In an era when much of the focus on AIDS is international, where evangelicals rush to minister to AIDS-infected people in Africa and pressure President Bush to allocate more funding toward the global epidemic, word on the home front is mixed. Yes, Ryan White funding will most certainly be renewed as the president promised in his State of the Union address. But efforts to convince gay men to guard their health by using condoms and practice safer sex continues to bedevil the public health community.In mid-February, the New York Times reported that a New Yorker in his mid-40s contracted a rare strain of HIV "resistant to virtually all anti-retroviral drugs," one that appears to lead to the rapid onset of AIDS. Apparently, the man engaged in unprotected sex with more than 100 people on multiple occasions while under the influence of crystal mentham-phetamine. The drug is a stimulant that sharply reduces inhibitions and increases pleasure seeking, encouraging "marathon" sexual activity that can lead to the spread of HIV. City public health officials called a press conference to publicize their findings and began seeking partners of the infected man to determine whether the unusual strain is present in their blood. The investigation could take several months to complete.
T. Zachary Edge was an ordinary man with an extraordinary art collection. At the time his death from a heart attack on Feb. 21, 2004, more than 600 works of art were found in his small, one-bedroom co-op apartment on Capitol Hill. Over 500 of those pieces will be on public display and made available for subsequent purchase at a celebration of Edge's life and estate sale of his artwork this coming weekend.Terrence Zachary Edge, or "Zach," as his family and friends knew him, was born July 26, 1940. Born with heart problems, at 21 he became one of the first heart transplant patients in the Northwest. When Edge moved to Seattle in the late 1970s, he began to work in construction, doing drywall mudding and taping. For years he said, "I plan to mud and tape my way across Seattle before I'm finished." His interest in collecting art began around the same time. Edge's life and work seemed to be scheduled around gallery visits, First Thursday art walks and auctions. He loved making connections with creative people.
Issues such as graffiti, public inebriation and homeless loitering are longstanding concerns to businesses and residents in the Hill's Pike-Pine neighborhood. Such concerns are now on the radar of Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. Last week Rasmussen attended an informal meeting at the Rosebud restaurant on East Pike Street. A group of roughly 10 business owners and residents, including Jill Janow, chair of the Pike-Pine Urban Neighborhood Council, and Chuck Weinstock, executive director of the Capitol Hill Housing Improvement Program, shared their perspectives with the councilmember. "It was a chance for us to let him know about the issues we're still facing in our neighborhood," said Robert Sondheim. Owner of Rosebud restaurant on East Pike Street, he organized the gathering, which took place at the restaurant. As owner of Rosebud for the last 11 years, Sondheim is no stranger to the Pike-Pine neighborhood's concerns. Nor is he a stranger to taking part in community organizations, having previously served two years as president of the now-defunct Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. Indeed, the chamber's demise last fall helped point him towards the notion of forming a new community organization to help fill the void.
I knew he was lying as he stood at my front door. He had knocked one early Saturday morning and looked like any normal college student.There was nothing alarming, nothing that said con man. Yet here he was, playing it straight in a comical farce, because he didn't know I was on to him.You see, I live on a corner house, and I happen to know all my neighbors on both sides of the street by name. I know when they moved in, what cars they drive, and, for most, even where they work. I have lived in this neighborhood for more than 20 years and have become friends with the people in the surrounding area. We celebrate holidays together and they have seen my children grow.I happen to manage the three-story building down the street, and this young man's story involved that very building. He said he needed a loan with a big please, and that he was at his wit's end.You see, he is new to the apartment building, just moved in. He is a college student and doesn't know his way around. His car got picked up and impounded, he is in great need, his girlfriend is at work and she has his debit card. He has the $100 but needs 50 more to get his car out. He promises he is for real, and it's not a con. He promises to pay it back, really.He has such a cute smile and says he's not a fake. My heart is softened. His story sounds so convincing. I want to believe so I can come to the rescue. But I know his story is a lie because there was no empty apartment to move into."I don't have money in the house," I tell him. It's no problem he says, he'll take a check. I didn't have a checkbook in the house; my husband had taken it. He starts to get nervous as I ask which building it is he moved into. "And what is your girlfriend's name?" I continue the questions without letting him know that his answers betray him. He may be dangerous, so I continue to be polite, but firm, in not letting him enter the house to use the phone. He suggests I go with him to withdraw from my debit to fulfill his need. I refuse, but he persists. If I don't trust him, he is willing to leave a possession of his as collateral, for assurance that he is telling the truth and will return my money. He continues to soothe my ego, assuring me of what an angel of mercy I would be in his life. As he presses harder, the story becomes more urgent and he will not take no for an answer. Unwilling to walk away empty handed he reduces the plea to at least a 20 and explains he'll make do. I need to get him to leave."Sorry, I am more poor than even you," I tell him.
