March 2015

Members of Northwest CrossFit met at the Ballard gym (6419 15th Ave NW) on Friday March 27 for their final workout in the 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games.

Around 40 athletes pumped, pushed and pleaded under the pressure and weight on their journey to finishing the Open.

The CrossFit Games are a series of competitive workouts where athletes test their strength against the clock over a five-week-period. Each week a regiment of workouts are assigned to athletes. Certain exercises have designated weights for male and female athletes. Certified CrossFit coaches confirm athlete’s performance.

Not a member of a CrossFit gym? It doesn’t matter; anyone can compete. Video recorded performances can also be submitted to CrossFit and be counted. The videos have to have a clock timing the performance included in the frame. Also, athletes can make as many attempts as they can muster in order to get their best time within a 96-hour period of each week.

"I-35" is the name of a cocktail at The Westy, a tongue in cheek reference to 35th SW and the frequent high speed cars that travel along it. The road is slated to get what many feel are long overdue changes before the end of the year.

The Seattle Department of Transportation after a series of public meetings and a period of data collection has narrowed down the options for 35th SW to two primary choices, but in both, the roadway will change to 30mph and be reduced to three lanes. This "rechannelization" according to SDOT Project Manager Jim Curtin (an Arbor Heights resident) has proven to be very effective in reducing accidents and improving pedestrian safety, in other parts of the city. It would mean a reduction in travel time of about 1 minute from Roxbury Street SW to Avalon Way SW.

That three mile stretch of road sees 16,000 to 24,600 vehicles per day and has has had 294 collisions in the last three years, and five fatalities in the last 10 years.

The two options under consideration are:

Option A
SW ROXBURY ST TO SW EDMUNDS ST

Rechannelization
 4 lanes to 3 lanes

Mayor Ed Murray today unveiled a new free Wi-Fi service at Seattle Center. The service, which serves tens of thousands of people simultaneously, was developed in partnership with Microsoft.

“This is another step forward in our work to seek out public-private partnerships to improve Internet access in Seattle,” said Seattle Mayor Ed Murray. “More than 12 million people visit Seattle Center each year, and now they will enjoy fast, free broadband on their devices. This pilot program tests new technology that we may be able to deploy to other neighborhoods in the city.”

Seattle Center is offering two Bumbershoot passes to a user chosen at random who shares how they will use the faster service on the Seattle Center Twitter feed.

The TV white space technology developed by Microsoft Research takes advantage of unused television channels. Television signals travel over longer distances and better penetrate walls and other obstacles, powerfully connecting access points throughout Seattle Center. The new system nearly quadruples the number of access points available to users.

By Marjorie Young

A recent extraordinary incident captured world-wide attention. A car went over a bridge near a small town in Utah. The accident wasn’t discovered until twelve hours had passed. Rescue workers belatedly arrived to find the car upside-down and half-submerged in freezing water. Then, an astonishing thing happened. All four men clearly heard a voice calling ‘Save me! Save us!’…coming from within the vehicle.

Galvanized into action, they plunged into the frigid river and managed to turn the car on its side. They then spotted the driver; a young woman who had obviously perished. But there was a second passenger…a baby strapped to her car seat, hanging upside down, the top of her head inches from the icy waters. Finding her unconscious and barely breathing, one rescuer cut her loose, handing her to a second man who raced her to the ambulance. The child was completely unresponsive, but much later, in the hospital, she was revived. Within a few days, the eighteen-month-old, having made a complete recovery, returned home with her very grateful father.

The Department of Planning and Development announced two new applications for land use in the Ballard area. Both applications are to subdivide the properties. Both the properties are NW 64th Street. Also, the applications contact person and the planner are the same two people for both projects.

Comments for both applications can be submitted to the DPD comment page until April 22.

