February 2010

The SWS February General Membership meeting will take place at the South Park Community Center (8319 8th Ave S), in Seattle on February 16 at 7pm. We encourage residents of South Park and all of West Seattle to attend! Join us for…

This project began as a charette sponsored by the Seattle Chapter of the Northwest Eco-Building Guild, that looked at ways to provide more housing within Seattle’s single-family neighborhoods. It has developed into a presentation which shows how allowing more housing in single-family neighborhoods - done the right way - can help create more Walkable, Livable Communities.

The presentation touches on some of the challenges before us – increasing population, Climate Change, Peak Oil, increased sprawl, loss of community, etc. This is followed by examples of compact housing, such as cottages, duplex/triplexes, corner shops, and others that were allowed in Seattle’s past.

Schools First, the campaign to Renew Seattle School Levies, will be holding a student-led rally on February 6th to show support for Propositions 1 & 2, on the February 9th ballot.

Seattle students, parents, teachers and Schools First supporters will be gathering at the Green Lake Boat House to rally supporters and to remind voters to vote Yes! on Props 1 & 2 by February 9th. The rally be followed by a group walk around the lake. This event is family friendly and open to the press.

Date: Saturday, February 6th

Time: 12:00pm – 12:30pm

Location: The Green Lake Boat House
5900 West Green Lake Way N
(Free parking provided in surrounding lots)

The first meeting of the The first meeting of the West Seattle Trails Alliance for the Alki Kiosk portion of the project took place at the Alki Community Center Thursday night, Feb. 4, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Six members of the Alki community attended. Though the public turnout was less than hoped for, the individuals there represented the Log Cabin Museum, the Alki Community Council, and the Statue of Liberty group, which has been working on the restoration of the statue and the plaza surrounding it, as well as individual citizens. The group spent two hours working on the basic themes and overall content direction for three wayfinding kiosks which will be part of the Alki shoreline in the near future.

The effort is part of a $98,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund grant awarded last year to the West Seattle Trails Alliance for a West Seattle Trails and Wayfinding project. Feet First is a partner in the project as well as being the fiscal sponsor.

Ballard resident John Barker has a thing for projects, especially fixing up old houses. He has restored Magnolia homes from 1906 and 1928, a 1900s farmhouse, and a number of old homes in Bellevue.

Barker has now set his sights on a the large 1909 house on the corner of Northwest 68th Street and 30th Avenue Northwest, which he purchased in December.

Barker said decided on the house because he wanted to be near Ballard High School for his 16-year-old daughter and his offices at Barker Landscape Architects, which recently worked on Ballard Corners Park.

The site has a nice view, good sunlight and is a blank slate in terms of landscaping, plus it is a buyer's market, he said.

"It was the right location and the right project," he said.

Barker said he hasn't been able to locate the original building permit with the architect and first owner yet, but the house was part of the Jennings Addition to Ballard in the early 1900s.

He said be believes a welder lived in the house in the 1960s, which may have resulted in a lot of the metal work on the interior.

Next week SDOT’s contractor will work at night on the West Seattle Bridge, leaving at least one lane of traffic open in each direction. The contractor will work from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. each day, from Monday night, February 8 to Friday morning, February 12.

Crews will remove and replace traffic signs, closed circuit television cameras (CCTV’s), and install a new dynamic messaging sign (DMS) to provide improved traffic information to travelers.

Motorists are asked to slow down and use caution when passing the work zone.

This work is part of the Intelligent Transportation System improvements that SDOT is making in several areas of the city for more efficient traffic management.

It's not often people will fight to be a loser, but that is about to change. EDGE Personal Training in Ballard is launching a contest to give locals a chance to lose big while winning big.

EDGE's Ballard Fitness Fest, a three-month contest to see how much weight and inches contestants can lose, starts Feb. 22.

It costs $10 to enter, and there are more than $650 dollars worth of prizes.

Anyone living or working in Ballard, or surrounding communities, is eligible. To enter, call EDGE Personal Training between Feb. 22 and March 5 for a fitness assessment.

Contest participants spend the next three months working off the extra weight, either on their own or with an EDGE personal trainer.

The final re-testing will be done May 17 to May 27. The winner will be determined by who lost the most body fat, inches and weight.

The winner will be announced the first week of June.

Judges will give the winner, or loser in this case, a $250 gift certificate to the Ballard business of their choice. The winner also receives three free training sessions with an EDGE personal trainer ($225 value).

The City of Federal Way welcomes Jee Kim as its new part-time Korean community liaison.

The third person to hold the longtime position, Kim began work on Jan. 19.

He is charged with breaking down barriers for Federal Way’s sizable Korean population and helping them connect better with government and the community at large.

Kim provides Korean translation services, guides residents through City procedures and helps them gain better access to City services, materials and resources.

He also maintains a Web page for the Korean community at www.cityoffederalway.com/korean.

In addition, he assists with City-led quarterly meetings for the Korean community and organizes other Korean-related events.

Over the next several months, Kim plans to meet with Korean community and business leaders and other groups in Federal Way to establish a “Korean collaborative network” to address the community’s needs.

Kim was born in Korea but moved to the United States when he was 11. He graduated from Federal Way High School in 1994, and from the University of Washington with a degree in Asian media studies in 2002.