The 36th District Democrats, a political coalition representing Magnolia and Queen Anne among other areas, late last week released its list of endorsements for the upcoming 2005 primary election, with a notable absence of any endorsement for the position of mayor.All three candidates running for mayor - incumbent Greg Nickels and challengers Al Runte and Cristal Wood - showed up for interviews with the 36th Dems. A motion for the sole endorsement of Nickels failed; he received more votes against him than for, the press release notes.
The music community is flexing its political muscles at the Mirabeau Room in Lower Queen Anne. Organized as "Stop Your Sobbing" in response to a collective case of clinical depression for local Democrats following the latest presidential election, the organization has been holding political fundraisers at the Mirabeau, said Dave Meinert, part owner of the bar and a founding member of the group.The latest fundraiser, this past week, was for Dwight Pelz, a King County Council member who is running for a seat on the Seattle City Council. But the Mirabeau Room has also hosted fundraisers for city council members Nick Licata, Richard Conlin and Jan Drago, as well as one for King County Council member Dow Constantine, Meinert said. Stop Your Sobbing has two goals. One is to have the music community help elect "progressive candidates," he said of those who support social justice, education and health care, for example. The other is to help progressive candidates who are pro-music, Meinert said.
The Seattle Police Department announced last week at a press conference that it will be using European technology first developed for the war on terrorism to nab car thieves. But the effort to combat an epidemic of auto theft in the state also includes a low-tech approach: a discounted price for The Club.The high-tech system uses cameras to automatically scan license-plate numbers and compares them to a hot sheet listing stolen cars, said SPD spokesman Rich Pruitt. The initial software was developed by the Civica company in the United Kingdom for anti-terrorism purposes, he said. "Our region is a good market for them, obviously." Indeed, something like 9,000 vehicles a year are stolen in Seattle, according to SPD records.
As King County District boundaries shift in the 2005 election with the reduction of its council districts from 13 to nine, the dynamics of many races have been altered in terms of voter diversity as well as the candidates seeking office within them. One of the largest political changes will be the incorporation of Capitol Hill, First Hill and the downtown area north of Yesler Way into the Metropolitan King County Council's District 4. Once serving only the communities of Queen Anne, Fremont, Ballard and Magnolia, District 4 will now serve more businesses, residences and a greater range of lifestyle interests. Out of the integration of District 4 comes a race that will feature one of the only independent candidates running for county office this year, Ed Pottharst, against 14-year county councilmember and chairperson Larry Phillips.
As an ex-officio board member of the Seattle Monorail Project (SMP), I write not as an apologist or as a cheer-leader for the oard, but rather as one who has had con-cerns about SMP op-erations and gov-ernance in the past, but who strongly believes in building the Monorail in Seattle - if it can be done right.Recently, some opponents have requested that Gov. Gregoire call a special session of the Washington State Legislature to close the SMP. They claim the project threatens the state's bond rating and is mired in cost overruns, even though construction hasn't begun and a fixed-price contract has been negotiated. They say state intervention would be a dramatic, symbolic step toward restoring statewide public confidence and help defeat I-912, the initiative to repeal the gas tax on the November ballot. They also advocate switching the SMP's Motor Vehicle Excise Tax to fund the Viaduct and other regional transportation needs. While I support the eventual integration of the SMP into a regional transportation system, I do not believe the Legislature should close down the SMP.
If you've been watching TV for any longer than 15 minutes during the past couple of weeks, you've no doubt been inundated with "back-to-school" commercials. Just open the daily newspapers to the comic pages, and there at least five strips dealing with the oncoming school year.For some reason, it's the time of the year that all mothers look forward to. Nowadays, though, before you can go back to school, it seems you need a laptop computer, a complete home computer mainframe and printer as backup, stacks of software to run it, a cellphone and at least a closet full of designer clothing.
The pictures from New Orleans look to me like watery Impressionist views of Iraq: terror, poor people displaced, soldiers and cops standing around watching insurgents and looters. An almost complete breakdown of law and order, the sharp teeth just beneath the skin of our shared human nature, which is animal at its core. The news out of New Orleans is grim, and even grimmer is the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers has been proclaiming for years that the levees that broke were unsafe and needed repairing.But they couldn't get the money. According to regional news reports from the New Orleans media, the Corps budget was cut up to 80 percent in the past few years, leaving the levees unrepaired and unshored. The money was almost surely rerouted by the current gang in Washington, D.C., and what funds aren't lining rich men's pockets are probably in Iraq somewhere.
