The Jimi Hendrix Park Foundation received a Certificate of Appreciation for its recent donation of $484,000 to Seattle Parks and Recreation to support  the development of Jimi Hendrix Park. The non-profit Foundation, with the assistance of the Friends of Jimi Hendrix Park, aims to raise $1.5 million in private funding  for the Park. All donations are tax-deductible.  To learn more about the project or to make a donation, please visit www.jimihendrixparkfoundation.org Continue reading →

The Central District’s most important street sure is the subject of a lot of planning these days.

The 23rd Avenue complete street project has been meeting with stakeholders and the public to gather feedback on a big repaving and redesign project spanning the entirety of the Central District from Madison to Rainier. While that project is primarily focused on the street itself, the 23rd Ave Action Plan will focus on reassessing the area around each major commercial and cultural node along the street: Union, Cherry and Jackson.

In short, the 23rd Ave Action Plan is a project led by the city’s Department of Planning and Development to create guidelines and a community vision for the future of the CD’s most active areas. Rather than a broad update to the existing Central Area Action Plan (last updated in 1998), the 23rd Ave Action Plan aims to focus more specifically on these key areas.

The project hopes to create “a vision that respects the culture so that when that new development comes in it respects that vision,” said DPD’s Quanlin Hu. An outreach team with liaisons who speak all the major languages represented in the neighborhood have already started meeting with stakeholders, and the first big “community workshop and resource fair” is scheduled for Saturday morning at Garfield Community Center (will be from 9 a.m. until noon).

While the Action Plan is different than the complete streets project, which is led by the Department of Transportation, both teams have stated a desire to work together and build on each project’s work.

The goals of the Action Plan are somewhat vague and will be developed and refined during most of 2013. Here’s the project purpose: Continue reading →

Image from the Serenity Funeral Home website

Services for the young man shot and killed at 25th and Norman March 29 will be held today (Tuesday) and Wednesday, according to an obituary published on the Serenity Funeral Home website.

K’Breyan “KB” Clark would have turned 20 in two weeks.

The visitation will be from 6–8 p.m. Tuesday at Restoration Bible Church in South Seattle. The funeral service starts at 11 a.m. Wednesday at 28th and Jackson’s Tabernacle Baptist Church. He will be buried at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Bellevue.

From the Serenity Funeral Home website:

K’Breyan ‘KB’ Clark was born on April 23, 1993 and called home on March 29, 2013. KB attended Meeker Middle School, Duncanville High School (TX) and received his G.E.D. in June of 2010. KB played all sports but excelled in basketball and played on many AAU teams. More recently, KB fell in love with driving, buying and fixing cars. On January 29, 2012 KB’s life changed with the birth of his son, K’Breyan Deshawn Clark, who he loved immensely. Continue reading →

Photo from the Ambassel website

Ambassel Ethiopian Cuisine & Bar at 12th and Jefferson was shut down in early march for public health violations following allegations that several people contracted E. coli after eating there.

Though public health records show the restaurant has addressed the issues, Ambassel is now facing a lawsuit from two people who say they fell ill after eating there in February.

According to Seattle-King County Public Health records, the issues discovered during an early March inspection included:

• Improper methods used to prevent bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods
• Food contact surfaces used for raw meat, poultry, aquatic foods, or ready-to-eat foods not thoroughly cleaned and sanitized
• Hands not washed as required
• Inadequate hand washing facilities
• Proper Consumer Advisory not posted for raw or undercooked foods
• Food worker card not available or current, new food workers not trained
• Thermometers not available or used as required to evaluate temperature of potentially hazardous foods Continue reading →

Diaz at a 2011 community meeting (Image: CHS)

With news coverage across the city dotted with descriptions including “embattled,” “quiet,” and “Latino,” John Diaz, Seattle’s first minority police chief stepped down Monday ending a four-year run in a job where his leadership and style were increasingly under scrutiny and his department struggled with how best to implement Justice Department-mandate changes.

“I have a lot of thank yous but I’m going to keep this press conference short because you know how much I love doing those,” Diaz joked Monday morning. Continue reading →

Hello all,

Our building at 16th & Jackson was hit by an unknown vehicle over the weekend. We arrived this morning to find the damage. This is the 4th time we’ve had a vehicle crash into our building since we began occupying it around 2007. We’ve had our windows smashed several times as well, once back last May which we posted about on CDNews.

What we know about the vehicle:

Some sort of truck (maybe Jeep?)
Color: Grey/silver
One of those aftermarket fog lights was left behind, as well as part of a license plate frame

If anybody has any info on the vehicle, maybe a truck you’ve seen around that matches the description with front-end damage, please let us or the police know.

Thanks.

Louis Continue reading →

Hamann, pictured here (right) during an October 2012 bout at Garfield Community Center, brings home National gold this week. Photo by Truman Buffett

Two women boxers with former ties to Cappy’s Boxing Gym at 21st and Union took home the gold at the USA boxing championships over the weekend.

Jen Hamann is a rising star who has has been training with Arcaro Boxing (see this post describing their tough work together leading up to the championships). She brings home the featherweight gold.

Garfield grad Queen Underwood, who fought in the 2012 Olympics, continued her success in the ring, bringing home the lightweight gold.

From USA Boxing:

The featherweight division had the most competitors in the women’s field and the two females left standing on Saturday faced off in the final round bout. Jennifer Hamann (Seattle, Wash.) and Rianna Rios (Alice, Texas) boxed for gold in the fifth bout of evening competition. Hamann claimed the first title of the event for the host state, winning a 2-1 decision over Rios to win gold.

One of the most highly anticipated bouts of the night was contested in the women’s lightweight division as 2012 U.S. Olympian Queen Underwood (Seattle, Wash.) battled reigning featherweight world champion Tiara Brown (Fort Myers, Fla.). The momentum swayed between the two elite fighters throughout the eight minutes of competition with both boxers landing strong clean punches. With the strong local support from her sister, nieces and nephews decked out in their Queen Underwood t-shirts, the 2012 Olympian won a split decision victory over Brown, 2-1, to claim her sixth USA Boxing National Championship title.