Heaps of rubber from tire tubes - useless to cyclists - are being cut, cleaned and refashioned into unique, hand-sewn products now being sold in stores from Downtown Seattle to Japan. Alchemy Goods has created its spot in a business model as circular as the recycling it promotes.An 'unlikely entrepreneur'Eli Reich, 28, founder of Alchemy Goods, calls himself "an unlikely entrepreneur." What began as the mere sewing of a personal messenger bag at a Wallingford apartment in 2004 has flourished into a full-time business, operated out of the lower floor of Reich's Fremont home. "When I first opened doors for business...I was making bags at a desk," he said. "I've always considered myself environmentally conscious," continued Reich, who left his job at a wind-energy company more than a year ago to focus on Alchemy Goods. With used soymilk boxes cut open to hold clasps and recycled valve stems dangling from finished bags' zippers, Reich's new business continues this. Except for a few smaller productions, every product is stamped with a small box containing the symbol "Ag" and two digits in the upper-right corner. That number is a beacon to an emptier landfill.
NICK SHULTS"No, I haven't. I am an idealist."LINDA BROWN"Until we get an administration that can take an even-handed approach, there is very little prospect for that. This administration is so allied to the state of Israel that they cannot look at the fact that there is culpability on both sides. This approach has done and continues to do such incredible damage to the standing of this country in the Middle East and the rest of the world. The U. S. has become Israel."
Parking and traffic associated with a daycare and a youth theater group has gotten the Magnolia United Church of Christ in trouble with the city's Department of Planning and Development (DPD).The problem was sparked by a March 28 complaint from a close neighbor, according to records at Planning and Development, which issued a violation notice to the church in May. Since then, the DPD, the church, the Magnolia Cooperative Preschool and the Magnolia Theater School of Drama have gone back and forth about whether the uses are allowed in the single-family zoning around the church.The church at 3555 W. McGraw St. also held a June meeting among neighbors, the preschool operators and the theater folks to try to sort things out, according to Rev. Cathy Barker, the senior minister at the church."A wide variety of people and groups find a welcome and accessible space at the church," she added in prepared statement. "Our congregation is committed to balancing our church's outreach to the greater community with the interests of our own neighborhood here in Magnolia." Indeed, many groups such as the Boy Scouts and an adult daycare operation have used the church for meetings and activities. But the violation notice came as a surprise to operators of the daycare, according to the organization's chairwoman, Mary Crocker. The preschool has an average enrollment of around 200 each year, and she noted that the preschool has made its home in the church since 1958.
The Seattle City Council voted on Monday afternoon this week not to condemn three houses to make room for an expanded Fire Station 20 on Queen Anne Hill.The vote was 5-4 against condemning the two homes to the south of the existing station, and 6-3 against condemning the house to the north.That puts the issue back in the Seattle Fire Department's court, but it was not possible to find out what the department will do next as of the press deadline for this week's News.However, it was clear the majority of council members were not convinced that expanding the current location on 13th Avenue West north of West Dravus Street was the best - or even the only - choice. That was clear when council member Peter Steinbrueck made a motion to hold off on a vote until the council's Sept. 11 meeting. "It seems to me we ought to be able to do better," he said, suggesting that the fire department come back with a second option. That way, Steinbrueck added, the department could say why an alternative site was equal to or less viable than the preferred site.
A stately beech tree was vandal-ized recently near two cypress trees that were girdled on park property in the 1400 block of Eighth Ave. W. "Someone drove a series of spikes into a really major copper beech tree in front of our home," said Ruth Warren, who filed an Aug. 25 police report about the incident. But Warren said she wouldn't have noticed if a neighbor of hers two doors down hadn't stopped by one day and suggested she check her beech tree because a cypress tree in his fenced yard had been vandalized with spikes and partial girdling.She did and it was, Warren said. "They did a clever job; they're in the seams," she said of nails and copper spikes that had been driven into the tree starting about 8 feet off the ground.Warren thinks there's a connection to the two cypress trees that were vandalized on park property in an obvious effort to improve the view for an unknown homeowner across the street. "It's alarming that whoever did this [to the park trees] is willing to go on neighbors' property and kill those trees, too," she added. "I'm going to have my tree guy come in and remove them," Warren said of the spikes and nails.Warren hopes the beech tree wasn't irreparably harmed by the vandalism, but she doesn't really have to worry, according to city arborist Nolan Rundquist. Using copper spikes to kill a tree doesn't work; it's an urban legend, he said.
