All posts by Wendi Dunlap

Editor of the Beacon Hill Blog.
Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: A parade, a market, and a change

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View Juneteenth Parade Route, 6/20/09 in a larger map
 
  • This weekend, our neighbors in the Central District are celebrating Juneteenth with a festival at Pratt Park (all weekend) and a parade Saturday afternoon! The Juneteenth Celebration Parade startes at 12:00 noon. The parade route begins at 25th Avenue and East Alder Street, and continues along East Alder, 23rd Avenue, East Yesler, and 20th Avenue South to Pratt Park where the parade ends. The parade will include a Kiddies’ Parade, a Dogs on Parade Fashion Show, and much more! Be aware that there will be street closures in the area around the parade route.
  • While we on Beacon Hill are still waiting for our own farmers’ market, the new Market on Wheels is opening this weekend for our neighbors in South Park. Annie Farber writes to tell us, “South Park residents will be selling a great variety of products ranging from food products and plant starts grown in the neighborhood (more local than any farmer’s market!) to tamales and enchiladas made fresh on site to art, clothing and jewelry they make. Come buy from local Seattle residents working to make an impact on their community through encouraging a local economy!” It’s from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm tomorrow and every third Saturday each month through September 19. The location is 14th Avenue South and South Cloverdale Street, in the Napoli’s Pizzeria parking lot.
  • A land use application has been completed for 4878 Beacon Avenue South, the Grown Folks Coffee site, “to allow a four story, 15 unit residential building above 2,970 sq. ft. of retail located at grade. Parking for 15 vehicles to be located within the structure. Existing structure to be demolished.” Comments may be submitted through July 1 at the site linked above. There have also been some land use decisions in the North Beacon area recently, including two parcel subdivisions in the Urban Village Overlay area: here and here.
Education

School Board approves new student assignment plan; Cleveland to be science option school?

The Seattle School Board voted this week to approve final recommendations for a new student assignment plan. Under the new plan, students will have initial school assignments based on their home address. They will still have the option to apply to other schools, and open choice seats will be available at all high schools.

Assignment area boundaries have not yet been defined; the assignment maps will be made available for public comment this fall.

A separate motion relevant to Beacon Hill proposed that Cleveland High School be designated as an “option school” under the new assignment plan. Cleveland’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) program would then be open to applications from students throughout the District. According to the District, STEM high schools “offer a four-year course of study with a focus on preparing students for academing and professional futures in science, technology, engineering and math.”

Since a STEM school would not necessarily be the right choice for all students living in the Cleveland attendance area, designating it as an Option would allow these students to have a comprehensive attendance-area high school option while still having access to Cleveland’s STEM program if they wish.

The Board is scheduled to vote on the Cleveland motion on July 1.

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Tunnel views, golf memories, and closed wading pools

Lost and Found

Have you seen Zoe?

Pretty Zoe is missing. Have you seen her?
Pretty Zoe is missing. Have you seen her?
There’s another lost tabby cat in North Beacon. Erin writes “We’ve lost our female cat Zoe. She is almost 2 years old, is a medium hair tabby, has black, grey and light brown coloring with a white chest and white paws. She was last seen with a multi-colored collar on with a purple heart tag. She has distinctive mackerel markings and a very fluffy tail. We last saw her near 13th Avenue South and Walker Street (near Beacon Ave before it heads down to Holgate).” If you think you’ve seen Zoe, please email meespanola@hotmail.com.

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Language classes, math classes, and a class reunion

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  • Garfield High School Class of 1969 is celebrating its 40th class reunion August 7-9, including bowling at Imperial Lanes, food and entertainment at Yesler Community Center, and a family picnic and potluck at Othello Park. The registration fee is $69 per person for the weekend. For further information, see the reunion website, and RSVP to (206) 499-9624 by July 15.
  • A.C.E. Summer Language Camps in Arabic, Urdu, and Persian language for kids 10-14 are being held on July 13-24 at Northgate Elementary School in Northeast Seattle. Classes are free (with a $25 registration fee), and all teachers are native speakers. For more information, contact Maka Janikashvili by email at makaj@cultural.org, call (206) 217-9644 ext 201, or visit www.cultural.org/wlp/camp.php.
  • The comment period for Seattle’s draft Pedestrian Master Plan has been extended to Friday, June 26. You can view the plan on the web, here. Comments on the plan may be made through an online form, via email to mostwalkablecity@seattle.gov, by phone (206-733-9970), or by mail (Pedestrian Master Plan Comments, Seattle Department of Transportation, P.O. Box 34996, Seattle, WA 98124-4996). There will also be a public hearing on the draft plan on Tuesday, July 21, from 5:00-6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue.
  • Atlantic Street Center is partnering with Seattle Public Schools in offering a Class of 2013 Math Academy this summer. The Academy will be at Aki Kurose Middle School, July 6-July 30, and is intended for “8th graders-rising-to-9th who struggle in math.” It will include morning math-focused academics, and afternoon enrichment activities. Cost is free to families. For more information, contact Samara Louton, Education/Activities Coordinator, 723-4073 x108 or samaral@atlanticstreet.org.
  • Is this your kitty?
    Is this your kitty?
    Are you missing a cat? This cute tabby was spotted at 13th Avenue South and South Spokane Street at around 11:15pm last night hanging out on a front porch. The neighbor who saw him didn’t bring him inside, but just wanted to get the word out where this cat is hanging out, in case someone’s missing their kitty. (Thanks, Robert!)
Education

