Seattle Public Schools have released their preliminary recommendations for building closure and program adjustment for the 2009 school year, and they are far from uncontroversial. Some of the changes will affect Beacon Hill and the rest of Southeast Seattle, particularly the programs at the African-American Academy, which are slated for cancellation.
Six buildings are recommended for closure: Genesee Hill, Lowell, Mann, T. T. Minor, Pinehurst, and Van Asselt. (Old Hay will close, but this may be temporary.)
Nine programs will relocate: the Lowell APP program to Hawthorne and Thurgood Marshall; NOVA to Meany; Pathfinder K-8 to Arbor Heights; SBOC to Meany; Summit K-12 to Rainier Beach; Thornton Creek to Summit’s current building, the old Jane Addams Junior High; T. T. Minor K-3 Montessori to Leschi; Thurgood Marshall’s EBOC to Bailey Gatzert; and Van Asselt to the African American Academy building on Beacon Hill.
The African American Academy, AS #1, Arbor Heights, Meany, and T. T. Minor programs that already exist would be discontinued.
Final recommendations will be released on January 6, 2009. With the holidays, there’s not a lot of time to get your opinions heard, so if you want to give SPS a piece of your mind, you should email SPS soon at capacity@seattleschools.org, call them at 206 252 0040, or mail your comments to School Board, PO Box 34165, MS 11-010, Seattle, WA, 98124-1165.
This other day we mentioned an altercation at a restaurant “just south of Beacon and Columbian.” This restaurant is the Saigon Nice, formerly the Tan Tuu Quan, at 4864 Beacon Avenue South, and things haven’t been so nice there lately: there was another fight last night, and two people were stabbed. One of the victims went out to his car and returned with a gun, but was stopped by security from re-entering the club. The suspects and victims then both fled. The victims later received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries, but the Seattle Police Department says “there is very little suspect information.”
The owners of Saigon Nice signed a Good Neighbor Agreement on June 4 with the North Beacon Hill Council under the guidance of the City Attorney’s office. Good Neighbor Agreements, or GNAs, are voluntary agreements between retail businesses and local neighborhood organization, in which the retailers agree to modify their businesses in ways that will restrict behavior harmful to the community. For example, a convenience store with a GNA might agree not to sell certain types of alcohol that are favored by street drunks, or might agree to remove a phone booth used by drug dealers.
In the case of Saigon Nice, we’re not sure yet what the exact terms of the GNA are, but this Mid Beacon Hill post from April suggests what the eventual GNA may have included: “…they will welcome police into their establishment, not hinder investigations, call police when they see suspicious or illegal activity, paint over graffiti immediately, keep the area clean, follow all the laws including not serve liquor after 2am and not serve minors, etc.”
Given the incidents of the past couple of days, the question is whether Saigon Nice has been living up to its GNA.
On the Beacon Hill mailing list, Shelly Bates writes:
“The GNA helps the community to have a little more influence over an establishment’s liquor license. City Attorney John McGoodwin, who works out of the S. Precinct, assisted with the GNA and will be following up with Liquor and meeting with the owner of Saigon Nice ASAP. If anyone knows of more information regarding the two incidents this past week or of any unreported incidents, please contact Mr. McGoodwin with that information at john.mcgoodwin@seattle.gov.”
Not a Culinary Communion pizza, but looks darn tasty, doesn't it? Photo by Gio JL.Rhonda from the Mortgage Porter blog recently took a pizza-making class at Culinary Communion on Beacon Avenue, and posted a Flickr set of photos of the class. If you’ve wondered what their classes are like, this gives you a good look at a class in their kitchen, and at some very tasty-looking pizza! My favorite photo, though, was the one of the chalkboard with ideas for different topping combinations: pear, prosciutto, bleu cheese; egg, bacon, spinach, feta; pumpkin, cranberry, sage, and bleu cheese… hey, that sounds like Thanksgiving Pizza!
Kathy wrote to alert us of a kitten found near 13th Ave S and S Shelton earlier this evening. He’s described as a young, several-month-old black and brown male tabby. He’s healthy looking and appears well-cared-for, and so probably hasn’t been lost for very long.
She took some photos (click for larger versions):
He’ll likely be taken to the shelter to be examined for an identifying microchip tomorrow, but if you can help determine who this kitten belongs to, please mail us and we’ll put you in contact with Kathy to get this kitty home.
Not to be a downer, but the news hasn’t been so good lately. We’ll start with some cheerful neighborhood organizing and then move on to the more depressing Bits:
Beacon Hill resident Deb Manuma has paid her rent faithfully for years, but, unjustly, will have an eviction on her credit record anyway, because of a deadbeat landlord — Seattle P-I
A couple was assaulted in a restaurant lounge just south of Beacon and Columbian last night. There was a verbal altercation, then five suspects hit the victims on the head with beer bottles. Police were called, the victims were taken to a hospital to be treated for cuts on the head, and the suspects fled the scene. — SPDBlotter
What is going on this weekend? 11 people shot and one stabbed in the Seattle area this weekend, including a shooting in Southcenter Mall and others in the Rainier Valley, Belltown, Skyway, and more. (When Jason told me about this Sunday evening, it was only nine people shot at that point.) Three of the victims are dead so far. When did Seattle turn into Detroit? And what can we do about it? — Seattle P-I
We visited the old Comet Lodge cemetery late Sunday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and the cemetery was quite moving and suitably autumnal. Berries in the setting sun.In memory of the Madeleskis. There is a penny on the stone.Gravestone detail.Stairway to heaven?The setting sun from Comet Lodge.
