Partying, Selling, Praying and Dying

Partying

The Pike Place Market is a more fruitful place to be than we thought, says the state auditor. According to two new reports, the Market's governing arm, the Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), generally followed spending laws but was a bit too bountiful with employee parties, perks, and refreshments last year. For example, says State Auditor Brian Sonntag, the PDA improperly spent $3,800 on a barbecue and holiday party for employees and families; spent $2,992 in reimbursement to employees who held their own parties; and laid out $1,749 in five instances of staff meetings where food exceeded the "light refreshment" threshold (typically cookies and coffee). Additionally, six Market employees whose names were drawn from a hat won airline tickets valued at $1,200, while another $3,486 in gift certificates was given to vendors and employees. Sonntag says the payments were casually doled out rather than disbursed under preexisting policies that define perks and how to earn them. RICK ANDERSON

Selling

The question's been lingering for a while: Just how many millions of much-needed dollars did the Seattle School District blow off with its latest real-estate boondoggle involving the old Queen Anne High School? The district leased the school in 1986 to a developer who converted it to apartments and last year sold it to another developer for $25 million as a condo conversion. The district, of course, gets a cut of the total sales. But, due to a flawed contract, it will earn a paltry 12 percent of the property's projected value. District leaders claimed they were legally wedged in, which State Auditor Brian Sonntag categorically denied. He told KUOW in July the district mishandled the deal and likely violated state law in the process. Last week, the Queen Anne High School Condominiums opened for business. As the P-I put it: "The classrooms have been reimagined as classic condominium residences. . . . Each of these 137 homes is an original, with echoes of the past that might include original moldings, chalkboards, hardwood floors, arched windows, and 16-foot ceilings." Selling prices: $300,000 to just over $1 million—on average about $450,000 per unit. That'll fetch about $61,650,000 for the old schoolhouse, yet the district's cut will only come to about $7.3 million. RICK ANDERSON

Praying

Mars Hill, the rapidly-evolving Christian congregation at the base of the Ballard Bridge, is fixing to get a lot bigger as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. Not to worry, Ballard neighbors (like Mike's Chili Parlor), Mars is expanding into West Seattle and possibly Wedgwood . Last week's P-I had the rundown in a piece that did little to probe into the church's core beliefs, which are ultimately quite conservative in spite of its hipster facade. On the one hand, Mars Hill, like any church, has the right to recruit members and expand just as quickly as it pleases. On the other hand, it seems hypocritical to aggressively co-opt components of mainstream pop culture when your ultimate objective is to squash secular thinking with a giant, God-fearing fist. MIKE SEELY

Dying

The seventh death at the 1811 Eastlake Project, the experimental and controversial housing for homeless drunks facility in the Cascade neighborhood that opened last December, occurred on Sept. 6. What's different this time out is that Kevin Smith, 42, may well have died of a heroin overdose, as opposed to alcohol-related factors. Smith, who according to 1811 staff had been clean of heroin since he moved into the facility last January, was found dead in his apartment. PHILIP DAWDY

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