August 2013

Seattle Public Schools announced their new principal for Alki Elementary in West Seattle on Aug. 13. Shannon Stanton, most recently an elementary teacher in the Kent School District, will replace outgoing principal Chanda Otis, who is headed to Van Asselt Elementary.

Here is the announcement letter from SPS Superintendent José Banda:

Dear Alki Elementary community,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Shannon Stanton as your new principal, effective immediately.

Ms. Stanton comes to Alki from Pine Tree Elementary in the Kent School District, where she has been principal since 2011. She is committed to the academic initiatives at Alki and we believe she will be a great fit for the Alki community.

Shannon Stanton previously held several positions in the Kent School District including professional development coordinator, curriculum specialist, literacy specialist and classroom teacher. She has provided instructional coaching and leadership as a consultant for international schools. In this role she trains groups of teacher leaders, administrators and curriculum directors working in the international school system.

About 15 locals packed out the conference room in the Ballard Coffee Works on Market St to get a chance to chat with Rep. Gael Tarleton (D-Ballard) this morning.

Tarleton addressed some of the biggest issues facing Washington state in the legislature, including the coal export terminal, stormwater runoff and water access, the transportation package and the state's tax system.

The conversation started strong with the coal export terminal north of Bellingham, which The Ballard News-Tribune has covered fairly extensively. The latest news is that Whatcom County and the Department of Ecology decided that it would go through with a wide ranging environmental impact scope, taking into account human and environmental health and impacts on communities outside of Whatcom, as well as local impacts within the county.

From Seattle Department of Transportation

This week, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has begun work on improvements to Aurora Avenue North to enhance transit speed and reliability, prepare for King County Metro’s RapidRide E Line, and reduce travel times for drivers. The department will install Business Access and Transit (BAT) lanes, add signal priority for Metro buses, and retime corridor traffic signals.

Beginning September 8, BAT lanes will be in operation for the north and southbound directions on Aurora between N 38th and N 115th streets during peak travel times – 6-9 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. BAT lanes are reserved for buses and right-turning vehicles. The exception will be the southbound BAT lanes between N 77th and N 72nd streets, which will be activated only during the morning peak period until parking in this area is further evaluated.

A man who allegedly shot a Metro bus driver before 9 a.m. in front of Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle on Aug. 12 was fatally shot only minutes later by four Seattle police officers after he boarded a Metro 120 bus, which services much of eastern West Seattle in its travels from downtown to Burien.

According to Seattle police, the incident started at 8:45 a.m. when the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Martin A. Duckworth, boarded a Metro 27 bus at the rear doors and, when asked by the bus driver to pay, physically attacked the operator before pulling out a revolver and shooting at him multiple times. Police said the driver, 64-year-old DeLoy Dupuis, was shot in the cheek and arm.

Dupuis was in good spirits after the shooting, meeting with media only a day later and recovering at his Edgewood home in Pierce County.

Next West Seattle Junction Neighborhood Organization (JuNo): August meeting is planned for 8/20

Meeting will be held at the West Seattle Senior Center, 4217 SW Oregon St. from 6:30-7:30pm in the Alhadeff room.

Do you live in the West Seattle Urban Hub? Do you love West Seattle and envision a beautiful Junction and Triangle community?

If yes then you can join your West Seattle Junction Neighborhood Organization: JuNO!

JuNO is a community group from the Alaska Junction and Triangle neighborhoods who volunteer to make this neighborhood the best to live, work and play in! Please join us for discussion and action plans on how to improve our neighborhood community.

In 5 years, will we still have parades, street fairs, and Halloween at the Junction? Will we have enough parks and green space with the new developments? How can parking and beautification be addressed with the City? Can we preserve our community feel and manage density and development? JuNO is a neighborhood advocacy group that provides a voice for sensible growth. Join JuNO and be a part of shaping our growing community!

Good news for tennis enthusiasts in West Seattle: Seattle Parks and Recreation will be refurbishing and improving Solstice Park and Hiawatha Playfield courts through August and September.

Here are the details:

Seattle Parks and Recreation is working to refurbish and improve the tennis courts in two parks in West Seattle, Solstice Park, on Fauntleroy Way S.W. and Hiawatha Playfield in the Admiral District. The tennis courts will be closed during the scheduled improvements.

Solstice Park courts will be closed from August 19 – 30, 2013. The refurbishment of theses tennis courts is funded through the Neighborhood Capital Project Fund.

Hiawatha Playfield tennis courts will be closed from August 30 – September 7, 2013. Major Maintenance funds are the source of funding for minor paving repairs, acrylic color-coating, and relining of the tennis courts at Hiawatha.

When the unofficial gun rights event, "Guns and Coffee" was promoting people to show up to Starbucks last Friday, Aug. 9 and openly carry their guns, news media ate it up.

In Seattle, it was reported on seattlepi.com, The Stranger, King 5, Q13 Fox, KOMO and likely more.

What they didn't really report on, though, was what happened in Seattle on "Starbucks Appreciation Day." In Ballard, at least, nothing really happened.

The Ballard News-Tribune visited the local Starbucks shops. Workers at the shop on NW Market St and 22nd Ave NW said they hadn't seen anything that day. King 5 had come in during opening time and they failed to spot anyone with a gun openly strapped to them.

Workers at the Ballard Fred Meyer Starbucks said they didn't even know about it, but hadn't noticed anybody obviously carrying a gun.

The Ballard News-Tribune failed to spot anyone with a gun.

Harassment, paddleboard-style
On Aug. 2 a man called police to report a month of harassment from another male that culminated in a paddle attack during a paddleboard competition in West Seattle. According to the complainant, the aggressor had been harassing him at a Burien gym they both work out at for the past month. On July 31, the victim sent an email to the aggressor asking him to stop. It backfired, “amped” up the aggressor, and the name calling and provoking only escalated. Finally, the two men found themselves side by side at a paddleboard competition where the complainant claimed the suspect knocked him off his board four times, poked and hit him with a paddle, and threatened to “ruin and kill” him. The victim sustained scratches and bruises in the attacks and stated he was in contact with an attorney to obtain an anti-harassment order. Police called the alleged attacker, but the call went straight to voicemail.

Cutting out the middle man

By Kyra-lin Hom

First there was McDonald's. Then there was the McNugget. Now there is the McBudget.

Have you heard of it yet? In response to the fast food workers' strike (“D15”) – protesting the unlivable minimum wage and asking for $15/hr pay – McDonald's published a budget guide. That's right. Instead of negotiating with their workers on a platform of mutual adulthood, McDonald's created a pamphlet. They didn't even print it out! It's available for download from their website http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com free just to show how much they care.

But a big company not really caring about the little people who, you know, just so happen to be the building blocks of its labor force isn't headline news. So what's the hubbub? The actual proposed budget itself. In an effort to prove that the minimum wage McDonald's pays its workers is livable, practicalmoneyskills provides a recommended budget breakdown full of helpful advice such as, “[F]igure out your Daily Spending Money Goal by dividing your Monthly Spending Money by 30