YJCMTSUIYT - Woman who married a warehouse to try to save a neighborhood wants to marry another one (after her 1st one -er- passed on). Only in Seattle (and perhaps San Fran - but that goes without saying).Dressed in a wedding gown and holding her spouse, 10th and Union widow Babylonia Aivaz stormed the Seattle City Council meeting Monday afternoon with one purpose: to save the Yesler Terrace neighborhood through marriage.
"This is the only thing I have left from the last building I married," she said as she held up a brick from the now-demolished warehouse that sat at the corner of 10th and Union. "I cannot let it happen again."
Held back by security guards, Aivaz eventually left the meeting only to be greeted by police outside.
"I just feel that justice has to happen now and I couldn't wait," she told police.
When asked if she had armed herself with a brick, she explained that the brick was her wife.
"Oh no, that's my spouse," she said. "! I got married to a building earlier this year."
Aivaz says her mission is to save the diverse and economically-challenged Yesler Terrace neighborhood and its 1,200 residents from the Seattle Housing Authority's planned redevelopment.
She says she became passionate about the neighborhood while working as a summer camp counselor with Seattle Parks and Recreation at Yesler Community Center.
"I just formed the deepest spiritual bond with the children there and I grew to know and love all the families, farms and gardens and the views," she said. "I think the best thing is to rehabilitate it, renovate it and expand the low-income housing."
I don't think I would want her around my children. But Seattle is kind of wierd like that.
"I consider myself a modern day Lorax," she said, citing the Dr. Seuss book that speaks strongly against greed, and the capitalist system. "So if anyone wants understand what is happening, they just need to reread "The Lorax."
Funny - I think of her as a modern day loon.
Aivaz was charged with criminal trespassing for entering the restricted area of City Hall. She says that won't deter her wedding, which she has set for August 5.
Who's going the be the 'best man' - that super-expensive portapotty Seattle bought a few years ago.