The rumors, if you've heard them, are true: The Odd Fellows Hall on East Pine Street is about to be sold. The old building, which turns 100 next year, is a veritable nexus for numerous arts organizations. Its sale leaves tenants, many of whom are long-established fixtures in Capitol Hill and the city's arts community, facing the certainty of an uncertain future.After hearing about the likelihood of a sale for several weeks, the official word came to tenants in a memo dated Wednesday, Oct. 25. While not addressing specific details, the letter stated that "Our intent is to update the building systems while retaining and/or restoring much of the original charm The Odd Fellows intended nearly 100 years ago. Significant changes in layout are planned for the retail and office (top floor) levels of the building."
Anticipating good weather over the next few days, Seattle Department of Transportation aims to close Magnolia Boulevard West in order to make some repairs before winter weather closes in.SDOT crews expect to have closed the boulevard between West Garfield Street and West Howe Street and keep it closed from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day through Friday, Nov. 2. (King County Metro Transit and school buses will still be allowed through, as well as pedestrians.)
Efforts by a Queen Anne author and a Queen Anne congressman have resulted in overturned convictions for four African-American soldiers in a case linked to a riot and a killing at Fort Lawton in 1944. The author, Jack Hamann, wrote about the World War II incident in his book "On American Soil," which details the successful prosecution of 28 African-American soldiers for their part in a riot between them and Italian prisoners of war, and for the lynching death of one of the Italians. The 28 were dishonorably discharged, and they served anywhere from a year to 25 years in the brig.
The wooden poles are warping and the lights installed on them around 40 years ago at the Interbay Playfield aren't up to current standards, according to Seattle Parks and Recreation. And replacing lighting on the field was identified as a high priority in a 2001 Ballfield Lighting Study the parks department commissioned, said Kim Baldwin, the manager of the project. The height of the poles will be reduced to 80 feet at the highest, and they will be 60 to 70 feet high at the south end of the field.
It was a classic piece of Americana, a 40-foot-something-long mural depicting a 1954 Texaco station painted on a white wall at Ric Kastner's gas station on West Government Way. Painted in 1994, the mural fit right in because Kastner was running a Texaco station at the time. Times change, and his Magnolia Texaco station was turned into Shell station in April last year, he said. That's a corporate no-no, according to a Sept. 25 letter Kastner received from the Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC law firm in Alexandria, Va. The firm represents Chevron Corp, which has merged with Texaco, and Chevron now owns "the legendary Texaco brand and related trademarks," according to the letter.
Was someone trying to be funny in the last paragraph [of the Oct. 17 editorial, "Level heads don't prevail in CD"] where it says, "so cooperate with the cops when confronted, for you can always sue the pants off the pigs later if they choose to abuse the power we've given them." The author is telling people to cooperate with the police and then disrespectfully calls them pigs. "Sue the pants off them." Is this supposed to be funny?
The proposed 2008 King County budget abandons the county's longstanding support for historic preservation by cutting funding for preservation and heritage support programs by 50 percent or more. It is also patently unfair to Seattle-based heritage organizations.
I am writing to comment on Mona Lee's article titled "Mike Hlastala: a developer with vision and sense of civic duty," Oct. 24. She concludes at the end of her article with Hlastal's sentiments, "that in response to change there will always be skeptics."
"Back up frequently." You computer users, haven't you read these three words endless times? And do you do it? I suspect there are those among us, for one reason or another, who neglect to heed such words of warning - people like me. And woe is me.
is much is true: Teachers are underpaid in comparison to accountants. They are not underpaid in comparison to healthcare workers, excepting RNs and docs. But money aside, it is undeniable that teachers are very important. Bad teachers, whether they reach bad from burnout or natural inclination, do a lot of harm. Good teachers, well, they do a lot of good.
In a recent column in this paper, Geov Parrish offered his reluctant support for Proposition 1, the transportation package slated for the November ballot. The measure would raise our city's sales tax to nearly 10 cents on the dollar - perhaps the highest rate in the nation - and double car tab fees to help raise billions for a combination of roads and public transit projects.While we're often in Geov's camp, we part company with him on this one. Proposition 1 is the single most wallet-busting, wasteful, regressive, carbon-emitting, elite-driven, gridlock-ensuring, misguided funding request ever brought before the voters of this region. Given the staggering cost of this package and the blank check it will give to regional agencies unaccountable to voters, a 'yes' vote virtually ensures that 50 years from now our children's children will still be paying for this package.
DESIGN REVIEW: 1408 14th Ave. (3007131) of a seven-story building containing retail at ground level with 120 apartments above and parking for 93 vehicles below grade. Existing structure to be demolished. Project includes grading. At the Design Review Board meeting the applicant will present information about the proposed design and how it responds to the Design Guideline priorities established at an Early Design Guidance Board meeting regarding this site; the public may offer comments regarding the proposed design. The meeting will take place Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Yesler Community Center, 917 E. Yesler Way, in the multipurpose room.
The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival may have been the most satisfying of the 15 I've gone to in the years since 1989, not least because it included a paradigm of what's thrilling about film festivals. "To Each His Own Cinema," produced to honor the Cannes Film Festival's 60th anniversary this past spring, is a two-hour film comprising 33 three-minute films created by world-class directors from five continents. (If you're doing the math, yes, there must have been a few seconds here, a few seconds there of overrun.) The filmmakers range alphabetically from Theo Angelopoulos to Zhang Yimou, and stylistically and temperamentally from ... well, how to nominate polar opposites from a roster that includes Jane Campion and Roman Polanski, Olivier Assayas and Manoel de Oliveira, Ken Loach and David Lynch, Gus Van Sant and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Aki Kaurismäki and Abbas Kiarostami?
The City of Seattle is looking for candidates to serve on the Seattle Planning Commission, beginning in January 2008. Planning Commission members are appointed by both the mayor and the City Council to serve renewable, three-year terms. Commissioners must reside in Seattle and serve without compensation. The two open positions are mayoral appointments.
The city's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs announced $201,000 in grants to 25 youth arts programs that will provide arts training outside of school hours for Seattle's middle and high school youth in 2008. An annual funding program, Youth Arts provides up to $10,000 to programs in which experienced teaching artists lead youth training programs in all arts disciplines. The Youth Arts program supports a continuum of learning beyond the school day and the classroom, with priority placed on serving youth and communities with limited or no access to the arts.