Mid Beacon Hill

Three Georgetown Photos from This Weekend

2009-10-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Great Stuff Friday night:

Nine Pound Hammer Friday night:

Outside Pental Granite & Marble on Saturday:

Mari and Andrew's West Seattle Garden in July

2009-07-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

Chuck visited Saturday, and we took him to Mari and Andrew's garden.

Not my child. Someone else's.

Later that evening we went to Elemental for dinner and had...

Watermelon with garbonzo beans.

Crab, roe.

Roasted red pepper with smoked salmon cream cheese.

Beet hazelnut salald.

(Did I mention the wine pairings with each course and then some?)

Escargot and bone marrow crostini.

Salmon with cherries, grapes, and roasted corn.

Game hen with ratatouille risotto.

Lamb taco with pickled cabbage.

Cheese.

Panna cotta.

Apricot tart with ice cream.

Chocolate crepes.

Then we walked to Gas Works Park.

San Francisco

2009-05-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

Golden Gate Bridge.

To the lighthouse. Point Bonita Lighthouse.

Back in town on Telegraph Hill.

Hanging out in North Beach.

What's in there?

In Vesuvio.

Thanks for alerting me to this photo op, Chuck.

No longer in North Beach. Rectangles.

More rectangles.

Circles.

And more.

And a tribute to the folks who brought us the parking garage.

Elandan Gardens, Note About This Blog

2009-04-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm considering reviving this blog now that I've fallen into the routine of raising a baby and working full-time. I miss it.

To those of you who have been submitting comments, I'm sorry I don't get around to approving them right away. I have it set up so comments on posts less than a month old are automatically posted. But I was getting so much spam on older posts that I instutited moderation on those.

Anyway, here's an off-topic post. I've been showing Chuck B. around Seattle for a few days. Friday we went to Elandan Gardens in Gorst. He took photos of the bonsai, and for some reason I felt like focusing in on the moss and lichen. I forgot to bring my good camera, so these don't really capture the place. Next time.

Elandan is located on an old garbage dump near the Bremerton Naval Base. It's pretty much the perfect destination if you're into bonsai and battleships.

Tonoho Chul Park

2009-04-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

I've been admiring cactuses in the Sonoran Desert. These photos were taken at Tonoho Chul Park in Tucson.

Belle & Wissell Vitrine

2009-02-01T18:04:00.001-08:00

Let's face it, this blog is essentially on hiatus, for an indefinite time. I've gone back to work full-time and I still have that baby to admire.

But occasionally I'll still post relevant stuff, like this video of the beautiful window display at Belle & Wissell in Georgetown.

And a picture of the view from the Pac-Med parking lot.

And occasionally I'll post irrelevant stuff, like pictures of that aforementioned admirable baby.

Planet Georgetown

2009-01-15T23:24:00.000-08:00

Planet Georgetown is closing at the end of the month. A bunch of Georgetowners came by tonight to say goodbye.

They've been here 22 years.

They've served a lot of tan food.

Ice ice baby.

Peace out.

SPU Offers to Help with Christian Restoration Center Cleanup

2009-01-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

After calling to hang up my hat as a graffiti ranger and turn in my little red wagon, I ended up chatting with graffiti guy Anthony Matlock at Seattle Public Utilities. I complained to him that the neighborhood miscreants just can't keep their hands off of the Christian Restoration Center building. And he mentioned to me that his team can help out with that problem. He can send out a team of court-ordered "volunteers" to paint out graffiti on frequently tagged properties like that one at least once a month.

Their help doesn't absolve the property owners from responsibility for the mess. (And I found out that the property manager has been out there as recently as this week to take care of the problem on both the wall and the windows.) But, let's face it, it's going to get hit again, so the building can use all the help it can get.

So I got Anthony in touch with the property owner and manager, and now they're working together on this. Let's hope it helps.

Not Enough Trashy TV in the South End

2009-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Because Netflix has it listed as a "long wait," I just went out to the Hollywood Video north of Columbia City to get the first disc of "The Tudors: Season 2," which came out yesterday.

Yeah, I know it's totally trashy -- the perfect thing to watch during the cold, dark, rainy end of my maternity leave.

But the store manager said they didn't have the Tudors. She said people ask for it, but corporate doesn't send it to them. I asked where the next nearest Hollywood was, and I forgot whether she said 23rd or Rainier Beach, but I do remember that she said that that store wouldn't have it either.

It's not like it's an obscure title, and it's not like they're a small store. They carry thousands and thousands of titles, but not the No. 4 bestselling DVD at Amazon and one of the top-requested titles at Netflix.

I could have tried Blockbuster, but, oh yeah, the South End doesn't have any. And Beacon Hill doesn't have any (English-language) video stores at all, and Georgetown doesn't either.

Oh well.

