May 2009

Seattle Summer Streets is a city program that opened up Alki Avenue to pedestrians and bicyclists on May 31.

Its aim is to celebrate the spirit and personality of the neighborhood and support local businesses, according to the city.

Bicycles, trikes, skateboards, wheelchairs and pedestrians took over Alki Avenue Southwest from California Way Southwest to 63rd Avenue Southwest between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The weather and automobile traffic cooperated, and many took advantage of the day.

This month, Ballard music fans will still have the chance to wake-up with ringing ears and a pounding hangover after a night of live music. But coupled with those usual pains, will be a warm and satisfying feeling knowing they rocked out to help those less fortunate than themselves.

Noise for the Needy, a nonprofit concert event, is back for its sixth year in Seattle with shows at four venues in Ballard and Fremont.

This year, profits from shows at the Tractor Tavern, the Sunset Tavern, Conor Byrne, the High Dive and other venues around the city will go to Transition Resources, a mental health center based in West Seattle that provides services for adults with mental illnesses.

Shane Tutmarc, who plays June 11 at the Sunset, is in his second year as part of event. He said playing music for a cause brings out the best in everyone, and Noise for the Needy is one of the best-run music festivals he has been a part of.

"The usual attitudes or egos are left at the door," Tutmarc said. "Everyone seems to bring a little more purpose and fun to the table."

The West Seattle Rock Club threw its annual rock and gem show May 30 and 31 in the Alki Masonic Lodge basement. It was open to the public. Visitors found a "multifaceted" array of displays, vendors and demonstrations.

"This is our 43rd year," said Ron Nims, chairman of the West Seattle Rock and Gem Show. "We have a good crowd. We have around 50 members. We're about 50/50 men and women members.

Nims' step-son Merlin Tosh,14, has his own business "Pearl Works." He has a display at the show of beaded earrings. He sells his work to Menashe & Sons Jewelry in the Junction and Travelers Tea Company on Capitol Hill.

The club's oldest member is Ella Cox, 94, a Highland Park resident who lives in her own three-story house and has a train collection in her basement. Nims said Cox's display of a small model train passing through amethyst tunnels she created usually wins best of show every year.

Thanks to the generosity of the Ballard chapter of the Kiwanis Club and the Ballard High School Foundation, Ballard High School now has four defibrillators on the ready if a student or faculty member experiences sudden cardiac arrest.

The defibrillators were supplied by Northwest AED in Medina. AED stands for "auto-external defibrillator." High schools have been more willing to utilize these devices because they now offer voice prompts on how to assist a person in a heart emergency and can even tell the user not to apply the shock if the victim's heart is not at issue.

The devices are mounted on walls but also contained in a portable case, handy for their athletic department to take to away games, just in case.

The Seattle Majestics, a full-contact women’s football team in the Independent Women’s Football League, play by NFL rules. The undefeated powerhouse also plays by its own rules, with a 6-0 season and a final game against the Portland Shockwave on June 6. The game will be played at home, on French Field at Kent Meridian High School at 7p.m.

This is the team's third-consecutive undefeated regular season. Pending the Portland game, they will most likely take on the Los Angeles Amazons in the playoff opener.

Three Majestics live in West Seattle: Admiral Junction resident Stephanie Nelson, No. 33, who plays both tight and defensive end; White Center resident Renee Rodak, No. 88, who played rugby in college; and Arbor Heights resident Lisa Tavarez, No. 43, a tackle, line backer, punt returner and extra point kicker.

"We don't like to lose," Nelson told the West Seattle Herald prior to their opening game in March. And, so far, they haven't.

Because of the state's $6 billion revenue shortfall, 36th District Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles said the recently concluded legislative session was the hardest anyone in Olympia had been a part of.

"It's really not a pleasure being here talking to you about this really very difficult session," she said to the approximately 20 attendees at a May 30 town hall meeting. "We knew we were in a bad shape economically."

