Monthly Archives: February 2010

Clean and Green, Education, Local Events

Busy times ahead at El Centro de la Raza

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Making tamales. Photo by Noema of Intercultura y Cocina, via Creative Commons.
El Centro de la Raza has a lot going on in upcoming weeks at their building at 2524 16th Avenue South, including cooking and language classes, free tax prep, and electronics recycling.

Graciela Gonzalez, El Centro’s Human Services Director, is teaching a class on making tamales. The class fee is $50, and students will be able to take home a dozen tamales along with the recipe. Each class is limited to six students. The class dates are Saturday, March 20, from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm, or Saturday, April 17, also from 10:00 to 12:30. Sign up at Brown Paper Tickets.

El Centro’s conversational Spanish classes will begin on Monday, April 5, and will continue on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm until June 9. Students will be able to learn Spanish with other adults in a relaxed, yet professional setting. The class fee is $300. Here is the registration form.

All proceeds from these classes go to support El Centro’s human service, child and youth, and education and skill-building programs.

As we wrote in January, United Way of King County is providing free tax preparation services to low-income taxpayers at El Centro. Tax assistance is provided in English and Spanish by volunteers who are trained and certified by the IRS. The free tax prep services will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:00 – 9:00 pm and Saturdays from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm until April 15.

Those eligible for the free service include anyone whose household made less than $50,000 in 2009, and who is filing a basic tax return only (no rental income, business taxes, or sale of property or stock).

Lastly, El Centro has joined up with Cartridges for Kids to collect used electronics. Cartridges for Kids recycles the used goods, and then gives a
small donation to El Centro. You can contribute old iPods, cell
phones, video game consoles, printer cartridges, digital cameras, DVDs, and more.

The Cartridges for Kids box is in room 304, on the top floor of the El Centro building at 2524 16th Avenue South. If you have a large amount of stuff to drop off, or if you are unable to come up to the top floor for medical reasons, please call Elliott Jones at 206-957-4652 to work out the logistics.

Crime

Crime notes: Smash-and-grabs and a bank robbery

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Crime map
V - Vehicle break-ins, B - Burglaries, R - Robberies, S - Shots fired
Rosie Kirby writes, hoping someone might have seen something of interest today near her home that was burgled today:

We live on the corner of 13th and Hill St. in North Beacon Hill. Our house was broken into with what looks like possibly some sort of crowbar or having kicked in the door somewhere between 7:10 a.m. and 4 p.m. today, 2/22/10. Our neighbor (these are town homes) reports that she heard the door open and shutting around 1:00 p.m. but did not think to look and see if anything was going on. Luckily, not too much was stolen; however, we would appreciate any information or if anyone saw any suspicious activity. The burglar may have left with the laptops, money, and miscellaneous in a brown QFC paper bag. We had one hanging in the kitchen for recycling and they dumped the contents onto the couch.

If you may have any information that could help track down the thieves or recovery their stolen property, please call Rosie at 701-610-4555 or Seth at 206-914-0557 or email rak711@hotmail.com.

* * *

Recent selected BHNW-logged scanner activity:

  • 2/15 7:15pm near 29th and Hudson — Gunshots
  • 2/16 3:45pm near Beacon and McClellan — Bank robbery*
  • 2/17 6:15pm near 21st and Columbia Drive — Burglary/casing
  • 2/17 8:30pm near Beacon and Monroe — iPod robbery**
  • 2/18 1:30pm near Spokane and Columbian Way — Burglary
  • 2/18 8:00pm near 28th and Columbian Way — Gunshots

* Oddly, there are no additional details currently to be found about this bank robbery than what’s in the scanner logs at bhnw.org and CDNews.

** The time doesn’t quite match up, but the location and crime description sounds like “Robbery On Metro Bus on Beacon Hill Last Night” at SeattleCrime.com.

