There may be traffic delays on Columbian Way South today near the intersection with South Spokane Street where Seattle Department of Transportation crews will be repairing the roadway. One northbound lane will be closed on Columbian Way on each side of Spokane Street, and one westbound lane will be closed on South Spokane Street approaching Columbian Way. The sidewalks will remain open, and a police officer will assist traffic. The closures are expected to be in effect from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.
Earlier this week the City Council approvedOpportunity Fund grants for two Beacon Hill parks, Lewis Park and the Santos Rodriguez Memorial Park (El Centro de la Raza Play Area). The grants were awarded for the amounts recommended earlier by the Levy Citizens Oversight Committee: Lewis Park was awarded $260,000 for reforestation, and Santos Rodriguez Memorial Park was awarded $350,000 for improvements to revitalize the park and increase public awareness and access to the park space.
Previous BHB posts about this round of Opportunity Fund applications are here.
Volunteers are needed for a work party this weekend to improve these planting strips across from the Beacon Hill Library. Photo by Wendi.A group of Beacon Hill neighbors invite you to help beautify the neighborhood by re-landscaping Beacon Avenue planting strips at a community planting party this Sunday, March 20, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The project was awarded a grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to remove the existing clover and plant a perennial garden on the planting strips at the corner of Beacon Avenue South and South Forest Street, across Beacon Avenue from the Beacon Hill branch library.
Please wear work clothes and bring gardening tools if you have them. If you’d rather not garden, you can participate in a litter cleanup on Beacon Avenue as well. Food and drinks will be available. Questions? Contact Sara Stubbs at sara.mcdonald@gmail.com or 206.595.1829.
Octothorpe performed at last summer's Beacon Rocks!. Photo by Melissa Jonas in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.Do you rock? You can prove it at this year’s Beacon Rocks! auditions for musicians and performers. The live auditions for individuals or groups will be at Kusina Filipina, 3201 Beacon Avenue South, on the following Saturdays: March 19, April 2, and April 16, from 8-11 p.m. Alternatively, you can audition virtually by submitting samples of your work to beaconrocks@gmail.com.
Beacon Rocks! is a free all-volunteer outdoor music series held at the Beacon Hill Festival Street next to Beacon Hill Station. All styles of music and performance are welcome at these family-friendly, “Beacon Hill-centric” community events—you may rock, but you don’t have to play rock! There will be three shows this summer, on the last Sunday of June, July, and August.
The series is presented by Beacon Hill Music, “a community group formed to promote music, musicians and fans of music in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.”
One of the banner poles at Beacon Hill Station fell early this evening in gusty winds. The pole, one of three, displayed several cut metal banners as part of the “Community Threads” installation by artist Carl Smool.
Neighbors in the area strung ropes and put up warning tape while Sound Transit security staff moved some of the metal banners to a safer location after gusts of wind caught some of the downed banners and started blowing them down South Lander Street.
The damaged pole appeared to have broken at the point where it was welded to the base. The poles still standing seem to be constructed similarly, but were still holding steady this evening though they moved quite a bit in the wind gusts. Luis Rodriguez, owner of the nearby Station coffeehouse, was helping mark the area with warning tape about half an hour after the fall, and expressed concern for the stability of the remaining poles: “They should close this. Someone could get killed! These [poles] keep on moving.”
Photos and video of the scene at the station plaza this evening:
Sound Transit staff observe the fallen pole at Beacon Hill Station. Photo by Wendi.The cut metal banners that were attached to the pole. Photo by Wendi.The base of the fallen pole, at the point where it broke off. Photo by Wendi.
Photo by Tim Dobson via Creative Commons.Seattle Beer News posted a poll on Tuesday, asking “Which Seattle neighborhood most needs an additional beer bar or brewery?” At one point on Tuesday, Lower Queen Anne was in the lead, and Beacon Hill was way, way down in the list. Then someone mentioned it on the Beacon Hill neighborhood mailing list (I confess—it was me), and now Beacon Hill leads in the poll with 43% of the vote, followed by Lower Queen Anne, Upper Queen Anne, South Lake Union, Wallingford, and Magnolia.
When we did an informal neighborhood “Top of the Hill” survey in 2009, 18% of respondents answered “More/better pubs” to the question “What is Beacon Hill’s most needed amenity?” (The most requested amenity in the poll was “More restaurants, cafés,” mentioned by 23%, and coming in third, 17% said “A pizza place.” The pizza place is coming in June.)
Stuff is happening this weekend! There’s art, music, dancing, and more happening on (or even through) the Hill today. Here are a few of the things you might want to check out.
First, get out of bed and get over to the Maple School Natural Area work party at 10 a.m. today. This is a monthly event, held every first Saturday. Volunteers will help improve the parkland, then have a community potluck. More info here.
After the hard work, it’s time to enjoy some art, music, or dance. You have several choices tonight.
NEPO Little Treats presents Trotter, an exhibition of works by Amanda Manitach. The opening is tonight, Saturday March 5, from 6 until 8 p.m. Bacon-wrapped dates will be served, and there will be a screening of Cremaster 4 at 8 p.m.
