February 2009

Scouts from the West Seattle Troop 282 will walk the neighborhoods Saturday March 14 and 21 to collect donations of non-perishable food items for delivery to the West Seattle Food Bank for its annual Doing a Good Turn Daily program.

Emphasis is on food most needed for nutrition such as peanut butter, baby formula, packaged meals and canned goods, especially tuna, soups, stews, meats, fruits and vegetables.  

For 20 years, the Boy Scouts have worked together with community food banks to collect food for the hungry during the annual Scouting for Food drive.

To date, more than 23 million cans of food have been collected for local community food banks. is a cornerstone of the Scouting program.

Watch for a door hanger on your door and get your donations out early on March 21.

An anti-crime group in Greenwood is hoping to to stave off future thefts of local businesses by hosting a community breakfast and litter cleanup.

The pancake breakfast, March 7, is planned to take place at Upper Crust Catering (8420 Greenwood Ave., 2nd floor), followed by a litter cleanup focusing on Greenwood Avenue and neighboring streets. 

The breakfast, from 9:30 to 10 a.m., is provided by the Sanctuary Church and Upper Crust Catering. The cleanup will start around 10 and end by 11:30 a.m.

The Greenwood Aurora Involved Neighbors (GAIN) group is organizing the event as part of the city's Adopt-a-Street program.
 
Recently, several Greenwood area businesses have been burglarized. Strut Shoes, Neptune Coffee and Makeda Coffee are some of the businesses affected. 
 
Earlier this month Makeda Coffee was broken into. Just north of Makeda, Neptune Coffee had its window smashed in and its safe was broken into and cash stolen.

Organizers of the event said they hope it will show criminals that the neighborhood is united against crime.

Email GAIN at gaingroup@gmail.com.  

Seattle Parks and Recreation is inviting the public to submit potential names for the new Morgan Junction park by Monday April 6.

A petition has been circulating the West Seattle community to name the park after long-time Herald reporter Tim St. Clair, a former Morgan resident who died a year ago from pancreatic cancer.

The park sits on former monorail property and is yet to be named. One roadblock is that the Parks Department requires a person be deceased for three years before it considers naming a park after that person.

Exceptions have been made, and a petition is now circulating to request such an exception in St. Clair's case.

"We want to get several thousand signatures," said Pete Spalding, of the Delridge Neighborhood District Council, who has teamed up with Morgan Community Association’s Steve Sindiong, Chas Redmond, and Cindi Barker, to present the petition to area City Council member and Parks committee chair, Tom Rasmussen, who will then approach Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher.

The Southwest District Council has also partnered with Spalding's district on this push.

The National Weather Service is predicting up to two more inches of snow for the Seattle area before it melts completely. But road conditions are expected to improve by tonight's commute.

Seattle Department of Transportation crews were on standby last night, according to the city, even though the weather forecast at midnight predicted no "road snow." Night crews patrolled for ice, and when it began to snow, around 4 a.m., standby crews were called in to assist the regular nightshift crews.

Between 4 and 6 a.m., snow dumped on Seattle streets, leaving approximately one and two inches, varying according to location. All available trucks with plows and sand treated major arterial streets throughout the city.

Crews were dedicated specifically to the West Seattle Bridge and the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and salt was applied. Roadway structure, bridges and overpasses were inspected to make sure walkways were passable and snow was not presenting a problem for opening and closing the moveable bridges.

Trucks with plows and sanders were also directed to trouble spots in West Seattle and Southeast Seattle.

The National Weather Service is predicting up to two more inches of snow for the Seattle area before it melts completely. But road conditions are expected to improve by tonight's commute.

Seattle Department of Transportation crews were on standby last night, according to the city, even though the weather forecast at midnight predicted no "road snow." Night crews patrolled for ice, and when it began to snow, around 4 a.m., standby crews were called in to assist the regular nightshift crews.

Between 4 and 6 a.m., snow dumped on Seattle streets, leaving approximately one and two inches, varying according to location. All available trucks with plows and sand treated major arterial streets throughout the city.

Crews were dedicated specifically to the West Seattle Bridge and the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and salt was applied. Roadway structure, bridges and overpasses were inspected to make sure walkways were passable and snow was not presenting a problem for opening and closing the moveable bridges.

Trucks with plows and sanders were also directed to trouble spots in West Seattle and Southeast Seattle.

If last year was defined by a need for change, then this year may be defined by a search for stability.

Times are tough. We need to trust that the doors of public health clinics will stay open and that buses will continue to run. We need stability in the services that save peoples’ lives and improve our communities.

That’s what I will do as King County Executive.

I was born and raised here, ran a business here, represented the 36th District in the state legislature, and currently represent Ballard on the King County Council, where I served as chair and budget chair during some of the most challenging times in county history.

I have advocated strongly for the priorities of King County citizens--mass transit, social services and environmental protection. I have reached out to all corners of King County to pass budgets that earned unanimous support. But I haven’t hesitated to oppose my colleagues – or the Executive – when I felt it was the right thing to do.

There will be a neighborhood meeting tonight at 7 p.m. to discuss a planned emergency shelter at Ballard's Calvary Lutheran Church, which is supposed to open Saturday.

The purpose of the meeting is to provide neighbors with an opportunity to learn more about SHARE'S (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort) shelter, a temporary emergency shelter, which has been invited to stay at the church, located on the Northwest corner of 70th and 23rd Avenue.

Calvary Lutheran Shelter began at Our Redeemer Church in the winter of 1993 and has moved three times since then, to a former Calvary Lutheran Church in West Seattle, the Randolf Carter Center and most recently with the West Seattle Church of the Nazarene. The one year contract in West Seattle expired on Feb. 15 and has been extended until March 1 or until a new home is found.

The Ballard shelter is supposed to open Feb. 28.

The shelter is for men only and has a capacity to hold 20. it requires participants to be sober and non-violent. pan handling and loitering are prohibited.

In it’s possible final year, the Northwest Flower & Garden Show came out successful last week, even after reported double-digit percentage drops in attendance of other consumer and trade shows.

Even after creator Duane Kelly decided to retire from his reign as coordinator of the show and chairman of Salmon Bay events to pursue other interests and endeavors, the show saw an attendance climb of 54,443, a four percent increase from last year’s attendance of 51,692.

Duane is still in search of a buyer for the show to continue the rite of spring tradition in the Pacific Northwest.

Salmon Bay Events in Ballard owns and produces both the Northwest and San Francisco Flower and Garden Shows. They are the second and third largest shows in the county, after Philadelphia. More than 1.5 million have attended the show since its inception, and annual attendance ranges between 60,000 and 80,000.

Kelly will be accepting purchase offers and proposals until Feb. 28 and hopes to announce a buyer on the last day of the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show which runs from March 18-22.

The Freehold Group presented their objective and intentions to the Seattle Commercial Real Estate Women for developing parts of the Interbay neighborhood as they move forward to build more mixed use in the area.

“Our sensibility about development in places is that they start with spaces and people,” said Jeff Thompson co-founder of The Freehold Group at a recent luncheon for the Seattle Chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women. “It is about providing lasting places and community links and I think that’s what embodies Interbay. We’re really in between things that already exist and have vibrancy but lack this hub in the middle.”

Freehold is working with Maestri, a multi-disciplinary firm, on a number of interrelated projects in the Interbay area. Maestri specializes in planning, design and marketing of large mixed-use developments.

“Our connection with Ballard is that we represent an opportunity for that gateway into the city that people from Ballard are proud of to see upgraded,” said Thompson. “It’s an enrichment within the city and a natural in fill of a place that is kind of a void right now.”

"The Reader"
Dir. Stephen Daldry
R, 135 min.
Opens Feb. 27

Kate Winslet won the Oscar for Best Female Lead for her role in "The Reader" as Hanna Schmitz, an ex-S.S. guard who begins an affair with a much younger man in the years after WWII. However, "The Reader" lost out for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture. And, deservedly so.

"The Reader" is a film full of gorgeous, powerful performances. Unfortunately, those performances ultimately feel hollow because the film gives them nowhere to go.

Hanna is working on a tram in Germany when she crosses paths with Michael Berg (David Kross), a high school student 20 years her junior. They begin a summer-long sexual affair that ends when Hanna abruptly vanishes, jilting young Michael.

This first third of the "The Reader" works rather well as a romance and gives space for both Winslet and Kross to shine. The scenes of sexual intimacy between Hanna and Michael are exhilarating and feel true to life.

It is the following two-thirds of the film, when "The Reader" tries to grow beyond its simple romantic core, that the film starts to crumble.