July 2006

Will miss Charlestown Cafe

I was shocked and saddened to read Larry Mellum and Ron Hanlon's letter to the editor regarding the closing of Charlestown Street Cafe.

They have both poured their heart and soul into this family restaurant which has given so much back to our West Seattle Community. Thank you both for always greeting my family with a welcomed smile, with balloons for the kids, for your great sunny deck, award-winning chowder and awesome Montana potatoes and especially for saying "yes" to contributing to the local schools, sports, and youth programs in West Seattle.

Neighborhood

The last Big Dig?

Why do we foolishly think we citizens have any say whatsoever in what happens to our city - especially with a mayor like Nickels?

Recently, I gave my opinion via e-mail about how the tunnel benefits only the wealthy. Here is, verbatim, Mayor Nickel's answer to me:

"Thank you for your letter about the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The replacement project team has very carefully considered many ideas and proposals. Following thorough evaluation, we have chosen the tunnel as the best choice to replace the Viaduct and Seawall.

Neighborhood

Zoo horses full circle

Forty-eight antique wooden horses are the new attraction at the Woodland Park Zoo when a historic carousel opens on July 22.

The Philadelphia Toboggan Company was commissioned to build the carousel and horses for the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918. The zoo operated the carousel for 56 years before selling it to the Great American Theme Park in Santa Clara, California in the mid-1970s. In 1999, the park sold the carousel and horses to Linda and Tom Allen with the Allieniana Foundation.

Category

Just don't bring it up - getting to the bottom of Carkeek Park

Carkeek Park, filled with its forest of trees and brush, is one of the best places to get out of town. But the park that hides you from the city is also hiding a part of the city from you. A concentrated, repellant part, unmentionable in polite circles, locked behind a door and obscured by sword ferns. Unfiltered Ballard pools there, in all its pungent glory. The legend is that the nose never forgets the smell of raw sewage. It wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to know about. But I had to ask.

The question; what is the deal with that place?

Neighborhood
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A new chapter for lifelong Beaver

Ballard High School Librarian Susan Weiss has retired after 39 years in the educational field. Weiss graduated from Ballard in 1963 and returned to her old school in 1988.

Under her leadership the John Stanford Library made big changes to keep up with the pace of technology while overcoming a small budget. By 2004, books in the library had become outdated and there were no funds to replace them. The copyrights went back as far as 1976 and some books had not been checked out in ten years.

"We had very little money," said Weiss.

Neighborhood
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