Beacon Bits: Internet outages, slow traffic, and health inspections

(We apologize for some delay in getting this posted. Our internet was down for a bit. Oddly, it went down just as I was preparing the story below.)

Neighbor Sebastian in North Beacon writes that he’s been having some Broadstripe trouble lately:

I’ve been having intermittent to complete Internet outages for 24 days, starting on 7/30. Cable TV has been out since 8/19. I’ve called Broadstripe 20+ times to ask for updates and for someone to investigate their Network issues with less than satisfactory responses. During a third service call on 8/19/2010, a Broadstripe technician finally discovered that the source of the problem is with Broadstripe’s network and not with the equipment inside my house. Unfortunately the issue still hasn’t been resolved and my Internet and Cable TV still aren’t working.

…I’m curious if anyone else has been having issues with their Broadstripe Internet and Cable TV service? I’m getting tired of dealing with an incompotent service provider and I’m wondering if anyone has had any luck dealing with them?

Anyone else having these problems with their cable lately? And does anyone have any suggestions for Sebastian?

(Editor’s note, 5:28 pm: Sebastian tells us his service is up and working again. How about the rest of you?)

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Like Beacon Hill internet service, traffic on Rainier Avenue South will also be moving slowly for a while. Southbound traffic on Rainier will be reduced to one lane between South Forest Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way South around the clock until early September. Construction crews are upgrading drainage and electrical utilities in the roadway as part of the Rainier Transit Priority Corridor Improvements Project to create a better waiting environment for bus passengers, improve travel time for buses, and improve parking conditions for automobiles. You can read more about it here.

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“Home to some of the very best views of downtown Seatown, it’s shocking that sleepy Beacon Hill is often overlooked, said Yelp’s “Neighborhood Spotlight” feature last week. The article touts our library as “stunning,” our cuisine as “out of this world,” and concludes that there are “so many reasons to buzz about this ’hood!” Read it here.

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Speaking of our cuisine, certain local establishments received their periodic visits from the Health Department. El Centro de la Raza, Dim Sum House, Elegant Gourmet Catering, Em Engo Beacon Grocery/BBQ Deli, Golden Daisy Restaurant, Holly Park Head Start Center, Jefferson Community Center, Sharon’s Lutong Bahay, and La Bendicion all saw the inspector in the last few weeks.

Congratulations to Holly Park Head Start Center, Jefferson Community Center, and Sharon’s Lutong Bahay who all had perfect scores of zero!

Click on the establishments’ names above to see the reports of each place’s inspection. Please note that having some violation points does not necessarily mean an establishment has a serious problem. It is common for even good establishments to get some violation points now and then. The type and number of the points are what matters. Here is some more information about the Food Protection Program.

3 thoughts on “Beacon Bits: Internet outages, slow traffic, and health inspections”

  1. Thanks for posting the note about Broadstripe. It looks like my Internet and Cable TV are back up now and hopefully 25 days of Internet connectivity problems are now over. Once Broadstripe figured out there was a problem they were fairly quick to respond. The biggest issue was the fact that it took them so long to discover the root cause of the issue.

    I’m hoping they will now try to be more proactive rather than reactive to resolve these types of problems going forward… However, the biggest remaining issue is the lack of real competition in our neighborhood. Clear reached 6 Mbps and Qwest a dismal 1.5 Mbps. I was able to start a conversation with the city of Seattle about the lack of choice and city officials from the Broadband Initiative promised to follow up with Qwest to see if there are plans to increase capacity.

    Thanks to all of the Beacon Hill neighbors who responded to my e-mail!

    Sebastian

  2. Sebastian,
    I had a lot of fun sicking the city of Seattle on Broadstripe for a similar experience. There is this thing called a cable customer bill of rights. Call the office and complain.

    http://www.seattle.gov/cable/

    http://www.seattle.gov/cable/2001_Bill_of_Rights.htm

    You should have had your outage addressed within 24 hours per the bill of rights so they are already in violation. Please please report your experience to the city so they can log it in Broadstripe’s file. Enough complaints and they’ll go looking for another provider (in theory).

  3. The Golden Daisy Restaurant always is in serious Health Violation violation. I wonder how they can stay in business. How is the food?

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