The arrival of snow in Seattle today coincided nicely with the presence of holiday decorations on the storefronts along 34th Avenue. The BOOM work party to decorate the storefronts today resulted in the greens and lights you now see around the neighborhood – a nice kickoff to Thanksgiving week.
Here’s a slideshow of snapshots from during the decorating party and the finished product.
The folks at Hitchcock jewelry are making up for lost time since their reopening post-maternity leave. This weekend’s they’ll host a two-day trunk show for Knight&Hammer. Saturday and Sunday from 10-6 both days, with champagne and wine served and the artist on hand to discuss his work.
Also this Saturday, Bottlehouse will be hosting a free Thanksgiving Wine Tasting. From 3-5pm Saturday, co-owner and wine expert Henri will be pouring samples from the Pacific Northwest as well as a few European options, and advising on pairings for traditional Thanksgiving dishes.
Any wines purchased will be available for pre-holiday pickup Tuesday, November 23rd & Wednesday, November 24th , with a 5% discount off six-bottle purchases, and 12% off case purchases.
Are we missing any other weekend events in Madrona? Feel free to chime in in the comments.
The wave of holiday events on Madrona’s retail stretch is starting up. We’ll have more details soon about the planned holiday shopping kickoff the first weekend in December, but in the meantime you can get started with “Knit Night” at Buggy this Saturday night.
The kids clothing shop invites parents to come from 7-10 pm for a special late-night shopping and work party. Attendees can bring knitting or other craft projects to work on with friends and special order yarn, plus get 10% off on items for gifts and stocking stuffers. RSVPs are requested to [email protected].
Madrona was one of the neighborhoods included in the $50,000 community project prize for reducing the most waste in 2009-2010 as part of CleanScapes’ city-wide competition. For those wondering if BOOM’s proposal is among the winning selections for a project, check back next week for the official project announcement.
In the meantime, residents can start reducing afresh. The 2nd Annual Neighborhood Waste Reduction Rewards competition is back for fall 2010-2011, with the same parameters: the neighborhood collection area with the greatest percentage decrease in total tons between now and fall 2011 wins.
The north part of Madrona (north of Union) is in the Thursday collection area and the south part (south of Union) is in the Friday collection area. If you’re confused, CleanScapes has a handy map.
When Seattle Public Schools released updated reports and a districtwide report card last week, the grades for Madrona K-8 raised concern about the school’s performance among local families.
The 82 schools were ranked on a new rating scale of 1 to 5 that measures not just how many students pass state tests, but how much improvement students make from year to year. A 1 meant the school had a low passage rate on state tests and low-medium improvement; a 5 indicated a high percentage of students passing state math and reading tests and students are improving.
The middle school at Madrona K-8 received a 3, while the elementary school received a 1, the equivalent of a failing grade. You can read the full detailed report online.
We’ve obtained an email from a neighborhood list where multiple neighborhood residents expressed support for the level of education and community atmosphere at Madrona K-8, as well as some prospective parents voicing concerns over what the ratings indicate about the rigor of the curriculum.
Representatives from the Madrona PTSA noted that the recent school report card data is extensive, and that Madrona K-8 principal Farah Thaxton and her staff are preparing information for families on what this actually means for the school. There will be a town-hall style meeting on December 7, from 7-8:30pm, for the entire Central Region at Washington Middle School to discuss the school reports specifically, and the PTSA urged members of the community to attend to learn the context behind the data used in the report cards.
Seattle Public Schools is also hosting a community meeting tonight at Garfield High School from 6:30-8pm on Year 2 of the Student Assignment Transition.
What do you think of the Seattle Public Schools’ ratings of Madrona K-8?
The corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and E Cherry St. is something of a mishmash. Made up of a mix of small businesses, a YWCA, a church, vacant lots and private residences, this corner is the intersection of three thriving neighborhoods – Leschi, Madrona and the Central District – but lacks a distinct character of its own.
Resident and homeowner Kiki Michelle Gram, who lives on the corner of E. Columbia and MLK, is on a campaign to change that. She’s petitioning the city to extend the existing 23rd & Jackson Residential Urban Village (RUV) boundary to include the area bounded by E. Columbia, E. Cherry, MLK Way and the alley on the east.
The idea is that extending the boundary – which currently stops at the middle of MLK – would bring more city attention to the area, increasing the opportunities for development of that corner in the future.
Rather than some developer swooping in and building townhouses, inclusion in the RUV would ideally bring in more community organizations to the area. It would not change the existing zoning, Gram says, but would amend the current situation where the businesses on one side of MLK are included in the RUV whereas the businesses across the street are not. The adjacent property owners support the proposal as well.
