June 2010

After meeting a 22-year-old (and her friend) at a Junction tavern, a West Seattle man invited them to a motel. While he showered with one, the second ran out of the room with his backpack, ID, credit cards, and wallet. Although he gave chase and retrieved the pack, both women got away. While he called the bank to cancel his cards, officers noticed a blue leather purse in the backpack. Inside? The light-fingered gal's ID card, complete with name, birthday, photo....and Arbor Heights address.

A woman returned home from a three-week trip and discovered that her house-sitter (recommended by a friend) had not only caused water damage to the home, but had stained her bedspread, driven her cars until they were out of gas, and accessed all of her account and credit records on her computer. A savvy computer person who came to help warned that someone had copied the financials onto another device. Luckily, her bank and credit card companies stated that no fraudulent transactions had occurred....yet.

Sustainable Burien will hold its monthly meeting June 13 at 2 p.m. in the Burien Library Multipurpose Room, 400 SW 152nd St.
The speaker will be Eric Thomas, founder of Solar Epiphany in West Seattle and a NABCEP-certified installer. He will talk about residential solar power generation and solar water heating.

Partipants may bring a copy of their electric bill and, if possible, a photo of their south facing roof for a free solar evaluation. Thomas will also answer questions.

Mmebers are getting ready for the Wild Strawberry Festival on June 19 and 20 and working on the new Burien Community Garden.
For more information contact Rebecca or Bill at 206-243-9366 or visit the website at www.sustainableburien.org.

At Alki Beach on the evening of 06/05/2010 there were several punks in very expensive, late-model cars with "Lamborghini" doors (3 cars in all) that were blocking traffic while they were stopping in the middle of the road, running around their cars and stopping to talk to women in other cars. They had backed up traffic for blocks several times doing this. Then they were standing on their window sills and hanging out their doors while blasting LOUD rap music. They then proceded to park in THE BUS LANE right in front of Dukes and Christo's, blast their music, stand on their window sills and stop cars passing by containing women they wanted to "hit" on. The managers of Duke's and Christo's called the police and took photos of the cars and occupants. It took the police over AN HOUR to respond. One unit showed up and parked about 200 feet behind the punks. When asked by several passers-by why he wasn't doing anything about the illegal activity he said ""I'm waiting for my partner". Another unit showed up and then they approached the roudy crowd. But instead of ticketing them for LOUD music and parking in the bus zone for over an hour they just told them to move!.

Seventeen Whitman Middle School students will have a more enriching summer thanks to Summer Enrichment Scholarships from Assistance League of Seattle.

The scholarships will be used to send the students to a variety of camps and enrichment opportunities, including Camp Sealth, Camp Orkila, Marrowstone Music Festival, glassblowing, University of Washington Robotics and more.

The Whitman students awarded scholarships include Thomas Hryncewicz, Dillon Zizza, Julien Streetman, A. Smith, Nicholas Hirning, Abigail Schlemmer, Adrian Adams, Paul Hryncewicz, Patty Barry, Lex Moreno, Alexa Templeton, Adin Pierce, Ruby Medendorp and Emilia Cavalero.

Assistance League of Seattle is dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and adults by meeting community needs through the collective strength of volunteers and philanthropic projects.

She died on June 24, 1988, but Lucy Rush has been on my mind almost daily for the last year.

She was 40 years old when she died, married with three children between the ages of 7 and 13. She was a local celebrity, best known as “The Safeway Lady.”

For the last year, I have been working on a book project that simultaneously took me away from Ballard and yet always brought me back. Back to Lucy Rush, a woman I never met, who died as the result of an accident labeled “bizarre” on the Ballard Bridge as she walked south toward her home on Queen Anne.

She died seven days before I moved to Ballard, even as we moved north over the Ballard Bridge from Queen Anne.

For 17 years before her death, Lucy Rush represented Safeway in Washington, Idaho and Alaska: in print, television and radio advertisements.

Raised in Minnesota, she’d attended Harvard University and had dreams of acting on Broadway.

She met her future husband after returning to Minnesota and moved with him to Seattle, where she was soon beloved (and recognized everywhere) as “The Safeway Lady.”

