 percent of the funding in this package goes to light rail; even on the roads side, a significant percentage goes to bus operations and infrastructure, park and rides, bike paths, HOV lanes and the like.

Posted by Sandeep Kaushik | September 22, 2007 5:04 PM
22

walt, walt is that you?

no, no it is sandeep chanelling...

Posted by al | September 22, 2007 6:12 PM
23

Even 40% is a bit much if what we should be looking for is a true mass transit package.

With that said, I think people like Erica, the Sierra Club, and Grant really do a disservice when they come out against transit for Tacoma or say things like right rail will only benefit the wealthy burbs.

Obviously these Freemont and Hill types dont know that the majority of true working class and working poor live along Pac Highway and they need to get to jobs just as much as they do.

I am glad that Julia Paterson slammed the Sierra elitist club rep in the PI. Until these people on the Coffee shop enviro left start getting to know the true working class, they will always be just a social club of know it all wonks.

Posted by Tony sea tac | September 22, 2007 6:13 PM
24

Hey, somebody died here. Pipe down!

Posted by uh | September 22, 2007 6:16 PM
25

Wow, the psuedononymous troll sluts are out in force - lambasting a dead guy. As someone who had the privilege of conversing with Walt at the Central, the Moon and other less rigorous venues, I always found him to be engaging, entertaining, humorous, and well-founded in history. And he also always treated me (a commercial construction guy) with the same deference as the many politicos, social elite and wannabes who sought his attention and friendship. The mark someone leaves in life is usually measured by the quantity, quality and breadth of experience of those attending his or her memorial service. There are gonna be a hell of a lot of people remembering Walt - and for a long time.

Posted by Rudy Taylor | September 22, 2007 7:30 PM
26

Walt was nothing if not irreverent -

Hey, Rudy, consider this a good wake where you all eat a lot of good food, get very drunk and stoned and get laid to celebrate the active life of the so called "recently deceased" ...

Adam, aka Trool Slut, who knew Walt very well

Posted by adam, partner named steve | September 22, 2007 8:19 PM
27

Truly a great loss for Seattle, especially at a time when the process of transfiguring The Old, Weird Seattle into a giant yuppie Habitrail is going into Vulcanized overdrive. To quote Robert Christgau's obituary for D. Boon back in 1985: Shit, shit, shit...

Well, I've been wondering for weeks now how and where one might obtain original copies of the Helix. *Now* I really want to get me some of those. Any of you other commentarials know where old "Helices" (as Walt himself has referred to them) might locally lurk?

Posted by Jeff Stevens | September 22, 2007 9:27 PM
28

I live outside of Seattle and think it's wonderful that you guys even have the opportunity to debate light rail - Northern California isn't quite there yet.

I grew up in Seattle, went to Nathan Hale and have the distinction of having been laid by Walt - my first time, not his. He turned Nathan Hale on to the Vietnam War with a march in the hallways before we'd even heard of it, and I turned him on to joints and Bob Dylan. Since he was already well-known on campus as a journalist and cartoonist, and all-around colorful character, I was surprised when he didn't show up in New York. He said he'd rather be a big fish in a small pond. Well, you did good, Walter!

Ditto about finding copies of the Helix, or any Walter artwork. I don't need originals, so anything online anywhere?

Condolences to the family and his many friends. He was truly one of a kind and will be missed.

Love, Ann

Posted by Ann Prehn | September 22, 2007 10:41 PM
29

#28 - thanks

no other accolade can top yours

Posted by Angel | September 22, 2007 10:58 PM
30

Yes, thanks Ann.

My guess is Paul Dorpat (also instrumental in founding the Helix), might well have originals stashed away. Although he's done some major purges of his collections over the years I think he would have hung on to them. Or maybe the Northwest Archives at The U?

Walt was one of a kind and the world needs a lot more of him and shitload less of the morons earlier in this thread.

Posted by gnossos | September 23, 2007 12:27 AM
31

it appears that the special collections dept. at the UW library may have originals:

http://content.lib.washington.edu/protestsweb/about.html

Posted by gnossos | September 23, 2007 12:47 AM
32

Wow, great link. Thanks, Gnossos.

