Author Archives: Andrew Taylor

23rd & Madison Safeway to get a Starbucks (again!)

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You may recall that there was a (Magic Johnson) Starbucks on the Madison Street side of the 23rd & Madison Safeway when in opened in 2004. That was back when the hangers-around outside Deano’s did little for the ambience on Madison, so it was no surprise that the Starbucks quickly shortened its hours, constructed a doorway into the Safeway to try and entice people in and then (when Starbucks was doing some belt-tightening) was closed.

While in the Safeway tonight I asked what the onging construction (where the BECU office used to be) was for. The checker told me that it will be a “Safeway owned Starbucks”, presumably along the lines of the one in the 15th Avenue Safeway.

The Starbucks is dead. Long live the Starbucks.

Race and Class in Seattle: Wednesday book discussion at Town Hall

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The Seattle Times recently published a book review and a Danny Westneat article about Doug Merlino’s  book “The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White”. As Danny puts it:

Doug Merlino’s “The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White,” tracing his former teammates on a basketball team made up of white students from Lakeside private school and black kids from the Central Area, reveals much about race, money and opportunity in the seemingly unbridgeable sub-worlds that make up modern-day Seattle.

Given the recent heated discussions on this site about race relations in the CD, I suspect many people will be interested in attending Doug’s talk about the book:

To hear more about race and class in Seattle and Merlino’s book — including the perspectives of some of Merlino’s former teammates, black and white — Seattle’s Town Hall is hosting a panel discussion at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The discussion is moderated by The Seattle Times’ Jerry Large. Tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006, or at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating.

Merlino will also speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Eagle Harbor Book Co., 157 Winslow Way E., Bainbridge Island; free (206-842-5332 or www.eagleharborbooks.com).

Full disclosure: I was interviewed by Mr. Merlino for the “Gentrification” section of the book. I’ve not yet seen the book, other than the section mentioning me, which I accessed via Amazon’s “look inside” feature. You can also peek inside the book via the Google preview feature (see Public Library listing).

BTW: if you go back to the article that sparked the heated discussion, you’ll find some very thoughtful comments at the end of the thread.

Public meetings about development at 2200 East Madison Street UPDATED

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Aegis Living, an assisted living provider based in Redmond, is planning to build its first in-city development at 2200 E. Madison, across from the (former) car wash. It will be a six-story assisted living facility with partial below-grade parking. More details from this CHS post. See the architect’s Design Proposal on the DPD website for details about the project. The sketch here (a Madison Street view of the preferred option) is from that proposal.

 At 7 PM on Tuesday Jan 4, 2011, there will be an informal meeting for neighbors to meet with architect Wolf Saar and an Aegis representative and exchange ideas. Meeting is in the Elizabeth James House community room. Walk to the front of the building (109 23rd Ave E) and enter through the wood gate just to the right of the front door (goes directly to the community room). This meeting was arranged by Andrew Taylor of the Miller Park Neighborhood Association and room use was donated by Capitol Hill Housing.

 At 6:30 PM on Wednesday, Jan 5th, the Department of Planning and Development is holding an Early Design Guidance Meeting, in Rooms 102/103 of Seattle Vocational Institute, 2120 S. Jackson Street.  At the early design guidance meeting, the applicants will present information about the site and vicinity.  The public may offer comments regarding the design and siting of a development on the subject site; and the Design Review Board members will also offer comments and identify those Citywide Design Guidelines of highest priority in developing the site.  Details are on DPD website.

Is Seattle ready for row houses?

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Aubrey Cohen of the Seattle P-I asks in a recent article…

Dense Seattle neighborhoods could start looking a lot more like those in cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia, under a proposal the City Council is set to take up later this month.

The plan would let developers build row homes right up their neighbors’ side lot lines on in townhouse zones, similar to classic older homes in many other U.S. cities. It’s one of many changes aimed at making townhouse development more diverse, attractive and sustainable.

The City Council’s Committee on the Built Environment this week unanimously endorsed the plan, which the full council could take up as early as Dec. 13. The changes would apply to the approximately 8 percent of the city zoned for townhouses, but wouldn’t impact single-family zones.

Read the rest in the P-I.  Note the quotes from Squire Park’s Bill Zosel.