The Forget-Me-Not Community Social and Dance
Hiawatha Community Center
2700 California Ave. SW
www.danceforjoy.biz
Saturday, June 12, 7-10 p.m. 7-8 p.m. Beginning Zydeco lessons; 8-10 p.m. Dance to swing, waltz, blues, Zydeco and more. Singles and couples welcome, no partner required! Mini-lessons throughout the evening. Lesson and dance $12; lesson or dance only $8. Childcare available for a modest fee. Call Lilli Ann to arrange 206-264-5646. Please bring a store bought snack to share.

“On The Horizon”
June 12th - Kiwanis and West Crest Off Leash Community Project
9000 8th Ave SW, Seattle
206-817-3443 (West Niver, Kiwanis of WS President)
From 9 a.m. to Noon

June 16th - Kiwanis meeting.
4509 California Ave SW, Seattle 98116 - (Be's Restaurant, breakfast is served)
206-932-8349 (Warren Lawless, Secretary)
From 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Guest Speaker Tim Winston on the topic of Personal & Small Office Computer Security

Pawty with a Purpose! Benefit Fundraiser for Val Mallinson
Duwamish Cohousing Common House
6000 17th Ave. SW, 98106

This poem was written by Sarah Whitney an eighth grade student at Washington Middle School. In her submission Sarah said,
"This poem is about my view on Seattle rain."

Seattle
Known as the rainy city
That troublesome rain that runs smoothly down our windows leaving paths to follow with our imagination
That taunting rain that causes children to frantically throw on their gear and dash out closed doors to play
That terrible rain that makes lighthearted lakes that invites everyone to jump
That traumatic rain that dots our foreheads to settle our minds
Oh that tempered rain, so calm to our skin when nothing else is
That torturous rain that clears our mind of worries
of stress
of fears
That treacherous rain whose sounds relax our pride and seem to cover us with a flowing blanket
Weather that brings new found joy
Weather that brings buried tears
That oh so troublesome rain that we Seattleites do not thank enough

Sarah Whitney

The Fourth Annual Duwamish Tribe Gala Dinner & Art Auction Honoring Seattle's First People was held Saturday night, June 5. It was the second gala held at the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center 4705 W. Marginal Way SW. About 80 attended, and seemed to bid up a storm for Native American art work. Over $6,000 alone was raised to help fund a summer kayak outing geared toward First Nation area children.

Cecile Hansen, Chair of the Duwamish Tribe, was also the evening's elegant matriarch and host. Attendees included State Senator and King Count Council candidate Joe McDermott, King County Councilmembers Jan Drago and Kathy Lambert, State Representative Robert Hasegawa of the 11th District, Marcee Stone, candidate for 34th District Representative, and Tom Speer, Duwamish Tribal Services Board of Directors and historian.

Also, three generations of descendants of Seattle settlers David Denny and Louisa Boren attended, Andy Harris, their great-grandson, his daughter Amy Johnson, and her son Josh Johnson, 17. Josh wants to be a history professor.

Life-long Seattle resident Diana Toledo, daughter of Lauriston Robello Toledo, a Filipino Immigrant has entered the race for King County Council-District 8 position.

The daughter of a Filipino immigrant who earned his U.S. Citizenship serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam Conflict and an American mother (Alice Coker-Toledo) who operated a neighborhood food-bank to help struggling Seattleites in the 1970’s; Life-long Seattle resident and 15 year King County employee Diana Toledo has entered the race for King County Council.

Diana’s platform is focused on 3 issues; 1) Fiscal responsibility in King County Government. 2) Local Business incentives and Job creation. 3) Safe streets via youth outreach.

Diana and her husband Jerry (a small business owner), and their children live in West Seattle where they are active in community programs, church, and public service.

Cyclists of all ages and genders converged on Ballard Avenue June 5 to comepete for prizes in races that could last more than an hour in the 2010 Second Ascent Twilight Criterium.

The races kicked off at 3:30 p.m. with 25-minute Category 4 women's race. After four more races, the 70-minute men's Pro race got underway at 7:30 p.m. to attract revelers from nearby bars and restaurants.

For more information on the race, visit the Twilight Criterium Web site.

Ballard Big Picture is a column of scenes from around the neighborhood. If you would like to submit a photo for use on this site and in the Ballard News-Tribune, please send it to Michael Harthorne at michaelh@robinsonnews.com. Be sure to include your name and information about your photo.