Seafair is a Seattle summer festival; it goes on through much of July and culminates the first weekend of August. I’ve never quite understood it, even though I have lived here for 19 years. There are some cool parades for kids, miscellaneous events like “landings” by the Seafair Pirates (a bunch of businessmen in pirate costume who swagger about; in recent years they have toned down their act), and – on the final weekend, which is now – the hydroplane races in Lake Washington. Traffic is going to be a nightmare this weekend, since we live right near the main viewing area for the races.
But the part of Seafair that I really hate is the Blue Angels: Navy precision fliers who put on an air show every year for Seafair final weekend. The planes may look pretty up in the air, but it is HELL living in the neighborhood above which they perform their maneuvers. The noise of their repeated fly-bys is incredibly loud; the animals are terrified, the baby can’t sleep, and the overall effect is nerve-wracking. I know we should thank whatever forces or powers there be that this is only a simulation of war, and we are not actually getting bombed; but our not-so-well-to-do, racially diverse neighborhood really does feel under assault. And it’s all the more galling that this is for the benefit of jokers from the suburbs who are better off than we are, and who can enjoy it as a show because they don’t actually live here. I don’t understand how they can allow air shows and such in (above?) heavily populated areas like ours.
Blue Angels
Seafair is a Seattle summer festival; it goes on through much of July and culminates the first weekend of August. I’ve never quite understood it, even though I have lived here for 19 years. There are some cool parades for kids, miscellaneous events like “landings” by the Seafair Pirates (a bunch of businessmen in pirate costume who swagger about; in recent years they have toned down their act), and – on the final weekend, which is now – the hydroplane races in Lake Washington. Traffic is going to be a nightmare this weekend, since we live right near the main viewing area for the races.
But the part of Seafair that I really hate is the Blue Angels: Navy precision fliers who put on an air show every year for Seafair final weekend. The planes may look pretty up in the air, but it is HELL living in the neighborhood above which they perform their maneuvers. The noise of their repeated fly-bys is incredibly loud; the animals are terrified, the baby can’t sleep, and the overall effect is nerve-wracking. I know we should thank whatever forces or powers there be that this is only a simulation of war, and we are not actually getting bombed; but our not-so-well-to-do, racially diverse neighborhood really does feel under assault. And it’s all the more galling that this is for the benefit of jokers from the suburbs who are better off than we are, and who can enjoy it as a show because they don’t actually live here. I don’t understand how they can allow air shows and such in (above?) heavily populated areas like ours.