Mayor Greg Nickels has come up with an idea he says will make life easier for Seattle residents trying to connect with city services about problems that aren't emergencies.It's a call center people could reach by dialing 311, and Nickels wants the Seattle City Council to sign off on the idea and spend $8.9 million next year to set up and staff the new system, said mayoral spokesman Marty McOmber. "311 is not just a phone number; it's changing the way the city does business," he said. Currently, people have to search through more than a thousand different phone numbers for city services, but the 311 system would provide a single contact point, McOmber said.
While quarreling with expatriated Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev in the German town of Baden-Baden, Fyodor Dostoyevski suggested his compatriot might see his homeland better-and thus, the implication goes, write about it more accurately-were he to buy a telescope. The meaning of the insult is clear: in order to write about a place, one must inhabit that place, see it in all its mundane and quotidian totality. Of course, the flip side of this sentiment could be called the anthropological ideal: only outsiders, with their unjaded and uncorrupted perspective of an unfamiliar locale, can really see what's really going on. If a Martian landed tomorrow on Capitol Hill, it might have some interesting things to say about the neighborhood.
Dennis Saxman's small apartment is filled with papers, document and files, the tools, he says, of an adopted trade. As a self-described land-use activist, Saxman is a person you would see at many of the city's Design Review Board meetings. Or you might cross paths with him at City Hall as he puts in another Freedom of Information Act request for city documents. Direct, mostly soft spoken, he's the one asking many of the questions developers would rather not be asked. He's not afraid to ruffle feathers, and he has. But as the city in general and certainly Capitol Hill in particular faces nearly countless development projects, Saxman's goal is no less than changing the way the city considers growth and development. It's become a crusade as well as a fulltime vocation.
Have you heard coyotes howling recently? Have you seen a coyote in your yard or along neighborhood streets? Surprising as it may seem in an urban neighborhood such as Madison Park, the coyote has probably become well-established in the areas around the Washington Park Arboretum. Coyotes have been spotted recently from the Evergreen Point Bridge south to Interstate 90, including several sightings in the Broadmoor community and golf course.
The Seattle Fire Department plans to build a new Fire Station 6 in the Central Area. However, its proposed location is drawing criticism. The new station would use a building owned by the Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP), a community outreach organization. DeCharlene Williams, who established the Central Area Chamber of Commerce, believes there are sites more suitable for the station. The current plan for the new fire station has created "friction in the community," Williams said.Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean met with the Central Area Chamber of Commerce to discuss the recommended site. He explained that the city has certain criteria for selecting the best site for the new station.
Residents wait uneasily, as city nears decision between flood-prevention alternativesThe problem of flooding in the 706-acre basin that is Madison Valley has been 100-plus years in the making, starting at the turn of the last century, when a natural drainage outlet was blocked by landfill under East Madison Street and Washington Park. The neighborhood itself was built up over a stream bed. Flash forward to last year, when the Valley experienced its second "100-year storm" in as many years, causing millions of dollars in damage and killing resident Kate Fleming when the basement of her home at 538 30th Ave. E. flooded.Looking at the reams of data collected in the wake of the Dec. 14, 2006, flash flood - the city inked a $216,000 contract with the private engineering firm CH2M HILL to study the causes of the flooding - Seattle Public Utility (SPU) spokesperson Andy Ryan said it looked as though someone had "painted a big, red bull's eye over Madison Valley."
In the early evening of June 26, our father, Joe Frisino, ventured out to water his beloved tomatoes. He tripped on the garden hose [and] landed on his face, breaking his neck in two places.It was a miracle, at age 88, he could sit, talk and walk. It was another miracle that you happened by to help.All our family knows about you is [that] you are around 28 years old, very beautiful in our father's eyes, extremely polite and claimed you were clumsy to soothe our father.Elizabeth, we can never thank you enough for your kindness.Dad is still sporting a neck brace, which our mother has entitled his "no-scratch collar," but is very interested in thanking you in person, as we all are.Please stop by their home to reintroduce yourself.Happily, Joe and Harriette celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary on Nov. 4, 2007.[As] for the tomatoes, we cherished every bite - as they are, by far, the most expensive on earth.The Frisinos, Madison Park
Paper, paper, paper. I must have, at my command, enough paper to provide recycled bags to Red Apple, Trader Joe's and QFC for a year at least. All of those bits of paper in brown bags, at one time or another, I felt must be saved.For example, I have unearthed a deposit slip dated 2005, a receipt from Macy's (when it was still The Bon Marché) and an instruction booklet for a phone I owned two phones ago. I discovered these in my files as I - in my madness - decided to clean them up.
us age of being too young to have a driver license and too short of coin to buy a car meant life was limited to Madison Park and points along the No. 11 bus route.Daytime activities were few, but in the evenings (with TV being brand new in our area), we caught the only shows on at that time. "Crusader Rabbit" was a 15-minute cartoon, followed by "Boston Blackie," about a detective sleuth who hung around a tobacco stand. There were occasional plugs for a tobacco product as well. "What's My Line" aired next. While enduring this over-the-top evening of excitement, a horn honked outside. We peered through the blinds and saw our friend Dick driving a car! Wheels! We were busting out of Madison Park!
I took over the editorship of the Madison Park Times in April 1999, at the same time I was starting out my life as half of a married twosome. I introduced myself in these pages as someone who would be stubborn and forthcoming in my approach as a journalist, as I was a Taurus born in the Year of the Ox, whose first name in several languages means "truth."Now, it's time for me to bid a bittersweet farewell to the communities who helped me become the professional I am today.
Several bloggers laid fire to my post-Virginia Tech column, "We Must Stem the Flow of Guns," originally published in the May 2007 edition of the Madison Park Times. A reader who runs a blog on townhall.com, wrote an entire short essay rebutting my piece, cleverly entitled "The Outdated Second Amendment." The reader was a rather eloquent essayist, and I must say he laid into me in a verbally adept way of which I am not used to being on the receiving end.
Every time you start your car, they glow to greet you and then fade away - hopefully not to be seen again until the next engine start. AAA urges motorists to heed their vehicle's cry for attention and take note of the red and yellow indicators on the instrument panel that illuminate when a problem occurs.
A cloud of dry ice rolled a cool fog over the upper reaches of McCaw Hall, but the applause on the main floor was hot for Pacific Northwest Ballet's première of "In the Upper Room."In an evening that was anything but ballet as usual, the opening-night crowd responded positively to strobe lights, rope harnesses and little red socks.
Headaches - we all get them. For some, popping a few aspirin can take care of it. For others, it requires a little more than a few painkillers. According to Catherine Parker, with Acupuncture in the Park, this "king of pains" can be treated with acupuncture.
Fremont Bridge to close four nights To continue work on the Fremont Bridge's electrical and mechanical systems, the Seattle Department of Transportation's contractor will close the bridge four nights next week. The bridge will close from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday, Nov. 12, through Friday, Nov. 16. Marine traffic is not impacted by these closures, but Metro Transit will reroute its buses during the closures; for details, call Metro's Rider Information, at 553-3000/