Weren't you pleased to get your mail today, nothing but Christmas catalogues and pleas from one or two charities? Not a political message in the stack. My poor knuckles are down to the bone, scraped and torn in my efforts to remove much too much mail in much too small a box.I had letters from Bill Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barak Obama, urges from California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and warm greetings from Maria Cantwell and Jim McDermott and John Kerry and 43rd District candidate Jamie Pedersen and several senators and representatives whose names I didn't even recognize, as well as hearing from a few of their mothers. There were days when I didn't have the strength to carry the mail upstairs.How many old forests were sacrificed for this election? What letter carriers have permanent back injuries from delivering the mail? What recycle bins have reached their capacity and overflowed? I think the day after election should be designated No Mail Day in honor of those who delivered and received the mountains of exhortations they have survived.
A history lesson: On Nov. 30, 1999, up to 70,000 people jammed Downtown Seattle streets and shut down the World Trade Organization ministerial's opening day of meetings. Organized labor, environmentalists, human-rights advocates, peace activists and many others gathered to protest, in essence, corporate control of democracy. While many Seattleites - thanks to media and, especially, TV coverage - remember mostly the actions of a few dozen vandals and the police, the protest reverberated around the world, inspiring millions.Fast forward: On March 7, 2003, the media issue came back to Seattle, in the form of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hearing on a proposal to further deregulate ownership of television and radio broadcast licenses. The movement for media democracy was in its infancy, but the focus was similar to the anti-WTO protests: concern over democracy being trumped by rules written in the interest of a small handful of very large corporations - in this case, the ones that control much of the news and culture Americans consume.
Step inside the Moonpaper Tent and enter a world where anything goes. The enchanting studio secretly plants itself at 918 N.E. 64th St., with whimsical writing on the inviting front windows, exposing the magical play conducted inside.A place for children to be free creatively, the Moonpaper Tent is Sylvan Bourgette's (a mother of six) seventh "baby." "My main goal is to bring the magic of make-believe to children and adults and to have fun doing it," Bourgette said. Explore the imaginationThe 1-year-old Moonpaper Tent evolved from a themed birthday party business, Magical Dress-up, that Bourgette and friend Jenessa Wight operated for 10 years. Moonpaper Tent's permanent space allows Bourgette to continue offering traveling theme parties while opening up a treasure box of new opportunities. She offers quarterly classes, camps, in-house parties and a retail line of varying fairy-related items.
Sydney Sprinkle, 13, has made a ton of noise this year - only it might be difficult to hear her while she's underwater. The Wedgwood eighth-grader who attends Our Lady of the Lake School has discovered a unique way to exercise. After experimenting with gymnastics, ballet, dance and swim, she decided to combine them all into one sport. She now swims with Washington state's largest synchronized-swimming club, the Seattle Synchronized Swim Team.More than swimming lapsSydney Sprinkle began her synchronized-swimming career two years ago after hearing about a summer camp put on by Seattle Synchro. Seattle has had a synchronized-swimming presence for more than 20 years. Seattle Synchro formed in 1995 - after reorganizing from the Seattle Aqua Club - and calls the Carole Ann Wald Memorial Pool its home at Kenmore's St. Edwards State Park. The program at Seattle Synchro offers a number of opportunities for swimmers of all ages and skill levels.
Small-business owners in the Wallingford neighborhood have decided they are no longer going to take the recent rash of break-ins lying down. Rather than wait for the city to make a move, they tackled the problem at a Wallingford Chamber of Commerce-sponsored forum last Wednesday, Nov. 15.Public safetyAt the University House in Wallingford, local business owners discussed how best to protect themselves from robbery and tagging and how to protect their properties from intruders. The biggest issue for all of them was public safety. In September, six small businesses were the target of robberies, in which $2,544 and a laptop computer were stolen. In the four districts of the North Precinct that make up the Wallingford area, 57 commercial burglaries have been reported this year through September, according to the Seattle Police Department. With three months yet to be reported, this year's total is predicted to top last year's total of 67.
