20th and Union ~ 8:15am –

 When you see people standing at the intersection, an intersection with a marked cross walk no less, stop your fricken car! You do know that by braking you can replenish the stored energy in your vehicles batteries right? Or are you just another poser in a Prius, “Hey! Look at ME! I’m green!”?

 I had my eyes on you the whole time. I saw you brake coming down the hill and thought it was a gesture to follow WAC 132E-16-040 – Pedestrians—Right of Way. Your sudden deceleration and your poorly tuned brakes that caused you to swerve left and right dramatically proved me wrong. Yelling at me from behind the windshield telling me to watch where I was going was classic. Rolling down the window to continue to berate me was even better.

Did you spill your extra hot/double/halfcaf/2 pump vanilla latte in your lap? Leave a little skid mark in your shorts? I’m sorry. Well, OK. Maybe not.

Don’t forget tonight’s Design Review for the 23rd and Union Project.
I realize it is on the front page under the upcoming events for today, but this should get a headline at the top of the page.
I personally would welcome this development and it needs our support.
Please come on out and let your voice be heard, for or against.

Tonight from 8-9pm.
Seattle Central Community College
1701 Broadway
Room 3211

I’m relatively new to this blog, but is there local opposition against this project? If so what is it?
I’ve read through the previous story’s comments, but the majority of those were discussing the possibilities of a P-Patch there on the corner. I love P-Patches, but that corner is, IMHO, not the place for it.
That corner needs an identity! It needs to have a presence! If it needs another 25 feet of vertical to give it that identity, GO FOR IT!
Imagine having 90+ residents on that corner. All of those eyes on the street throughout various times of the day would be fantastic! What about the commercial spaces on the street level? I welcome more commercial spaces along the Union corridor. Wouldn’t we all like to have more choices of where to eat or shop closer to home?

I was approached this morning by a man and his wife looking for work. He explained that they were from the Tent City and that he wanted to be clear, he was not begging. He introduced himself and his wife and said they had 2 children. He and his wife were willing to do any odd jobs in exchange for payment as they needed to feed their 2 kids.
When I explained that I had no odd jobs for them to do he asked if there was any food I could spare for his family. I went inside and gathered what I could (we didn’t have much) and I gave it to them. When I handed the bag to him, he was really dejected that all I had given to him was a bag full of granola bars.
I felt bad, but really, we dont have much food in the house (we eat out mostly).
He and his wife made their way down 20th to the corner of 20th and Cherry where, as I drove off to work, it appeared that they were still asking people and possibly even trying to flag down cars.
3 questions:
– I haven’t been by the empty lot behind the gas station over on cherry and 22nd in a while, I am assuming that Tent City is back? If so…
– There were flyers passed out before Tent City moved into that lot earlier last year and on it, it said that the inhabitants of tent city were not supposed to be roaming around asking for stuff. Were there flyers passed around this time Tent City moved in? If so, I must have missed it. and…
– Did anyone else speak to these individuals? They were in my yard at 8:30am, and I’m sure they were going to be making the rounds.