Andrew Piazza"I think it will be awkward downtown. Capitol Hill is where all the pride is happening. It will be interesting to expose it to the straight masses downtown."Nicole Conrady"I think its ridiculous. Gay Pride should be celebrated on its home turf. It's a better atmosphere
More than 300 people turned out Friday, June 9, for the third annual Fruit Bowl Awards, an event where the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community (LGBT) comes together to honor its own and support the LGBT Community Center.Col. Grethe Cammermeyer, US Army (Ret.), was this year's keynote speaker. Cammermeyer, who revealed she was a lesbian when she became chief of nursing at Fort Lewis, fought her subsequent dismissal and eventually won reinstatement in a series of lawsuits that eventually ended at the United States Supreme Court.The Fruit Bowl Awards are intended to honor individuals and groups who have committed themselves to the advancement of the LGBT community by congributing to creating equality, access and services, appreciation and celebration of diversity and/or cultivating a stronger society for LGBT Community members.
Biggest and best ever - that's what event representatives say every year about every event, but the organizers of Seattle's Gay Pride event this year, Seattle Out And Proud, have reason for their optimism."I really think it is true this year," said Dale Kerschner, president of the Seattle Pride board of directors. "This year we have four music venues." The event moves this year from its traditional Capitol Hill location to the Seattle Center, primarily to give it more space. For instance, the event has never had more than one music venue before.This year entertainment will be available on the Center House Stage, the Mural Amphitheater stage, Fisher Pavilion (the festival's de facto main stage) and the DJ stage at the International Fountain. Dancing in the International Fountain will be encouraged, a first for the Seattle Center.Festival entertainment takes off at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 24, and continues to midnight. It resumes at 11a.m. Sunday, June 25, and continues to the close of the festival at 6 p.m. Admission to the entertainment venues is free.
Ebsworth Chapel is not to be. At least not near Interlaken ParkEarly last week, Hunt's Point millionaire Barney Ebsworth let it be known that he no longer intends to build his namesake chapel at 1700 17th Avenue East, the nearly 4-acre parcel of land he purchased from the estate of the late James Widener Ray. His intention had been to build a chapel for 140 people, one that would include two-stories of parking for 75 cars. Described as a place of quiet meditation and reflection, the chapel would have held regular Sunday services in the Anglican tradition as well as been an architectural attraction.The proposal generated fierce, passionate and well-organized neighborhood opposition. Citing traffic and parking impacts as well as environmental and zoning issues, the neighbors' response to the chapel prompted Ebsworth to look elsewhere. This is the second time Ebsworth bought property and saw his chapel efforts derailed by an organized neighborhood.
It was the beginning, and it was the end; a bright future and a proud past. It was the night for honoring 11 Martin Luther King Elementary School alumni high-school graduates who won scholarships to continue their education.It was also the last scholarship dinner at M.L. King before the building at 3021 E. Republican St. is closed and the school is merged with T.T. Minor Elementary School, at 1700 E. Union St.Janice Lind-Sherman announced to the audience at the scholarship dinner that although the school may be closing, it is not the end of the foundation."The building will not be as you see it tonight," she said. "The M.L.K. Foundation will continue in some form." She expressed her own dream to raise funds and attract grants "to turn this into a mega-million foundation."This eighth, and last, M.L. King School Dream Foundation annual scholarship banquet filled the school cafeteria May 22. Round tables held eight to a table of honorees, families of the scholarship winners, school staff and faculty and, of course, the winners themselves.
