April 2009

Nearly 70 West Seattle area organizations arranged their banners, booths and brochures to network with each other and the public at Sealth High School (at Boren) Saturday April 4th, at 5950 Delridge Way S.W.

The event, the 5th Annual Gathering of Neighbors, was organized by the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association and Youngstown Cultural Arts Center as well as the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Exhibitors included the Highland Park Action Committee, Senior Center of West Seattle, West Seattle Food Bank, and South Seattle Community College. The Inner City Ensemble and Youngstown Entertainment Showcase performed in the cafeteria.

"We offer retraining for business people who are now unemployed," said Laura Matson with the continuing education department, South Seattle Community College. She said people with employment problems including those who recently lost their job approached her booth.

City officials have taken some action to demonstrate that they have heard neighborhood complaints about run-down homes in north Delridge.

Seattle City Council members Sally Clark and Tim Burgess, Stella Chao, director of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and Diane Sugimara, director of DPD, joined Delridge resident MIke Dady and other members of the Delridge neighborhood on a tour of several dilapidated properties.

After more than a year of working with the Southwest Police Precinct and reporting to Seattle's Department of Planning and Development (DPD), Dady has grown tired of complaining about the vacant homes in his North Delridge.

"These houses sit there and cause nothing but problems," said Dady at a Delridge District Council Meeting on March 19. "They are not providing shelter in any safe or sane way."

And he's not alone in his frustration. A number of neighbors joined Dady on the tour to testify how the abandoned, run-down homes in their neighborhood as a drain on the local community.

Editor, author, public radio show pundit, and bearded curmudgeon Knute Berger gave a recent reading of his new book, “Pugetopolis,” at the Ballard Library, Tuesday, March 31.

He was not crotchety, however, as curmudgeons go. Instead, he seemed amicable and comfortable in his mossy skin. “Mossback” is his online sobriquet in his Crosscut columns and other essays featured in his book. The former Seattle Weekly editor seized his Ballard moment to gently excoriate Seattle residents, politicians included, for wanting their ecological cake and eating it too, the central theme in his book.

Berger (rhymes with "merger") explained, “There’s this notion that somehow a massive super-city and nature in all its glory can co-exist in a perfect way. That city slogan we have, ‘metronatural,’ is a contradiction. Nothing is less natural than a city.”

The slogan was created in 2006 for the Seattle Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

At age 17, Ballard High School graduate Jesse Harris wrote and directed a feature-length film, “Living Life,” that received a multi-city theatrical release. As a followup, he’s got his eye on something a little bigger – a multi-day, international, youth filmmaking event.

“This is so much harder,” Harris, now 23, said. “Making a feature film was hard, but this is insane.”

Harris is the cofounder and executive director of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, an annual festival for young filmmakers that features screenings, workshops and music. It runs April 24 to April 26 at the Seattle Center this year.

After the release of “Living Life,” Harris said young filmmakers from all over the world started contacting him for help and advice. He said he realized he couldn’t do much for them as just a filmmaker so, along with Kyle Seago and Jocelyn R.C., founded NFFTY in 2007.

That first year it was a one-day event and 14 films were screened. By 2008, the festival had grown into a multi-day event that screened 75 films. This year, the festival features 113 films from eight countries.

This Sunday, April 5, the Water Taxi’s 2009 summer season will kick off with a celebration from noon to 2 p.m. at Seacrest Park. There will be live entertainment, refreshments, and family activities, plus a full day of free Water Taxi rides.

"I'm hoping people will be there to be the first of what will hopefully be a records season for us," said Dow Constantine, West Seattle's local King County council representative who has been an avid supporter of the passenger ferry.

This marks the earliest the water taxi season has ever started.

The Fireboat Leschi’s water cannons will greet the King County Water Taxi, previously named Elliott Bay Water Taxi, when it arrives at the Seacrest Dock in West Seattle at approximately 12:40 p.m.

