You’ll want to make some alternate plans for tomorrow if 20th Avenue is included in your usual routes. We just got a note from the city Department of Transportation that the entire roadway will be closed to traffic on Wednesday between Lane and Dearborn streets.
The shutdown will run from tonight until noon while city crews lay a new layer of asphalt pavement.
The good news is that once it’s all over, you should have a much less bumpy ride for at least one block of your 20th Avenue journeys.
This report from Seattle’s East Precinct should help soothe your Columbus Day Hangover:
On the walk back from the grocery store yesterday we spotted an endangered species at 21st & Pine. It wore vibrant colors, with a bright yellow body and thin black legs. A few short years ago watchers could spot hundreds of them as they popped up in random places around the neighborhood. But ever since the great recession began they’ve been hard to find, thinned out by the lack of financial game that previously sustained them.
We had spotted a rare Land Use Notification Sign.
It was planted in a prime corner lot on the northeast corner of the intersection, announcing a proposed subdivision of that lot into two pieces. It has apparently always been vacant, most recently used as a garden for the home that sits on the east side of the property along Pine.
The developer plans to split it into two pieces, with the west one sized at 2,800 square feet and the east one at 2,500 square feet. According to permits filed with the city, the west lot will become home to a new single-family residence with an attached garage, valued at $276,096.
The Seattle School District has taken another step towards selling the abandoned Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary property in Madison Valley to First AME church. As we reported last month, the board’s finance committee was in agreement with the district administration’s recommendation that the building and property be sold to the church, spurning competing offers from the Madison Valley community, CADA, and the Bush School.
First AME won out after the district’s analysis showed that their planned programs and low rental rates for space would provide the largest total value to the community.
That recommendation was presented to the full school board for the first time last week, and the district has posted a draft purchase agreement that would hand over the property to First AME for $2.4 million. The majority of those funds will come from the State of Washington, which has allocated a pool of money for community service organizations to acquire vacant school facilities.
According to a memo given to the board, the proposed sale matches with board policy that gives preference to community groups for school acquisitions, even if they aren’t the highest bidder for a property. That was applicable in this case since the Bush School’s bid had a total value of $5.6 million, significantly higher than First AME’s proposal.
The final step in the process is coming next week on October 20th, when the sale will come up for a vote among the entire board. But at this stage, that would appear to be a formality given the unanimous support of the finance subcommittee and the district administration for the First AME sale.
First AME plans to use the building for expanded youth activities, education, parent training, veterans services, and licensed daycare programs. Other space in the building will be available for lease by other community organizations.
It’s good to see the sun out on this Columbus Day in Seattle’s East Precinct:
We were sad that we couldn’t make it to the amateur boxing revival last night at the Garfield Community Center. But thankfully CDNews reader Truman was in attendance, and sent us these fantastic photos from the event:
This morning a group of about twenty neighbors and members of the Brenton family gathered with gloves, shovels, pick axes, wheelbarrows, and jack hammers at the southwest corner of 29th & Yesler and got started building a memorial to Officer Tim Brenton, killed in the line of duty almost one year ago.
The large crowd was making quick work of the big job ahead of them, breaking up the pavement and digging out nine inches of earth to make room for the $25,000 memorial.
With the soil removed and the site prepared for construction, the next step will happen later this week when a contractor will fill the excavated area with paving stones. Then the next week another company will install the stonework that will form the police badge, all working towards a planned dedication of the memorial on October 31st, the one-year anniversary of the murder.
This looks like one of the coolest events to hit the neighborhood in quite a while. Cappy’s Boxing Gym is hosting a family-friendly night of amateur boxing on Saturday night at 6pm, at the Garfield Community Center.
It will be bringing in competitors from all over the northwest, including ages ranging from 8 to 34, and will be olympic-style boxing with full safety gear and strict rules.
Tickets are a reasonable $5, and doors open at 5:30pm at 2323 E. Cherry Street.
For more see: http://www.boxingrevival.com/
Happy Friday from Seattle’s East Precinct:
WIth $25,000 in donations and permits in hand, the Leschi community is preparing to start work on the memorial to Officer Tim Brenton, killed in the line of duty on October 31st last year.
Work will begin on Saturday morning at 10am with a community work party to get the project under way. Memorial organizers are asking people to bring shovels, pick-axes, gloves, and muscles to the corner of 29th Avenue & Yesler. They’re also looking for heavy construction equipment such as pickup trucks, a jack-hammer, and a chainsaw.
The work will continue until 2pm, with lunch provided on site by Blu Water Bistro.