Since opening in 1922, Garfield High School has heard jazz and orchestral music echo through its music room, as well as roaring crowds cheer on their athletic teams in the gym. Many famous alumni - including Quincy Jones, Jack Benaroya and Jimi Hendrix - have passed through its hallways.This month, the school starts a new chapter. In a few weeks, fences will surround Garfield, 400 23rd Ave. A large-scale renovation will begin in July, with students and faculty expecting to move back in September 2008. To honor the closing of Garfield, the PTSA, Golden Grads and Garfield High School Foundation are planning a closing ceremonial event, The Bulldog Bash Before the Smash, on Saturday, June 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
I have been in a snit since the word crept out that the National Security Agency (NSA) was eavesdropping on my phone conversations. There's no privacy left and no Second Amendment rights left in this land of the free that I can find. I really felt violated. How dare they!I've gone around feeling very irate about the madness of recording the phone calls of us all. But I started simmering down a bit and sympathy overrode anger when it dawned on me that some poor bloke had to listen to all my conversations as I conversed. Surely, that is a fate worth than death.I thought back over the day. I had one call urging me to take advantage of a great opportunity to buy in, at a special presale sale of a new senior residence, with every amenity my heart could desire, in Florida. Later in the day, a smooth-talking man offered to make it unbelievably easy to pay off all my debts instantly, and just now, yet another sweet voice asked me to help out parents of orphans, among others.What marvelous offers will be on my answering machine as dinner hour approaches? I hope my snooper got some good leads out of his eavesdropping.
News of the draft came blowing through Madison Park in the early '50s and concerned my friends and I, who were of draft age. I had just become unemployed and, even before credit cards, was comfortably in debt. The act of filling out employment applications came to an abrupt end when we got to the section asking the question, "What was the discharge date of your military obligation?" That was one thing that could not be altered. While discussing our futures over golden pitchers of wisdom brew, a light bulb went off over my head. My grandfather, who thought I was spending too much time wasting time when I should be looking for a wife, was on the board of directors of the International Brotherhood of Ironworkers. My brainstorm was to tell him I wanted to become an ironworker! The next day, he put a word in to the union, and soon after, I had my union card and a job at Fentron Industries.
The post office contract station in Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, 4130 E. Madison St., will close at the end of June. The store, however, will continue to sell the 39-cent, first-class postage stamps at its registers.A business decisionPharmaca bagan informing its customers on April 30 that the mini-post office would close. According to store manager Amy Schoenhoff, the store will now put all of its efforts into its health-and-wellness business: "We'll stick with what we do best. We're not specialists in postal regulations."Schoenhoff said no plans have been made yet for the space that the post office station now occupies. Its one full-time staff member - not a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee but a Pharmaca employee who received training - will continue to work at Pharmaca."It was a big surprise," said Greg Anderton, president of the Madison Park Business Association, of the closure. "The post office is such a wonderful luxury to have in Madison Park. Everyone uses it. [But] as a business, we understand Pharmaca has to do what's right for them."
Does anyone keep score on how many restaurants have resided at 1404 34th Ave. in Madrona? It started with Plenty, the delightful, upscale grocery café that was a good idea, but maybe ahead of its time. Then came Supreme, a clean and uncluttered restaurant, with original owner Tova Cubert at the door to meet and greet. The name stayed when ownership changed to Gordon Kushnick, who poured his enthusiasm into the restaurant, but not enough to sustain the concept. Enter Sapphire. Here, the gem from Queen Anne opened its second location, but yet another ownership change from Andre Gipson to the new ownership and talent of Rick Fox and Rob Smith (Triangle Tavern and now Q on Queen Anne). With it comes a new name: Drey's. This restaurant promises a menu of classic comforts and new favorites, a prominent bar featuring unique cocktails and the "penthouse shelf" with high-end liquor and a real, honest-to-goodness happy hour, from 4 to 7 p.m., so you can swing by on your way home from work.
