May 2011

The West Seattle Curves for Women at 3280 California Ave s.w. and the Westwood Village location have a food drive every spring, benefiting the West Seattle Food Bank. The two West Seattle locations, both owned by Diane Kennedy hold a competition every year to collect the most but so far, Westwood has been the winner. West Seattle Curves collected 2,579.25 pounds and Westwood (White Center) Curves collected 2,341.25, a grand total of 4,920.50 pounds.

Curves’ emphasis is on healthy living with exercise and nutritional eating and they launched a promotion last month during April in which they offered new members to join free, with a bag of groceries.

According to Curves they have been told that there will be matching donations from the Feinstein Foundation to West Seattle Food Bank and White Center Food Banks.

The Ballard District Council will meet next Wednesday, May 11, at 7 p.m. to discuss bikes lanes, combined sewer overflows, and bringing the ring back to Ballard.

Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin will start the evening off with a 25-minute Q&A session.

Then, Virginia Coffman from the Seattle Department of Transportation will be presenting a plan to make changes to 20th Avenue NW this summer to make "bicycling easier and safer in the Ballard Neighborhood."

"In an effort do this; SDOT will install bike lanes on 20th Ave NW between NW Market St and NW 65th St," the project's website states.

To make way for these bike lanes on either side of the street, SDOT will be removing the center turn lane on 20th Ave NW between NW 65th St and NW Market St.

According to SDOT this change will not affect traffic flow or inhibit access to residential side streets as this particular section sees a low number of cars.

By Cassandra Baker, Intern

5:23 a.m. on May 3rd. 92nd block of Greenwood Ave. N.

A liquor store on Greenwood Ave. was burglarized early on the morning of May 3rd. Police responding to the alarm call found that the glass on the front door was broken, but the suspects was gone. Several display cases containing scratch tickets had been stolen, but the offices, tills, and safes appeared undisturbed. A witness who lives nearby said that she heard loud noises at 5:00 a.m. and looked out the window to see two men running from the store with large boxes. She heard a car engine start soon after the men disappeared around a corner. The responding officer and the store manager watched store’s security video, which clearly showed the suspects with gloves on and bandanas over their faces. Police believe the burglary may be related to another that occurred at a liquor store several hours earlier.

5:14 p.m. on May 2nd. 83rd block of 26th Ave. N.W.

The Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle and Nordic House in Reykjavik announce the 2011 Nordic Fashion Biennale to take place this fall at the Nordic Heritage Museum. Launched by the Nordic House in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2009, this will be the first time this event is being held in the United States.

The highlight of the 2011 Nordic Fashion Biennale is an exhibition, Looking Back to Find our Future, curated by New York-based Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardottir. Arnardottir is well known for her collaboration with Björk and for her commissioned work for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Some of the featured designers include Bibe Chemnitz, Hildur Bjork Yeoman, Guorun & Guorun, Vik Prjonsdottir, Steinunn Siguroardottir, and Aftur.

Press Release:

During the weekend of May 14-15 the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will close the State Route 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct and work will be completed to reduce it to two lanes in each direction between the West Seattle Bridge and the SODO area. This is a long-term lane reduction.

The closure will be from late Friday night, May 13 to early Monday morning, with the new lane configuration taking effect on May 16 for all bus routes and other traffic that use the Alaskan Way Viaduct..

Weekend bus service on routes 54, 55, 120 and 125 will be rerouted via surface streets on May 14-15. The only bus stops that will be missed during the weekend are downtown, westbound on Columbia St at 2nd Av for those buses traveling toward West Seattle, and eastbound on Seneca St between 2nd and 3rd Avenues for Route 5 and those routes arriving downtown from West Seattle.
The weekend reroutes will be posted in Metro Online on Monday, May 9.

West Seattle born Arlene LaCamera Berg turned 90 March 30, and celebrated with loved ones, most referring to her as "Mama", at the Wet Seattle Golf Course Sunday, May 1. Some might say she is feisty as ever, others would swear she is feistier than ever. She was raised in a home at 3920 California Ave. SW, a street she now calls "Condo-fornia".

