The 19th Annual 20th Avenue Block Party is Saturday, August 20 starting at noon. Come hang out with the characters of 20th Ave, including me, your humble editor.
Also, there’s going to be a pig roast. More information from my neighbors Marty and Brenda of Just Food:
The Chieftain, 12th Avenue’s new Irish pub near Seattle U, is ready to open its doors today, according to our sister site Capitol Hill Seattle.
The long anticipated opening of the controversial Chieftain Pub near Seattle University at 908 12th Avenue is finally here, and it will have its grand opening Friday, August 19th.
Peter Johnson and his crew have been working for over 6 months to transform the old Doc Hastings night club into a new Irish pub for the Capitol Hill community, and the place is a wonderful homage to the past, to Ireland and to its namesake, the Chieftain.
As we reported in April, the Chieftain takes its name from the Irish clan leaders, and there is a tradition of naming Irish pubs “The Chieftain.” However, the name is also a reference to Seattle U’s former mascot, which was changed in 2000 after being deemed inappropriate.
The pub’s plan is to pick up the lunch crowd and provide a good happy hour for college students, Johnson told CDN in April. According to CHS, the Happy Hour will go all-day on Mondays:
This new Irish pub will feature Happy Hour all day Monday and Tue-Fri 3-6pm and will have special events such as Tuesday night Trivia contests, Thursday Karaoke and Saturday nights live music.
I took a look at the menu and it seems evenly divided between American and Irish food, including Guinness Beef Stew, Shepherds Pie, Bangers and Mash, Whiskey Crab Soup and something called “Irish Nachos” which substitutes fried potato slices for the corn chips.
Johnson also owns Finn MacCool’s in the U District and McGilvra’s in Madison Park.
The Seattle Times profiled the Students Taking Agriculture ‘Round The Streets (STARTS) program, which puts youth to work in a kitchen while teaching them valuable skills to help them get a job. The program, funded primarily by the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, was started by Cortona Cafe co-owner Jason Davison and is operated out of the kitchen at Immaculate Conception Church at 18th and Marion.
From the Times:
The goal is to teach the teens the ins and outs of urban agriculture, farming, healthful cooking practices and business basics.
“I’m not trying to just throw money at kids,” Davison said of the paid internship program that started in June and ends next week. “They’re here to work.”
The program is funded primarily through the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative and Davison and his colleagues are working on ways to extend the funding to keep the program going through the fall.
Their aim is to train youngsters for success while changing the culture of the low-income neighborhoods where many of them live. For them, food choices may be limited to convenience stores that sell processed and sugar-laden snacks — and not apples, tomatoes or strawberries.
“If you change the way people think, then you can fight the obesity, diabetes and other diseases that affect them,” he said, referring to chronic health problems that are common among low-income families and communities of color.
Anybody know what this is about? I got off the bus on yesler and three cop cars and an ambulance flew by. The 911 fire dept report says weapons at s. Lane st & lk wa blvd… just wondering if anyone has more info.
I hope you’re not festival-ed out, because there’s more music, games and food to be had in the neighborhood this weekend. The Central Area Community Festival is Saturday, August 20 at the Garfield Community Center (23rd and Cherry).
For more info, check out the festival’s website or follow it on Facebook.
Here’s the music lineup:
11:00-12:00 — Sam Chambliss
12:20 – 1:20 — Smooth Jazz. Deems Tsutakawa with Steve Banks, Steve Okimoto and Leonard Berman, With Special Guest Ray Baldwin
1:40 – 2:40 — Lady “A” & The Baby Blue Funk Band
3:00 – 4:00 — Triple Treat Band
4:20 – 5:20 — Mutha Knows Best Funk Band
5:40 – 6:40 — Carmel Latte Band
7:00 – 8:00 — EriAm Sisters
8:00 — FESTIVAL ENDS
Here’s a video of the EriAm Sisters performing in Eritrea in East Africa earlier this year. Your challenge is before you, Central District: You must party as hard as the crowd in this video:
HIP-HOP VETERAN, E-DAWG, LAUNCHES NEW RADIO SHOW GEARED TOWARD SHOWCASING INDEPENDENT TALENT AND DISCUSSING CUTTING-EDGE ISSUES
Seattle, WA [081511] – Seattle-based Hip-Hop artist and entrepreneur E-Dawg has been involved with the national and regional Hip-Hop industry since the early 1990s. One thing he has noticed is the decrease in exposure and airtime offered by radio to independent artists. “There are not enough outlets for emerging artists to access the airwaves, so I wanted to be part of the solution to that”, says E-Dawg from his Seattle office.
As part of his solution, E-Dawg began with The Northwest Highlight Show on KKNW 1150 AM in Seattle and has extended his hand further by recently launching his new program, E’s Way. “E’s Way is an outlet for independent music, but also a forum for me to express my thoughts with more than two decades in the music industry and also to invite guests and listeners to get in on the conversation”, explains E-Dawg. E-Dawg was at one point in Hip-Hop’s history a focal point of the conversation having spawned the mid-‘90s hit, “Drop Top” on Sir Mix-A-Lot’s, Rhyme Cartel imprint. Today, E-Dawg and ‘Mix’ are back in business as they are partnering in the production and development of the show with plans for expansion and possible syndication based on listener demand.
E’s Way airs Sunday evenings on KKNW 1150 AM in the Seattle-Metro area with an online simulcast at www.1150kknw.com from 6-8 PM (PST) and the program is recorded and re-distributed online via E-Dawg’s Facebook site.
For more information and inquiries, contact Joleen Sims at 206-550-3150 or [email protected]
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.
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.