November 2010

The City of Seattle announced its preparations for the coming winter with its updated winter storm plan Nov. 9.

“[The Seattle Department of Transportation] has prepared a new strategy for winter storms, as well as improving our coordination with other agencies," Mayor Mike McGinn said in Department of Transportation press release.

“We have salt and salt brine stockpiled and equipment prepared for when snow falls this winter,” department Director Peter Hahn said in the press release. “Our plan is to stay ahead of storms by pretreating streets and keeping key roadways open for Metro’s buses before and after snow falls.”

The city's winter response plan, which was designed in consultation with King County Metro Transit and other partners, calls for keeping roads open, buses moving and critical emergency services accessible.

Highlights of the plan include:

• Using salt brine pretreatment before snow falls to reduce snow’s ability to stick to streets. Using salt during storms to melt snow more quickly. And, limited use of sand to help vehicles maintain their traction.

From the Department of Planning and Development site:
The West Seattle Triangle open house event planned for December 2 has been postponed, and will be rescheduled in early 2011. Members of the public are instead invited to attend Mayor Mike McGinn’s Community Forum on Thursday December 2, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center at 4408 Delridge Way SW. The community forum is an opportunity for members of the West Seattle community to hear about work by City departments, and to converse with the Mayor about issues of interest. Staff from the Seattle Department of Planning and Development will be available at the event with information about the department, including information about the West Seattle Triangle project.

Press Release:
The Divine Marigolds shoots its pilot episode, The Homecoming, at the Villa Heidelberg Bed and Breakfast in West Seattle Nov. 12-14. An off-kilter comedy about a large Irish family living in Seattle, The Divine Marigolds finds all the adult children moving back home, resulting in hilarious yet deeply affecting moments as they all learn to live under the same roof again.

The show’s creators, Lisa Coronado and Alder Sherwood of Corwood Productions along with Will Chase and Jeremiah Kaynor, have brought on Las Vegas director Francisco Menendez, who most recently wrapped a Roger Corman film, to help bring out the heart of the story.

“The project has picked up strong momentum and the support for the show continues to surprise me” says Lisa Coronado. “Our local community continues to be amazingly supportive.”

The show features some of Seattle’s most notable indie film actors in strong ensemble-driven roles, including Paul Eenhorn as Pops Marigold and Lorraine Montez as Ruby Marigold. “When the cast came together on set at rehearsal, it was magic – they make the family seem so real,” explained Jeremiah Kaynor.

I've been thinking about a topic that comes up quite often in our business, but isn't discussed much in the media.

Everyone sees ads all of the time on TV, Newspapers, etc. for new vehicles. We are encouraged to buy the newest models, and now, with emerging technology, there will be more choices in electric and hybrid vehicles than ever. We read news of the economy and how new car sales is an indicator of how we are doing as a nation. Most of us are also aware of the maintenance needs of newer cars and trucks, and it is increasingly more important than ever to stick to the factory scheduled maintenance to keep your warranty in effect and the vehicle in compliance with emissions standards.

What is less discussed, though, is what to do if you have an older vehicle or are in the market to buy a used vehicle.

Several weeks ago, my friend Vivien said she would be in town and invited me to meet her for a drink. Little did I know, “in town” actually meant Bellevue, a foreign (and I liked it that way) world to me.

“How is it possible that you’ve lived in Seattle for 20 years and have never been to Bellevue?” she asked.

“Why would I ever need to go there?” I replied.

“Good point. If I buy you a drink will you come?”

Easily bribed, I accepted my fate and quickly became confused and overwhelmed by terms such as “520, 405” and any street ending with “Southeast.” The pouring down rain didn’t help matters, but I told myself it would be a good cultural experience. Besides, I really needed to get out of Ballard every once in a while.

After traversing 405 and all of the much-too-wide streets of what I suppose was downtown Bellevue, I found her hotel. I squeezed my golfcart, otherwise known as a Prius, amongst all of the huge SUVs, gazed around at all of the tall buildings and thought, “Wow, there’s a whole other city east of the Lake. Who knew”

A proposed 101-unit residential building with five live/work spaces on 15th Avenue Northwest could create a serious safety hazard for neighborhood school children because of its planned parking garage entrance off Northwest 67th Street, according to some Ballard residents.

