January 2010

How are we doing?

In the “Gladiator” department evidently not very well. The coach of the Seahawks was sacked after his first season for a 5 and 11 season. Why? Evidently the management didn’t think that this was good enough.

In the “Education” department reports show that we are somewhere between 21st and 29th in the developed nations. Clearly not in “The Playoffs!” Should we be sacking someone? If so, who?

In Athletics coaches send out “Scouts” to determine how other teams are playing so that they can “Coach” their players to meet the competition. Assuming we want to “Make the Playoffs” in the world competition, shouldn’t we be “Scouting” our competition; then changing our plans to meet the competition?

Educators frequently refer to the concept of “Best Practices” as they search for better results. This is “Scouting” in the same sense as coaches are doing when they review videos of opposing teams.

I skipped school one day last week to go drinking liberally.
Well, it wasn't really school-it was a school board meeting at Big Picture High School in SeaTac. (In another life, the Big Picture building was Glacier High School, where my brother Phil held court on the tennis and basketball courts as a coach and in the classrooms as a chemistry teacher. When Glacier closed, Phil transferred to our alma mater, Highline High.)

My truancy had nothing to do with alcoholism and everything to do with a remarkable Burien woman named Cherisse Luxa.
Cherisse founded the Burien chapter of Drinking Liberally that meets every fourth Wednesday at Mick Kelly's Irish Pub in Burien.
The January gathering was special because it was a memorial service/wake for Cherrise, who died Dec. 13 of stomach cancer at the age of 62.

Though short and thin, she could easily kick their butt, several women-and a couple of men-confessed.
Cherisse was feisty, intense, organized and inquisitive.

Just five and a half months after the former Phoenecia at Alki Restaurant closed its doors due to the death of its owner, Seattle icon Hussein Khazaal, it rises again with a grand opening Friday night, Jan. 29, 5pm-11pm. The location is the same, 2716 Alki Avenue SW, but the interior’s carpeting and white tablecloths have been removed to expose the unpolished, retro cement floor and heavily laminated wooden tabletops. Bar seating has also been added. The prices are generally lower, and some of the old dishes will remain, though tweaked slightly.

“We couldn’t even walk inside the restaurant for a month after my father died,” said Hussein’s son, William, 35. His Lebanese-born father died Aug. 7 in his sleep in his West Seattle home. He was 63. Hussein left behind William, Sonya, Nadia, four grandchildren, and his wife of 40 years, Inaam. She is the owner of the new restaurant, simply called Phoenecia.

The Mayor's office is holding a Seawall Open House event Wednesday, February 3rd to share information about the need for a replacement.
Scheduled to last just an hour, Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith will guide the discussion.

The Seattle Department of Finance will present information on the plan for funding the project and department staff will be on hand to answer questions and address concerns.
The open house will be from 5:00 to 6:00 PM in the Bertha Knight Landes Room, City Hall, 600 4th Avenue
Refreshments will be served.

The Seawall Today

The existing seawall is an aging structure constructed out of wooden platforms, steel sheet piling, concrete and fill. The design of the seawall changes over its length depending on the period in which each section was constructed.

The southern end of the wall (S. Washington St. to Madison St.) consists of a mixture of concrete wall sections that were built along the central waterfront area along with timber-supported concrete sidewalk sections between each wall. Some of these sections were rebuilt in 1964 and 1987.

Beane is an eccentric, isolated man whose world we learn—thanks to a nifty flourish by set designer Dan Schuy—is closing in on him. He response is pragmatic: he shrinks his life to fit his worldview. Beane tosses overboard anything that brings with it the entanglements of ambiguity and by the time ArtsWest’s production of “Love Song” opens on his Spartan little apartment we find that he has been remarkably thorough.

“I think objects are deceptive,” says Beane. “I don’t want to have a fork if it’s going to lie to me.”
Then Beane gets hit by something that is hard to throw aside: He falls in love. A pretty thief named Molly breaks into his apartment and is so offended by the slim pickings that she sticks around to have it out with him. By the time she walks out, she’s taken with her more than Beane’s three pair of tube socks.

