April 2009

The Washington State Department of Transportation recently installed a replica of a fence panel that its designing as a suicide-prevention barrier for the Aurora Bridge, and at today's Architectural Committee Meeting, the committee gave the state credit for taking time to create the replica but gave them a few things to consider changing before a final model is presented to the full Landmarks Preservation Board.

The replica, which was mounted on the bridge Sunday March, 29, was designed in response to a community and city request for better visualization of the design concept.

“We met up with the architectural review committee of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board in February, and they said it would help if they could see the fence on the bridge,” said Greg Phipps, spokesperson of state department of transportation. “They wanted to see what it would look like so they could visualize and see how it worked aesthetically and how it affected the bridge’s historic features.”

The mockup is a near-identical replica of the fence design, the primary difference being that the mockup was wooden while the actual fence will be steel.

In the crush of spring-cleaning, garden-planting, tax-return-preparations, working, working-out and working-on, there are cherry blossoms, that have decided to bloom even if it is unseasonably cold and icky, even if seed potatoes and lettuce starts are shivering.

They remind me to step away from the computer, put down the shovel and be 10 minutes late to work, just to admire them.

Rhonda lives in Ballard and is the Urban Crop Circle Project Leader for Sustainable Ballard. Questions, Comments, Ideas? You can reach her at Rhonda@sustainableballard.org.

The Nordic Heritage Museum announces the launch of a new and ambitious effort to record the life histories of Nordic immigrants and their descendants in the Pacific Northwest.

The Nordic American Voices project will be a multi-year effort to collect, preserve, and share history “from the ground up.” Eric Nelson, the museum’s executive director, invites broad community participation in this initiative.
 
A 15-member Steering Committee chaired by Gordon Strand will guide the project, with the professional guidance of the museum’s chief curator Janet Rauscher. The steering committee is composed of representatives from each of the five major Nordic immigrant groups. Volunteer interviewers will play a crucial role in the project’s success.
 
VOICES OF BALLARD

In an effort to slow down the increasing number of homeless individuals in Seattle, a joint effort by the city of Seattle, United Way of King County and the Committee to End Homelessness in King County have trained more than 500 Seattleites to survey unsheltered people in Seattle next Monday night.

Taking a cue from Toronto, which first started the survey, Seattle will be sending volunteers to designated areas in teams of three, where they will approach every single person they see to participate in the assessment.

“We’re making absolutely no assumptions or using typical stereotypes of what homeless people may look like,” Julie Moore, communications director of the Office of Housing said. “That’s something Toronto found, that when they did this survey you may be surprised when you come up to someone in business attire who just came out of work but actually may not have a home.”

Volunteers will ask citizens if they are sleeping indoors that evening, between the hours of 9 p.m. to midnight on Monday April 13. They will also ask those who are not staying in a home or shelter to participate in the confidential voluntary survey.

Kathy Casey, owner of Ballard's Dish D'Lish at 5130 Ballard Ave. N.W., announced she will be shuttering the Ballard location, one of three Dish D'Lish outlets, the other two being in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The building will be up for sale privately.

The Food Studio and Liquid Kitchen, which opened here in 2007, will relocate to smaller quarters in the Salmon Bay Marine Center.

Casey could not be reached for comment, but a spokesperson told the News-Tribune that an official release will go out to the public Monday, April 13, which will also go into more details about the move and Casey's future business focus.

Casey specializes in food and beverage concepts and product development for local, national and international clients and has published a number of books.

In 1996, Casey and her husband, John, purchased three adjoining buildings, The Theisen and Chopard blocks, along with the Owl Saloon on Ballard Avenue. The buildings date back to 1894.

Please check back for a full story.

1400 N.W. Market St.
Project: 3009098

The Northwest Design Review Board is scheduled to review a proposal for a six-story building containing 13,000 square feet of retail at ground level and 233 residential units above at the site of the shuttered Sunset Bowl on Monday April 27, 6:30 p.m. in the Ballard High School Library. The meeting is open to the public.