On June 16, the Seattle Central Area Chamber of Commerce (SCACC) will commence its 23rd-annual Juneteenth festival, commemorating the end of slavery in America. The three-day event, also known as African-American Emancipation Day, will take place at Pratt Park, 1800 S. Main St., from noon to 7:30 p.m., and features guest speakers, poetry readings and plenty of food and entertainment."It will be a lot of excitement," said DeCharlene Williams, founder and president of the SCACC. "People can expect friendliness, a family environment, love, joy and peace - because that's what we celebrate."The first day of the festival, June 16, will be geared to toward youths. There will be an ice cream social starting at 3 p.m. and lots of music and dancing, with musical performances by SVI Records' Robert Redwine and DJ Sir Charles.Saturday will consist of a parade from Garfield High School, 400 23rd Ave., to Pratt Park, where the festivities will continue. The main feature is a guest speaker from the African American Council, and there will be performances by T.T. Minor Elementary School's marching band and the Garfield High School band.On Sunday, the festival's final day, Juneteenth will feature more live performances from musical bands from all over the area, along with food, dancing and other featured guests.
A group of young African-American teenagers are suspected in a rash of thefts throughout East-Central Seattle. While the police reports don't indicate that the same group of teens was involved in each of the thefts, each reported incident lists the suspects as being 10 to 15 years old and working in a group of four to five people. The first waveOn May 3, four separate incidents involved a group of about four teens breaking into vehicles. All occurred during school hours, and red was a prominent clothing color.The first occurred around 11:40 a.m. in Madrona in the 1500 block of 32nd Avenue, where a woman saw a group of four boys in her vehicle. They fled with a cellular phone, but left behind a black glove. One of the suspects had a red backpack.
With an $87 million renovation of Garfield High School scheduled for later this month, a local organization hopes to rescue the school's auditorium, named for the legendary Quincy Jones, from being torn down. The group known as United to Save the Garfield Quincy Jones Auditorium started after community members and Garfield alumni felt as though their voices weren't being heard. "It is important that the new students know the history of the school," said David Barfield, campaign manager and a 1968 Garfield alumnus. "There is a wealth of history right in that auditorium. I had suggested that the auditorium be saved before the renovations plans were made, but they never listened."For the generationsNeeding to collect 18,000 signatures to get the issue on the fall ballot, United to Save the Garfield Quincy Jones Auditorium is hoping to gather twice that total to force a vote this summer."A lot of people don't even know that they are going to tear it down," said Shellise Montgomery, 1986 alumna and group treasurer. "That's what happens - everyone finds out about it when it's too late. We would have loved to have gotten involved at the beginning."If the bill succeeds, it would force the Seattle City Council to pressure the school district into preserving the historic site. While the school itself, at 400 23rd Ave., stands as a city landmark, renovations in the 1970s to the auditorium took away any protection to the building."If they are keeping the third-floor gym and other landmarks from the school building, then they should keep the Quincy Jones auditorium," Montgomery said. "No one knocks down history and then rebuilds it."
If all goes as planned, Madison Park's improvements will begin next year - that is, if everyone can agree on a plan. The Friends of Madison Park, a grass-roots organization formed in April 2005, has been working with Seattle Parks and Recreation to raise money and implement plans to improve Madison Park. According to the group's fact sheet, it formed "in response to community desire for a safer, more accessible, more beautiful park."Just the factsMaurice Cooper, the new president of the Madison Park Community Council, said that originally the Friends of Madison Park was created to simply research the park and see what community members thought about the park. A steering committee was created. Since that time, however, The Friends of Madison Park has grown to become its own entity. "I don't understand why this whole thing hasn't been done through the council," Cooper said. The council has 21 members, and two people on the council's steering committee are also members of The Friends. Although The Friends group has brought reports to the council, Cooper said the reports have been vague and the council doesn't have a clear idea of exactly what The Friends' plans are for the park.
I decided today that the UPS delivery guy must be convinced that we either have our own shoe store, or that I'm married to a millipede.I've written before in this column about the inexplicable differences between men and women; you would think that after many years of marriage, actually to the same woman, I'd have a better understanding of the female's habits.Does the term "fat chance" ring a bell?I can look back and find a lot of reasons to criticize the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, but I can't help but wonder that his indulgence in behaviors like bribery, embezzlement and racketeering might not have been prompted in part by Imelda's propensity-or more accurately perhaps, addiction-for buying shoes.