Berg attended Holy Rosary Grade and High School where she later taught PE and coached sports. She operated "Arlene's Craft Shop" on 16th Ave. in White Center. She has a son, Randall, of Randall Berg & Associates Property Management on California Ave. with whom she lives, and two daughters, Nina Hagen and Pami Girsh.

Nina and husband Ron operate El Dorado Farms in Enumclaw and breed thoroughbreds. Pami is a mortgage banker in Bellevue, married to Alexei Girsh, Eastside Symphony Music Director. Their son, Arlene's only grandson, Sean Bold, is Director of Snowsports at Crystal Mountain.

Berg's third daughter, Debbi, was a flight attendant who was killed in a plane crash in Alaska at age 20 in the 1970's.

Berg gave a speech which began, "Let's go down the line with all the people that have come into my life."

The South Park Bridge Project was celebrated today, May 5 (Cinco De Mayo) in an event that saw King County Executive Dow Constantine, Governor Chris Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin and other member of the Seattle City Council, Port of Seattle Commissioner Gael Tarleton, Bill Pease, president of the South Park Bridge Committee, and other funders and community members all taking part.

The opening of a 26 foot long pinata, concieved by Kathi George and built by Alex Lopez marked the long-awaited start of construction of a new South Park Bridge. The pinata was opened in stages with the first one, dumping a hundred pounds of candy, opened when the dignitaries in attendance pulled on ropes. The second, dumping even more took place after 5:00 pm.

The celebration didn't end there, with the area restaurants offering an eat and greet for people visiting, artists painting doors to be auctioned off, musicians, dancers and the evening ending with a Fire Performance with Rusty Oliver.

Burien residents now are able to get fresh organic produce and local artisan foods delivered conveniently to the Burien Community Center. The City Parks Recreation & Cultural Services (PaRCS) Department has teamed up with Full Circle Farms, a farmers' cooperative, to be a host site for their delivery program of Farm-to-Table produce. The program in Burien is modeled after a similar effort at Tacoma's community centers. The first delivery in Burien was on May 3.
Residents can sign-up online to receive routine delivery of customized orders containing fresh fruits and vegetables. Boxes are delivered to the Community Center on Tuesday mornings. Members are able to pick up their boxes on Tuesdays from 3 - 7 p.m. or Wednesdays from 8:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
The PaRCS Dept. is participating in the program to provide a healthy service and promote good nutrition in the community as part of the "Healthy Highline" initiative. PaRCS also hopes to attract new community members to the community center through this program and expose them to its many programs.
To sign up for the program or for more information, go to the website: http://www.fullcircle.com/

Artist Ryan Henry Ward, better known as Henry, has only been in Seattle for three years and already he has adorned the city with 116 murals. The first 26 of which he did for free.

His most recent murals were painted last month on the Axis Automotive building on Russell Avenue N.W. in Ballard and on the Better Window Cleaning business in Fremont.

Born in Montana and raised in Enumclaw, Henry wanted to be a cartoonist growing up.

"I spend years trying to find a unique style of cartooning," he said. His style of cartooning is now evident in the various characters he paints on walls -- Sasquatch, guitar-playing unicorns, walruses on tiny bicycles, etc.

Henry attended Fairhaven College at Western Washington University where graduated with a degree in children's literature. He worked as a social worker for a while but never stopped painting.

"I have been painting since I was 16 and it was my hobby until I was 31," he said. At 31 he decided to pack his bags and pursue his passion for art.

"As soon as my art got into a gallery, I moved here," he said.

Trader Joe’s grocery store received the OK from the Seattle Department of Planning and Development to change the use of their proposed site at 4545 Fauntleroy Way s.w. (southeast corner of 39th Ave s.w. and Fauntleroy) on May 5.

The change in use for the old Gee Automotive site means it has been rezoned from “automotive sales and service to general retail sales and service,” according to the DPD decision.

Trader Joe’s is a grocery store chain who’s mission statement reads in part, “We started putting innovative, hard-to-find, great tasting foods in the ‘Trader Joe’s’ name. That cut our costs and saved you money. Still does.”

Along with the DPD decision on the building site, an additional OK to add 23 more surface parking spots in an adjacent lot is included with the decision.