The “Extreme Readers” reading team from Van Asselt Elementary School is among 10 teams of fourth- and fifth-graders who are competing in the city final of the 2011 Global Reading Challenge on March 29. The winning team from this event will face teams from Fraser Valley, BC and Coquitlam, BC in a video conference final at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 15.
More than 2,500 fourth- and fifth- graders from more than 40 Seattle Public Schools studied 10 books to prepare for the Challenge. Along with Van Asselt, schools represented in the city finals include Adams, B.F. Day, Bryant, Concord International, John Muir, Roxhill, Sanislo, Thurgood Marshall, and View Ridge.
The city final event is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 29 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Avenue, in the Microsoft Auditorium on Level 1. It is free and open to the public. Doors will open at 6:45 p.m. Parking is available in the Central Library garage for $5 after 5 p.m.
Tonight is your first of three chances to show you rock, at this year’s Beacon Rocks! auditions for musicians and performers. The live audition for individuals or groups will be at Kusina Filipina, 3201 Beacon Avenue South, tonight from 8-11 p.m. See our earlier post for more info.
Perhaps you prefer to get your hands dirty. On Sunday, you can do that at one of two community work parties. The Lewis Park work party is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lewis Park, 12th Avenue South and Golf Drive South. Help plant native plants or do other things the park needs. Tools, gloves, water, and refreshments are provided. This is a weekly event.
On Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., ROCKiT space is hosting the ROCKiT Relaunch Community Potluck at the Garden House, 2336 15th Avenue South. It’s free—just bring food and come socialize with your neighbors!
As always, check the events calendar for more upcoming events on Beacon Hill.
It’s been a while since we posted Beacon Bits, so we’ve got some catching up to do. With no further ado, here goes!
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Beacon Hill International Elementary School will have a new principal in the fall of 2011. The current principal, Dr. Susie Murphy, is retiring and will be replaced by Kelly Aramaki, currently the principal at John Stanford International School (JSIS). While at JSIS last year, Aramaki won the $25,000 Milken Educator Award, given to promising young educators. (See this article by BHB news partners The Seattle Times for more information.) For the last two years, JSIS was named as a “School of Distinction” by the State Office of the Superintendent, an honor to mark schools that score in the top five percent on standardized math and reading tests.
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Bounce your way down to Jefferson Community Center on Friday, April 8 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. for Bounce Fest! The event promises a family fun event with bounce toys, jumping games, double dutch and more. Admission is $2 per child. Jefferson Community Center is located at 3801 Beacon Avenue South.
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Speaking of festivals, plan ahead for El Centro de la Raza’s Sixth Annual Cinco de Mayo Celebration, to be held on Thursday, May 5 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at El Centro, 2524 16th Avenue South. The event will include traditional Mexican foods for sale, children’s activities, arts and crafts from local vendors, a health and services fair, and dance and musical performances. Admission is free, but donations are welcomed. For more information, call 206-957-4649 or email events@elcentrodelaraza.org.
Beacon Hill artists are among those participating in Artists For Japan, an art sale to benefit relief efforts in Japan. The sale is on Saturday, March 26 from 12 noon to 8 p.m., and again on Sunday, March 27 from 12 noon until 5 p.m. All artwork has been donated, no commissions are being paid, and all event costs are donated. All funds raised will be donated directly to the International Red Cross.
For more information including a list of participating artists, see the website. (Thanks to Beacon Hill artist Elizabeth Jameson for sending us the heads-up on this one, and for helping to organize the event.)
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Your opinions are wanted! Seattle Parks and Recreation is planning for the future by updating the Parks and Recreation Development Plan. Part of this process is identifying what should be prioritized, with the input of park users. To do this, the department is holding meetings, and hosting an online survey to get your opinions.
Mea culpa, we missed that there was a meeting right here on Beacon Hill on Wednesday. But there is another, in the North End, next Wednesday evening at Bitter Lake Community Center, 13035 Linden Avenue North. For more information about the meeting and an overview of the process, see the website.
El Centro de la Raza is offering Spanish classes again from April 12 until June 9. Classes are taught by professional native Spanish speakers in an
interactive community-based setting. Class fee is $300, and class sessions will be Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. For information, call 206-957-4605 or email execasst@elcentrodelaraza.org.
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Last, a nice and neighborly story from Jessica De Barros we’ve been meaning to post since last month:
Just wanted to share a good BH neighbor story—this morning I accidentally left my bank card in the BofA cash machine on Beacon Ave, and returned from a long day of skiing to a Facebook message from John at Kabayan Karinderya (the Filipino restaurant across from Valero) that he’d found my card. I was able to walk just a few blocks to get it from a good neighbor! Kudos to John and Kabayan Karinderya for being such great BH neighbors.
The Beaconettes prepare to board Link for the Light Rail/Dark Rail performance on Saturday, March 5. Photo by Dan Bennett in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
Soon, this space may be serving suds instead of sounds. Photo of the old ROCKiT space site by Jason.Well, this is news, particularly in the context of last week’s post,“Beacon Hill most needs beer bar?”. A comment from “Melissa & Robert” on that post said “ask and you shall receive… something is fermenting. anticipate suds flowing in June.” Something does indeed appear to be fermenting: A new liquor license application has been made for Tippe and Drague Alehouse at 3315 Beacon Avenue South. That is the former ROCKiT space (and previously, Buggy) location.