2012 NW 64TH St:

Land Use Application to subdivide one development site into two unit lots. The construction of residential units is under Project #6436031. This subdivision of property is only for the purpose of allowing sale or lease of the unit lots. Development standards will be applied to the original parcel and not to each of the new unit lots.

2010 NW 64TH St:

Camera-shy thief tries to flee with air compressor

On March 23 Seattle Police officers responded to a burglary at a residence on the 2300 block of NW 67th Street. The complainant told officers that he returned home to find a scruffy, middle-aged, white male in a white truck parked in front of his house. When the suspect saw the complainant he immediately drove down the street but came back and parked in front of the residence. The suspect got out and walked up to the house. He tried to carry an air compressor to his truck. The complainant confronted the man. The complainant recognized the air compressor and knew the suspect had taken it from his garage. The suspect told the complainant that he owned the compressor and was taking it. The complainant threatened to take a picture of the suspect. The suspect put down the compressor and fled. The complainant went into the house and noticed cabinets were opened. He called police. Officers discovered the suspect had broken through the door to the garage. They searched the house but found no other disturbances. No latent fingerprints were found.

Edith Macefield’s house, the one that drew worldwide attention and inspired the animated movie UP!, is for sale. The sale is likely the last chance to save the house from being swallowed up by the commercial complex that surrounds it.

Edith Macefield made headlines around the world for refusing to sell her small and unassuming house in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood to encroaching developers, declining in no uncertain terms their offer of $1,000,000. Developers went ahead and built Ballard Blocks, an imposing retail and office complex, around Edith’s house, surrounding it with towering, windowless cement walls. By standing up for herself and refusing to bow to pressure, Edith became an international folk hero.

Edith died at her home in 2008. She willed the house to her friend Barry Martin. The following year Martin sold the house to a self-described real estate coach who concocted a plan to raise the house as much as sixty five feet and turn it into a retreat, office and monument. The scheme collapsed, investors lost money, and the house was boarded up. As the years have passed it has looked increasingly forlorn.

Carrying out the wishes of the deceased is top priority for funeral homes and cemeteries. But what if those wishes are for a natural burial? With environmental and consumption implications looming, more and more people are changing what happens to them when they die. An emerging interest is in natural or “green” burials.

According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, nearly two people die every second. Consider the leading burial practice in the US being casket entombment; space for burial is bound to fill.

Many people are asking why use all that space and resources for one body?

The average space needed for a casket burial is approximately 8 feet long, three feet across, and six feet under. Traditional casket burials use a liner, or casing around the casket and seal the site with concrete and steal. This entombs the body and prevents sinkholes at the cemetery.

Volunteer Soccer Coaches Needed
High Point Community Center
206.684.7422
South Park Community Center
206.684.7451
Spring 2015, Mon. and/or Wed. afternoon / evenings. Both Centers are looking for volunteer soccer coaches to start up a new soccer league in their neighborhoods. Coaches will teach soccer skills to 5-7 & 8-10 year olds. Games will be on Friday nights. If interested contact: giovannina.souers@seattle.gov

Discovery Shop
4535 California Ave. S.W.
206 937 7169

By Tim Clifford

Teenager shot on Alki Beach
A large scuffle ended with one teenager shot on Marine Ave. S.W. and Alki Ave. S.W. during the early hours of Mar. 22. The incident garnered attention from all major news networks after video surfaced of the fight and shooting.

The incident began just before 1 a.m. when a large group of nearly 20 men, various races and all in their late teens to early 20’s, was seen chasing a single subject down Alki to a parked black sedan. Inside the car was at least one passenger. The group surround the car and began kicking and hitting the vehicle while shouting at the men inside. Eventually the subject who was initially being chased was pulled into a fight between four to five men with witnesses and the crowd cheering on the chaos.

During the fight one of the men inside the sedan pulled a gun and began firing shots into the crowd. Four shots can be heard on the video, each with a few seconds pause between them. The gunfire scattered the crowd and gave time for the car to speed away before police could arrive.