The Ballard Lenny's has been torn down today.

That's Denny's!!!

The event marks a resounding victory for people with an ounce of common sense who don't want atrociously ugly structures foisted upon them by a minority of so-called intellectuals with bad taste that want to tell other people what to do with their land.

This also (one can dream) paves the way for other architectural crimes against humanity like the Experience Music Project, Downtown Seattle Library and Olympic Sculpture Park to meet similar, deserved fates.

With the demolition of the Ballard Denny's, unfortunately, eager young Ron Paul enthusiasts will have to find another boarded-up, dilapidated building on Market Street to tag with "rEVOLution 2008" graffiti.

Local news outlets have tearfully shown photos of an excavator trampling over the building's moldy, shattered remains.

A more fitting end would have been a funeral pyre.

Ideally, in true Scandinavian fashion, the Denny's would have been place on a barge, floated down to Golden Gardens Park and set ablaze with offerings of lutefisk, Stan Boreson LPs, Uff da bumper-stickers and the entire staff of the blog Crosscut tossed reverentially inside its rotting walls so the building could be properly served when it entered Valhalla.

Unfortunately since the proposed beach bonfire ban - to combat global warming - was still in effect during the planning stages of this operation, a more mundane demolition option was used.

This whole saga is just one of scores of examples how the metronaturals in Seattle have turned the city into a national laughingstock. City leaders had the gumption to designate a Denny's as a historical landmark but for years there was no political will to, say for example, save a major league sports franchise which has been in town for 41 years and provided entertainment for millions of NBA fans.

Oh, and to culminate the clown parade, once the Ballard Denny's was finally designated as a historic landmark worthy of preservation, the City of Seattle then decided it's alright to let the damn thing be torn down anyway.

One wonders why basic issues like replacing the Alaska Way Viaduct or the 520 Floating Bridge can never get traction.

The controversy surrounding the Ballard Denny's was one of misplaced priorities and general obfuscation on the part of some local historians who should know better. (That's you Knute) Particularly when there are more important buildings in Seattle that are in actual need of preservation. (The International Order of Oddfellows Hall on Capitol Hill comes to mind immediately).

First off, the "Googie-designed" building is neither historically or architecturally significant. Keep in mind the word "Googie" is a make-believe catch-all term so-called academics can use to describe almost any structure built after World War II.

If you've lived in the Pacific Northwest and know the neighborhoods you can see right off that the building has essentially the same lines as your typical suburban IHOP restaurant.

Proponents of saving the Ballard Denny's banged their coffee mugs and lied about Seattle's espresso culture being born at Denny's/Manning's. It's not.

And they pointed out that Bay-area architect Clarence H. Mayhew - whom no one has ever heard of - was the brainchild behind the building. Of course this flies right in the face of the sensibilities of any native-born Washingtonian by suggesting that a building designed by a Californian, worse one from Berkeley, is worthy of anything.

If the building was designed by a local Seattle icon like Ivar Haglund or Seattle architect Minoru Yamasaki for example then historical landmark designation status would be more than in order.

And there is a compelling argument for the Yamasaki-designed Rainier Tower or IBM Building, both built in the 1960s and both architecturally significant, to receive landmark status.

Old scutters can say they used to eat dinner at the restaurant when it used to be called Manning's. Big whoop. Keep in mind the building was actually a Denny's for more years than it ever was a Manning's.

You can point to any number of eating establishments which have been around longer and have had a greater impact to local residents.

Dick's Drive In, Kidd Valley, Spud Fish and Chips on Alki, Beth's Cafe on Aurora Ave. You readers can no doubt chime in with more.

When I swam at Medger Evers pool in Seattle I used to pick up a bag of bird at Ezell's Chicken across the street. There was also Catfish Corner, down the block which serves the best soul food in town. Both restaurants have a significant cultural influence in the CD. Oh, and both eating establishments are owned by black business owners whom the white, liberal, literati living in Seattle would never deign to patronize.

If you're looking to save public eye-sores and declare them historic landmarks why not preserve Medgar Evers Pool while you're at it? It certainly has far more local history attached to it than a place that served Grand Slam breakfasts for two decades.

In addition to being named after a slain civil rights leader, the pool was originally designed to double as a Seattle Police Department command center and watering hole for mounted horse units during feared race riots that were expected to break out in the Central District during the 1960s and 1970s.

I think there might be a touch of irony in the above paragraph but maybe I'm using the wrong word...

Perhaps self-proclaimed preservationists can set their sights on the Capitol Hill Kentucky Fried Chicken next. It fits all the characteristics necessary for landmark preservation status in Seattle. It's a homogenous, boarded-up fast food chain restaurant that is falling down and has been tagged by aerosol artists. Hell, it was probably designed by an out-of-town architect whom nobody has ever heard of too.