CDNews introduces a proposed $450 million city-run broadband system that could be financed through municipal revenue bonds issued against future subscriptions with initial service starting in just 18 months, expanding city-wide in 3 to 4 years.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Seattle had decided that the city could step in and provide what private industry was failing at. In 1900, the privately owned Seattle Electric Company provided power to residences and businesses across the city. But at $.20 per kilowatt-hour, it was expensive – several times more expensive than today. In inflation-adjusted terms, those rates would make your typical $75 electric bill in 2010 skyrocket up to $4,000.
So in 1902 city voters decided to allow the city to issue bonds to start a municipal electric system, and today we have Seattle City Light, which provides some of the lowest electric rates across the nation.
This coffee-colored building near El Centro is about to become a coffee shop, "The Station." Photo by Joel Lee in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.The Seattle Weekly‘s food blog, Voracious, reviewed one of our favorite hidden food gems on Beacon Hill: the Beacon Avenue Shell Station. Yes, a gas station. The reviewer got a disappointingly old filet of catfish, but we know that if you get there at the right time the stuff is dee-lish.
The Beginner (Plus) classes begin Monday, April 5, and will continue on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm until June 9. The class fee is $300, which goes to support the programs at El Centro. If you have questions or want to enroll, call Enrique Gonzalez at (206) 957-4605 or email execasst@elcentrodelaraza.org. Registration deadline is March 31.
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We are told that on March 1020, the PLOP! Cabaret Performance Series will come to “an intimate house setting” somewhere on Beacon Hill, featuring poets Kate Lebo, A. K. “Mimi” Allin, and Jennifer Borges Foster. More info here.
“I am interested in putting together a small craft show in the Beacon Hill neighborhood this spring. I am posting to see if other crafters are interested in getting involved. I already have a venue (it’s a great place that I am super excited about!) and ideas for putting on the show. Please email me if you are interested in being a part of planning or if you would like to be a vendor at the event.”
Go to the Amazon WebStore Beta Invitation page. Look at the image in the lower right, featuring a retailer named “BH”. According to Techflash, “BH” stands for Beacon Hill; it’s a fake retailer that Amazon uses when they want to show off their new features without using a real company’s name. Amazon may be leaving the Hill soon, but perhaps they will keep a little bit of Beacon Hill with them for a while.
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The Filipino Community Center in the Rainier Valley is hosting a Community Forum on the 2010 Census on Thursday, March 11 at 6:00 pm. The forum will offer people the opportunity to ask questions and review the census forms. The Filipino Community Center is located at 5740 Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.
Proposed Beacon Arts logo by Joel Lee.It’s an interesting time for the arts on the Hill these days.
Monday night at the Beacon Hill Library, the first meeting was held to organize a Beacon Arts Council. Jessie McKenna of ROCKiT Space reports:
“A group of artists, neighbors and artist-neighbors gathered (Monday) at the Beacon Hill branch of the library and discussed organizing something of a Beacon Arts Council. A few of us volunteered to be on the steering committee for such an organization. We secured a web domain name and a Ning site (a social networking site like the one ROCKiT space uses) and began the process of building an online presence as well as a physical presence. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 5th, 6:30-9:30pm at ROCKiT space (3315 Beacon Avenue South) and is open to all interested parties.
Speaking of the ROCKiT website, if you go there you can find information on the Beacon Rocks! music festival currently planned for the Lander Festival Street on June 13, July 11, August 8, and August 29. Interested in volunteering? Glad you asked!
In the visual art realm, Beacon Hill may not have any traditional art galleries, but it’s home to one very cool non-traditional one, home_page.project. Artist (and neighbor) Klara Glosova occasionally turns her home into a venue for art. On Saturday she hosted a show called “Nepo” (it’s “open,” backwards), in which the whole house—one lived in by Glosova’s whole family—was filled with art, including sculpture, painting, video, and music: “a visual experience perched on the threshold of spontaneous creative experience and perfected mastery.” There’s even art in the bathroom and the bedroom closet! If you missed Saturday’s show, you can still see it today, March 6, from 4:00-6:00 pm, at 1723 South Lander Street, just a block east of Beacon Hill Station.
Bev Graff of Findlay Street Church opens a presentation on the new church building to be built at 14th and Bayview. Photo by Wendi.If you didn’t make it to the NBHC meeting Thursday night, here are a few things you missed:
Al Terry and Barb Graff from Findlay Street Church presented the plans for their new sanctuary with affordable housing to be built at 14th and Bayview. You can see the slides on the church’s website. Some concern was expressed about parking impacts, but by and large the proposed development appeared to be welcomed.
