Beacon Hill Blog

Library hosting “citywide conversation” at Beacon Hill branch

(This post was originally published February 24.) The Seattle Public Library is holding five “Citywide Conversations” in March to find out what people want from Library services now and in the future. The City Librarian, Susan Hildreth, and members of the Library board of trustees will visit Beacon Hill Library (2821 Beacon Avenue South) on Tuesday, March 16 (that’s tonight!) from 6:00 to 8:00 pm to ask questions such as “What’s one thing you wish the Library could provide, or change? What’s the role of the Library in our community? What should the Library be doing in five to 10 years? How should the Library be using new technology?” You can drop in any time during the two-hour session to give your opinion.

The Citywide Conversations are part of a year-long process to develop a strategic plan to guide the Library’s growth and services through 2015.

For more information, visit the Library’s Strategic Planning page.

Tags: library

Beacon Bits: Cupcakes and buses and health inspections

Cupcakes coming to Victrola — Wink Cupcakes will be available through three Victrola coffee houses, including our own at 3215 Beacon Ave S.

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Health inspections — Asa Mercer Middle School, Dearborn Park Elementary, Maple Elementary School, Cleveland High School, Fiesta-Mex Video, Beacon Avenue Shell, Beacon Hill 76, Inay’s, Java Love, and Lucky Seafood.
Congratulations to Asa Mercer, Dearborn Park, Maple, and Cleveland for perfect 0-point inspections!

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SDOT wants your opinion on Metro’s electric buses that get their power from Seattle City Light. They’ve been pondering retiring electric trolley buses for a while, replacing them with diesel coaches. (And everyone knows that diesel is always reasonably priced.)

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Frank Nam spotted this topically-amended sign in the restroom at the Beacon Hill Library.

Tags: bathroom, coffee, cupcakes, electric buses, food, frank nam, health inspections, library, metro, sdot, trolley buses, victrola, wink

Beacon Bits: Anime, biking in Portland, local remixes

There is an Anime Club event at the Beacon Hill library on the second Tuesday of each month (that’s tonight!) from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The club is free and open to all, with no registration required. Each month there will be new anime episodes along with old favorites, and guests will also enjoy new manga comics and Japanese snacks.

The Beacon Hill Branch is located at 2821 Beacon Avenue South, a block south of Beacon Hill Station. There is a free parking lot behind the building. For more information, call the branch at 206-684-4711.

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Beacon Hill neighbor Willie Weir of Yellow Tent Adventures, along with his partner Kat Marriner, recently did a “week-long, fully-loaded bike trip within the city limits of Portland. We’re talking tent, stove, sleeping bags. No reservations. No hotels. An urban adventure at its frugal finest!” Willie will discuss the trip in a lecture, “Portland: An Urban Adventure,” tonight at 7:00 pm at REI, 222 Yale Avenue North. More information on Facebook (login required), or see the REI page. (The REI page has conflicting information about the event’s cost — it’s either free or $5.00.)

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Two nice shots of the downtown cityscape view from the PacMed/Amazon building were recently tweeted by MarkPrivett and lassielas.

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Two remixes of Helladope’s “Just So You Know” by Blue Scholars’ Sabzi, including the “Beacon Hill Slumlord” mix. — Matson on Music, the Seattle Times

Tags: anime, bicycles, blue scholars, helladope, library, views, willie weir

Beacon Bits: Antennas, art, and advice

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The bust of Dr. Jose Rizal on the north tip of Beacon Hill (in the park of the same name) is one of many around the world. The one in Washington, D.C. has gone missing.

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Art galleries on Beacon Hill have been few and far between, but Klara Glosova wants to change that. In November, she opened her house in North Beacon for one night as an experimental gallery space, the home_page.project. The current issue of City Arts has an article about Glosova and the home_page.project, and you can see a slide show here.

Glosova is putting together another open house; you can keep up with the plans at the home_page.project page.

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Free healthcare counseling sessions will be held from 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm on the first Thursday of every month at the Beacon Hill Library branch, starting Thursday, February 4. The sessions are open to all, with no registration required. A volunteer counselor, who speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and English, will provide one-on-one counseling on topics such as healthcare options, medical billing and Medicare.

The library is located at 2821 Beacon Avenue South, at the corner of Beacon Avenue South and South Forest Street. It is one block south of Beacon Hill Station, and right on the #36 bus line. There is free parking in the lot behind the building. For more information, call the branch at 206-684-4711.