The Broadway Sunday Market, held in the Bank of America Parking lot just East of Broadway off East Thomas Street, closed for the season on Sunday, Nov. 19. It was the second year for the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance on Capitol Hill, which featured a wide variety of seasonal produce as well as crafts and entertainment. Winter farmers markets take place in the University District and West Seattle.
It's a proverbial jewel in the city's crown. Cal Anderson Park, which had its official opening just over a year ago, is a large island of open space within a dense, urban neighborhood. Open, welcoming, used by the community, by most measures the park is a considerable success.Which is not to say that the park, and the neighborhood that surrounds it, is without its on-going problems. Crime, often associated with drug use and loitering and often relating to a transient population that hangs out in and around Broadway, remains a chronic issue.In an ongoing effort. both park neighbors and the city are taking steps to address this issue. Last week, a small group of Cal Anderson Park neighbors attended a Cal Anderson Park Parkwatch program's kick-off event. Held, appropriately, at the park's shelterhouse, Parks Department community program director Randy Wiger led a presentation about what a Parkwatch group can do to improve public safety. Dubbed the "Cal Anderson Eyes on the Park" program, the parkwatch is modeled after the many neighborhood blockwatch programs facilitated by the police department. "We're now trying to get it up and running. The parkwatch tries to help neighbors living near the park get to know each other, watch out for each other and be aware of what is going on in and around the park," he said.
Ah, once again it's the season of giving thanks, and for many of us, that also means the season of stress. Without a plan, it's difficult to get organized or know where to start. Large meal planning in itself is daunting, not to mention coordinating friends, family and all the food. Here are a few tips to help you get through Thanksgiving feeling right at home:* Use technology - Make a list of who is attending, get their e-mail address if possible and use on-line organizing products such as Evite.com. This free and easy service is a great way to organize any gathering. You can indicate the time, date, and directions including a map to your address. You also can request items for guests to bring, and guests can make comments and even invite more people (if you want them to). The program will even automatically send out reminders a few days before the party. * Make menu cards - Most of us have a general idea of what we are planning on serving, but without writing everything down, it's easy to forget something. Use notecards or a small tablet, and on separate pages, write down the name of the dish and all the ingredients and quantities needed. Each dish should have its own card or page. The page also should include special cooking instructions and prep time and cooking time needed (write in the top corner). If you can prepare the dish ahead, write down the day and time you'll make the dish. Write the times in the top corner.Put a check mark next to any ingredient you already have, but be certain to confirm quantities on hand. Butter and other staples tend to go fast and get used for multiple dishes, and don't assume you have enough without actually checking your stock. You also can assign a card to a guest or family member. If that's the case, indicate his/her name on the card and make sure he/she knows how many the dish should serve.
With home purchases over a three-year period totaling more than $550 billion, unmarried women represent a growing - yet sometimes overlooked - segment of the homebuying population.A recent report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) examines this distinct group and their purchasing behavior. The findings are "striking," according to research analyst Rachel Bogardus Drew, the author of "Buying for Themselves: An Analysis of Unmarried Female Home Buyers."The role of unmarried women in homebuying is clearly strong and shows signs of continued growth and expansion, Drew reported. "Not only are unmarried women a large segment of the homebuying population, but they are fast-growing, too, increasing their share of homebuyers by 50 percent in eight years," she stated. Along with looking at the characteristics of unmarried women relative to other buyers, the researcher analyzed home-purchasing behavior and preferences and identified four subsets of this diverse and highly segmented group. Of 18 million homebuyers in the study (defined as purchasing their home in 2000-03), 3.7 million (about 20 percent) are identified as being headed by an unmarried female. Of these, about 1.5 million purchased their first home.Challenges of