* * *

April Jahns reported a Saturday-night smash-and-grab on the mailing list and followed up with video:

Some punk smashed the passenger side window of our minivan last night. We got it on video – it’s pretty grainy, though. When Ryan is done converting and snipping and whatever else he has to do to the footage I’ll post it on youtube and send a link to the listserv. The person had to rifle around for a minute before finding a grocery bag (hid well out of sight) to find my stash of Valentine’s Day candy conversation hearts. Maybe he’ll get a cavity as his punishment.

We did call the police and since we have the video an officer came out and he dusted the van for prints and will pick up a copy of the video tomorrow. He couldn’t stress enough how important it is for us to call when we see someone suspicious walking around – it enables the officers to talk to fishy looking people. He said the report allows them to pull suspicious looking people over to talk to them. Of course, this happened at 5:10 am – if I had seen him walking by my house I would have seen him breaking into my car. A
car around the corner from us was broken into as well. The officer said there have been lots of prowls in this area (I’m at 16th & Bayview) and they have been patrolling but the commission of the crime is so fast that its hard to catch them in the act.

* * *

Mike Rosen wrote about another smash-and-grab Sunday night on the BAN list:

We live on the 1300 block of 13th Avenue South, close to Atlantic. Around 2 am the car alarm on our Honda went off. (I am sure some of you heard it.) One of us went down to check. No signs of break in. This morning I left for work and noticed the Eclipse that was parked behind the Honda had had its driver’s window shattered. I called 911 to report it, and they said that the owner must call it in. I left a note for the car’s owner. My older Subaru had not been broken into.

* * *

Update: While preparing this entry, there was a report of a man shot near the Mount Baker light rail station. From the SPD Blotter:

On February 22nd at approximately 7:11 p.m. officers on patrol heard shots fired near the light rail tracks at MLK Way South and South Winthrop Street. Officers searched further and discovered an adult male victim (possibly in his 30’s) who had sustained a through and through gunshot wound to the arm. The victim was transported to Harborview Medical Center for treatment.

Officers are currently interviewing additional persons who were in the area at the time of the shooting. A possible suspect vehicle was seen fleeing the area. That vehicle is described as a green Chevy Impala with shiny chrome rims. There is no suspect description available at this time. Officers continue to actively investigate this incident. Gang Unit detectives have been notified and will be conducting the follow up investigation.

SeattleCrime.com has been updating with additional information.

Opinion, Urban Planning

Opinion: Beacon Hill vs. Georgetown

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Drawing by Joel Lee of a potential woonerf or active alley in the Link Station Block, with El Centro de la Raza in the background. Please click through to see a larger version.
By Joel Lee

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. — Eleanor Roosevelt

All of this recent rezoning talk has gotten me thinking about North Beacon Hill’s business district. I’ve lived in many different areas of Seattle and although I love Beacon Hill, I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that does not work with our business areas. I love our coffee shops, funky grocery stores, and ethnic restaurants and I do my part to make sure that I spend money locally, but why do I so often find myself leaving the hill for other services? Some of the answer is obvious: when I want to go see a movie I head over to Columbia City Cinema or the Admiral Theater, since this is a service that I just can’t get in our neighborhood. But I also find myself going to Georgetown just to eat dinner or grab a beer after work. If you have been paying any attention you will have noticed that Georgetown has been booming for the last ten years, with many new restaurants and shops and just funky things going on. What do they have that we don’t?

First I decided I should look at available data to see if I could find some truths. According to Zillow.com, Beacon Hill has 4104 residences, our median income is $45,965 (above Seattle’s median income), our highest percentage age group is people in their 30s, and our average household size is 3.107 people. Add to this mix an awesome underground light rail station, stunning views, a large brand-new park coming soon, convenient freeway access, and a location that is a stone’s throw from downtown, and Beacon Hill has been dealt a winning hand.

