The Balloon-Powered Park Plan
A satirical interview with a Seattle developer reveals the absurd lengths civic boosters would go to inflate the value of local land.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A reporter interviewed a gentleman on Commercial Street regarding the development of a local property that was intended for a public park. The gentleman, clearly in a facetious mood, proposed an elaborate plan: 'If it were possible to construct a high fence around that land, that property would be worth more than $100,000. It depends on the number of people who could be got into the enclosure and the price of admission.' When pressed on how such improvements—clearing trees and landscaping—could be completed within the six-month deadline, the gentleman suggested a comical sequence of events involving balloons and aerial engineering. 'If the city thinks the attractions must be something, why, ropes could be left hanging while the surveying was done. And balloons could be exploded simply as an advertisement.' He insisted that by digging a trench twenty feet deep and drilling lateral holes, the trees could be 'tied on.' He concluded by noting that if the city were to turn the land over free of cost, the right party could make a fortune.
“Why, that land would be worth twice as much in the hands of the right party. Of course, the fence along the high ground would have to be constructed fast, so that the children wouldn't fall in the cemetery—I mean, the park.”
This 1887 satire on land speculation hits remarkably close to home in modern Seattle. The cynical 'boosterism' of the 19th century—where public amenities are framed primarily as vessels for private real estate appreciation—perfectly mirrors the tension between public space and private development in the city’s current urban design discourse.
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