Tougo Coffee at 18th and Union just got a little bit smaller, but the downsize is making space for a new store selling locally-designed and consigned kids clothing.

Magpie will feature kids clothes designed by Malia Keene (who, full disclosure, happens to be this reporter’s landlord). The shop will also sell kids clothing on consignment.

While Magpie will sell for all ages from birth to eight, the focus will be on clothes for kids in hard-to-find ages, said Keene.

“We have a six-year-old and there’s nothing,” she said of the selection of clothing she has found available for her child. So she makes the clothes herself.

Keene has been thinking about starting a shop for a long time, and when the space next to Tougo Coffee became available, they jumped on it. Tougo closed for a few days in January due to financial issues. It reopened after a drive to raise the $10,000 they needed to continue operating.

Tougo is keeping the kids play area in the back and the bathrooms. Magpie will have a work space for sewing and a retail space.

Aside from items for sale on consignment, Magpie is also looking for people who make kids toys. Other items that could fit in the shop include homemade bath products, such as diaper cream or bubble bath soap.

The shop hopes to be open by mid-July. You can contact Malia Keene via email at [email protected].

UPDATE: Tougo owner Brian Wells said the idea behind renting the space to a shop is to help revitalize the retail core near the old TT Minor School.

“It has more to do with building synergy with the business district that used to exist” and is not related to Tougo’s drive to raise $10,000 earlier this year, he said.

How many chances do you get to go for a run with an Olympic champion?

Well, okay, she’s not a champion yet. But she’s working on it, and she’s determined to be a champ in the 2012 games in London.

The Garfield High School alumna is a four-time national champion and fought to the bronze in the 2010 World Championships. She started boxing at Cappy’s Boxing Gym at 22nd and Union, where she continues to train to this day.

You have a chance to go for a run with the Queen at 1:30 p.m. June 4. The run will start at Cappy’s and end at Westlake Center downtown, where participants will do the Queen’s victory dance with her.

The rally will continue to Big Mario’s Pizza at 10th and Pike on Capitol Hill. You can check out the event on Facebook.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $3.1 million for a rehab of the Yesler Terrace steam plant that would turn the modernist structure into an early childhood educations and adult training facility for the neighborhood. The announcement comes on the heels of news that the Seattle Housing Authority has approved plans for a large-scale redevelopment of the entire neighborhood over 10-20 years.

From the Seattle Housing Authority:

The grant will allow the Steam Plant to be preserved as Yesler Terrace’s only uniquely modernist building. It will serve as a reminder of the neighbohood’s history and become a permanent home for important self-sufficiency services in the center of the community.

The new center will house Neighborhood House’s Head Start program, Catholic Community Service’s Youth Tutoring program, an Express Credit Union for affordable financial services, and SEIU training center and Seattle Housing’s employment opportunity services.

Development Director Stephanie Van Dyke noted that at first glance, the steam plant may seem an unlikely place for self-sufficiency services.

“With a closer look, the building’s potential becomes obvious,” Van Dyke said. “It is centrally located near transit, has big rooms with high ceilings, and western exposure with large windows to create light-filled spaces.”

Services such as Head Start and Youth Tutoring will be able to re-locate from their current Yesler Terrace spaces, which are less than ideal.

Construction is expected to begin in summer of 2012 and take about a year.

Working with such large dimensions, constructing an extra large canvas and acquiring tons of paint is the easy part when creating a piece of public art. The hard part is figuring out how the art can connect with the community where it will be installed.

This is the challenge facing the students of Danila Rumold, the professor teaching Art 293: “Community Art & Mural Painting Techniques,” a new class at Seattle University. When the class started work to create a mural to go next to the Bailey Gatzert Elementary School playground, they first needed to learn more about the diverse students who attend the school.

“How do they identify themselves? What do they want to be when they grow up?” These were the kinds of questions the class asked the students. Though the student body at Bailey Gatzert speaks many languages, they were asked to respond by drawing pictures of their own. The class collected hundreds of pages worth of student pictures and stuck them up around their art studio on Seattle University campus as inspiration.

“We found a lot of overlap in the answers,” said Rumold, “so we made lists of what professions they want to be when they grow up and who their role models are.” Students also took photos around the neighborhood. Using these images and the drawings, the class created a collage. They then created a drawing out of that collage that would be a grayscale blueprint for the mural.

The original collage is at top, a drawing sketch is in the center, and an outline is at the bottom

The design’s center is a radial dial with a tree in the middle and rays stretching out across a backdrop of the city and neighborhood skyline. Wind and water waves on each side of the mural help create a border to complement the actual cherry trees situated on either side of the mural’s expected installation site on the south side of the playground.

