No, not again! Seattle Center planners are invoking the ghost of the altogether unsatisfying Metreon project in San Francisco as they plan their vision for the future of the Center. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Seattle Center is the home of the Space Needle and its surrounding buildings (the former World’s Fair site). We go there for various events and to amuse our toddler at the museums. Improvements certainly should be made to the area, but a flashy interactive gaming, entertainment and retail center is overkill. Right now it feels uncommercial and has a nice community atmosphere. Essentially it takes on the character of whatever events are going on at the time (the yearly Bumbershoot festival being the extreme example). Even if they succeed where the Metreon failed, I’m picturing walls of flashing screens and high-tech tie-ins replacing the holiday model train set and performances by local ethnic groups. Of course the real issue is money. Will residents pay for the upkeep of a community center when they could get Microsoft and Nintendo to fund a gaming center instead?