Posted by Ann Prehn | September 23, 2007 1:11 AM
33

Ann, Gnossos, Jeff, cheers to you, we former Seattleites are up late in Portland toasting Walt. I.F Stone said you need to fight a hundred losing fights until the one you win, and have fun while you are at it. D. Boon too. Bless you.

Posted by Grant Cogswell | September 23, 2007 2:54 AM
34

I liked and admired Walt quite a bit. I never met him personally, but we emailed back and forth a few times about things on historylink when I was doing some research on Beacon Hill and King Street Station. He was courteous, helpful, and extremely well-informed. That he would die so young is sad beyond measure.

Like all historians, his accounts of our region will be up for debate. For instance, I think he soft-pedals the history of labor relations and strikes in the NW: His account of the 70's City Light strike makes it sound like the employees lost, yet they made significant gains AND effectively neutered a rabidly anti-labor superintendent.

If nothing else, he ruined the lovely myth that notorious Madam Lou Graham bequethed her estate to the Seattle School District. We're all a little the worse for finding out that isn't true, but history is history :-)

RIP Mr Crawley.

Posted by catalina vel-duray | September 23, 2007 8:39 AM
35

@34 I was really sad when I learned that about Graham's estate. She's one of my favorite Seattle characters. And I did learn it on Historylink.org, by the way!

Posted by Katelyn | September 23, 2007 1:25 PM
36

as a pain-in-the ass 20-something in the grunge years, i had the remarkable good fortune of being around some extraordinary folks. they had, through experience and age, been through way more shit than i had even come close to, and still had the patience to pass their knowledge on to a bunch of wise asses.

walt crowley was one such person that i would see at parties, barbecues, and events -- oftentimes in the home of chris bachtel & milo johnstone, two long-time supporters of underground seattle.

walt was always interesting, patient, witty, and smart. he never made me feel 20 years younger, political unaware, or silly -- even though i was. i always walked away with a fresh understanding and a bit of hisstory.

he was a good man. my heart goes out to marie, his family, his friends, and those that knew him. he took an unparalleled understanding of this city's history with him.

Posted by kerri harrop | September 23, 2007 11:22 PM
37

Some of you people are acting like total douchebags. Can't you just either keep quiet or say you're sorry for his family's loss, or would being marginally polite make your teeth fall out?

Dammit, I happen to think it's a great loss for Seattle. He was one of the great curmudgeons, a real original. It chaps my hide that people have come into a thread that ought to be about his death to push their own weird-ass agendas.

Jeebus. Lamers.

Posted by Geni | September 24, 2007 5:40 PM
38

I was just a teenager when Walt and John would express their opinions on Point Counterpoint. Little did I know that the Bow tie expressed the opinion of the Liberal and not the conservative. Walt, you will be missed. May your family be honored by your true thoughtfulness and caring. Take care my friend.

Posted by Brian | September 25, 2007 7:30 PM
39

I met Walt when he first came to Seattle. He was in 9th grade, I was in 8th, both of us attending the now-defunct Jane Adams Junior HS. He wore a nerd's uniform–brown tweed jacket with leather elbow patches and he always was carrying his briefcase! He immediately got my attention. We became dear friends, ex-lovers, and more. He politicized me when I was barely 18. I have cried more tears this week than I have in a long long time. RIP Walt, thanks for being such an important part of both my life and the City we both loved.

Posted by Cathy | September 27, 2007 2:15 PM
40

Hi Cathy. You, me, Walt, and John Moehring, another 60's psychedelic artist who died too young. It was good to see examples of both his and Walt's work in the Experience Music Project. Love you and am crying buckets with you.

Posted by Ann Prehn | September 27, 2007 8:23 PM
41

Hi Ann, I read your blog #28 after I wrote mine. Thanks for being the friend who gave me the sad news. I just wrote Marie a long letter. It amazes me how truly sad Walter's passing has made me. Those were the carefree days of our youth. We'll miss you Walter.

Posted by Cathy | September 28, 2007 11:27 AM

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