Now let’s take a minute to look at Georgetown. If you can dodge that freight train and try to concentrate over that low flying plane noise for a minute, let’s try to take a look at their numbers. Depending on where you draw the line, Georgetown has a mere 379 residences, their median income is $33,654 (almost the lowest in Seattle), their highest percentage age group is people in their 20s, and their average household size is 1.94. Add to this mix a few Superfund sites, eclectic zoning, and some disjointed industrial areas, and it’s a wonder that Georgetown survives at all. Despite all of this, Georgetown is not only surviving, but thriving. Their vibrant business district has added new bars and restaurants almost yearly, and their events such as Artopia attract people from all over the region. Music stores, bakeries, multiple coffee shops, pet supplies, a beer store and antique stores have all opened in the last few years.

The Seattle Office of Economic Development (OED) recently released a study focused on retail in Rainier Valley. Although the study didn’t focus on Beacon Hill, one of the study’s main finds was “leakage,” which is roughly defined as people leaving their own neighborhoods to buy products and services in other areas. Just as Beacon Hill clearly suffers from leakage as many people leave the area for basic services, neighborhoods such as Georgetown clearly capitalize on this, since there is no way that the 379 people that live there could possibly support their range of businesses.

It’s hard not to conclude from this data that zoning alone will not fix our business district. Neighborhoods like Georgetown and Columbia City have certain less-measurable qualities about them that have helped them thrive. Chief among them has to be neighborhood pride, creativity, activism, long-term vision, building owners willing to take chances, investors with vision and tough as nails entrepreneurs that are brave enough to swim against our economic current. None of these are qualities that we can zone for; they are qualities that we must earn with a lot of difficult risk, vision, community participation, cooperation and tenacity.

Joel Lee maintains the Beacon Hill Public Art website and previously wrote about a vision for Beacon Hill’s “Post Alley.”

Do you have an opinion? We welcome opinion articles on topics related to Beacon Hill. Please email us your articles.

Getting Around

Beacon Hill Link station closed earlier, now open

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Photo of sign posted at the station entrance.
One of several signs posted on the elevators, ORCA scanners, and ticket vending machines at the station entrance.

12:08 pm update: According to an announcement on Sound Transit’s website, the station has reopened. However, you should be aware that the ticket machines at the station are currently not accepting credit and debit cards — cash only. (This problem predates the station closure.)

* * *

The Link light rail station at 2700 Beacon Ave S is closed. bhnw.org scanner logs indicate it is closed until Monday. Metro is running shuttle buses from in front of the station to Mount Baker Station on the east side of the hill. Sound Transit and Metro customer information lines make no mention of this closure as of 10am, but there is a posting on the Sound Transit website.

KIRO noted the closure at about 1am on Twitter: “ST: Beacon Hill Station is out of service, closed. They are experiencing some sort of signal issues. Back up bus service is available.”

Security personnel at the station do not have any information regarding the reason for the closure or when it will re-open.

10:10 update: After multiple attempts and a lengthy wait on hold, a Metro customer service agent says the only information they have is that “The tunnel between stations closed, shuttles until further notice on Saturday.”

The Sound Transit Rider Alerts page says:

Central Link Light Rail – Beacon Hill Station — out of service

Posted Date: 02/19/10 – 12:05 a.m.

Starting immediately and until further notice, Central Link light rail will not serve the Beacon Hill light rail station due to signal issues.

Back up bus service will be available at the Beacon Hill station to replace light rail service until the issues are fixed.

Updates will be provided as they become available. We apologize for the inconvenience

Updating… Come back for more as we get it.

Local Events, Meetings

Upcoming events: Camp, music, Duwamish, art, etc.

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Saturday, February 20th, 2 to 4pm: Camp Long at Jose Rizal Park

Monday, February 22nd, 7pm: Beacon Hill Music organizational meeting. From Paul Ray:

Jessie at ROCKiT space has again generously offered to host this meeting about organizing a Beacon Hill music series at ROCKiT Space (3315 Beacon Ave S., Seattle), on Monday Feb. 22nd at 7pm.

Things are starting to move along in our efforts to try and organize a series of 4 music events over the summer of 2010, performed at the Festival Street next to the Beacon Hill Link Rail station. This series would feature musicians who live, work or attend school on Beacon Hill or groups that contain members that fit that criteria.

