In 1703, Peter the Great, czar of Russia, founded St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea. It was to be a "window to Europe."The czar wanted to modernize his country, so he imported the best architects from western Europe and gave them free reign to create what would become one the most beautiful cities in the world.Three hundred years later, Vadim and Valentina Tsemekhman wanted to build something special, something that would be a window to their former home of St. Petersburg.That is exactly what they have done on the corner of McGilvra Boulevard East and East Lee Street in Madison Park.Inspired by the neo-classical elegance of St. Petersburg, the three-story house they designed and built dominates the intersection.
A group of us were all turning 21 within days of each other, so a celebration was definitely in order. We had all planned to do the big day together and were anxiously awaiting the proud moment we could walk into the local pubs and announce it was our 21st birthdays. One particular bartender yelled loudly, "It's about time! You've been customers here for three years!"But now that we were 21, the taverns in the Madison Park neighborhood - which were mostly for the 40-plus set - seemed very old to us. Heading outIn the days prior to turning the legal age, if one wanted to imbibe at the local taverns, it was important to either appear to be of age or at least have ID proving so. Two acceptable pieces of ID were the driver license and the liquor card, both of which were printed on sturdy paper, unlaminated and seemingly very proper. One weekend night, a few of us headed west on Madison Street, noting how quiet the village area was. There were no cars to speak of. The stores had closed at 5 o'clock, and the Park-ites were in for the night.
An inspirationThe best part of writing this column is the wonderful people you get to meet. We had the pleasure of meeting Kurt Lamon, a 9-year-old third-grader from Ben Franklin Elementary. Kurt came to our attention because of his generous spirit and love of nature.This young man decided that instead of birthday presents to celebrate his ninth birthday on Jan. 12, he wanted his friends and family to donate money to help Bridle Trails State Park. His friends liked the idea and began a competition to see who could give the most.They raised $245, including matching gifts from Boeing. Kurt, who was accompanied by his parents Allan and Petra, presented the money to Bridle Trails State Park ranger Mary Welborn and Bridle Trails Park Foundation president Don Prince at the park.
On the roadHighlands resident Grant Erwin walks to Safeway several times a week and he is concerned about pedestrian safety in the I-405 interchange. So he wrote a letter to the Department of Transportation, and invited someone to come take a walk with him. Colleen Gants, a DOT public information representative, accepted the invitation.On the afternoon of Feb. 16, Colleen met Grant at the corner of N.E. 85th Street and 114th Ave. N.E. They walked east to N.E. 120th Street, along the south side of the interchange, then back along the north side. Along the way they crossed four offramps and four onramps.Colleen said it was an incredibly eye-opening experience. "She had no idea how scary it is to navigate that interchange on foot," said Grant. "She was amazed at how dangerous it is, how fast the cars are going and how vulnerable pedestrians feel."
I'm going to dive right in this month-there's so much to report: There were slightly more than 50 neighbors who came to the conversation with the city council last month. I use the word "conversation" as we were the first neighborhood to use a new format for these visits by council to the various neighborhoods.In the past, the meeting has been rather pre-formatted with city reports, with a small amount of time dedicated to question and answer at the end. The new style allowed for information generated by questions that came from those little postcards that were sent in the mail. Following each of these reports was an extended question and answer time with the audience. The new format lent itself to a lively dialogue. There was a substantial amount of information that was available to those that attended the meeting. Highlights included discussion of specific neighborhood traffic problems, the development of Juanita Beach and other park properties in the Kirkland Parks system, Totem Lake, and the current I-405 project in and around N.E. 124th Street. For those of you who were unable to attend, you can still take part via the Internet. Many of the questions that were addressed are available to view on the city Web site, www.ci.kirkland.wa.us.