Seattle Homicides in 2008

2009-01-01T11:07:00.000-08:00

If Seattle loses one of its dailies in 2009, please, God, let it be the Seattle Times.

As far as I can tell, the Times website still doesn't have anything about the neo-Nazi incident in the U-District last night, in which officers shot and killed an armed man in a German military uniform. Instead, they're leading with their continued punishment of the mayor ("Nickels revises salt policy, admits mistakes") and dumb fluff like "Turns out resolutions aren't empty promises." Yawn.

Meanwhile, the P-I already has a lengthy story about the crazy-scary neo-Nazi incident. And Casey McNerthney has a story about the homicides in Seattle in 2008, along with a list of the victims and the circumstances of their deaths.

Later this month when the police come out with their press release about last year's crime, we'll be able to match the numbers with the names. Thanks, P-I.

The Latest on Garbage

2008-12-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

This contradicts the latest report (dated Dec. 24) on the SPU website. As a Thursday customer, I thought our garbage would be picked up today. But no, not till Sunday--

NEWS RELEASE
December 26, 2008
For Immediate Release

Contact:

Andy Ryan
(206) 684-7688
andy.ryan@seattle.gov

OR

Hans Van Dusen
206-310-0341

Seattle Garbage Scheduled for Special Weekend Pickup
Conditions Permitting, Garbage Will Be Collected Saturday and Sunday

SEATTLE -- Special Saturday and Sunday pickup is being scheduled, conditions permitting, for the city's residential garbage, recycling, food and yard waste customers, Seattle Public Utilities said today.

Due to continued inclement conditions, today's customers (Friday, Dec. 26) are scheduled to be collected tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 27) and Thursday customers (Dec. 25) will be collected on Sunday, Dec. 28.

Thursday and Friday customers are advised to leave their garbage at the curb through Sunday. Collection contractors will inspect neighborhood routes throughout the weekend for service opportunities. Customers scheduled for Monday through Wednesday pickup should set out their materials on their normal appointed days, next week. There will be no additional charge for setting out extra garbage.

Despite inclement conditions, the city's collections contractors have been running limited commercial routes around the clock this week, providing service to urgent commercial accounts where containers are accessible. Contractors are running 40 commercial trucks today to serve locations on major arterials and utilizing extra staff to access snow blocked containers. Approximately 40 percent of Seattle's business accounts have been collected this week.

"We are eager to resume residential services as soon as possible, but safety with our large trucks is our first priority," said Hans Van Dusen, Solid Waste Contracts Manager for Seattle Public Utilities. "Warmer weather is forecast for this weekend and next week, and we expect that will make it safer to send big trucks back into Seattle's neighborhoods."

Customers whose collections have been delayed by a week can set out double their normal amount of garbage at no additional charge. When setting out extra waste, customers are encouraged to place perishable food items in their collection containers and set bagged non-perishable items next to the containers.

Customers who have had their collections missed can also take their waste to Seattle's Recycling and Disposal stations, where it will be accepted at no charge. Seattle's Recycling and Disposal stations will be closed on New Year's Day, January 1.

Seattle Public Utilities' (SPU) web site (www.seattle.gov/util) and call center (206-684-3000) will be updated with the most current collection information. Customers can also be sign-up for CurbWaste E-News service alerts at www.seattle.gov/lists.

In addition to providing more than 1.3 million customers in the Seattle metropolitan area with a reliable water supply, SPU provides essential sewer, drainage, solid waste and engineering services that safeguard public health, maintain the City's infrastructure and protect, conserve and enhance the region's environmental resources.

Dirty Snow on Christmas Day

2008-12-26T12:27:00.000-08:00

I've reported this graffiti.

Snowy Walk to Graham Street Grocery

2008-12-19T17:24:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure how often the 36 would be running today so I decided to get food from the Graham Street Grocery instead of trekking to Red Apple.

Looking east from the parking lot of the Chinese Baptist Church.

And looking west.

The Orcas/Beacon intersection.

Juneau Street, I think.

Another church.

I did see several 36s.

The west side of Graham was clsed to traffic.

There's the Graham Street Grocery.

The folks at the store could not have been any nicer. I bought a whole bunch of stuff, and they gave me free coffee and a snowman pin.

I passed a P-patch on the way home.

Not much to see there today.

How to Complain About the #36 Passing You By

2008-12-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

Aimee Curl at the Seattle Weekly complained today that the #36 has passed her by two weeks in a row, and this time she and the other passengers had to wait nearly half an hour in 20-degree weather.

One reader commented that she should file an online complaint about the service on the #36 route.

Since there's nothing I love as much as an online complaint form (except, perhaps, whining about the #36), I'll share the link with you all. Let's all file complaints when the #36 passes us by. Try to provide the stop location, time, direction, and bus unit # if you have it.

