July 2008

I live in Texas and have also been a guest with the lovely Carol and Geo.

I have slept and read and studied and practiced my guitar in the "red room" upstairs where you can listen and meditate to the call of the sea lions in the raft on Puget Sound that spreads before your eyes through the huge window in that room. And of course it is filled with Geo's furniture. I've slept in a bed Geo made so lovingly.

Every morning, when I have come downstairs, Carol has laid a poem on the dining room table for me to savor with my breakfast.

This story is full of the sunshine and radiance that being with Carol and Geo conveys. Thanks so much for the beauty and love that these two bring to the world.

Miriam Bassuk

I was 23, and directing the first play I ever wrote. Carol was the star of the play. When we ran out of rehearsal space at the University of Washington, Carol offered her home for a rehearsal. I will never forget it. It lives in my dreams - the unbelievable artistry of the wood work and the views. And the love between Carol and Geo was so palpable - thank you for writing about two people whose love story needed to be shared.

Cynthia Bruckman

Writer/performer

New York

Peggy Sturdivant conveys an authentic sense of_the way it is to be with Carol and Geo in their_exceptional home (At Large in Ballard, July 2, 2008); the many resonances of their mutual love and respect, and the dogs who inhabit their story.

Joan Fiset

Ballard

Potholes can rattle a car and the driver's nerves as the tires bounce and the suspension bends, possibly causing expensive repair bills.

"Potholes can take the alignment out of adjustment, bend wheels and put wear and tear on the struts and support points," said Josh Donnelly, service advisor at High Road Automotive. "Pot holes on wet roads can affect breaking and be dangerous.

The Seattle City Council approved legislation to expand a tax break for developers to 22 additional neighborhoods, including Ballard, ending for now a long debate over whether the city's Multi-Family Tax Exemption program will increase affordability for middle-income workers.

Council member Nick Licata was the lone dissenter of the legislation last week, arguing that the changes "undermine its effectiveness." He proposed an amendment not to expand the program to several areas like Ballard that have already exceeded its target growth rates.

"Each one of these communities

On July 1, the 6:51 a.m. bus to downtown Seattle arrives at the corner of Northwest 64th Street and 24th Avenue Northwest right on time. The bus is empty so there are plenty of seats for the three passengers who climb aboard to escape the surprisingly chilly July morning. By the time the bus crosses the Ballard Bridge, there are no more than 15 passengers onboard.

Less than an hour and a half later, the situation could not be more different. The number 18 bus to downtown arrives at 64th and 24th at 8:10 a.m. where nearly two dozen people are waiting for it.

After three decades serving hamburgers and milkshakes Paul and Nisha Sharma, owners of Gordo's on Shilshole Avenue, have retired and closed their business.

When couple took over the small walk-up hamburger stand 30 years ago from Peter Dow, the Sharmas had never cooked American style fast food and no one in the Sharma family had tasted hamburgers.

"No one teach me.

With bus ridership and diesel fuel prices at record levels, King County Executive Ron Sims is proposing a 25-cent fare increase.

Sims said he decided on the increase rather than cut service to pay for fuel costs that have skyrocketed over 60 percent this year alone.

"This worldwide fuel crisis comes at a time of historic ridership growth for Metro Transit - and is the reason why residents are turning to transit in record numbers as their own budgets are squeezed," Sims said.

Jim Bristow is a general contractor in Ballard who specializes in green, sustainable structures. He also loves to bowl.

As Bristow sees it, Ballard must sustain a bowling alley.