Operation Evergreen, a Washington state effort to host up to 2,000 people from the Gulf Coast disaster area, was announced Monday, Sept. 5, by Gov. Christine Gregoire."Like so many people in Washington, I want to help our fellow citizens in their hour of need" said the governor. "My heart goes out to the people in Louisiana and Mississippi who have lost loved ones and virtually everything but the clothes on their backs. Their suffering, and what they have witnessed and been through, is unimaginable."When the first Katrina guests will begin to arrive is yet to be determined, but could come later this week. One tentative option is that they could land at McChord Air Force Base and be housed temporarily at Fort Lewis before moving to other residences. This has not been confirmed and is pending federal approvals.
TODD DELLINGER"Yes. We are as vulnerable as anyone - vulnerable to the government's response."JUDY BASHOR"Of course. I think our transportation system is weak, and our geography would contribute in a parallel way to what happened down South - specifically, all of our hills and bridges. Everyone is thinking about terrorism, and in Seattle you are always thinking about earthquakes. It seems that our governmental system - the feds - is preoccupied with the wrong things."
Indian summer still affords time to get outside and enjoy the sunny days. It's also time for older adults to take advantage of the many healthy outdoor opportunities awaiting them, right in their own back yards.Regular physical activity for people age 60 and older reduces the risk of developing diseases that are among the leading causes of debility and death in our country - heart disease, colon cancer and high cholesterol, to name just a few. By engaging in some form of physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day, 10 minutes at a time, five days a week, people who are usually inactive can significantly improve their health and well-being.Staying active and fit doesn't have to mean working out at a gym or buying expensive equipment. Everyday activities can help seniors maintain healthier weights, increase flexibility and strength, reduce blood pressure and prevent falls or injury.
Taking good care of our senior citizens is an issue close to the heart of Patricia DeVol Nadon, marketing director at Queen Anne Manor. She tended her aging and ailing parents for five years before they died - her mother last November and her father half a year later, in April.Nadon has worked in marketing for many years, for companies such as Pepsi and the Paramount and Moore theaters, and as an independent contractor during her parents' illnesses. When a marketing position opened up five months ago at Queen Anne Manor, she thought it was the perfect opportunity to combine her professional and personal experiences.Fortunately, so did the management at Queen Anne Manor, and they hired her.
In 1969, after a cross-country, "On the Road" teenage odyssey, Camille Colaizzo stood on upper Queen Anne and vowed she would have a business here someday.The New York City native felt she had found her inevitable place.Cut to 2005: Colaizzo's business, Colaizzo Opticians at 1623 Queen Anne Ave. N., is one of 10 winners chosen from 500 nominees for the Mayor's Small Business Award.What some might call fate, others would call making your own luck through hard work, vision, smarts and pluck.
It's that time of year again, when children go back to school and fruit falls from the trees and, down at First Avenue and University Street, the film noir faithful come out for their autumnal fix. Twenty-eight years now Seattle Art Museum's underappreciated and undersupported film curator Greg Olson has been celebrating the ebon beauties and sleazy undercurrents of what has become, in retrospect, and through retrospectives like Olson's, a disconcertingly respectable genre. Love is strange."Mystery Street: The Film Noir Cycle" does not include "Mystery Street" among its 10 cinematic specimens, nor indeed any of the titles cunningly woven into the opening paragraph of this article. But it does contain: an essential noir masterpiece unseen (in a decent print) for decades; two artifacts lit and lensed by John Alton, the film noir cameraman supreme; two pungent efforts by noir's most prolific director, Robert Siodmak; a torrid transfusion of Technicolor and Marilyn Monroe; a movie boasting the only original screenplay by Raymond Chandler; a breakthrough work by a once and future titan; and - always a healthy move - several forays into unsung, program-picture territory, just in case one or more of them don't deserve to be left unsung.
For the last year Bizzy Bodies Yoga has been in the heart of Madrona at 1114 34th Ave. As of Wednesday, Aug. 31, the studio is mobile.You just say where and I'll bring the mats," said Wendy Cunningham, founder and owner of Bizzy Bodies Yoga, of her new business plan. "It's just more convenient for us to come to [the students]."Instead of dropping your kids off at the yoga studio, the studio will now come to them. Cunningham works in preschools, day-care centers, schools, co-ops, play groups and private homes.
Student participates in leadership programs, retirements, staff changes, and new principals assigned.