affordabilityThe unmarried-female-buyer segment experiences much greater incidences of housing-affordability problems, researchers note. Such problems may be the outgrowth of various demographic circumstances, including the fact that unmarried female buyers tend to be older than married and unmarried male buyers. Also, this group has relatively higher shares of minority buyers and purchasers with lower incomes. Unmarried women buyers are far from homogeneous, Drew emphasized. The segment encompasses women of all ages and races, single mothers, widows, divorcees, women living alone and those living with other adults. Nearly half live alone, and another 30 percent are single mothers. One-quarter of female buyers are minorities. Previously married women account for about two-thirds of unmarried female buyers.The JCHS report attributes the growing interest in unmarried female homebuyers to several realities:
It was a couple months ago when I first heard about Georgetown hosting a pinewood derby. There was a group of guys talking about the race, actually they weren't talking about the race that was coming up but rather they were comparing races of the past, races that occurred maybe 10 or 20 years ago. A common experience seemed to be shared among many. These guys talked about the weeks it took them to build their car, how they were given a block of wood and created a car, not just a car, but a pinewood derby racecar.These guys talked about working with their dad, but it was their car, their idea, their design, and they felt totally proud. That was until race time came about and some kid would pull out his sleek car that relied on physics and aerodynamics rather than the power of a rubber band. In some cases, joy quickly turned to bitterness.The Georgetown Pinewood Derby might have been the official name, but the unofficial motto was 'Your daddy can't help you now.' You were either going to try to repeat the glory days, perhaps seek revenge, or just get a do-over from years gone by.It didn't matter why people entered the race; the fact is that people did enter, many people.
A full house turned out to "hear things from the horse's mouth," as CASC interim director Cynthia Andrews put it, as leaders from Senior Services of King County and members of the Central Area Senior Center (CASC) in Leschi came together to discuss the center's future on Oct. 30. "I am amazed at the amount of people in this room. I expect everyone here for lunch tomorrow. We only have the place this full when it's catfish day," Andrews said with a laugh.When Denise Klein, Senior Services executive director, began speaking, the meeting quickly took a more serious turn."I realize I've made some pretty serious mistakes. I am very sorry for causing so many of you upset or anger or fear. I did not foresee this in setting regional goals for the Southeast [Seattle] and Central Area senior centers," she said. Dispelling rumorsDue to Klein's recent proposals outlining goals for the county's senior centers, rumors and fears began to circulate. Even the best ideas cannot work without going about them in the right way, she explained. "I wrote out a vision, but people read into it as a merger. The idea to combine Southeast [Seattle] and Central Area senior centers is not even a good one from any perspective," said Klein, who added that her goal for the meeting was to clarify her ideas and dispel any rumors.
In the spring of 2005, the mayor's office released a 23-page "action agenda" containing several dozen recommendations for revitalization of Southeast Seattle. Developed with the help of the Rainier Valley Chamber, Southeast Effective Development (SEED), Homesite, and prominent area banking institutions, the agenda included a seemingly innocuous recommendation for a "community renewal plan" for Southeast Seattle.  Leaping ahead to the fall of 2006, a firestorm in Southeast Seattle has been ignited over the mayor's attempt to implement that plan. It calls for the city council to designate a special "community renewal area" or CRA with boundaries stretching from I-90 to the south city line and encompassing nearly every block between Martin Luther King Way and Rainier Avenue. Despite some of our city's most rapidly rising land values located within these boundaries, the mayor's staff has made selective use of census and crime data to justify a definition of "blight" for the area - a description required for creation of the CRA under the state's "community renewal" law. Once the city designates a CRA, a five-member board would be appointed with enormously broad power to buy, assemble, develop, and sell any property within the CRA's boundaries. The board's formal powers would include the right to enter and inspect any property within the CRA without owner permission and a right to condemn that property if needed to meet renewal plan goals.