There was also a series of blatant break-ins on Wednesday, with a different MO. A Beacon Hill mailing list reader from North Beacon, near Taejon Park, wrote:
“We woke up to find a young white male, early 20’s, about 5’10”, fairly thin opening our kitchen window. He already had (his) head stuck through the window. We confronted him, he said he knocked (not possible we have three dogs) said he was beaten up and his truck was stolen. We called the police. I watched where he went when he left and wanted to follow him. He preceded to go through a gate in my neighbors yard a 1/2 hour later police were back. He broke in to their house and the alarm went off. Then he went a 1/2 block down and broke a window to get in another house…
“…This guy also only had his left shoe on a grocery bag on the other foot and was limping. He has a tattoo across his neck a name of some sort, short blondish spiked hair, no coat on, thermal long sleeve shirt and jeans. Almost forgot he opened my neighbors window in her bedroom while she was sleeping and tried to get in her window… This guy was seen again in my next door neighbors yard at 3pm the same day as the break in. My neighbor asked what he was doing and he replied he was just resting.”
A BAN list subscriber this week also mentioned having confronted the same guy in a neighbor’s back yard two weeks ago.
In response to this, another reader had a good point. Neighbors should probably have each other’s contact info, so when we see strange people crawling through a neighbor’s window, we can call and ask if the strange person is a stranger or just the neighbor’s son, home from college without his house key.
Andy's Diner neon may be gone, but the trains "roll" on as Orient Express. Photo by Buster McLeod.Andy’s Diner, on Fourth Avenue down in Sodo, was one of those places that always seemed like it would be really great. How could it not be, with the colorful, kitschy railroad cars, the old-time steak-and-martini house vibe, and the rumored ghosts? But when we did try the place out, the diner food was edible, not all that impressive, and a little pricey for what it was, so we never got around to going back. When Andy’s closed suddenly early this year, we were sad at losing another piece of Old Seattle atmosphere, but, truthfully, did not miss the food.
So it was good news to see that, rather than the teardown or removal to the suburbs that we thought would be in the old railcars’ future, that a new restaurant has moved in — an Asian restaurant called (of course) Orient Express. We checked out the Express recently, expecting possibly OK food, and fearing that the charm of the interior might have been remodeled away.
The place has been spruced up a bit. The cars’ exteriors have been repainted and the interior now sports a mechanical maneki neko with a beckoning paw, and a huge fish tank. The dining cars have booths with tall, dark seat backs, giving the seating a bit more of a Thirteen Coins vibe. The train pictures on the wall, however, are still there, and it’s not really fundamentally different in appearance from Andy’s. (The restroom could still use a major upgrade.)
The food, however, is a different thing entirely. The menu is both Thai and Chinese; not as huge a menu as some, but there are plenty of options to choose from. In our first visit with a group of four, we started the meal with Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce and Crab Cheese Wontons. The rolls were delightful, with fresh vegetables. The peanut sauce was overly mild for my taste, but the flavor was otherwise good. The wontons were quite tasty.
We continued the meal with a huge bowl of Hot and Sour Soup. Normally this comes with seafood, but one of the guests in our group asked if it could be made without it. This was not a problem, and the soup turned out to be the star attraction of the evening — spicy, but not too much so, and with flavor to spare.
We followed this with Orange Chicken, Honey Walnut Prawns, Phad See Yew (with tofu) and Pineapple Fried Rice. I don’t eat chicken, but the poultry eaters at the table reported that the chicken had a wonderful orange flavor, not too garish, but nicely citrusy. The Phad See Yew and Pineapple Fried Rice were excellent, and the Honey Walnut Prawns were a sweetish contrast to the rest of the meal with honey sauce and candied walnuts: delicious.
Our group loved the food, and we stuffed ourselves silly. The portions were generous, so we had quite a bit left to take home.
On our second visit as a group of two, we started with Tom Ka soup with tofu (five stars of spiciness, out of five). As in our earlier visit, the soup was once again excellent. It was brightly flavorful and very rich — almost buttery rich — and although we had asked for five stars, the spiciness in no way overwhelmed the flavor. The “two-person” bowl was large enough to fill more than four soup bowls. We followed the soup with General Tso’s Chicken which my chicken-eating spouse enjoyed (not garish orange in color as in so many restaurants, it actually looked like real food instead of food coloring), Yellow Curry with tofu which was rich and flavorful, and Pad Priking, which struck the only off-note of the evening, and that only slightly: the beans and spices were good, but the beef was a little bit tough. Despite that minor flaw, the meal was excellent and we will be back. One other small flaw: Diet Cokes there have that awful watery “bar coke” flavor. Avoid them and try the Thai Iced Tea, which is sweet and good.
The waitstaff are very friendly and helpful. The prices are quite reasonable, and the restaurant is open relatively late. The menu has photographs of the dishes, and proudly proclaims “No MSG.” Need more info? The restaurant’s website includes menus, photographs, and the history of the restaurant, including the background of Andy’s Diner before the trains became the Orient Express.
Orient Express 2963 Fourth Avenue South
Monday-Sunday: 10:30 am – 10:00 pm
Bar open until midnight, but 2:00 am on Friday and Saturday
Happy Hour: 3:00 – 7:00 pm Monday-Friday, 10:30 am – 5:00 pm weekends: 15% off.
I have periodically taken photos of the work on the reservoir in Jefferson Park. I’ve lived here long enough to remember the space surrounded by barbed wire. I know there are people on this list who still haven’t seen the view from this vantage point. On a clear day this winter, walk past the community and up toward the lawn bowling club. You won’t be disappointed!
Willie recommends that you choose the high-definition and full-screen options to view it in its full detail:
Seattle Parks and Recreation are seeking your input on their Walk in the Park program, and on better ways to get people to enjoy parks without cars. They are asking for activity ideas, locations for events and activities, suggestions of parks that are suited to road closures, and other similar ideas. Do you have an idea or an opinion? Fill out the survey here, or go to the Walk in the Park page to find out more.
