Miles Pepper's "Dream Ship" sails above the Beacon Hill library at sunset. Photo by Wendi.The Friends of Seattle Public Library Blog reports good news: yesterday, the City Council voted unanimously to increase support for library services by $860,000 in 2010, which will allow the restoration of some library operating hours and staff positions that would otherwise have been eliminated.
With this increase, the Beacon Hill library branch will keep its current seven days/60 hours per week schedule:
Monday – Thursday, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Friday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Ballard, Broadview, Capitol Hill, Douglass-Truth, Greenwood, Lake City, Northeast, Rainier Beach, Southwest and West Seattle will also keep these hours.
Unfortunately, not all eliminated hours can be restored, and while Beacon Hill’s library hours have been saved, some other neighborhoods will still have the pain of serious cutbacks. The following branches will be reduced to a five days/35 hours per week schedule: Columbia, Delridge, Fremont, Green Lake, High Point, International District/Chinatown, Madrona-Sally Goldmark, Magnolia, Montlake, NewHolly, Northgate, Queen Anne, South Park, University and Wallingford.
Cheasty Boulevard to get new brown street signs thanks to the Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks (FSOP)’s recommendation made after the 2003 Seattle Olmsted Park System Centennial celebration. More about the signs in Crosscut.
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Speaking of Cheasty, Green Seattle Day is tomorrow. They’re looking for volunteers to help out in the Cheasty Greenspace at 10am Saturday, rain or shine.
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Recommended boundary maps for Seattle Public Schools new student assignment plan. The school board votes November 18th. There’s one more public meeting on Saturday (tomorrow).
Identical permits to “Construct alterations to replace doors, windows and install air blend fan, per King Co. Sound Insulation Bid Pkg. #7 and floor plan, subject to field inspection, [subject to field inspection]” have been filed foranumberofpropertiesin South Beacon Hill, running about $40,000 a pop. (Sounds like a construction company made the same mistake multiple times.)
No more in-person voting at places like El Centro -- now you need to mail your ballot in. Photo by Wendi in 2008.It’s election day! If you haven’t voted yet, you can vote today by getting your ballot in the mail before today’s pickup, or dropping it off by 8:00 pm at one of the six Neighborhood Service Centers (Ballard, Central, Delridge, Lake City, Southeast, and University) that serve as drop-off locations for election ballots. Additionally, the NSCs will be hosting open houses for any and all residents to drop in, enjoy refreshments, receive giveaways, and learn more about the Department of Neighborhoods, City services, and opportunities for civic engagement. In our neck of the woods, the place to be is the Southeast Neighborhood Service Center, 3815 South Othello Street #105, from 3:00 – 7:00 pm. The Center is just a couple of blocks west of Othello Station, past the Safeway.
Speaking of public art on the Hill, the Times has a feature about artist Dan Corson, who created the “space forms” in the Beacon Hill light rail station. (Thanks for the tip, Joel!)
If Mayor Nickels’s proposed budget plan is adopted by the City Council unchanged, the library’s hours will be reduced to:
1pm to 8pm Mondays and Tuesdays.
11am to 6pm Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Closed Fridays.
11 am to 6pm Saturdays.
Closed Sundays.
More information about the 2010 Proposed Budget’s effect on the Operations Budget (collections and hours) and Capital (major building maintenance) is available on The Seattle Public Library’s website.
The Friends of the SPL want to hit 2000 signers on the petition today. It’s not out of reach at 1483 petitioners so far. Add your signature here.
October is International Walk to School Month, and local non-profit organization Feet First is observing the event by forming “walking school buses” at Muir Elementary School on “Walking Wednesdays.” Families, students and teachers will meet at designated locations and walk together to school. Walking groups leave at 8:40 a.m. from Safeway’s parking lot (behind Silver Fork), 33rd Avenue and Bayview (north of McClellan), Hunter Boulevard and South Hanford, and the Mt. Baker light rail station.
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We hear that Yoga On Beacon, at 3013 Beacon Ave South, is two years old as of October 1st. Happy birthday!
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People came to last week's County Council Town Hall Meeting to protest recent bus route changes. Photo by Wendi.The King County Council Town Hall YouTube channel has posted video from last week’s public transit town hall meeting at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club — unfortunately, the video’s just a one-minute collage with music and not very much context, and doesn’t give more than a hint of what the event was really like, or of the anger expressed by many Southeast Seattle residents who spoke that evening about the way recent bus route changes have affected their lives. Update: Al Sanders and Frank Abe from the Council pointed us to the full video of the meeting now available on their website as of this morning. Thanks guys!
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Seattle Public Schools have posted the proposed new Student Assignment Plan. In the plan, students attending Beacon Hill International School would continue to Mercer Middle School, which would probably become an international School itself. Cleveland High School would become a math and science option school, open to students from the entire district — Seattle Times
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The city has released its updated snow plan, mapping which streets will be plowed in the event of snowfall. If you want to express your opinions on the plan, a neighborhood meeting to discuss it will be on October 20, 7:00 pm, at Jefferson Community Center. — Beacon Hill KOMO, West Seattle Blog
Will we see a sign like this more often at the Beacon Hill library? Photo by Jasoon.Travis at KOMO reports that the Beacon Hill library branch could see a fairly drastic reduction of hours under the mayor’s 2010 budget proposal, including closing entirely on Fridays and Sundays. The proposal would also include another week-long closure like the one this summer. If you have concerns about this, now is the time to contact your city council representatives.
Also via KOMO, a story about Jay Park, who grew up attending a Beacon Hill church, then gained fame in a Korean boy band, then resigned from his band to return to Seattle, where his fans have been sending supportive gifts and letters — even spending money to hire an airplane to tow a sign to let him know how they feel. Unfortunately, the KOMO blog story seems to have offended fans of the band, who have left 171 comments so far expressing their anger. (Update: and over 1000 more comments on the same article spread among the KOMO sites it appeared on, like the Edmonds KOMO site. Yikes!)
