Dinner at East African Imports = Awesome

A hearty thank you to Meg, Berhane and the staff at East African Imports for helping us throw a swell evening dinner at the Promenade 23. 

Weather was perfect, beats by DJ Newman were stellar and we really appreciate all the neighbors who turned up to take a chance on eating outside in the parking lot of the Promenade 23. We have this notion that part of creating the Jackson Street we want is to start getting folks to actively imagine that neighborhood with us.

If you’ve not been to eat lunch or dinner at East African Imports, you should! It’s got a beautiful restaurant with tasty food behind the store. They have awesome coffee too and they can pull you an espresso.

East African Imports 
http://www.eastafricanimports.com
East African Imports on Facebook
2301 South Jackson Street, Suite 204 (that’s the Promenade 23)

We have several more events in the work, including being at the Two Big Blondes huge annual sale this Friday at 25th & Jackson, National Cheese Pizza day on September 5 with our pals at All-Purpose Pizza on September 5, as well as our continuing pop-up cafes and Cake Box: a Jackson Street Bakery Experience. To stay in the know on the awesomeness that is Jackson Street, follow along on our site at JacksonCommons.com , Facebook JacksonCommonsSeattle or twitter @jacksoncommons.

Sketch Cafe: Come Draw a New Promenade 23

Do you have an idea on how to make the corner of 23rd and Jackson better? You’ve been hearing that there might be some new apartments or changes to the Red Apple and you have some ideas? You think we need a street car and know where it should be parked? 

There’s going to be lots of “official” time to talk about this in the months ahead, but we think now is a great time for neighbors to generate some sketches and get some new ideas! It’s SKETCH CAFE!

Jackson Commons has invited architects and artists down to the front of the Red Apple. We’re inviting anyone in the community from five to ninety-five to stop by between 10 am and Noon tomorrow, Saturday, August 18, and tell us your ideas for a revitalized Promenade 23. 

You’ll have one minute to tell these folks with pens about your ideas, and they’ll have five minutes to draw it. We’ll be tweeting the results on the spot! @jacksoncommons

You want a water park instead of a grocery store? Well, ok! Have someone draw it! It’s that kind of experiment. Can’t make tomorow? Follow along at jacksoncommons.com or on our Facebook JacksonCommonsSeattle to find out when we’re having another one! We’re planning them all through the fall (and always looking for more people handy with a pen to draw some pictures!)

And just a reminder: If you’ve not reserved your spot for the Ethiopian feast on Sunday night with our friends at East African Imports, there’s still time! It’s going to be an awesome dinner + dj right at the Promenade 23! 

http://jacksoncommons.com/2012/07/30/east-african-feast/

Ethiopian Feast with East African Imports & Jackson Commons

It’s been a great month as we kick of our project to re-imagine Jackson Street as a Seattle Destination! And August is only going to be better, bigger and a heck more fun! Did you know that the most beautiful Ethiopian restaurant in Seattle is at 23rd and Jackson? Now you do!

East African Imports and Jackson Commons invite you to an family-style FEAST!
Dinner + DJ + neighbors talking about how to make Jackson Street the best street in Seattle: Go Jackson! 

Sunday, August 19th
Promenade 23, Upper Level 
6:00 pm. One Seating.

$20 for adults/$10 for kids. Cash as the door to keep it simple for everyone, please.

RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED: http://jacksoncommons.com/2012/07/30/east-african-feast/

This dinner is limited to 80 people and space is filling up fast, so make your reservation today!

Summer Pruning Workshop: Free!

Did you know that there is actually quite a bit of pruning and clean-up you can do to your fruit trees right in the middle of summer?

We’re not talking hard pruning, or life-altering cuts to your trees to reshape them and boost production, but fine tuning that gets them ready for a nice sleep and more fruit next year!

TUESDAY, AUGUST 21st.: 5:30 for chat and sandwiches, 6:00 on the ladders! 
Starts at 733 25th Ave S. 

Join the Colman Neighborhood Community Harvest for a HANDS-ON summer pruning workshop with Don Ricks, of the Piper Orchard. We’ll take a look at some new apple and quince trees, revisit the plum trees we worked on in our Spring Pruning workshop and then go tackle some unruly plums and too-tall pears.

Wear work clothes, bring gloves and pruning tools if you have them. Email [email protected] if you have questions. PS: We will be looking for more volunteers to help us pick fruit to get to the St. Mary’s Food Bank, so if you think community harvest/gleaning is something you have time for, be sure to drop me a line! 

Colman Neighborhood Sends Thanks!

Hello Neighbors,

It is great to see so many people so passionately interested in the future of the Promenade 23 shopping center at 23rd and Jackson. The Colman Neighborhood Association would like to thank the 75-plus people who participated in an informational gathering last Wednesday, July 18, at the Douglass Truth Library.

It was exciting to see a coalition coming together representing such diverse backgrounds, occupations, ages and interests, but all committed to making sure the unique and historic character of this neighborhood is preserved in the probable redevelopment of the Promenade 23 shopping center. We would especially like to thank special guests, including Lance Sherwood from Weingarten Realty,  Lyle Bicknell from the Seattle Department of Planning and Development, Carl de Simas from the Jackson Corridor Business Association, George Staggers of the Central Area Development Association, Elena Perez of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, Eudora Carter from the Judkins Park Community Council, Stan Lock from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, State Representative and House Speaker Frank Chopp, the owners of Red Apple Markets and other business owners, and the representatives from Mount Baker and Jackson Place Community Councils.

