January
A fire at 1123 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. ignited in the duplex's kitchen from an unattended candle left by a 10-year-old girl at home alone. The girl escaped shaken but unharmed, and the house sustained $55,000 in flame, smoke and water damages.
Heavy rains brought landslides to the Rainier Beach area that blocked off a one-half mile section of Rainier Avenue South from 57th Avenue South to 84th Avenue South with debris from 100 cubic yards of hillside. The storm also brought high winds back to Seattle on Jan. 5. Many of the city's trees were damaged by the Dec. 14, 2006 "Big Blow," and it toppled a giant diadora pine, estimated to be 100-years-old, into 34th Avenue South near South Lander Street.
Seward Park naturalist Paul Talbot took visitors on tours of the park to explain the ecological ramifications of the storm damage. Similarly, city arborist Nolan Rundquist went around Seattle to take stock of the December and January storm-damaged trees.
People dressed in bowler hats and faux mustaches gathered at Orcas and Rainier to help celebrate Hillman City's centennial. A blast of snow on Jan. 16 created a short-lived winter wonderland with 0.18 inches of thick, wet flakes.
Columbia City biofuel expert and home-fuel brewing maven Lyle Rudensey spoke about the area's rising biofuel usage, as well as his continuing series of homebrew workshops in Seattle and around the country. The fourth annual Rainier Beach Community Action Meeting took place at the Rainier Beach Community Center, where residents gathered to set community goals for neighborhood improvement projects such as beautification, anti-drug youth activities and increasing mass transportation usage.
February
Columbia City businesses raised alarms about the upswing in counterfeit $20 bills moving through their tills.
After a decade of being housed at 4839 Rainier Ave. S., the Seattle's Southeast Neighborhood Services Center moved from the heart of Columbia City to the new Othello Building at Othello Station.
The Van Asselt Community Center at 2820 S. Mrytle St. opened to the public on Feb. 10 after a lengthy remodeling. A single-car accident on the same day injured five lateteen to early-20 passengers after the driver smashed head-first into the Franklin High School retaining wall off of Rainier Avenue.
One of Georgetown's newest businesses, the Fantagraphics Bookstore, was profiled with a focus on its hosting of legendary graphic artists Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez for a book signing. The store is the influential publishing house's only brick-and-mortar location.
On Feb. 23, an officer responded to a call for back put out by a S.W.A.T. patrol that pulled over a suspect linked to an armed homeinvasion robbery. The 41-year-old officer lost control of his squad car, collided with a telephone poll near the intersection of Rainier Avenue South and South Brandon Street, and ended up in Harborview Medical Center with a broken femur and wrists, punctured lung and compound fractures.
The traffic impacts on the South End from the planned Aug. 10 to 29 I-5 repair work along the northbound I-5 lanes between I-90 and South Spokane Street were explored.
March
At the 4A semifinal tournament on March 2 at the Tacoma Dome, the Franklin High School boys' basketball team ended its tourney run with a loss to Spokane's Ferris High School and a fourth-place finish. The Quakers came into the tourney with a 14-0 record and high expectations.
The special pull-out section for the second annual Southeast Seattle Festival of Words and Photos, featured stories and photos from South End children and adults, ahead of the March 10 festival at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center.
Bellingham garage-rock band The DTs played a record release party for their latest album, "Filthy Habits," at the Fantagraphics Bookstore in Georgetown.
Seahawks cornerback Marcus Trufant visited Emerson Elementary School to discuss the importance of a well-balanced breakfast with the children.
Members of the traditional ska and rock-steady band The Georgetown Orbits, a South End group based in G-Town, discussed its formation, influences and the local music scene. The proposal by King County Executive Ron Sims to hand over control of Boeing Field to the Port of Seattle in exchange for an Eastside rail corridor was analyzed by our veteran staff reporter Russ Zabel.
Frederick and Wyjuana Montgomery hosted the third annual Queens of the Hardwood girls basketball showcase at the Rainier Beach High School featuring standout South End girls' b-ball players with the proceeds benefiting the Goodwill Development Association's Teen Parent Home.
