Category Archives: Clean and Green

Clean and Green, Food and Drink

Gardening gets going

Glenn Herlihy issued a call for all interested in attending a Jefferson Park Community Garden and Food Forest meeting (in the Gardening forum and via David Gackenbach):

Good news… is all we got now.

The Parks Department has sent us a letter to go ahead and apply for the second round of applications for the Levy Opportunity Fund.
The application is due April 2nd and we’re going to do it. This has potential to build a lot of our Garden and is a great exercise for all who want understand public fund raising.

The VA Hospital has contacted us and is interested in some P-Patch or garden space for garden therapy. We can help with that.

We now have interested people from the community, Parks Department, Asa Mercer school, VA hospital, Mara Farms, Permaculture groups in the Seattle area and few others I may have missed. On top of that I just learned one of my good friends is good friends with Mr. MacPherson of MacPherson’s Produce. Maybe they would like some local fruit in a few years.

This next meeting will focus on:

  • the Levy Fund application,
  • finding a name for the garden,
  • welcoming the VA Hospital,
  • what to do with the 16th Ave dirt road and other design elements.
  • outreach possibilities
  • review

Please spread the word. All are welcome to attend.
If you have anything interesting flowering in your garden and want to share it with us please bring it.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2nd at 7pm at the Lawn Bowling Club House (4103 Beacon Avenue South).

* * *

Richard Kyper writes:

It’s springtime, and the garden is happening again. For those of you who know of, or have visited “The Garden,” and you know where I mean, this “e.” is for you.

Come and enjoy the beauty of the season as much as you like, but I do ask:

  • Please don’t pick the flowers or dig up plants. If you take them, no-one else can then enjoy them.
  • If you have a dog to walk, fine — but please keep your pet on the road, not in the garden, and pick up your messes.
  • Someone has been throwing their doggy doo doo bags into the woods. There is a trash can down at the overview park at 12th and McClellan.

    • Thanks, and cheers to a great early spring.

* * *

Alleycat Acres broke ground this past weekend on Beacon Hill. They’ve got photos on Flickr. Read more on Urban Food Producer and in the forums here.

A work party is planned for Sunday. More information is after the jump.

Continue reading Gardening gets going →

Clean and Green, Crime, Health and Safety

Graffiti clean-up, reporting tips and you

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Report graffiti, phone 206-684-7587
Report graffiti by phone or online

Seattle Public Utilities hosts a Graffiti Prevention & Removal site that includes instructions on reporting graffiti (by phone or online), tips on removing graffiti, volunteering on a “Red Wagon Program” neighborhood graffiti clean-up and paint-out crew (for which free supplies are available from the city), waivers for private property owners (PDF) to receive Red Wagon graffiti removal, and numerous additional tips to prevent graffiti.

We’re working with our neighborhood news partners through the Seattle Times to find out more about graffiti issues around Beacon Hill and the rest of the city, and we’d like your input.

  • Where do you find graffiti to commonly be a problem on the Hill?
  • Have you volunteered on a Red Wagon patrol?
  • Do you have an experience dealing with graffiti you’d like to share?
  • Have you found the police to be responsive to reports of vandalism in-progress?
  • Do you know what gangs are tagging in your area?
  • Is there more that the city should do to combat and clean up graffiti?

We’d love to pass along your comments, tips, and questions. Thank you!

The city has a Graffiti Nuisance Ordinance that requires property owners to remove graffiti in a timely manner or be subject to fines. If your property is vandalized by graffiti, take photos before removing it and make a police report to (206) 625-5011. The photos may be useful for the police to track gangs and for insurance reimbursement purposes. SPU has a “Paint it out” PDF brochure with information to print and keep for reference.

Some of SPU’s tips include:

  • Install motion-sensor lighting.
  • Grow vines or vegetation to cover unpainted retaining walls.
  • Install a graffiti-resistant coating on your walls.
  • Keep matching paint on hand to quickly paint out graffiti.
  • Install cameras to monitor activity on your property.

Thanks to Christine Cole who shared the SPU link with the BAN list a week or two ago.

Clean and Green, Education, Local Events

Busy times ahead at El Centro de la Raza

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Making tamales. Photo by Noema of Intercultura y Cocina, via Creative Commons.
El Centro de la Raza has a lot going on in upcoming weeks at their building at 2524 16th Avenue South, including cooking and language classes, free tax prep, and electronics recycling.