Last month when I sat to write this column the excessive rain was the story of the day or should I say month. Now, here it is the end of February and the extreme cold is the new weather story. Still, not too bad considering the weather others in the country have been experiencing. All in all, I think we have it pretty good here with respect to the climate and the environment. Woodlands Park playground projectWith the change of weather, spring is definitely in the air and that means neighbors will be ramping up their efforts to prepare for build week, June 14-18. Build week is the culmination of months of effort by Friends of Woodlands who have been planning, designing, fund raising, securing donated supplies and volunteers for the building of the new playground. For those of you new to this column or the neighborhood I will provide you with a high level view of the project. Please take the time to visit the group's Web site for more details at: www.playgroundproject.org/
"Steve is so generous," Downtowner Heidi Tucker tells me. "With his smile and joy, the kids love to run out and say hi." The Steve she refers to is Steve Wegener, the Waste Management Sno-King driver and sanitation engineer who works downtown. And he has another downtown connection: Steve's father played ball with Lee Johnson. Heidi had more to say about Steve: "Our trash collector is a very nice guy. In fact, each week for the last 11, he has left two packs of candy on top of the can for Maddy and BJ. Just ask anyone. He's more that just a nice guy, he is generous, too."Steve leaves M & M packets for the kids. Not just Heidi's kids, but others, too. Steve's married with four kids ages 16, 11, 5 and 2, so he shares pictures of his family as well.I met Steve at Kahili on a sunny afternoon. He started handing out the candy while working his route in 1989. Let him tell it: "I worked in Redmond. Kids came along flipping the lids off of the cans so I could dump them. It became a big deal for them. The kids would wait on the corner watching for me. In one cul-de-sac, there was 40 or 50 kids. I drove up one day, the kids greeted me with a sign: 'Thank you Steve. We love you.' They all signed it. They also, gave me a sweatshirt, on the back it said: 'Candy Man.'
In many ways March reminds me of the worst winter months.Driven indoors by the seemingly endless rain squalls, we feel that we have been reduced to only dreaming or pondering on the glorious and robust gardens we designed for ourselves this year.We see the alder catkins growing alarmingly longer each day, and the chickweed clumping and sprawling further towards our expensive bulbs and perennial treasure plants. The shockingly bright and luxuriant green of the weeds was not part of our color plans nor does the time to contain them fit into our limited schedules that we have available in our busy days.
A new study has been thrown into the fray of the public debate about dieting and healthy eating. This one is certain to stir up the controversy even more, especially since the researchers involved have already declared it to be the "Rolls-Royce of all studies."This federally funded research project involved nearly 49,000 women ages 50 to 79 and was conducted over eight years at a price tag of $415 million. Who can argue with such effort? The goal was to determine whether a low-fat diet reduces the risk of cancer and heart disease. The sobering answer is: No! There's no evidence whatsoever that eating a leaner diet makes a difference to your health and well-being.So, all the deprivation and castigation we have endured for better health and longevity was all for naught. Consequentially, The New York Times quoted a well-respected chief physician advising everybody to "put a stop to this era of thinking that we have all the information we need to change the whole national diet." No, of course we don't have all the information! Who has ever suggested that anyway? But that does not mean we're free now to toss the baby with the bathwater.
To the uninformed, watching a synchronized swimming performance can conjure up its share of sniggering jokes and sideways comments. This reaction is due, in part, to the nearly unfathomable acrobatic underwater contortions and bursts from the water of girls sporting those unflattering noseplugs, and often, lots of waterproof makeup.When watching them perform live, however, one hears incantations of "how'd they do that?" and sees lots of disbelieving head-shaking. In the case of synchronized swimming, ignorance is not bliss. It's just ignorant.So here's a suggestion, come to the St. Edward State Park pool (on Juanita Drive) any day after school or Saturday mornings and get ready to be blown away by a group of girls who can crank out crunches, leg lifts and lunges like Marines; do perfect splits (and beyond); and hold their breath under water for an ungodly amount of time (as much as 45 seconds). And smiling all the while. (Next time you're trotting on the treadmill or swimming laps, try looking really happy.)The Seattle Synchronized Swim Team - formerly the Seattle Aqua Club since its inception in the early 1980s - has 35 members on five different teams: novice, intermediate, age 12-13, 14-15 and the junior/senior division. Additionally, the Sea Stars introductory program meets one hour a week as a way for swimmers and parents to test the waters.
Remember in grade school when one kid got in trouble, the whole class got punished? Well, there's a movement in Kirkland that if not closely watched could send all home-based businesses to the principal's office despite Kirkland City Council's best intentions.Discussions are preliminary, but the city planning commission and city council are initiating a look at ordinances governing home-based businesses. As a result of a number of complaints against a few home-based businesses, recommendations have emerged to find ways to improve oversight of the more then 1,200 such operations in the city.Many members of the city council have recognized that regulations already exist that appear to address the complaints that were brought up: excessive parking, noise, operations at odd hours and, in one instance, the fact that no one is using the home as a home at night. Although a large majority of us may agree that enforcement is the answer, it is easier, and sometimes cheaper for some, to make regulations stricter.
We congratulate Kirkland's Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, a public servant in the truest sense, a man who very publicly cleared his conscience so he could live with himself. As he said in last month's Courier, "Twenty years from now, nobody is going to remember how I voted on this. But I will." ["A change of heart for Bill Finkbeiner," February 2006]With his Jan. 27 vote in favor of the controversial and embattled gay civil rights measure - a measure he and fellow Republicans had publicly opposed - Finkbeiner proved that he had the courage to cast the lone yes vote among his party.
With a heavy heart, Curt Taylor had no choice but to lock the doors of Juanita's oldest restaurant on Feb. 28. After serving how many hundreds of its famed homemade pies, after employing the same four people for 30 years and after a gallant effort of breathing life into the historic family-owned restaurant ... "there just aren't enough people coming through the front door," says Taylor.Talking at one of the corner tables near the end of February, Taylor points across the street to the new Chelsea condominium and retail complex on 100th Avenue N.E. and shakes his head. He just couldn't keep up.He estimates there are at least five new restaurants that have opened in the area over the past couple of years. "If you have a 10-inch chocolate pie," he says, "you can only slice it a few different ways. All you've got left are crumbs."
An Iraqi Kurdish immigrant from Kirkland has been ordered deported for ties to Tawfiq bin Attash, a senior al-Qaida operative suspected of involvement in a 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency described the Feb. 13 decision by immigration judge Kenneth Josephson as an important victory. But Sam Malkandi - a former Muslim who converted to Mormonism and ran a Kenmore Subway shop until his arrest last August - denies any connection to the terrorist organization or even knowing who bin Attash was, said Malkandi's lawyer, Jason Burnett.What happened, Burnett said, was Malkandi met and struck up a friendship with an Arabic-speaking man at Seattle's Northgate mall in 1998. "My client believed he was a Yemeni working in Saudi Arabia," Burnett said. The Yemeni left for a year and looked up Malkandi when he returned to the Northwest, the lawyer added.The Yemeni had a request. He had a friend who wanted to come to the Northwest to get a prosthetic leg, and the Yemeni wanted to know if the friend could use Malkani's address as the point of contact for the clinic, Burnett said."Sam (Malkandi) remembers calling the (Bothell) clinic once asking how much the leg would cost," Burnett said. Malkandi eventually got an overseas call from the man needing the leg or perhaps someone speaking on his behalf, the lawyer said. "That was it; Sam never heard from him again."
The Finn Hill area suffered a series of arsons in late January and early February, but they aren't necessarily connected, according to Kirkland Fire Department investigators.The first arson took place on January 31, when a toddler slide at Big Finn playground was torched and reduced to a melted heap of blackened plastic. It was the second arson of equipment at the playground in the past year, said Doug Williams, a spokesman for the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks. It will cost between $4,000 and $5,000 to replace the burned equipment, and there are no suspects in the case, he said.