At the meeting, the 36th District legislative delegation – Kohl-Welles and Representatives Mary Lou Dickerson and Reuven Carlyle – discussed the session as well as issues affecting the Ballard area.

Dickerson said the session was disappointing because of the deep spending cuts that had to be made.

All three legislators voted for the budget, but not happily, Kohl-Welles said.

"I don't think any legislator is proud of this budget," she said.

Kohl-Welles said the state is at a disadvantage because 52 percent of the state's funding comes from the sales tax, one of the most regressive tax structures in the country.

On Dec. 3, 2007, Broadview resident Linda Lord was driving home from Christmas shopping. It was raining hard and she thought she better check her basement, which had flooded a few inches in the past. This time, Lord discovered her television floating face down in 18 inches of sewage and storm water.

More than two years later, Lord and fellow Broadview residents are still unhappy with the state of Broadview’s sewer system and the way the city has handled their claims for damages from the 2007 storm.

Lord and Ellerie Caine, whose basement filled with 11 inches of sewage and storm water during the 2007 flood, are organizing neighbors to fight what they see as unfair and negligent practices by the city in dealing with the causes and effects of the flooding.

Nearly five inches of rain was dumped on Seattle Dec. 3, 2007. It was the second rainiest 24-hour period since Seattle started keeping records in 1891 and meteorologists described it as a 100-year storm.

Broadview residents at a May 28 meeting of neighbors organized by Lord and Caine laughed at that characterization.

“It’s a 100-year storm that happens every seven to eight years,” Lord said.

Holy Rosary Church's Centennial Celebration includes a special Mass at 11:15 a.m., June 7. The church will honor more than two dozen priests and nuns who were formerly assigned to the parish. A luncheon will follow in the parish hall. The celebration will be the first major event of the parish’s Centennial Celebration.

Other events include a block party the afternoon of Aug. 9 and a golf tournament Sept. 27 with Archbishop Alexander J. Brunett.
On Oct. 11, Brunett will preside at the 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Masses.

"There's a great sense of the beauty of the building," said Father John Madigan, Holy Rosary's parish priest. "It is wonderful for the sum voice for singing. Many groups rent the church for this reason. The voice is carried tremendously. By contrast, the spoken voice has a more difficult time in this kind of building. The spoken voice reverberates and there is a delay."

Madigan said those who visit family here from out of town love the church's aesthetic.

"In an era of modern churches this (church) has a sense of tradition about it," he said. "The challenging part is those long aisles with people at a distance. Some find it not as welcoming."

Safe Routes to School coordinator for the Seattle Department of Transportation Brian Dougherty and a crew from PRR Consultants, retained by the department, provided safe walking tips for kids and a program overview of pedestrian safety for students May 29 at Arbor Heights School.

Second-graders were explained walking tips and why they are fun and important. Principal Carol Coram and teachers discussed benefits of walking program for their classes.

A simulated course on the school's playground was set up with four bases like a large, paved baseball diamond. Children stopped at each base and were taught a different safety rule. One was that the safest way to cross the street is in the crosswalk. Look right. Look left. Look all around. Make sure you can see the cars and the cars can see you.

Students were rewarded with a sticker at each base, and they ran the bases several times. At the conclusion, they were each handed goodie-bags filled with a coloring book, snack, pencil and additional safety information.

Baby talk was not allowed in my family. My mother didn’t approve of people bending over a baby carriage and cooing and talking gibberish.

A school teacher of merit, she believed in young children being taught proper English. I am sure that if she were around today she would be appalled at the way old people are spoken to as well--the supermarket clerk addressing a customer with grey hair in condescending tones and greetings more appropriate for young children. It is as if old people were from another planet. No wonder that in the movie "Cocoon" older people wanted to escape from this earth in a space ship.

Either it is expected that you need help out with your groceries or if, like me, a customer is dressed in jaunty attire you are ignored as your back stresses out just lifting each purchase out of the grocery cart at the checkout stand. There appears to be no happy medium.