Graciela Gonzalez, El Centro’s Human Services Director, is teaching a class on making tamales. The class fee is $50, and students will be able to take home a dozen tamales along with the recipe. Each class is limited to six students. The class dates are Saturday, March 20, from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm, or Saturday, April 17, also from 10:00 to 12:30. Sign up at Brown Paper Tickets.

El Centro’s conversational Spanish classes will begin on Monday, April 5, and will continue on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm until June 9. Students will be able to learn Spanish with other adults in a relaxed, yet professional setting. The class fee is $300. Here is the registration form.

All proceeds from these classes go to support El Centro’s human service, child and youth, and education and skill-building programs.

As we wrote in January, United Way of King County is providing free tax preparation services to low-income taxpayers at El Centro. Tax assistance is provided in English and Spanish by volunteers who are trained and certified by the IRS. The free tax prep services will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:00 – 9:00 pm and Saturdays from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm until April 15.

Those eligible for the free service include anyone whose household made less than $50,000 in 2009, and who is filing a basic tax return only (no rental income, business taxes, or sale of property or stock).

Lastly, El Centro has joined up with Cartridges for Kids to collect used electronics. Cartridges for Kids recycles the used goods, and then gives a
small donation to El Centro. You can contribute old iPods, cell
phones, video game consoles, printer cartridges, digital cameras, DVDs, and more.

The Cartridges for Kids box is in room 304, on the top floor of the El Centro building at 2524 16th Avenue South. If you have a large amount of stuff to drop off, or if you are unable to come up to the top floor for medical reasons, please call Elliott Jones at 206-957-4652 to work out the logistics.

Clean and Green, Urban Planning

Project update for BHIS playground

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Schematic drawing

Beacon Hill playground renovation schematic drawing. Click for full-size. View the original PDF from the Parks department.

Coming out of a community meeting last month, the Parks Department has made some changes to the Beacon Hill Playground renovation project at Beacon Hill Elementary, funded through the Parks and Green Spaces Levy which is providing $180,000 for planning, design, and construction. The project is expected to be completed by August.

Some changes of note from David Gackenbach:

Park Planners responded to input from meeting attendees and reconsidered the ramp placement, are removing some fencing and installing more planting, and are adding two pedestrian lights not in the original plan.

The meeting minutes including community requests, comments, and priorities expressed are after the break. The minutes are available in their original PDF form on the project web site.

Continue reading Project update for BHIS playground →

Clean and Green

Valentine’s Day street clean-up follow-up

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Bags of garbage collected
Some of the 50+ bags of garbage collected Sunday in the Valentine's Day clean-up. Photo courtesy Pat McGannon. Click for more photos from the album.

Pat McGannon wrote to follow-up on the outcome of the Valentine’s Day clean-up effort between Alaska and Dawson near MLK yesterday (emphasis added):

The weather could not have been much better for the 17 volunteers that participated in the Valentine’s Day neighborhood cleanup that covered Mt. View, S. Edumunds, 30th Ave S., S. Ferdinand Street stairs, and Dawson St. in Mid-Beacon-Hill’s eastern edge. Temperatures climbed into the 50s and the sky held back its rain. Mother Nature even thanked volunteers with an occasional sunbeam breaking through the clouds.

Volunteers worked from 10:30am through 4:30pm to collect over 50 bags of garbage, one large bin of recyclables plus 7 car tires, 6 bikes, 3 children’s big wheels, 3 CRT computer monitors, 3 computers, 2 printers, a microwave, 5 buckets, and 2 lawn chairs that had been thoughtlessly dumped on this neighborhood’s streets. Seven hypodermic needles were also removed from the streets. Additionally, contents of a stolen purse were recovered.

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped to make this Seattle neighborhood a much cleaner and safer place to live! A thank you also goes out to Seattle Public Utilities for supplying the garbage bags, safety vests, work gloves, grabber tools, and post-event trash pickup! Please continue to keep the neighborhood clean by picking up litter on the street near your home each week on garbage day. The neighborhood looks great today thanks to all the volunteers!

If you’re interested in organizing your own street clean-up, Pat also mentioned that you can get free supplies through Seattle Public Utilities.

Great work everyone!

Clean and Green

Valentine’s Day cleanup Sunday

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Cleanup map
Meet on 30th between Edmunds and Dawson

Pat McGannon has organized a litter pick-up and clean-up event along the east edge of Mid-Beacon Hill. Pat’s announcement follows:

Do You Love Our Neighborhood as Much as We Do? Then Join Us!

For What?: A neighborhood cleanup. We will be collecting litter from the streets and public stairs.