The applicants are Tippe and Drague LLC, Melissa Cabal and Robert McConaughy. The license type applied for is “direct shipment receiver” (which will allow them to buy beer and/or wine from federally certified wineries or breweries) and “restaurant – beer and wine” (which will allow them to sell beer and wine for on-premises consumption in conjunction with food sales). The license number is 407765.
As with all liquor license applications, if you wish to comment on the application to the Liquor Control Board, you can e-mail customerservice@liq.wa.gov.
A new pizzeria, Bar del Corso, is also planning to open this summer just a couple of blocks north of the alehouse.
There may be traffic delays on Columbian Way South today near the intersection with South Spokane Street where Seattle Department of Transportation crews will be repairing the roadway. One northbound lane will be closed on Columbian Way on each side of Spokane Street, and one westbound lane will be closed on South Spokane Street approaching Columbian Way. The sidewalks will remain open, and a police officer will assist traffic. The closures are expected to be in effect from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.
Earlier this week the City Council approvedOpportunity Fund grants for two Beacon Hill parks, Lewis Park and the Santos Rodriguez Memorial Park (El Centro de la Raza Play Area). The grants were awarded for the amounts recommended earlier by the Levy Citizens Oversight Committee: Lewis Park was awarded $260,000 for reforestation, and Santos Rodriguez Memorial Park was awarded $350,000 for improvements to revitalize the park and increase public awareness and access to the park space.
Previous BHB posts about this round of Opportunity Fund applications are here.
Volunteers are needed for a work party this weekend to improve these planting strips across from the Beacon Hill Library. Photo by Wendi.A group of Beacon Hill neighbors invite you to help beautify the neighborhood by re-landscaping Beacon Avenue planting strips at a community planting party this Sunday, March 20, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The project was awarded a grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to remove the existing clover and plant a perennial garden on the planting strips at the corner of Beacon Avenue South and South Forest Street, across Beacon Avenue from the Beacon Hill branch library.
Please wear work clothes and bring gardening tools if you have them. If you’d rather not garden, you can participate in a litter cleanup on Beacon Avenue as well. Food and drinks will be available. Questions? Contact Sara Stubbs at sara.mcdonald@gmail.com or 206.595.1829.
Octothorpe performed at last summer's Beacon Rocks!. Photo by Melissa Jonas in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.Do you rock? You can prove it at this year’s Beacon Rocks! auditions for musicians and performers. The live auditions for individuals or groups will be at Kusina Filipina, 3201 Beacon Avenue South, on the following Saturdays: March 19, April 2, and April 16, from 8-11 p.m. Alternatively, you can audition virtually by submitting samples of your work to beaconrocks@gmail.com.
Beacon Rocks! is a free all-volunteer outdoor music series held at the Beacon Hill Festival Street next to Beacon Hill Station. All styles of music and performance are welcome at these family-friendly, “Beacon Hill-centric” community events—you may rock, but you don’t have to play rock! There will be three shows this summer, on the last Sunday of June, July, and August.
The series is presented by Beacon Hill Music, “a community group formed to promote music, musicians and fans of music in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.”
One of the banner poles at Beacon Hill Station fell early this evening in gusty winds. The pole, one of three, displayed several cut metal banners as part of the “Community Threads” installation by artist Carl Smool.
Neighbors in the area strung ropes and put up warning tape while Sound Transit security staff moved some of the metal banners to a safer location after gusts of wind caught some of the downed banners and started blowing them down South Lander Street.
The damaged pole appeared to have broken at the point where it was welded to the base. The poles still standing seem to be constructed similarly, but were still holding steady this evening though they moved quite a bit in the wind gusts. Luis Rodriguez, owner of the nearby Station coffeehouse, was helping mark the area with warning tape about half an hour after the fall, and expressed concern for the stability of the remaining poles: “They should close this. Someone could get killed! These [poles] keep on moving.”
Photos and video of the scene at the station plaza this evening:
Sound Transit staff observe the fallen pole at Beacon Hill Station. Photo by Wendi.The cut metal banners that were attached to the pole. Photo by Wendi.The base of the fallen pole, at the point where it broke off. Photo by Wendi.
Photo by Tim Dobson via Creative Commons.Seattle Beer News posted a poll on Tuesday, asking “Which Seattle neighborhood most needs an additional beer bar or brewery?” At one point on Tuesday, Lower Queen Anne was in the lead, and Beacon Hill was way, way down in the list. Then someone mentioned it on the Beacon Hill neighborhood mailing list (I confess—it was me), and now Beacon Hill leads in the poll with 43% of the vote, followed by Lower Queen Anne, Upper Queen Anne, South Lake Union, Wallingford, and Magnolia.
When we did an informal neighborhood “Top of the Hill” survey in 2009, 18% of respondents answered “More/better pubs” to the question “What is Beacon Hill’s most needed amenity?” (The most requested amenity in the poll was “More restaurants, cafés,” mentioned by 23%, and coming in third, 17% said “A pizza place.” The pizza place is coming in June.)
