October 2007

Bella Stead, 5, takes a leap of faith as her sister, Juliette, 3, cheers her on, at the playground at St. Alphonsus Parish Family Center, in Ballard.

On any given day, hundreds of children are homeless. These children are the most vulnerable, and also the most invisible side of homelessness. Recently on Market Street Family Services placed life-size cardboard cutout children with a direct call to action, "Don't Just Look Away."

Rikke Heinecke, a Ballard High freshman, sells her handmade greeting cards from her both at the 28th annual North Beach Arts and Crafts Fair last weekend.

Vote for a rainy day fund

By Don C. Brunell

When I was in sixth grade, my brother and I got a newspaper route. When we collected our first paycheck and paid our paper bill, my mom took us to the bank and opened a college savings account with part of the extra money. Each month, we put $5 in savings before we spent "big bucks" on movies, tennis shoes or baseball mitts.

My folks grew up during the Great Depression and worked hard just to help their parents pay the bills and put food on the table.

a playfield?

When I read the letter to the editor titled "Loyal Heights howling" I had to jump out of my chair and respond.

Can someone please explain to me why on earth, if a person "would like some quiet time when they come home from a long day's work and would like to be able to relax without having to hear constant howling and screaming" (an exaggerated description of the sounds of sports teams playing and practicing, I know, I've been there) why on earth would that silly person move in near a well marked, decades old, well used playfield?

I mean really?

When the sun rises over Salmon Bay, the shores are already busy with noise. A hammer's methodical 'thud' reverberates across Pacific Fisherman, Inc.'s shipyard. One of Ballard Transfer Company's powerful, red trucks idles, warming up for the day's first run.

On the bay's south side, a buzz saw whines from inside one of the hundreds of fishing vessels tied up at Fishermen's Terminal. To the east a power tool's staccato popping echoes across the Foss shipyard. On the other side of West Ewing Street rock music blares inside Maximum Performance Hydraulics shop.

Seattle's industrial lands are the source of good paying jobs for 25 percent of the city's workforce, but industry owners worry that growing pressure to build condos and apartment buildings on land zoned for industrial use threatens their economic future and the city's.

During a panel discussion about the future of Seattle's industrial lands recently, manufacturers and industrial landlords said the city's industrial areas need more protection from gentrification.

Nearly a dozen members of Sustainable Ballard met by the sun-kissed palm trees on the outdoor patio of the Shilshole Beach Club during a recent happy hour. They came to enjoy a glass of wine, a bottle of beer, some freshly grilled salmon and share concerns about a new problem plaguing their organization, sustaining Sustainable Ballard.

Newly elected president Jenny Heins, and new vice president, Ann Scheerer, kept the discussion on target.

Heins coined the phrase "Sustainable Ballard's Goose Dialogues," which she felt related to the organization's dilemma.

Seattle Public Schools is gathering community input on a new school funding model that district officials say will be more transparent and equitable than the current system.

The proposed "Weighted Staffing Standard" model will distribute about $5.5 million new dollars into district buildings, some of which comes from central office cuts, said Duggan Harman, fiscal compliance manager for the district.

The new program is based on differentiated weighting according to the size of a school, said Harman.

"As your school size goes up, so does the number of staff

Ballard area School Board candidates Peter Maier and incumbent Sally Soriano offered their differing, but sometimes shared, opinions on public education policy in Seattle schools at an all-city candidate forum last Thursday evening.

Seven of the eight candidates running for board positions were in attendance at Seattle School District headquarters in SoDo. C.R.