If you find this website through a search engine or linkback, please don’t let the cat out of the bag yet. I’m building and testing the site in an open environment so that friends and others can watch as it goes up. If you like what you’re seeing, let me know @seattlecommon

U2 will be performing Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 7:00 PM at Qwest Field.

Get your tickets to U2 in Seattle now.

This video contrasts the transportation goals of two men—one the owner of a huge chunk of downtown Bellevue, Kemper Freeman Jr. and the other a candidate for King County Executive, Dow Constantine.

More Posts on the Kemper Freeman’s Transit Advocacy:

• Kemper Freeman’s Motivation – Seattle Transit Blog
• Kemper Freeman’s Transit Delusions — The Seattle PI

(h/t) An excellent piece of investigative journalism by Josh Hicks of the Bellevue Reporter.

About 10:10 p.m., the pair was on 29th Avenue between East Yesler Way and East Spruce Street, discussing details of an apparently unrelated traffic stop that occurred a short time before, officers said.

Read the rest of the story and updates on the police shooting at the PI.

The redesign of the Seattle PI spells the beginning of the news arms race in Seattle. Bad economy, changing medium, and shifting ad budgets have most of the big boys in rush to turn everything around.

Seattle PI

I’m experimenting with Seattle Common to see if right now is a good time to begin a Seattle news startup. I know it sounds crazy—the news outlets already are hurting, it’s like starting a farming business in the middle of a famine.

Here’s my reasoning. We are in the middle of one of the largest media sea changes since the transition from handwritten books to the printing press. Now is the time that some traditional outlets will go under, others will step up and make it into the next era, and new players will arise. I believe that there will be more marketing dollars than ever available as old money hogs die, I believe there will more opportunity because thousands of journalists are going to be shuffled up in the mix, and I believe there is a whole generation that gets their news from the Daily Show that could benefit from solid local news.

If you like this idea—let me know—I need the motivation.