Work was wrapped up on an ambitious plan to landscape planting strips on 34th Avenue West when final designs from the simple to the elaborate were presented to the public on Dec. 7.The plan was the result of public comments at two earlier meetings and months of work by 16 graduate students in the University of Washington's landscape architecture program.The goal is to use plantings to keep storm runoff out of pipes by capturing the water before it hits Elliott and Salmon bays and the West Point treatment plant, said Jennifer Carlson, who spearheaded the project in conjunction with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), the UW grad students and their professor, Nancy Rottle."Planting strips can be pretty mundane," noted Liz Fikejs from SPU, the main city liaison for the project. But plans for 34th and the extensions to the waters' edges on the north and south are different, she said.
Longtime Queen Anne resident Michael Baldwin has the looks and the attitude for his job. As an alter ego for Santa Claus, the bespectacled, bushy-bearded man has a respectable paunch as well as an appropriate twinkle in his eyes. But Baldwin, who wears his hair long, has also taken the role to heart in the 12 years since he started his Christmas rounds, and it's a job he's come to love. "I started when I was 49," said the local Santa, who's even been written up in the Los Angeles Times. "It turned out to be just really fun."Baldwin said he had come into some money back in the early 1990s and wanted to use it to start a business. But it was when he was having dinner one night at the 5 Spot restaurant on Upper Queen Anne Hill that he got the idea of a Santa Claus gig.Baldwin was wearing a cheap Santa hat at the restaurant when a little girl walked by, he said. "And she did this huge double-take, grabbed her dad's pants leg and said, 'Santa Claus!'"He gets that a lot, even when he's not in costume, Baldwin says.
The Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board ruled Dec. 11 that the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) updated by the Seattle City Council this year was inadequate."Seattle's CAO designated as geologically hazardous areas only landslide-prone areas, steep slopes and liquefaction zones," the ruling reads, "despite the fact that Seattle's record includes competent and current science concerning other seismic hazards ...."Those hazards include the recently discovered Seattle fault, tsunami and seich (tidal waves on lakes) inundation areas, as well as lahar (volcanic mudflow) inundation areas, according to the ruling.The case against the city was filed jointly by the Seattle Audubon Society, Yes for Seattle, the Heron Habitat Helpers in Magnolia, and Eugene Hogland. Hogland, a Magnolian, has warned for years that the Seattle Fault could generate a tsunami that would drown motorists in a tunnel if it replaces the Alaskan Way Viaduct. "It's huge," he said of the ruling. "It's a huge decision."
Magnolia has been well represented during this year's holiday theater season. Joining the cast in Pacific Northwest Ballet's (www.pnb.org) "Nutcracker" are (from left) Our Lady of Fatima 6th grader Felecia Graham, Seattle Girls School 8th grader Regan Bell and Fatima 6th grader Ashley Ochsner.
Work was wrapped up on an ambitious plan to landscape planting strips on 34th Avenue West when final designs from the simple to the elaborate were presented to the public on Dec. 7.The plan was the result of public comments at two earlier meetings as well as months of work by 16 graduate students at the University of Washington's landscape architecture program.The goal is to use plantings to keep storm runoff out of pipes by capturing the water before it hits Elliott and Salmon bays and the West Point treatment plant, said Jennifer Carlson, who spearheaded the project in conjunction with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), the UW grad students and their professor, Nancy Rottle."Planting strips can be pretty mundane," noted Liz Fikejs from SPU, the main city liaison for the project. But plans for 34th and the extensions to the waters' edges on the north and south are different, she said.
The record-breaking windstorm on Dec. 14 knocked out electricity in large sections of Magnolia and Queen Anne after power lines were downed by falling trees that also crushed several vehicles. Flooding that Thursday also turned Mercer Street under Aurora Avenue into a small lake, and storm water and power surges knocked the West Point sewage-treatment plant out of commission for a time.Accurate counts of power outages in specific neighborhoods were unavailable as of press deadline for the News, said Seattle City Light spokesman Peter Clarke. "But I know there was a large section of Queen Anne out," he said. "In Magnolia, there was an outage on the eastside (of the neighborhood)."
The judging tour for the Queen Anne Historical Society's 20th annual Crown of Lights holiday lighting contest was held Thursday night, Dec. 14. In the midst of the gathering storm the heavy rains abated and the fierce winds had not yet arrived, so the show went on.Winners in the "On the Boulevard" category were Bruce and Cecilia Beaman at 1245 Bigelow Ave. N. The house, built in the early 1950s (and pictured at top right), sits high above the street. The Beamans have lived there for 20 years; he is a retired school principal; she is currently acting principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines. Grandson Taylor lives with them.
The record-breaking windstorm on Dec. 14 knocked out electricity in large sections of Queen Anne and Magnolia after power lines were downed by falling trees that also crushed several vehicles. Flooding that Thursday also turned Mercer Street under Aurora Avenue into a small lake, and storm water and power surges knocked the West Point sewage-treatment plant out of commission for a time.Accurate counts of power outages in specific neighborhoods were unavailable as of press deadline for the News, said Seattle City Light spokesman Peter Clarke. "But I know there was a large section of Queen Anne out," he said. "In Magnolia, there was an outage on the east side [of the neighborhood]."Approximately 176,000 citywide residential and business customers were blacked out initially, but that number had dropped to around 16,000 by Monday this week. All customers should have power restored early this week, according to Clarke.