Our permits were approved for 4 events, spread out over 4 Sunday afternoons, June 13th, July 11th, August 8th, August 29th, YEAH!

With the dates approved we are at the stage to start taking the steps to make this happen. The next hurdles are paying for the permits and the event insurance (and determining exactly how much the insurance will cost) and getting electricity to the site. But with the dates approved we are ready to start organizing the production of the events, including musician selection, communications and publicity, community outreach, and making plans for the staging on event days, etc. One of our goals at this meeting is to assign some actual tasks to some actual volunteers.

Anyone interested in this project is encouraged to attend.

Wednesday, February 24th, 10am to 4pm: Hanford Steps clean-up. From Jorji Knickrehm:

It’s been a long time since we worked together on the Hanford Steps! Let’s put a little work in, to make sure it looks good and is safe this spring. The weather is lovely and we’ve scheduled a work party. It’s during the week because the Larson Casteel Landscape company has graciously agreed to help us dig out blackberry, and they need to set the schedule (they owed us a little more time from our last grant). We’d love all of you to join in if you’re home from work and have an extra shovel.

The plants we put in last year are doing well for the most part, but blackberry and morning glory are trying to take over again. We need to dig out these invasive weeds while they’re young and weak. The more we dig them out, the weaker they will return. Weeding will be the main task of the work party.

Clean-up is weather-permitting. Jorji is bringing treats! You bring a shovel and/or pick, gloves, a treat for sharing if you can.

Wednesday, February 24th, 5pm: Airplane noise workshop, from Marco Milanese, Community Relations Manager at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, (206) 787-7734:

Part 150 Noise Study Public Workshop Set for February 24th in Des Moines

The first in a series of public workshops for Sea-Tac Airport’s Part 150 Noise Study is scheduled for February 24th at Mount Rainier High School (22450 19th Ave. S.) in Des Moines. Doors open at 5 PM, with the program beginning at 5:15 PM. The Part 150 Study will look at ways to reduce aircraft noise impacts on communities. Throughout the study, the public is invited to participate in the solution and recommendation process through active engagement in a series of topical workshops.

The February 24th workshop will include a brief presentation followed by facilitator-led, small-group working sessions designed to gather the public’s input on refining the scope for the Part 150 Study. So, please review the meeting agenda and come prepared with ideas.

February 24th, 6:30 to 8pm: Via Steve Louie, the Greater Duwamish council meeting at Georgetown City Hall. Agenda:

6:30 to 6:40pm — Introductions, Judith Edwards, GDDC -Chair
6:40 to 6:50pm — Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
6:50 pm-7:00 pm — Councilmember Mike O’Brien, Parks, Seattle Center, and Waterfront Planning, Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods
7 to 7:30pm — Q&A
7:30 to 7:45pm — Neighborhood Projects Fund, Judith/Steve
7:45 to 8pm — Announcements Park Safety/Rangers, Brock Milliern
Open

Updated 2/23 with revised agenda from Steve Louie.

Saturday, February 27th, 9am to 4pm: Credit Smart and First-Time Home Buyers seminar at El Centro

Saturday, February 27th, 6 to 10pm: Nepo (A humorous approach to the serious art of living)

Local Events, Meetings

Rep. Hasegawa hosts telephone town hall tonight

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Photo of Rep. Hasegawa
Rep. Hasegawa. Photo from housedemocrats.wa.gov
At 6:30 tonight, State Representative Bob Hasegawa will be phoning about 30,000 households in the 11th district (which includes most of Beacon Hill west of Beacon Ave.) and inviting those who answer to join in a one-hour “telephone town hall.”

If you want in on the call but you don’t want to find out if you’re one of the randomly selected participants, you can also call in by dialing 877-229-8493 and entering PIN code 15515.

Following the phone-hall, Rep. Hasegawa will also be hosting an in-person town hall meeting on Saturday the 20th at South Seattle Community College’s Georgetown Campus, Building C, Room 208 at 11am.

