Cruising through Magnolia neighborhoods in the passenger seat of Merlin Cavender's historic Model A Ford, I imagine myself adorned in a silk V-neck dress, silk stockings and a maroon beret as I wave to people on the sidewalks."Here, you want some air conditioning?" Merlin asks as he grins and cracks open the front windshield. Earlier, Merlin and his wife Dianne, both longtime Magnolia residents, led me to their back yard to show off their Model A, Merlin leaning over to unlatch the engine cover to emphasize the simplicity. It still looked complicated to me.Miniature American flags act as the hood ornament, and the forest-green color of the car body is so deep it almost looks black. With black fenders and a covered truck bed, the cozy two-seater is a reminder that people were a bit more compact in the 1920s.
DIANA ARTEMIS"I leave the city. Sometimes I go to the arboretum and a little place in West Seattle where you can wander. But to connect with nature you have to go somewhere that you can see the stars."CHUCK GOMES"We live in Magnolia about 5 to 10 minutes away from Discovery Park. We try to take walks there at least 3 or 4 times a week. As you get into some of the trails you can't hear or see anything to do with the city. It feels secluded."
Forty years ago if you were developmentally disabled, you had two options, stay home or go to an institution. Individuals with developmental disabilities did not have access to public schools, programs or jobs.All of that changed when a group of disgruntled parents, fed up with discrimination against their children, started the Northwest Center for the Retarded - the name was eventually shortened to Northwest Center. Armed with a grant from the Boeing Good Neighbor Fund, parents served as citizen activists for their children.On Friday, Sept. 9, Northwest Center, located on Queen Anne down the street from Rogers Park, celebrated its 40th anniversary.
A recent telephone survey was conducted to find out what Seattleites think about putting a levy on the ballot to benefit the Seattle Center and the Pike Place Market. Respondents to the lengthy survey, this reporter included, were asked among other things if they thought the levy should include both the Seattle Center and the Pike Place Market or whether it would be better to put separate levies for each on the ballot.The survey came as news to the mayor's office, the Seattle City Council, a city clerk in charge of bond and levy measures, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Sonics, the Pike Place Market and Perry Cooper, media-relations manager for the Seattle Center.But Seattle Center Director Virginia Anderson knew about the survey. She returned to work last week after taking much of the summer off, and Anderson said the survey was commissioned by the Seattle Center as part of its long-range planning efforts.
They're smelly when full, noisy when the lids slam shut, and a way to block views of street drunks hunkered down in alleys for al fresco drinking sessions - or worse.But the Department of Neighborhoods, the Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce and the Uptown Alliance have teamed up in an effort to get rid of Dumpsters in five of the worst alleys in Upper and Lower Queen Anne, said Jean Sundborg from the Uptown Alliance.The Dumpster-dumping effort, she said, is modeled after an existing one developed by CleanScapes, a company that offers an alternative approach to trash collection. The approach involves selling businesses separate bags for garbage and recyclables. The filled bags are then placed in the alleys, and CleanScapes uses its own garbage truck to pick up the bags daily or twice a day if needed, Sundborg said.
Perception of crime and law enforcement in Magnolia don't quite mesh with reality, according to some frustrated neighborhood residents, Seattle police, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng and a representative from the City Attorney's Office who spoke at a meeting of the Magnolia Community Club last week."A lot of people think there is no crime in Magnolia," said MCC president Vic Barry. Real-estate agents trying to make a sale in the neighborhood will certainly say that, he said. "We who live in Magnolia know that's not true."Still, it could be worse. All categories of crime in Seattle have nose-dived in recent years - with the exception of car thefts, noted Maleng, a long-time Magnolia resident who spoke about a new Car Theft Initiative his office recently launched.
In 2003, the Royal National Theatre's production of "Vincent in Brixton" received the highly coveted Olivier Award for Best New Play. It must not have been a good year on the London stage. Or perhaps the voters that year were great fans of melodrama.I won't go so far as to say it's a bad play, it just isn't memorable. It doesn't present sufficient character development to explain the supposedly deep psychical and sexual connection between the youthful Vincent van Gogh and his much older landlady. Nor does it illuminate causes for their emotional high-wire act. And the ACT production doesn't make amends for the playwright's limitations. In 1873, the 19-year-old Vincent was sent by his father to work in the London office of the international art dealer Goupil. The opinionated yet naïve lad found lodging in the home of a middle-aged widow. Playwright Nicholas Wright imagines what might have happened during van Gogh's three-year stay in this Brixton household.
