January 2013

Seattle Public Schools is holding its second "Community Conversation" Tuesday, January 22, at 7:00 p.m. regarding the design of the new elementary school building at Genesee Hill. The meeting is at Schmitz Park Elementary School, 5000 SW Spokane Street, in the cafeteria.

BLRB Architects will be presenting their latest design work for the new building, which will already be a step beyond the designs that were shown at the GSNC meeting on January 10.

You can view all the potential designs being considered here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1jssth6e20tiw8z/dZLQDYgudn

There are three main design themes under consideration at this time: Plateau (with the building completely on the upper level), Hillside (with both legs of the building partially built into the slope), and Hybrid (with only the north leg of the building partially built into the slope).

Police were able to resolve an apparent hostage situation which took place yesterday in Greenwood, according to the Seattle Police Department's Police Blotter.

At 6 p.m. on Jan. 21, officers responded to call from a friend of the victim who said the victim, a 17-year-old girl, was inside the 200 block of N. 85th, above Gordito's Restaurant.

Apparently, the victim was being held by a 20-year-old man who had told the victim he was armed with a gun. When she realized she never saw one, the victim had texted her friend to get help.

SWAT and police negotiators came to the scene and set up a barricade, blocking off streets. After a short standoff, police were able to take in the 20-year-old suspect without incident. They cleared the apartment and found no gun on the scene.

But that's just the end of the story.

It all started on Sunday, shortly after 3 p.m., when a friend of the victim asked to come over to her apartment on the 9200 block of Greenwood Ave N.

New mobile ordering and payment platform turns ordinary people in VIPs – simply walk into a coffee shop, grab your coffee, and walk out… like a rock star.
Any barista with a cell phone can accept orders. No hardware required.

Seattle, Wash. – Jan 22, 2013 – Buck, a mobile payments company based in Seattle, today announced the launch of its new mobile coffee service called Coffee Like A Rock Star. The new ordering and payments platform saves time for customers enabling orders to be placed from any mobile phone. Any barista with a mobile phone can receive orders, rocking their customers through their shop in record speed.

“We all want to feel like VIPs,” said Andy Kleitsch, Buck founder and CEO. Kleitsch, who is a singer in a neighborhood rock band, has always wanted to be a rock star. “I’m not a rock star in real life,” says Kleitsch, “but with Coffee Like A Rock Star I feel like one every morning. It’s just fun.”

What's better than one sloth bear baby? Why, two sloth bear babies, of course.

Just look at them. Have you seen anything cuter?

Woodland Park Zoo announced the birth of a sloth bear on Dec. 18, but what they didn't know for sure until just last week was that there were actually two. As in twins.

Well, they were pretty sure there were two, anyway, from the dual pattern of vocalizations heard through the baby monitor. But it wasn't until last week when they caught the twins on web cam footage confirming for the first time two cubs bonding and nursing with their mother, Tasha.

“The cubs are now 1 month old,” said Martin Ramirez, mammal curator at Woodland Park Zoo. “And although they haven’t had a weigh-in or vet exam yet, we expect that their eyes are open, and they are beginning to teeth. At this point in their development, we’re hopeful to see them becoming more active, exploring their den.”

In a sad turn of events, their father, Randy, died a couple of weeks ago from cancer.

You won't be able to see the twins yet, as they're in an off-view exhibit. But they will be a part of the new Asian tropical forest exhibit which opens this spring.

Do you ever feel guilty just looking at your real fur products? Can you just picture the sad puppy dog eyes like the ones you see on those animal cruelty videos with the heart-wrenching, tear-inducing Sarah McLachlan song?

Buffalo Exchange is doing something cool to try and at least partially make up for it. They're giving you a chance at repentance by allowing you to return fur back to the animals.

Starting on Tuesday, Jan. 15, and going through Earth Day on Monday, April 22, Buffalo Exchange will be accepting real fur apparel donations (including trims, accessories, coats and shearlings) to benefit the Coats for Cubs program. For the program, used furs are used by rehabilitation programs across the country to provide comfort to orphaned and injured wildlife. Condition of the products are unimportant.

Done annually since 2006, the Buffalo Exchange has so far collected a total of 7,572 used furs for the Coats for Cubs program.

You can drop off your products at:

Buffalo Exchange, Ballard
2232 NW Market St.
Seattle, WA 98107
Phone: (206) 297-5920
Hours: Monday-Saturday 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Paul Bauer lived on Russett and Union Ave in Portland. He was about 16
and inspired by Tex Rankin flying his WACO to the airport near the
Columbia Slough. So he built one in the basement of his Dad's grocery
store but he could not get it out of that space so he had to dismantle
it. Sadly, it never flew. Tex was my hero. He once gave me a ride in
his WACO at the airstrip, taxiing down the runway and back. He even
flew over our house. Maybe he wanted to check out the neighborhood. He
rented a house two blocks from us. I wanted to be a pilot. Maybe Paul
Bauer did too.

My brother Russell and I used to sit on the curb on Union Avenue and
claim every other passing car as mine or his. It was thrilling to own
a Pierce Arrow or a Cadillac or Locomobile. Many years later I was
visiting Portland. I was driving a Lincoln Continental or a Chrysler
Imperial. I wonder if any little kids on the curb claimed it?

We loved the Rose City Pie company, where cousin Howard worked; Russ
and I thought Howard owned it. We used to go there on Saturday nights,
after the drivers were all back with pies they had left over. They let

Served Up

Friday, Jan. 18
Boys basketball
Rainier Beach 84, Chief Sealth 42
Rainier Beach doubled the Chief Sealth score in Friday's game played at Rainier Beach.

Girls basketball
Chief Sealth 57, Rainier Beach 40
On the girls side Chief Sealth easily handled the host Rainier Beach team Friday.
Lindbergh 51, Evergreen 44
Evergreen was topped by the Eagles in an overtime game this past Friday.

Swimming
Chief Sealth
The Seahawks' girls team emerged with a 62-24 victory over Eastside Catholic Friday, but absorbed a 58-36 loss when compared to Nathan Hale.
For the boys, Chief Sealth lost by a 57-34 score to Nathan Hale and by a 69-24 margin to Eastside Catholic.

Later this week, crews will be working on the Ballard siphon replacement project located at Shilshole Ave NW and 20th Ave NW.

Crews will be digging small holes on the north and south sides of Shilshole Ave NW to locate existing underground utilities, according to an update sent out by the King County Wastewater Treatment Division.

Work will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 23 and 24. Drivers can expect some slowdown as flaggers will direct traffic through the construction area.

But don't complain too much. King County says the work is necessary to maintain utility services in the area during the relining of the 75-year old existing Ballard Siphon, which will start later this year.

In addition, crews are still building the structure on the north site that will connect the existing sewer pipes to the new siphon pipeline. On Friday, Jan. 25, crews will begin removing shoring from the project area, which could cause some significant noise.