While standing outside the Columbia Plaza in the heart of Columbia City on March 21, Randy W. West was shot and killed at 3:15 p.m. by an unknown male suspect.
Tom Haley, the president of Pacific Publishing Inc., announced his plan to retire and move close to family in Southern California.
Teams of shopping-cart mushers dressed in thematic costumes ran through the streets of Georgetown from bar to bar in the second annual Seattle Idiotarod.
April
A question-and-answer meeting hosted by Mayor Greg Nickels, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske and deputy chief Clark Kimerer at the Van Asselt Community Center about the police department's restructuring in 2008 drew around 100 residents curious about the neighborhood policing plan's anticipated effect on the South End.
A rainy April 7 didn't stop crowds of children and adults from flocking to the egg hunts hosted around the South End's public parks.
The retro toy store and family salon, Retroactive Kids, opened their doors in Columbia City after relocating from West Seattle. The Puget Sound Bonsai Association held their second annual benefit auction at the Jefferson Park Club House on April 28.
May
Despite its small roster and temporary location over in West Seattle while their school underwent the final stages of renovation, coach Alvin Harris extolled the power of the Cleveland High School girls' track team, which featured star sophomore Olivia Ward, who nabbed the state longjump record on her first attempt.
A profile of long time Lakewood neighborhood resident Grover Haynes, 76, took up the front page and discussed his community work after he received the city's prestigious Jefferson Award.
The Columbia City Market opened up for the season under curtains of rain and breaks of sun on May 2.
The 21-foot-diameter cutting head of Sound Transit's tunnel boring machine, named the Emerald Mole, broke through the east side of Beacon Hill into the Rainier Valley on May 8. The machine's 4,300-foot journey under the hill was the first of two tunneling projects scheduled for Sound Transit's light-rail construction.
Community members expressed their appreciation for South Precinct officers on May 3 with a large, home-cooked appreciation dinner.
A May 17 panel discussion on the United States' war on drugs was held at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center. It drew a standing- room-only crowd who heard from speakers such as former Seattle Police Chief, and author of "Breaking Rank," Norm Stamper and King County Council member Larry Gossett talk about the war's failed effort and its resulting, negative human and monetary costs.
Thurgood Marshall Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Cassandra Badeley was featured in the wake of her surprise award of the prestigious Milken National Educator Award.
Stefan Schachtell, the Georgetown Music Fest co-promoter, said he and his business partner felt that Georgetown was "a neighborhood that would respond positively and could support [the festival] as far as infrastructure" in a profile just ahead of the June 2 and 3 event.
Nationally recognized fitness instructor Mark Bryant's work at the South Seattle Senior Center received the profile treatment.
An arsonist burned a house at 1927 Bayview Ave. S., and firefi ghters responding to the scene woke the sleeping owner in the late morning.
June
Maple Elementary School principal Pat Hunter received the $25,000 John Warner Award from Boeing. The award is given out annually to a school in the King, Pierce and Snohomish county region that has overcome challenges to achieve a high level of academic success.
Georgetown residents gathered en masse, some wearing elaborate hats made from Styrofoam containers, in the Seattle City Council chambers to protest the proposed construction of a $70-million waste transfer station planned for their neighborhood.
The Rainier District Little League closed out its regular and post-season with the Rosso Nursery Dragons taking the local title with an underdog win.
Four house fires in the South End in the late morning of June 14 sparked fear in area residents after three of them were blamed on an arsonist.
Orca Elementary School closed for the year and permanently left its home at Columbia School with plans to open with an expanded program within Whitworth Elementary School in the fall.
A Juneteenth black-on-black violence forum, co-sponsored by King County Council Member Larry Gossett and held at Rainier Beach High School, exposed the complex attitudes and emotions underlying the criminal issue before the meeting devolved into a disorganized mess during the question-and-answer period.