Rep. Hasegawa is looking for suggestions on how to make the 11th district and the rest of the state a better place to work and raise a family and, in these last three weeks or so of the current legislative session, help in deciding how to tackle the state’s budget deficit.

Thanks to Joel Lee and Heather Dwyer for sending this in.

Clean and Green, Urban Planning

Project update for BHIS playground

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Schematic drawing

Beacon Hill playground renovation schematic drawing. Click for full-size. View the original PDF from the Parks department.

Coming out of a community meeting last month, the Parks Department has made some changes to the Beacon Hill Playground renovation project at Beacon Hill Elementary, funded through the Parks and Green Spaces Levy which is providing $180,000 for planning, design, and construction. The project is expected to be completed by August.

Some changes of note from David Gackenbach:

Park Planners responded to input from meeting attendees and reconsidered the ramp placement, are removing some fencing and installing more planting, and are adding two pedestrian lights not in the original plan.

The meeting minutes including community requests, comments, and priorities expressed are after the break. The minutes are available in their original PDF form on the project web site.

Continue reading Project update for BHIS playground →

Beacon Bits, Urban Planning

Beacon Bits: Bees, bandwidth, and Buddhist temple fire

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Temple fire — The February 9th fire at the Buddhist temple on South Juneau Street near MLK resulted from a furnace malfunction and caused an estimated $75,000 in damage and displaced several people, but thankfully resulted in no injuries.

* * *

Slow video — Perhaps the most obvious sign that your broadband isn’t quite up-to-snuff is that streaming video stuh-stuh-stutters and re-buffers repeatedly. Sometimes this isn’t entirely an effect of the quality of the lines or the speed your provider is capable of providing to you; sometimes it’s the result of your ISP deciding that, rather than spend the money to improve its switching and delivery infrastructure, it will instead artificially limit how fast you’re allowed to receive high-bandwidth content like internet video. Google now provides a little insight into this situation with YouTube Video Speed History graphs, showing the average delivery speed for YouTube videos to your ISP (and, if you visit YouTube enough, your IP address) compared to the average speed for your city, state, country, and the world.
From BoingBoing via Joel Lee. Thanks Joel!

* * *

Local honey — Spotted on Craigslist:

…I keep bees. I have honey for sale. This is pure, raw, unfiltered honey. It has never been above bee hive temperature, it has never had anything added, and it has local Beacon Hill pollen in it. It is DELICIOUS! (If I do say so myself). I have two kinds: a lighter honey which is mostly maple and mild in flavor, and a dark fall honey which is complicated in flavor and almost spicy. If you plan to buy a bottle or two, I do have a sample jar of each so you can taste it before you buy it and decide which you like best. 🙂 Comes in 8oz oval squeeze bottles. $6/bottle. Providing your phone number will make it faster to arrange pick up.

The only contact information provided is the Craigslist reply email.

* * *

Food health inspections — The Health Department inspected a number of north Beacon Hill establishments recently, visiting Amazon, the Amazon coffee shop, El Delicioso (inside ABC Market), La Bendicion, La Cabaña, Chinatown Cafe #12 (inside the Red Apple), and Golden Daisy. Special congratulations to La Cabaña and the Amazon coffee shop for a perfect zero-violation scores. Anyone know if the Amazon coffee shop is open to the public?

* * *

Attention on appeals — Publicola points back here, covering the Hearing Examiner appeal strategy and the opposition to it.

Clean and Green

Valentine’s Day street clean-up follow-up

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Bags of garbage collected
Some of the 50+ bags of garbage collected Sunday in the Valentine's Day clean-up. Photo courtesy Pat McGannon. Click for more photos from the album.

Pat McGannon wrote to follow-up on the outcome of the Valentine’s Day clean-up effort between Alaska and Dawson near MLK yesterday (emphasis added):

The weather could not have been much better for the 17 volunteers that participated in the Valentine’s Day neighborhood cleanup that covered Mt. View, S. Edumunds, 30th Ave S., S. Ferdinand Street stairs, and Dawson St. in Mid-Beacon-Hill’s eastern edge. Temperatures climbed into the 50s and the sky held back its rain. Mother Nature even thanked volunteers with an occasional sunbeam breaking through the clouds.