The water taxi will have its longest season to date, continuing service on the West Seattle-to-downtown route through Oct. 31. Soon after, year-round service could begin.

On March 26, the Seattle Parks Board voted to recommend that the parks superintendent approve a proposal which would expand the dock at Seacrest Park so the King County Water Taxi can start year-round operations in early 2010.

The Hiawatha Community Center, 2700 California Ave. S.W., will host a Women's Defense Workshop on Saturday, April 25 from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Here are some statistics from the Sexual Assault Violence Resource Center for the Seattle metropolitan area.

· There were 41 percent more rapes during the first six months of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006;
· One in three women will experience a sexual assault in her lifetime;
· One in six women will be raped in her lifetime; and
· Every two and a half minutes, someone in the U.S. suffers a sexual assault.

The Sexual Assault Violence Resource Center strongly recommends that people, particularly women, prepare themselves for the possibility of a sexual assault and learn how to recognize and avoid dangerous situations.

In the four hour session, participants will learn avoidance and awareness tactics, an understanding of fear and adrenaline, setting verbal and physical boundaries, assertiveness and confrontational skills, close range tactics, and types of strikes.

The plan for a new west entrance at the Woodland Park Zoo, which received a master use permit for the project in late March, has raised concerns with one community leader.

Irene Wall, Phinney Ridge Community Council president, said the project will cause the removal of mature, healthy trees for a tchotchke store and a lot of pavement.

The new west entrance would add guest amenities, including retail, and a paved and landscaped pathway from the old north entrance, which would be removed, to the new entrance, according to a zoo press release.

David Schaefer, director of public affairs for the zoo, said 14 trees will be removed for the project, but will be replaced with 70 smaller trees.

The area affected by the project is a combination of old turf and asphalt that is not used by the zoo for formal vegetation, and significant landscaping with the project will create green space, he said.

Root Table
2213 N.W. Market St.
11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., lunch and dinner served daily
Happy Hour 4-6 p.m. and 9-11 p.m. daily
420-3214

Tables made of lightly processed wood (still resembling the trees of its origin) and a dark, calm atmosphere create an oasis where Frodo and Sam could start with Second Breakfast and work their way to the end of the day.

The Root Table's earthy and serene mossy greens and browns add to the enchanted forest feel of the restaurant, and the two levels, separated by a wide, brief stairway, make the room seem spacious.

The furniture and decorative, twig-like wall sconces are all from Thailand, imported by the owners of the restaurant, who also run the furniture store downstairs. The experience is almost like eating in a beautiful showroom.

It reminds us of a series of theatrical performances set in Renton's IKEA, where a local theater group used the ready-made IKEA sets for a series of short one act dramas. At Root Table, diners can act out their own dining dramas in this showy and cinematic setting, where even the menus have attractive and ornate wooden covers.

The housing shortfall has grown for people below 40 percent of county-wide median and the King County 2008 Housing Benchmarks Report shows similar growing gap for Seattle's very low income households.

• By contrast there is a surplus county-wide of rental units serving those at 80 percent of median of 100,000 plus units at that rent level.

• In Seattle, 81 percent of all rentals are affordable to those at 80 percent of median - for a surplus of over 30,000 city-wide at that rent level.

• But for the 40,000 households in Seattle earning at or below 40 percent of median, there are only about 10,000 units affordable to them at that rent level - for a shortfall of more than 30,000 units. 

• The crisis grows for those at the bottom and that's where our priority should remain.

On Thursday, April 2 at approximately 10:10 p.m., the employee of a business in the 5300 block of 15th Avenue Northwest was robbed at gunpoint by a Hispanic male between the ages of 20-30.

The suspect was described as having a goatee and wearing a dark hooded sweat shirt. After the robbery, the suspect fled in an unknown direction.

Officers conducted an area check but did not locate the suspect. The Robbery Unit will be conducting the follow up investigation.