September 2006

Mayor Greg Nickels, well you not only have tunnel vision, now you have a Forked Tongue.

You took and okayed the Parks Department to remove 1 block of woods on 25th and Brandon. The woods were full of wild life and all kinds of birds. Now you want to spend more tax dollars for trees to replant. You don't need to spend a lot of tax dollars for trees. For a small donation you can get them from Arbor Foundation.

Write to the National Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Avenue, Nebraska City, Nebraska 68410.

I saw your photo and short article about the mayor's plan to plant more trees. I have been upset about the Seattle Parks Service plans to cut in half and kill with poison a very healthy and very beautiful young Italian poplar tree in the Orchard Street Ravine in West Seattle.

A $125 million project was announced last week to demolish Denny Middle School and move it to a new address on Kenyon Street to bring it closer to Chief Sealth High School, where other new facilities could be built to serve both schools.

"It will be the biggest project in the history of Seattle Public Schools," said Jeff Clark, principal of Denny Middle School.

Denny and Sealth would maintain their separate autonomy but share some facilities, such as a library, an arts center, language studies or tutoring.

A shared cafeteria, or even separate cafeterias,

As southbound traffic spills from the South Park Bridge onto 14th Avenue South, a mural is visible on the side of a discount food store in the neighborhood's business district.

Three different designs for the future Junction Plaza were presented to the public last week and most of the 10 or so people in attendance preferred a plan with half of the site paved, the other half landscaped, crisscrossed by pathways and edged with a sitting wall.

Junction Plaza is to be built at the northwest corner of 42nd Avenue and Alaska Street.

Planners said the new city park needs a design that's flexible enough for a variety of uses. It must be a gathering place for events such as musical performances and the lighting of the community Christmas tree.

Five Burien City Council members say that they now favor designating the entire North Highline Unincorporated Area as a potential annexation area.

Council members voted 5-2 last month to target only two areas in the southern part of North Highline as preferred annexation areas.

But on Sept.

Four groups opposed to annexation of North Highline by Burien have united their efforts against any attempt by the city to absorb part or all of the unincorporated area.

The Burien Residents Against Annexation Political Action Committee joined forces with three North Highline groups - Trusted Advocates, a community of over 200 ethnically diverse families, the White Center Homeowners Association, and the Boulevard Park Study Group.

In a press release announcing their united front last week, the organizations stated they took the action "as a result of the continued attempt

Harold and Evelyn Nilsen reached a milestone in their marriage recently when they celebrated their 65th anniversary.

With that milestone comes the reality of Alzheimer's disease.

The Seattle Metaphysical Library, an institution for more than 40 years, has moved to Ballard.

The non-profit, non-sectarian organization started at the Pike Place Market in 1961 by a few retired schoolteachers who wanted to share their collection of unusual books. Over the years, people have donated their own collections to the library, which now houses about 12,000 books on unusual and fringe subjects such as astrology, alternative health, hypnosis, world religions, alchemy and more.

"I really like the books," said Margaret Bartley, the library's executive director.

A new editor talking over a community's newspaper is sort of like a strange family moving into that long-vacant house next door. Will he clean up the overgrown weeds, paint the house and make the place respectable in the neighborhood? Or, will he a slovenly leaver of messes and often somewhere else doing something else?

One new rumor is that since I live in Alki and also edit the West Seattle Herald, this was sort of an add-on to be engaged lightly and while I am too busy putting out fires in that peninsula across Elliott Bay.