September 2008

Show’em some love!

Those Highline Pirates made the Mount Rainier football team walk the figurative plank on, of all nights, the Rams’ homecoming night, and, in this 23-12 win the purple and gold showed a lot of promise for future success on the Highline Memorial Field turf where this game was played to a full house of fans in both stands Friday.

“We finally got some blocking schemes down and Hans (Larson) had some great runs,” said Pirates head coach Juan Cotto.

The Rams were 2-0 coming in and the Pirates were 0-2 in the Seamount League.

Volleyball

Saturday, Sept. 12

Kennedy 2, Lynnwood 0

The Lancers defeated Lynnwood, 25-5, 25-23, to open tournament action. Ashley Eneliko had 10 kills and three stuff blocks, while Katie Key racked up 15 assists and four digs.

Kennedy 2, Nooksack 0

Nooksack fell to the Lancers, 25-17, 25-21, with Eneliko scoring 10 kills and Key 10 assists.

My wife and I have lived in Ballard for a year now so I thought I might reflect on life in Ballard from a newcomer's perspective. We lived on three and a half acres in Pierce County for 40 years. Needless to say our move last year to Ballard was a drastic change, but for the better.

A subscription to the Ballard News-Tribune immediately gave us great local news and we especially like the Community Calendar for places to go to things to do.

Yes, we are condo owners now and we love it. Sorry you Condo Haters but we leave a much smaller footprint than you.

The results of the subprime mortgage crisis has resulted in an increase in homelessness nationwide. If we make the effort to make this work, Ballard would indeed be taking care of its own, continuing a long tradition of the care and concern reflected in our church soup kitchens and food bank. If anyone wants to do the research, a model program of car camps has been very successful in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Rita Weinstein

Seattle

The importance of voting in the next general election is critical to the future of our country and our world. I am sending this to everyone on my e-mail list, both men and women, dems and r's and encouraging you to get out and vote! I am personally voting for Obama/Biden and there is no other choice for me.

If McCain and Palin win I will move to Canada. I already pay taxes in a country where I can't pursue my happiness and get married and I would like to get married and have it mean something in every state in the union.

Following months of negotiation, the Seattle School Board will soon decide whether or not to accept a purchase and sale agreement that will allow the Phinney Neighborhood Association to buy the former John B. Allen Elementary School for $3,050,000. The agreement (was) to be introduced at the Sept. 17 School Board meeting. A final vote is expected on Oct. 1.

Allen Elementary was one of several Seattle schools closed in June of 1981 due to declining enrollment in the district.

Nola Ahola shares a studio with two other artists in the basement of the historic Curtiss Building on Leary Way. She has worked in a series of old Ballard buildings since the 1970s, many of which have since been gentrified.

"I saw one of the old buildings I use to work in has been all tarted up," she said. "I think it's an architectural office or something now."

The gentrification of the once-industrial Ballard is creating changes for the art community here, and causing many artists, including Ahola, to worry about its future.

Last week, Mike Ericson made the considerable trip from Des Moines to Ballard, but he didn't come here for lutefisk, or local music or even a new condo. No, what drew him to Ballard was the need to purchase a foam-rubber skeleton and some pickle Band-Aids.

But Ballard store Archie McPhee, purveyor of Ericson's foam skeleton and pickle Band-Aids and uncountable other often overlooked but thoroughly necessary products, will be packing up its more than 10,000 items and leaving the neighborhood behind by mid-2009.

Archie McPhee's landowner Bob Jacobsen Jr.

After nearly two and a half years, Ballard has its gateway back.

Last week (on Sept.

Still wondering how you can get around the city without relying on a car, how it's possible to grow fruits and veggies in a city backyard or how you can tell what is and isn't recyclable?

Learn, interact and find these answers at the fifth annual Sustainable Ballard Festival this weekend (Sept.