Monthly Archives: August 2011

Getting Around, Local Events, Recreation

Tour the neighborhood on your bike Saturday

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Beacon B.I.K.E.S. is hosting a neighborhood bicycle ride this Saturday along portions of the future Beacon Hill Greenway. The ride will be a safe, slow-paced 5-mile loop (see the route in the map below) with few hills, suitable for riders of all ages, and will feature destinations such as Jefferson Park, local businesses, and two community farms (Alley Cat Acres and the future site of the Beacon Food Forest).

The ride will start at 2 p.m. at The Station coffee house, 2533 16th Ave. S. and finish at 4 p.m. at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Ave. S.

Questions? Email Dylan at dylan@beaconwalksbikes.org.

(Thanks to Christine Cole for the news!)


View spokespeople beacon ride in a larger map

Neighborhood Pride

Beacon Hill t-shirts for your toddlers

Little Orange Room has Beacon Hill t-shirts for your kids. Photo courtesy of Little Orange Room.

Ballard-based retailer Little Orange Room has introduced a line of neighborhood t-shirts for children. The Beacon Hill shirt features the Korean pagoda from Daejeon Park in North Beacon Hill, and says “b is for beacon hill.”

The shirts are available in children’s sizes, onesies through kids’ size 10, for $22 each. To find out more, visit the Little Orange Room website.

Getting Around, Urban Planning

SDOT wants your parking opinions

Cars parked at El Centro de la Raza on Beacon Hill. Photo by Wendi.
The Seattle Department of Transportation is currently surveying the opinions of both business owners and customers about parking. How do you decide where to park? What are your needs if you are a business owner? How can the parking situation be made better? Fill out a survey here. The survey should take about 10-15 minutes to complete.

The survey is part of an SDOT study of performance-based parking pricing strategies. In performance-based pricing, parking rates are adjusted depending on a set of data-driven characteristics. For example, rates could change by time of day or location, or seasonally. The expected result of the variable rates is to increase parking availability, and decrease the time drivers spend circling the block in search of a parking spot. This not only decreases the pollution caused by this practice, but also eliminates a fair amount of traffic. (This 2007 New York Times op-ed suggests that drivers searching for curb parking are about 30 percent of the traffic in central business districts.)

Volunteering and Giving

Rizal Park work party this Sunday

Craig Thompson sent this note to the BAN list. Potential volunteers take note:

This Saturday, August 13, a group of us who’ve worked to create a positive place around the orchard at Dr. Jose Rizal Park are going to have a work party, nothing too big, just some trail cleanup down to the orchard so this September, groups from Fred Hutchinson and Seattle Pacific University can access the site safely and effectively.

All tools will be provided, and we’re going to meet up 10 AM and go to 1 PM. We’ll cut back and haul up to the top a bit of brush – some of which is already down. It may be sunny, but long sleeves, long pants, and good shoes are what you’ll need to wear.

The Rizal Park orchard project was recently mentioned in a post in the Ear to the Ground blog from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

Dr. Jose Rizal Park is located at 1008 12th Avenue South.

News

PacMed proposal “won’t work” for juvenile facility?

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BHB news partners KOMO report that the proposal to move the county juvenile court and detention facility to the PacMed building may not get too far:

…Several neighbors said they had been personally contacted by King County Executive Dow Constantine earlier in the day.

“Three members of the group were contacted by the King County Executive’s Office indicating that a decision on PacMed should made by end of this coming week (Thursday or Friday),” reads the post on Facebook.

In a separate email circulating on the BAN list another neighbor writes about those phone calls:

“Earlier in the day several of us received a call from Dow Constantine’s office to inform us that the PacMed building probably won’t work for the project and we should expect a formal announcement sometime later this week.”

The latter comment was also posted here on the Beacon Hill Blog by Hans, the organizer of Sunday’s “No Jail at PacMed” meeting. Here’s the comment in full:

“We had a very constructive meeting on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 to discuss ‘No Jail at PacMed’. Earlier in the day several of us received a call from Dow Constantine’s office to inform us that the PacMed building probably won’t work for the project and we should expect a formal announcement sometime later this week. Needless to say that would be VERY good news. However, even if the jail does not locate to the building we still intend to make every attempt to engage Wright Runstad and let them know that the North Beacon Hill is very interested in whoever they select as a tenant and we would welcome the opportunity to work with them as a neighborhood.”

Arts, Local Events

ROCKiT space cancels some events, adds others

ROCKiTspace has made some changes to the event schedule for the next couple of months.

The Open Mic events on the first and third Saturdays have been cancelled, and there will be no Folk Night in August. The Folk Night concerts will resume on September 27.

Three events have been added to the schedule:

  • Beacon Blues and BBQ: 7:30 p.m., Friday, August 26 at the Garden House, 2336 15th Ave. S. Smokin’ Js will play acoustic blues. Barbecue, beer, and wine will available for sale starting at 6:30.
  • NEPO 5K Hilltop Celebration, Saturday, September 10, with live entertainment from 6-10 p.m. Stay tuned for further information.
  • Beacon Harvest Carnival, Saturday, October 8th. An all day free community event sponsored by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, with cider pressing, food, music, and more. Stay tuned for the hours and the list of performers.

Thanks to Betty Jean Williamson!

Meetings

“No Jail at PacMed” groups organizing

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Neighbor Hans writes:

For anyone who supports “No Jail at PacMed” we’ve organized a neighborhood discussion that’ll take place at my home on Sunday at 4:00. Several people with postings on this blog plan to attend. I live 2 blocks south of the building, on 14th Ave S. If you would like to attend, please send me an email and I’ll provide the address.

Neighbors have also set up a Facebook page to help organize against the Wright Runstad proposal, which would move the King County juvenile court and detention facility to the landmark PacMed building on North Beacon Hill.

Local Events, Neighborhood Pride

Lawn Bowling Club commended as Championship approaches

Washington State Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos (D-37) has offered a resolution commending and honoring the Jefferson Park Lawn Bowling Club, recognizing August 2011 as Lawn Bowling Month, and welcoming this month’s United States Lawn Bowling Championship to Beacon Hill and Seattle. You can read the resolution here.

Mayor McGinn and the City Council have also issued a similar proclamation, and King County Executive Dow Constantine has proclaimed August 24-29 as Lawn Bowling Week in King County.

The U.S. National Championship will take place at Jefferson Park Lawn Bowling Club on August 23-28. Volunteers are wanted, and spectators are welcome. Here is the schedule of events.

(Thanks to Nita Chambers of the Jefferson Park Lawn Bowling Club for the heads-up!)

BH in the News, News

More about the PacMed proposal

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The possibility that the King County Juvenile court/detention facility could move to the PacMed building on North Beacon caused a lot of conversation yesterday both here on the BHB and on other media outlets. KOMO (BHB news partner) covered the story, including quotes from neighbors Curtis Bonney and Craig Thompson.

Further coverage of the PacMed story comes from Eric Scigliano at Crosscut:

“At least one other prospect may still be in the picture: the Bellevue-based City University of Seattle, which, true to its name, has been trying to move to Seattle. ‘We have looked at their building, as well as a dozen other sites in Seattle,’ says City University spokesperson Christopher Ross. ‘We’re not far enough along in any of our negotiations to comment.'”