May 2013

Update, May 7

Just a reminder that the detour is in place. We ran into one yesterday (see above) and it was fairly simple to get around. You don't have to go all the way out to Leary Ave, which is quite a bit more dangerous. See below for more details.

Original, May 3

Bicycle commuters may want to watch out next week. Seattle Department of Transportation crews will be upgrading ramps at three locations next week on the Burke Gilman trail in Ballard, starting on Monday, May 6 and completed by Thursday, May 23.

The three locations are:

• NW 36th St
• NW 39th St
• NW Bowdoin Place

The work will begin on May 6 and should be completed by May 23. There will be a detour in place throughout the project; bikes and pedestrians should proceed with caution and closely follow detour signs.

King County Sheriff John Urquhart said he would do “everything I can” to ensure the White Center Storefront Deputy position held by BJ Myers will continue to have funding into 2014 and beyond while speaking at the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council Public Safety Forum on May 2.

Funding set aside for the position by the King County Council in 2011 will expire at the end of 2013, meaning money needs to be set aside in the budget King County Executive Dow Constantine is currently working on now.

Urquhart said finding the money for White Center’s beat cop position depends on support from a “three-legged stool” of Constantine, county council, and the Sheriff himself.

Long-time White Center residents attending the meeting said they have predictably seen a rise in crime anytime a storefront deputy is not in place.

Residents were encouraged to start lobbying the “three-legged stool” now to ensure their voice in keeping Myers in place is heard throughout the budget process.

Our full report from the meeting is found here.

At 12:20 A.M. a person climbing a Seattle City Light Transmission tower near 3rd Ave. NW and NW Leary Way came in contact with the 120 kV line. Police and fire are on scene and will be involved with recovering the body. Power will be cut to the transmission line for the operation. City Light was able to route around the transmission line so only one customer will be without power.

Seattle City Light is the tenth largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.

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By Cassandra Baker

5:59 a.m., April 29. 77th block of 15th Ave NW

A medical marijuana dispensary in Ballard was burglarized this week. A man was walking by on April 29 when he noticed that the gate was forced open and the front door was smashed. Police investigated the building and did not locate any suspects but did locate a large rock that had been used to smash the glass door. The dispensary had been ransacked, but it was unclear whether any marijuana products had been taken. It was clear that the burglar had tried to take the flat screen TV and Xbox. The alarm system hadn’t been activated.

Police determined the owners’ address and spoke with them. One owner responded to the scene and said that the only item that appeared to have been stolen was the video security monitor. He said that he had left the alarm off overnight because there had been many false trips recently. The responding officer believed that this may have been due to burglars testing the premises.

9:09 p.m., April 27. 28th Ave NW and NW Market St

With a background of yellow Highline Public Schools buses and supported by officials from a dozen school districts, Gov. Jay Inslee stumped Thursday, May 2 in Burien for his education budget proposal that would raise revenues through cutting some business tax breaks.

The news conference was held at Highline’s transportation facility, next to the Puget Sound Skills Center.

Inslee has suggested adding an additional $1.2 billion into education by closing some tax breaks and extending existing taxes. The tax breaks Inslee has targeted would raise about $565 million, according to The Seattle Times.
In Burien, Inslee said the state cannot continue to cut social services to fund education.

“It is hard to educate a homeless, sick, hungry child,” Inslee declared. “We need to find another route.”

The governor said the primary duty of the state is to fund education but “not on the backs of seniors, the disabled and children.”

Inslee pointed to a tax break to oil companies for oil used at their refineries. He said the tax break was enacted in 1949 and was never meant to be interpreted so broadly.

Seattle's Museum of Flight’s new women’s initiative, the ALL Ladies Guild, has launched a robust effort, "Project Amelia" to purchase a rare, restored 1935 Lockheed Electra Model 10-E, the centerpiece of a permanent Amelia Earhart exhibit. This is the same type of aircraft Earhart flew 22,000 miles on her around-the-world flight attempt in 1937 before she disappeared.

The plane, which flies, currently resides in Reno. To obtain the Electra will require $1.2 Million, and an additional $200,000 for exhibits and educational program development. Over $800,000 has been raised so far through private and public fundraising. The Guild encourages those interested to donate during the May 15 Seattle Foundation GiveBIG effort.(this links directly to the general Museum GiveBIG page.Please type "for Project Amelia" in comment box.)

South Seattle Community College celebrated its annual “Friends of the College Dinner” on Thursday May 2 honoring students and thanking donors and education supporters in an event that saw more than 300 people turn out in support of the college.

The dinner recognized scholarship recipients and the donors that made the awards possible. During the current academic calendar, South has awarded 240 students - including 125 students that were in attendance tonight - with $600,000 in scholarships.

Additionally, South also announced a new endowment scholarship that was established in memory of Stephen K. Rockwood. This award will be given to students from South’s renowned Culinary program in his honor.

THE FULL LIST OF DONORS, AND STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS IS AVAILABLE IN THE PROGRAM YOU CAN DOWNLOAD AT THE LINK ABOVE.

33 VARIATIONS
Northwest Premiere
By Moises Kauffman

Directed by Christopher Zinovitch

(We previously misidentified Daniel Stoltenberg as another actor and regret our mistake. Thank you.)

West Seattle's ArtsWest presents the award-winning play, "33 Variations," based on a true story. Fueled by his genius which he finds increasingly cumbersome to manage, Beethoven becomes preoccupied with his task to compose a variation (or two) on a waltz by another, lesser composer, Anton Diabelli, a successful musical publisher who requests variations to his waltz by the great classical composers.

Plot:

Beethoven became obsessed and, beginning around 1819, composed 33 variations over perhaps three years, while profound deafness and other health crises struck, and, too, while the publisher was losing his patience, and money, and needed to publish. Diabelli was successfully strung along, thanks to the promised reward of numerous Beethoven works, and to his ego since the master's work was rooted in his own.

From SDOT:

Crews from the Seattle Department of Transportation will pave lower Southwest Spokane Street from Chelan Avenue Southwest to 26th Avenue Southwest this weekend. They will work on Saturday and Sunday, May 4 and 5, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day.

Traffic on Southwest Spokane Street will be detoured between Chelan Avenue Southwest and Southwest Avalon Way using Southwest Genesee Street. Police Officers will be located at each end of the detour to assist traffic. The adjacent trail will not be affected.

For information on bus service, look for Rider Alert notices at bus stops, see Metro Online, www.kingcounty.gov/metro or call (206) 553-3000.

At March's open house about bringing high capacity transit to the Ballard neighborhood (which could be but is not limited to light rail or streetcar), residents had a lot to say. The overall feeling is that Ballardites were excited to have more transit options, but were wary of again getting stuck with something like RapidRide, which had initially failed to live up to expectations. (Missed it? See our full coverage here.)

"We’re working hard to connect our neighborhoods with more rail," writes Mayor McGinn on his blog. "This year we’ve partnered with Sound Transit to begin the planning process for high capacity transit to connect Ballard to downtown."

Nearly 150 people joined were at the open house at Ballard High School on March 12, and 270 others shared their comments online. The Mayor's Office says participants of the open house had this to say about possible high capacity routes: