Sometimes, a little good news. Two weeks ago, this paper ran a story on the sudden eviction of two small businesses at the Diamond Parking lot on the northeast corner of Broadway and East Mercer Street. Stephen Johnson, owner of Jump Gourmet Espresso, and Boma Cho, who owns Boma Cho Fine Art, were given a mere 15 days to vacate their shacks in the parking lot. It was an unexpected blow, not exactly a cup of holiday cheerNor was it, to put it more bluntly, fair. Johnson and Cho run businesses, not hobby huts. Those businesses are how they make their livings, and such miniscule notice put both men in a pretty dour situation. Not that they had a lot of time to think about it. What a difference a week makes. It seems someone at Diamond read the piece, or at least heard the story. A company executive came by and told them that owner Joe Diamond was unhappy with how Johnson and Cho had been treated. And more than a mere rhetorical reply, Johnson and Cho were given an extension. Instead of having to vacate in the middle of November, they could stay on the property through the end of the year. Not only that, but there would be no charge for December's rent.
In a recent segment of "Problem Solvers" on KOMO-TV news, reporter Liz Rocca bounded toward one of the city-owned public toilets with a camera close behind. On the way she turned to an off-camera group and, in a performance only a first-year acting student might have believed, she rather unconvincing beseeched, "Would you guys call 911 if we get into any trouble?" Here, Seattle might have hit a low point in its news coverage of the controversial public toilets, one of which sits on Broadway on Capitol Hill.Opportunistic journalismWhat's truly compelling about this current debate is not what it reveals about whom the toilets serve or what they're used in the service of, the focus of the KOMO piece and many other news reports on the topic, but rather what the debate reveals about us, namely, our naiveté about the nature of drug addiction and our penchant for opportunistic journalism that often claims to help solve a problem but, instead, merely takes advantage of it.These toilets help meet one of the most fundamental human necessities as defined by Maslow's hierarchy of needs - disposal of bodily waste. Yet in doing so, these toilets simultaneously fulfill a corollary need for privacy that, in our culture, is inextricably linked to that disposal. Indeed, when we use a toilet no matter where it is located, we each enjoy a modicum of something that our attention, nay, our shock concerning this public-toilet problem reveals we take for granted.<
Thanksgiving has come and gone and so has the first snow, so it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (and Chanukah and Solstice and even Saturnalia). So, with the first big weekend of the holiday shopping season officially behind us, we asked some of the Capitol Hill retailers how that first weekend went, and what they are expecting in the weeks to come.Judging from the responses, they are expecting a good year.Everyday Music, 112 Broadway E., had a good first weekend, 7 percent over last year, according to store manager David Miranda. Everyday Music sells new and used compact discs, movies and music videos on DVD and VHS tape and LPs. It also handles a variety of accessories for the mainline products."I'm hoping people will come out earlier," Miranda said, explaining that last year, things were pretty dead sales-wise until the last two weeks before Christmas. He said there have been several popular new music releases and he is cautiously optimistic about the upcoming season."If the [sales] percentages go up, I'm going to be very, very happy," Miranda said.Red Light Clothing Exchange, 312 Broadway E., handles vintage and new clothing, hats, belts and other clothing accessories and even has a year-round costume shop.The Thanksgiving weekend was "a lot better than the last couple of weekends in November," said Dave Baldwin, Red Light store manager. He said things are usually pretty slow in November, but "we are hoping for a good holiday season."Vintage clothing is not everyone's idea of appropriate gifts, since giving used clothing may seem a bit tacky, but the shop has a solid line of new clothing, and the accessory line is new.
Democrat Jim McDermott - the famously-liberal 7th District U.S. Representative from Washington state - is obviously pleased that Democrats trounced so many federal-level Republicans in the last election. "I think the world took its first deep breath and sighed," he added.But the Congressman believes there were other reasons besides the war in Iraq that Democrats scored such a decisive victory. That's not to say the war wasn't an important factor; it was, according to McDermott, a longtime Queen Anne resident who represents Vashon Island and most of Seattle."It's no question it was the issue," he said of the war. But Democrats also set out to make the election a referendum on Pres. Bush's policies that include, among other things, the gutting of environmental regulations and a botched FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina, the longtime Congressman said.'No adults running the country'"We looked like a Third World country," McDermott said of post-hurricane New Orleans, many parts of which are still devastated. "There clearly were no adults running the country." FEMA did such a poor job, he went on to say, that if the Alaskan Way Viaduct fell down today, the federal agency wouldn't be the first one contacted for help.The role of government is to protect people. McDermott said. "If you step back from that, all sorts of crap happens," he added, mentioning denial of global warming as a prime example.