When?: Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 10:30am

Where?: The cleanup will include Dawson (between MLK and 30th Ave South), 30th Ave South (between Dawson and S. Edmunds), S. Edmunds (between 30th Ave S. and Mount View Dr.), Mount View Drive (between S. Edmunds and Alaska), and the stairs that connect 30th Ave S to S. Ferdinand below.

Why?: To make our neighborhood a cleaner and safer place to live.

How?: Gloves, grabber tools, orange safety vests, and garbage bags will be provided to make litter collection safer. Once the trash is collected, bags will be brought to a central location for the city to pick up.

Details: Meet at the top of the S. Ferdinand stairs (on 30th Ave S) at 10:30am to sign in and get your supplies. Gloves can be kept, but the grabber tools and safety vests will need to be returned to Pat McGannon at 2942 S. Edmunds St. by the end of the day. Donate as little or as much of your time as you would like. If you live on a bordering street not covered by our current cleanup, but would like to personally clean that street, then you are welcome to get supplies from us.

Questions? Contact Pat McGannon at pmcgannonmail-cleanup@yahoo.com or at 216-236-4321.

Clean and Green, Crime

What do you do about graffiti?

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Graffiti
Photo by Jason
Perhaps you’ve noticed a burst of graffiti vandalism around the neighborhood lately. Hazel gives some very sound advice on dealing with it on the mailing list:

Be sure to call the graffiti hotline, especially if it is on public property. The number is 206-684-7587 and they are very responsive. The faster you get it off the more effective. If it is public property, the city will arrange to have it removed. If it is on private property, you should also take a photo of it and send to the police department and the city.

Thanks Hazel!

Clean and Green

Still time to recycle your tree for free

Still got some forlorn holiday foliage? Take it to the transfer station. Photo by wetwebwork.
Still got your old dead Christmas tree? You can still recycle it for free, if you hurry. If you subscribe to curbside food and yard waste collection, and yours hasn’t already been picked up this week, you can put your tree out on your regular collection day at no extra charge until January 10. Trees should be cut into sections of six feet long or shorter, with branches trimmed to less than four feet. Sections should be bundled with string or twine.

Trees with flocking or tinsel, or ones that are plastic, aren’t recyclable. They have to go in the trash, cut into three-foot pieces, and each piece will be charged as extra garbage.

If you missed the yard waste pickup, there’s one other option. You can drop off your tree for free until January 10 at the South Recycling and Disposal Station, located at Second Avenue South and South Kenyon Street, and the North Recycling and Disposal Station in Wallingford. The stations are both open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Trees brought to the recycling stations must be cut to eight feet or less in length and the trunk must be four inches or smaller in diameter. The limit is three trees per vehicle. Only trees without flocking or decoration may be disposed of free of charge.

Clean and Green, Local Business

Welcome to a new BHB sponsor: Green Cleaning Seattle

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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.

Clean and Green, Volunteering and Giving

SPU wants waste advice

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Curbwaste poster from SPU. Click for a larger, readable version.
Curbwaste poster from SPU. Click for a larger, readable version.

From Jenna Franklin, Strategic Communications Advisor with Seattle Public Utilities:

Seattle Public Utilities is looking for a few good candidates to appoint to the Seattle Public Utilities Garbage, Recycling, Yard and Food Waste Community Advisory Committee.

Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply to become community advisors — committee members advise the utility on how to increase program offerings, reach the Seattle’s recycling goals, and provide better customer education and information.

“We hope the open slots attract a varied group of candidates, committee members reflect on the many issues the utility and its ratepayers face, and that includes a variety of operational, economic, social, environmental, and language issues,” said Program Manager Aurora Mendoza, it’s so important to have a mix of people that can represent the diverse perspectives and concerns of the wider community.

From discussions on utility policies, business strategies and performance goals to conversations centered on operational issues, language translation and environmental justice, the committee spends 6-8 hours a month examining the utility’s ability to deliver services that meet the needs of Seattle and the people who live here.

Committee member should have interest in conservation or environmental issues, waste reduction, community outreach, utility operations, or public affairs. To apply, please fill out a Citizen Advisory application online at www.seattle.gov/util/cac. For additional information about participating contact Aurora Mendoza, Program Manager, at (206) 733-9687

In addition to providing a reliable water supply to more than 1.3 million customers in the Seattle metropolitan area, SPU provides essential sewer, drainage, solid waste and engineering services that safeguard public health, maintain the city’s infrastructure and protect, conserve and enhance the region’s environmental resources.