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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

City Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Burned by Broadstripe, Bop Street Records, and Fecal Fest Is Here

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 2:34 PM

Posted by news intern Ryan T. Hicks

Beacon Hill Blog: Chances are, if you live in the Central District, Beacon Hill, or any other neighborhood served by the Broadstripe franchise your internet connection sucks. One group is trying to change that—Upgrading Technology for Underserved Neighbors (UPTUN) is lobbying the City of Seattle to provide better internet access to this area. They're collecting Broadstripe horror stories on their blog. You can also add your voice to a panel discussion next week. (Beacon Lutheran Church, 1720 South Forest St, Monday March 7, 7 p.m.)

My Ballard: If you needed an excuse to check out Bop Street Records' new location on Market Street—the Wall Street Journal just named the neighborhood favorite one of five best vinyl record stores in the country.

PhinneyWood: Woodland Park Zoo’s Spring Fecal Fest (there's no way to make that sound pretty) is here. It's your semi-annual chance to purchase a truckload of elephant, giraffe, or other exotic herbivore's poop. The stinkiest of commodities is so precious that in order to get your hands on it, you must compete in a lottery by sending the zoo a postcard (no phone calls or email accepted) between March 1 and 18. Fecal Fest winners must then make their own arrangements for Zoo Doo pick-up. (The zoo will provide you with a shovel.)

Comments (11) RSS

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So we can't tweet for Zoo Doo?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 1, 2011 at 2:56 PM

POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP

Posted by Andy_Squirrel on March 1, 2011 at 2:59 PM

I worked for Wave Broadband a few years back and there was some serious talk about Seattle switching from (Then) Millenium Cable to Wave. I personally saw a bunch of Seattle council members do the tour of our call center. But for some reason, the deal never fell through and Millenium suddenly became Broadstripe.

Now I dont have any horror stories about Broadstripe, but if Wave Broadband is chosen to take over, they may not be any better than Broadstripe. They have some obscene fee's for cable cards, hd boxes, etc. Their call center is in Kirkland, work there a few weeks if you want to know more.

Oh and every attempt by the city of Seattle to wire up for fiber, was always met with lawsuits by Qwest and Millenium/Broadstripe to prevent the city from offering speeds they refuse to provide.

Posted by Kinison

on March 1, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Bop Street is a terrible store.

They have some good records, but they have a truly spectacular amount of godawful ones, and they do a lousy job of distinguishing the two. The staff is alternately rude, pushy, and crazy; I've been in there when TWO GUYS came up on either side of me and sweatily asked me over and over what I was looking for, wouldn't I like this instead, they can get it for me. "Just looking" isn't good enough in there.

I've also sat there with a stack of discs while the idiot clerk looked each and every one up in the price guide and quoted me the "Mint" price for everything -- records that hadn't been Mint for twenty years. Other times, I've gotten ridiculous steals. The thing is, if the records don't have prices on them, you don't know what's going to happen.

Jive Time in Fremont, Silver Platters in Queen Anne, and (my favorite) Neptune in the U District are the best vinyl stores in Seattle. Easy Street's not bad, either.

Posted by Fnarf

on March 1, 2011 at 3:31 PM

Broadstripe is obscenely expensive, but I've been relatively happy with the connection I've gotten.

Posted by Hutch on March 1, 2011 at 3:45 PM

Animals think
They're pretty smart

Shit on the ground
See in the dark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJwr2JLjc…

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on March 1, 2011 at 3:56 PM

Maybe the Berkeley Amoeba is the "sentimental favorite"...uh, to someone... of their three location, they're all exceptional records store, BUT... the Hollywood Amoeba is the overall best record store in America.

@4 - Oh, no prices on records is bad bad bad. Can't stand stores like like.

Posted by Dougsf on March 1, 2011 at 3:56 PM

I guess I should clarify my last post that I was referring to the rest of WSL's "Best Record Stores" list.

Posted by Dougsf on March 1, 2011 at 4:11 PM

Broadstripe is the Mike Huckabee of cable providers.

Posted by chimsquared on March 1, 2011 at 5:02 PM

I'm a longtime Millenium/Broadstripe customer. There have definitely be a few hickups over the years, but for the most part we get fantastic net speeds (7-15 Mb/s) and reliable cable for an affordable price.

The worst part is that when have outages it can take awhile to get straightened out, especially nights and weekends...

Posted by lotus eater on March 1, 2011 at 8:36 PM

A friend of mine loves to tell two Millennium (now Broadstripe) cable stories:
1. They cut his cable off multiple times randomly. Each time he called, he was told that his cable had been disconnected for non-payment. When he asked how much he owed, they responded that he had a zero balance. Yet his cable had been cut off for non-payment...
2. A few years later he was looking at a condo building on First Hill and asked the salesperson if the building had Millennium or Comcast. Of course, the response was 'Millennium' followed by 'Why do people keep asking that?'.

Seriously, Millennium sucks. It only came into business because the predecessor to Comcast refused to lay cable in certain redlined parts of the city. Now, the CD has the shittiest cable in the city and Broadstripe has used relaxation of the cable franchise laws to strike deals for individual apartment and condo buildings in other parts of the city like Capitol Hill and Belltown.

Posted by decidedlyodd on March 1, 2011 at 8:53 PM