The Very Reverend Robert Taylor, 49, dean of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral since 1999 and the first openly gay Episcopal dean in the country, remembers the message from the pulpit in his native South Africa in the 1970s.The young man dealing with his emerging gayness heard the Bible being used to buttress apartheid and condemn homosexuality.There came what Taylor calls "a terrible moment of clarity" - the convergence of institutional racism with homophobia in the name of God."What do I do with that truth?" Taylor asked himself. "How does this allow me to enter into the life of somebody else who is very different from me?"Taylor's self-examination begged a larger question: "What am I afraid of, in you or myself?"With his gentle yet focused manner, Taylor cuts a compelling figure in famously under-churched Seatttle.He opposed apartheid at home and paid for it with the price of exile. Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu was his mentor and remains his friend. Taylor's job calls for a parochial focus - he's shepherd to a flock of more than 2,000 members of the St. Mark's congregation, after all - but a critical component of his vision is international.Taylor represents a challenge to Seattle, where political correctness is second nature and Nordstrom's great return policy is gospel."We're very nice," he says of the city he's come to love. "Sometimes nice is the cover for not naming our fears or going deeper."
David French"I expected to be stressed as I am helping to organize a Christmas tree lot but I'm really enjoying it. I'm usually a bah, humbug kind of guy but this year I'm really into it."Joy Sgobba"A big yes for me. It all comes down to buying people presents even when you can't necessarily afford it. Christmas is a beautiful holiday but most people just get sidetracked."<
Just where does Mayor Greg Nickels live? In a recent email sent to city council members and the general press, the mayor states that, according to a recent Gallup Poll of only 16 major United States cities, "Seattle ranked as the safest major city to live in or visit. In fact, Seattle's 80 percent rating was the highest recorded by any city since the poll was first taken in 1990. Minneapolis was second with a 73 percent rating." Using this poll, Nickels is trying to sway the city council members to not hire new police officers, which are desperately needed here in Seattle. With more than 500,000 people, Seattle currently has the same number of officers it did in 1981, despite the enormous influx of new residents and the eruption of major crimes. Why then is the mayor relying on one popular opinion when it comes to officer levels? The Gallup Poll gives the impression of safety in a very unsafe city. According to Morgan Quitno, the author of Morgan Quitno Press 13th Annual Safest Metro Area Award, Seattle has slipped even farther down their list of the most dangerous cities in America. The Quitno Press comes from the organization's City Crime Rankings publication, which provides updated statistics about crime in more than 350 of America's metropolitan areas and 380 cities of 75,000 or more in population. It compares crime numbers, crime rates and percent changes in crime rates over one and five years for all major crime categories reported to the FBI. In addition, complete counts and rates of police patrolling the nation's largest cities are provided. Seattle now ranks 275 out of 344 metropolitan areas in the Quitno report. New York City and Washington D.C. were 135 and 271, respectively. Minneapolis ranked 27 on the list of most dangerous cities.
When Greg Nickels first proposed former Mayor Norman Rice as a candidate for the Seattle School board, I thought he was just doing some wishful thinking. It never occurred to me that he actually would want the job.Mayors who take prestigious national positions rarely come back to take a thankless job like this. Education of inner city kids has never been America's strength, and having the political and social power to stem white flight at the same time has overwhelmed most school systems.But when I ran into Rice last week at Ezell's Chicken, he surprised me by showing so much passion for the job. He really wants to do this, and that is the reason why I believe that the Seattle School Board needs to hire this man.
Democrat Jim McDermott - the famously liberal 7th District U.S. Representative from Washington state - is obviously pleased that Democrats trounced so many federal-level Republicans in the last election. "I think the world took its first deep breath and sighed," he added.But the Congressman believes there were other reasons besides the war in Iraq that Democrats scored such a decisive victory. That's not to say the war wasn't an important factor; it was, according to McDermott, a longtime Queen Anne resident who represents Vashon Island and most of Seattle."It's no question it was the issue," he said of the war. But Democrats also set out to make the election a referendum on Pres. Bush's policies that include, among other things, the gutting of environmental regulations and a botched FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina, the longtime Congressman said."We looked like a Third World country," McDermott said of post-hurricane New Orleans, many parts of which are still devastated. "There clearly were no adults running the country." FEMA did such a poor job, he went on to say, that if the Alaskan Way Viaduct fell down today, the federal agency wouldn't be the first one contacted for help.The role of government is to protect people. McDermott said. "If you step back from that, all sorts of crap happens," he added, mentioning denial of global warming as a prime example.
Lake Washington Apartments is a former military barracks that now houses hundreds of tenants in the Rainier Beach neighborhood. Despite its history, Lake Washington Apartments no longer has an orderly appearance and groomed grounds. Current residents have been complaining to their management for six months about increased levels of crime, filth, violence, drugs and disorder that are turning their home into what one tenant calls "a project."The Lake Washington Apartment complex was purchased by Southeast Effective Development (SEED) in 1996 to provide affordable housing to southeast Seattle residents. SEED owns and operates other development projects in the Rainier Valley, including Columbia City Gallery, the mixed-use development Rainier Court Project at 3700 Rainier Avenue, and the Washington Care Center nursing facility at 2821 South Walden. Until this spring tenants had no complaints of SEED, but recently conditions have been deteriorating at the affordable-housing apartment complex.
