May 2009

A new Fremont P-Patch, the Hazel Heights community garden, opens Monday with a celebration with supporters, neighbors and elected officials.

The event will take place at Hazel Heights, 4200 Baker Avenue Northwest (corner of Baker and Northwest 42nd Street) starting at 4 p.m. with official groundbreaking activities at 5 p.m.


Hazel Heights will have cutting-edge features that promote environmental sustainability, including a catchment system with an 8,000 gallon storage tank funded by a King County grant, according to a press release from the organizers.
The system will harvest rainwater runoff from the roofs of two nearby houses to irrigate the 19 P-Patch garden plots. Contributing to Seattle’s food security is another key aim. One of the plots, plus on-site fruit trees, will be maintained by volunteers to provide fresh produce for local food banks.

Elected officials who are expected to attend include; Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, King County Council member Larry Phillips, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin and City Council member Jean Godden.

Greenwood-based Taproot Theatre Company is expanding its acting classes in Ballard this summer by hosting a large number of its summer acting daycamps at the Ballard Church, located just off 15th Northwest and Northwest 73rd.

Taproot Theatre’s Acting Studio will offer a wide variety of camps for ages 4 to 17 June 22 through Sept. 3, from Shakespeare and musical theatre to the art of comedy and acting for the camera.

“We’re excited for this opportunity to bring more of our classes to the heart of Ballard, one of our neighboring communities,” said Sara Willy, Taproot Theatre’s education director. “Ballard is a rich and vibrant area, family-friendly, and the facilities at Ballard Church will allow us to easily serve them, and our students from other areas.”

Twelve of Taproot Theatre’s Acting Studio’s 18 summer daycamps will meet at Ballard Church, located at 1460 N.W. 73rd St. Those include Creative Dramatics Daycamp and Creative Dramatics Jr. Daycamp, which will be offered weekly (excluding the weeks of June 29 and August 31) with different themes each session.

The Chief Sealth High School boys' soccer team will play for bragging rights in the 3rd annual Carne Asada Bowl against Seattle’s Bilingual Orientation Center (BOC) on Friday, May 8 at 3:30 p.m. at the Southwest Athletic Complex (SWAC).

Created as a community event by Proyecto Saber staff member Delfino Munoz, SBOC Principal Martin O’Callaghan and Sealth Principal John Boyd, who previously served in the same role at the BOC, the Carne Asada Bowl matches up the Seahawks varsity team against the BOC varsity team in an afternoon of competition and fun.

Festivities include a performance by the Seahawk Mariachi Band and a post-game barbeque featuring authentic Mexican cuisine including Carne Asada grilled by Delfino Munoz, who helps lead Sealth’s Proyecto Saber program.

“This is a great opportunity for both schools to showcase the talent and diversity of the students and it is a lot of fun,” said Boyd. “Last year we had African Drummers, our Mariachi band and just a great spirit of competition and camaraderie."

The Seattle School District presented to the public a preliminary draft of its new Student Assignment Plan that is scheduled for implementation this fall, but some local parents are petitioning against it out of concern the new system could force students out of their neighborhoods.

Dr. Tracy Libros, manager of enrollment and planning for Seattle Public Schools, said the district decided to split up the schools into three types; attendance area, service and option schools.

She presented the draft plan on May 6 at a community engagement meeting held at Ingraham High School.

“Each attendance area school has a geographic boundary and students are assigned to those schools based on their address, this is kind of the starting point,” Libros said.

Elementary attendance area schools would act as a filter for nearby middle schools in the area, so students who are in the elementary area will go to middle school together, Libros said.

As for students in K-8 attendance area schools, they too will be a part of the same middle school attendance area.

The Southwest District Council met Wednesday evening and discussed the Seattle Department of Transportation's (SDOT) proposed Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) legislation with MaryCatherine Snyder, a strategic advisor for the transportation department.

The presentation addressed changes to the city's current RPZ program. These changes would affect future RPZ’s established in West Seattle. Among the major changes highlighted were new zone permit management policies, changes to the RPZ zone creation process and an increase in parking enforcement.

