By Jean Godden

When I was a city columnist, the Pike Place Market was my beat. The Market always had a story to tell, a controversy to explain and a song for our hearts. It was the best thing that ever happened to me when I was at work, reporting the news four times a week. 

Although the 110-year-old Market has deep roots in the city's past, it now has a bright present and an outstanding future. That's more true than ever with the opening last month of "MarketFront," the ambitious expansion that will link the nation's oldest farmers' market to the Seattle waterfront, our two grandest attractions. 

The $74 million expansion has added far more than just an inclined walkway heading towards the waterfront. MarketFront provides 30,000 square feet of new public space. It gives us 300 new covered parking spaces (a bargain at $4 an hour), 47 new day tables, 40 new senior housing units, four new artisan food spaces, a neighborhood center and one relocated bronze pig named Billie. 

Ah, the pigs, Rachel and Billie. I thought you'd never ask about Rachel, the bronze piggy bank that stands beneath the historic Market Clock. Whidbey Island Sculptor Georgia Gerber modeled the Market mascot after a prize-winning Island County porker. 

Full disclosure:  Years ago, when the Market was assembling an historic display, I was asked to record a script explaining Rachel's role raising money for Market charities. What a thrill: I had never dreamed that one day I would be the voice of Rachel the Pig. 

And what a Pig. Since arriving in 1986, Rachel has raised more than $200,000 for Market services such as the food bank, medical clinic and the Market Day Care. 

As natives know, the Market is really the Soul of Seattle, so named by University of Washington Professor Victor Steinbrueck. He led the 1971 citizen crusade that rescued the Market from politicians and developers who wanted to bulldoze it and turn the site into high-rise offices and parking garages. 

But saving the Market once was not enough. It had to be saved a second time in the 1990s. The Urban Group, a bunch of New York investors, thought that they had bought the Market. They were bent on turning it into a cash cow. It took Market supporters (among them Steinbrueck's son Peter) two years and a cash payout before the Market was once again fully in public hands.

Hundreds of stories are told about Market rescues from outside forces and from its many internal "wars." One of the fiercest fights was fought over Sunday openings at the Market, which historically had been closed on the Christian Sabbath. That battle finally ended with commerce triumphing over faith, but with individual farmers given the option of participating or not. 

Another skirmish concerned the Market's colorful buskers. Some merchants complained that certain Market musicians and entertainers were monopolizing the most desirable spots, dominating locations where they could make music and solicit tips. 

"There are just so many hours you want to hear someone playing, over and over, on a musical comb," said one farmer. The Public Development Authority finally came to the merchants' rescue and allotted time slots at popular positions.

On another occasion, the New York investors brought food carts into the Market Atrium, as a step toward maximizing receipts. The investors' plans were vigorously opposed by Market regulars. When the Atrium was finally ruled off limits, a row of oversized food wagons materialized on the cobblestones under the Pike Place Clock. Market forces finally won the battle to have them removed.

One battle that still has not been resolved is the matter of vehicles driving past Market stalls on Pike Place. Some forces have long opted to have all vehicles, aside from delivery trucks, removed from Pike Place for the safety and comfort of pedestrians. Others argue that, being able to drive through the area is one of the attractions of the bustling marketplace.

There are pros and cons, multi-faceted views, and, as usual at the Market, everyone has an opinion, a passionate viewpoint. But, hey, it is the Market and eventually the Soul of the City will prevail.