Mia Williams has been appointed by Seattle Public Schools as principal of Aki Kurose Middle School for the 2009-2010 school year. Williams is the current interim principal at Aki Kurose, and served as assistant principal at Denny Middle School for four years and assistant principal at Salmon Bay K-8 School for three years. She received the Distinguished Assistant Principal of the Year Award for 2002-2003.
Aki Kurose is located near Beacon Hill in the Rainier Valley, at 3928 South Graham.
North Beacon Hill neighborhood planning workshop next Saturday
The North Beacon Hill neighborhood planning workshop we’ve mentioned before is next Saturday. Judith Edwards sends this timely reminder:
“What do you want Beacon Hill to look like in five years? Ten?
What about the plans that were made at the Pancake Breakfast last November? What’s happening with Jefferson Park? What kind of development is going to occur on the Hill? These and many more topics will be explored in the City of Seattle Neighborhood Plan Updates meeting on Saturday, March 28th. Your ideas are important! Please join your neighbors to talk about the changes that are coming to Beacon Hill, and the changes you would like to see.‘Child care will be provided, as well as Interpretation services in Amharic, Cantonese, Khmer, Mandarin, Oromifa, Spanish, Somali,Tagalog, Tigrinya and Vietnamese. If you are in need of special accommodations or interpretation services, please contact Kerry Wade at 206-733-9088, or email her at kerry.wade@seattle.gov.”
This meeting is to begin the process of possible revision to the North Beacon Hill neighborhood plan, in light of possible changes from the arrival of light rail.
Need to get an idea what’s at stake? The existing neighborhood plan is online, here. The survey answers from last year’s Pancake Breakfast are here. (Thanks to David Gackenbach for sending us the latter file.)
Culinary Communion shutting down
The long farewell letter from Gabriel and Heidi with all the details is on the front page of the Culinary Communion website.
Thanks to Chris Bailey for the tip.
Real estate agents buzz about Beacon Hill
Is the rumored increase in demand for property on Beacon Hill (particularly around the North Beacon light rail station) starting to kick in? Two local real estate blogs have recently touted Beacon Hill as the place to be.
“When people ask me where I think it would be wise to invest, I point their sights south to Beacon Hill. Otherwise known as NoBeHi or SoBeHi, North/South Beacon Hill has incredible values and views with unbelievable proximity to downtown’s core. With the Light Rail on its way, it is one more reason this much overlooked neighborhood needs a second chance.”
“One ingredient that makes a deal a deal is knowing about something that is going to be popular before it becomes popular. Right now there are not a lot of people, even in Seattle, that know much about North Beacon Hill. It is one of the few undiscovered neighborhoods left in Seattle. It is my opinion that very soon that is all going to change. The main reasons for this upcoming change is its location to Downtown Seattle (5 minutes away – and no need to use the freeway), I-5, and I-90 (easy access to the Eastside), and the soon to open North Beacon Hill light rail station.”
Will Beacon Hill be “discovered”? People have been predicting it for years, but now that the light rail is opening there may actually be some new momentum. Time will tell.
Beacon Hill past and present: Hothouse no more
At first glance this is one of the less-recognizable past/present photos we have. In 1923, there was a considerable amount of farming in this lower Beacon Hill/upper Rainier Valley area, an Italian neighborhood, but now this spot just off Rainier Avenue, in the 1800 block of 21st Avenue South, is just a big ugly warehouse.
Still, something has survived. See the apartment building behind Mr. Ditore’s hot house? If you move just a bit further north on 21st, you can see it:
The Polk Directory for Seattle in 1923 lists Antonio Ditore, a gardener, and his wife Grace residing at this address. Though the 1923 photo is captioned “E. Ditore,” this seems likely to be Antonio. You can read more about Antonio Ditore, one of the farmers who sold at the Pike Place Market on its opening day in 1907, and see a picture of him years later with his garlic crop. (Scroll down to the post by John Ditore.)
Commentary: Is It neighborhood planning?