Volunteers worked from 10:30am through 4:30pm to collect over 50 bags of garbage, one large bin of recyclables plus 7 car tires, 6 bikes, 3 children’s big wheels, 3 CRT computer monitors, 3 computers, 2 printers, a microwave, 5 buckets, and 2 lawn chairs that had been thoughtlessly dumped on this neighborhood’s streets. Seven hypodermic needles were also removed from the streets. Additionally, contents of a stolen purse were recovered.

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped to make this Seattle neighborhood a much cleaner and safer place to live! A thank you also goes out to Seattle Public Utilities for supplying the garbage bags, safety vests, work gloves, grabber tools, and post-event trash pickup! Please continue to keep the neighborhood clean by picking up litter on the street near your home each week on garbage day. The neighborhood looks great today thanks to all the volunteers!

If you’re interested in organizing your own street clean-up, Pat also mentioned that you can get free supplies through Seattle Public Utilities.

Great work everyone!

Crime

Crime notes: James sentenced, scanner logs, $7.5K reward

BHNW incident map
Selected incidents appearing in bhnw.org scanner logs. B - Burglaries, V - Vehicle thefts/break-ins, S - Shooting or weapons

Rodney James was sentenced to 30 months in prison for the December 12th alcohol-involved crash that injured Wah and Jason Wong on Columbian Way. The West Seattle Blog has minute-by-minute coverage of the sentencing hearing. Thanks, Seattle Times and WSB!

* * *

Man shot in robbery — On the night of January 7th around 10:15pm, a man was robbed by several suspects in a black Jeep in the alley between 15th and 16th, just north of Plum. After refusing to turn over his money as demanded, three of the suspects physically assaulted the victim and the driver, a white female, fired a small handgun, striking the victim in the left torso. The victim reports he escaped and heard two more shots as he fled. After returning to his home near 16th and Holgate and evaluating his wounds, he took a cab to Harborview and reported the incident to police on January 10th. The reporting officer was unable to correspond any 911 calls to the approximate time of the incident.

Thanks to Scott from CDNews for forwarding the police report.

* * *

Selected incidents of note, collected from bhnw.org scanner logs and recent mailing list postings:

Burglaries

  • 2/6 10:30pm near 13th and Bayview: Forced entry burglary.
  • 2/9 2:45pm near 25th and Bradford: Forced entry burglary.
  • 2/11 1:00pm near 21st and Waite: An attempted burglary. Police responded with suspect still in the yard.

Shooting/Weapons

  • 2/9 4:15pm near 33rd and Graham: A woman saw someone leaving something something in her trash. When confronted he pulled a gun on her and then jumped into a black Mercedes and left.

Vehicle theft

  • 2/14 near 19th and Spokane: As reported on the BAN list, a teal 1992 Honda Civic hatchback was stolen and replaced with a nearly identical vehicle(!). The missing vehicle has plate number 932VQS. The “replacement” vehicle, also presumably stolen, has plate number 187WHY.

Vehicle break-in

  • 2/15 8:30am near Beacon and Graham

Other suspicious activity

  • 2/10 2:45pm near 12th and Nevada: Two men came to the resident’s door and tried to get in. Perhaps unrelatedly, about three hours later a drive-by shooting occurred at this same address.

* * *

$7,500 reward for return of stolen data — Eriq Chang lost his entire business last weekend when, in a seemingly targeted occurrence, his home was burgled and the only items stolen were his computer and backup drive.

Following the break is a formal request, reward stipulation, and release of liability on return of the stolen data as drafted by Eriq’s attorney. If you can help Eriq out, contact his lawyer or email Eriq directly at eriq@eriqchangstudio.com or call 206-659-5585.

Continue reading Crime notes: James sentenced, scanner logs, $7.5K reward →