Slog - Comments on So Long, Fun Forest

Comment by Just Me

Just Me — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:26:59 -0800

Nothing there to be upset about loosing. It has always sucked. Frankly, they should level Seattle Center's Campus and start over.

Comment by Kate

Kate — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:27:10 -0800

Fun Forest gone ?! Next thing you know they will remove Bobo the Gorilla from Woodland Park Zoo.

Comment by Coyote

Coyote — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:32:25 -0800

If you don't think this is a loss, then you obviously haven't been there on a Friday or Saturday night. Where else can a family of four go for some good clean fun for less than $10 total? Cliched? Yes, but it's also true. The snobby hipsters on Cap Hill may not ridicule its demise, but this is what public parks are s'pozed to be about. Now wait for yet another of Nickel's multi-million development projects by and for his yuppie developer friends. MuthaFuckas.

Comment by Dougsf

Dougsf — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:32:36 -0800

Other than the fun I had as a kid getting in trouble by sneaking off the car mid-Trip to Mars and wondering through it's mechanical innards (actually, that was kinda the whole reason my friends and I would get on that ride as young'ins), it's hard to say I'll miss that place.

Comment by crazycatguy

crazycatguy — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:34:09 -0800

Good riddance.

Comment by Al

Al — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:34:12 -0800

Midway on life's journey I found myself in the Fun Forest, the right road lost.

To tell about the Fun Forest is hard, so lame and old and creaky that speaking of it now I feel the old fear stirring.

Death is hardly more bitter.

Apologies to Mr. Alighieri.

Comment by Cale

Cale — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:37:16 -0800

won't somebody pLEASe think of the children!?

Comment by genevieve

genevieve — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:40:27 -0800

I love the Fun Forest :(

Comment by True

True — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:42:26 -0800

SADDEST PLACE ON EARTH!
SADDEST PLACE ON EARTH!

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:42:46 -0800

Oh, good, they can put a Starbucks there now.

Seriously, if you kill all the downmarket pleasures in life, you'll end up in exactly the kind of bland yuppie ghetto you're constantly whining about.

Comment by Bellevue Ave

Bellevue Ave — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:43:23 -0800

this is like a more depressing version of coney island

Comment by Jiberish

Jiberish — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:44:59 -0800

man, i went on a ride a couple months back...it was still fun as when i was little

Comment by notforsalethanks

notforsalethanks — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:46:18 -0800

I'm sure Starbucks will build a "Wild Extra Hot Double Soy Mocha Latte No Whip in a Post-Consumer Recycled Cup" ride there (with soft John Mayer music in the background) and it will attract all of the Capital (Mars) Hill yuppies and their ADD devil-spawn and SEATTLE WILL BE GREAT AGAIN! YEAHZ!

Comment by yay

yay — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:57:22 -0800

Good riddance x a bazillion.

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:59:18 -0800

WOOHOO!!!!!

(pause)

Oh, I'm sorry, I was too busy riding my skateboard to hear you.

What were you saying?

Comment by Amelia

Amelia — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:59:43 -0800

Aww come on. I loved going on field trips there! I dominate at laser tag!!!

Comment by sad clown

sad clown — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:01:43 -0800

what children will come to drink my tears?

Oh yeah, the ones going to the children's theater and the dozens of little events or conventions for children held at the Center each year. Seriously, there's plenty of fun at the Center. Fun Forest was anything but! A big stfu @3. kthx

Comment by max solomon

max solomon — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:03:06 -0800

replaced by the skate park?

Comment by biggie j

biggie j — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:03:17 -0800

Seattle is now DOOOOMED!

Comment by --MC

--MC — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:05:50 -0800

The writing on the wall was when they replaced Flight To Mars with the EMP. It takes real skill to build a rock music museum that is LESS FUN to go through while stoned than the Flight To Mars.

Comment by kkl327

kkl327 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:06:48 -0800

there is already a starbucks in the seattle center. if you didn't know that maybe you should keep your ideas about what to do with the space to your self.

i work across the street from the fun forest and have a view of it from my window...i have to say it is jam packed every day all day during the summer. granted there are better, more community oriented uses for that land, the fact that the city will not use it for anything better or more community oriented makes it a shame that they are closing it.

Comment by NapoleonXIV

NapoleonXIV — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:07:13 -0800

The Fun Forest is still actively attended, mostly by what seems to be first and second generation immigrant communities.

That said, the rides look to be on their last legs.

Comment by Ryan Red

Ryan Red — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:11:33 -0800

I waste about $20 - $40 there twice a year there. It's good for an occiasional ironic-fun-first-date. Mostly the rides suck though, the roller coaster is too jerky and scary(at least every time I go on it I think the tracks are going to break and I'm going to die) to be any fun, plus all of the rides cost way too many tickets. I will miss the twice a year visits though.

Comment by DOUG.

DOUG. — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:12:59 -0800

I wish I had a bigger yard. I'd buy that roller coaster.

Comment by tsm

tsm — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:14:19 -0800

I'll miss it, despite never going there. (Guess I should've.) It was just nice knowing it was there somehow.

