  Shots Fired at Seattle’s Livability   Seattle’s livability
index has declined rapidly on this Memorial Day week. Suddenly,
in this city where high crimes and misdemeanors are created only
in author’s visions, a week of first-hand violence has reminded
us that Seattle’s aggression can be passive for only a limited
time. Suddenly, the brutal violence seen in the occasional gang
shooting in low-income neighborhoods strikes the innocent mini-
van or the mellow folk gathered where good music and cannabis
smoke obscures all that is wrong with the world.  Seattle lived
in a parallel universe this week. This is not usually a city
where dirt roads lead to dueling banjo music or nightmares on
Elm Street. This is a city where Reader’s Digest once planted a
wallet with $100 cash in a public location, as it did in large
cities round the country, only to discover that more Seattleites
returned the wallet intact than any other place. Yes, we have
more than our share of sociopathic serial killers, but we’re
told that’s part