SEATTLE - Paying tribute to the Blue Moon Tavern's most distinguished patron - Pulitzer Prize winning poet Theodore Roethke - the Seattle City Council yesterday designated an adjacent, unnamed alley as "Roethke Mews."

The alley runs north-south from Northeast 45th Street to Northeast 47th Street, and between Seventh and Eighth avenues Northeast.

The unanimously adopted resolution cites Roethke as the "finest poet to have lived and worked in the Seattle area in this century."

In addition, it also notes he conducted numerous "symposia formal and informal in the Blue Moon Tavern and celebrated his receipt of both the Pulitzer and Bollingen prizes at the Blue Moon."

In other action yesterday,the City Council:

-- Approved emergency funding to increase security at Seattle Municipal Court, citing the recent fatal shootings in the King County Courthouse.

By an 8-0 vote, members OK'd spending nearly $253,000 for a three-month period during which the council will examine policies and options in greater depth to provide long-term security solutions. The money will cover temporary marshal positions, as well as metal detectors and X-ray machines for screening at the Third and Fourth Avenue entrances to the Public Safety Building.

-- Authorized spending $50,000 to help create and support a new Zoo Commission to examine future funding and governance of the zoo. The expenditure is being matched by the Zoological Society.

Mayor Norm Rice has asked Group Health's chief executive officer Phil Nudelman to head the new commission, which is to review the zoo's mission, develop programs in education, visitor enjoyment and animal conservation, and recommend governance structures.

The zoo is about to complete a 10-year, $50 million redevelopment program after which some buildings will still be outdated. The commission's goal is to study long-term alternative structures, including exploring "more entrepreneurial approaches."