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• Best Suburb to Live In

  Kirkland

  Located on the shores of Lake Washington, Kirkland boasts a vibrant downtown waterfront with several art galleries, boutiques, and restaurants. Come summer, it attracts droves of people eager to play beach volleyball, walk their dogs, and hit happy hour. In the winter, it takes a cozier turn: Those same people tuck into coffee shops instead of bars and business owners… More >>

• Best Cheap Thrill

  Smarty Pants

  In Mike Myers’ and Dana Carvey’s 1992 seminal slacker film Wayne’s World, the two financially challenged protagonists get their kicks in all sorts of ways. Perhaps the most memorable diversion Wayne and Garth partake of is sitting on the roof of their AMC Pacer near the airport and watching airplanes scream toward a landing a few dozen feet above their… More >>

• Best Bus Stop

  South Norman Street and 31st Avenue South

  How many public places offer a sweeping view of Lake Washington, downtown Bellevue, the Cascades, and (on a clear day) the mighty Mount Rainier? A few, we’ll grant you. But how many of those places happen to be bus shelters? The answer, dear reader, is but one. For better or worse, that shelter, serving the 14 line at the corner… More >>

• Best Bust Route

  43

  The bus can be many things. Mostly it’s a practical way to get from one part of town to another without having to slog through traffic or pay the exorbitant cost of parking. Sometimes, though, a bus can be inspiration on wheels—a place to put on headphones and watch city streets whiz by and a motley parade of humanity pile… More >>

• Best Thing to Happen to Seattle This Year

  Picasso

  Picasso may have saved SAM. The museum lost millions in anticipated revenue after Washington Mutual’s self-destruction ended a 25-year lease for eight floors of downtown office space. Couple that blow with a costly 2007 renovation and SAM was in dire straits, freezing wages, laying off employees, and borrowing nearly $10 million from its endowment. Then, with impeccable timing, Paris’ Musée… More >>

• Best Neighborhood to Live In

  Ballard

  According to local legend, back in 1904 when pre-annexation Ballard was the seventh-largest city in the state of Washington and notorious for boozing and gambling, its mayor ordered all city business to cease for a day as a mandatory respite from his citizens’ carousing. Obviously, it ain’t your great grandpappy Sven’s Ballard anymore. And that’s a good thing. Mostly. Lament… More >>

• Best Moustache

  Eric Wedge

  Cops and leather daddies have great mustaches. Rock stars, hipsters, and ‘70s porn stars do too. And of course there are the famous ‘staches of Mark Spitz, Tom Selleck, and Sam Elliott. But if each and every one of these hirsute gents were to gather at a national mustache convention, Eric Wedge would be the envy of them all. In… More >>

• Best Kids' Thrill

  Seattle Center Internaional Fountain

  Until someone gets injured (at which point access will be forbidden forever, because that’s how America does things), the Seattle Center International Fountain will be the best spot to watch kids run around, squeal like a piccolo crossed with a jet engine, yell “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Watch! Watch me! Mom! Mom! Look! Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at me! Mom!… More >>

• Best Month to Be in Seattle

  August

  August, obviously. What did you think? If we had a genuine spring or autumn, there might be other contenders for the title, but since the Northwest’s two seasons are 50 and gray (10 months long) and 70 and sunny (two months), the obvious choice is the month we all try to keep in mind during the grueling depths of February.… More >>

• Best Reason to Look Forward to Winter

  Urban Downhill Skiing

  For drivers, the rare Seattle snowstorm can quickly escalate to a frozen hell, a cruel reminder that our city is built on a series of steep hills and sits at a latitude north of Quebec City. But the same forces that send SUVs spinning into parked Priuses offer a rare opportunity for anyone with a pair of skis or a… More >>

• Best View of Downtown

  Rooftop of the Queensborough Apartments

  Judging by the number of wedding photos taken there, Queen Anne Hill’s Kerry Park is the sentimental favorite, but for a truly breathtaking view—the Space Needle presiding downstage left, downtown buildings glittering like jewels, ferries crossing the sweep of Elliott Bay like proud caterpillars, the distant lavender Olympics—nothing beats a clear night on the rooftop of the Queensborough Apartments at… More >>

• Best Place to People-Watch

  Bus Stops

  Bus stops are a truly multisensory experience. On an average day you can hear women with voices like bassoons, watch men pace in peanut-colored suits, and get a waft of the occasional citizen who actually smells good. Bus stops also provide the perfect opportunity to view the latest in portable technology or shirts with profound or dumb quotes (usually interchangeable),… More >>

• Best Way for Tourists to Walk on a Busy Downtown Sidewalk at Lunch Hour

  Four abreast.