The pictures from New Orleans look to me like watery Impressionist views of Iraq: terror, poor people displaced, soldiers and cops standing around watching insurgents and looters. An almost complete breakdown of law and order, the sharp teeth just beneath the skin of our shared human nature, which is animal at its core. The news out of New Orleans is grim, and even grimmer is the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers has been proclaiming for years that the levees that broke were unsafe and needed repairing.But they couldn't get the money. According to regional news reports from the New Orleans media, the Corps budget was cut up to 80 percent in the last few years, leaving the levees unrepaired and unshored. An administrator in Holland - a country besieged by the ocean and built mostly below sea level - was quoted in the newspaper as saying she couldn't believe this had happened in a Western nation. It would not happen here, she said, because, she implied, the Dutch spend the money to secure their citizens.The message is coming in clearer and clearer: New Orleans could have been saved, or at least better protected.
I have a scandalous truth to reveal: I do not drink beer. Really, I can't imbibe the stuff. I'm not bragging, and I don't begrudge others their enjoyment. Forgive me, though, if I do take pleasure in seeing the Fremont Oktoberfest slowly expand from impressive beer garden to much, much more - especially if "more" means everyone in the family can find something to enjoy.
I have a long-standing love-hate relationship with television. I'm often mesmerized by and interested in what I watch on TV, yet I also find myself mesmerized even when the content borders on boring.This division strikes me as odd; I can understand being drawn in to content that I find interesting, but why do I have the same reaction to material that I really couldn't care less about? What is it that makes television so gripping?These questions led me to several books written on the effects and effectiveness of television, but none have proven to be more provocative than Jerry Mander's "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television."
A visit to Lighthouse Roasters for a cup of coffee is a daily ritual for many Fremont and Phinney residents. A hidden oasis for the coffee lover and aficionado, Lighthouse has been serving the "best coffee in town" for the last 10 years. Located on the corner of North 43rd Street and Phinney Avenue North at 400 N. 43rd St., more than half of the customer base are local residents who can walk to the café. Still, for the occasional passer-by, the bright-orange building catches the eye, as does the red "Lighthouse Roasters" sign above the corner entrance. The café is always filled with a good number of customers, with people spilling out to the sidewalk, sitting down with their dogs or resting on their bikes as they catch up with a friend. Owner Ed Leebrick has produced a loyal following by priding himself on his roasting process and creating consistently good coffee for his customers.
Police promised to maintain increased patrols in the University District at a public safety meeting on Thursday, Sept. 15, at University Heights Center. The meeting addressed an increase in drug and gang activity on and around University Way Northeast, and was the second between Seattle, King County and University of Washington police officers, city representatives, chamber of commerce members and residents. The first meeting on Aug. 10 prompted the initial surge in police efforts."The officers at the North Precinct have gone to bat for us over the last month," said Theresa Lord Hugel, executive director of the Greater University Chamber of Commerce. "Now it's our turn to go to bat for them."
In its short time occupying the storefront of 5270A University Way N.E., The Peanut Gallery and its owner have become a rallying point for the University District's art world and the Ave community. Purchasing the space, owner Segue Fischlin never anticipated opening an art gallery on the Ave in front of her building permit and drafting business in the back of the store. "In fact, I hadn't decided to open a gallery until I had built the space," she said, gesturing around at the crisp white walls and large window front. "But it just felt right."However, without enough sales and the space's high rent, Fischlin can't keep her doors open. She will close them forever this Saturday, Sept. 24, with a party from 3 to 8 p.m., in conjunction with the Upper Ave Block Party.
Capitol Hill, home to numerous artists and arts events, can now add another entry into its burgeoning scene. This weekend, electronic music and visual artists from both Seattle and around the world will descend on Capitol Hill for the second annual Decibel Festival, and you can believe their many fans won't be far behind."Decibel is a community arts festival focusing on new music technology and visual art," said Sean Horton, Decibel director and curator. "[It is] a coupling of art installations, computer animation and electronic music performance."Spanning four days, the festival hosts educational clinics and panels that include discussions on digital music distribution and the relationship between technology and art. Similarly, numerous visual artists will create installations and performance pieces for the event. But undeniably, the heart and soul of Decibel is its offering of electronic music.
Here's a bucket of Puget Sound water right in the kisser: gasoline is not going to get cheaper. In classic cause-and-effect style, Hurricane Katrina's swirling, destructive dance along the Gulf Coast region triggered our recent rate hike at the pump. I say triggered because the high-price bullet that has come blasting at us has been loaded in the oil-war gun for a long time. What's the gunpowder propelling this lump of economic lead at our pocketbooks? It's the unavoidable fact that the worldwide oil supply is reaching its peak, shorthand for the maximum sustainable daily oil output. Global oil production is tracked on a bell curve. Right now we're either at the curve's apex or a few years away from it. Hurricane Katrina walloped the crude out of Gulf Coast refinery operations. According to the United States Department of Energy, that region holds about 10 percent of the nation's oil refining capacity.With the Aug. 29 onslaught of extreme weather, our country lost one-fifth of its domestic petroleum output, and the closed and damaged Gulf Coast ports have put a kink in our foreign oil supply. By the way, the United States imported 58 percent of its total petroleum supply last year.