Metro online complaint form

I'm not sure it'll do any good, but they might at least be forced to keep track of all the complaints somewhere.

I haven't seen any mention of them in their ridiculous annual reports, none of which correlate any rider-focused metrics (such as number of skipped passengers, timeliness of service, number of assaults) to specific routes. But at least we'll know in our hearts that the data exists somewhere.

Reporting Graffiti on Beacon Hill

2008-12-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

Now that the "broken window" theory (the idea that graffiti-spraying and other forms of low-level delinquency promote further bad behavior) is proving to be true, I thought I'd make it easier for everyone to report local graffiti. I'll collect addresses of local commercial properties here -- just tell me where you often see problems, and I'll add them to this list.

ONLINE GRAFFITI REPORT FORM

Addresses of frequently graffitied commercial properties:

Christian Restoration Center
4351 15th Ave. S.

Red Bird Sports (the southern wall, facing the Grown Folks parking lot)
4868 Beacon Ave. S.

(You can use that same link to report graffiti on residential properties, but I am not going to list people's homes on this page.)

Snow on Beacon Avenue South

2008-12-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

This Has Nothing to Do with Anything

2008-12-10T18:52:00.001-08:00

But I am super-excited for my friend Will (below at left in a photo from Election Day), who will be one of three musicians from Washington state to march with the Gay and Lesbian Band Association in Barack Obama's inaugural parade.

It will be the first time a gay and lesbian band will march in a presidential inaugural parade.

Keep Helping Noemi's Kids

2008-12-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

My e-friend Amber, the editor of the Rainier Valley Post, has asked me to help publicize her efforts to collect money and other needed items for the children of Noemi Lopez, who was murdered in her home by her ex-husband a week and a half ago.

She's collected over $3,500 so far, which is fantastic, but doesn't cover the needs of the three kids, whose hard-working mother is gone and whose father is hiding out in Mexico.

You can make a donation through a PayPal link at the top right corner of her blog.

I should have posted this when she first asked me to, or even before she even asked me. I bug her all the time about things I want her to cover, or local problems I want her advice on, and she always does her best to help.

She's been running the whole show in terms of response to the murder, from protesting local newspaper coverage to organizing a community vigil to collecting funds for the children to providing news updates beyond what the police are saying. (Meanwhile, she's also trying to keep up with the endlessly changing news on the school closures and doing on some investigative work on the New Holly/Brighton shooting incident Saturday night.)

Though I wasn't impressed by her blog at first -- I thought she was basically just rewriting stories from the daily newspapers and, worse yet, press releases from the mayor's office. (And I'm still not fully on board with her "Bus Bitch" writer, or with the "hip twenty-something" who writes the "Myra, Myra on the Wall" column.)

However, nowadays, Amber's own posts represent some of the best news reporting in the city. It's advocacy journalism, of course, but, Christ, if any neighborhood ever needed an advocate, it's the Rainier Valley in 2008. More and more, her work shows that she's both a tireless investigator as well as a passionate crusader for a neighborhood that's been ignored by the city for, well, forever.

Anyway, I'm personally uneasy about making monetary donations while I'm on my extended unpaid leave from work, but I'm making a contribution to Noemi's kids, who have been through more than I could even imagine and could really use the help right now. I'm doing it for them, but I'm also doing it for Amber, who always does so much for the rest of us.

Beacon Hill Flats: Apartments, Condos, Apartments

2008-12-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

Even before the severity of the economic downturn became daily news this fall, I thought that the "luxury condo" conversion of the old 1950s Cascade Apartments complex at 14th and Holgate was ridiculously optimistic.

But you couldn't fault Beacon Flats' PR job. They had a snazzy website, Google ads, a trendy type treatment ("b e a c o n F L A T S"), and, of course, their own silly tagline ("city living with an edge").

Back in the spring, I got irritated that the team doing the classy remodel on the building wasn't classy enough to proactively clean up the prominent graffiti on the building. So I filed a complaint with the city about it, and they did clean it up (and even planted some struggling bamboo plants in front of the former mess).

Then the units went up for sale. And mostly sat. Though I do remember checking the website and seeing that at least a couple of the upper units ended up being listed as sold as the prices were dropped.

I'm not sure what happened to those, because now the units are all listed as rentals, and the county classifies the property as an apartment building.

However, there's still a hint that this building once aspired to be a condominium. Some schizophrenic language on the site advertises "Only 1 Condo left for Rent!"

When Is a Store Not a Store?

2008-12-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

When it's a warehouse.

The space at 2510 Beacon Ave. S., current home of Hui Trading, is zoned Neighborhood Commercial 2 ("A moderately-sized pedestrian-oriented shopping area that provides a full range of retail sales and services to the surrounding neighborhood"). In other words, it's supposed to be pedestrian retail.

