As I walk around Capitol Hill lately, I'm amazed at how rapidly growth is changing the nature of my neighborhood. I live near the southern edge of Capitol Hill. Admittedly, certain outdated or rundown properties no longer served the neighborhood well. But it's sad for me to round a corner and arrive at a place where once a view of cityscape existed and now there is a building blocking a vista I used to appreciate. Heading downtown from 16th Avenue, I definitely sense more shadowing where sun used to exist on certain blocks of Pine Street.
This past Monday's Jichinsai, a traditional Japanese Shinto ground purification ceremony, took place in the Japanese Garden of the nearby Washington Park Arboretum, cast much of Capitol Hill's recent development in a new light. Yet it simultaneously reinforced my appreciation for the diversity of our neighborhood and reminded me of a truism a colleague once shared: "It doesn't have to be this way."
For the first time in its decades-long history, a shooting incident erupted at Seattle's Folklife festival last month. Mind you, this sort of thing goes on most any Saturday night in the city's south end. But those apparently don't count, because, well, you know, Those People are just like that. By contrast, gunshots among the largely white, affluent Folklife attendees sent the city's editorialists and politicians into high panic mode. Instead of an isolated incident - made possible because a guy with a history of mental illness who should never have been given a concealed weapons permit under existing law somehow got one - our city's poobahs decided this was somehow symptomatic of A Big Problem.
In his 1976 book, "Seattle: Past To Present," Roger Sale observed that the only reminder of "Miss Aunt Nellie's Russians" were the murals created by Vladimir Pavlovich Shkurkin for the original restaurant "The Samovar" in the Studio Building along East Roy Street. Miss Nellie, of course, is Nellie Cornish, founder of the arts school that bears her name. The studio building is known today as the Loveless Building. And the Russians refers to the murals on the walls of one of the spaces, artwork that comes from a different era and serves as a touchstone for a time and place now long gone.
The Lifelong AIDS Alliance traces its origins back to one day in 1983 when, according to its website, a group of people passed around a soup can in Volunteer Park looking to gather donations to help people with HIV/AIDS in the Seattle area. They reportedly took in $42 that day.As of June 30, 2007, Lifelong's reported annual expenses were more than $13 million.
Seattle City Councilmember Sally Clark has heard from the neighborhoods, and they are not happy about the spate of tacky, cookie-cutter, lot-lin-to-=lot-line townhouses now popping up with increasing frequency in our midst. That's why she's holding a series of forums on townhouses, focusing on the question of how we can make them better - improve their design and better integrate this housing option into the fabric of the city. One such forum took place at the Capitol Hill Arts Center several weeks ago.
Last week, in a 5-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, in a case that may set a precedent for generations, that corporate crime really does pay.The occasion was the slashing of the punitive damages lower courts had assessed against ExxonMobil for Exxon's culpability in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. The incident, which a jury found Exxon responsible for, cost the North Pacific fishery and Alaska's economy billions. Fishermen were driven out of business; 19 years later, the pristine waters and beaches of Prince William Sound have not fully recovered.
Bad news, Broadway merchants: After three editions, it's safe to say the Pride Parade and rally have settled in, respectively, at downtown/Belltown and the Seattle Center.Good news, Broadway merchants: The other elements of Pride Week seem safely ensconced on the Hill. Of course, those are the elements that are more likely to attract people who already live on the Hill or regularly patronize the Hill's gay-bar circuit.
Sunday I sat waiting at Outagamie County Airport in Appleton, Wisc. I'd flown there to spend the Fourth of July holiday with my cousin Angie, her husband John and their three teenagers: Chloe, J.D. and Max. While my return flight to Minneapolis and then Seattle was delayed, I didn't care. I'd completed a five-day vacation with my family that left me rested and renewed.
We live in the age of the factoid. The Internet, full of "news" blogs with three-paragraph items. Harper's index is even reprinted now in our daily newspapers. Filler has moved front and center. I'd say it's a puzzle, but the truth is, the right type of filler is both food for thought and the bearer of an ironic smile.About twice a year, being an avid collector of factoids, I share. This is one of those times.
This year marks the centennial of the Spanish-American War, a war that, as wars go, receives perhaps a degree of recognition incommensurate with its human or economic costs. On its face, such a claim might ring oddly in your ear because, I admit, there's little way to determine the price this war or any war exacts in terms of dollars from the national treasury, anxiety on the national psyche or loss to American families. But for a war that lasted all of four months, the Spanish American conflict gets its due.
Recycling can take many forms, but for Seth Meyers and John Wells it means using salvaged urban trees to make high-end furniture in their Interbay factory off West Armour Way.
They did it. The combined 9- and 10-year-old Fastpitch All Stars team from Magnolia and Queen Anne won the District 8 Title Thursday night in Magnolia, defeating Northeast 13-10 to win the title.
Westside United District Select Soccer team played in the Kent Cornucopia Cup Tournament July 11-13 and placed 2nd in their U-12 division.
When John F. Kennedy Jr. died along with his wife and sister-in-law in a tragic plane crash some years ago, his uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, said in his eulogy that John had been given every gift life has to offer - except for the gift of time. Being able to live a long life, especially when it is a good life, is considered by most of us to be a blessing. Reaching old age is part of what we hope for - for ourselves as well as for our loved ones.