A fund has been set up to assist the Wong family, who were seriously injured when struck by a drunk driver outside their Beacon Hill home on December 12. Wah Wong is the owner and operator of West Seattle’s Jade West Cafe. As reported in the West Seattle Blog, donations may be made at any Wells Fargo branch in the name of “Jade West Cafe.”
Thanks, WSB!
“With the opening of the new Beacon Hill Festival Street, some of us were inspired to see if we could organize a music series at that location, perhaps emphasizing Beacon Hill musicians. We have scheduled our first organizing meeting for Tuesday January 5 at 7:00 pm. Thanks to Jessie and Marti the meeting will be at ROCKiT space (3315 Beacon Avenue South). This is the first meeting so we will be starting with the basics: what are we trying to do? How will we do it? Anyone interested in the idea of a music series at the new Beacon Hill Festival Street is invited to attend.”
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Speaking of ROCKiT space, we are told they are now holding an open mic every Saturday night from 7:00 to 10:00 pm. Jessie says, “This is a very casual sort of thing, open to all, and we welcome any art form you’d like to share.” As mentioned above, they are at 3315 Beacon Avenue South.
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The liquor license at the MC Food Store, 4800 Beacon Avenue South, has been assumed by a new licensee as of December 30. The license type is still “Grocery Store — Beer/Wine.” We wrote about MC’s application several months ago.
Baja Bistro, 2414 Beacon Avenue South, has just been approved for a change in license type to “Restaurant / lounge — spirits, beer and wine (50 percent or more dining).”
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Dayna writes about a lost kitty:
Has anyone taken in a rather large tabby cat the past week, or slipped him some food? Don’t have a pic at the moment, but he is a grey/black/dark colored male tabby, on the larger side. He’s an inside/outside cat who often catches his own food and isn’t tagged because he’s a master at losing his collar. Â He hasn’t been around for about a week. Â His name is Simon. He lives near Maple Park in the south part of Beacon Hill, on the corner of 13th Ave S and Angeline. His family was on vacation over Christmas and the house-sitters rarely saw him…. Now his family returned and he hasn’t emerged! If you have any info, please contact Dayna at dayna@ross154.net.
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Local acupuncture clinic CommuniChi will offer free acupuncture to all new patients on January 16, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the legacy of the civil rights movement. More info can be found on their website.
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Seattle Public Schools now has 174 National Board-certified teachers, with 57 earning their certification during 2009. Beacon Hill International School led the 2009 pack with 6 teachers earning certification: Elizabeth Alexakos, Susan Fluegel, Heather Graves, Kyle Okada, Andrew Pickard, and Mary Thompson. Other Beacon Hill-area teachers earned their certification during 2009: at Kimball Elementary, Nancy Kiser and Kristina Thorp. At Mercer Middle School, Susannah Fenger. At Van Asselt, Sarah Clemmons, Bernard McDonough, and Nancy Howard. And at Franklin High School, Howard Steele.
We have received a few questions over the last couple of months about the new crosswalk beacons on Beacon Avenue South at South Lander, just in front of Beacon Hill Station. The crosswalk signs and lights were installed in October, but the lights did not function, and no buttons were installed to activate them.
The lights have just started working recently. According to SDOT, the delay was caused when the lights were installed by Sound Transit’s contractor, who installed the wrong wiring for them. The contractor removed and replaced the wiring, and now the overhead crosswalk beacons are on and flashing. (They won’t be button-controlled.)
Here are some of the photos added to the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr recently. Taken any interesting photos? You are invited to contribute them to the pool.
We’d like to welcome a new sponsor to the pages of the Beacon Hill Blog: Green Cleaning Seattle. They describe themselves as “Seattle’s locally owned & operated green cleaning company,” and offer eco-maid services, house cleaning (“basic clean” and “deep clean”), party and event cleaning, office cleaning, and other services, using “products that are non-toxic and natural.” They add, “We do not use products that contain chemicals or artificial fragrances. We also recycle and reuse our cleaning towels (they are cleaned and sanitized after each use) and recycle and reuse our spray bottles.” You can see their ad in the right-hand column of every page on the blog for the next few weeks.
Thanks to Green Cleaning Seattle for their support of the Beacon Hill Blog!
If you’re interested in becoming a blog sponsor, you can find more information here.
Neighbors are invited to an open house next month to discuss the project design. The meeting will be Tuesday, January 5, 6:30 – 8:00 pm, at Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Avenue South.
For more information or to comment on the project, contact Kelly Davidson, 206-684-0998 or kelly.davidson@seattle.gov.
Thanks to Shelly Bates for the heads-up!
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Homestead Community Land Trust is a local nonprofit group, intended to create affordable housing by taking the cost of land out of the purchase price of a home by using a community land trust. The HCLT Advantage program provides funds for purchase assistance to help families buy homes in Seattle. Interested? Orientation classes for the HCLT Advantage program are held periodically at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Avenue South. The next two classes are Saturday, January 9, and Thursday, January 26. Further info is here.
