All posts by Wendi Dunlap

Editor of the Beacon Hill Blog.

NBHC Meeting tonight at Library

Amie Patao reminds us that tonight — yes, tonight — is this month’s meeting of the North Beacon Hill Council at the Beacon Hill Library.

  • 7:00 Welcome, quick intros
  • 7:10 What Programs Exist for our Neighborhood Youth?
    • Jennifer and Dano Jonavich: Thursday night BBQ
    • Mariana Quarnstrom: What Youth Need
    • Announcements of other programs – Judith and Steve
    • Questions, answers and comments
  • 8:00 South Seattle Police Department report
  • 8:15 Council business
    • Requests to use 501c3 number – SONG and Jefferson Park Playground (if granted, requires Board approval – will need a quorum)
    • Pancake Breakfast update (Robert Hinrix)
    • Metro news (Warren Yee)
  • 8:45 End

Improving Beacon Hill: your suggestions

Old laundromat, tagged with graffiti. Photo by Laura Hadden -- thanks!
Old laundromat on Beacon Avenue, tagged with graffiti. Photo by Laura Hadden -- thanks!
Recently we asked you “what are some things you’d like to improve on Beacon Hill?” The ensuing discussion was lively, to say the least. In comparison to the recent discussion about things we love about Beacon Hill, the answers to this one were more diverse.

The answers could be broken down into two broad categories: Stuff We Want, and Stuff That Needs to Improve.

Please read on to see what people said. Continue reading Improving Beacon Hill: your suggestions

Beacon Bits: Election day montage

Election day rose along the fence at El Centro de la Raza. Roses in November are one of the great things about living here. Photo by Wendi
Election day rose along the fence at El Centro de la Raza. Roses in November are one of the great things about living here. Photo by Wendi

How was your Election Day?

It’s 3:00 am, and according to the Slog (one photo at that link has very rude language; you have been warned), at 2:30 people were still partying on the streets of Capitol Hill. For all I know, they are still out there now. Wow. There were street parties in the U District and near the Showbox as well–lots of happy, celebrating people. I haven’t seen anything like this since the Mariners beat the Yankees in the ’95 playoffs.

Unfortunately I wasn’t on Beacon Hill this evening to see how folks on the Hill spent their Election Day evening; we were up in Greenwood at a house party. So how did it go down here? Where did you all watch the election returns?

It’s not too late to vote

El Centro polling place welcomes you. Photo by Wendi.
El Centro polling site welcomes you. Photo by Wendi.
We stopped by El Centro de la Raza, our precinct’s polling site, shortly before 5 pm. There were a lot of people there (in a fairly tiny room) but no lines, and a lot of happy energy. If you haven’t voted yet, polls are open until 8:00 pm, and if you are in line before that time, you get to vote even if it’s after 8:00. So, no excuses — get out there and vote! If you have an absentee ballot in hand that you forgot to mail, you can drop it off at your local polling site.

I will miss these polling sites when we switch to all-mail voting next year. There was always something special about going in to vote next to your neighbors, and exchanging a few words with the poll workers. It was a great bit of Americana, and I think we’ll have lost a piece of our community’s soul when it is gone.

Crime confusion in SE Seattle

“Crime Is Actually Down in Southeast Seattle” said a headline in the Stranger Slog yesterday. Jonah Spangenthal-Lee’s post lists SPD statistics that supposedly back that up. Is it just me, though, or is the math completely off here? Here’s what the article currently says (emphasis added is mine):

“According to SPD records for the South Precinct—which covers everything between Georgetown and Lake Washington south if I-90—as of the end of September, there have been 821 assaults—including 401 shootings—193 strong-arm robberies, 120 burglaries and 9 murders.

“Last year, there were 1,214 assaults, 202 strong-arm robberies, 955 burglaries and 7 murders (statistics on shootings aren’t available) in the South Precinct. That’s 400 fewer assaults, and 800 fewer burglaries.

“In 2006 there were 1,388 assaults, 232 strong-arm robberies, 1218 burglaries and 6 murders.”

Comparing “as of the end of September” totals with whole-year totals and then claiming the numbers are lower is not particularly useful. Of course the numbers could be lower; there were still three months left in 2008!

But here’s the rub — the numbers aren’t even necessarily lower. When you do the math and consider that the totals for this year only include 9 months, some of the numbers are lower, but others are not. We are on track for 1095 assaults this year, so, yes, that’s a downward trend. Good. But we are also on track for 257 strong-arm robberies, a substantial increase. Burglaries are down, but they are down so far that I suspect something is glitchy with the numbers there. You don’t go 1218 to 955 to 120 without a darn good explanation. If they are down that far, that’s great — but I don’t believe it.

And then you get to the murder stats. As of the end of September, we were on track for 12 murders this year. 12. That is twice the number of murders in 2006, and nearly twice the number in 2007. This is not what I would call a drop in crime.

Over at the Mid Beacon Hill blog, JvA has done a great job of reporting that the city’s crime stats are often, well, wrong. And then on November 2, the P-I published a story claiming that, according to the King County Medical Examiner, there were no shooting homicides in Seattle between April and October, which is demonstrably false.

So then we get to this week. Multiple shots were fired in the area of 5400 23rd Avenue South. Two kids shot in the Central District on Halloween, one killed. Then further shootings in the CD, in what the Central District News suggests has become a “gangland revenge free-for-all.”

So, do you really feel like crime is going down in Southeast Seattle, or not?

Beacon Bits: donuts (free), turkey (not free), gas (cheap)

Photo by Steve Voght -- thank you!
Photo by Steve Voght -- thank you!

Trick-or-treaters: did you get any?

We at the Beacon Hill Blog are still recovering from Halloween. No, not from drinking or eating candy, but from staying up late with friends, playing Rock Band 2. At any rate, we’re curious. Did you all get trick-or-treaters? How many?

We must have had over 100 in our part of North Beacon, considering how much candy we went through. Unfortunately, a very large number were teenage kids, not in costume, putting candy in their backpacks or pockets. I asked the first group of kids who showed up sans costume what they were dressed as. The kid in front said, “a thug.” I am not kidding. That group was pretty polite, though. It was another group of kids that stole one of our decorations. And there was also a teenage boy who, after I gave him candy, pushed forward, stuck his hand into the candy dish, grabbed a huge handful of additional candy and ran off. I learned to hold the bowl away from the kids after that. We ran out of candy before the final trick-or-treaters showed up, and we had bought a lot of it.

The cute little kids in costume made up for the bad taste left by the older kids, who are really too old for this. Though I wouldn’t mind if they’d dress up for it.