New ‘Monopoly’ game highlights Seattle’s Pioneer Square
Published 9:00 pm Monday, September 11, 2006
It’s the only place where rent in Seattle’s Pioneer Square is more expensive than anything on South Beach in Miami.
The new “Monopoly” board game called “Monopoly: Here and Now,” changed all the properties to reflect landmarks from 22 cities in the United States and attempts to update the game to reflect today’s world. Hasbro asked the public to vote on which landmarks would represent each city, giving voters three choices.
I wrote about it back in May. You can see that column here: http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/05/02/100fea_d1balta001.cfm
Pioneer Square was an apparent accidental pick, considering that Seattle’s most iconic image, the Space Needle, was not among the choices. It was originally included in the photo of Pioneer Square, which, locals know, is nowhere near the Space Needle. The other two mystifying choices were “Puget Sound” and “Pike Place Market.”
OK, the market made sense. But it’s a sham that the Space Needle is nowhere to be found on the new board game.
In other news, the coveted “Boardwalk” property will now be occupied by New York’s Times Square. In a move that will raise the ire of insecure New Englanders, Boston’s Fenway Park is in the second-best “Park Place” position.
Positions were determined based on the number of votes each site received. Cleveland’s Jacob’s Field occupies the cheapest spot on the board once home to Mediterranean Ave.
The railroads have been replaced with airports and — in a shameless bit of product placement — the player pieces that used to be a classic race car, a shoe, a thimble, have been replaced with things such as a Toyota Prius hybrid car, a Motorola RAZR cell phone and a laptop computer.
Also, the “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards have new scenarios. One example: The one that won you $10 for winning a beauty contest is now a $100,000 prize for winning a reality TV show.
That’s right, $100,000. That’s because each player now starts with $2 million to build a Real Estate fortune, and the cost for landing on Times Square with a hotel on it is $20,000,000.
