All posts by Wendi Dunlap

Editor of the Beacon Hill Blog.
Clean and Green, Help Wanted

Help clean up Beacon Avenue today at noon

Today at noon, “Team Java Love,” one of two local Beacon Avenue litter-pickup teams, will be picking up litter on Beacon between Java Love and the Beacon Hill Library. Anyone who would like to pitch in is welcome. Please bring gardening or latex gloves if you have them. We are told that when you check in at Java Love, they may have yellow litter bags and highly fashionable safety vests to use. The job could take 30 minutes to an hour or more, depending on how many helpers are there.

Thanks to Allison for posting this on the mailing list!

Life on the Hill

Welcome to a new Beacon Hill resident

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If you didn’t read the comments in the Thanksgiving pie post a couple of days ago, you missed the announcement of a brand-new Beacon Hill resident.

Welcome to Stella Rose Hill-Stach, born at 5:09 pm on Tuesday, November 25 to Tyler and Sarah!

Congratulations to the happy parents!

(We’re glad to post birth announcements, engagement and wedding announcements, etc. for Beaconians. If you have one, please email us!)

Uncategorized

Beacon Hill Dry Cleaners site for sale


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Got $1.3 million to spare? The Beacon Hill Dry Cleaners site on the corner of Beacon and Columbian is for sale. The sale flyer says: “Great opportunity to own 13864 square feet of developable land on the corner of Beacon Ave S and Columbia. This area is expecting major growth.” Sounds like there might be changes coming when and if the sale happens.

Food and Drink

Happy Thanksgiving — try a pie!

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Pumpkin Pi! Photo by Paul Adam Smith.
Pumpkin Pi! Photo by Paul Adam Smith.
It’s Thanksgiving, and here at the BHB Jason and I are thankful for our wonderful readers, who have made our first month and a half of publishing such fun! To thank you, here’s a great pumpkin pie recipe from my grandma’s recipe collection. I’ve used this recipe many times and it is very good.

Pumpkin Pie

Start with 1 recipe pie crust. Set the uncooked shell aside.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Put 2 cups pumpkin (or one small can) into mixing bowl.

add:
2 eggs beaten slightly (Egg Beaters work just fine if you want it to be lower-fat)

add:
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

then add:
1 c. scalded milk (skim milk works fine if you wish to use it, and so does
soy milk)

Mix all together. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes, turn
the heat down to 350, bake 45 minutes. It’s done when you can stick a knife in the
middle and it comes out clean.

Makes 1 pie. For two pies, use a large can of pumpkin and double everything
else exactly.

Enjoy!

Education

Van Asselt building closure hearing, 12/15

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As we reported last night, the Van Asselt building has been proposed for closure: its students would move to the nearby African American Academy building, and the Academy program would be discontinued. By law, the school district must have public hearings before closing a building. Van Asselt’s hearing is Monday, December 15, 6:30-8:30pm, at the school, 7201 Beacon Avenue South.

Public testimony will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker, and is expected to focus on the school building about which the hearing is being held. To sign up to give testimony, please call (206) 252-0042 or e-mail hearing@seattleschools.org.

If you are interested in hearings for any of the other school buildings on the closure list such as Lowell or Mann, the hearing schedule is here, as is information about community workshops to discuss the other proposed program changes.

Local Events

North Beacon volunteer potluck dinner, 12/4

The North Beacon Hill Council is hosting a potluck dinner to honor volunteers in the community. Amie Patao writes,

“Whether you pick up litter, help to clean up stairwells, work with the NBHC and GDDC, head up a Block Watch, keep the Jungle safe, help with the Piñata Party, walk your dog so the Hill is populated, go to the off-leash park, or advocate for pedestrian rights, you’re invited. I’m sure I’ve missed some of the many volunteer efforts that take place here on the Hill, so if I have, please know that you are included!”

The dinner is Thursday, December 4, 6:30-9:00 pm, at the Jefferson Park Lawn Bowling Clubhouse, 4103 Beacon Ave South. Bring a dish to share; no alcoholic beverages are allowed at the clubhouse for this event. The potluck is in place of the monthly NBHC meeting.

Education

Maple school kids sending care packages to troops today

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Kids in Marcia Ventura’s fifth grade class at Maple Elementary School have been working on a project that culminates today with the shipping of about 50 care packages to the First Platoon, Charlie Company, 1-4 Infantry, stationed in Mizan, Afghanistan.

According to Ventura, this is the second year that Maple’s fifth graders have sent treats and morale to troops overseas. Last year, the class “adopted” a Marine, Corporal Paul Craddick, who served in Ramadi, Iraq. The students exchanged letters and phone calls, sent him monthly care packages, and hosted a welcome home party when he returned to the US. Along with students at neighboring Kimball Elementary, Maple’s fifth graders participated in a successful drive for gifts, to be sent to all 175 Marines in Craddick’s unit.

This year’s drive is slightly different, says Ventura, as “the students lack a personal connection
to any of the soldiers in the platoon. However, as the students were studying about the election all fall the issues in which the two presidential candidates differed, students became interested in the two wars in which the United States is engaged.” Locals may have already seen evidence of the class’s interest in politics; earlier this fall, the kids made “VOTE” signs and went out on Election Day to wave their signs and encourage Beacon Hillers to vote.

The students have carefully organized and labeled items which are now in the classroom, ready to be packed up this morning. Five parents, as well as Karen Craddick (Corporal Craddick’s wife) will volunteer their time to help the kids pack, fill out shipping forms, and send a little bit of Beacon Hill to Afghanistan.

Education

More on the proposed school closures and other changes

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Now that the school closure/relocation proposals are public, some parents are gearing up to fight, while others are resigned. (And some are probably thrilled, because programs are actually moving closer to them, or to better facilities.) We expect that there will be a big hubbub on this in coming days, though perhaps the Thanksgiving holiday will slow that momentum a bit.

The P-I‘s article about the proposals includes a map showing the movement of the various programs, generally southward.

Seattle Public Schools have posted a lengthy document that goes into detail on all the proposals, with statistics, maps, and reasons for the proposed actions.

Blogger and columnist (for the South Seattle Beacon) Sable Verity has a few things to say about the proposals, and particularly the proposal to kill the African-American Academy, starting with:

“I would like nothing more than to be able to stand up and say that the choice is wrong, that AAA is a fantastic school for our children and needs to be preserved. NOPE. I speak from experience as a former parent and employee. Shut. it. down.”

Education

Seattle Schools closure recommendations announced; African-American Academy and others on the list

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Seattle Public Schools have released their preliminary recommendations for building closure and program adjustment for the 2009 school year, and they are far from uncontroversial. Some of the changes will affect Beacon Hill and the rest of Southeast Seattle, particularly the programs at the African-American Academy, which are slated for cancellation.

Six buildings are recommended for closure: Genesee Hill, Lowell, Mann, T. T. Minor, Pinehurst, and Van Asselt. (Old Hay will close, but this may be temporary.)

Nine programs will relocate: the Lowell APP program to Hawthorne and Thurgood Marshall; NOVA to Meany; Pathfinder K-8 to Arbor Heights; SBOC to Meany; Summit K-12 to Rainier Beach; Thornton Creek to Summit’s current building, the old Jane Addams Junior High; T. T. Minor K-3 Montessori to Leschi; Thurgood Marshall’s EBOC to Bailey Gatzert; and Van Asselt to the African American Academy building on Beacon Hill.

The African American Academy, AS #1, Arbor Heights, Meany, and T. T. Minor programs that already exist would be discontinued.

Details are on this Seattle Public Schools FAQ PDF.

Final recommendations will be released on January 6, 2009. With the holidays, there’s not a lot of time to get your opinions heard, so if you want to give SPS a piece of your mind, you should email SPS soon at capacity@seattleschools.org, call them at 206 252 0040, or mail your comments to School Board, PO Box 34165, MS 11-010, Seattle, WA, 98124-1165.

There will also be a series of public meetings. Dates and times may be found on the SPS Capacity Management website.

Readers, are any of you affected by these changes? Please tell us what you think.

Thanks to the West Seattle Blog for liveblogging the SPS meeting tonight. You rock!

Crime, Local Business

Not so Nice

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This other day we mentioned an altercation at a restaurant “just south of Beacon and Columbian.” This restaurant is the Saigon Nice, formerly the Tan Tuu Quan, at 4864 Beacon Avenue South, and things haven’t been so nice there lately: there was another fight last night, and two people were stabbed. One of the victims went out to his car and returned with a gun, but was stopped by security from re-entering the club. The suspects and victims then both fled. The victims later received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries, but the Seattle Police Department says “there is very little suspect information.”

The owners of Saigon Nice signed a Good Neighbor Agreement on June 4 with the North Beacon Hill Council under the guidance of the City Attorney’s office. Good Neighbor Agreements, or GNAs, are voluntary agreements between retail businesses and local neighborhood organization, in which the retailers agree to modify their businesses in ways that will restrict behavior harmful to the community. For example, a convenience store with a GNA might agree not to sell certain types of alcohol that are favored by street drunks, or might agree to remove a phone booth used by drug dealers.

In the case of Saigon Nice, we’re not sure yet what the exact terms of the GNA are, but this Mid Beacon Hill post from April suggests what the eventual GNA may have included: “…they will welcome police into their establishment, not hinder investigations, call police when they see suspicious or illegal activity, paint over graffiti immediately, keep the area clean, follow all the laws including not serve liquor after 2am and not serve minors, etc.”

Given the incidents of the past couple of days, the question is whether Saigon Nice has been living up to its GNA.

On the Beacon Hill mailing list, Shelly Bates writes:

“The GNA helps the community to have a little more influence over an establishment’s liquor license. City Attorney John McGoodwin, who works out of the S. Precinct, assisted with the GNA and will be following up with Liquor and meeting with the owner of Saigon Nice ASAP. If anyone knows of more information regarding the two incidents this past week or of any unreported incidents, please contact Mr. McGoodwin with that information at john.mcgoodwin@seattle.gov.”