Certain kids could have found a better way of spending their spring break on South Beacon Hill this morning. Two juveniles suspected of burglarizing a house in the 8400 block of 37th Avenue South ran from police, broke into a nearby home, and then refused to come out. The SWAT team came out and surrounded the house, and eventually the youths were taken into custody around 10:30 am. KIRO has a picture of the standoff, and the P-I has a brief story as well.
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Lunch Counter, Swinery follow Culinary Communion to oblivion
The “dramatic tale of oh!”, as Nancy Leson put it in her All You Can Eat blog at the Seattle Times, was not yet over. This week Claycamp sent out an email stating that King County has now given him permission to sell the Swinery’s bacon legally. But on the other hand, they have now lost their lease and “will be for sure out of the building by the end of the month.” Lunch Counter? Closed. (That was fast.) Swinery? Sort of closed, but they say they have “24 days to make and sell some bacon,” along with t-shirts that read “BACON PIMP.”
And this is where the situation gets even more convoluted. While the Swinery now has a permit to sell bacon (and only bacon, no other cured meats) legally, the annual permit to run a restaurant/food establishment from the Culinary Communion House on Beacon Avenue expired on March 31. The bacon-selling permit assumes that the bacon will be sold from a legally-permitted establishment, which CC House is not. Unfortunately, the fees to renew CC House’s restaurant permit are not pro-ratable, so Gabriel and Heidi would have to pay either a year’s fee or a six-month seasonal fee to be able to sell bacon they plan to sell for the rest of April.
Claycamp has also withdrawn his application to sell at farmers’ markets, so the Ballard Farmers’ Market sales mentioned on the Swinery web site won’t be happening, nor will any other market sales.
There are more messy details, both in Leson’s story and from Rebekah Denn in Eat All About It.
The one result we can be sure of at the moment is that the Culinary Communion House on Beacon is going to be very vacant, very soon. Perhaps a nice pizza restaurant could open there instead?
Parking permits near light rail stations to be free until 2011
The city announced today that eligible residents and businesses near light rail stations will receive free Residential Parking Zone (RPZ) permits until Spring 2011. RPZs are intended to keep out-of-area commuters from using the areas around the stations as park-and-rides for the light rail and preventing local residents from being able to park.
Normally, a permit is $45 per vehicle for a two-year permit, but to ease the transition to the RPZ program, the city will provide two no-cost RPZ permits per household or business through spring 2011, along with one no-cost guest permit. If you need more permits, you can purchase them at the normal price, $45 per vehicle ($10 for low-income residents). Applications for permits will be sent out in May, and enforcement of the new zone will begin in July when the light rail system starts operation.
Find more about the light rail station-area parking plans here, and specifically about the Beacon Hill station, which will be Zone 28, here.
Beacon Bits: Recession affects light rail area development and local cut glass company
- If you’re wondering where the expected “building boom” along the light rail route on MLK is, you’re not alone. The Seattle Times reports that projects are being delayed — sometimes permanently — by the current recession’s tight credit and overall economic malaise. The South Seattle Beacon recently discussed this issue as well, with representatives of the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund and the city’s Office of Economic Development suggesting that the current situation is a “great opportunity” to focus upcoming development.
- Speaking of development near the light rail line, we meant to post this last week: a PDF of Sound Transit’s plan for the Beacon Hill light rail station area. The gray areas that say “future development” are not owned by Sound Transit and will be fenced off by chain link fence after the construction is complete. It’s up to the property owners to decide what to do with those areas, and their plans are unknown at the moment.
- Also in the Times, Kusak’s Cut Glass, at the foot of Beacon Hill just off Rainier Avenue on 22nd, was founded in Seattle nearly a century ago, in 1914. The company was named “the Northwest’s family-owned small business of the year” by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Seattle office last year. And now, in the recession, it is struggling, but determined, to survive.
On a positive note, the cherry trees are blooming! (A little late this year, aren’t they?)
Commentary: Beacon Hill’s internet service needs improvement
(Editor’s note: This commentary was originally sent as an email to several members of the Seattle City Council today, as well as to the Beacon Hill Mailing List. Coincidentally, this evening our Broadstripe internet service was out for more than one hour.)
After comparing notes with some of my neighbors about their internet service, I thought I should ask once again for some relief from the dismal internet service we have on Beacon Hill. I have written to council members before on this topic and I have uniformly gotten referred to some bureaucrat by whichever elected council member I wrote to. Each time the bureaucrat was very nice, asked a couple of questions, and described the service we have, and refreshed the picture of whatever stage the City was in at the moment in negotiations with the monopoly providers of cable. And then they would sum it up by telling me that we have great internet service. If this is going to be another replay of that merry-go-round, just delete this message. If you actually give a damn about the ability of this city to incubate new small business in the south end, then please read on and reply.
The first thing you have to take seriously is that there is a problem. The second is that it won’t be solved without adding new competitive service provider(s) to Beacon Hill. By competitive, I mean services with higher real delivered, as opposed to advertised, upload speeds than Comcast and Broadstripe offer to their business class customers now, and with much better net neutrality in bandwidth management practices.
Continue reading Commentary: Beacon Hill’s internet service needs improvement
Sinkhole develops over light rail tunnel
The P-I reports on a sinkhole that appeared at 18th and Lander above the northbound light rail tunnel. Numerous trucks delivered fill material today to solidify the 18-inch hole that widened as it descended. Sound Transit is monitoring the area for any further problems.
(Edited: An earlier version of this post said that the sinkhole developed “due to Sound Transit construction.” The cause of the sinkhole has not been determined.)
Jefferson Park Expansion community meeting scheduled for April 21
At this meeting, Parks staff and the community will discuss the community’s priorities for Phase Two of the expansion project, and the community will hear an update on Phase One. Design of Phase Two begins later this year. For more information, contact Kim Baldwin, Project Manager at 206-615-0810 or kim.baldwin@seattle.gov. For translation services at this meeting, contact Karen O’Connor at 206-233-7929.
Beacon Hill past and present: Hinds, 14th, and Columbian Way
There are a few changes from the 1956 photo to today, though the site is still clearly recognizable. This is just north of where Columbian Way carries the I-5 and West Seattle Bridge ramp traffic up toward Beacon Hill.
In the 1956 photo, there are much fewer trees and plants than we see in the modern view. The empty lot on the left side of the old photo is now the big apartment building at Columbian and Spokane, though it’s hidden behind trees in the new photo. The Columbian/Spokane intersection is rather busy now, but there’s no obvious traffic signal there in the 1956 photo.
The sidewalk on the right side of 14th no longer exists; the space is now blocked by a chain-link fence. And the car turning right onto Columbian at the bottom of the hill is doing something that is no longer legal; 14th is a one-way street going northbound in this area now. However, while I was taking the current-day photo, a car sped past me, down the hill, and took the right turn anyway.
Here’s another 1956 photo of this location:
