July 2009

The Seattle Department of Transportation will close one westbound lane on the on the East Duwamish Waterway Bridge this weekend for paving.

Starting at 4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 1, the bridge will be restricted to one lane in each direction. The lane will be opened at approximately 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 2, allowing time for the concrete to set.

The sidewalk on the southern side of the bridge is closed for the duration of the project. Eastbound pedestrians and bicyclists are advised to follow the signs along Southwest Spokane Street as well as Klickitat Avenue Southwest and utilize the designated crosswalk to cross over to the north side of the bridge where they can share the sidewalk with westbound travelers.

About 20 individuals from all around the Seattle area came together to discuss the services they value most at the King County Community Workshop as part of the Countywide Strategic Plan, Thursday July 30 at the Hall of Fauntleroy.

“It’s a conversation,” said Elissa Benson from the King Count Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management (OSPPM). “We want to hear from folks before we start writing.”

The goal of the meeting is to get community feedback in order to “to guide policy and budget decisions over the next five years,” according to OSPPM.

Prior to the meetings, OSPPM conducted a county-wide survey of approximately 1,000 residents on the satisfaction of King County services. However, Michael Jacobson, manager for OSPPM, said the workshops “you can give us additional quality information with a little more depth.”

Most of the participants had slightly different priorities in terms of the services they valued the most and those that needed improvements.

Pending home sales show a sustained and continuous uptrend, rising for four consecutive months with very favorable housing affordability and a first-time buyer tax credit boosting activity, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The association said the market seems to have turned to the buyers' advantage, and the federal government's $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers who buy through November is an inducement. Experts say the housing recovery must start with such first-time buyers, who don't need to sell one home to buy a new one, and typically there’s the ripple effect up.

And that's what may be happening in the Seattle area, according to the latest report from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Buyers and sellers reached deals on 711 houses in Seattle and 2,246 countywide in May, up around 24 percent and 27 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, the report said.

Those pending sales totals were up from increases of around 15 percent in the city and county from a year earlier in April.

Metropolitan King County Council Chair Dow Constantine joined local, state and federal officials July 28 in breaking ground for the North Winds Weir, a project that will greatly improve the Duwamish River habitat for juvenile salmon.

“This is one of the most valuable projects recommended by the Green/Duwamish River basin salmon habitat recovery plan,” said Constantine, co-chair of that effort. “Over the years, the Duwamish River has been battered by pollution, inappropriate land uses and poor stewardship, but this ecosystem is on the mend.”

Constantine was joined at the groundbreaking by representatives of several jurisdictions around the weir, including State Rep. Zack Hudgins and Tukwila Mayor Jim Haggerty.

The project is named for a rocky ledge that juts into the river and is visible only at lower tides. It is located at the critical point where the freshwater of the Green/Duwamish River and saltwater of Puget Sound mix.

Starting Aug. 4, snow leopard fans will have the chance to help name the Woodland Park Zoo's 2.5-month-old male snow leopard through an online poll.

The poll offers four Mongolian names as options because Mongolia is one of 12 countries that is home to the endangered snow leopard.

The choices are Gobi for the Gobi Desert, Boke meaning "strong," Irbis meaning "leopard" and Vachir meaning "thunderbolt."

Those voters who are 18 or older can enter to win a prize package that includes snow leopard-related goods.

Vote for your choice of name by visiting www.zoo.org and clicking on “Name a Snow Leopard Cub.” The poll closes at midnight Aug. 12, and the winning name will be announced when the cub and its twin sister Batu make their debut at Snow Leopard Day Aug. 15.

The snow leopard cubs were born on Memorial Day to 4-year-old Helen and 3-year-old Tom. The cubs are currently not available to the public while they bond and nurse with their mother.

The snow leopard is a moderately large cat native to the high mountain ranges of central Asia and Russia. Snow leopard scientists estimate as few as 3,500 remain in the wild.

The push of marine air that cooled the region down overnight has provided a temporary improvement to the smoggy air.  However, with temperatures forecast to increase again over the weekend as a stagnant weather pattern redevelops, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency staff expect ozone pollution (smog) to again reach the "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (USG)" category in many communities of the Cascade foothills. 

Clean Air Agency forecasters said air quality on Friday will be “good” in most areas of the Puget Sound region, yet still rising to “Moderate” levels on the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the Cascade foothills of King and Pierce counties. 

Exposure to ground-level ozone can trigger asthma attacks, make breathing difficult, exacerbate lung and heart problems and weaken the immune system. The Washington State Department of Health recommends that people who are sensitive to air pollution limit time spent outdoors.

Air pollution is especially harmful to children, people with heart and lung problems, and adults over age 65.

Restaurante Michoacan at 8311 15th Ave. N.W. was robbed early this morning, but thieves only got away with a few bottles of whiskey after smashing in a window at the mexican restaurant with a rock.

Rudy McCoy-Pantoja, manger of the Ballard/Fremont Clean Streets Program, said the break-in occurred at about 2 a.m. this morning when the thieves broke a window behind a potted plant on the north side of the building.

McCoy-Pantoja, who sometimes speaks on behalf of the owners of Restaurante Michoacan because they do not communicate in English very well, said the alarm must have scared the robbers off.

"I think somebody did it because they thought it would be easy," said McCoy-Pantoja. "That shrub has to go."

McCoy-Pantoja said paying for damages will not be easy for the restaurant owners at a time when sales are slumping. He said it will be about $1,300 to replace the window and repair the damages.

"It just pisses us off," he said. "Whether it's here or next door, we have to really look out for each other in this neighborhood."

The Seattle Department of Transportation is repairing the Duwamish Trail where sections have been damaged by tree roots and general deterioration.

The trail will be closed between Southwest Idaho Street and Southwest Brandon Street from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 3 and 4, and may be closed 24 hours a day on Wednesday through Friday, Aug. 5 to 7, if it cannot be made safe for trail users after work hours.

Bicyclists and pedestrians will be detoured onto West Marginal Way Southwest. Advanced warning signs have been provided along with a notification board at the ends of the trail.

Seattle Public Utilities hosted the first of three public meetings with the Ballard community to present their plans to install bio-retention facilities to help manage the storm water runoff in a 10-block radius of the neighborhood.

The pilot program, the Ballard Natural Drainage Project, will install facilities at blocks between Northwest 68th and 85th streets and 28th and 22nd avenues northwest.

“Essentially, we’re looking at taking a planting strip and basically amending the soil," Shanti Colwell of Seattle Public Utilities said.

The facilities will be within the existing planting areas and in some places they will “bump” out into the existing roadway for a short length, said Colwell.

The bio-retention facilities will contain special soils designed to effectively infiltrate and filter storm water off the road and will accommodate up to six inches of ponding to help store and treat as much runoff as possible.

A Luna Park fisherman hooked an interesting catch on Saturday evening and flagged down an officer to turn it in: From the depths had come a canvas bag full of paperwork, clothing, ID, photo albums, and other personal items, including religious garb. There was no answer when officers called the bag's apparent owner (a New York man who had moved to Tukwila). After calling a few other numbers found in the paperwork, officers established that the man had moved here for a marriage that didn't work out. The bag and contents have been placed in the SPD property room.

Late Saturday evening, a black male, 5 feet 4 inches, aged 30 to 49, asked for a pack of cigarettes and then pulled a gun on a clerk at a Fauntleroy-area gas station. The clerk provided some cash and the suspect took off northbound on foot.