Parking for 277 vehicles is to be provided in two levels below grade according to the project description. The existing structure to be demolished.

The project is named Avalon Ballard and is being developed by AvalonBay Communities.

At the Design Review Board meeting the applicant will present information about the proposed design and how it responds to the Design Guideline priorities established at the Early Design Guidance Board meeting on July, 28, 2008 regarding this site. It also went before the board last October.

The public may offer comments regarding the proposed design; and, the Design Review Board members will offer to the Director of the Department of Planning and Development their recommendations regarding the design. 

Ballard High School is located at 1418 N.W. 65th St.

West Seattle's first Zeeks Pizza location is on schedule to open May 1, as was confirmed by chief operating and marketing officer Dan Black tonight at the Morgan Community Association Meeting.

"We're very excited to be a part of the Morgan Junction and West Seattle community," said Black.

Black also mentioned that, while Zeeks is planning to offer the same menu as their other locations, they are willing to consider a special "West Seattle" recipe.

Company vice president Greg McClure has said construction on the restaurant facility is right on schedule and that "everything is going full speed ahead!"

Interior work on the restaurant is largely complete, and currently new, larger windows to create a more visible, welcoming impression.

The pizza place is planned for the Morgan Junction at the spot where the Corner Inn used to be before it closed last year.

Like other Zeeks locations, McClure said the kitchen will be fully exposed so that families can watch their pizza being made. The majority of the restaurant will have booth-style seating, but there will also be a bar section serving beer and wine with flat screen television entertainment.

The dysfunctional idiocy known as the “tunnel option” for the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement costs too much, provides less traffic capacity than a new viaduct WHILE costing more, and reduces access to the downtown core - and thus both damages downtown retail and entertainment entrepreneurs, and simultaneously reduces tax revenue therefrom.

Aside from being the most expensive available option (even before the inevitable cost over-runs) at a time when our state is running a $9 billion dollar deficit with things likely to only get worse over the next three years, the tunnel option is cursed with numerous functional flaws likely to incur substantial future expense.

In a growing urban area (and despite the current economic fiasco and the cities disastrous mayor, Seattle is about the closest thing to urban growth remaining in the state), reducing the carrying capacity (three lanes each direction to two) while eliminating two exits into the downtown core borders on criminal foolishness.

The Ballard track and field teams finished third in a four-way meet April 9 against Juanita, Lake Washington and Garfield at the Southwest Athletic Complex in West Seattle. Garfield swept both the boys' and girls' competition.

Garfield scored 84 points to easily win on the boys’ side and took the girls’ competition decisively, scoring 98 points.

On the boys' side, the Beavers earned victories from seniors shot-putter Linton Rowan, long-jumper Michael Tran and triple-jumper Julian Montante.

In the girls’ meet, Ballard earned victories from juniors Erin Philbeck in the 3200 meters and Tina Kellogg in the discus and freshman Lauren Cloward in the 400 meters.

While Cloward’s winning time of 65.1 seconds was modest, it was significant in that this was her first race ever at this distance.

Junior teammate Clara Amorosi, last year’s team leader in this event, finished second with a time of 66.2 seconds.

The Ballard High School baseball team is at game number four of its current losing streak after getting beat by Issaquah 3-2, April 9.

Senior pitcher Nick Palewicz went all seven innings, throwing fours strikeouts and giving up only four hits, but the Beavers couldn't muster the offense needed for the win.

Ballard has only scored two runs in their last three games. They scored 29 runs in the three before that.

Coach John Lamm said the competition is one of the major factors in the recent offensive slump. Ballard went from playing city teams to eastside teams that have much better pitchers, he said.

"We hadn't seen pitching quite like that yet," he said. "But, we're starting to adjust to that."

The Beavers are 4-6 overall and 3-5 in the conference.

They play at 3:45 p.m., April 13 at Whitman Middle School against Redmond.