December 2007

Many homes throughout the Highline area are showing their holiday spirit this season. A beautiful variety of lights can be seen along Marine View Drive Southwest from the southern edge to the northern edge of Normandy Park.

Specifically, you won't want to miss the lights of Rick and Vicki Johnson at 18602 Marine View Dr. S.W. The Johnsons get together every year (this is the sixth) with friends from their car club to put out a spectacular display.

Boulevard Park was a congenial enough place during my summer following college graduation when I wandered door-to-door in the neighborhood pedaling Fuller Brush vegetable scrubbers.

If Benjamin's post-college future in "The Graduate" could be summed up in the word "plastics" my immediate future was "brushes."

Many years later, Boulevard Park, nestled in the southeast corner of unincorporated North Highline, finds it has been ignored for a long time.

"This is the area nobody wants," Carol Fall, co-president of Folks for Boulevard Park, once lamented to the Seatt

I was disappointed to see two major errors in the December 4 Highline Times regarding the recent special legislative session.

First, my no vote on the misguided property tax deferral bill (SB 6178) was erroneously reported as a yes. I voted against the bill because I felt it was a hasty proposal that could have negative consequences for homeowners.

I am frankly surprised that the article misstated something so simple, yet so important.

Second, my position on I-747-to reinstate the 1 percent limit on property taxes-was mangled just as badly.

(Editor's note: Free-lance reporter Joy Henley received this letter in response to a story headlined "Big need for foster families" in the Dec. 5 Times/News.)

May God bless you Joy! I sit here bawling my eyes out right now.

I just got a call from a young mom who is about to be an empty nester who told me she's been wrestling with the idea of fostering for two years. She said it's been a small voice in her mind for a long time.

South Seattle Community College dedicated a newly expanded and improved Automotive Collision Repair training facility on December 11.

The $1.7 million in improvements include the following:

* New state-of-the-art automotive painting and paint prep equipment

* Enlarged classroom space

* Locker and restroom facilities now provided for men and women

* Reception/work area that supports learning related to customer service

'Superbad' is worth the ride

Directed by Greg Mottola

Rated R

(Three stars)

By Bruce Bulloch

The teen coming-of-age comedy is the kabuki theater of American cinema. As a genre it has been so codified through repetition that plotlines play out like the stuff of ritual. There are the social outcasts, the quest for sex, the party, alcohol, and mandatory acts of personal humiliation. We've seen it all before and know exactly where it's going.

A walk into the future

By Marc Calhoun

A strong northerly wind swept down the canyon. Fortunately, I was walking south, so the tail-wind helped speed me along. I had wanted to take my stroll down California Avenue before four o'clock, when the sun can still reach the ground. But, because of the two-hour commute from downtown, I was running late.

I had gotten off the bus in front of the Safeway gas station on Admiral Way, and then grabbed a burger at Safeway In The Box.

Winter brings rains . . . rains bring mushrooms, and recently we found this classic mushroom at Camp Long.

Most Christmas trees from the north (firs, pines, spruces) are ectomycorrhizal--form an association with a type of fungi that forms the fruiting bodies (mushrooms) that are very familiar to most of us. Mushrooms are found growing under trees all over the world, and one common mushroom is the red and white Amanita muscaria or the "fly agaric" mushroom.

Ectomycorrhizal relationships are common in our forests.

The years of rampant industrial activity on and around Harbor Island have taken a toll on the Duwamish that lingers, like a threatening black cloud.

In the early 1970s a local metro newspaper did an exhaustive survey of the Polychlorinated Biphenyls, known to the world as PCBs, and the range of other things left over from World War II and later when the primary job was to get things manufactured and no thought was given to what was flowing into the river.

For 35 years since, there has been a lot of hand wringing, a plethora of studies and a lot of money spent, but still t

I'm a third generation West Seattleite. I've lived and worked my entire life in West Seattle. I've had my offices located on the 3200 block of California Avenue since 1981. It is, has been and will continue to be my neighborhood. I've been here longer than most. I am quite familiar with the area and the community. I really do care about this neighborhoods future. I will still be here no matter what happens with this request.

Roger Cayce and I were not expecting the level of anger, mistrust and personal attacks that took place at the neighborhood meeting.