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Always Good for a Ride

Seattle's atwitter over a streetcar line being built in the city's South Lake Union neighborhood. Not because the residents just get giddy for public transit (...

Seattle's atwitter over a streetcar line being built in the city's South Lake Union neighborhood. Not because the residents just get giddy for public transit (although, surely, they must).

No, it's because of the name of the transit line -- the South Lake Union Trolley -- and, more importantly, its acronym.

[T]he 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.

Officials say the whole thing is just an urban legend, that the streetcar was never going to be named the SLUT. But it doesn't seem to matter. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says "people can call it whatever they want as long as they ride it."

Obviously, the jokes write themselves (How much for a ride?, etc.). And of course it took someone about .002 seconds to come up with a SLUT t-shirt. You can even order your own.

It's enough to make MARTA look like a prude.

Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
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