April 2009

The White Center community is gearing up for its annual "spring clean" event. This event will make White Center a better place to live, work, and play by promoting community building and neighborhood revitalization, according to the organizers, the White Center Community Development Association.

“This is our sixth year, and we are always excited to make it the best one,” said Aileen Balahadia, executive director of the White Center Community Development Association.

Three Ballard High School students were awarded at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth April 25 and five others had their films accepted to the Westport Youth Film Festival.

"Left Side," a documentary by Esther Magasis, Andy Tran and Ryan Zemke about a professional skier and mountain biker coping with the loss of a leg, won best documentary at NFFTY.

The award was determined by a panel of 23 professional filmmakers.

Andy Tran has been asked to produce a longer version of the documentary professionally, said Matt Lawrence, director of the video production program at Ballard High School.

Prior to the festival, Tran told the Ballard News-Tribune that he was interested in making documentaries professionally and was hoping to use NFFTY to get his name out there.

NFFTY is three-year-old film festival for young filmmakers started by Ballard High School alum Jesse Harris. This year's festival included 113 films from 20 states and eight countries.

On April 25 between 11 p.m. and midnight, North Precinct patrol officers responded to three strong-arm robberies in Ballard.

The first robbery occurred in the 5600 block of Phinney Avenue North at 11:12 p.m. An adult female victim was accosted by two young adult males. They demanded her cell phone. Upon receiving it, they fled.

The second robbery occurred at 11:35 p.m. in the 3200 block of Northwest Market Street. This time, three young adult male suspects attacked an adult male victim. They struck him once in the head and knocked him to the ground. The victim surrendered his cash to the suspects and they fled. The victim declined medical attention.

The third incident occurred at 11:51 p.m. in the 2400 block of Northwest 58th Street. An adult male victim was confronted by four young adult male suspects as he was walking home. The suspects implied that they had a weapon but the victim did not see one. The victim ran into his home, armed himself with a shotgun and chased the suspects away.

Directed by Clint Eastwood
Rated R
(Three Stars)

As an actor and as a director, Clint Eastwood has always been defined by his edges. Everything about him is chiseled and gruff; he seems decidedly uncomfortable with softness of any sort.

The opening scenes of his latest film, “Gran Torino,” greet us with few surprises. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a retired autoworker with a colorful racist vocabulary. Everything he sees displeases him: his fading blue-collar neighborhood that is rapidly being overtaken by immigrants and gangs, the ethnic Hmong family that move in next door, even his own family who would like nothing better than to pack him off to a retirement home where they would only have to deal with him on the occasional holiday. The one exception is his pristine 1972 Gran Torino that he keeps locked in his garage.

(Editor's note: This letter was addressed to Mayor Greg Nickels. A copy was also forwarded to Stella Chao, Timothy Gallagher, Tom Rasmussen, and our office.)

Dear Mayor Greg Nickels,

Your aide Wayne Lemon called me to tell me that my letter dated March 16 was forwarded by the mayor’s office to the parks department. A Christine Millins wrote me for his/her boss Timothy Gallagher and Mayor Nickels explaining how neighborhood groups apply for Neighborhood Matching Funds administered by the Department of Neighborhoods.

In our most recent meeting on April 16, 2009, a Mr. Steve Grey stated that “a bunch of neighbors applied for funding for possible improvements to a California Place park.” This is a direct quote as I was at the meeting.

Six hundred eighty five people signed a petition to leave the park as it is without change to the park. Six hundred eighty five people is not “a bunch of neighbors.” Six hundred eighty five people do not want to change the park. So why did the parks department ignore all these signatures?

Dear Editor,

I was reading about the 100th Anniversary of Tibbett UM Church, and about pastor Brown, in the April 8 West Seattle Herald; until I got to the fact that Dr. Brown is a Pittsburgh Steeler's fan. I READ NOT ONE WORD FARTHER!

I am still BITTER about the way "that" team, with the help of the officials gave away OUR Seattle Seahawk's Superbowl VICTORY.

Howard Briggie
North Highline

The Body Bar Day Spa in West Seattle will be celebrating its one-year anniversary on Saturday, May 2, from 4 to 8 p.m.

Ingraham High School’s Drum Line will kick-off the festivities by marching from the Alaska Junction North four blocks to the Body Bar’s location. Following this performance, The Body Bar’s fleet of seven massage therapists will be performing complimentary chair massage on the sidewalk.

Inside the spa, estheticians will be busy waxing eyebrows and applying makeup. The first 40 guests through the door will receive a $25 Body Bar gift card.

Food and libation will be provided by some of West Seattle’s most renowned restaurants including: West 5, Talarico’s, Seattle Fish Company, The Sugar Rush Baking Company, Hotwire coffee and Silver City Brewing Company. Music will be performed by local artists, Henta and Marias.

Dear Editor,

I live in Broadview and there is a person going around getting jobs by cutting down trees in the neighborhood. His name is MATT.

He has a real sob story about his house that was burned down and lost everything he had. So he gives you a reduced rate to cut down the trees. He was asking 20 to 50 percent down and the balance on finishing. He was working on three houses at once. I was house number three.

He would cut off the limbs and leave the stumps. Thus the limbs were all over the yard and made a terrible mess. He was working on my two trees and had one down and I was under the impression that he would finish up in my yard the same day.

I had to go out and would not be back by the time he finished so I paid him in advance. When I returned home he was gone and the yard was terrible. I called the phone number he gave me and he said that he would be back the next day to finish. He also said that on Friday he would rent a chipper and clean up all the yards.

That was on March 28. He will not return the phone calls and has not been back to finish. He never came back and left all three of us with a real mess.

Despite Saturday's overcast skies, the Ballard Locks welcomed more than just tugs, but also many pleasure boats. too, and even more onlookers.

The flyer underneath the "for sale" sign describes a lot “big enough for the most lush garden parties, croquet, lawn bowling or your own ‘field of dreams.’” But for the daughter of the woman who lived in the house for 56 out of its 101 years that side yard was recently the site of yet another farewell to a beloved home.

Barbara Norvell Hynek was raised in the extraordinarily ornate house that still occupies three standard city lots, a third of an acre, at 3306 N.W. 71st St. She graduated from Ballard High School just eight years before Norvell House was designated a Historic Landmark in 1979; one of just nine in Ballard outside of Ballard Avenue.

Saying goodbye to the house means revisiting a lifetime of memories, and saying goodbye once again to her late parents, particularly her mother who died at home in 2005.