February 2009

Students at Loyal Heights Elementary in Ballard are performing the opera "Siegfried and the Ring of Fire" Feb. 13 in collaboration with staff, singers and musicians from the Seattle Opera.

The fourth and fifth-grade performers worked with the Seattle Opera as part of an Artist in Residence program for the week leading up to the performance but had been practicing their parts for nearly a month.

"Siegfried and the Ring of Fire" was written by Jon Dean, Seattle Opera's education artistic administrator.

Welcome to the first edition of the PSN Corner in partnership with Robinson News/specific Web site.  Our column will provide bi-monthly resources to help you build, sustain or strengthen your community through the creation of a Personal Safety Net.

What is a Personal Safety Net?
A Personal Safety Net (PSN) is an series of connected plans, systems, resources and (most importantly) people that will strengthen your life and assist you in addressing any of your life's changes or choices. You will enjoy this community of people in good times, and have it there in hard times. A well constructed PSN will add pleasure, security, and control in
your life.

We look forward to working with you to create your PSN and to hearing feedback on our column.  Please send us your questions or comments concerning particular topics you want us to cover.

Thank you,
PSN Team:  John, Judy, Linda and Nate

Seattle Storm will be moving their headquarters in the Interbay Neighborhood where they are leasing 12,055 square feet in the Interbay building from the Freehold Group.

The Freehold Group is a commercial real estate development company and has been in the area for more than a decade.

“We look forward to becoming a member of the Interbay community and celebrating our 10th anniversary season in his revitalized neighborhood,” said Anne Levinson, chair of the Storm’s ownership group who negotiated the transaction on behalf of the team. “ By Being an anchor tenant for a neighborhood designed to reuse industrial buildings and locating near our home court at Key Arena, we are reinforcing the Storm’s commitment to sustainable business operations and lessening our environmental footprint.”

A change in zoning was approved last year by the Seattle City Council to preserve the industrial and mixed-use component of Interbay. An increase in buildings heights was allowed for the construction of multi-family housing and retail services, to make it one of the most diversely zoned areas in the city.

West Seattle is now home to two newly certified international education programs at Concord Elementary School and Denny Middle School.

Beginning in September 2009, the current curriculum at Denny will be expanded to include a dual-language program. Existing courses will also be altered to include a global perspective.

“It will be a great fit for all of our kids,” said Jeff Clark, principal at Denny Middle School. “Every child can benefit from a global perspective.”

Spanish will be Denny’s target language which they will teach in three ways: one format for students new to the language, another for native speakers that may not be able to read and write in Spanish and a third for bilingual students. The school will also continue to offer Mandarin language classes and may offer Arabic in the future.

Concord Elementary already has a successful dual immersion Spanish program for Kindergarten and first grade. Dr. Norma Zavala, a native Spanish speaker was appointed as Concord principal for the fall of 2009 and will expand Scott’s popular program.

The East Ballard Community Association plans to host a February Night Out event, Feb. 17. King County Metro will attend to discuss the latest proposals for Ballard's RapidRide.

The event will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Alphonsus School Cafeteria, located at 5816 15th Ave. N.W..
Metro representatives will discuss the latest proposals for RapidRide bus transit in Ballard. Will it replace the #15 or #18?).

This is one of several opportunites to submit public comment on the plan .

The community group will also have a session for neighbors to propose projects to be submitted for Neighborhood Projects Funds grants.

"This will be a great opportunity for us to voice our ideas on how we could use city money toward park and
street improvements in East Ballard," according to a release from the East Ballard Community Association.

Applications are due Feb 27th. Examples of projects funded last year include traffic circles, sidewalk repair, signage and green streets

For more information on this event or how to become more involved with EBCA, please contact Dawn 953-3940 or Shannon 781-4398.

A respectable-sized crowd filled about one third of Key Arena’s 15,000-plus seats to witness Season-5, Bout 1, between two pairs of teams belonging to the Rat City Rollergirls, the Seattle-based all-female roller derby league that originated in White Center. The Rollergirls have four teams, Grave Danger, Sockit Wenches, Derby Liberation Front, and Throttle Rockets. Each team has about 20 players. There is also a fifth, traveling team. Ballard and Greenwood were well represented during the league’s Feb. 7 debut at Key Arena with players, a mascot, and many enthusiastic volunteers.

“ I volunteer so that I get to hang out with all the kick-ass ladies,” said Jasmine McKenzie, of Ballard, who was stationed at the season pass-holder check-in table.

After an extensive year long exploratory effort to ask the people of King County about the depth of the county and the need for change in the executive office, King County Councilmember Larry Phillips announced that he would be running for Ron Sims position as King County Executive.

“I got very good results as a consequence of an exploratory effort,” Phillips said. “After Obama’s inauguration I announced my candidacy.”

Phillips grew up and raised his family in Seattle and represented the 4th District on the King County Council. He said he has participated in so many endeavors in the city and feels that King County is one of the best places to live, work and play.

“One of the things I learned in talking with the community was that they are looking for a very focused effort in county government,” Phillips said. “During this difficult time they are looking for a stable and efficient government that delivers basic government. I’m focusing on that.”

I went by Ballard Corners Park recently and noticed that it has gotten bigger.

The park now juts 4 to 5 feet out from the original curb line. This not only is a deviation from the plan as put forth on their Web site but also is a traffic and safety hazard in the making as it reduces that block to a one-lane road. It is too late to do anything about this now except to bring it to your attention and to share with you how discovering this made me realize the importance of being involved in the community.

The construction of the park has taken several years. During that time, the Ballard Corners Park group has been very up front about their plans to transform the site from a vacant lot and an uninhabited house into a vibrant neighborhood open space. There’s a billboard up on the site that details their plans and has contact information if people want to volunteer.

The Ballard District Council presented the 2008 Ballard Community Service Awards to individuals who have helped improve the neighborhood or bring more attention to it Feb. 11.

The winners received tote bags marked “local hero” that included gift certificates and goods from local businesses as well as a commemorative plaque.

Kate and Cory Bergman, creators of the My Ballard blog, were the first recognized.

The Bergmans created a popular news site that encourages community participation and reader interaction, Mayor Greg Nickels said in an award certificate read by council president Steve Cohen.

Crystal and Bob Carlson, owners of Great Harvest Bread on Market Street, were honored for their contribution to neighborhood projects and their dedication to organic food.

“They made it cool for kids to eat grain,” said Fred Maxie on behalf of the council.

Seemingly everyone at the meeting was there to see Randi Hansen receive her award.

Hansen is a neighborhood activist, working on behalf of the homeless and others, and was instrumental in founding the Nordic Heritage Museum.

The West Seattle Wildcats’ Senior Night was one to be proud of, they came into the game fired up and ready to go, having already lost to the Bainbridge Spartans once this year, they refused to let it happen again.

The Wildcats came out of the gates at full force, maintaining their lead throughout the game. For the first three quarters the Wildcats slowly pulled ahead; widening the gap with a steady relentlessness. Until the fourth quarter when they seemed to lose their focus, giving the Spartans a chance to comeback, to make it an; out of your seat, scream and shout, end to the game. But, in the end the Wildcats pulled through to win it over Bainbridge.