Klara Glosova of NEPO House, smiling at last month's NEPO opening while holding a gun-shaped glass bottle. Photo by Dan Bennett in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.NEPO Little Treats is a series of monthly shows that focus on presenting new work by individual artists and small groups at NEPO House, 1723 South Lander. Regular open hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays 12 to 2 p.m. and by appointment. More information about NEPO House and the show here. Some photos from last month’s opening are here.
If a musical trip is more your speed, Light Rail, Dark Rail is for you. Live performers including the Beaconettes, Cafe Racer Sessions, Jordan O’ Jordan, Tahoe Jackson, and more will liven up Link Light Rail trains.
Start at 5:30 p.m. tonight at the International District/Chinatown Station for a “summoning performance” by Prawnyxx. Then at 6 p.m., enjoy a “Musical Tour Guide and Overture” on southbound trains to SeaTac. At SeaTac, you’ll deboard, then board a northbound train. One is Dark Rail, and the other is Light Rail—you don’t know which you’ll get. Head to Sodo Station for the after party at Radar Hair + Records, 2721 First Avenue South, at 7:30 p.m.
If you prefer swing dancing, stay up on top of the Hill for the Beacon Rocks!swing dancing fundraiser, from 8 until 11 p.m. tonight at the Garden House, 2336 15th Ave South. There will be a live swing dancing performance and swing-dance lesson by Savoy Swing at 8:15 p.m., a live cake raffle, and more. Suggested donations start at $10.
On Sunday at 3:30 p.m., visit our neighbors in Mount Baker to see the Medieval Women’s Choir perform a short concert at Mount Baker Community Clubhouse, 2811 Mount Rainier Drive South. The choir will sing medieval music with soloist Linda Strandberg, accompanied by period instruments played by percussionist Peggy Monroe and harpist Bill McJohn.
After the weekend’s over, don’t forget the UPTUN quarterly meeting, Nightmares and Opportunities: Broadstripe and City Underserving Neighbors on Monday, March 7 at 7 p.m. at Beacon Lutheran Church, 1720 Forest Street South. See our earlier post for more info.
Pottery for sale at last summer's Beacon Hill Festival. Photo by Jason.The Beacon Hill Festival is now accepting applications for vendors, donations, and volunteers. If you are interested, please contact Chris or Doreen at the Jefferson Community Center (206-684-7481) or email chris.ertman@seattle.gov for more information. The festival is being held on Saturday, June 4 from 11-4 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Glenn Herlihy.In late 2010 we received a grant from the Department of Neighborhoods to select a Design Team to create a schematic design for a Food Forest in Jefferson Park. The Friends of Jefferson Park Food Forest formed a Selection Committee with eight members for the purpose of interviewing and hiring as much talent as possible. After publicly posting our Request for Qualification (RFQ) we received seven highly qualified Statements of Qualification (SOQ) from design teams in the western Washington area. From there we narrowed it down to four design teams to interview.
This week the selection committee is pleased to announce a final decision to hire Harrison Design Team to facilitate and create a schematic design for the Jefferson Park Food Forest.
We chose this design team for not only their past work experience but their outstanding ability to engage, educate and facilitate the public in a design process. They are fun people with multiple talents for landscape design, permaculture food systems, ethnobotany and the facilitation process.
Briefly the team consists of:
Margarett Harrison is Principal of Harrison Design. She has over 25 years of experience in planning, designing, and managing landscape projects in both public and private sectors. She has worked for several local design firms including Mithun.
Jenny Pell is Owner of Permaculture Now. Her experience covers all aspects of permaculture consulting, design, site assessment, managing installations, and budgets. Fluent in Spanish, she has worked and taught around the globe.
Kris Pendleton is the Owner and Principal of Sound Urban Edibles, based in Seattle. He has traveled the world studying temperate agriculture landscapes.
Now we need you more than ever.
In late March, date yet to be announced, we will be holding the first of several design parties. They will be festive and educational workshops for the whole family. We plan on offering an ethnically diverse spread of food because food and nutrition is what we are all about. This project offers you the seeds to positive action, the seeds for a future with affordable nutrition for our community. Please join us; everyone is welcome.
Long live your Mother,
Glenn Herlihy
Friends of the Jefferson Park Food Forest
This Route 60 stop at 15th and Hanford is safe, but the stop just to the south at Hinds is proposed for closure. Photo by l0st2 in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.Metro Transit has announced that they will be reducing the number of stops on Routes 36 and 60 to improve the speed and reliability of the buses on those routes and also reduce costs, energy consumption, and emissions. The planned removals will increase the average spacing between stops to about 1,150 feet from the current 920 feet.
The two routes currently have a combined total of 137 stops south of South Jackson Street (including Route 60’s trips through Georgetown and West Seattle); 28 of these would be removed, including 20 stops on Beacon Hill. One new stop would be added, on 14th Avenue South at South Walker Street, where it would replace the current stops at South Hill and South College streets.
According to Metro, 11 percent of Route 36 and 60 riders who board south of Jackson will have to catch their buses at a different stop.
