The driver's seat of a Yellow Cab seemed the best place from which to take the city's pulse on the dreaded eve of Y2K, so I accept the shift. Definitely a millennial vibe. It's already 2000 in Europe, though, and Y2K is turning out to be no big deal. On Denny and Stewart I pick up a man dressed as the pope, who communicates only by notepad. A group of about 70 people have gathered.
More people show up, carrying a model of a suspension bridge that looks like a six-poster bed.
But as the crowd swells to a few hundred, dancing and banging drums, the police only briefly close the street before following the group to the clock at Pike Place Market. I sit at Broadway and Pine for 10 minutes with no passengers in sight. This is supposed to be a cabby's best shift of the year, but it's slower than a Monday night. The mayor's cancellation of the Space Needle celebration has kept everyone home. I pick up two teenaged boys from Bremerton whose friends have ditched them.