When the facade of the under-renovation building at 18th and Union was peeled back earlier this month (see stories here and here), a stunning historical storefront was revealed. Next to the sign advertizing Regen’s Grocery, however, there was a campaign ad for Sam Smith, who at the time was running for City Council Position 2.

So who was Sam Smith? Longtime residents probably already know the answer to that question. History Link published a brief essay on his life in 1998, around the time the city named Sam Smith Park on the I-90 lid after him:

Sam Smith was the first black person to be elected to the Seattle City Council and the second black State Legislator from King County. He has been credited with helping to bridge the political and cultural gap between the white and black communities.

Sam Smith served in the Legislature for five terms beginning with his election from the 37th district in 1958. One of his first acts in Olympia was to introduce a bill to ban discrimination based on race or religion in the rental or sale of homes. Although the bill failed, he continued to introduce it.

In 1967, he won election to the Seattle City Council and served on it until 1991, when Sherry Harris, another black politician, defeated him. During those years, he also ran unsuccessfully four times for the office of mayor.

Read more…

From the Umoja Fest Facebook page

We already published a bunch of photos from Umoja Fest 2011, but the organization recently posted the photo above and a lot more over at the festival’s Facebook page.

In other Central District photo news, there have been some great shots uploaded to the Central District Flickr pool lately. If you’re a neighborhood shutterbug, be sure to add your photos to the pool, too.

A man with a gunshot wound showed up at Harborview Medical Center last night around 8 p.m., according to Seattle Crime. The man, whose injuries were not life-threatening, said he had been shot near 24th and S Judkins St.

From Seattle Crime:

Gang unit detectives went to Harborview and spoke with the man, who said he’d been shot about 20 minutes earlier at 24th Ave S and S Judkins.

Almost exactly one hour later, officers spotted a possible suspect in the shooting near 23rd and Jackson. The man took off running when police tried to contact him.

Officers chased him on foot, but weren’t able to catch him.

Central District resident Bobby Forch has the early lead over other candidates hoping to challenge incumbent City Councilmember Jean Godden in November.

After early returns, Forch had a seven-point lead over Maurice Classen and a ten-point lead over Michael Taylor-Judd, the other two challengers. The campaign for Capitol Hill’s Classen was much better funded than the Forch campaign, and Forch told the Seattle Times he was “pleasantly surprised” to see how large his lead was. Godden leads the primary with 45 percent of the vote. If these percentages hold out, it could lead to a close race in the November election.

Ballots from only 20 percent of county voters are in, but turnout is not expected to reach the 50 percent previously estimated. Updated results will be posted at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday on the King County website.

Did anyone else who signed opt-out forms get the new DexPlus catalogs today?

This afternoon a white van with three males (one adult driver and two teen delivery boys, all Hispanic) drove through my neighborhood near Pratt Park, depositing white plastic bags carrying several pounds of DexPlus yellow page catalogs at front doors. I watched them fling the bags at my townhouse and the nine other houses around my unit and, as far as I know, at every house around here. When I went out and gave the bag back to the boy, he said “Sorry.” But the bag was at my doorstep later.  

I have filled out every fricking opt-out form, online and in print, asking to be removed from these yellow pages rosters. Hilariously, the new phone books themselves display on their covers this message: “To stop delivery of this or any other directory within the City of Seattle, go to seattle.gov/stopphonebooks.”

The people who drive the vans and who deliver these packages of useless garbage do not know or care about these forms. It makes me feel stupid for thinking the city could do anything about this.

The city’s developing Transit Master Plan (TMP) calls for several priority corridor improvements, including a rapid electric bus line on Madison from Colman Dock downtown to 23rd Ave, according to a presentation to the City Council. A proposed increase in the city’s vehicle license fee (VLF) could provide some funding of the TMP while also funding street repairs and the pedestrian, bicycle and (future) freight master plans.

However, the size of that increase is up in the air. The Transportation Benefits District Board (comprised of all the City Council members) is set to send a proposal to voters today, but it is unclear whether the the Council will request the full $80 allowed (which I argued for over at Seattle Bike Blog) or a lower amount, likely $60. The Board has already instituted a $20 fee, which was the highest they could without voter approval. Any proposed increase in the fee would go to voters in November.

From an SDOT presentation to the City Council

The Transit Master Plan is still being developed, but updates to the City Council show that the plan will call for many city-wide transit improvements, including an electric Bus Rapid Transit line on Madison from Colman Dock downtown to 23rd Ave. In a July update to the City Council, SDOT presented concepts from the Transit Master Plan for several high-priority corridors, including a Streetcar route from downtown to Ballard via Fremont, a streetcar from downtown to the University District and the Madison bus improvements.

A streetcar was deemed unfeasible on Madison, according to the presentation. With the planned corridor improvements in place, the plan anticipates over 6,000 new riders on the corridor.

Some of the funds from the VLF — if the Council proposes it and voters approve it in November — would likely go to extending the First Hill Streetcar beyond it’s planned terminus at the under-construction Capitol Hill light rail station, according to Seattle Transit Blog’s Martin Duke, who is also on the Transit Master Plan Advisory Committee. Construction on the First Hill Streetcar is set to start in January, but there has been a push to extend the line to north Broadway, perhaps to Aloha.

