April 2009

The quarter-acre plot thickened today, April 18, as volunteers, equipped with gloves, hammers, shovels, forks, rakes, and the will to get dirty converged at Longfellow Creek Community Garden Park for it’s annual spring work party in conjunction with Earth Day.

The creek hugs the garden’s eastern border. The opposite side borders 24th Avenue between Myrtle and Willow streets two blocks north of the Home Depot.

Transplanted alumni from St. Olaf College, near Minneapolis, volunteered at the garden for the second year in a row.

“I know it’s a cliché, but we want to beautify the community,” said Edmonds resident Heidi Napolitano who was digging in with her husband.

The organization’s directors are Jayne Simmons, a professional “edible landscaper,” Phil Parsons, and Jason and Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby. They each live within a few blocks of the site, a former certified organic garden, and credit the veggies for connecting their neighborhood, which they say has become safer.

The Ballard High School girls lacrosse team faced a third tough opponent this week in sixth-place Snohomish and fell 17-1 for its most lopsided loss of the season.

The first-year, 12th-place Ballard team faced first-place Issaquah and third-place Bellevue East in losses earlier this week.

The Beavers are at 1-7 after their seventh loss in a row.

Jayne Barnes scored Ballard's lone goal and goalie Hannah Breton had 13 saves.

Ballard gets its best chance for a victory in some time when 11th-place Holy Names comes to Ballard High School for a 5:30 p.m., April 21 matchup.

It was the Ballard High School softball team's third game in three days and the result felt all-too familiar – a 6-0 loss to Inglemoor April 17.

Ballard lost to Lake Washington 10-0 April 16 and 17-0 to Woodinville April 15.

Pitcher Sophie Overlock-Pauley went the full seven innings, giving up 12 hits and six runs while racking up three strikeouts.

The Beavers managed two hits in the game.

Ballard (1-6 overall, 1-5 conference) face Newport at 4 p.m., April 20 at Newport Field.

The Ballard High School baseball team team managed one hit in their April 17 1-0 loss to Eastlake – their seventh loss in a row.

The lone hit was a double by Grady Williams.

Coach John Lamm said the team's defense and pitching, with 84 strikeouts in league games, has been solid, but the offense is really struggling.

"We are making it easy for teams to play defense against us," he said.

Part of the problem lies with what Ballard is given to work with compared to some of the eastside schools, Lamm said.

He said Ballard only has a week and half to practice before games start, which is too little time to work on swings and mechanics.

The Ballard facilities can't compare to those of the bigger schools, Lamm said. The Beavers have one batting cage to work with and have 90 minutes to practice on their field before they are kicked off, he said.

Nevertheless, the team is battling to turn things around, he said.

"We take this very seriously," Lamm said. "I'm not happy about losing."

The Beavers (4-9 overall, 3-8 conference) play Garfield at 3:45 p.m., April 21 at Garfield Field.

Neighbors gathered together April 18 for the 14th Avenue Northwest Adopt A Street Cleanup sponsored by the East Ballard Community Association.

Erin Alvin led Anika, Celia and Abby Alving up the street, finding garbage as they went. The children were armed with poles for picking up litter and Erin was ready for them with the bag.

"We live in the neighborhood," Erin said. "And, we like to keep things looking nice."

Will Rava said this is the third or fourth time he has participated in the cleanup and it is a good way to meet neighbors.

Through events like the street cleanup or the community-sponsored nights out, neighborliness in east Ballard has been on the rise in the past few years, Rava said.

After hearing feedback from both the community and the Southwest Design Review Board, The Kenney Chief Executive Officer Kevin McFeely has asked the project architects to redesign The Kenney's remodel and maintain the Seaview building.

The Seaview building, which is best known for its cupola and place in the West Seattle skyline, is a historic landmark. During previous Early Design Guidance meetings architects explained that the building was too small to serve as modern residences.

But now, McFeely said the building will be used for office, dining and community space. It will be relocated to a more prrominent position on Fauntleroy Way Southwest and Southwest Myrtle Street.

The Kenney design team will also alter their design to move more of the building's masses to the center of the project, away from streets and sidewalks.

These changes will be presented to the community at the next Early Design Guidance meeting on May 14, 6:30 p.m. at location to be determined.

A community engagement meeting will also be held on May 4, 7:30 p.m. at the Fauntleroy Church.

Organizers of the Ballard Corners Park are looking for more input on some of the last phase development of the new public park.

Co-Chair of the Friends of Ballard Corners Park David Folweiler, said in an email to the community that input is needed by Wednesday, April 22, Earth Day.
The park is nearing completion, but one element, the design of the “corner store” piece and he is asking for public input on five options for the feature.

From Folweiler’s email:

“For those of you involved in the park design workshops in 2006, we batted around a lot of ideas. The community decided that it liked the play structure, curving sidewalk, rain garden, “living room,” and the corner store homage. All of this has been completed, except the corner store. The corner store has not been constructed because the bids we received for constructing it in its original format were too high.

Of the desired options, the community preferred the raingardens and living room over the corner store in the case of insufficient funding.

The West Seattle Herald attended last week's book signing by Maxwell Kennedy of his documentary "Danger’s Hour," the Kamikase bombing of the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill in May, 1945.

Kennedy, ninth son of Robert F. Kennedy, was here to give a fascinating afternoon to about 60 attendees at Lou Tice's Pacific Institute headquarters on Harbor Avenue.

West Seattle's own famed raconteur, Morey Skaret was there with his sweetheart Elsie.

Al Skaret, Morey's younger brother, was a hero during the suicide attack, rescuing sailors from the fire. He also resides in West Seattle. He served as a ship-fitter which means he and a host of others were expert crewmen trained to fix anything that did not function properly aboard the famed carrier.

The Skaret family, five sons and a daughter were originally from the plains of Alberta, Canada.

If you’re at all like me (of an age and not city-bred) you may understand that the thought of riding a bicycle in traffic strikes fear into my very soul.

Now I have tremendous admiration for the number of fit adults using their legs instead of the gas pedal, and I watch out for them like a mother duck watches over her young. But I strongly suspect that if I tried it I would soon be another “Bike meets Car” statistic and that is not how I want to go.

I’ve been to Amsterdam, where bicycles are the most common form of transportation, and seen those sturdy single-gear bikes being driven by moms, a kid on the back and a pile of groceries in the front basket, negotiating traffic while holding an umbrella and talking on her cell phone. Impressive.

I did bring home one of those bikes, given to me by my Dutch uncle, but the fact is that having just one speed in hilly Seattle could kill me, or most likely have me calling Jim to come with the station wagon right away.

This recent tax season spurred on yet another garden analogy from Yours Truly. I realized, as gardeners, that we already pay taxes in our own way. I wonder if this could fly with the IRS?

Here’s what I have so far:
Garden Tax Filing Status – Choose one only.

1. New

2. Not so new and should know better

3. Knows better

Sales Taxes – You know those plant sales where you overbuy, or buy on impulse? Ya, you know what I mean. There were some plants that were definitely on your list, and you bought them for a particular spot – those usually go into the ground first.

But then there are the plants that you fell in love with at first sight, bought on impulse, and will “find a spot for it later." It is some of this group that invariably perish and die, either through hesitation, or unintentional neglect. Hey, they were new, and slipped your mind – a perfectly plausible reason, eh? Those dead ones are the sales tax that we pay a couple/few times a year.