March 2009

Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin met with the Ballard District Council March 11 to discuss the city’s goals during the budget crunch and to discuss questions and concerns brought forward by members of the council.

One of the major concerns brought forward by the council was the increasing homeless presence in the neighborhood.

Conlin said he had heard the same thing from the Lake City neighborhood, but the city council is so far not looking at the trends of mobile homeless populations.

The council is looking to update the Affordable Housing Levy, which expires in December, and is starting to get more help in funding for homeless issues from suburban cities, he said.

He said an increasing homeless population, as well as rashes of burglaries against small business, may be a rising trend.

“Given the current economic situation, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better,” Conlin said.

Rob Mattson, Ballard District coordinator, said Ballard was choking on building permits, but is now choking on vacant properties that are breeding public safety problems.

This summer Ballard-ites can grab an opportunity to host one of 15 Japanese junior high school students and in exchange share with them the American culture while at the same time learn about Japan and its way of living.

The students will be staying in Ballard from July 14 through Aug. 3.

“We’re looking for families in the Ballard area who are interested in hosting a Japanese student for three week this July,” said Kristen Ramirez, resident of Ballard and coordinator of Compass USA. “These students are traveling from their homes in Japan to learn about American customs and culture by staying with a Ballard-area family.”

Compass USA has been around for 19 years and is based out of Colorado, Ramirez said. They’ve brought a lot of international students to the Puget Sound and this will be the first time they’ve hosted students in Ballard, she said.

Of the 160 applications for Neighborhood Projects Funds citywide, 40 came from Ballard alone.

Neighborhood Projects Funds is a program where street and park projects that can be completed for less than $90,000 are submitted by members of the every neighborhood. Each neighborhood council chooses five projects from the total list to submit to the Seattle Department of Transportation and the Parks and Recreation Department.

The number one project requested by Ballardites in 2009 is new traffic circles with a total of 10 requests. There is a precedent for this as the Ballard area contains more than 100 traffic circles already.

There were also 11 requests for various sidewalk and pedestrian safety improvements.

Members of the Ballard District Council will be deciding on the top five projects, as well as a secondary five, in April, and the Seattle City Council will include the approved projects in the 2010 city budget.

After listening to Conner Homes' presentation and hearing from members of the local community, the Southwest Design Review Board decided that the developers mixed-use project in the Alaska Junction will require further review before construction can begin.

On March 12 the board met for the third design review meeting to address the project planned for the corners of California Avenue Southwest, Southwest Alaska Street and 42nd Avenue Southwest.

The process is part of the city’s required Early Design Guidance and a Recommendation phase, for mixed-use projects of a certain size. Administered by the Department of Planning and Development, the board reviews private development projects in the city and make recommendations to the city regarding massing, scale and character of the projects.

While this could have been the final design review meeting for this project, a significant number of concerns from the community and a constraining time limit forced the board to request an additional meeting be held.

A route along 15th Avenue Northwest is the preferred route for RapidRide service, according to the results of a Metro survey.

Metro sent out 56,000 surveys asking residents in Ballard and nearby neighborhoods whether they would prefer the planned RapidRide service to travel along 15th north of the Ballard Bridge (the current Metro 15 route) or take a left onto Northwest Leary Way after the bridge and travel through downtown Ballard and north along 24th Avenue Northwest (the current Metro 18 route).

Metro received 3,000 surveys back, 65 percent of which indicated a preference for the route along 15th, said Craig Benjamin, a member of the RapidRide Advisory Panel, at the March 11 Ballard District Council meeting.

The 5 percent response rate is unheard of for Metro surveys, which usually only have a 1 percent return rate, he said.

Benjamin said Metro won’t base its decision solely on the survey and won’t have an official route until later in the spring.

“Feel free to assume (the route will be 15th),” he said. “And, I can give you an answer in a month.”

(Editor's note: This article was submitted by reader Don Jaenicke.)

As the debate continues to rage about the Holocaust, it is fortunate that we still have witnesses who experienced this nightmare and can
verify that it was real during World War II.

The ghosts of World War II prison camps are still present among survivors who remained alive through internments and others who hid from the Nazis to avoid being imprisoned. No horror movie could portray the tragedy and fear that gripped Jewish residents during the time that six million of them were murdered in prison camps like Auschwitz.

More than a million of the victims were children.

Peter Metzelaar is a well known speaker, who survived the holocaust era, and tells his dramatic story to retirement home residents, schools, universities, churches, and groups interested in that part of history, residents, many of whom had only a dim recollection and knowledge of the Holocaust. He recently told his story to the residents of Daystar Retirement Village in West Seattle.

Life is too stressful right now, so let’s try to keep it simple. At least that’s the motto behind K.I.S.S. Cafe.

The acronym stands for Keep It Simple Sucka, which is the creed by which Brenda Reed tries to live. Ballard resident Reed is one of three partners of the café, which opened over a year ago.

After being in the restaurant industry for more than 15 years, she was ready to start her own venture.

“K.I.S.S. represents what’s simplistic but good, the theory of life; keep it local, keep it real, keep it simple,” she says.

K.I.S.S. serves beer, wine and espresso from Seattle’s Zoka coffee. With a huge selection of exclusively bottled beer, K.I.S.S. invites you to join their Ballard Drinking Team. If you drink 99 bottles of beer on the wall - and don’t think you can cheat because they keep record - you get your name and date completed on a trophy (or rather a beer glass) for display.

Reed tries to offer beer that others don’t, such as brews like the tasty Turbodog from Louisiana’s Abita, Colorado and New York, to name a few.

I’ve been participating at the Seattle Miniature Show for more than five years now – first exhibiting, then vending and exhibiting. It’s always interesting to meet the different faces that make up this biannual show and, invariably, I always learn something new.

The Seattle Dollhouse Miniature Show has been going for decades and the current owner, Kristine Hill, has brought the show to the Seattle Center for the past 11 years. In doing so, she has attracted a wide variety of miniaturists to the show – some that have been in the business for well over 30 years.

It is always interesting to talk to these dealers and you can bet that they have some interesting stories to tell, too.

But there was one thing that lodged in my mind after going to dinner with a couple of these gurus, something that we all know but need some pointing out to see: Miniatures, as a group, is the biggest little industry in the world. Let me count the ways.

Saturday, March 14 the 36th District’s state representatives will hold a town hall meeting in Seattle.

Ballard's representatives Mary Lou Dickerson and Reuven Carlyle invite the community to join them for a discussion of the 2009 legislative session. The event is free and open to the public.
 
 
36th Legislative District Town Hall Meeting
Saturday, March 14, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Association (community hall, brick building)
6615 Dayton Ave. N.
 
For questions, contact Matt Gasparich: (360) 786-7814 or gasparich.matthew@leg.wa.gov
 

Mt. Rainier National Park and the National Park Service along with Seattle Parks and Recreation’s Camp Long this spring and summer will offer a series of programs for youth and families who have little or no experience in using parks.
 
A series of programs leading to a summer camping trip at Mt. Rainier National Park is being offered to those who are able to participate fully in the program.
 
The goals of the program are to:

1) give families who have never camped before the chance to do so, especially those with little or no experience;

2) connect youth and families with nature;

3) promote healthy recreation;

4) teach families the skills necessary to feel safe, comfortable and confident when camping by providing a positive experience for families to recreate and enjoy time together.

Families interested in participating need to attend a mandatory introductory meeting on Friday, April 24, at 7 p.m. at Camp Long to fill out the required paperwork.  Most costs of this program are supported by the National Park Service, and a variety of partnerships.