  As slowly as possible. GAVIN BORCHERT… More >>

• Best Cemetery

  Lake View Cemetery

  There are two reasons why most people end up at Lake View Cemetery, just north of Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill: They're either there for a funeral, or want to see where Bruce Lee is buried. The martial-arts star's final resting place - right next to his son Brandon, who met his tragic end thanks to a prop-gun accident on… More >>

• Best Festival

  Fremont Fair

  Come summer, Fremont’s official motto, “Delibertus Quirkus” (“Freedom to be Peculiar”), comes to life at the Fremont Fair. Attracting thousands of revelers each year, the charming street festival and accompanying solstice parade feature fire dancers, giant puppets, and nude cyclists, among other eccentricities. For those accustomed to festival offerings like fried elephant ears and mediocre arts and crafts, the Fremont… More >>

• Best Place for a First Date (Non-Restaurant)

  Woodland Park Zoo

  Dinner and a movie make for a pleasant but problematic first-date pairing; how do you assess a potential love interest's personality if half your evening together is spent in silence? The ideal destination: Woodland Park Zoo. Why? Because observing someone interact with animals takes some major guesswork out of whether or not they are a decent human being. Do… More >>

• Best Place for a Last Date (Non-Restaurant)

  Woodland Park Zoo

  Why would the Woodland Park Zoo be the best place to bring someone whose heart you’re about to break? The one thing you want to avoid in a public breakup is a scene. And how better to drown out the wails of the former beloved whose soul you’ve just stomped on than to take him or her to a place… More >>

• Best Place to Meet Single Men

  24 Hour Fitness

  So many single people sick of meeting sub-par men at bars turn to online dating websites in the hope of finding someone decent. But for those who prefer a more traditional route, 24 Hour Fitness is a better bet. Presumably a man with a gym membership has a stable enough income to pay the associated monthly fees, cares about his… More >>

• Best Place to Meet Single Women

  Neighbours

  Single straight men need to realize that Neighbours is where all the action is. Sure, the nightclub caters to gays, but it is also filled with single straight ladies. (Seriously, think of all the gay men out there who have a gaggle of hot girlfriends that they want absolutely nothing to do with sexually.) Said girls are often brought along… More >>

• Best Gadfly

  Phil Mocek

  Phil Mocek doesn’t think the TSA has a right to grope you before you board an airplane. Attempting to prove his point, two years ago the 37-year-old Seattle software designer was arrested in an Albuquerque, N.M., airport when he refused to show his ID. Mocek, who calls himself a “freedom flyer,” recorded the encounter on his cell phone and was… More >>

• Best Local Boy Gone Bad

  Howard Schultz

  Howard Schultz was born and raised in Brooklyn, so technically he’s not a “local boy.” Nevertheless, as the chairman and CEO of Starbucks and the former owner of the Sonics, Schultz will forever be associated with Seattle. He is ours whether we want him or not. Which is unfortunate, because if real Seattleites had their druthers they’d ship the mealy-mouthed… More >>

• Best Local Girl Made Good

  Anne Rosellini

  Mercer Island and the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri might as well be on different planets. Yachts, mansions, and old Seattle money characterize the former, while the latter is defined by mobile homes, pickup trucks, and hordes of meth-cooking hillbillies. Anne Rosellini is perhaps all the two places have in common. A 42-year-old native of the affluent Lake Washington isle, Rosellini… More >>

• Best View of Someplace Other Than Downtown

  Red Square, UW Campus

  Picture a clear, sunny day in Seattle. You’re standing in the sea of bricks known as Red Square in the heart of the University of Washington campus. While in the shadow of stately Suzzallo Library, cast your gaze southeast through the corridor of ivy-veiled buildings. Behold the majestic splendor. (Seriously. Behold it.) Drumheller Fountain spews a jet of water 100… More >>

• Best Villian

  Ian Birk

  When former Seattle Police officer Ian Birk was asked why he shot Native American woodcarver John T. Williams four times in the side on a sunny summer day last August, he said that Williams had a “furrowed brow, thousand-yard stare, set jaw, knife up in front of himself, shoulders raised, in a very confrontational posture.” The killing itself was bad… More >>

• Best Place for Eavesdropping

  Cherry Street Coffee

  In journalism class the term is “listening post,” a classy disguise for what most people would describe as being nosy. In the belly of Cherry Street Coffee’s mothership, you can get a feel for the neighborhood’s economic climate (always an interview or two going on), an everyman’s take on the day’s news (all income brackets are represented here), and possibly… More >>

• Best Stroll

  Top Pot to the ferry terminal

  This adventure might feel more like an urban hike than the carefree, life-affirming stroll it is, but set your coordinates for the Top Pot atop Queen Anne Hill, grab a favorite doughnut, and head for Kerry Park (Seventh Avenue West & West Highland Drive) and the city’s best view. Finish up and head downhill to the Olympic Sculpture Park and… More >>

• Best Mile of Seattle

  Beginning of Spruce Park (12th and Jefferson) and Capitol Hill (12th and Madison)

  Previously the domain of Seattle University students and Central District cab drivers, the half-mile between the beginning of Spruce Park (12th and Jefferson) and Capitol Hill (12th and Madison) is evolving, literally every week. The university is opening a new bank of dorms—with retail space—in the fall; Ba Bar, posting up in the old Watertown space, serves Vietnamese snacks until… More >>

