December 2010

The following letter was sent to all Seattle City Council members, Superintendent Williams, and Deputy Supt. Eric Friedli on December 16, 2010:

Dear Seattle City Council Member:

As I'm sure you are aware, the City has finally started to implement Seattle's Golf Master Plan which received a final vote from the Park's Board on April 23, 2009. Despite (former Superintendent) Tim Gallagher's successful effort to cut $9.4 million from the approved budget resulting in "Option 4B Lite," many of the most important and desired elements remained intact, one those being a driving range at West Seattle. The golfing community was excited, West Seattleites were thrilled, and everything seemed to be moving forward according to plan, or so it seemed.

Welcome The "Bait and Switch"

December 13 marked the cut off line of the Viaduct Replacement Project comment period and here's what your Ballard District Council submitted after taking a close look at the supplemental DEIS for the Deep Bored Tunnel.

"Dear Ms. Freudenstein:

The Ballard District Council appreciates an opportunity to comment on WSDOT’s Supplemental DEIS for the Seattle Deep Bored Tunnel project. We feel strongly that this project will have a substantial affect on the lives and livelihoods for those of us in Ballard during the estimated five year construction period. After the tunnel opens and the viaduct is removed, the project will dramatically alter how this community will access downtown Seattle/central waterfront destinations and will forever change how we navigate virtually every traffic corridor in Seattle.

In our review, we identified the following concerns with the analysis in the SDEIS:

The Seattle Police Department's new Twitter account has lead officers to its first stolen-car recovery.

The getyourcarback accountlaunched earlier this month tweets information on stolen vehicles and encourages people to notify police if a stolen car is spotted.

At 7:23 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec 14th, a woman did just that, SPD received a telephone call from a woman who had seen a Honda Civic that matched the previously tweeted description.

The car was recovered on 1900th block of Second Avenue N.W.

When a car is reported stolen in Seattle, employees in the Seattle Police 911 Center will tweet the color, year, make, model, body style and license plate of the stolen car on the “Get your car back” Twitter account. Twitter followers who spot a car that has been tweeted as stolen should call 911.

To read more the getyourcarback account and SPD's social media strategy please read our previous coverage, here.

The Woodland Park Zoo is looking at additions in 2011 including new animals, new exhibits and higher admission prices.

A pair of Steller’s sea eagles have just arrived at the zoo from Los Angeles Zoo. They will premiere to the public after a standard 30-day quarantine to acclimate to their exhibit in the Northern Trail. These raptors are notably one of the heaviest eagles in the world, ranging from 11 to 20 pounds with a wing span of up to 7.5 feet. Their arrival marks the first time this species has been at the zoo.

Other 2011 additions to the animal population will include more fruit bats, reptiles and amphibians.

Beginning on Jaunary 3rd, winter admission will increase by $0.50 and the summer admission will increase 16.50 to $17.50 for adults and from $11 to $11.50 for children ages 3 to 12. Parking will be increased to $5.25 to accommodate the City of Seattle’s parking tax.

Admission fees help offset increasing operating costs.

“As we continue to keep a firm fist on our budget and maintain fiscal responsibility, we don’t foresee any further reductions in program or guest experiences in 2011,” said zoo President and CEO Dr. Deborah Jensen in a statement.

Seven works by students in the Ballard High School Video Production Program have won prizes at the 15th Annual Derek Freese High School Film & Video Festival.

The festival was held at Temple University in Philadelphia last Saturday and draws competition from high school filmmakers throughout the nation.

"Can you believe it? What did my students do to get this much from fate?" said teacher Matt Lawrence,

BHS students won every award in the documentary category, which Lawrence said is quite an honor, as Temple is widely regarded as one of the best schools of documentary filmmaking in the country.

"I can't think of a more inspiring follow-up to the story about the festival finalists," he stated.

First Prize went to Robyn Cochrane, Spencer Miller, Georgia Peck & Justin Smith-Mercado for "Bar Ink", the story of a youth who discovers and develop his talent in spite of incarceration.

Amelia Elizalde, Levi Friedman, Sean Hendricks & Sheridan Koehler took Second Prize for "Henry", a documentary about the Seattle muralist of that name.

Third Prize went to Tony Meyer, Matt Law-Phipps & James Vitz-Wong for "Seattle Street Musicians".

West Seattle boys basketball fell playing against their rival Chief Sealth for the first time this season.

Chief Sealth kept the game close in the beginning of the game but it was not until the final couple of minutes of the first half they gained the lead from West Seattle. But once they took the lead they held onto it and ran with it.

In the end Chief Sealth defeated West Seattle 70-42, the game becoming increasingly physical as the seconds counted down.
Chief Sealth kept their momentum going from their last game where they routed Ingraham 96-36. Their overall record is now 4-1 and their league record is 3-1.

Chief Sealth faces Narbone High School, from Harbor City, California, next, when they play them in the Redondo Seahawk Classic.

West Seattle now has an overall record of 1-3 and a league record of 1-2.

Lawrence Eichman, has lived in a number of towns in the NW and is currently doing custom glass sculpture work just outside Heavenly Wholesale at 5446 California Ave s.w.

Up to Christmas, Eichman will be producing a number of custom works of art.

Stop by during normal business hours Tuesday-Saturday 10-6, or Sunday 11-5.

In the spirit of giving, students at Westside School collected over 140 toys this December to donate to Fire Station #37's Toys for Tots program.

For the fourth consecutive year, the kindergarten classes have hosted the holiday toy drive and this year they collected more toys, books, bikes and pillows this year than ever before.

To download a see a larger version of this photo, click on the photo link.

Earlier this year, Adam Parast, a transportation planner and regular contributor to the Seattle Transit Blog, released a GIS study in which he compared the bikeability of Seattle to that of Portland (the second most bike-friendly city in the US according to Bicycle Magazine).

What he found was that Ballard has the most potential to become a great biking neighborhood for families and athletes alike.

“What people can take away from the study is that Seatte is bikeable and that Ballard specifically, is one of the better areas in Seattle because it’s relatively flat, has great connectivity, and offers lots of destination that can be reached by bike,” Parast said.

Parast decided to do a Seattle bicycle analysis after seeing the 2008 Cycle Zone Analysis of Portland. Using the same factors that we’re observed in the Portland analysis, Parast anaylized Seattle and compared it to Portland, a city that has made progressive changes to support bicycle commuting.

The following is an excerpt from the autobiography of our Publisher, Jerry Robinson called "Listen to Your Father". At age 90 he is still actively writing and contributing to the newspapers. In this excerpt he recalls his father and life with his family in the 1920's in Portland Oregon.

No wonder Dad was a certified alcoholic. Looking back, I can't blame him too much. He just got hooked on the stuff trying like hell to feed nine kids. What a gang. George was the eldest; then Evelyn, Marion, Albert, Doris, Bernice, Russell, me, and lastly Norma. Well, not quite last. I had a little brother for a while. Six months, in fact. His name was Lowell. He was injured at birth by a careless doctor. Brain damage made his left arm useless. But Mom believed that if you moved his tiny arm up over his head and back down often enough, eventually he could do it himself. That was a job for older brother Russell and me.