January 2013

From Seattle Public Schools website:

A memorial to remember Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson, who passed away on Dec. 5, will be held on Thursday, Jan. 10 at First AME, 14th and East Pine, Seattle. The memorial will start at 4:30 p.m. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, who served as Seattle’s Superintendent from 2007-2010, passed away after a long battle with cancer. If anyone would like to speak at the memorial, please call Elma Horton at (206) 325-6941.

Get ready to say, "Awww."

At 12:19 a.m. on Jan. 1, the Ballard Swedish Medical Center saw it's first baby get born in the new year -- to Magnolia residents Alex and Lisa Warren, according to a press release sent out by Swedish. She was also the first baby to be born out of all the five Swedish campuses in Seattle.

Charlotte Irene Warren, a baby girl, came into the world weighing nine pounds and five ounces, and measuring 22 inches long. Alex, the father, said both the mother and daughter are in great health.

In order to celebrate the unique birth of the year's first baby, Swedish donated a newborn gift basket to the Warrens.

In 2012, which was the 25th anniversary of the Ballard campus's full service birthing facility opening, 955 babies were born.

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Bison Creek Extravaganvza for Joshua Event

Saturday, Jan. 5, 5:00pm to 10:30pm at Bison Creek Pizza, 630 SW 153rd St., in Burien.

Businesses, and individuals, in West Seattle, White Center, Burien and beyond have been generously donating items for the raffle and silent auction at a fundraiser to be held at the Bison Creek Pizza Extravaganza fundraiser in Burien for cherished, Burien-based community organizer and Tukwila resident, Joshua Watler, 31, who needs a bone marrow transplant and after-care due to his battle with leukemia.

Giving Donations are:

In West Seattle & White Center: Beer Junction, Cupcake Royale, 3.14 Bakery, Company Bar, Full Tilt, Proletariat Pizza

In Burien: Holiday Mart, B-Town Blog ad, Vino Bello Wine Bar & Shop, Bikram Yoga Burien, HiLine Lanes, Eat Local

In Normandy Park: Desert Sun

...And the list is growing.

One of Seattle's most well known "dive bars" the Alki Tavern will close on March 17. According to the owner's son. The bar is located at 1321 Harbor Ave. SW.

March 17 will be our last day at the Alki Tavern, " said Gil Mclynne who manages the bar for his father.

"It's one of those things where all good things must come to an end."

The deal is not finalized yet but is in the works to sell the land and the building. "I've been here writing emails all night trying to tell people and I just found out on Christmas Eve," McLynne said.

"Development is inevitable at this point on Alki, especially with the space we have down here with the empty lot next door and the run down house next to that. This building is over 100 years old. It's a very sad thing for West Seattle so I'm really hoping to put a positive spin on things. Hopefully everybody in West Seattle that has ever been to the Alki Tavern or loved the Alki Tavern will come down over the next three months and just show their love for it."

Press release:

Staff at the Academy for Citizenship and Empowerment (ACE) continue to demonstrate generosity and caring for their students and families that extends well beyond the classroom.

This holiday season 13 ACE families received personalized holiday wishes, along with a $150 Safeway Gift Card.

More than 80 percent of students at ACE qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch, one of the highest percentages in the district.

With many families struggling to make ends meet, ACE staff wanted to support students by providing something tangible to help with the cost of holiday meals.

For the past seven years, the team has provided grocery store gift cards to some of the schools’ neediest families. Shauna Pierson, counselor at ACE, coordinates the program.

This year the need has been the greatest across the seven years of gift-card giving. “Staff have been beyond generous,” said Janae’ Landis, ACE Principal. “This year more than $1,900.00 was donated by staff members at our school. A member of our team delivered the gift cards to the families just before Christmas.

“It is clear that citizens in our community want their libraries open the shelves filled,” city librarian Marcellus Turner said after Seattle voters approved a seven-year, $122 million levy by 62 percent in the August 2012 primary election.

Now turning the page into 2013, the payoff begins with Seattle Public Library announcing Sunday hours at all branches throughout the year.

Eleven branches already had Sunday hours (from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.), but the levy will allow SPL to open an additional 15, including the High Point Branch (3411 S.W. Raymond St.) and Delridge Branch (5423 Delridge Way S.W.) in West Seattle.

“At community meetings and through patron surveys, we heard that Sunday hours were important,” Turner said of the announcement. “Particularly for families, working people and students, having library service available in every neighborhood on Sunday will be a huge benefit.”

Here are some pictures and captions by Kurt Howard from this years Annual Angle Lake Polar Bear Plunge and Food Drive.

A staple of West Seattle’s retail Junction core since 1988, Easy Street Records rang in the New Year with sad news for audiophiles to the north: their Queen Anne store will close in January after 12 years in operation.

Easy Street owner Matt Vaughan relayed the news in a website post on Jan. 2, stating the store’s last day will be Jan. 18, 2013.

“It’s with a heavy heart that we have to say goodbye to our beloved Queen Anne neighborhood,” he wrote. “Thanks to you, 2012 was one of our better years. We posted some good sales numbers and hosted some amazing events. We have been at this location for 12 years. We did not want to close.”

Fans of the West Seattle record store and Easy Street Café can rest easy: Vaughan said they recently signed a new 15-year lease on the Alaska Junction location at 4559 California Ave S.W.

Vaughan wrote that the Queen Anne store’s current 10-year lease came to an end a few years back and they were able to extend their stay with short-term agreements. Looking at the prospect of new 10-year lease with higher rates, they decided against resigning.

When Jenny Marshall got her dog, now called Hoshi, the dog was named Princess Missy Reisell, but when Marshall adopted her from the Bellevue Humane Society a name change was in order. The new name is Japanese, appropriate for a dog of the same origin. Hoshi is an Akita, a Japanese breed. The name means "star."

Hoshi is pedigreed, 3.5 years old and Marshall found her online through the Human Society website. "The owner had her as a puppy and he got her from the breeder. Akita's are only one person owner dogs. He had her for awhile and then got another dog and it was ok for awhile but as they got older, Hoshi became less and less tolerant of the other dog taking her food and they ended up getting into some 'dog arguments' and they felt they had to give her up."

Hoshi eats Innova dog food and "this breed needs a lot of exercise so she gets about a five mile walk every day. I do three different walks and the total is five miles."

"I took her out to exercise her and she's exercised me. I've lost ten pounds now in over two months!"

Hoshi gets meat for snacks from time to time.

(Editor’s Note: The Highline Times has been honored to feature the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Jerry Gay during the past year. Gay won the Pulitzer while working at The Seattle Times for a photo of Burien firefighters at a Three Tree Point fire. With a new year beginning, we thought we would take a look back at some of Gay’s photos that focused on the people of Highline.)

We are all sharing this world of ours yet I have found each person to be unique in their physical appearance as well as attitude and point of view. I focus my camera to determine what must be sharp and well defined. Each lens, whether a wide-angle or a telephoto brings each person and visualized objects into their relationships of being primary or secondary, together or apart... just as in reality.

As a photojournalist, I am given the responsibility to intimately and honestly reflect people's lives. In actuality, every person becomes the significant reflection to give my pictures meaningful relevance.