It has come to the BHB’s attention that Lockmore, a neighborhood within Mid-Beacon Hill, has its own neighborhood blog.
Beacon Hill actually contains quite a few neighborhoods — the Hill is huge, and really isn’t a neighborhood so much as a meta-neighborhood, like West Seattle. (This was the subject of some discussion in the early days of this blog.) Are there other blogs for the Hill’s neighborhoods that we need to know about?
Our news partners at KOMONews.com are reporting that a local resident has drafted plans to put motion-sensing cameras up on major arterials in parts of Mid-Beacon Hill to thwart crime.
Glenn Tamura has created a proposal to place cameras to capture images of all pedestrians and motorists who travel on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Beacon Avenue South, Columbian Way, and South Orcas Street. (See the map below.)
The cameras would be able to capture license plate information and send images to a remote server via a wireless connection.
Why this area? The KOMO article quotes neighbor Alexis Gallegos, a block watch captain in the Mid-Beacon neighborhood of Lockmore, who says that crime in the area “‘just started escalating…Now it’s to the point where you can’t go to a (neighbor’s house) without having somebody that’s had their door kicked in.'”
Tamura will discuss his proposal with neighbors at a community meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club.
View Motion-sensor cameras proposed area in a larger map
It may be wintery weather, but the work parties continue at Beacon-area parks and green spaces. The Friends of Cheasty Greenspace need 40 volunteers this Saturday, December 3 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon to complete the Hazelnut Trail, then drink hot cider and eat homemade baked goods around a warm fire pit. Yum!
The Friends will provide tools and gloves, but volunteers should wear warm clothing and sturdy shoes, and bring their own water bottles. If you like, bring extra refreshments to share. Meet at 2809 South Alaska Place at 10 a.m.
Neighbor Jann VanOver reports via the Beacon Hill mailing list that the former Grown Folks Coffee site at 4878 Beacon Avenue South reopened recently as the Jun Hong Kung Fu and Sports Association, with martial arts and yoga classes.
Their Facebook page says, “Here you are not a customer, you are a brother, a sister, we are a family, we are shaolin kung fu.” They’re having an open house on January 23.
Beginning yoga classes are $10 a session, on Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:00-8:00 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 3:00-4:00 pm. Martial arts classes and practices are also offered throughout the week.
Columbian Way South (and part of South Alaska Street) is closed between Beacon Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, due to a tree that fell and took some power lines with it in the 2500 block at 1:27 am. It’s expected to be closed until at least 8:30 this morning.
(Edited to add: a later story at KIRO has an overhead picture of the fallen tree. Wow, that was a big one!)
Power was out for about 3,000 folks on Beacon Hill and elsewhere in Southeast Seattle, including the VA Hospital. Power has since been restored to all but about 300 City Light customers, and the current expectation is that the power will be fully restored by noon. Here at the BHB, we noticed two power flickers at the time of the outage, but power stayed on in our part of the Hill.
According to City Light, the area now affected is bordered on the north by South Hinds Street, on the south by South Ferdinand Street, between 4th Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.
(Thanks to West Seattle Blog for tweeting useful info and more!)