One of the challenges facing the class is that the mural is not being created on-site. They have created a large wooden canvas out of marine plywood and do the painting in the class’s studio on campus. They hope the work will be weather proof enough to last at least ten years.

Members of the class have gone to morning drop-off breakfasts at the school to run ideas and images by students and parents to get feedback.

“The community needs to feel involved,” said Rumold. “I’m not sure if we’re making that connection.”

However, she hopes to change that by giving the Bailey Gatzert students a chance to have a hand in the painting. Rumold’s class is carving wooden stamps of cherry blossoms. Once the mural is mostly painted by the class, they will take the mural to Bailey Gatzert and the students there will apply the cherry blossom stamps to the mural.

“We’re hoping the stamping will bring people into it,” said Rumold. The class has been discussing the socioeconomic gap between the largely middle-to-upper class Seattle U students and the largely impoverished Bailey Gatzert families. The project complements the Seattle University Youth Initiative the school launched this year. 90 percent of students at Bailey Gatzert receive subsidized lunches, which is the highest rate in the city.

“We need to make sure we’re not making it a missionary project, but rather a collaboratory project,” she said. The class is working to find commonality so there will be resonance with the community once the mural is installed. And Rumold has faith in the power of arts to bridge gaps.

“Mural art makes community,” she said.

You can learn more about the project or follow the class’s progress on their blog. The inauguration of the mural is scheduled for June 20.

The annual Central Area Garden Tour is just a week and a half away, and the event is already getting some ink. The Seattle Times featured the garden of Virginia Wyman and Joe McDonnal over the weekend, highlighting the life of the late McDonnal in the process. McDonnel passed away last winter, but his garden flourishes on. It is just one of seven nine private gardens and seven public spaces featured in the June 4 tour.

From Seattle Times:

A formal fountain dripping into a pool beneath an arching arbor sets the tone here. “The fountain is a present Joe gave himself from Paris,” says Wyman. Boxwood hedging, ferns and lily-of-the-valley surround it in textural layers of green, adding to the places’s slightly gone-to-ruin, European charm. The lines may be geometric, but most of the garden’s plantings are pleasantly chaotic.

McDonnal’s creativity and largesse of spirit permeate his beloved garden. In spring, it blooms purple and yellow with hundreds of crocus and daffodils; 26 double lilacs have grown into big, fragrant trees. Statuesque tree peonies with huge double blooms in white, pink and violet dominate the garden in May. The cottage garden is stunningly floriferous, with pastel roses, lilies, cosmos and columbines left to seed themselves all around. “This is what Joe would call ‘Hooly Balooley,’ “says Wyman of the garden’s orchestrated chaos.

Tickets for the tour are available at City People’s Garden Store, Central Co-op’s Madison Market, and Central Cinema. You can also purchase tickets online through Central Cinema, though you must pick them up from the theater in person. Tickets are $6 in advance or $9 the day of the event. The tour starts at 23rd and Union.

All proceeds go towards the Central District Public Art Project, which has been holding public meetings for the past couple months to gather input and generate ideas (see our previous story).

To get an idea of what the Garden Tour is like, here is our live-blogging of last year’s event.

This post was originally published on our sister site Capitol Hill Seattle.

The man suspected of impersonating police officers in an attempt to steal cars near Seattle University has been arrested in Beaverton, Oregon, according to SPD. Michael James Beach was allegedly unsuccessful in his first attempt on campus May 16, but was able to steal a car at gunpoint on a subsequent try an hour and a half later near 13th and Marion.

From the SPD Blotter:

Armed robbery suspect and police impersonator  Michael James Beach was arrested by US Marshalls just after 3 p.m. today in Beaverton, Oregon.  He was unarmed and cooperative during arrest.  It is expected that he will be booked into a Portland, Oregon area jail and held for Investigation of Fugitive.

While the suspect is in custody, detectives still have work to do to complete the case.  Big thanks goes out to the US Marshalls and the rest of the general public who kept on the lookout for him while he was being sought.

In both instances, Beach allegedly approached people who had stopped their cars and said they needed to move because he was about to “raid” a nearby residence, according to Seattle Crime. When the second victim asked to see his badge, Beach allegedly showed the victim a gun in his waistband. The victim then exited his vehicle. Beach then got into the driver’s seat and drove away.

Michael LaRosa, the man accused of killing Joe LaMagno at 15th and Union November 22, is scheduled to stand trial in September, reports Capitol Hill Seattle. He has also been charged with the murder of Dale Richard Holme in the International District a day before the attack on LaMagno. LaRosa, who had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia, has been deemed mentally competent to stand trial.

