The ad-hoc Neighborhood Plan Update committee of the North Beacon Hill Council will meet tonight at 7:00 pm to discuss the latest draft plan updates released by DPD for our neighborhood and prepare for the upcoming plan update open houses.
All are welcome. The meeting is in room 307 at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Avenue South, just next-door to Beacon Hill Station.
(Thanks to David Gackenbach for the tip reminder.)
There have been a few sunset pictures in the Beacon Hill Blog’s photo pool lately. (Want to see all the sunset photos ever added to the pool? Look here.) Do you have some great Beacon Hill photos? We’d love to see them!
The meeting will be next Wednesday, September 30, at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club, 4520 Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. The site is only one block north of Columbia City Station. The public is invited to meet with Councilmembers at an informal reception starting at 6:00 p.m. The Town Hall will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Further info is on kingcounty.gov.
(Thanks to Warren Yee for the info!)
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A set of bagpipes have gone missing on Beacon Hill, taken from a curb. Have you seen them? There is a $400 reward for their safe return.
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The Green City Partnerships blog has a story about Andrea Ostrovsky and Mary DeJong, who have worked hard to improve the Cheasty Greenspace over the last couple of years, including hosting community work parties in Cheasty on the first Saturday of every month. In Ostrovsky and DeJong’s vision, the Greenspace is “a potential link between Beacon Hill’s Lockmore neighborhood and Columbia City,” among other things.
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Maria on the mailing list writes,
“Earlier tonight (09/23/09) I found a emaciated grey cat on 20th and Lander. She is very friendly, obviously not feral, no collar, grey with white paws and white diamond-shaped marking on neck and gold eyes. She was extremely thin and hungry. I gave her some food and took her to the Seattle Animal Shelter where they checked her for a microchip (she didn’t have one). They are holding her for four days as a stray before she’s put up for adoption. Her case number is 13021. Does anyone know whose cat this may be? If you do, please call the SAS at 206-386-4294. I would have kept her at my house but my cats would have really freaked out.”
These community open houses are another opportunity to take an active role in addressing the local issues and concerns that affect you, your family, and your neighbors. All stakeholders are invited to participate — residents, renters, business owners, property owners, various community organizations and institutions. Please join us for this important community event!
Unlike previous planning updates, these open houses will not be held at El Centro. Instead, they will be at the Asian Counseling and Referral Service, 3639 Martin Luther King Jr Way S.
Amharic, Cantonese, Khmer, Mandarin, Oromiffa, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya, and Vietnamese interpreters will be available to assist attendees.
Please take some time to review the draft plan update for North Beacon Hill at the Seattle DPD website and perhaps prepare some comments or questions to bring up at the open house. The draft plans include alternatives for 40-foot, 65-foot, and 125-foot zoning near the junction at 15th and Beacon Avenue.
Thanks to Adam Ganz for the early notice about the plans and events.
“Have you seen this dog? Betty is a 1yr old french bulldog who was last seen on Monday afternoon (9/20) in the dog run next to our house at 13th and Atlantic on North Beacon Hill. We really want her back, so please contact us if you have seen her. You can call John at 206-235-0365. $200 reward.”
Followup: John says, “I have good news. Betty has been found and is back home doing well. She was sold to someone in Chinatown yesterday, who saw our flyer today and returned her this afternoon. Neighbors should feel free to say ‘hi’ when you see Betty on her walks! Many thanks to our Beacon Hill neighbors and the super blogtenders!”
We are glad that Betty is back home where she belongs!
David Gackenbach reminded us of something we haven’t mentioned on the blog, but have via Twitter: Marination Mobile brings their truck o’ deliciousness to North Beacon Hill (near Amazon and Jose Rizal Park) most every Thursday around lunchtime. Check their web schedule, or follow them (curb_cuisine) on Twitter.
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Keyunda Wilson at Van Asselt Elementary writes to invite everyone to a Community Play Day at the new Van Asselt site (the former African-American Academy, 8311 Beacon Avenue South) on Thursday, September 24 from 3:30-5:30 pm. The event will feature active playground games, face painting, and environmental education. Everyone is invited to participate.
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Among King County’s new liquor license applications, we notice this one:
Notification Date: 9/18/2009
Business Name: JAVA LOVE CAFE’
Business Location: 2414 BEACON AVE S, SEATTLE, WA 98144-5035
Applicant(s): LATIN BROTHERS INCORPORATED; RODRIGUEZ, OSCAR; CESTRO,
GUADALUPE; PRICHARD, TIMOTHY; RODRIGUEZ, JOSE LUIS
Liquor License Type: SPIRITS/BR/WN REST LOUNGE +
Application Type: ADDED/CHANGE OF CLASS/IN LIEU
License Number: 085750
Continue reading Beacon Bits: Street food, dangerous planting strips, and the Swinery… again
The next batch of results in the Beacon Hill Blog Top of the Hill reader survey are about food and fun on the hill. We’ll be bringing the rest of the survey results to you periodically over the next few days. Previous results are here.
(Editor’s note added 9/21, 2:56 pm: As with the earlier results, some of these results don’t add up to 100% because people gave multiple answers.)
What is the best restaurant on Beacon Hill? We knew El Quetzal was well-liked but didn’t expect it to be as much as an overwhelming favorite as it was. Apparently lots of us are fans of their tortas and huaraches: 40% of respondents selected the tiny Mexican restaurant on Beacon Avenue as the best restaurant on the Hill. Its closest competition was the Java Love/Baja Bistro combo, with 21%. A few other restaurants were mentioned multiple times, including Kusina Filipina (5%), La Cabaña (4%), Thai Recipe (3%, and just barely qualifying as Beacon Hill, since it’s almost at the bottom of McClellan — but we’ll take what we can get), and Inay’s (2%).