• Best Local Politician

  Dow Constantine

  Thirty years ago, Dow Constantine was a UW student, working toward a poli-sci degree and spinning the latest punk and new-wave discs on KCMU. In the mid-’90s, he was an aide to then-King County Councilman Greg Nickels. By 2001, a state senator representing West Seattle, his lifelong home. Now, KCMU is KEXP and he’s your King County Executive, having brushed… More >>

• Best Blog

  I Can Haz Cheezburger

  Rest assured, one blog will always ensure there are plenty of lolz in Seattle’s backyard. I Can Has Cheezburger, which now hosts more than 50 lol-worthy sites including Fail Blog and Business Cat, has already earned national attention on the Leno and Letterman shows and seems to be leading the pack of today’s “furry memes.” Having a stressful day in… More >>

• Best Worthy Cause

  UW Kick Out Sodexo Coalition

  There are two types of protests: ones that work and ones that don’t. So far, the college-organized group UW Kick Out Sodexo Coalition, which has staged three on-campus sit-ins, has worked in that it’s resulted in 38 student arrests for peacefully protesting inside UW interim president Phyllis Wise’s office—but it hasn’t yet ousted alleged human-rights-violating food vendors Sodexo. Despite the… More >>

• Best Old Building

  Smith Tower

  Here’s a tip for those squiring out-of-town guests: Forget about the Space Needle and take them to the top of the Smith Tower instead. You may not get as high, but the view from the Smith Tower’s wrap-around deck is still marvelous—and a lot cheaper. Tickets to the 35th floor cost $7.50 for adults, instead of $18 for a trip… More >>

• Best Lawyer

  Harry Schneider

  Any attorney who is able to earn vindication for Osama bin Laden’s former driver is a good man to have beside you in court. Harry Schneider, a partner at Perkins Coie of Seattle, didn’t exactly get Salim Ahmed Hamdan a free pass—aided by fellow litigator Joe McMillan, Schneider talked a war-crimes panel of six U.S. military officers into a split… More >>

• Best New Building

  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

  True, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation got the land for its new building at a fire-sale rate from Seattle taxpayers, paying $22 million in 2005 for a $72 million property under a sweetheart deal arranged by then-Mayor Greg Nickels. But the end product is a $500 million gem: two dueling boomerang six-story glass buildings flooded with air and light,… More >>

• Best Public Restroom

  Sanitary Market Building

  The Pike Place Market has always been reliable for busy but clean restrooms, despite the crowd of bird-bathing street wildlife you might run into. But among the public potties scattered around the multilevel Market is a new set of restrooms in the appropriately named Sanitary Market Building (that’s the one next to the Corner Market Building, both of them on… More >>

• Best Mayor

  Redmond Mayor John Marchione

  The re-election campaign of Redmond Mayor John Marchione began with his kickoff breakfast on May 11 and ended one month later when the Elections Department window closed and nobody had signed up to oppose him. The 46-year-old former director of finance and administration at Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center served one term on the city council, then swept into the mayor’s office… More >>

• Best Citizen

  Glen Milner

  Mild-mannered Lake Forest Park electrician Glen Milner has been protesting government tyranny for at least half of his 60 years, much of that spent motoring out into Elliott Bay—the Coast Guard in close pursuit—to protest the arrival of the nuclear fleet for Seafair. He’s also one to write letters asking the government to verify its claims, or ’fess up to… More >>

• Best Local Boy Made Good

  Mateo Messina

  You may not have heard of award-winning composer Mateo Messina, but you’ve almost certainly heard his music. Now based in Los Angeles, the Seattle native has contributed to the scores of movies like Juno (for which he won a Grammy), Thank You for Smoking, and others. For the past 13 years, Messina has also composed and conducted orchestral music for… More >>

• Best Place to Bird-Watch

  Alki

  Every neighborhood in Seattle has a surprise avian resident - bald eagles cruise the Central District and peregrine falcons perch atop downtown high-rises - but no community can compare to Alki when it comes to the delight of the spotted wing. From Glaucous-winged gulls and Northwestern crows picking through the treats offered by low tide to the graceful swoops of… More >>

• Best Geezer

  Jean Godden

  Say what you want about this gossip columnist-cum-city councilmember, but Jean Godden is hella productive at an age (79) when most people are content to play shuffleboard between Price Is Right reruns and spoonfuls of applesauce. To win re-election, she’ll have to topple her most formidable—and youthful—opposition to date, but Godden’s at a point where simply putting her ridiculously recognizable… More >>

• Best Local Girl Gone Bad

  Christine Gregoire

  Christine Gregoire’s not a bad person, but she’s been a terrible governor. For two terms, her party has controlled all chambers in Olympia, and she hasn’t a single substantive accomplishment to show for it, other than a chickenshit veto that sent the medical-marijuana movement into total disarray. Granted, she’s had to deal with historically difficult budgetary burdens, but even before… More >>

• Best Month to Leave Seattle

  April

  Showers aside, April is supposed to provide tangible evidence that spring has arrived. But in Seattle, unlike most other cities, this godforsaken month is typically when winter won’t let go. Trying to squeeze sun out of April is like trying to wrest a half-gallon of rum from a circle of thirsty outdoor drunks. More than anything, Seattleites just want April… More >>