It's election season in the Emerald City, and here are our recommendations for mayor, city-council seats and the latest monorail initiative.The race for mayor is a no-brainer - which is a shame. Incumbent Greg Nickels has much to recommend him; he was able to corral many of the country's mayors into supporting the Kyoto agreement, for instance, and he's been able to cut down on Seattle's much-loved and time-consuming focus on process. That's especially true at the Department of Planning and Development.But Nickels has changed the political landscape with a top-down management style that has alienated neighborhood activists and the city council, which has been purposely kept out of the decision-making loop in far too many instances. Then there's the mayor's cozy relationship with business interests such as Paul Allen, who has never seen a tax break he didn't like - or get.
Nestled in a dense, urban neighborhood, the Northwest School building at 1415 Summit Avenue hearkens back to a different era. From its origins as a public elementary school to its current use as home to a private middle and high school, the building turns 100 years old this year. To mark the occasion, a History Day celebration takes place this weekend.The Northwest School's main building, a designated Seattle landmark, was built in 1905 and has been a school since its inception. It began as the Summit Elementary School, built on land that had previously contained a hospital, and children of many of the city's founding families attended. Enrollment peaked at just over 600 students in 1918. A slow but steady decline - only 215 students were attending by the mid'60s - led the Seattle School District to try and sell the property in 1964. A deal could not be reached, and the building housed a K-12 alternative program for a few years. Seattle Central Community College next leased the space, a lease that ran out in 1973. The property was bought in 1977 by Kemp Hiatt, a private developer who had plans to turn it into office space. But he was able to have the building placed on the National Register of Historic Places.When the office plans did not come to pass, local educators Ellen Taussig, Paul Raymond and Mark Terry agreed to buy the building for $1.4 million in 1979. The Northwest School opened the following year.
They build our homes, landscape our yards and harvest the produce we find in our grocery store aisles. Migrant labor fuels our economy, in Seattle and across the country, yet these 13 million workers remain largely a statistic.Anyone who has traveled the back roads of rural Mexico will feel an immediate affinity for CASA Latina's work site, a small triangle of hillside property sitting one block north of the Bell Street onramp to Highway 99 in downtown Seattle. The modest compound, makeshift but neat, features a gravel courtyard bound on its north side by two office trailers and a small, covered patio holding a pair of portable bathrooms and a faucet. A long, thin community room sits to the east with a squat classroom and storage building running along the western edge. Above the classroom flies a wind worn Mexican flag, and fencing surrounds the compound. Its business end opens out onto the slow passing traffic on Western Avenue. A taco wagon fronts the street.
Louis Comfort Tiffany is one of those artists whose work suffuses contemporary culture. From Wal-Mart to high-end mega-mansions, Tiffany designs are everywhere. You've seen reproduction lamps, and you probably recognize his influence on local glass artists. But it's not until you're presented with an assemblage of originals that the greatness of the artist is manifest. The current show at the Seattle Art Museum is a shimmering feast for the eyes.On display are, of course, his luminous windows and blown-glass containers of all sorts. In addition you will see his paintings, furniture, wallpaper, jewelry, enamels, lamps, metalwork and pottery. The man seemed never to encounter a medium he couldn't master ... as designer, not necessarily as craftsman.
How do you grab the attention of 120 middle school-aged students? The answer at Aki Kurose Middle School auditorium last month was not MTV or a movie star but rather student-made documentaries from the Dharamsala, India, Ollantaytambo, Peru, and Alaska's Arctic Village. Local students from Hamilton Middle School, The Evergreen School and Aki Kurose Middle School watched with rapt attention as stories of Tibetan girls playing soccer, Peruvian girls selling handmade dolls, and boys fishing in the frigid Arctic were told in the teenagers' own words. The documentaries were made with the help of a Seattle-based nonprofit organization called "Bridges to Understanding," which connects youth worldwide through digital storytelling. You can view student work on www. bridgesweb.org.
Maybe you've seen them on Wednesday nights at 45th and Wallingford waving their anti-Iraq war signs from 8 to 8:45 p.m.They started out three months ago in the August gloaming. Now they are braving the November wind and rain.They have been as few as three but sometimes they're more than 20. Maybe you've honked in support or heard the ambulance driver who let go with his siren in a show of solidarity.Or maybe you've saluted with your middle digit or yelled out, "Go home!" That's happened too, though far less frequently.Either way, people passing by in their cars are seeing an exercise in democracy and community building. These Wallingford residents, officially unaffiliated with any organization, though some happen to be members of Wallingford Neighbors for Peace and Justice, are not out to change the world.
The strange and twisted tales of Denis Johnson give one director at Theater Schmeater "a nerdy pleasure" to direct. One actress calls the writer's dark vision closer to real life than realistic theater.Theater Schmeater continues with playwright Denis Johnson's Cassandra cycle with "Shoppers Carried by Escalators into the Flames," which opened Nov. 4 and runs through Dec. 10.Johnson's tales of the Cassandra family, their very dysfunctional lives and their problems with the Department of Agriculture (among other entities) began with "Hellhound on My Trail" produced by Theater Schmeater earlier this year.
The announcement came via e-mail early last month. An acquaintance of mine, a gentleman in his 50s who lived on a sprawling property on Capitol Hill overlooking Interlaken Park, had died peacefully in his sleep. Over the course of the last several summers I'd had the good fortune of being his guest along with 40-60 other men when he threw pool parties at his home.These events, primarily for gay men although women came now and then, were clothing optional. Our host made it clear no drugs or alcohol would be permitted on the premises, and for the most part people abided by his wishes.As the perennial rains of November begin to beat down on Seattle, I cinch my Gortex jacket closely around my waist and begin to think about how this man's gatherings offered a new-found haven for me and other like-minded men - an urban oasis to express ourselves. It represented a new awareness of body and spirit.