The mega projects are here, and there are more on the way. Sound Transit's Light Rail is rolling up the Rainier Valley, the Monorail expansion has a voter-approved green light, and, on the horizon, funding is being sought for transforming the decaying S.R.-99 waterfront viaduct into a subterranean tunnel below an open waterfront. With such major industrial public developments in various stages of construction and planning, the outlook for the Puget Sound's trade unions appears excellent, especially in the Emerald City's South End. However, creating a labor base that looks like the Southeast Seattle neighborhoods these projects will directly affect has proven more challenging than one might think, most notably when it comes to bringing women into the trades. For this reason, a group of four trade union representatives spoke to a group assembly of Franklin High School's construction class students on Wednesday, March 30.
War protestors erected a miniature cemetery in Genesee Park on April 3. By midmorning, 1,500 precisely spaced headstones and crosses stood in perfect military ranks along Lake Washington Boulevard across from the Stan Sayers Boat House. Each headstone contained the name, age, rank, date of death, and/or home town of a soldier who had died in Iraq. Approximately a dozen volunteers arrived early in the rain to set up the display. In addition to the faux tombstones, protestors also raised two portable awnings, one along Lake Washington Boulevard and another by the nearby bike path, with tables containing updated lists of soldiers killed during the United States current military action in Iraq. As the rain gradually let up, an increasing number of people stopped at the protest site to talk with the volunteers, most of whom were military veterans.
A new regional park is being created in Seattle, and it's not the Olmstead legacy of Jefferson Park, the wonders of Magnolia's Discovery Park, or the Capitol Hill community's Volunteer Park.Dr. Jose Rizal Park is about to become a gateway to Beacon Hill, the International District, downtown, and Seattle's waterfront.To understand what these 8 acres on the tip of Beacon Hill will be is to know Dr. Jose Rizal, a man of medicine, of letters, of peace. If he had served today, in our more media conscious age, Rizal would be as familiar as Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Sun Yat Sen, and Mahatma Gandhi.In the 19th Century, colonial Spain subjugated the Philippines to virtual slavery. A small middle class of native Filipinos arose, and though quality education was denied in their own land, opportunity existed abroad.Rizal received medical training in Spain, thriving with expatriate intellectuals. In novels and essays, he argued forcibly for freedom for the Philippines. In 1889, he wrote "Sobre la Nueva Ortografia de la Lengua Tagala" at a time when works in Tagalog, the Filipino language, were banned. He believed his native tongue was the soul of his people.Rizal maintained that violent revolution would ultimately fail. He was executed by a firing squad for his beliefs, dying in Bagumbayan, Manila on December 30, 1896.
The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission lifted a political albatross off the neck of the South End based Freedom Socialist Party during their regular monthly meeting on April 6. With around 30 FSP supporters in attendance the six person volunteer-based commission granted the FSP's request to protect the privacy of their campaign donors for Linda Averil's 2005 campaign against incumbent council president Jan Drago. "It's really the role of the government to allow those ideas in the market place that can only exist because of some protections," stated Fred Hyde, who, along with fellow attorney Val Carlson, presented their case to the SEEC alongside Averil during the early April meeting.Since her last effort in Seattle's municipal elections, Carlson informed the council that the political climate, both locally and nationally, has become more polarized, and ultra-right wing parties are becoming stronger. Because of this, she contends the ability of minor parties like the FSP to openly discuss their ideas in the political arena has become increasingly difficult, especially when they're harassed and threatened, like the FSP.
Last year, 682 felons were released from prison into the Central Area and surrounding neighborhoods (98144 and 98122 Zip code areas). This represents more than 13 percent of all offenders released into King County in 2004.This level of concentration not only surprises 47-year Leschi resident and longtime community activist Thurston Muskelly, it frustrates him."I was not aware that the number was so high," Muskelly said. "I would like to see more notification, more accountability from the system. Nobody here gives us a quota sheet, gives us numbers of how many people are coming here. "Maybe we can help some of these individuals," he added, "but if you don't know and they're dropping them in randomly, you don't know what resources are needed."