With “Love Song” playwright John Kolvenbach explores the heart’s seismic effect on the tidy walls we build around our lives.

Ballard High School junior James Vitz-Wong and senior C.J. Eldred were accepted into the All-State orchestra and symphonic choir for a four-day music camp hosted by the Washington Music Educators Association.

The Washington Music Educators Association received more than 2,500 applications for this year's event, which runs from Feb. 12 to Feb. 15.

Vitz-Wong was accepted as a standing bass player, and Eldred was accepted as a vocalist.

Vitz-Wong said it was very exciting to get into All-State, especially because it took his first-ever recorded audition to do so.

He said he hopes to use the opportunity to meet new friends and spend time with a lot of talented student musicians.

During the All-State event in Yakima, students will rehearse and perform under world-renowned conductors.

According to the Washington Music Educators Association, many professional musicians, such as Kenny G, credit their experience at All-State with their decision to pursue a career in music.

By Phil Brockman, Ballard High School principal; Lyn Porterfield, Ballard High School parent and former PTSA president; Don Simpson, Ballard High School Foundation president; Larry Soriano, Ballard High School PTSA president

The Feb. 9 special election gives Seattle voters the opportunity to renew our commitment to schools and vote yes on the Operations and Capital Levies, Propositions 1 and 2, on your ballot.

Both renew existing levies that are set to expire – they are not new taxes.

Proposition 1, the Capital Levy, ensures all of our kids have safe and well-maintained learning environments.

Capital Levy funds pay for critical improvements, including roof repairs, seismic upgrades, fire suppression and updates to worn-out athletic fields.

It also supports improvements to heating and cooling systems and replacing water lines so our kids have clean air to breathe and water to drink.

The Ballard High School gymnastics team wrapped up the regular season with a 164.15-155.05 victory over Bellevue to push its season record to 6-2.

Taylor Stern added another all-around win to her season with a score of 35.95.

She also placed first on the bars with 9.4 and the vault, which was owned by the Beavers, with 9.2.

Maria Volk and Maureen Sturgeon rounded out the top three on the vault tied with 8.7.

Erica Redman took second for Ballard on the beam with 9.0.

The floor was the only event in which the Beavers were shut out of the top three.

"We've made a lot of improvements throughout the season," coach Stephanie Gundel said. "But, there's a lot of work to be done in the last week before KingCo."

Ballard will head to the KingCo Championship meet Feb. 6. From that meet, the top three teams, the top five all-around individuals not on one of the top three teams, and the top 19 individuals from each event advance to districts.

The top team at the district meet, the top two all-around individuals, and the top five individuals on each event move on to the state meet.

The scheduled closure of the South Park Bridge, originally scheduled to take place from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 has been postponed according to the King County Department of Transportation.
The postponement is due to a delay in getting permits for the proposed work.
When the closure is rescheduled the four-days it will remain closed will allow engineers to perform noise and water quality testing and simulate vibration that might occur during bridge construction. During the closure, engineers will conduct pile driving to measure noise, vibration and take water quality samples.

Data collected during the tests will assist the county in planning for construction of a new bridge when financing becomes available. During the closure, motorists can detour via the First Avenue South Bridge.
An update as to when the closure will be rescheduled will be posted as soon as it is available.

On Jan. 27 and Jan. 28, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development issued notices of violation to the property owner and tree removal company responsible for removing a monkey puzzle tree from the corner of Northwest 60th Street and Ninth Avenue Northwest Jan. 21

Though the tree was on private property, it met the requirements for an exceptional monkey puzzle tree, with a diameter greater than 22 inches on a lot larger than 5,000 square feet.

Exceptional trees on private property can be removed, but only after a Department of Planning and Development-approved risk assessment.

Bryan Stevens, spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Development, said in addition to a fine, the notice of violation includes a reforestation agreement. The agreement is negotiable but aims for the planting of a tree with similar canopy cover, he said.

The removal of the tree, which some residents put at more than 60 years old, caused distress among a group of neighbors who said it was a neighborhood landmark.