Well, it's been a long time, six years and change, since I felt I could look my fellow citizens (most of them anyway) in the eye and not wonder just how simpleminded they might be.Of course I am talking about the election results, locally and nationally, of two weeks ago. I have mainstream friends, less cynical than I, who say, "We've got our country back."I wouldn't go that far. The current Democratic Party is not my dad's Roosevelt Democrats; in fact, these centrists in liberal glad rags are not even LBJ's Democratic Party.And across the country folks irritated at an unending war and an economic rape of the lower and middle classes are more than irritated that gay people want to be married. Numerous states banned gay marriage or refused at least to support it on Nov. 7. This is backward thinking in a country where the conjugally joined are outnumbered by the solitaries for the first time in recorded American history.But who in their right mind (an important qualification) can feel too bad after Rummy was forced to resign and after the voters of Washington state overwhelmingly told Mike McGavick to go back to economically disenfranchising workers and their families for his own benefit - lay off 1,200 SAFECO workers, give self $4-million bonus and then claim you "care" about the average citizen - and leave the public coffers alone?Even Missy Cantwell, a centrist sheep in radical wolf's clothing, and not much loved by sheep or wolves, was able to slam dance Mike Mick G.Nationally, most voters responded just as Washington's did, saying, finally, "Enough, Georgie Porgie, please, enough."Locally, Seattle voters overwhelmingly agreed with me, a guy who hasn't stepped inside a strip club in more than a decade, that if there are going to be strippers dancing for paying customers, let them dance as close as they want to, just like they do down the road in less yuppified (so far) Portland.
Roberto Maestas, co-founder and executive director of El Centro de la Raza, received the 2006 Thomas C. Wales Award for Passionate Citizenship Nov. 18 at the Thomas C. Wales Foundation's Night Among Heroes dinner gala.Named after the late federal prosecutor Tom Wales, who was gunned down and killed in the basement of his Seattle home in 2001, the foundation is "dedicated to the promise of ordinary citizens actively helping to create a more livable and fair society."But picking the winner of the annual award wasn't easy, said John Hoffman, a longtime friend of Wales, a foundation director and chairman of the award-selection committee. "It is personal, emotional and, in the end, humbling work," he said.Those up for consideration included a University of Washington student who works in homeless shelters, a major-league baseball player who sets up camps for children, a woman who brings street kids back to education, and a mother and daughter who are a doctor and nurse who treated rape victims in the Congo, Hoffman said.Still, four finalists were also honored at the dinner. They included Grover Haynes, who served on the desegregation committee of the Seattle School District. He was also described in testimonials as having "a quiet listening style" that has peacefully resolved many conflicts, Hoffman said. And as a past president of the SE Seattle Crime Prevention Council, Haynes has been on the front line of police and community relations, Hoffman added.Also honored as a finalist was Lonnie Lusardo, who describes himself as a "recovering racist" and who holds diversity-training seminars. Lusardo is assertive when needed, said Hoffman, who added, "He has little patience for Seattle nice."Another finalist was Minh Duc Nguyen, a Vietnam War refugee who "has become a tireless force in the Vietnamese community, Hoffman said.
Historic Seattle presented its ninth annual Bungalow Fair on the last day of September. I was invited in my capacity as Antique Lady and arrived early on Sunday morning, Oct. 1, planning to attend a lecture presented by Megan Thomas, curator of the metalwork section of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The lecture was on the craft of C.R. Ashebee, one of the greats of the British arts and crafts movement.Historic Seattle is a 31-year-old local organization dedicated to the preservation of threatened historic buildings, education and advocacy for the arts and crafts movement. The Bungalow Fair, assisted by the arts and crafts guild committee, is the highlight of the year's activity. This has enabled them to host more than 50 architects, interior designers, antique dealers and craftspeople in metal, tile, glass, lighting and furniture in 10,000 square feet of space at Town Hall (the former Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist).Historic Seattle has made the Bungalow Fair a yearly tradition anticipated by thousands of residents and visitors.Seattle's-and Queen Anne's-growth, residential and neighborhood development and architecture are strongly tied to the arts and crafts era, from the 1890s into the 1920s. One exhibitor of particular interest to me was Charles Rupert Designs Limited, its booth presided over by a very interesting couple: Stuart Stark, a third-generation Victorian (Victoria, B.C., that is) and his English wife, Margaret Graham Bell.