View Larger Map

However, if you look at the Seattle DPD's own webpage for this
property, you will see that its present use is being listed as a warehouse:

"Present Use: Warehouse"

Which, in fact, it is. It's a food import / wholesaling business, and this is where the food is stored before heading out to restaurants.

The business is mentioned in a P-I story as being a rice importer/wholesaler:

"Wen Hui, the owner of Hui Intertrading, which supplies about 100 restaurants in the Seattle area with rice, said Wednesday that it was now taking seven weeks, rather than four weeks, for shipments of rice to arrive from Thailand."

It's no big secret that this is a warehouse and not a store. The first DPD complaint about this was logged way back in 2004. But someone high up at the DPD must have a crush on Mr. Hui or something, because the Department let Hui Trading fail to pass inspections on this single complaint 11 consecutive times in 2004... and in 2005... and in 2006... and in 2007 without being forced to "comply" until February 2008 -- four years after the complaint was filed.

But they didn't really comply. It's still a warehouse. When Inspector Kevin Hou came around for his 12th inspection, they must have finally used Jedi mind control on him or something to make him think that it was a retail store.

So some pesky neighbor filed another complaint in May. They failed a few inspections by Inspector James Blackmon, so at some point the importer decided to cloak their warehouse with a printout in the window, which you gotta see to believe:

BEACON HILL
FOOD
GROCERY RETAIL
STORE

These are not the droids you're looking for, Inspector Blackmon!

So, anyway, the neighbors have complained again.

They've failed the first inspection. Their front doors were locked during business hours:

BEACON AVE ENTRANCE DOOR TO GROCERY BUSINESS LOCKED. NC2P40 ZONE REQUIRES ACCESS TO RETAIL BUSINESSES FROM STREET.

We'll see how this goes. They've been unlawfully operating a warehouse in that space since at least 2004, and neighbors have been continually complaining about it since 2004. It seems like they get to perpetually be in violation year after year after year after year without any consequences.

I just hope that this complaint doesn't get dismissed if the doors happen to be unlocked during the next inspection. I wish the inspector could just look at that room full of sealed brown cardboard boxes piled on the floor, without any cash registers or salespeople or merchandise displays or price tags, and say, "Duh -- this is a warehouse, not a store," and be done with it once and for all.

November Garden Bloom Day

2008-11-15T22:48:00.001-08:00

Garden bloggers are supposed to take pictures of the blossoms in their yards on the 15th of each month. This isn't really a garden blog (and I prefer foliage to blooms), but I recently rewrote the explanation for this blog so it could cover anything:

"This is a personal neighborhood photo blog about the areas surrounding Mid Beacon Hill in South Seattle, and about other things I see, like, and do."

So here are photos of plants in my Mid Beacon Hill yard on Bloom Day.

Royal purple smoke tree, genus name Cotinus.

Viburnum, an evergreen. It would develop metallic blue berries if it ever got pollinated by a mate plant. I should get it one. I want everyone to be happy here.

I should bring these succulents in for the winter, but I doubt that I will. They'll probably come back anyway.

Raspberries in mid-November. I was surprised.

A couple of Ceanothus "Julia Phelps" blooms.

Ceanothus "Point Reyes."

Some beautiful little sedum.

Donkey tail Euphorbia.

"Angelina," the most thuggish of all the sedums.

Eucalyptus.

I haven't weeded in months, and it shows.

Beautyberry. (Callicarpia?)

Rosemary.

Speaking of plants, I went to a birthday party at a plant store last night.

First I drank aquavit at the Copper Gate in Ballard.

Arthur told us about a funny YouTube video that I still haven't looked up yet. He told us to search for "judas priest shreds." It must be this.

OK, anyway, the party was at the Palm Room on Ballard Avenue.

They had lots of gorgeous air plants.

And a big gray cat.

We got there early, before anyone else. Except the man of the hour.

We drank Sangiovese until midnight then went home.

Grown Folks Coffeehouse Menu

2008-11-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

I've only visited Grown Folks once, for a decaf latte right after they opened. I don't think they were serving meals at the time.

But now that I've heard wonderful things about their salad, and I see they have two soups daily plus custom sandwiches, well, I better go there for food soon. You should too.

See their menus and other info at the Grown Folks website.

Another Reason to Hit Calamity Jane's Happy Hour

2008-11-08T18:39:00.001-08:00

(Besides the great food and drink menu.)

The light in there is fantastic at that time of day at this time of year.

Calamity Jane's happy hour is Monday through Saturday, 3 to 6 p.m.

Erasing History in Georgetown

2008-11-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

Some neighbors complained when the Korean Baptist Church in Georgetown started painting over a historical mural on their property this summer.

So they put up some butcher paper...

...so they could finish painting over the mural without community interference. It's all gone now.