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The Girl Scouts of Western Washington have two information nights coming up in Southeast Seattle for girls and adults interested in learning more about Girl Scouts. The meetings are Monday, October 5, 6:30 pm-7:30 pm at the Beacon Hill library, and Tuesday, October 6, 6:30pm-7:30pm at the Columbia City library. Potential members and volunteers are welcome. No registration is required; if you have questions, contact JoinUs@girlscoutsww.org or call 800-767-6845.
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Martin H. Duke has an editorial in Seattle Transit Blog discussing tonight’s County Council Town Hall meeting at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club and responses to residents’ concerns about Southeast Seattle transit cuts.
He writes,
“There are sins on all sides in Metro debates, but let’s not conflate the addition of a transfer, especially when one route runs every 8 minutes, with a total loss of service.”
Unfortunate update: We were improperly informed. The performance already occurred during the original re-opening. Our apologies for getting anyone’s hopes up. A couple of photos of the event are below:
We’ve received notice via Dorothy Orzel about a very special library re-opening celebration event tonight:
The Beaconettes have decided to perform their ode to the Beacon Hill Library outside the building tonight. The Beaconettes are an all women a cappella group — mostly Beacon Hill residents — who have a great talent for writing witty lyrics to classic tunes. They won Best New Group at last year’s Great Figgy Pudding Contest. It just happens that they had recently penned this tribute to that unexpectedly glorious building (and its staff), so the re-opening seemed a perfect occasion to perform for patrons and staff…
A volunteer at work on the Hanford Steps last year. Photo by Jason.The Hanford Stairs Weed Busters need you! Susan Fairo is seeking teams of two people (volunteering together or matched up individuals) who can put in 2-3 hours four times a year to help keep weeds from taking over the new native plants at the public staircase near 25th and Cheasty. Rookie Weed Buster team volunteers will receive instruction on what to remove and what to ignore, and use of tools, watering, plant disposal, etc. If you’re interested or have questions, contact Susan at susan.fairo@gmail.com or call 206-349-7285.
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Noticed an increase in airplane noise? Patty Fong is organizing neighbors in Beacon Hill and the Central District to address the issue with the FAA. See this comment on a previous Beacon Bits for more details, including contact information.
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Teens can earn service learning credit at the library. In addition to free SAT prep and online tutoring, the Seattle Public Library is also running a teen advisory board this school year. If you know teens wishing to earn service learning credit by writing book reviews, helping at teen programs, or writing for the SPL blog, contact Jennifer Bisson at Jennifer.Bisson@spl.org or call 206-615-1410.
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Catholic Community Services is looking for tutors. Their Youth Tutoring Program is an after-school educational enrichment program for at-risk students in first through twelfth grade. Volunteers offer academic support and also serve as positive role models to students, helping strengthen their sense of self-esteem and self-respect. Tutors help students with reading, homework (all subjects), math and language arts skills. Resources are available for those subjects you might not remember quite so well, and no specific background is necessary aside from a high school diploma. Tutoring Centers located nearby in NewHolly and Rainier Vista are open Monday-Thursday from 4:20-7:40pm, and tutoring would be for 1-3 hours per week on the same night every week. You can apply online at http://www.ccsww.org/ytp.
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Flash Volunteer offers many more volunteer opportunities. A non-profit startup run by Brad Wilke, a former Development Director at Denise Louie, aims to link people and neighborhood-focused volunteer opportunities. Check it out at www.flashvolunteer.org.
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A South Beacon Hill neighborhood watch is coming together. Mike Cheney, working with SPD Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon’s encouragement, is trying to bring together South Beacon Hill neighbors to form a neighborhood watch group. Perhaps you read the recent Wall Street Journal article “Civilian Patrols Grow As Recession Puts Citizens on Guard” and it piqued your interest, or maybe you’d just like to make your block a safer place to live. If you’re interested, email Mike at redboneshadow@yahoo.com.
This is what our Beacon Hill Library looked like shortly after opening a few years ago, before they put up the "boat/whale" sculpture. Photo by Wendi.We are partway through a bleak, library-less week, and some people have plans to let the library staff know how much they have been missed. Neighbor Sarah wrote to the mailing list with a challenge:
“I received an e-mail from a parents’ group saying that several neighborhoods are starting up campaigns to welcome back the Seattle Public Libraries staff on Tuesday, September 8th with cards, pictures, thank yous, whatever saying how much we appreciate our neighborhood libraries and miss them when they’re gone.
“I’m planning on putting something up there on Monday, I hope others will join me!”
Our first annual “Top of the Hill” survey is still open for a while yet, and we’re not releasing results until it closes, but there has been one fairly frequent answer that I’ve noticed. One of the questions is “What is your favorite public art on Beacon Hill?” and while most people do have a favorite, there has been a surprisingly large number of people who say they don’t know of any public art up here. While we may not have as much obvious public art as some neighborhoods, we do have a fair amount. (The number probably doubled with this year’s addition of the Link station and its multiple artworks.) Here’s a collection of images of some of the art we all enjoy on Beacon Hill.
Many of these photos are from the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr. Have any photos you’d like to share? You are welcome to contribute them to the pool.
The mural on the side of Kusina Filipina. Photo by l0st2.Mosaic in Dr. Jose Rizal Park. Photo by Seattle Daily Photo.In front of the light rail station. Photo by l0st2.One of the "creatures" inside the Beacon Hill Link station. Photo by Wendi.Continue reading Public art abounds on Beacon Hill→
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