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Jefferson Community Center is again offering the $2 Try It program, in which you can try a class or program once for only $2. Class dates are between January 4 and January 30, and classes include Zumba, Yoga, Pottery, Pilates, Pickleball, Badminton, Hapkido, Ballet, Hip Hop Dance, Cartoon Drawing, Instructional Basketball, Little Dribblers, Creative Dance, and Line Dancing. See the Winter class catalog here.
Thanks to Doreen Deaver for the info!
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Craig Thompson writes on the BAN list that many volunteers have been hard at work on Beacon Avenue and at Jose Rizal Park:
“Washington State Department of Corrections supervised a cleanup of street litter [Saturday] along Beacon Avenue and adjacent streets. Next week, WSDOC will continue cleanups of litter and trash in the East Duwamish Greenbelt, on the west side of Beacon Hill.
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“At Jose Rizal Park, 20 volunteers, EarthCorps crew members, and community court service workers cut blackberries and moved 300+ potted native plants into the woods; these will be planted on Saturday, January 16, in a large volunteer event (100 people expected) that will kick off the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend of volunteer work in Seattle. On Saturday, January 9, the community court service workers will return for a general cleanup.”
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For those who want to do their civic duty in other ways, there are a couple of upcoming possibilities to help make your neighborhood more livable. The first round of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund is currently open for your nominations of potential park development and acquisition projects. The nomination process begins with the submittal of a proposal letter, due by February 1, 2010. Letters and Opportunity Fund criteria may be found at this link. There will be workshops in early January to help develop proposal letters and explain the process. For more information, visit the Opportunity Fund website.
If pedestrian issues are your interest, you still have a day to apply for the city’s Pedestrian Advisory Board. Three volunteers are wanted for the board, which advises the Mayor and City Council, as well as participating in planning and policy activities relevant to pedestrians. The board meets on the second Wednesday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at City Hall. Board members serve for two years, and must be Seattle residents who are not city employees. Those interested in serving should submit a resume and cover letter by Wednesday December 16 to brian.dougherty@seattle.gov. For more information, email Brian Dougherty, or call him at (206) 684-5124, or e-mail him at the address above.
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The International District Housing Alliance (IDHA) is a non-profit organization that provides housing services and community building to the Chinatown/International District and greater Seattle’s low-income, Asian Pacific Islander, immigrant and refugee communities, including many who live in Beacon Hill and surrounding neighborhoods. The IDHA is holding a Holiday Dinner on Wednesday, December 16 from 4:00 to 7:00 p,, and a Holiday Gift Drive until December 18. The dinner, at the Four Seas Restaurant in the International District, will help elderly neighbors celebrate the season with friends and family. Activities will include live entertainment, a six course Chinese banquet, a raffle, and door prizes. In the gift drive, CID elderly residents, youth and family clients send in gift requests, and Sound Transit and the University of Washington Law School help distribute gift requests and collect presents for participants. Presents will be wrapped and delivered between December 18-23. If you would like to donate to the holiday dinner, or to volunteer to wrap and/or deliver gifts, or you need information, contact Alma Dea Michelena at almadea@apialliance.org, or call 206-623-5132, extension 322.
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An application has been made to the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to install T-Mobile antennas on the rooftop of the Amanuel Ethiopian Orthodox Church at 2101 14th Avenue South.
A couple of DPD decisions have been handed down related to Clearwire utilities in our area. At 3114 South Warsaw Street, a decision was made to allow a Clearwire utility (antennas and a microwave dish) to be mounted on a City Light transmission tower. At 3802 South Othello Street, a Determination of Non-Significance with conditions was decided regarding the installation of a Clearwire utility (antennas and an equipment cabinet) on the rooftop of the existing five-story residential building.
The deadline to appeal these decisions is December 28.
(This is an updated version of an article posted last week. The locations of some of the closures are going to be slightly different this time.)
Getting to and from Beacon Hill via Interstate 5 could be a bit more difficult this weekend. Six miles of northbound I-5 through south Seattle will be closed on Saturday night for workers to install new overhead sign bridges.
All lanes of northbound I-5 will be closed from 11:30 pm Saturday, December 12, to 8:00 am Sunday, December 13, between Boeing Access Road and I-90. Street. On-ramps in the area will start closing as early as 9 p.m.
These on-ramps will be closed from 9:00 pm Saturday to 8:00 am Sunday:
There will be a signed detour to direct drivers to exit at Martin Luther King Way (exit 157) to Airport Way, and back onto I-5 via Edgar Martinez Drive/SR 519. Consider taking alternate routes like I-405 or SR 99 to avoid long delays and backups.
You can see more about the new overhead sign bridges here. The sign bridges are funded by the Alaskan Way Viaduct program, and are intended to improve traffic flow during the demolition and replacement of the Viaduct. The signs will be activated next summer.