February 2009

Fire Station 35 in Crown Hill has been included in the renovations announced last week by Mayor Greg Nickels for the modernization of 11 fire stations across the city to begin this year.

The projects are funded by the 2003 Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy.

With concerns from residents last fall of it’s temporary location on the playfield of the former Crown Hill School, plans have been negotiated to avoid disruption of any student sport activities or events during the temporary stations' stay.

Leases were signed and the station will be moving onto the property this March.

Fire Station 35 needs the temporary location while the current station at 8729 15th Ave. N.W. is rebuilt to meet earthquake safety standards and modern firefighting practices. It houses one engine company and a reserve engine.

“Seattle residents had the foresight to vote for the Fire Levy in 2003, and now they can see their tax dollars at work in their neighborhoods,” said Nickels in a statement. “By building these projects now, we better protect the public and put people to work in jobs that pay well.”

Ballard resident Jessie Israel is running for Seattle City Council to be the voice of Seattle-ites under 40 and a representative of other Ballard residents. She is looking to fill council position six, currently held by Nick Licata.

Israel said that people under the age of 40 are a majority of the local population.

“They’re drivers and the ones who are operating on you, your children, flying your planes, investing your money and the ones who are running companies that are inventing the most innovative products,” said Israel. “But they are underrepresented on the council right now.”

Israel said she hopes her experience as enterprise manager of King County Parks will give her the opportunity to bring in business revenue for the city if voted in for the position.

“Part of the reason I’m running is that I see our city is at a critical point, where we’re either going to grow in a good way that maintains integrity or we’re going to make some poor choices,” Israel said.

Israel said there are many issues such as neighborhood safety, infrastructure, keeping neighborhoods and neighborhood businesses strong that need to be improved in Seattle.

Neither the St. Alphonsus/St. John eighth-grade girls nor the seventh grade boys could get their offense on track during the Catholic Youth Organization AA Championships Feb. 8.

The St. Alphonsus/St. John girls basketball team lost the eighth-grade championship to Bellevue’s St. Louise while the boys fell to Bellevue’s Sacred Heart in the seventh-grade championship.

Poor shooting kept the girls from overcoming a flurry of turnovers caused by the St. Louise defense.

“The ball just didn’t go in the basket,” girls coach Tim Tholy said. “[St. Louise] has a karma thing. It happens every time we play these guys.”

The girls trailed 21-13 at halftime and couldn’t capitalize on a big third quarter from Laura Walker. Walker scored all seven of the team’s points in the quarter and added a handful of steals and rebounds and one huge block. But, the girls still trailed 28-20 going into the final quarter.

St. Louise shut St. Alphonsus/St. John out in the fourth and cruised to a 37-20 victory.

Tholy said he is proud of the girls, who finished the season with a 6-3 record.

The forty-something, Hungarian dishwasher is vomiting vodka into the bushes as I pick my friend up off the floor; his wife screaming at me from the car. Tony at the end of the bar has been creeping out girls all night over a glass Pinot trying my ever-waning patience. The bar back, feeling sluggish is suffering from a head cold while the DJ keeps playing, drunk and unaware it’s ten minutes to close and all I want is a fucking drink. Without consulting my calendar I can tell it must be Thursday.

As a bartender your tolerance for the anomalies of human behavior increases; the things that most “normal” people would not put up with from others becomes commonplace. Alcohol changes people in a most profound way and with enough of it no amount of sober wisdom imparted can save them from their impaired judgments. Its difficult to tell the married man making out with the girl at the end of the bar that his wife might frown upon it when some asshole is setting fire to a credit card receipt at table 115.

Home for Good, a non-profit aimed at getting low to moderate income earners into home ownership opportunities, presented it's design plans to the Northwest Design Review Board Monday (Jan. 26) evening. The project includes green building and residential units aimed at those earning between $40,000 to $50,000 a year.

The proposal calls from two buildings at 1506 N.W. 62nd St.; a four-story structure with 22 residential units and a ground-floor, 700 square foot commercial space. The second development is for a two-unit townhouse. Underground parking is planned and the existing tri-plex on the lot would be demolished.

This was the organization's first time before the design review board, which reviews development of a certain capacity and size as part of obtaining a master use permit from the city's department of planning and development.

A 46-year-old man suspected of stealing from numerous businesses in Ballard in the past weeks was arrested Dec. 31 near 20th Avenue Northwest and Market Street for an outstanding warrant in Missouri.

According to victims, the man is suspected of entering businesses on Market Street and Ballard Avenue during business hours and taking money from back offices, safes and employees' purses.

At 3:51 p.m. Dec. 31, the police received calls from many community members who noticed the man walking around the neighborhood.

Between 75 and 100 people crowded around the makeshift memorial for Ballard resident Kevin Black on 24th Avenue Northwest on the evening of Feb. 5.

The onlookers, alternately crying and laughing with their memories, were gathered there to say farewell to Black, 39, who was killed Feb. 4 when his bicycle collided with a van.

Black, a father of two girls, worked at the University of Washington as a molecular neurobiologist.

The crowd was a mix of PTA members, scientists, cyclists, neighbors and even bar patrons who had wandered onto the street, said Dave Rider, who runs the cycling team of which Black was a member.

"It's an amazing thing," he said. "I think it's a testament to Kevin."

Black's friend and neighbor Dennis Grove said Black was the type of person who connected with all types of people.

"He had a smile and a charisma that made people want to talk to him," Grove said. "He had a sparkle in his eye."

Grove said Black was an active member of the neighborhood and talked about how lucky he was to live in a community like Ballard where everyone knew each other.

Although the Seattle City Council has denied funding for the construction of a new skatepark in Delridge, project organizers continue to develop a design for the park.
The proposed park would be located in the northeast corner of the Delridge Playfied and measure 10,000 square feet.