"Several families have asked me to express that this is seen as a nightmare," one neighbor said during the Nov. 8 Design Review meeting for the project at 6559 15th Ave. N.W. Of the more than two-dozen residents at the meeting, most seemed to agree with that statement.

The four-story development is being proposed for the vacant lot across 15th Avenue from Ballard High School. It will be market-rate apartments with 72 studios and a mixture of one and two-bedroom units on the top three floors. The first floor will be a mixture of live/work units, parking and leasing offices and a gym for tenants.

The project includes sections of green roof on the second and third floors as well as on the roof and the addition of two sidewalk trees and a planter along 15th Avenue.

Eleven years ago Jill Rische and her husband Detlef were casting about for something to make and maybe even sell. Detlef is quite handy, and they got a book on how to make candles.

They made a lot of candles.

Enough to fill a garage, and got the idea to sell them during the holidays from their home just off Cambridge Street in West Seattle.

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS

They named the business Heavenly Wholesale and told friends and neighbors about it and did pretty well, selling for just a couple of weekends in the Christmas season.

In ensuing years they added more weekends, opened the house up and invited other vendors in the area to sell their wares too, but kept making their candles. Word spread about their almost secret business and people came in droves.

"Each year it got bigger," said Rische, " then it became not just our two bedrooms and the garage, it became our foyer, into our sunroom, halfway into the living room and we had a following of over 1200 people after five years."

Dear Editor:

Seattle, you are about to be downsized.

WSDoT’s Deep Bore Tunnel project manager Ron Paananen warns:

“[The Tunnel] was never intended to carry all the 110,000 vehicles that use the Viaduct today.”

How many 2007 voters processed that!

The newly-released Draft Environmental Impact Statement estimates tunnel use will become constrained to 87,000 daily vehicles, and, if tolled, only 45,000.

(Read and comment to the EIS here http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/)

Completely ignoring where the 23,000 current vehicle trips will disappear to, a tolled Tunnel will further shuck 15,000 “no toll” Tunnel cars off onto I-5 and 18,000 cars onto city streets west of I-5 (i.e. SODO gridlock).

Basically, you might as well sell your West Seattle real estate, or shift all your work and shopping to West Seattle. (The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s gamble?)

For an honest vote on this tunnel scheme and to fight to preserve our current capacity and city center SR-99 connnections, download and print your Initiaitive 101 petition now! Go to:

http://scatnow.com/

Thank you,

Craig Keller

According to Mayor McGinn's blog, the search for a permanent homeless encampment some call "Nickelsville" is over. He had considered two West Seattle sites and five others, and has decided upon the site of the former Sunny Jim peanut butter factory that burned down Sept. 20.

We wrote a recent story about the search here: http://www.westseattleherald.com/2010/10/28/news/nickelsville-tent-city…

The SODO site is one block east of FedEx World Service Center, and two blocks east of both UPS and the quarter-mile long K2Sports headquarters, and four blocks east of Costco.

According to three employees reached at K2Sports, the area has recently attracted at least several old camper vans that park overnight and are suspected meth-labs. They were not sure if Nickelsville would be a positive or negative presence in the area's presumed drug trade as the encampment will forbid drugs and alcohol, at least on its premises.

The house at 2206 California Ave. s.w. in the Admiral District is in for a rough week as Seattle Fire Department recruits use it to practice extinguishing fires and hone their rescue and teamwork skills from Nov. 9-12.

For the 18 SFD recruits on hand, the training represents a chance to get out of the classroom and put their knowledge to the test working real fires in a real structure.

“(The training) all culminates in the live fires we do here,” said Dave Powers, recruit coordinator for the SFD who has been with the department for 29 years.

According to a SFD press release, “up until now their training environment has been controlled with simulated incidents at the City of Seattle’s Joint Training Facility and the Washington State Patrol’s Fire Training Facility in North Bend. There will be sixteen fires ignited over the course of the week. Each day the fires will grow more intense and provide more challenging situations for the recruits.”

Powers said the fires are started with pallets strategically placed throughout the house. Initially, they ignited pallets in front of the house to get everyone warmed up then started moving into the house.