Two new mixed-use buildings at the Broadway Business District's main intersection are scheduled for fall and winter completion next year, according to Kennedy Wilson Properties, the project developer.The two buildings, tentatively named 130 Harvard Avenue East and 133 Broadway East for their eponymous addresses, take up lot formerly occupied by a US Bank branch at the corner of Broadway and East Olive Way and a parking lot on Harvard Avenue East at Olive Way.These are part and parcel of a relative building boom in Capitol Hill's Broadway District, with an addition to Seattle Central Community College nearly complete, a mixed-use Walgreen's and residential building ready to go up at Broadway and East Pine Street, the Pantages residential development at Harvard Avenue and East Denny Way, and plans in the works for the old Safeway property at East Mercer Street and Broadway East and the former QFC location across Broadway to the west.
It has long been assumed that the Seattle Center has a major economic impact on the city, but just how much was revealed in a February analysis prepared for the Seattle Center Foundation.Authored by University of Washington professor William Beyers using data gathered by the GMA Research Corporation, the 50-page report concluded that the neighborhood attraction pumped $1.15 billion into the local economy last year.Activities at Seattle Center also created 15,534 jobs and generated $41.1 million in tax revenue for local and state government coffers in 2005, according to the report.Joel VanEtta, a trustee with the Seattle Center Fondation, found the results to be a bit unexpected. "We all know about the cultural and societal impact," he said. "But I was a little surprised at the magnitude of the economic impact."
Alan Lancaster's reaction ('Fed up with graffiti,' Feb. 8) to a letter I personally sent him points to the crux of the graffiti issue: It doesn't make any difference how stiff the penalties are for creating graffiti if there isn't adequate enforcement-or if cleanup doesn't quickly follow.Unfortunately, his response didn't completely characterize my letter to him, including its indicating that I believe everything to be just fine.State law is clear on the subject. It's malicious mischief to write, paint or draw on any public or private building unless you have the owner's permission. Depending on the damage done, it's a third-, second- or first-degree crime. First- and second-degree malicious mischief are class B and class C felonies, respectively. As public policy, I think these penalties are appropriate. What I believe the writer was commenting on was the delay in cleaning up the unsightly messes.
I learned a very important thing at the Magnolia Community Club's Feb. 9 disaster preparedness meeting. Namely, that my own emergency preparedness plan-which I call "Drive to where the help is"-is sadly inadequate if the bridges are all down, a 20-foot tidal wave has washed through Interbay and emergency management agencies are so overwhelmed they can't spare me a Band-Aid.Indeed, it was a bit of a shock to learn that even the Army Reserves at Fort Lawton won't be offering a helping hand to the community because they'll be too busy calling 911 themselves.I've been putting off disaster planning for an embarrassingly long time. But after finding out that we're all on our own (as well as having to admit honestly on a form my son recently brought home from school that our family has no disaster plan), I know I've got to get a plan.But what to do?
"Dad, I just read your column about the new two-cent stamp," my daughter Sharon said excitedly over the telephone (see Magnolia News, Jan. 18, www.MagnoliaNews.net). "Do you want to hear my story?" she asked.How could a father not be interested in his daughter's story-especially one related to his bimonthly column?I pulled up my chair to the kitchen table, grabbed a pad and pen and listened. I was prepared. I sensed a good tale forthcoming.Sharon's demographic is typical of middle American families: married, has a job, two teenage daughters and a mortgaged home. Thus, when she began her tale by prefacing that she wanted to avoid long lines by running into the 24/7 section of the post office at 6 a.m. to buy stamps from a machine-it made perfect sense to me.Sharon's saga involved her plan to purchase the new two-cent stamp, and it began with stress and ended with even more stress.
The news came quietly as rain falling on cedars: The People's Lodge is on indefinite hold. Last December, in case you haven't heard, the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF) board unanimously approved a 10-year plan focusing on repairs to the Daybreak Star center and a revitalization of the center's mission. There was nothing in the plan for the People's Lodge, Bernie Whitebear's vision of a great building for Native Americans in Discovery Park.It's a matter of finances.After the emotional debate through the latter half of the '90s, the letter writing campaigns, the public meetings and, yes, the heartbreak of old friends like Whitebear and Bob Kildall staking opposite ground, the denouement comes as an anti-climax.It was always possible for honorable people to oppose People's Lodge. Plans for the original, 123,000-square-foot structure struck some, like Kildall, as just too big. Kildall was present at Discovery Park's creation in 1970 after the Whitebear-led Native American occupation of Fort Lawton. Not everyone was so dignified in their opposition.
Christina Cox, one of the owners of the property where the Metropolitan Market is located, dropped a bombshell at the Queen Anne Community Council meeting last week with news that QFC is taking over the location of the longtime neighborhood grocery store.She said the proposal is to take out The Elfrieda apartment house north of the store, along with two single-family homes on West Crockett Street, demolish the old grocery and replace it with a QFC that is-at 35,000 to 38,000 square feet-more than double the size of the current Metropolitan.The plan also calls for building approximately 15,000 square feet of retail space on a second floor, where approximately 40 parking places would be located. Also planned are roughly 90 below-grade parking places, Cox said."We're really looking forward to having your support," she told the council members.Judging from some of the comments at the meeting, that support might be in short supply, and Metropolitan president Terry Halverson has doubts it's really the done deal Cox contends it is.