The funds could also be used to build a connector streetcar extension through downtown to connect the South Lake Union and First Hill Streetcars. However, Seattle Transit Blog notes that there would not be enough money to build either project outright with the current planned funding breakdown and a more politically-friendly $60 fee. The funds could help with design and help find the projects matching grants while adding some of that match.

Meanwhile, the King County Council passed the $20 county-wide vehicle license fee Monday evening to prevent large cuts to Metro service. It was not a smooth process, though, with the council going into several extended recesses before the final vote. The fee passed 7-2 and will not need to go to the ballot for a public vote.

Seattle Police busted a burglar August 12 after he allegedly robbed a home near 11th and Terrace, according to the SPD Blotter:

On 8/12/11, at approximately 2:00 p.m., officers responded to the 1100 block of E. Terrace St., to a victim reporting that a suspect had just attempted to break into his home.  The suspect took off running when he saw the victim inside the house.  An officer spotted a subject matching the suspect’s description in the nearby area. When the officer attempted contact with the suspect, the suspect fled on foot. The officer gave chase as additional units responded to assist. 

The suspect was then spotted a few times running thru and in-between yards.  Bike patrol officers located the suspect hiding underneath a small vehicle. He was taken into custody without incident. The victim positively identified the suspect. The suspect was in possession of a backpack which revealed evidence of another earlier unreported burglary (stolen lap top and other items). This victim was contacted and a report taken. (His door had been kicked in).

The suspect was later booked into King County Jail for Investigation of Burglary and Possession of Stolen Property.

Also on the Blotter, SPD caught a man who apparently stole $4 hair clippers from the Grocery Outlet on MLK:

On August 11th, an East Precinct officer was dispatched to a grocery store in the 1100 Block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way  for  a shoplifting complaint.  The victim grocer stated that the store had video surveillance of a suspect entering the store empty handed and wandering the store.  The suspect then left camera view briefly and returned with something in his hands that he put into a pocket.  The grocer confronted the suspect at the door, but the suspect denied stealing anything and left.  The grocer stated that this suspect is a chronic shoplifter.  The officer reviewed the video and then wrote a report.

Several hours later, while patrolling his beat, the same officer noticed a subject of similar description and contacted him.  The officer was able to engage the suspect in conversation and the suspect admitted to being in the store, but initally denied stealing anything.  The officer discovered a local warrant in the system for the suspect, so placed him under arrest for that.  During a search incident to arrest, the officer discovered a trace amount of drugs on the suspect.  After advising the suspect of his Miranda warnings, the suspect eventually admitted that he stole a hair clipper, worth about $4.00.  The 48 year old suspect was later booked into the King County Jail.

The following day, at the start of his shift, the officer returned to the store to inform the grocer of the arrest and initiate the trespass admonishment for the suspect.  The grocer stated that they have video of the suspect shoplifting from the store on numerous occasions.  This information may assist precinct detectives solve several of their open theft cases as a result of this incident.  While not a substantial arrest in terms of offense classification or dollar amount, it did go a long way to resolve a local community problem.  The officer’s supervisor spoke to the complainant, who summed it up  when she said  ”You guys rock!”

The Northwest African American Museum is hosting an exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute called IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas. The exhibit, which opens August 20 at the 23rd and Massachusetts museum, looks at the often overlapping and shared histories of people with both African and Native American ancestry.

From NAAM:

From the Smithsonian comes an important and enlightening exhibition about the intersection of American Indian and African American people and cultures. IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas explores historical and contemporary stories of peoples and communities whose shared histories are woven into the fabric of American identity, but whose presence has long been invisible to many in the U.S.

The Meredith Mathews East Madison YMCA is celebrating 75 years in the community and were having a block Party on Saturday August 20th from 11:00AM-2:00PM at its facility located at 1700 23rd Ave Seattle , WA 98122 and Homer Harris Park . The public is welcome so come join the fun! There will be fun and activities for all ages starting with a barbecue (first come first serve), carnival games, rock climbing wall, bouncy house, face painting, cotton candy, popcorn, Zumba and CPR demonstrations, art’s and craft’s, swimming, and much more… Do not miss out on this free family event!

The county is no longer considering Beacon Hill’s PacMed building as a suitable location for the Youth Services Center currently housed on 12th Ave. The PacMed move was the top proposal in a recent effort to find a replacement option for the juvenile detention facility that would have zero cost to taxpayers.

From the Seattle Times:

None of the six proposals the county received met its requirement that they have minimal or no cost to taxpayers. None met the county’s “affordability criteria,” said County Administrative Officer Caroline Whalen.

“This is not the end of our efforts,” said Whalen in a statement. She said the county is considering its next steps.

So it’s back to the drawing board for efforts to move or redevelop all or part of the nine-acre facility at 12th and Alder. After voters rejected a measure to fund a replacement of the facility, the County launched an effort to make it happen without extra taxes.

One of the six proposals recently rejected involved selling part of the land for mixed-use development. From the Times:

For almost a decade, a neighborhood group has urged county officials to allow mixed-use development, including housing and retail, on the parcel’s large parking lot.

The 12th Avenue Stewardship Committee hopes the county will use the property creatively, according to committee member Bill Zosel.

One proposal among the six received by the county called for selling a part of the 9 acres for mixed use and using the proceeds to redevelop the shopworn juvenile facilities.