A spike in youth-related crime in Rainier Beach spurred the police department to step up targeted bike and emphasis patrols throughout the neighborhood and pushed the city to tout its $250,000 funding of the Rainier Beach Youth Summer Strategy, which providesemployment, education and recreation programs.
July
Columbia City's innovative Rainier Valley Youth Theater geared up for the upcoming production of "Dreamin'," and the production's director said the program is "pushing youth in a lot of different ways... They're actively part of the creative process, and we're really trying to treat them like young professionals."
The Othello Park Concert series unfolded for the second year on June 10 and drew a modest crowd to listen to a selection of local groups. The Seattle area's annual soccer tournament, All Nations Cup, began, and team Somalia's involvement and Rainier Beach practices was profiled.
Young chess players found their program, the Urban Youth Chess Club, started by South Precinct officer Cookie Bouldin, threatened by lack of funding support.
More than 150 Mount Baker residents ignored the gray, muggy weather on July 22 to gather for the inaugural Park Tunes at Mount Baker Park, organized and funded by neighborhood residents E.J. Gong and Susan Byrnes.
Columbia City's "Bookworm Exchange" celebrated the release of J.K. Rowling's final Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," with a big, late-night party that was well attended on July 20.
Nearly 200 protestors gathered on Beacon Hill and marched to the VA Hospital to voice their desire for U.S. leaders to improve the medical care of Iraq war veterans while simultaneously cease funding for the war.
August
The I-5 repaving project drew near, with an estimated 50 percent of the freeway's northbound traffic projected to funnel onto Airport Way South through the Georgetown, Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley neighborhoods. A spirited City Council candidate forum, where Seattle's gentrification took center stage, was held Aug. 2 at the Yesler Community Center.
The annual, national Night Out Against Crime occurred on Aug. 7, and one of the South End crime hot spots, the Rainier Othello neighborhood, held its annual get-to-know-your-neighbor gathering while residents shared their insights on living in the area.
The Georgetown tattoo studio, Artcore, participated in Seattle's nationally popular tattoo convention, and its stereotype-destroying operation was profiled.
Mount Baker resident Barbara Oswald, a cancer survivor and photographer who was declared legally blind as a teenager, opened a bed-and-breakfast with a gallery devoted to blind artists.
Rainier Beach merchants banned together for an Aug. 25 festival celebrating the neighborhood and the 100-year anniversary of the Rainier Valley annexation into Seattle.
Beacon Hill hip-hop artist and community activist Gabriel Teodros performed at Bumbershoot and sat down for an interview with reporter Josh Sabrowsky.
Seward Park's Kristin Tan, age 14, represented First Tee of Greater Seattle for a Labor Day tourney at California's prestigious Pebble Beach golf course.
September
The Yesler Community Center held the diversity-embracing Celebrating All Families Festival, which featured food, music, games and educational materials for the area's typical, and a-typical, families. Similarly, Central Area businesswoman Ebba Yao held a back-to-school expo to help underserved families navigate the Seattle school system.
After a two-year renovation, Beacon Hill's Cleveland High School opened its doors on Sept. 4.
For the fifth year in a row, Upper Rainier Beach resident Mary Krueger hosted a gathering of neighborhood adults and school age children to help the kids take formal self-improvement pledges with their parents, friends and neighbors. The Northwest Community Services Food Bank at 4206 Rainier Ave. S. faced an ongoing struggle with inadequate amounts of food despite consistently crowded distribution days.
After moving away from Seattle back to Italy for several years, Giuseppi "Pino" Rogano returned to the Northwest and opened up a meat shop in the Genesee area specializing in artesian sausages. For the 20th year the Seattle Italian Festival took over Seattle Center, and we took a look at the Rainier Valley's transforming Italian community, commonly referred to in previous decades as Garlic Gulch.
Developers and neighbors came together during a Sept. 27 meeting to exchange ideas and hopes for the development of Othello Station centered around the South Othello Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South intersection.
The Seattle City Council chose to table the controversial move to license and regulate certain nightclubs - especially those, city officials say, attract a violent clientele - until next September, after a year of observation and study of the city's night life.
