And for once I’m not being sarcastic.

Next year, Pike Place Market will turn 100. I’ve already written more than enough about how important the Market is to our family in particular, and Seattle in general. In doing some research recently, however, I learned more about just how close the Market came to being killed off in its middle age. If this is old news to you, sorry to bring it up.

Living in Seattle, you often hear about how the Market was “saved” in the early 70s by a citizens group led by the late architect Victor Steinbrueck, who now has a small park named after him on Market property. But I’d never stopped to consider just what “saved” meant, until this week, when I read The Pike Place Market: People, Politics, and Produce, by Alice Shorett. Stephen King wishes he could write a book this scary.

Here’s what happened. In the 1960s, at the height of urban renewal fever, the city wanted to tear down the market and build a new shopping complex that would include a hockey rink, a hotel, and a 6000-car parking garage. The development was described by a city official as “a visitor and tourism attraction quite equal to the Los Angeles Farmers’ Market.”

A citizens group floated a ballot initiative in 1971 to declare the market a historical area and doom the proposed development. This initiative was *opposed* by:

* The Seattle Times. “The facts are simply that the Friends of the Market initiative measure on the ballot November 2 will not ‘save’ the Market and that its passage instead will doom not only the market, but the whole 20 acre renewal project.” It called the Market “far too valuable an asset to be consigned to urban blight and decay, and vast economic waste.”
* The Seattle P-I.
* The mayor and the city council.
* Seattle King County Convention & Visitors Bureau
* Seattle Chamber of Commerce

Here’s what would happen if voters approved the initiative, establishing a historical district:

* “Fire and sanitation problems threaten residents in areas surrounding the Market. Police protection is difficult. Renewal of this area will help those who live or work in the vicinity. make streets safe to walk.”

* “Blight is slowly infecting our market district. Urban Renewal can make this once again an important asset. A 6,000 car parking facility will make shopping at the Pike Place Market easy and convenient.”

Most of this information comes from the flier distributed by the misnomered Committee to Save the Market, as seen here.

Of course, voters passed the initiative by a wide margin. Though there have been renovations, the Market is still an ancient, dilapidated firetrap. And the twelve-member board that oversees the Market historical district essentially acts as a dictatorship. Sometimes their decisions are inexplicable and dumb, as when they forced out the Market’s last hardware store this month.

But the Market is one of a kind. I’ll bet you could ask a thousand longtime Seattleites and not find one who would admit to voting against the Market initiative. It would be like disclosing that you were a Klan member.