Cheryl Sizov from the Seattle Department of Planning and Development presented an introduction to the DPD’s process of revising the Seattle Citywide Design Guidelines, originally created in 1993, used in the design review process, and used as the baseline for the various neighborhood design guidelines since. Largely, it’s a simplification and clarification measure, reducing the five original categories to three and the 31 original guidelines to 13, but bringing extra attention to the “sub-issues”, increasing them from 19 to 50. See the proposed revisions on the DPD website. Public comment is accepted until March 31st.
A motion was made to provide a vote of support to Glenn Herlihy’s 12-acre multi-focal gardening project on the western edge of Jefferson Park along 15th Ave S (some details in the forum), for use in applying for $250,000 in grants to advance the project. There was hesitance expressed by several attendees about issuing formal support for a project most of the council wasn’t terribly familiar with, and the motion was tabled until the April 1st NBHC meeting. Hopefully, there will be more details about the plan available here or in the forum by then.
David Gackenbach and Andrew Abian presented some initial thoughts about submitting for Parks funds for a project that would add to the open green space on Beacon Hill by using grant money to negotiate the purchase of the entire block at 17th and Walker, currently occupied by a single home, and converting it to a park. Expect more details about this project to appear here on the blog soon.
A neighbor involved with the 12th and Stevens power pole situation reported having their best meeting yet with Seattle City Light last Thursday, and that they are feeling optimistic. NBHC Chair Judith Edwards said “City Light is actually bending!”
This was another well-attended meeting, with likely more than fifty neighbors turning out. Next month, expect an appearance by City Council member Sally Bagshaw, speaking about parks and open space. Hopefully we’ll see you there!
The ramp from South Columbian Way to the West Seattle Bridge, and the westbound, right hand lane on the South Spokane Street Viaduct from I-5 to Harbor Avenue Southwest will be closed on Sunday, March 7, from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm to allow crews to clean drains for the Spokane Street Viaduct widening project. Plan accordingly.
View Larger Map. Expect construction delays at this location next week as new dynamic signs are installed.
The Seattle Department of Transportation will be installing new dynamic (electronic) messaging signs at several locations in the city next week, including South Columbian Way/14th Avenue South near the freeway ramps. The new electronic signs will provide improved traffic information to travelers.
The signs will be installed during the daytime next week, March 8 to 12. The work will start in Crown Hill and progress down the list to Columbian Way, which is last, so we can probably expect lane closures and construction slowdowns at Columbian and 14th from the middle to end of next week. Expect some delay and congestion during this time.
The other locations that will receive the new signs are in Crown Hill at 14th Avenue NW and Holman Road NW, 15th Avenue NW just south of Ballard High School, and on 15th Avenue West near the Magnolia Bridge.
North Beacon Hill Council meeting, 7:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library (2821 Beacon Avenue South), with folks from the Findlay Street Church in attendance to talk about the development at 14th and Bayview, proposed City of Seattle development guidelines with the Department of Planning and Development, Parks Opportunity Fund info, 12th Avenue/City Light meeting details, Beacon Arts Council and Merchants Association info, and more.
FRIDAY 3/5:
City Year Breakfast Of Champions, 7:30 to 9am. Meet current members and staff, learn how to join, and have breakfast!
Technology Matching Fund grant applications due by 5pm. Last chance this spring to apply for matching grants of volunteer labor, materials, professional services, or cash through the TMF program.
Sodo Grocery Outlet grand opening with prizes and events from 8am to 6pm at 1702 4th Ave S. (There’s also a ribbon cutting ceremony — with refreshments! — the day before at 11:30am.)
The removal of construction scaffolding from some offramp overpass projects in Sodo will prevent Link Light Rail from running north of Sodo station at Lander Street this weekend. From our news partner, the Seattle Times:
Link light-rail service will not run through the downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel and parts of the Sodo area this weekend as state Department of Transportation contractors remove scaffolding supporting a new offramp over the tracks and station just south of downtown.
Free bus shuttles will carry Link passengers from the Sodo light-rail station at South Lander Street via Sixth Avenue South to the tunnel stations. King County Metro and Sound Transit bus routes that normally use the Sodo busway will also be detoured during the work.
