A: Ask Paul Allen.
Before Seattle's city leaders pour any more money into Paul Allen's South Lake Union biotech boondoggle, they should stop and read this article from today's Wall Street Journal :
[No U.S. cable companies] are as feeble as Mr. Allen's Charter Communications Inc. Its $20 billion of debt is 50 times the market value of its stock ($409 million). Mr. Allen's 58% stake is worth $250 million, a far cry from the $7 billion-plus he spent buying Charter and Marcus Cable back in 1998.Sadly, he still has more business acument than do the dopey politicians whom he's convinced to subsidize his money-losing schemes. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 11, 2006 09:24 PM | Email This
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Posted by: Jim L on March 11, 2006 10:16 PMSadly the new transportation bill passed has big bucks for a streetcar in South Lake Union........
Posted by: sgmmac on March 11, 2006 11:17 PMhttp://www.kgw.com/sports/stories/kgw_031106_sports_allen_blazers.15602000.html
I suppose he could always spend some of that money at the dentist...
After all he is only the 5th richest man in the world, he should not have to pay for all these losers without tax payers assistance!
Posted by: GS on March 12, 2006 02:14 AMI think there are two things going on in this post, and you might be confusing them. The first is Charter Communications, which definitely is not a biotech company. Heck, it's barely a company at all anymore. Charter was Allen's attempt to make up for selling out of AOL when it was less than a $1/share (accounting for splits) by building a nationwide company that would knock those fat cats at Comcast off their perch. It never worked.
The biotech aspect of this is that Allen's Vulcan company owns large sections of South Lake Union and he is building it up as a biotech hub, full of incubation companies and smaller biotech concerns in the same way certain streets in San Jose once were full of start-up network hardware companies (Zanker Road comes to mind). This is where the streetcare comes in, as Paul has demanded that the city provide some sort of non-bus mass transit to entice all those biotech companies to fill his buildings as he builds them. For South Lake Union, this building is probably a very good thing and hopefully these companies will bank on the easy access to UW and the Hutch for the brainpower needed to solve all our future health issues. That said, it is amazing that these brainiacs would need a streetcare to get them the five blocks from Allen's 2200 project to their biotech start-up. It's a Boondoggle with a capital B, totally unnecessary except that it looks neato on Vulcan's marketing brochures. If it weren't for mass transit soft-heads like those in da Mayor's office, Vulcan's progress would probably be slowed about .01% a year. Yup, that's worth taxpayer dollars. NOT!
Posted by: Marc on March 12, 2006 07:54 AMYou gotta hand it to Paul & Bill....they have mesmorized stupid politicians. Kind of a "trance-like" state where no one would DARE question them on anything. Just open the Public Checkbook...the easiest thing to do is take a big old bucket of slop from the trough, even for billionaire-Lefty's.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 12, 2006 08:57 AMThats $269,617,500 a MONTH, that this company is bringing in.
Say that 25 percent of them have basic high speed internet at $20 a month and there is another $29,957,500. And their stock is worth how much?
Posted by: Mike P on March 12, 2006 11:38 AMWhat is all this put down of
Gates and Allen - heros of John Galt for sure.
I really do like it when the worst thing you can say about someone is they have billions and live in my home town.
By the way - Gates is an old
Seattle family - Dad is a big time downtown attorney.
What is this site, a bunch of communists?
I thrive on the succes of Americans, true American, business sucess. You all like China better here...... maybe France?
Posted by: Jack the investor on March 12, 2006 10:12 PMAnd they weren't a bunch of Shirley Temple's when they were starting up. I don't know if those old programs are still around chronically Microsoft, but it is very illuminating.
Paul Allen's actions with the Trailblazers, Quendall, S. Lake Union, et al. fits into the motif operandi and it wasn't pretty when they started up.
Paul Allen is beginning to sound like a stupid businessman. Smart maybe hanging out with some of the smarter Microsoft people, but dumb on his own. If he keeps getting bailed out by dumber politicians, then maybe he isn't so dumb after all.
But count me out of the cheerleading squad.
Posted by: swatter on March 13, 2006 07:44 AMIf you took all the hate libs have for Cheney and put it to Allen- it would be well deserved.
Posted by: Andy on March 13, 2006 09:44 AMNow he better pony up for Steve Hutchinson since they didn't franchise him and Minnesota just offered him a fat contract.
Posted by: Palouse on March 13, 2006 02:19 PMHis massive fortune and Seattle real-estate holdings have given him disproportionate power to push his "visions" on the public.
Before we spend (waste) more public money on one of his pet projects, it would behoove us to remember his past record and learn to say "no".
Posted by: The Phantom Republican on March 13, 2006 05:43 PMGive it to Queen Christine, 7 Billion would be a drop in the bucket and gone is a slit second. In a special "Emergency" account I am sure!
Posted by: GS on March 13, 2006 07:39 PMHe is just another one of these pro sports owner who try to suck off the public by way of the local government and be subsidized. Rather despicable - eh ?
Posted by: KS on March 13, 2006 09:33 PM