3% of you don’t feel any Beacon Hill restaurants are up to snuff, so you go to Georgetown or Columbia City. Then there was the guy who said the best restaurant is “Chevron.” (Hey, the seasoned catfish there is actually really good.)
(Editor’s note: Commenter cliff rancho points out that it’s actually the Shell station that has the tasty catfish. We don’t know if any nearby Chevron actually has edible food or not.)
The award for most misspelled restaurant on Beacon Hill goes to Kusina Filipina. Survey respondents spelled it: “Kuisina Filipina,” “Cusina Fillipina,” “Cucina Philippina,” “Kusina Flilipina,” and “the Filopina kitchen next door that I can not spell.” Only one person spelled it right.
What is the best evening hangout on Beacon Hill? All right, we admit that this is one of the questions we asked hoping that our readers would tell us about some potential places to go in the evenings that we don’t already know about. Unfortunately, the pickings are still a little slim up here.
Continue reading Top of the Hill survey results, part 2: food and fun
About 25 of our neighbors came to share their ideas with Mike. He was engaging, patient, and smart. He listened and responded thoughtfully. He does not seem like a politician. Will people vote for someone who doesn’t seem like a politician? I hope they do. Mike McGinn is working very hard to establish personal connections–he’s not slick or packaged. He’s honest about not knowing the answer to everything. Attending a McGinn event is a refreshing change from closely-managed rallies with talking points.Â
Campaign volunteer (and Southeast Seattle community activist) Thao Tran introduced him by name, then Mike shared his personal history. He’s originally from Long Island, New York. His parents were both involved in public education: his dad, a school administrator, his mom a pre-K and Kindergarten teacher. Mike and his wife have three kids in Seattle public schools. Public education is very important to McGinn, on a personal level. He’s committed to improving the quality of Seattle public schools.
He moved to Seattle in 1989, practiced law for a while, then founded Great City–a nonprofit striving to “enhance our quality of life, help preserve our region’s natural beauty, and make Seattle a model of economic and environmental sustainability.” Mike explained that Great City was–in part–responsible for putting the Pro Parks Levy on the ballot and helping pass it.  Mike got the community organizing bug. He threw his name in for mayor, believing that the race needed to be about the future. He won the primary, and is running against Joe Mallahan to be our next Mayor. It’s a surprise to everyone–including Mike. He says, “Everyone expected this race to be between Nickels and someone. It’s not–it’s between two new guys. That gives a chance to talk about the future. We still need to learn from the past–but let’s talk about the future.”
McGinn’s campaign is run entirely by volunteers. He rides his bike, takes mass transit, and relies on rides from supporters to get to events.  He’s gotten the most press from his vocal opposition to a deep-bore tunnel replacing the Alaskan Way viaduct. Neighbors asked Mike about the tunnel and how he would do things differently. He laid out a clear, succinct argument. Google “Mike McGinn tunnel” to hear it.
I was more interested in how he felt/what he thinks about all the other issues facing Seattle. We’ve heard a lot about how McGinn opposes the tunnel. It turns out McGinn supports a lot of other things: improving public schools, supporting neighborhoods, making Seattle safer, saving money, creating a broadband public utility, and lots of other things. His campaign established a website so you can share your thoughts: www.ideasforseattle.org.
Are you registered to vote at your current address? Have you researched the candidates and the issues on the ballot? Be a good neighbor; be an informed, engaged voter. Attend meetings, read materials, talk to your neighbors. We are choosing a new mayor for the first time in eight years. This decision will shape our neighborhood for years–if not decades–to come.
There was an armed robbery near 15th and Columbian on Thursday night. Seattle Police say that a suspect entered the store, in the 4300 block of 15th Avenue South, armed with a hand gun. He rushed the clerk and forced him to give up some cash, then fled.
The suspect is described as a Black or Hispanic male, 25-30, 5’7″, 160 pounds, with fair or almond-colored skin, wearing a black hoody, a blue and white plaid jacket, and blue jeans.
A K-9 unit tracked him to a nearby parking lot, but the suspect was not found.
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The first Beacon Hill Blog Top of the Hill reader survey closed last week. We’ll be bringing the results to you periodically over the next week or so. Here’s the first part of the results.
The survey started with a couple of basic questions:
Where do you live on Beacon Hill? We did know that we had more readers in North Beacon than any other part of the hill, but were surprised to see how many more. 63% of survey respondents live on North Beacon Hill, 32% on Mid-Beacon, and only 4% on South Beacon. North Beacon is probably slightly denser than the rest of the hill, but not so much that we’d expect that sort of difference.
How long have you lived on Beacon Hill? This answer surprised us a great deal, though perhaps it should not have. The leading answer by a mile, was 1-5 years, chosen by 38% of respondents. It was followed by 5-10 years (20%), 10-20 years (18%), 0-1 year (14%), 20-30 years (5%) and more than 30 years (also 5%). Particularly interesting here is that this indicates that 52% of us — at least, of those of us who read the BHB and fill out surveys — have been here for five years or less.
As the disclaimer in the last sentence indicates, however, we are well aware of the statistical limitations of our survey. Does it represent all of Beacon Hill well? Probably not. We probably should have taken more demographic info, to get a better idea who might be answering the survey. Still, it does seem likely that Beacon Hill has a lot of newcomers these days.
Continue reading Top of the Hill Survey Results Part 1: Names and changes