This is just the beginning of the discussion, and we hope everyone will stay informed, get involved and spread the word.

 Grace Reamer, Meg Olsen and Knox Gardner, CNA

Promenade 23 Redevelopment Workshop

The new(ish) owner of the Promenade 23 has begun exploring the redevelopment of the southeast corner of Jackson and 23rd. This process could take years given the economy… but they have been meeting with community folks to start laying the groundwork of community involvement.

The Colman Neighborhood Association would like to invite our neighbors to a community workshop to gather feedback and community ideas for the developer and on how to leverage this potential redevelopment to encourage more businesses along Jackson Street and city investment in the corridor.

We are hosting two identical workshops at the Douglas Truth Library. No need to go to both!

Monday, April 16: 6:00-7:45

Tuesday, April 17: 1:00-2:45

We will also be posting an online survey on Monday for folks who can’t make either of these meeting and will share that on the CD News.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected].

Fruit Tree Pruning: A Hands-On Workshop

The CNA Community Harvest volunteers invite you to come learn how to prune fruit trees! 

Sunday, March 18th.

1:00 Community Lunch; 2:00 Start Pruning!

733 25th Ave S (near Dearborn)
 

This will be a hands-on class with Don Ricks, urban orchardist extraordinaire. You should wear your garden clothes and if you have any pruning tools you ought to bring them. 

Don has graciously agreed to help Colman Neighborhood develop a long-term care approach to many of the trees we’ve been gathering food to get to the St. Mary’s Food Bank.

We will be discussing and pruning several types of fruit trees in several locations around the neighborhood and discussing a few more trees: from new 4 year old trees to out-of-control old trees in need of rehabilitation. 

We will host a community lunch at 1:00 PM, Don joins us at 2 pm. Heavy rain cancels, but light rain won’t. If it’s safe to get on ladders, we’ll be doing this.

Please RSVP to [email protected]. No need to come to lunch first, if that doesn’t worWe k into your timing…and you’re just as welcome to have a bite with us and not prune trees. 

We are always looking for more volunteers for the summer fruit picking season here in Colman. I am also very happy to come talk to any other groups in the CD who might be interested in how we organize our “micro-harvesting” group as opposed to the larger fruit picking groups in town, like the outstanding City Fruit.

4th Central District Soup Swap!

It’s the time again to stuff your freezers with delicious homemade soup. We’re trying something new and hosting in a local cafe!

Judkins Street Cafe
Wednesday, Feb 22nd

It is a great opportunity to meet neighbors here in the CD. To attend, we’re going to ask only this: you have to live in the Central District. We’re going to broadly define the CD so that if you live north of Atlantic, south of Madison, east of 14th and west of 30th, you are invited!

Soup Swaps are a very easy way to add some variety to your meals. You bring six one-quart containers of frozen soup, and you leave with six-one quart containers of frozen soup, but now they’ll be in a wonderful mix instead of just eating from that same big pot of soup for days and days. 

We won’t be specifying it vegan, vegetarian or meat qualities: just bring what you like to cook. It’s only important to make sure that you’ve got quart size containers and that you have six. You can read about Soup Swap (it’s a craze that started right here in Seattle) at www.soupswap.com. 

We’ll start gathering around 6:00 pm for mingling, with the Soup Swap to being promptly at 7:00. If you’re in a hurry, there shouldn’t be a reason you can’t be out the door by 8:00 pm or even 7:30, but of course, we’re looking forward to having a chance to meet folks from other sections of the CD.

If you haven’t been down to the south end of the CD in a while, Judkins Street Cafe offers some good burgers, daily specials, beer on tap and wine. We’re super excited they’re hosting us this year! 

If you want to swap soup, but can’t make that evening, please contact Knox and we can figure out a way for you to drop it off and pick up a mixed bag later.

Finally, we’d ask that everyone bring a few cans of food or some pasta for the St. Mary’s food bank in Jackson Place.

An Open Letter on Recent Graffiti

Dear People with Spray Cans,

Last night a church, small business and the Community College in the Judkins Park neighborhood were painted with calls to “Occupy the Port” and anarchist symbols. For the past several months, our neighborhood has seen a steady increase in spray-can screeds similar to these. 

Tone deaf is how one of my neighbors described your handiwork. You are painting on the few small businesses here, costing these non-corporate folks time and money. You’re taking from all of us when our taxes are used to repair your work on the Community College. Jesus may be free at the tiny gospel church you painted, but the paint isn’t. Your actions show complete disregard for your neighbors, who are required by law to repair your damage.

Instead of increasing my interest in Occupy Seattle, I am left to wonder if it is full of losers who don’t have the brains to sort out the simple context of where to “post” their messages. I wonder how— in this neighborhood filled with so many interesting people working for social justice—  you are completely lacking in common sense on how to actually build allies.

I am a huge fan of street art. I have been writing about it for years. I truly believe that sometimes street art is the most effective way to communicate important ideas; certainly there have been some amazing stencils and paste coming out of the Occupy Movement— however, what sets apart great street art from blight is some sense of the right message in the right place.

For the past six months or so, we’ve been putting up with lame messages in the wrong place.  I am asking you stop.