"May I photograph your outhouse?" I asked Frania. "Ya, ya," she said, grinning widely while adjusting her babushka.Frania's home lacked indoor plumbing. The one-hole wooden structure contained the roughest toilet paper I had ever felt. I asked several persons about this item and all responded alike: "What's the problem, Bernard?"So I shut up and used ointments as needed for skin-abrasion relief.A striking chasm exists between Poles living in villages and working the land versus Poles living in cities and working for the government or in business. My Sadowski relatives fit into the latter group, whereas all of my mother's family live on farms.The two cultures reveal glaring differences in financial status and access to health services. For example, villagers receive monthly visits from traveling dentists. Only 30 fillings are allotted per month for an entire village. Emergency health care is 15 miles away. Although I located six family households living in the village, none owned an automobile.However, full-time city laborers in Polski Fiat earn $300 a month. Miners make a sound salary, by Polish standards, of $400 per month. One of my cousins said his take-home pay as a heating/electrical technician was 57 percent of his gross wages.Compare that with what Bill O'Reilly recently reported on FOX News about how our various governments cumulatively tax forty-one percent of a worker's wage.
Once upon a time in the county of King, a select group gathered at the Diocesan House to hear a tale told by an expert signifying much.The audience, all members of the English Speaking Union (ESU), included many Queen Anne and Magnolia residents - all with a common interest in education, antiques, architecture, British heritage and the art of gracious living. Many with interesting backgrounds and stories that would fill at least a half a dozen columns. The late-afternoon program started with a short tour of the historic Diocesan House. The stone mansion at 1551 Tenth Ave. E. was originally designed to be the dream house of John Leary and his second wife, Eliza Ferry, daughter of the first elected governor of Washington. The place was sold in 1948 to the Diocese of Olympia - hence the name.The purpose of the event was a fundraiser to benefit the ESU scholarship and education fund. The program commenced with a social hour, followed by a light supper. The latter was laid in the magnificent paneled dining room, with its full-length portraits of past bishops in full ecclesiastical regalia, who seemed to gaze down on the long refectory table covered with white linen and resplendent with silver candelabra and a floral arrangement in an impressive, two-handled silver wine cooler.
According to the recently released Child Well-Being Index, an annual report from the Foundation for Child Development, we are experiencing 10- and 12-year lows among teens regarding pregnancies, alcohol abuse and criminal offenses.In response to this, Jeffrey Butts, director of youth justice programs for the Urban Institute, proclaimed: "Maybe we have the next 'greatest generation' coming along."I say let's drop the 'maybe' because, looking around, there can be little doubt that today's youth culture is the next "greatest generation." And we have bellwether examples to celebrate right here in our community.
For the third biennium in a row, our state budget is in a hole. Current revenues aren't adequately funding services essential to the health and well-being of Washington citizens, such as our state's correctional facilities, health and critical mental health services and our public schools. How did we get here? Unforeseen events have a lot to do with it, including the dot-com boom and bust, 9/11 and the Boeing layoffs. The explosive growth in certain sectors does, too. In the state prison system, the population has grown far in excess of the general population. In the healthcare industry, costs are increasing at a rate four to five times that of inflation.A little-remembered initiative approved by voters in 1993 has also helped bring about our present budget woes. Initiative 601 had admirable intentions, to limit growth of state government while preserving adequate funding for essential public services. But 12 years later it has had a perverse effect on our state budget. Instead of limiting growth while assuring adequate public services, I-601 has hamstrung the state's ability to respond to emergencies and changes in the economy and has created a built-in deficit that keeps services permanently underfunded.
The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board voted 6-2 last week to reject a Mayfair Neighbors Association (MNA) effort to nominate four homes in the 2600 block of Nob Hill Ave. N. for landmark status, said Karen Gordon, a city historical-preservation officer."The board decided they did not meet the criteria of the ordinance," Gordon said.Three of the homes belong to the Seattle Country Day School, and giving them landmark status could have potentially blocked the private school's goal of demolishing them to make way for a planned expansion, conceded Sal Thompson, a member of the neighborhood association's steering committee.The association has been battling the school over its expansion plans, but the goal of nominating the four homes for landmark status was not to block the school's plans, she insisted. "If that was all we wanted to do, it would have been just the Seattle Country Day School homes," Thompson said. "We want to make the whole thing a historic district," she said of the neighborhood.
Alyssa Virtue, a 14-year-old former Magnolia resident, says she wants to raise enough money so she can join her best friend in helping with tsunami relief efforts in Sri Lanka - in person.Alyssa's best friend is Robin, a Roosevelt High School classmate and the daughter of Queen Anne residents Adam and Janet Salmon. The Salmon's run the Asiana Education Development organization, a non-profit group that was founded in 1998 and runs 71 schools and one residence for orphans in war-torn Sri Lanka.But the AED educational mission changed to disaster relief as a non-governmental organization following the Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated the island south of India. The Salmons were not available for comment, but a blog Adam Salmon has written at www.asianaeducation-development.org paints a picture of a near-apocalyptic disaster worsened by bad roads, government squabbling and suspicious Tamil rebels.