(The existing neighborhood plans for the Beacon Hill, Othello, and Mount Baker light rail station areas are in the process of being revised. Frederica Merrell attended the recent Othello neighborhood plan update and has some things to say about the process, and the upcoming North Beacon Hill meeting.)
By Frederica Merrell
The City held its first “neighborhood planning†update meeting for the Othello neighborhood on Saturday, March 14. I went to observe part of their process. I was interested in whether the meetings were representative of the community; how scope, planning areas, and discussions were organized; whether people were provided with information on the previous plan recommendations; and whether comments were accurately recorded. For people interested in how our update process on Beacon Hill might look initially, here is what I observed (I didn’t stay for the wrap-up).
I arrived at about 10:00 am; about one hour after the meeting had started. I spoke with a consultant at the door who told me that the first hour was dedicated to an introduction and a summary of the previous plan effort. I asked if the participants were provided with the neighborhood plan. There was one summary of the plan at each of six tables. None of the plan summaries were translated. There were no copies of the matrix of recommendations provided to participants.
Continue reading Commentary: Is It neighborhood planning?
Early morning shotgun blast
The Seattle Police Department’s blotter reports:
On March 13th at 4:41 a.m., South Precinct patrol officers responded to the 1300 block of 15th Avenue S to a report of a mentally ill man starting a fire in his yard. The complainant reported that the man also had a shotgun.
Upon arriving in the area, officers reported hearing a gun shot. Officers contacted the suspect and took him into custody without incident. The suspect told officers that he accidentally dropped a shotgun shell into the fire causing it to it explode. Further investigation revealed that the spent shell was located in the chamber of the shotgun. Officers did not detect any injuries or property destruction caused by the gun shot.
The suspect was transported to Harborview Medical Center for a mental health evaluation. The shotgun was seized and placed into evidence.
Four vehicle crash injures pedestrians, driver at Beacon and Columbian
The Seattle P-I reports that a vehicle-pedestrian collision was reported just before 2:30 pm today at Beacon Avenue South and South Columbian Way. Police are investigating the incident.
Edited to add further info:
KOMO 4 has a photo and further information. A 60 year old woman driving near the above intersection collided with another car, then veered into a grocery store parking lot and hit two women there. One pedestrian has broken bones, and the driver and the other pedestrian have minor injuries.
Edited yet again, 10:19pm::
The accident was worse than KOMO’s information stated. According to Seattle Police, four vehicles were involved in the collision, and there were life-threatening injuries to at least two people. An 81-year-old woman driving a Lexus sedan lost control of her car while attempting to back out of a parking space in the parking lot on the northwest corner of Beacon and Columbian. Then she hit a woman who had been a passenger in her car, then continued backward, striking another car and pinning its driver, then hit yet another vehicle. The driver of the Lexus and one of the pedestrians were transported to Harborview with life-threatening injuries; the other pedestrian was transported to Harborview with non-life-threatening injuries. Police are still investigating the accident.
Beacon and Columbian was not the best intersection to pass through this afternoon. Half an hour after the earlier accident, a 30-year-old man on a moped was struck by an SUV. The moped driver was also taken to Harborview with non-fatal injuries.
Beacon Ave street work this weekend
SDOT’s Marybeth Turner wrote to let us all know:
SDOT crews will repair roadway pavement in the 5300 block of Beacon Avenue South on Saturday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Southbound vehicles and bikes on Beacon Avenue South will be detoured at South Bennett Street to Columbia Drive South, returning to Beacon Avenue at S Brandon Street. Northbound traffic will not be affected.
View Larger Map
Thanks Marybeth!
Fire causes temporary closure of Beacon Avenue
At 12:22 this morning there was a reported fire in a single-family residence on the 3300 block of Beacon Avenue South. Many units responded, and Beacon Avenue South was closed between Hanford and Spokane streets. Metro has rerouted Beacon Avenue buses onto 15th Avenue South between McClellan and Spokane street until Beacon reopens. The fire does not appear to be major.
Update: Beacon Avenue South has been reopened in both directions.