Thanks to the Seattle Medium for this notice..

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Lastly, something I’m sorry we didn’t know about in time to see or promote — ’30s jazz and art inspired by classic cars? Sounds like a fun time. Here’s how the event went.

NAMSAYIN tweeted:

What happens when a guy from Beacon Hill combines art and classic cars together? You get this…

Tags: art, cellular antennas, clearwire, galleries, health care, jose rizal park, land use applications, library

Beacon Hill library hours won’t be reduced after all

The Friends of Seattle Public Library Blog reports good news: yesterday, the City Council voted unanimously to increase support for library services by $860,000 in 2010, which will allow the restoration of some library operating hours and staff positions that would otherwise have been eliminated.

With this increase, the Beacon Hill library branch will keep its current seven days/60 hours per week schedule:

• Monday – Thursday, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
• Friday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
• Sunday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Ballard, Broadview, Capitol Hill, Douglass-Truth, Greenwood, Lake City, Northeast, Rainier Beach, Southwest and West Seattle will also keep these hours.

Unfortunately, not all eliminated hours can be restored, and while Beacon Hill’s library hours have been saved, some other neighborhoods will still have the pain of serious cutbacks. The following branches will be reduced to a five days/35 hours per week schedule: Columbia, Delridge, Fremont, Green Lake, High Point, International District/Chinatown, Madrona-Sally Goldmark, Magnolia, Montlake, NewHolly, Northgate, Queen Anne, South Park, University and Wallingford.

Tags: budget cuts, library

Beacon Bits: Cheasty, permits, gardens, and snow plans

Cheasty Boulevard to get new brown street signs thanks to the Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks (FSOP)’s recommendation made after the 2003 Seattle Olmsted Park System Centennial celebration. More about the signs in Crosscut.

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Speaking of Cheasty, Green Seattle Day is tomorrow. They’re looking for volunteers to help out in the Cheasty Greenspace at 10am Saturday, rain or shine.

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Recommended boundary maps for Seattle Public Schools new student assignment plan. The school board votes November 18th. There’s one more public meeting on Saturday (tomorrow).

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The Friends of the Seattle Public Library encourage you to email the undecided City Council members and help keep the Beacon Hill Library (and several others) open more than 35 hours a week.

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Identical permits to “Construct alterations to replace doors, windows and install air blend fan, per King Co. Sound Insulation Bid Pkg. #7 and floor plan, subject to field inspection, [subject to field inspection]” have been filed for a number of properties in South Beacon Hill, running about $40,000 a pop. (Sounds like a construction company made the same mistake multiple times.)

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United Way and El Centro are again offering free raised bed gardens and gardening assistance for seniors.

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KOMO’s Travis Mayfield reports on the US Senate approving funds for Seattle Youth Violence Prevention and El Centro’s executive director Estelle Ortega being named to newly elected King County Executive Dow Constantine’s transition team.

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Metro has announced their new winter “snow plan” — West Seattle Blog

Tags: cheasty, el centro de la raza, estelle ortega, gardening, library, permits, youth violence

Beacon Bits: Vote Now edition

It’s election day! If you haven’t voted yet, you can vote today by getting your ballot in the mail before today’s pickup, or dropping it off by 8:00 pm at one of the six Neighborhood Service Centers (Ballard, Central, Delridge, Lake City, Southeast, and University) that serve as drop-off locations for election ballots. Additionally, the NSCs will be hosting open houses for any and all residents to drop in, enjoy refreshments, receive giveaways, and learn more about the Department of Neighborhoods, City services, and opportunities for civic engagement. In our neck of the woods, the place to be is the Southeast Neighborhood Service Center, 3815 South Othello Street #105, from 3:00 – 7:00 pm. The Center is just a couple of blocks west of Othello Station, past the Safeway.

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In the Slog, Charles Mudede has some uncomplimentary things to say about the Beacon Hill Library and its public art, but the commenters vehemently disagree.

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Speaking of public art on the Hill, the Times has a feature about artist Dan Corson, who created the “space forms” in the Beacon Hill light rail station. (Thanks for the tip, Joel!)

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Tags: beacon hill station, library, open house, othello, public art, slog, vote, voting

Help keep your library open more than 35 hours a week

Sign The Friends of the Seattle Public Library’s Facebook petition to preserve library hours at the Beacon Hill branch.

