Seattle politician Norman Blann Rice (1943-) was first elected to the Seattle City Council in 1978. Rice served eleven years, participating as chairs of the Energy, Finance, and Budget committees, and was Council President for one term. From 1989 to 1997 Rice served two terms as the 49th mayor, becoming Seattle's first African-American mayor. Rice has remained a civic leader as CEO and then president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle from 1998 to 2004, and then CEO of the non-profit Seattle Foundation from 2009-2013.
In this image Mayor Norm Rice and a contingent of business people tour an area of South Lake Union suggested for a project called the Seattle Commons. In 1991 Seattle architect Fred Bassetti and Seattle Times columnist John Hinterberger first proposed the idea for a 61-acre park stretching from downtown Seattle to Lake Union, envisioning a vast civic lawn framed by high-tech laboratories, condos, restaurants, and urban amenities. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen donated $20 million to buy property for the Seattle Commons, but the plan eventually failed and was defeated by public votes in 1995 and 1996. The Seattle Commons was based on Virgil Bogue's 1911 plan to redevelop large parts of the city, which was similarly voted down.
Caption information source: The Seattle Times, December 12, 1993, page A1 Caption information source: "Seattle voters reject the Seattle Commons levy on September 19, 1995," by Paula Becker, HistoryLink.org Essay 8252 Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.
