Seattle Streetcar SLUT

Mayor Tom Barrett thinks the city of Milwaukee desperately needs streetcars.

Sometimes, streetcar plans can go awry.

Case in point: Seattle's SLUT

"Ride the SLUT."

There's a story going around South Lake Union, but a spokeswoman for Vulcan, Paul Allen's development company, says it's just an urban legend.

That aside, the story that the neighborhood's streetcar line now under construction was called the South Lake Union Trolley until the powers that be realized the unfortunate acronym -- SLUT -- seems here to stay.

Officially, it's now the South Lake Union Streetcar. But the trolley name already has caught on, and in the old Cascade neighborhood in South Lake Union, they're waiting for the SLUT.

At the Kapow! Coffee house on Harrison Street, they're selling T-shirts that read "Ride the SLUT."

"We're welcoming the SLUT into the neighborhood," said Jerry Johnson, 29, a part-time barista. Johnson said the T-shirts were done just for fun, but they seem to have tapped into something: The first 100 sold out in days and now orders for the next 100 are under way.

Behind the ribbing is a little resentment about the changes some residents feel have been pushed on them.

"There was a meeting with representatives from the city several years ago," Johnson recalled. "They asked us what we could do for you. Most people raised their hands and said 'affordable housing,' " he said. "Then the people from the city huddled together -- 'whisper, whisper, whisper,' -- and they said, 'How about a trolley?' "

With the tracks laid and the Westlake to South Lake Union streetcar on schedule to start running in December -- no specific date yet -- there's resignation.

"What's done is done," says Don Clifton of the decision to build the $50.5 million line.

...The construction in the area was more than just inconvenient earlier this month. On Sept. 7, a dump truck from one of the construction projects in the area hit two bicyclists at Fuhrman Avenue East and Eastlake Avenue East, killing one of them.

"I love it," Clifton said of the construction noise. "I was getting too much sleep before."

"I especially like the dust and the big holes in the ground," Johnson said. "But we can't wait to have the SLUT."

The best laid plans....