At this point, Gram’s aim is simply to submit the proposal to the city for consideration, which is why she presented to the Madrona Community Council last week asking for the council’s support. The MCC voted almost unanimously to write a letter of support for submitting the proposal for consideration.
Gram has until the beginning of December to gather signs of support from the community to submit her proposal. To date, she has signatures supporting the proposal from the MCC, the adjacent property owners and neighbors and the Central Area District Council.
What do you think about the prospects for the corner of MLK and Cherry?
The members of BOOM (Business owners of Madrona) are putting together a last-minute fundraising and work party effort to make sure the retail stretch of the neighborhood is decorated for the holidays. After BOOM president Soni Dave and vice president Anni Ala realized last weekend that no businesses were organizing to decorate storefronts as in the past, they put together a plan to raise money for garlands and lights for 34th Ave.
The decorations are part of a larger BOOM initiative called “Make Madrona Merry” with the goal of bringing visitors and shoppers to the neighborhood throughout the holiday season.
BOOM is asking for storefront business and property owners to donate $45 toward the cost of fresh winter greens and decorative lights. If community members want to donate any amount, they can bring money to Bottlehouse by Friday, November 19.
The group is cutting down on the labor costs of putting up the decorations by hosting a work party on Sunday, November 21 from 10am-noon. Community members are also invited to help attach lights to garlands, hang garlands to buildings and put up holiday posters throughout the neighborhood. Free mulled wine will be available at Bottlehouse for participants.
Two Madrona K-8 teams are in the playoffs this fall – one for the first time, and one as a perennial contender.
The girls soccer team, made up of 6th, 7th and 8th graders, has made the playoffs for the first time in school history, while the always dominating co-ed ultimate frisbee team will play for the division championship today at Ingraham High School.
The soccer team has a particularly compelling story. With only 150 students at the middle school at K-8, there are no tryouts and anyone who wants to play makes the team. According to coach Jon Hughes, the vast majority of the players have never played soccer before and many have never played team sports.
This year, its third season in existence, the team moved up from the JV division to varsity and made it to the middle school playoffs with a third place regular-season finish. The squad plays their final regular season game today against undefeated TOPS at 9:30am at Van Asselt. Then the first playoff game will likely be on Monday (11/8) at 3pm at Memorial Stadium. UPDATE: Madrona will play McClure on 4:30pm on Tuesday in the first round.
Who from Madrona will be at the games to support the kids?
Concerns over the fate of the Madrona Community Council were alleviated last night, at least temporarily, as 30 people packed the Madrona Playfield shelterhouse following outgoing President Cynthia Stross’s plea for involvement from neighborhood residents.
For the last year, the council has been staffed by a skeleton crew of about six people. With Stross stepping down and Vice President of Special Projects Jeremy Hudgeons moving out of state in early 2011, the council – and traditional neighborhood events like Mayfair and the Halloween Party – were in danger of dissolving from lack of participation.
Last night’s crowd of first-time attendees expressed a desire to learn more about the council to keep it alive, with many committing to, at minimum, attend meetings regularly. The crowd also included new Madrona K-8 Principal Farah Thaxton and new PTSA Vice President of Outreach Barney Mansavage, both of whom said they wanted to help build more interaction between the school and the community.
Though the council bylaws called for elections of a new president last night, the council agreed to instead have the three vice presidents – Hudgeons, VP of Events Paige Smith and VP at-large Holly Smith – serve as rotating interim heads of the council until February of 2011. The hope is that by three months from now one of the newer community members might be ready to take on more of a leadership role.
Madrona resident Susan Minogue, a former member of the Squire Park community council, suggested implementing a board member structure as well as appointing a VP of recruiting to have a devoted council member working on outreach. Other ideas from the floor were to improve the council website and develop a more comprehensive email list to better inform the community about meetings.
The meeting closed with Stross calling for community members to come to December’s meeting with proposals, ideas and suggestions for new projects for the council to consider.
Did you attend last night’s meeting? What did you think?
Hitchcock, the jewelry store known for its fervent customer following and elaborate window displays, has been closed for the owners’ maternity leave since August. Tomorrow the shop is set to reopen with a new display and new collections. From Hitchcock’s email:
We missed you while we were gone, but on Wednesday, November 3rd we’re back and reborn! Come see our new jewelry collections by Maria Carter Designs and Comfort Station, as well as totally new pieces by our existing artists IOSSELIANNI, Mineral by Lisa Kinoshita, Winifred Grace, Xenia Mara Designs and hitchcock Jewelry.
The store will also be hosting a Rebirth Party on Saturday, November 6, from 5-7:30pm with hors d’oeurves and champagne, as well as an appearance by “special guest” and new arrival Alexander “Ace” Sheehan.
We’re looking forward to seeing the baby-blue window coverings come down and for another 34th Street business to be open.
