All posts by Wendi Dunlap

Editor of the Beacon Hill Blog.
Local Events

Beacon Rocks! rolling onward

Beacon Hill Music logo The Beacon Rocks! music series project planned for this summer is moving full-speed ahead. Beacon Hill Music, the community group that is putting the event together, has been awarded a Small Sparks Fund grant. The Small Sparks Fund of the Department of Neighborhoods provides awards of up to $1,000 to support community efforts such as events and neighborhood organizing. They have awarded Beacon Hill Music $860 for the “Beacon Rocks!” series, which will pay for the permits for all four events this summer.

There are two fundraisers for Beacon Hill Music: a Backyard Party scheduled for Sunday, May 16 from 3:00 to 7:00 pm, and a Dance Party on Saturday, May 22 from 7:00 pm “till we drop”. To RSVP for either event and get addresses and other information, email beaconrocks@gmail.com.

The final Beacon Idol event of 2010 is Saturday May 29 at 7:00 pm. If you live, work, or go to school in Beacon Hill, you can audition for Beacon Rocks! at the Beacon Idol event. If you’re not a performer, come and cheer the contestants on. The event will be at ROCKiT Space, 3315 Beacon Avenue South.

The Beacon Rocks! shows are a free, outdoor, family-friendly Beacon-centric music series, including all styles of music, and will be held on June 13, July 11, August 8, and August 29 at the new Festival Street next to Beacon Hill Station at Beacon Avenue South and South Lander Street.

For more information about Beacon Music and Beacon Rocks, see the website.

Food and Drink, Local Business, Local Events

A Touch of Sweden promises pastries on Saturday

16 Comments
Photo of Swedish bulle pastry by Dick Rochester.
A Touch of Sweden is coming to Beacon Hill this weekend, bringing Scandinavian cakes and pastries to the Beaconian masses, as well as new life to a building that has been closed to the public for the last year. This new baking business will be catering and selling baked goods to order, including Swedish pastries such as cinnamon rolls, chocolate/almond beskvis, farmers’ cookies, dream cookies, and princess cakes.

Kajsa Soderlund and PopTop Rising are hosting an opening event this Saturday, May 1, to introduce their selection of baked goods. Sampling tickets will be available and everything will be at a reduced, introductory price. There will be Mother’s Day cakes, raspberry mousse cake, and chocolate mousse cake, as well as free coffee. Soderlund says, “We will be taking orders for Mother’s Day cakes or other requests too.”

The event will take place on May 1 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm at the former Culinary Communion house, 2524 Beacon Avenue South.

“A Touch of Sweden” is renting kitchen space from the new tenant of the house, so it won’t be a full-time bakery just yet. However, Soderlund tells us that they plan to have open hours when people can stop by to place advance orders, though the hours aren’t yet finalized.

The kitchen will be busy; we hear that there may be a new restaurant opening in the Culinary Communion building soon. We’ll post more details about the restaurant as we get them.

In the meantime, Soderlund says “We are very happy to be able to bake at this beautiful kitchen and would love to see you there.”

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Bumps, bacon, and the blues

2 Comments
This pothole was found somewhere on Beacon Hill by photographer sodoheights, who added it to the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr. Thanks!
The “Bumper to Bumper” column in the Seattle Times addressed a much-discussed Beacon Hill topic this week: Beacon Avenue’s bumpy pavement outside of the light rail station. According to a spokesman for Sound Transit quoted in the column, we should be seeing some relief for the the poor pavement when that segment of Beacon is repaved in the next couple of months.

* * *

Some Beaconians might be curious about what happened to former Culinary Communion operator Gabriel Claycamp and his pork emporium, The Swinery, after Claycamp decamped from Beacon Hill back to West Seattle last year. It turns out the road has not been entirely smooth (some of the comments on that post are interesting, to say the least), but Claycamp and the Swinery did get a positive write-up from the New York Times’ T Magazine Blog recently.

* * *

Elliott Jones of El Centro writes with more news about tasty tamales:

Have you been one of the lucky attendees of El Centro de la Raza’s tamale classes? Chances are, you haven’t – they have been wildly popular and have been selling out quick! Here’s a link to sign up for the next one, on May 15th (they are every 3rd Saturday, by the way).

Our April class is this Saturday, so that means that even though you might not be able to learn how to make them yourself, this month, you can still purchase some! Tamales are $12/dozen and you must order by Wednesday at 5pm.

To order, call Ashley Haugen at 206-957-4611 or e-mail development@elcentrodelaraza.org.

* * *

The Dana Lupinacci Band is playing blues and jazz on Thursday night at the Beacon Pub, 3057 Beacon Avenue South. Show is at 8:00, and there is no cover charge.

Also in musical news on the Hill: We neglected to mention that Beacon Hill’s own Blue Scholars were featured in The Stranger a couple of weeks ago.

* * *

Some lowlife stole a couple of kids’ bikes right off their front porch. “1 royal blue/silver/black 20″ mongoose, BMX style with pegs. Right handbrake is cracked. 1 lime green/silver 20″ Next, BMX style with pegs.” If you’ve seen them, please contact the parents.