October
A large group of concerned Beacon Hill parents and citizens gathered at the Jefferson Community Center on Oct. 11 to discuss ways the community can stop a rising tide of random teen violence that threatened to overwhelm the neighborhood. A memorial commemorating the Oct. 6, 2006 single, high-speed single-car crash that claimed the lives of four young sailors flowered by a telephone pole near the intersection of Rainier Avenue South and 57th Avenue South.
A retrospective show commemorating Central Area artist Al Doggett's nearly four decades of work featured 100 pieces on display at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center. The Rainier Chamber of Commerce's new director, Susan Davis, was introduced to the community with a profile.
An effort to link the business and residential corridors of Columbia City and Hillman City, called The Columbia City/Hillman City Gateway Project, drew both optimism and skepticism about how the effort could be carried out.
November
The Rainier Valley Cultural Center, tucked back in the northwest corner of Columbia City Park, has been owned by Southeast Effective Development (SEED) since 1995 and is in need of crucial repair work, along with its nearby companion building, the Columbia City Gallery. SEED staff needs to raise $334,127 to complete the basic maintenance work.
An unknown suspect spraypainted racially offensive hate graffiti on several vehicles in the Seward Park neighborhood in the early morning of Nov. 2.
The Museum of Flight near Georgetown celebrated the men and women who have served our country in the military, particularly in the air force, with presentations and a special Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11.
The Seattle Union Gospel Mission, based in the Othello neighborhood, geared up for its annual Thanksgiving meal for the area's homeless residents with an expectation to serve 1,500 meals, including breakfast, at its men's shelter in Pioneer Square and its women and children's shelter at 520 S. King St.
A new festival celebrating the cultural diversity along the Martin Luther King Jr. Way South light-rail corridor, the Southeast Seattle International Festival, was being planned for Dec. 9 at The Citadel in Othello Station by South End businessmen Quan Tran and Linh Thai.
Sabey Corp. representatives spoke about the locally based company's plans to refurbish, and partially demolish, one of Georgetown, and Seattle's, iconic historic landmarks: the Rainier Cold Storage building complex, birthplace of Rainier Beer.
A new Columbia City community group focused on guiding the South End toward environmental sustainability, called Sustainable South Seattle, met for the first time on Nov. 19 at the Columbia City Library.
December
The Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center completed its $2.2 million expansion and celebrated with a grand opening on Dec. 2.
The popular and successful executive director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum, Ron Chew, retired after serving with the museum for 17 years and shepherding the museum's $23.2 million fund-raising campaign that saw the museum expanding into a new space in the renovated East Kong Yick Building at 719 S. King St.
The Mount Baker Community Club, the oldest continually operating organization of its kind in the United States, held its annual home improvement and holiday home tour on Dec. 8.
A pattern of sexual assaults on Beacon Hill had the community on edge and police looking for a lone male suspect who targeted women along the Beacon Hill corridor and appeared to be using the Metro bus routes serving the area to help him choose his victims.
The Columbia City Beatwalk held its final musical gathering and community party on Dec. 7 with the two-stepping Cajun rowdiness of Captain Leroy and the Zydeco Locals.
A year after Charlene Strong's partner, Kate Fleming, drowned in her Madison Valley basement during the December 2006 flooding, Strong turned her grief into activism on the national level to bring awareness to the equal rights movement for the country's gays and lesbians.
A profile of the world class, yet humble, competitive power lifting community exploding at Bull and Flo Stewart's Columbia City Fitness Center was profiled by reporter Mary Sanford. Similarly, the efforts of Georgetown's Pioneer Distribution Center to improve the life of immigrants and ex-cons was explored.
After a breast cancer scare, Naomi Andrade Smith opened up Villa Victoria to help spread her Latin America and African American roots with food at her Columbia City catering and restaurant operation.
The Seattle City Council ok'ed the study of a rental-housing inspection program, while state officials secured $88.2 million to advance the Sound Transit lightrail system in 2008.
Editor Erik Hansen may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.
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