Northgate

visitor, but the thing that stuck out to me the most about this was how many people on Reddit or on social media were just like, this is now my new station.

And they're so happy that they don't have to drive and park at Northgate station because the parking lot in Northgate is a complete and utter nightmare.

So people are actually really thrilled to have a place where they can go or maybe comfortably walk to or whatever.

Yeah.

Maybe that's who could be the most excited about this is the Northgate people.

Yeah, the

people who used to have to settle for Northgate.

There's better for you out there and you don't have to go to Shoreline to make it happen.

The store acclimated them before public appearance, and when they shed their antlers, the antlers were wired back on to the animal for the appearance of entertainment, and nobody found it particularly strange to see a reindeer being prepared for a holiday parade in a department store.

The animals were part of the spectacle of shopping, and that idea was happening at Northgate.

When Northgate opened in 1950, it wasn't just a place to buy things.

It was marketed as a destination, and live animals was one of the ways to make the new shopping center memorable.

Polar bear cubs were brought in, and the Seattle Times captured the competition for attention with the wonderfully mid-century headline, "Polar Bear Cubs and $35,000 Car Vie at Northgate." The headline tells you everything you need to know.

The polar bear cubs were an attraction in exactly the same way the expensive car was the attraction.

They were something unusual that people wanted to see.

The Pinehurst Light Rail Station opened this morning, five years ahead of schedule.

Nestled between Northgate and Shoreline South, it's the first time Sound Transit has built an infill station that slots into an existing corridor.

The Seattle Times reports the station might be a bit of a sleeper because there isn't a parking garage and the neighborhood is less dense than some others.

Sound transit officials say eventually they expect up to 4,200 daily riders.

And let's not forget, it costs $240 million to open.

Supporters have argued that this is going to help people who live in those east-west corridors, Bitter Lake, Lake City, access the train easier than they can at Northgate.

But Sound Transit's own projections for ridership at Pinehurst are very low compared to industry standard.

There is an interesting political story behind why the Pinehurst station exists, David.

Every now and then I will shop at a QFC in Seattle.

But man, there are so few grocery stores over there between, say, Northgate and downtown Seattle.

There's hardly any.

And you can't go to a couple of them because you're just run over with fentanyl addicts and homeless people and get your car broken into.

This was Amanda Dalton, the president and CEO of Northwest Grocery Retail Association, because they're already running on super thin margins, right? And with the amount of shoplifting going on in Seattle, you've already got a grocery desert and Katie Wilson is already spending a million seven I just podcasted that yesterday on more security for grocery stores in an area where you don't have enough grocery stores.

So it's kind of like you're making things more expensive for something that's already been pulled from the consumer in the form of Kroger shut down numerous grocery stores.

including a big one, Fred Meyer in the Northgate area, Lake City Way, Northeast.

We podcasted that 10 ways from Sunday.

Here in Seattle, you had Ty Nelson among Kraken prospects going out to visit this.

All done in Northgate, which was, of course, spearheaded by One Roof Foundation's nonprofit arm.

It really is, once again, another example of just how much this game has grown exponentially in the last five years with access since the Kraken arrived.

And this is kind of what the mission is outside the glass, and it is to grow the game.