My last column about the Seattle visit of the grandson of Winston Churchill (Nov. 8) generated so much interest and so many questions about the Churchill Center that my esteemed editor decided to reprint an updated version of my column of Dec. 17, 2003, which will answer many of your questions.You may well ask, "What are Churchillians?" No, they are not exotic, furry animals; they do not live in trees or in burrows under the ground in South America or on mountains in far-off Peru. Churchillians are members of an international organization dedicated to keeping alive the memory of Winston Churchill. There are centers in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Churchill Centre is one part of three of an international foundation. Originally the International Churchill Society, it is now known as The Churchill Centre (U.S.), International Churchill Society-Canada and International Churchill Society-UK, with members in Japan, Australia, Europe and South America. In 2003, the Churchill Centre established an office in Washington, D.C. It is sustained by an endowment fund earning interest in the United States and Canada; these earnings guarantee that the Churchill Centre will endure as a powerful voice, sustaining beliefs Sir Winston held dear.
I recently heard on KOMO 4 television news that Washington state high schools rank among the lowest in terms of requirements, and also have a high dropout rate.Bill Gates proposed that Washington should mirror other state's requirements for graduation, including more math, foreign language, science and social studies. Gates also suggested more intervention with schools struggling to meet the standards, as well as giving teachers more compensation for their important work.Not only are Washington schools struggling to perform, but schools around the nation don't make the cut compared to schools in other high performing countries in Asia and Europe. In efforts to keep up, the No Child Left Behind act was instituted and Washington now requires high school students to pass the WASL in order to graduate.Many teachers now must work with students on different aspects that will be covered in the WASL. Students are being taught how to take the test, rather than simply being taught the basic and fundamental topics of any education.
I was telling a friend the other day how my faith in the American citizen, or at least the American citizen who votes, was slightly restored by the recent election.Not because the Democrats received a mandate. I don't believe they did.I feel this particular vote was against the madness wing of the Republican Party, which had seized power from the Eisenhower (moderate and sane, albeit pro-business) wing.But in amongst all the good news was the bad news that 10 or so states took another slap at gay marriage, as if somehow two homosexuals getting hitched would signal the beginning of the end of America's pop-culture branch of Western civilization.Listen: marriage leads to suffering, and I want gays to suffer as much as I did while legally conjoined.But attempted cynical humor aside, if so-called upright and so-called moral Americans are paying attention, they cannot help but see that the battles featuring marriage and respectability are already lost (or won, if you are a non-traditionalist).First of all was the news last month that for the first time in recorded American history single folks outnumbered the married amongst us. That's not even counting the hordes of homosexuals who are not banging on the gates of "holy" wedlock.This week, the second recent statistical nail in marriage's coffin made the papers.Out-of-wedlock births have reached a new high (or, if you are so inclined, a new moral low).About 4.1 million babies were born in the United States in 2005. More than 1.5 million-about 37 percent of the total-were born without the benefit of clergy. Out-of-wedlock births have skyrocketed since the '90s.These are not all single moms, seduced and abandoned, either.The stats for 2005 show that about 20 percent of all new moms under 20 were unmarried, and also that 20 percent of that 20 percent were living with the baby's biological father.Weddings matter because tradition and retail sales demand it be so.But marriage, as a societal bulwark against homosexuals and unmarried mamas, is a non-issue
The Christmas shopping spree seems to start earlier every year. In past years the marketing frenzy began after the Thanksgiving turkey bones were cleared off the table.This year I was seeing Christmas decorations before Halloween.One sure way to avoid the consumer crush is to do all of your shopping through mail-order catalogs, and they've been arriving since mid-September. Hardly a day goes by that my mail carrier doesn't lug new "shop-by-mail" opportunities up to our mail slot. The current crop of slick, four-color shopper's suggestions seems spectacular when compared to years past.On every page, masters of the copywriter's art describe each offering in such seductive verbiage that you're reaching for your plastic credit cards with one hand as you dial the toll-free telephone number with the other.The Abercrombie & Fitch catalog offered Indiana Jones-type safari clothing and outdoors gear that made Banana Republic look like an outfitter of paupers. Established in 1892, A & F was the supplier chosen for Teddy Roosevelt's historic safaris. But today, who really needs a $500 firearms maintenance kit that's "packed in a hand-crafted briefcase of solid oak with brass combination latches?"Continuing the pattern of high-priced glossy catalogs that are more coffee-table decorations than serious shopping tools is Neiman Marcus. If only I had the money to outfit my partner, the Lady Marjorie, in $1,100 pumps covered in hand-set Austrian crystals over black satin, $10,000 alligator jeans and a $295,000 Russian lynx coat. But then, where would we go?
The guest column signed by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Queen Anne), King County Councilman Larry Phillips and John Coney of Waterfront for All regarding their preference for a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct (Magnolia News; Nov. 22) was full of nonsense and misinformation.They wrote: "We are committed to approaching every transportation infrastructure decision with the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions."What does this have to do with a tunnel? There would be just as many greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles in a tunnel as from vehicles on a viaduct. They said it's essential to fund alternatives to driving, such as transit facilities. Wasting $2 billion on a 1-mile-long tunnel will leave us $2 billion less to spend on alternatives to cars.Phillips and Kohl-Welles claim a new viaduct would be higher, uglier and noisier than the current viaduct. It would be about 3 feet higher, which nobody would even notice. Most people likely would find a new viaduct to be more attractive than the current one.<