A hard-to-reach fire in a rooming house near Roosevelt High School left eight people homeless late Tuesday night, according to firefighters. No one was injured, according to reports. Fire investigators ruled the fire as an accidental, electrical fire, according to SFD information officer Helen Fitzpatrick. The total damage estimate was $100,000.
The magazine salesman who allegedly choked an Eastlake woman Aug. 31 until she was unconscious and then stole her phone and laptop computer, is in jail. He was arrested in Oregon on Sept. 12 as a member of a crew of magazine-subscription salesmen working for Michigan-based Urban Development Solutions.
While nobody disagrees that Aurora Avenue North needs to change, no consensus on how it should change looks to be forthcoming between the city and Aurora merchants.After discussing the Aurora Avenue North Improvements Project from North 110th to 145th streets for six years, the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association (AAMA) claims the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) neglected the community's concerns and knowledge of the street.
When many in society may quickly discard struggling, homeless women, the University District based Sojourner Place offers the lifeline that has saved more than 350 women in 20 years of service."I was really a hopeless drug addict, the kind of drug addict you would see on the street: really skinny, with scabs all over my face, and homeless," said Christine Hendrickson, who graduated from Sojourner Place in January 2006. "As hopeless as I was, they believed in me before I even believed in myself. They're so supportive, and the director gave me that extra strength I needed."
LAND SWAP: Seattle Parks and Recreation and Seattle Public Schools have agreed to a land swap as part of the renovation of Hamilton International Middle School, 1610 N. 41st St. The City Council will need to approve this legislation.The land under consideration is a 27-foot portion of the right-of-way on North 42nd Street that had been vacated nearly 40 years ago. This property would go to the school district to accommodate the school's new gym, while the parks department would receive a similar-sized property on the border of Wallingford Playfield.
Our firstborn tax deduction will leave the nest soon and go to college in another state. Which state, you might ask? I think she's going to be in the state of Confusion.Case in point: My little fledgling will live in a dorm with four other girls. There will be a kitchen there for cooking meals. If she wants to eat food, she will need to make it herself. This will require some work on her part other than walking into the kitchen, saying, "Ooh, that smells good! When is dinner?"
The last time I saw Jeff Fairhall, in November 2003, he hosted a Fremont chamber meeting. He captured the imaginations of his audience as he perched on the edge of a table, describing his latest business venture with his characteristic enthusiasm.As part owner of Essential Baking Co., he had just purchased the building where we met - the old trolley barn at 3400 Phinney Ave. N. There, he and his business partners wanted to create an organic chocolate factory, something no one else did at that time.When I heard Jeff had died, on Sept. 5 from brain cancer at age 49, I pictured him leaning on that table.
When a piano appeared in her family home, 9-year-old Jeanette Alexander sat down and started playing. But it wasn't until many years later that Alexander became a successful musician. A pianist, composer and Green Lake resident, Alexander started composing music in the '80s. "I found that I would write music to calm down from the busyness of the day," she said. "It was my way of getting quiet." Alexander said she wanted to get out of New York City, where she originally is from, and moved to Seattle in 1990.
PERMIT DECISIONS: 1610 N. 41st St. (3006335) on a Land Use Application to allow expansion of an existing institution (Hamilton Middle School) including the addition of a new gymnasium to provide additional school facility space. Parking for 20 vehicles will be provided within a covered garage. Two portable classrooms to be demolished.
A potluck event will take place at Cal Anderson Park on Sunday, Sept. 30. The gathering is a get-to-know-your-neighbors event for neighbors of the homes in the blocks immediately surrounding Cal Anderson Park. New East Precinct commander Capt. Paul McDonagh will be on hand to meet neighbors and discuss issues. The event takes place on Sunday, Sept. 30, from 4 to 6 p.m., at Cal Anderson Park.
Seattle City Councilmember Sally Clark recently received a report she requested from the City Auditor regarding the performance of neighborhood plans. The audit indicates that while neighborhood planning and the first stage of implementation were successful on many levels, more recently the city has decreased staffing associated with plan implementation, cut some programs that supported implementation and the plans have grown stale.
The City of Seattle's Human Services Department has been awarded a $4 million U.S. Department of Education grant to improve the literacy skills of low-income preschool children in Seattle.The three-year grant is one of 32 grants totaling $114,972,187 that the U.S. Department of Education is awarding to Early Reading First programs nationwide.
Joshua Gortler reminds homeless youth that if he can do it, so can theyJoshua Gortler reminds homeless youth that if he can do it, so can theyJoshua Gortler stood out in this crowd of young people, 18 to 25, in their street clothes. Gortler was in Seattle business attire sporting a goatee and mustache, a twinkle in his eye and a yarmulke on his head. At 70, he is one of the youngest survivors of the World War II Holocaust that swept 6 million Jews into death camps where they perished.
Another Seattle AIDS walk? Isn't that like a Civil War reunion? Surely AIDS is well in the past by now and the plague is over?In your dreams. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is very much with us. An estimated one million people are living with HIV in the United States, and approximately 40,000 new infections occur each year. Men suffer 70 percent of these new infections, 30 percent occur in women, but 75 percent of the new infections in women are heterosexually transmitted.
City council opts to table controversial nightclub voteConsider a typically Seattle solution. By a vote of 5-4, the Seattle City Council decided not to decide licensing nightclubs, putting off the issue until next September and a year of observation, study and, some might argue, challenge to clubs to shape up.The idea of licensing particular nightclubs-in short, those places seeming to attract a more violent clientele, some given to gun play-was pitched by Mayor Greg Nickels in response to citizen outrage sparked by several shootings in the vicinity of late-night hot spots like the former Mr Lucky in Queen Anne and Tommy's Lounge & Grill in the University District.