In another case in the courts, Timothy L. Dampier has pleaded not guilty to charges that he sexually abused several children in the region. He has been charged with one count of child molestation in the first degree, three counts of child molestation in the second degree, one count of child molestation in the third degree, one count of rape of a child in the second degree, one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes, according to court documents.

Dampier has been active in several Central District churches, and the allegations came to light after he was hired as a musician at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.

Dampier’s trial date has been scheduled for September 29. He was arrested May 4 and is being held in King County jail on $500,000 bail.

If you want to help prioritize Seattle’s transportation spending for the next several years, you will have a chance Thursday, May 26 at Washington Middle School at 21st and Jackson. The Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee III (CTAC) is holding its third and final public workshop to gather input on where to spend the city’s transportation dollars.

CTAC’s first order of business is to create a spending plan for the revenue generated by the $20 car tab fee the city passed in the fall. If you can’t make it to the workshop, you can take the CTAC online survey.

Workshop details:

Washington Middle School Cafeteria, 2101 South Jackson Street

Mayor Mike McGinn in attendance

 

WORKSHOP AGENDA

5:30 – 6:00 p.m. – Open House

6:00 – 6:30 p.m. – Presentations by CTAC members and SDOT Director Peter Hahn

6:30 – 7:30 p.m. – Break-out Groups

You know what? Who needs Comcast?

Apparently not Reel Grrls. In the wake of Comcast’s temper tantrum over a tweet, Reel Grrls has raised thousands of dollars through calls for donations from around the country. They raised $14,000 on Friday alone. As a result, they are telling Comcast to keep their money, even though the media giant had offered the money back after a national media backlash.

From Reel Grrls:

We appreciate Comcast’s desire to rectify this situation and hope to encourage them to craft a corporate policy that clearly defends freedom of expression in order to ensure that this situation does not arise again.

While we are heartened that Comcast has apologized for its actions, we believe this incident underscores the bigger problems associated with the overwhelming concentration of power that the Comcast/NBC merger and the resulting hire of Baker represents. It was only after a very public debate about Comcast’s punitive actions toward our organization that Comcast was motivated to change its position. Unfortunately, it is exactly this type of public debate that can be squelched by mergers that threaten to raise the price for access to information, limit consumers choices in entertainment and news and give large media corporations the power to decide which opinions will see the light of day.

Given the serious questions Comcast’s initial decision to take punitive measures on our organization raised about the ability of corporations to stifle public discussion, we have decided to redesign our summer camp to focus on developing films about free press issues. We have also decided that we will not be partnering with Comcast on the camp and will instead pursue other sources of funding. We appreciate Comcast’s desire to rectify this situation and hope to encourage them to craft a corporate policy that clearly defends freedom of expression in order to ensure that this situation does not arise again.

Thank you for your interest in this story and we fully respect your freedom to voice your disproval of our decision.

The controversy began when the organization, which empowers young women through the creation of media, questioned the dubiously-ethical hire of former FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker by Comcast. Baker had voted to approve the controversial Comcast/NBC merger just months earlier.

After the tweet, Comcast regional VP of Communications Steve Kipp sent an email saying he was pulling their funds:

Given the fact that Comcast has been a major supporter of Reel Grrls for several years now, I am frankly shocked that your organization is slamming us on Twitter. This is not the first time either. I’ve seen at least one other negative Tweet about Comcast. I cannot in good conscience continue to provide you with funding—especially when there are so many other deserving nonprofits in town.

Really, Comcast could use the money more than Reel Grrls. After all, there are still at least a couple FCC Commissioners not yet on their payroll, I think. I hear FCC Commissioners are expensive.

You can contribute to the cause and donate to Reel Grrls online. Registration is also open online for their now-Comcast-free summer programs.

The wait for Molly Moon’s in Madrona is almost over. The planned “micro shop” in the Madrona Laundromat building at 34th and Union is scheduled to open tomorrow (May 24).

Oh, and kids who visit the shop between 3-5 p.m. get a free cup of ice cream.

Madrona came in second to Queen Anne during Molly Moon’s “Shop 3 Where Will It Be?” contest. However, the company decided to not only open a new shop in Queen Anne, but also a micro shop in Madrona. The shop will be housed in a storefront corner of the Madrona Landromat, which went through some renovations in the fall.

Instead of providing full-service scoops, cones and sundaes like the Capitol Hill, Wallingford and soon-to-be Queen Anne locations, the Madrona location will sell prepackaged scoops in cups, as well as pints, sorbet-sicles and ice cream sandwiches.