One specific change would seek to remove the petition requirement needed to start an RPZ establishment process. Snyder said that the current legislation requires a 60 percent signed petition from the area in question. However, this has proven a problem for non-English speakers and individuals who are not comfortable with asking neighbors for signatures.

The petition also excludes community members who would be affected by the RPZ but do not live in the area.

After hearing that RapidRide had received a federal grant, King County Council member Larry Phillips has decided to ask Metro Transit to prioritize RapidRide services when balancing the agency’s projected $100 million annual budget shortfall in 2010 and beyond.

RapidRide is Metro’s new streamlined bus service that will provide frequent, all-day service in five major corridors throughout King County, which includes both Ballard and West Seattle.

“I predict that Metro’s RapidRide lines will become some of the highest-ridership, most-productive and cost-effective routes in Metro’s system,” Phillips said in a press release. “With the budget shortfalls Metro faces, moving toward a more efficient system-one that maximizes opportunities for federal, local, and private partnerships-will allow us to get the most bang for our buck. RapidRide is a model for the direction Metro should be heading, so it makes sense to prioritize implementation of the five RapidRide lines.”

While the 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy will fund nine different projects in West Seattle, more funding could still be used toward additional projects in the neighborhood.

The levy includes a $15 million opportunity fund, which will be used to fund community initiated projects across the city, such as: purchasing new park land; developing a park, trail or garden; or improving an existing park, trail or garden.

Any individual or community group can nominate a potential project for these funds, and many already have.

Each project will be considered by the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Oversight Committee, who will then make recommendations to the Seattle City Council on which projects should get funding.

As Donald Harris, acquisition manager for Seattle Parks and Recreation, said, “it is a competitive process.” Each proposal will be evaluated based on these criteria:

- Did the project undergo public review or is it consistent with an approved plan, such as a neighborhood plan?

- Does the project address a park or open space deficiency or underserved community?

On May 6, at approximately 10:30 a.m., Southwest Precinct officers responded to a call of a burglary in progress in the 1400 Block of Southwest Trenton Street. Officers arrived in the area and observed two suspects fleeing southbound from the location.

Officers established containment quickly and located the two juvenile suspects hiding in a yard nearby. The two 13 year-old males were positively identified by witnesses and placed under arrest. Southwest Precinct detectives will conduct the follow up investigation.

On May 6 at approximately 3:01 p.m. officers responded to a two-vehicle collision in the intersection of 1st Avenue South and South Cloverdale Street involving a white Ford Mustang convertible and a green Chevy pickup truck.

Preliminary investigation indicates that the 52-year-old male driving the Chevy truck was westbound on South Cloverdale Street. The 16-year-old female driver of the Mustang was southbound on 1st Avenue South. The Mustang emerged onto South Cloverdale Street into the path of the on-coming Chevy and was struck on the driver’s door.

Seattle Fire Department Medics responded to the scene and transported the driver of the Mustang to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. The driver of the Chevy truck was not injured. Officers evaluated him for any indications of drug and/or alcohol impairment; none were detected.

The King County Water Taxi's first full month in April, despite the rain, was deemed successful by the county with a total of 20,361 passengers riding the West Seattle-to-downtown passenger ferry.

“This answers the question of whether the Water Taxi can thrive during cooler weather—and that answer is an emphatic ‘Yes,’” said Dow Constantine, King County Council Chair and chair of the King County Ferry District Board. “These numbers bode well for a successful move to year-round Water Taxi operation next year.”

The Water Taxi averaged 663 riders on weekdays, 911 on Saturdays, and 1,406 on Sundays during April. This includes the Sunday, April 5, opening day on which 3,429 passengers took advantage of free rides to set a one-day Water Taxi ridership record.

Around 59 percent of the weekday ridership came during peak hour runs, showing that the Water Taxi’s regular summer-season commuters wasted no time getting back on the boat.

For more information on the King County Water Taxi, call (206) 553-3000 (TTY 206-684-1739) or go to www.kingcounty.gov/metro. Riders can check on the operating status of the Water Taxi by calling (206) 205-3866.