If Mayor Nickels’s proposed budget plan is adopted by the City Council unchanged, the library’s hours will be reduced to:

• 1pm to 8pm Mondays and Tuesdays.
• 11am to 6pm Wednesdays and Thursdays.
• Closed Fridays.
• 11 am to 6pm Saturdays.
• Closed Sundays.

More information about the 2010 Proposed Budget’s effect on the Operations Budget (collections and hours) and Capital (major building maintenance) is available on The Seattle Public Library’s website.

The Friends of the SPL want to hit 2000 signers on the petition today. It’s not out of reach at 1483 petitioners so far. Add your signature here.

Tags: budget, library

Beacon Bits: Fight library cuts, walk to school, do yoga

The other day we mentioned the potential reduction of hours at the Beacon Hill library. The reduction in hours would have the library closing entirely on Fridays and Sundays, and closing early on other days. The Friends of the Seattle Public Library blog has a post that clearly explains what you can do to help fight these changes, including attending public hearings (starting tonight), and contacting city councilmembers. Some Friends of the Library were at the Beacon Hill Library on Sunday handing out information about the closures and talking to patrons.

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October is International Walk to School Month, and local non-profit organization Feet First is observing the event by forming “walking school buses” at Muir Elementary School on “Walking Wednesdays.” Families, students and teachers will meet at designated locations and walk together to school. Walking groups leave at 8:40 a.m. from Safeway’s parking lot (behind Silver Fork), 33rd Avenue and Bayview (north of McClellan), Hunter Boulevard and South Hanford, and the Mt. Baker light rail station.

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We hear that Yoga On Beacon, at 3013 Beacon Ave South, is two years old as of October 1st. Happy birthday!

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The King County Council Town Hall YouTube channel has posted video from last week’s public transit town hall meeting at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club — unfortunately, the video’s just a one-minute collage with music and not very much context, and doesn’t give more than a hint of what the event was really like, or of the anger expressed by many Southeast Seattle residents who spoke that evening about the way recent bus route changes have affected their lives. Update: Al Sanders and Frank Abe from the Council pointed us to the full video of the meeting now available on their website as of this morning. Thanks guys!

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Seattle Public Schools have posted the proposed new Student Assignment Plan. In the plan, students attending Beacon Hill International School would continue to Mercer Middle School, which would probably become an international School itself. Cleveland High School would become a math and science option school, open to students from the entire district — Seattle Times

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The city has released its updated snow plan, mapping which streets will be plowed in the event of snowfall. If you want to express your opinions on the plan, a neighborhood meeting to discuss it will be on October 20, 7:00 pm, at Jefferson Community Center. — Beacon Hill KOMO, West Seattle Blog

Tags: king county council, library, muir, pedestrians, schools, snow, town hall, yoga

Beacon Bits: library cuts, transit, and Girl Scouts

Travis at KOMO reports that the Beacon Hill library branch could see a fairly drastic reduction of hours under the mayor’s 2010 budget proposal, including closing entirely on Fridays and Sundays. The proposal would also include another week-long closure like the one this summer. If you have concerns about this, now is the time to contact your city council representatives.

Also via KOMO, a story about Jay Park, who grew up attending a Beacon Hill church, then gained fame in a Korean boy band, then resigned from his band to return to Seattle, where his fans have been sending supportive gifts and letters — even spending money to hire an airplane to tow a sign to let him know how they feel. Unfortunately, the KOMO blog story seems to have offended fans of the band, who have left 171 comments so far expressing their anger. (Update: and over 1000 more comments on the same article spread among the KOMO sites it appeared on, like the Edmonds KOMO site. Yikes!)

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The Girl Scouts of Western Washington have two information nights coming up in Southeast Seattle for girls and adults interested in learning more about Girl Scouts. The meetings are Monday, October 5, 6:30 pm-7:30 pm at the Beacon Hill library, and Tuesday, October 6, 6:30pm-7:30pm at the Columbia City library. Potential members and volunteers are welcome. No registration is required; if you have questions, contact JoinUs@girlscoutsww.org or call 800-767-6845.

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Martin H. Duke has an editorial in Seattle Transit Blog discussing tonight’s County Council Town Hall meeting at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club and responses to residents’ concerns about Southeast Seattle transit cuts.

He writes,

“There are sins on all sides in Metro debates, but let’s not conflate the addition of a transfer, especially when one route runs every 8 minutes, with a total loss of service.”

Tags: boys and girls club, budget cuts, girl scouts, library, transit