* * *

Denise Louie Education Center is holding their Fifth Annual Children and Families Festival on Saturday, May 22 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm at their Beacon Hill location, 3327 Beacon Avenue South. The event is free and open to the public, and will feature food, music, crafts, and community resources. Volunteers are needed. For more information or if you are interested in volunteering, please contact Frances Lin at 206-792-9771 or email flin@deniselouie.org.

* * *

The Rainier Valley Cooperative Preschool is hosting a rummage sale this Saturday, April 24.  The school is located at the Beacon Lutheran Church, 1720 South Forest Street (just across Beacon from the library).

History of the Hill, Photos

The view from Beacon Hill in 1949

We recently posted a couple of photos of the view from Beacon Hill in 1959 and today. Burr Cline (Cleveland High School class of ’47) contacted us with a similar photo taken in 1949, and this one’s in color! There are fascinating details in it — billboards, cars, buildings that still exist and buildings that don’t. The color is amazingly true for a 60 year old image.

Please click on this image to see the large version.

Thanks to Burr for sending us this wonderful view!

Recreation

Skatepark ideas needed

Karen O’Connor at Seattle Parks and Recreation writes:

Thank you to all who attended the Jefferson Park Skatepark and Community Update meeting!  Your participation in designing this skatepark is essential and we look forward to receiving further input.

How do you like to skate?  What do you want to see in this park?

Grindline needs your input by the end of the month.  They will use this input to create refined conceptual designs that will be presented at the next meeting on May 26, 2010.

To comment on the different park designs please visit:
http://forums.grindline.com Password: jefferson2010
Comments will be taken until April 28, 2010.

For a summary of the meeting please visit:
http://seattle.gov/parks/projects/jefferson/skatepark.htm.

Please let your friends know about the Grindline site and this opportunity to help design an exciting new skatepark at Jefferson Park. 

Crime

Do you recognize this man?

1 Comment

Neighbor April reports that security cameras at her house caught images of a man breaking in to her neighbors’ house in North Beacon Hill. She’s posted footage of the man walking past her house, as well as giving the complete footage to the police. If you recognize this man, please let us know and we can put you in touch with April.

Local Events

PLOP! brings literary and musical artists to Beacon Hill

Cellist Emily Ann Peterson. Photo courtesy of emilyannpeterson.com.
The PLOP! Cabaret performance series is returning on Saturday, April 17. Literary and music artists will perform in an intimate house setting somewhere on Beacon Hill.

This month’s show features cellist Emily Ann Peterson; medical memoirists Audrey Young, M.D. and Emily R. Transue, M.D.; and young adult fiction writer Alexa Martin. Admission is $5-15. Doors open at 8:00, and the event begins at 8:30. RSVP is required; send your RSVP to josie.elizabeth.davis@gmail.com. See also the event’s Facebook page.

Life on the Hill

A difficult road still ahead for Art’s on Beacon Hill

A jukebox waits for customers in the coffee shop at Art's on Beacon Hill. Photo by Wendi.
Michael Perrone sent us an email about the status of Art’s on Beacon Hill, the old grocery store site at 13th and Shelton which Michael owns (we’ve posted about it previously), and he gave us permission to post his message:

I am writing to let you know what’s up with Art’s.

The City of Seattle has re-instated my continuous use retail zoning and I will be working directly with them so that I can open my doors to the public. They have granted me the month of April to raise funds on this project and MIXED: FIRST PERSON is on display to the public Friday and Saturday nights through the month. I also received a phone call from a law student in Wisconsin, who for a class, is member of a law team representing Art’s vs. The City of Seattle. Interesting, huh? Thanks to those on your blog who forwarded my plight to the world. At least I know someone in Wisconsin gives a rat’s ass (LOL). I need to raise $25,000.00 to make this all happen. I do not have a lot of time, and if I cannot raise this money this site will be lost as a place of business. The City will not continue the use if I lose this property to foreclosure, due to the predatory loan I got into. I cannot express my Gratitude enough to Jeff Jones, my attorney and Lucas DeHererra DPD, who have both diligently found ways to work together to preserve my dream. Please post this as I need now more than ever to find a solution that will keep this community project going. This has pushed me into Chapter 13, and that light at the end of the tunnel seems far and distant… Thanks for listening, etc., and the opportunity to publicly announce this story; Art’s Gallery will be a grandfathered retail space by late summer 2010, and another neighborhood community based local business can be saved.

If you want to contact Michael, you can reach him at 206-861-6260 or egodd1@msn.com.

Meetings

Beacon Arts meeting tonight at ROCKiT space

Beacon Arts logo by Joel Lee.
Beacon Arts is meeting tonight at 7:00 pm, at ROCKiT space, 3315 Beacon Avenue South.

Jessie from ROCKiT space/Beacon Arts writes: “All are welcome and encouraged to attend. We will be working on a short list of goals to work towards as a group and discussing important arts related ideas and issues on the hill. If you didn’t get a chance to make it to the last meeting or the happy hour, this is a good opportunity to put some faces to some names and get to know people with similar interests in Beacon Hill.”