The undead walk among us. They feed on unwary taxpayers. They sign no-bid contracts, and take frequent junkets to cities with tropical climates. And ports. They hold their public meetings at night. They look a lot like Port of Seattle Commissioner Pat Davis did last week.
Auto-borne messages offer a kind of 'town hall' for drivers Last week, I was following a cherry, 1953 Ford pickup across the Ballard Bridge when I noticed it had some sort of a red sticker attached to its rear bumper. Unable to read it from the distance separating us, I caught up with the truck at the next traffic light, where finally I could make out what the sticker said. The proud Ford fanatic (or perhaps Boeing worker) proclaimed to the world: "Thank God Chevrolet doesn't build airplanes."
This list of crimes was compiled from censored police reports and written by Russ Zabel.SCAM REDUX - AGAIN A business in the 1500 block of Queen Anne Ave. N. fell victim to the old $2 scam on Feb. 9. A man using an often-repeated technique ordered a to-order that came to $55, paid with what he claimed was a $200 travelers check, got $145 in change and left. It was later discovered that the $200 travelers check was really a $2 money order, according to the police report. The perp customarily has a business card stapled over the money order so that all the numbers are covered except for the 2, according to numerous previous reports.
The Seattle Department of Transportation-the same agency that brought paid parking where there had been none before to parking lots off Westlake Avenue North and to Lower Queen Anne-is eyeballing other parts of the neighborhood for potentially the same treatment. SDOT spokeswoman Mary Catherine Snyder insists that paid parking is only one option among others such as installing two-hour time-limit signs, adding new loading zones and setting up new Residential Parking Zones (RPZs).
New Port of Seattle Commission president John Creighton repeated the phase, "Cleanest, greenest and most energy-efficient port in the nation" as a mantra and a goal when he was the featured speaker at a Feb. 21 luncheon of the Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce. But Creighton, a Queen Anne resident, also used his speech to criticize press coverage of the port since the state issued a scathing report that identified $97 million in allegedly wasted port funds connected to work on the third runway at SeaTac International Airport.
Vietnamese artist Andy Cao has backed out of an arrangement to design artwork for the Thomas C. Wales Park, formerly the Dexter Pit, according to Dewey Potter, a spokeswoman for Seattle Parks and Recreation. "He wouldn't agree to the city's terms because he thought it violated his artistic integrity," Potter said. Specifically, the Los Angeles-based artist wanted the art, a series of in- It's back to the drawing board for QA art park verted water-droplet shapes, to be fabricated in Vietnam, according to Lori Patrick, a spokeswoman for the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.
Magnolia's most photgraphed youngster, Elijah Enghaus, and his new friend Wyatt Wise fill the dump truckin in (what must have seemed) the world's largest sandbox at the Discovery Park beach on a sunny Saturday, Feb. 23.
Longtime Seattle Pacific University (SPU) cross-country coach Doris Heritage, a pioneer of the sport and the face of Falcons running for nearly 50 years, has announced her retirement at the end of this academic year. Heritage concluded her 30th season as head cross-country coach in the fall, guiding the Falcon women to a second-place national finish at the NCAA championships. This was the highest NCAA placing in the program's history, as SPU sophomore Jessica Pixler won the individual title.
Is this country ready for a white president in Barack Obama? White, you say? Yes, white. The man is half-black and half-white, so why do we focus on the black half and insist on calling him a "black" man? He's at least as white as he is black-probably more so, since he was raised by his white mother after his father left the family when he was still a baby.I'll tell you why it's an issue.First, our wonderful Fourth Estate-also known as the media-will take any story they can spin into a headline (hopefully a sensational headline) to grab an audience and a you-know-what-load of advertising money.
I keep hearing and reading all the hype about this dangerous coyote that is terrorizing Magnolia. It has become such a topic of concern that rumor is there are some people that are going to shoot it themselves. Then just quietly make it disappear. This "dangerous" coyote has been seen in residents' backyards, playing with dogs no less. It also has been seen in Discovery Park playing with those cute little dogs we saw on the TV show Frasier, chasing sticks [Editor's note: Frasier's dad's dog Eddie is a Jack Russell terrier].
Everyone at Luigi's Pizza & Pasta sends a heartfelt "Thank You" to all the marvelous people of Magnolia who came out on Oscar night to participate in the benefit spaghetti dinner supporting Angel Bowman in her battle with cancer.
I am thrilled to see that our campaign to bring back the drive-up mailboxes has succeeded, though I find the pick-up time for the new, drive-up box at the north end of Magnolia Park on the corner of Howe and Clise Place regrettable. Essentially the postal service has replaced two heavily used, full-sized, drive-up boxes-with a morning and late afternoon pick up-with one box that is picked up at 12:30 p.m.
I had many laughs reading a few of the letters regarding Discovery Park's resident coyote. This entire war on coyotes sounds familiar: exaggerate potential threat to create fear, blame a non-participant for the actions of others and take the fight to the alleged enemy before we are attacked at home.
I recently marked yet another birthday. I can't say I was ever a charter member of the "live fast, die young and leave a pretty corpse" school of thinking. That always seemed like false bravado to me, primarily promulgated by soft folks who really didn't believe they were going to die that young anyway.The few exceptional characters I met who truly faced down the Grim Reaper (a drill sergeant in Texas, an undercover cop in Cincinnati and a triple-cancer survivor in Idaho come immediately to mind) seemed to have discovered a way to celebrate life without playing it too safe.
Spring has arrived and Seattleites are gearing up to take part in the city's longest-running neighborhood program - Spring Clean. Mayor Greg Nickels is calling on residents, schools and businesses to sign up and participate in Spring Clean 2008, combining the energy and enthusiasm of the community with city resources to make Seattle's neighborhoods beautiful.