Congratulations to a Beacon Hill graduate!

Alison Reese and her proud parents celebrate her graduation from Seattle University School of Law. Photo courtesy of Alison.
Alison Reese and her proud parents celebrate her graduation from Seattle University School of Law. Photo courtesy of Alison.
Congratulations and best wishes to Alison Reese, a Beacon Hill neighbor who graduated this year from Seattle University School of Law with a J.D. degree!

The Beacon Hill Blog would also like to congratulate all of the other Hill neighbors who graduated from high school, college, and beyond. Good work and may you have much success ahead of you!

Getting Around

Columbian Way closed due to fallen tree, wire in road

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Columbian Way South (and part of South Alaska Street) is closed between Beacon Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, due to a tree that fell and took some power lines with it in the 2500 block at 1:27 am. It’s expected to be closed until at least 8:30 this morning.

(Edited to add: a later story at KIRO has an overhead picture of the fallen tree. Wow, that was a big one!)

Power was out for about 3,000 folks on Beacon Hill and elsewhere in Southeast Seattle, including the VA Hospital. Power has since been restored to all but about 300 City Light customers, and the current expectation is that the power will be fully restored by noon. Here at the BHB, we noticed two power flickers at the time of the outage, but power stayed on in our part of the Hill.

According to City Light, the area now affected is bordered on the north by South Hinds Street, on the south by South Ferdinand Street, between 4th Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.

(Thanks to West Seattle Blog for tweeting useful info and more!)


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This is the approximate location of the downed wires and tree on Columbian Way South.
Local Business

Amazon Fresh comes to Beacon Hill

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Coming soon to your street. Photo by Jason Walsh.
Coming soon to your street. Photo by Jason Walsh.
The Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service has now come to Beacon Hill. There has been some resentment here on the Hill that, despite having Amazon’s offices right here in North Beacon, we were left out of the delivery area. Now ZIP codes 98144, 98108, and 98118 in Southeast Seattle are eligible for deliveries. (According to the website, however, delivery to 98144 and 98118 is still only partial; they don’t provide a map to show which parts of those ZIP codes don’t get deliveries yet, but if you enter your address on the site you can find out if your house qualifies.)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said that Amazon Fresh won’t be expanding outside of the Seattle area anytime soon, so it makes sense they’d be adding more Seattle neighborhoods into the delivery area.

Now, if only Pagliacci would deign to notice Southeast Seattle…

Getting Around

17th Avenue South to be closed at Lander for repaving

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Starting as soon as Monday, June 15 , 17th Avenue South will be closed at the intersection of South Lander Street for repaving. The closure will remain in place for 24 hours a day/7 days a week, and is anticipated to last for approximately 10-14 days.

Local access will be maintained at all times and all sidewalks will remain open. Flaggers will be available on site to allow local traffic through the work zone.

Sound Transit sends information on the recommended detours during the closure:

The recommended detours are as follows:

Traveling southbound on 17th Ave:
(Option 1) Traffic will be detoured left on S. College Street,
Right on 23rd Ave S,
Right on S. McClellan Street to return to 17th Ave S.

(Option 2), Traffic will be detoured right on S. College Street
Left on 15th Ave S
Left on S. McClellan Street to return to 17th Ave S.

Traveling northbound on 17th Ave:
(Option 1) Traffic will be detoured right on S. McClellan Street
Left on S. 23rd Ave S
Left on S. College Street

(Option 2) Traffic will be detoured left on S. McClellan Street
Right on 15th Ave S
Right on College Ave S to return to 17th Ave S

If you have any construction-related concerns, please call Sound Transit’s construction hotline at
(888) 298-2395.


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