Comment by michael strangeways

michael strangeways — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:16:20 -0800

When do throngs of happy, bargain loving families go to the Fun Forest? The place is always deserted when I go through there.

And it's way too ugly to be very beloved.

Not a loss, unless they replace it with something dumber and/or uglier.

What other obsessions does Paul Allen have? I think he's hetero, so my dreams of "The ChiChi LaRue Museum of Gay Eroticon" probably won't come to fruition.

maybe, a "The Museum of the Pocket Protector Experience"

Comment by meks

meks — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:27:14 -0800

Dibs on a skee-ball machine!

Comment by Geni

Geni — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:31:24 -0800

I loved the Fun Forest when I was a kid. You could walk under the rides that went upside down and pick up enough change to buy some junk food and pay for your bus home; change always fell out of people's pockets. However, all the rides were always lame, and the carny stuff is crap. They've needed to renovate it for some time, and with the way people are about litigation now, we'll never get decent rides in the city of Seattle. (My idea of a good time is Cedar Point, in Sandusky.)

Comment by genevieve

genevieve — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:39:15 -0800

@26 - "Not a loss, unless they replace it with something dumber and/or uglier."

Call me cynical, but I am fairly certain whatever goes up is likely to be dumber and/or uglier than the Fun Forest.

Comment by cochise.

cochise. — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:42:42 -0800

@21

some people are so naive...

http://tinyurl.com/yv4emt

don't think it won't happen there.

Comment by orangekrush

orangekrush — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:52:05 -0800

They are closing Coney Island too.
Welcome Yuppie Ghetto.

Comment by Judah

Judah — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:54:14 -0800

Whatever. Revenues are declining because kids in the central city are declining. I swear, everything between Woodland Park and the ID is like one big college campus. People move there before they have kids and move out after. I don't even know why we still have schools there, much less a fucking amusement park. It's unfortunate to me personally to see it close because I grew up in the central city and have many fond memories of having done so, but that's not the reality now.

Comment by Matty Worth

Matty Worth — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:03:52 -0800

@24 & @27: I'm with you guys - I wanna know when and how their stuff is going up for sale. Dibs on the log ride!

Comment by Liz

Liz — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:06:47 -0800

I'm sorry but the Fun Forest should have been torn down a long time ago. And it doesn't need to be yuppified. What about turning it into a big, open park so events like Bumbershoot are more enjoyable? Compared to the modern lines of the EMP and the retro elegance of the space needle, the Forest really needs to be put to bed.

Comment by jamier

jamier — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:24:53 -0800

Can we keep the Fun Forest and tear down the modern EMP and elegant Space Needle instead?

Comment by kkl327

kkl327 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:24:57 -0800

@30...i actually asked someone in development at corproate Starbucks why they do that and the explanation has something to do with stores that are across the street are in office/condo/apartment/etc buildings. the studies show that people will not walk out of the building across the street but if it is in the same building they will buy overpriced coffee. strange but true.

Comment by David Schmader

David Schmader — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:29:16 -0800

Sad. I Love the Fun Forest, and make a point of riding the back-cracking rollercoaster--affectionately nicknamed the Scoliosifier--once a year.

But I can't really argue with the "saddest place on earth" view. One time I was down there on a rainy weekday, and that Rock n' Roll Spin Ride, which typically blasts "Rock You Like a Hurricane" or some other suitably ethusiastic anthem, was going around and around, with no one on it, with Nirvana's "Something in the Way" playing, over and over.

Comment by NapoleonXIV

NapoleonXIV — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:32:25 -0800

It's still better than a deep pit filled with shards of glass.

Comment by Geni

Geni — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:40:54 -0800

@37 - My word, I think the idea of a deserted ride in the rain, forlornly going around and around, playing Nirvana over and over again, may be the funniest thing I've heard in years. Something about that image is so David Lynch...

Comment by ellentown

ellentown — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:53:55 -0800

i heard paul allen is buying it to expand a wing of emp, something like the history of comic books and model airplanes

Comment by kerri harrop

kerri harrop — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:36:22 -0800

The Fun Forest died the day Paul Allen tore down the Flight To Mars and replaced it with the truly appalling Experience Music Project.

Man, that place sure turned out to be a stinker. What a waste of resources. They sure used to pay out some good DJ money, though. Ka-ching.

Comment by Mr. X

Mr. X — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:21:25 -0800

Evidently, the last vestiges of former Mayor Royer's attempt to sell Seattle as a "Kid's Place" are now going to be formally disavowed as a matter of policy by the City Council. Please note, however, that I do not regard that as a good thing.

Heck, if we're gonna subsidize the operating costs of an empty streetcar for Paul Allen, why not subsidize a 1/2 empty amusement park that provides some of the common riff-raff a little enjoyment, too (granted - even if they really only come out when the weather is better). Add a small skatepark, some modern high-tech games, and other updated attractions instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I suppose what we really need is yet another Starbucks or some other yuppie "revenue opportunity" instead....

Comment by Peter

Peter — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:21:53 -0800

Awww; my kids like that place.

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