Transform the Waterfront or Build a Stadium?

Folks may be up in arms about the possibility of erecting a new basketball/hockey arena "courtesy" of Sir Hansen, but grumblings about plans for a waterfront remodel have been whispers by comparison. The Seattle Times reports that landscape architect James Corner recently presented ideas to install a heated saltwater swimming pool on a barge, a seasonal roller rink on a pier, a mist machine, and other parks and public areas to transform Seattle's waterfront scene, slapping a $420 million price tag on the project. Sleep easy tonight knowing that while we may never re-acquire a basketball team, we'll have the prestige of being known to visitors as that one place that sank its money into a parade of kind-of-cool novelty seasonal activities instead of a Stanley Cup. [ST]