A stately beech tree was vandalized recently near two cypress trees that were girdled on park property in the 1400 block of Eighth Ave. W. "Someone drove a series of spikes into a really major copper beech tree in front of our home," said Ruth Warren, who filed an Aug. 25 police report about the incident. But Warren said she wouldn't have noticed if a neighbor of hers two doors down hadn't stopped by one day and suggested she check her beech tree because a cypress tree in his fenced yard had been vandalized with spikes and partial girdling.She did and it was, Warren said. "They did a clever job; they're in the seams," she said of nails and copper spikes that had been driven into the tree starting about 8 feet off the ground.Warren thinks there's a connection to the two cypress trees that were vandalized on park property in an obvious effort to improve the view for an unknown homeowner across the street. "It's alarming that whoever did this [to the park trees] is willing to go on neighbors' property and kill those trees, too," she added. "I'm going to have my tree guy come in and remove them," Warren said of the spikes and nails.Warren hopes the beech tree wasn't irreparably harmed by the vandalism, but she doesn't really have to worry, according to city arborist Nolan Rundquist. Using copper spikes to kill a tree doesn't work; it's an urban legend, he said.
A meeting over the new residential and commercial design for the QFC project that will replace Queen Anne's Metropolitan Market drew a couple hundred people to the Bethany Presbyterian Church on a steamy Monday night last week.Members of the community council's Land Use Review Committee-which hosted the meeting-were generally pleased with the new approach. But while strident public objections to the project have been dialed back a bit, resentment still runs deep in the community. Just how deep was revealed when Christina Cox, one of the property owners, told everyone that QFC had provided free bottled water for the meeting. The announcement was greeted with boos by several in the crowd.Lee Beard, from Beard and Page Architects, used basic renderings to explain the new design, which still takes up the entire block. But the four-story development has been broken into three distinct blocks of buildings so that the project doesn't overwhelm the street, he said.A 35,000-square-foot QFC still anchors the project, but there are now small commercial spaces at the north and south corners on Queen Anne Avenue, Beard said.The plan calls for deliveries to made at a loading dock at the northeast corner next to a Baptist church, an arrangement that raised red flags for many in the crowd.
It comes 'round but once a year.And when it does- forget Fremont-Magnolia Village feels like the center of the universe. The Village rocks, even.This year's Magnolia Summer Festival & Art Show happens Friday, Aug.4 and Saturday, Aug. 5, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. The Village merchants roll out their Sidewalk Sale on Thursday, Aug. 3.After all the months of planning somehow it all comes together: the Kid's and Seafair parade, baby races, crafts fair and art show, street dance and talent contest, food booths, cinema under the stars and a variety of musical acts ranging from the blues-driven Mark Whitman Band to the alt-country sounds of The Robber Barons.For many, the heart of the festival is the Kid's Parade and Summer Festival Seafair Parade, which starts at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. The young ones go first, setting out from West Raye and 34th Avenue West followed by the grownups about a half-hour later. It all winds up at Pop Mounger Pool. There's good news for humans and pets with tender ears: The Seafair Pirates will observe a "No-Blast Zone" from West Smith Street and 34th Avenue West down to 33rd Avenue West and West McGraw.
A new board game designed to expand the minds of children was launched on June 28 by Queen Anne resident Stacy George (pictured left). Called "Around the World: The Ultimate Global Board Game," it introduces concepts around diversity issues. George's inspiration for inventing the game was her own childhood. In preschool, she dreaded the moment when her teacher asked the class, "What did you have for breakfast?" Stacy usually had café con leche and shunkleesh (transliterated), a Middle Eastern, cheese-like ball that is crumbled, drizzled with olive oil and eaten on bread. "It tastes so good that my siblings and I used to fight over it," says George. But her preschool classmates thought it was weird - most of them had Cheerios or Kix for breakfast.You can't tell by her name, but Stacy George's heritage is Middle Eastern. Her father emigrated from Lebanon, and her mother, of Syrian descent, from Argentina. Her father's surname was Labaad until he arrived in the United States, where her parents were introduced and married.George, 30, was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where many immigrants have settled because of the manufacturing jobs there. Her father owned a heating and air-conditioning business. She grew up speaking English, Arabic (the informal dialect) and Spanish. She has since become fluent in French as well.She attended the University of Oregon, where she majored in international relations and minored in French. After graduation she followed her own course of independent study in the Middle East, then lived and worked in Washington, D.C., on a race-relations initiative during the Clinton administration."But I lost interest in politics," George says. "I wanted to influence kids and families in a more direct way."
