My Take on Seattlest's "43 Things Seattle Is Missing"

The folks over at Seattlest published a list of 43 things Seattle is missing. In the spirit of opinionated responses, here's my take:

1. Soft-serve frozen custard. Eh, not feeling it. There's plenty of good ice cream (like Mix) and gelato (like Bottega Italiana) places in Seattle that I'm not really missing the soft-serve.
2. Thunderstorms! Yes! Coming from the east coast we especially miss these during the spring time. Though, not having to worry as much about the destructive effects of such storms is a plus.
3. Street food. Sure, I'll bite. But street food is more prevalent in denser cities than ours (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago). All that said, you can find some decent hot dogs in Pioneer Square or on the Pike/Pine strip on a Saturday night. And let's not forget about Belgian Frites!
4. Diners. I've called for Waffle House to come out here before. But yes, we are missing this, especially given our bar scene. That said, we do have places like Beth's to tide us over.
5. Buy-backs. Um...I bet if you're a regular and/or know the bartender, this does happen.
6. Nude lap dances. Seattle really is a rough place to live, isn't it?
7. Male strip club. Sorry, not qualified to comment. Next?
8. Strip clubs that can serve alcohol/food. Hmm...what about restaurants where the patrons can strip?
9. A local noir writer. Again, how does this make Seattle any better/worse, especially in our internationally-interconnected modern-day populace?
10. A kick-ass small liberal arts college. How about Antioch?
11. NHL team. Sure, I'd take one.
12. MLS team. Ditto.
13. A go-to celebrity for sports. Snore...
14. Non-stadium major civic projects that actually get done. We're so-so here (think light rail), but overall there's definitely an atmosphere of distrust when it comes to civic projects, agreed.
15. Interesting suburbs. OK, coming from Atlanta, the land of sprawl, let me tell you that the 'burbs here are much nicer than in the ATL. Really. "Interesting" is a vague word, admittedly, but I don't see the propensity of stencil-cut houses here that I do back home.
16. Bars that stay open late on weekdays. Yes - add to that restaurants, book stores, movie houses, etc.
17. Good after-hours. See diners.
18. Underground bookstore. Hmm, not a bad idea. We have bookstores aplenty but most are of the family-friendly type.
19. Danish kringle. Bah! We have cupcakes!
20. Another local Div-I basketball team. Snore...
21. Flavorful tomatoes. Um...have you had good organic ones from PCC recently? They're good. Do they need to be grown in Seattle? :)
22. Central car-free plaza. That could be neat. Not sure where that would go, though, given our existing developments.
23. Rent horses. OK, c'mon, we're not in Texas here. That said, there are some horse farms on the east side.
24. Really large parks. Um, have you been to Discovery Park recently?
25. Cannoli. Sure, yep, got us there.
26. Real powder snow. No thanks, no one can drive here when it's sunny/rainy/snowy/anything but overcast and 55. Keep the snow in the mountains.
27. Winter-wonderland snow. See #25.
28. Cable company choice. Yes. And cheaper rates while you're at it.
29. Street lamps. The 'Ave (University Way) has some nice ones, post-renovation.
30. Neighborhood outdoor markets. What's wrong with these? Most U.S. cities don't have them (ATL for one), so I'm counting my blessings here.
31. Chick-Fil-A. Yes!
32. Competitive eating circuit. Urgh...how vomitous.
33. White Castle. See #32.
34. Fuddruckers. See #32.
35. System-wide transit maps around town. I buy this one. My ride-the-bus plan always begins with visiting transit.metrokc.gov. Would be nice to just head out and use the maps in the wild.
36. Token machines for buses. True.
37. Mass transit. See #14.
38. Serious booze in grocery stores. How about non-state-run liquor stores? I miss places like Green's and Liquor Liquor Wine Liquor in Atlanta (inside joke on the latter one - post a comment if you really want to know).
39. Pee-wee golf. Sure, but there's always Leavenworth.
40. Waffle House. YES!
41. Baptist churches. Can we have just the church buildings? :)
42. Amusement park. Absolutely.
43. -ist site. Well, we could call ourselves Alki. Then we would be Alkist.