EDITOR’S VIEWPOINT/Sale of two cities

It was the best of times. No, actually it was the worst of times that apparently has led two cities in Washington to consider erecting monuments to help revitalize their communities.

Tacoma’s impressive plan to breathe life into its downtown area includes two new museums and a significant facelift for an area around a waterway. The centerpiece of Tacoma’s revitalization effort is a convention and trade center, which will cost more than $80 million.

The new trade center also is the center of a controversy over a $7 million doo-dad that will rest in front of it — a 400-foot, pyramid-shaped spire. Proponents see the pyramid as a much needed landmark, something akin to the Eiffel Tower. Some critics think that the monument is no more than “needle envy,” referring to the Seattle Space Needle and an ongoing competition between Tacoma and its sister city.

Considering the times, I think Tacoma’s spire is a monumental mistake in timing because its construction and operation will be shouldered by the community’s taxpayers.

However, Soap Lake, Wash., will soar to greater heights with its plan to construct a giant lava lamp in the center of town. Located near Grand Coulee Dam, Soap Lake is drying up — an unfortunate fate shared by many small towns. But a handful of people in this community of 1,700 are not waiting to float down the drain of history. They’ve scoured the textbooks and found that large amounts of lava flowed through Soap Lake 14 million years ago. Using that fact, two residents, who I can only assume were watching “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,” gave birth to the monument. “Yeah, dude, a giant lava lamp bigger than her — maybe, 60 feet tall.”

Don’t laugh. The city council has already approved the idea, although no local funds were committed. Proponents of the giant lamp say that the $3 million project will be funded from a variety of sources and that it will be maintained by the city and the Soap Lake Lava Lamp foundation, a.k.a. SoLa LaLa. (They must have listened to “La-La, Means I Love You,” by the Delfonics after the movie.)

Nevertheless, some local residents are serious about the lava lamp’s viability. Representatives from the town are drafting a business plan and looking for grants and loans with the help of the state’s Business and Tourism Development Office. And, reportedly, the lava lamp has inspired a couple more projects to help attract tourists to Soap Lake: a beach-front sculpture and a 144-seat theater.

I can’t tell you why I like Soap Lake’s lava lamp better than Tacoma’s spire, but I do. Soap Lake would receive a huge boost if only a small percentage of the 1.5 million visitors to Grand Coulee Dam visited their community. At the very least, the giant lava lamp could inspire a movie if it is uncovered a few generations from now: “Attack of the 50 Foot Hippie.”