There is nothing more refreshing than a swim on a nice, warm summer day. Even if you don't know how to swim, performing water exercises requires no swimming skills, and usually incorporates some of the same body movement. Non-swimmers may initially be a little afraid of water, but their success and enjoyment of water exercise soon overcome the fear, and many of them add swimming lessons to their exercise regimen.How much does water weigh?Water's resistance varies according to depth and speed, which you can always control. One gallon of water weighs approximately 8 pounds. When you swing one leg through the water, you are meeting approximately 37 pounds of resistance. The faster you move your leg, the harder you work against this resistance. With this said, water training can be a very efficient way to achieve fitness and almost any activity can be enhanced with aquatics.
This has not been a good week. Fifty feet away, outside our back door, I can see a raccoon that will die before this day is over.I can hear its cries, and can only hope that it's not one of the mothers with babies waiting somewhere for her return, but since the population now is primarily mothers with babies-the males having been run off after doing their job a few months back-the majority probably are nursing mothers. If I'm not mistaken, it will be the third one to die this week.This is what a raccoon on death row looks like.We have lived in our house in Magnolia for more than 13 years, and during that time many raccoons have passed through our yard-as have squirrels, opossums, dogs, cats, a large variety of birds and one fuzzy thing that I could swear was a guinea pig, but it was gone in the dark so fast I didn't get a good look at it.In all these years, we've become especially well acquainted with the raccoons. We recognize families by their facial markings and ear shapes. There's the Bear family with little round faces and rounded ears set farther apart on their head than the other raccoons. There's Evanda's family, with a distinct look and mask shape, and with the knowledge she passed on to them that ours is a "safe house."There was Lobo, an almost white-faced raccoon, but she and her family have moved on-raccoons are basically solitary, and territorial, so an area can only support so many of the species.I have to admit that we put a little food out for our visitors, especially when there are babies growing and maturing to survive the coming winter; we've never had a problem with them. They come and eat, bring their babies by to meet us, sometimes nap on our patio and generally, with full bellies, go back to their tree or den to sleep. We've even seen them share the patio with a yellow cat without trouble.That has all changed. We have some relatively new folks in the neighborhood who have taken a dislike to raccoons.
Financial exploitation is the most frequently reported type of abuse of vulnerable adults living at home in Washington, according to data collected by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).In 2005, DSHS Adult Protective Services (APS) investigations received 3,200 reports of financial exploitation. The next most common type of APS report was of neglect, followed by self-neglect.Of the 3,200 complaints, DSHS APS confirmed 304 cases of financial exploitation. APS also confirmed 618 cases of self-neglect in 2005. Not all 2005 investigations are complete, so these numbers may increase slightly as cases are closed.Financial exploitation can take many forms. It may involve a friend or relative slowly draining the vulnerable adult's bank accounts and life savings. Or it might be a stranger scamming a vulnerable adult to buy unneeded services.
While our nation is focused on the use of street drugs among teenagers, nearly one out of every five seniors struggles with a different kind of substance abuse. Prescription drugs and alcohol are legal, but that doesn't make the addiction any less devastating to older adults and their families. According to the Healthy Aging Partnership, a coalition of 40 Puget Sound area not-for-profit organizations dedicated to the health and well-being of older adults, substance abuse is often hidden simply because people tend to live less public lives as they grow older. Also, symptoms such as forgetfulness often are attributed to aging, not drug and alcohol abuse. Abrupt changes in work or volunteer attendance and unusual mood swings are two of the most common signs of a problem, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
There is nothing more refreshing than a swim on a nice, warm summer day. Even if you don't know how to swim, performing water exercises requires no swimming skills, and usually incorporates some of the same body movement. Non-swimmers may initially be a little afraid of water, but their success and enjoyment of water exercise soon overcome the fear, and many of them add swimming lessons to their exercise regimen.Water's resistance varies according to depth and speed, which you can always control. One gallon of water weighs approximately 8 pounds. When you swing one leg through the water, you are meeting approximately 37 pounds of resistance. The faster you move your leg, the harder you work against this resistance. With this said, water training can be a very efficient way to achieve fitness and almost any activity can be enhanced with aquatics.
He actually had the audacity to say that this is what's best. Starbucks coffee baron Howard Schultz, the Seattle Supersonics principal owner, tried to present the recent sale of the team to a group from Oklahoma City as a celebratory affair. But the balloons and fancy streamers screamed of audaciousness, disingenuousness and just plain B.S.And frankly, it was insulting.The sale was a good thing for Schultz and the group of Sonics owners he led. They made $75 million or so in the five years they owned the team. Which is good work if you can get it. But the truth is that Schultz and Co. sold the city out.