The saddest thing about getting older - other than physical dropoffs and memory lapses - is coming to the awful realization that human beings seem to learn nothing more often than they learn something productive or positive.On the cosmic level, for example, Christians and Muslims have been fighting over who is God and who owns God's turf (the so-called Holy Land) since the12th-century days of Richard the Lionheart.God - if there is an all-knowing, all-loving Creator, be He or She, named Jesus or Allah - is not going to restrict heaven/paradise to only "true" believers.Good in, bad out is the only logical solution, and even I, certainly no god, can see that clearly.Random violenceLocally, the human learning-disability curve can be applied to Seattle's homicide rate, which has begun creeping up again after a nice decade-long lull.
Last fall, as I toiled in the flowerbeds in front of my Fremont home, a bearded, sandled and easily middle-aged man asked directions to the cooperative. I removed my headphones, asked him to repeat the question and directed him to PCC. Half an hour later, as I still toiled, sweatier and dirtier, the same man asked me what I thought of the way Fremont has changed. I removed my headphones again, considered him seriously and gave my opinion. He then gave me a 20-minute lecture on how the neighborhood has gone downhill since he hung out at the Fremont Tavern, decades ago.As I squatted among bearded iris and endured an oft-heard rant, I realized that for this man, at least, his dislike of the changes in Fremont might be rooted in his memories of a place where he was young and at his peak.I guess, in a way, this man was lucky that he left the area and prospered - if he did - elsewhere. It kept his memories of Fremont rosy and safe. Those of us who stayed, aged along with the neighborhood, and as we've grown and changed, so has Fremont.
The Burke Museum will illuminate the history of early slide projection as it steps back in time with the Magic Lanterns and the Birth of Photography event.On Saturday, Dec. 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Magic Lantern Society of America and Canada will present a variety of slide shows using vintage lantern technology and scripts from the 1800s. Dramatic imagesThe first show starts at 10:30 a.m. with a short overview of Magic Lantern slides, presented by Larry Cederblom and Ron Easterday.Cederblom, a graphic designer, created his own photographic slides in the U.S. Navy during the early 1960s. He will discuss how the slides are built, in addition to presenting one of his favorite slides that shows a flower bud bloom.
He doesn't like chocolate or Mexican food, but he absolutely loves Dryer's vanilla ice cream and sharing the Gospel of Christ. For the Rev. Earl Palmer, an ordained Presbyterian minister for 50 years and currently senior pastor at University Presbyterian Church (UPC), retirement does not mean giving up what he loves. Serving as UPC's senior pastor for the last 16 years, Palmer plans to remain at the church until a 13-member committee finds a new pastor. The process could take up to a year and a half. "I am 75 years old and feeling in very good health, and I love this ministry. But I want to be able to teach in different places," Palmer said. "It just seemed right - this was a chance to make a move into a broader ministry for me."He and his wife, Shirley, have seven grandchildren, and he expressed a desire to spend more time with family.
2006 provided many unique moments for visual arts on Capitol Hill. The closure of the Seattle Art Museum downtown for expansion placed a renewed focus on the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. This extra activity seemed to radiate outward, adding more sparkle to all the visual arts venues on the Hill. We saw the winged departure of Alexander Calder's Eagle sculpture from the park to the new Olympic Sculpture Garden, which is slated to open in late January. For a few years at least, the viewer could compare the mechanomorphic qualities of the Calder with the biomorphic aspects of Noguchi's Black Hole Sun. It is hoped that the Seattle Art Museum will venture more into the exciting world of contemporary Asian art, such as the critically acclaimed video installation by Shirin Neshat.
The City of Seattle professes public safety to be its chief concern. Recently, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, indicated a desire for police officers to stop being reactive, to focus on preventing crime and responding to neighborhood concerns. Unfortunately, these goals have been not been met. The department continues to operate under inefficient operational model with insufficient resources and manpower. The Seattle Police Department adheres primarily to traditional policing model principles. These principles include a military-style operational system that functions under a bureaucratic hierarchy, where policies and procedures for crime control and prevention emanate from the chief down to the community. Police officers are primarily responding to 911 calls. A police officers' performance is measured in terms of the number of arrests made as well as solving cases. But if more emphasis was placed on community policing, the department would have a far greater capacity to prevent crime, respond to neighborhood concerns and be more proactive.
As an English teacher, I always tell my students that my goal for them isn't so much the memorization of facts. If they remember that Nathaniel Hawthorne thought his Scarlet Letter might be too dark or that Ernest Hemingway decked Wallace Stevens down in Key West, their lives won't change in any radical ways.Instead, my goal is that they be able to use the skills by which we analyze books, poetry and films in class to similarly analyze the culture that surrounds them outside of class. In other words, I wish to enable them with what Hemingway claimed every good writer needs. To use his phrase, the need "a built-in bull**** detector."It's in this spirit and in celebration of his recent resignation that I offer my own analysis of Donald Rumsfeld and his words, the man Dick Cheney dubbed, "the best defense secretary we've ever had."