This holiday season there’s a renewed focus on small businesses, as the great recession continues to cause problems for our neighborhood shops. We’ve been taking a lot of weekend walks through Leschi recently, and have become big fans of one locally owned business down there. 

Pert’s Deli sits right on Lakeside Avenue, in the business block between the two ends of the marina there. And so far everything we’ve had there has been great. Their coffee is excellent, and crafted in a much more loving way than their corporate competition that sits across the street.

And if you need a bite to eat, they’ve got a great selection of sandwiches that are made to order.

But I think our favorite item so far is in the desert category. The Pert Bar is a tasty complement to either a latte or to top off an otherwise light lunch.

Pert’s is open 7am to 5pm on weekdays and 8am to 5pm on weekends. Give them a shot and tell us all about your experience by leaving a review here on the site.

 Dear friends and neighbors,

  

If you or someone you know plans to purchase a live Christmas tree this year, you can make your purchase support the work of enterprising and hopeful young people? 

 

 

AFFORDABLE PRICES! Trees are priced to fit YOUR budget.

Place your order today! Better still, tell all your family, friends, church and other groups about this

opportunity to continue being part of the change and let us know HOW MANY TREES should be set aside.

Trees are available for pick up at the center daily from 9am-9pm starting Saturday, Nov. 27th. The UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center is located at 2314 E. Spring St. (24th & Spring St.) in central Seattle.  One block south of Union st behind the Post Office.

To place your order today, please call 206.329.1591 or 206.941.2527.  

If you do not want a tree but would like to support by making a contribution please do so at www.umojafestpeacecenter.com or mail your contribution to:

Please reference tax ID#14-1798232 for your tax deductible contribution.

Thank you for your consideration and we hope that you can help us make the promise of change a reality.  

Thank you.

UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center

 

The UmojaThe UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center is a community based, multi-faceted youth-centric cultural facility in the heart of Seattle’s historic Central District.

UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center engages and trains youth, young adults and community members to be advocates for themselves and community through outreach, training, meeting with elected officials and other stakeholders as well as attending and participating in public forums and hearings. 

Community Building Events

Since its inception, the UPC has held several events at the site and throughout the community bringing together thousands people from across the northwest and nation.  UPC events offer a unique mix of education, entertainment, cultural awareness and civic engagement from weekly dinners to rally’s to candidate forums.

 

 

 

1st Annual Seattle Hip-Hop Career & Business Expo

 

Through partnerships to implement innovative program models in arts, technology and entrepreneurship the UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center seeks to provide educational programs that fosters positive, experiential learning alternatives for youth. 

The Hip Hop Communiversity is a learning center started by a group of youth and supporters who felt like sitting around just talking about the school system wasn’t enough. So they started a school!

The goal of the project is to coordinate culturally enriching entrepreneurial based activities that address social and community development using technology as a bridge to future employment. The program is hosted at the UmojaFest P.E.A.C.E. Center in central Seattle. The Hip-Hop Communiversity features reco
rding and video production studios and free classes in the Music Business, Debate, Politics &

Civics, Video Production,  Fashion Design & Merchandising, Science of Flow/Art of Emceeing, DJing 101, Event Planning & Promotions and more.

Sew Beautiful Fashion Program

GAME RECOGNIZE GAME Urban Sports Marketing Academy

Founded in 2008, the GAME RECOGNIZE GAME Urban Sports Management Academy is an experiential learning project for at-risk youth. The project introduces youth to the many business and career opportunities surrounding professional sports. Participants gain valuable skills including decision making, strategic planning, marketing and resource management by planning the annual Heal The Hood Outdoor Youth Basketball Tournament at Umoja Fest community basketball tournament and related activities. The curriculum uses professional sports as a lens to examine the attitudes and behaviors necessary for success on the court or playing field and in life. Guest speakers include professional and college athletes, sports agents, entertainment lawyers, sports journalists and more.

For more info contact Earl Parker at 206.683.9164 or via email at [email protected]

The annual Umoja Fest African American Heritage Festival & Parade is the oldest and largest African American community festival in the northwest and a shining example of youth using their creative energy to build stronger and safer communities. All members of the community are invited to participate and help make this event an overwhelming success.

Youth Chess Academy

The purpose of the UPC Chess Academy is to introduce youth to critical thinking and problem solving skills using the game of chess as a lens to examine the attitudes and behaviors necessary for success in life. The program is intergenerational and also helps youth develop positive relationships with adults.

Please join Councilmember Mike O’Brien, Mayor McGinn and other guests for a discussion about the shortcomings in the latest environmental document released by the state regarding the Alaskan Way Viaduct Deep Bore Tunnel Project Wednesday, December 1st at Town Hall (8th and Seneca). Doors open at 6:30pm, and the discussion begins at 7:30pm.

I hope you can join us!

You can read the state’s version of the project’s cost/benefit analysis here. Meanwhile, Seattle Transit Blog has a thoughtful piece on the situation here.

Deep-Bore Tunnel—What Could Go Wrong?
Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 7:30 – 9pm
Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street.

Governor Gregoire recently announced that bids for the deep bore tunnel on Seattle’s waterfront are at or below budget; tunnel opponents scoff at the likelihood they’ll stay there, and maintain that Seattle will be left holding the bag for inevitable overruns. And this is just the latest battleground—after years of bruising political battles, opponents still voice concerns about tolls and downtown access, while many proponents seem glad simply to have a plan to replace the endangered viaduct. Washington’s Department of Transportation is accepting public comment on the project until December 13th, so if you take them at their word, the conversation isn’t officially over yet. Advancing the skeptics’ case, Stranger news editor Dominic Holden will moderate a session with Mayor Mike McGinn, Councilmember Mike O’Brien, and Drew Paxton (Move Seattle Smarter). Presented by The Stranger.

Free, no tickets required.

The Molly Moon’s empire of ice cream shops is considering where to open its third store in the city following frozen treat domination in Capitol Hill and Wallingford. Madrona is on the short list. Want to help sway Molly’s decision? Like the Molly Moon’s to Madrona Facebook page. Or don’t. It’s your choice!

Molly Moon’s Shop Number Three…Where will it be?

Big News! Molly Moon will be expanding her Seattle ice cream empire with
the addition of a third shop in the summer of 2011. Unsure of what Seattle
neighborhood to call home, we will be parking Leo, in three locations over
the next three months to see where the most ice…cream-lovin’ Seattleites
reside. 

Beginning tomorrow Wednesday, Dec. 1 Leo will be parked in Madrona at
1435 34th Ave. for the month of December! Open Wed & Thurs 5-10pm
and Fri, Sat & Sun from 12 to 10 p.m. Kids who visit Leo tomorrow
between 6 and 8 p.m. will receive a free kid-sized scoop! 

Following Leo’s December stint in Madrona, Seattle’s favorite ice cream
truck will move to Queen Anne in January and will spend all of February in
Ballard. Stay tuned for updates on Leo’s Queen Anne and Ballard
whereabouts.

How is Nova Alternative High School doing in their “new” location, a year and a half after their move?

“The people you should be asking are the students,” said Dr. Mark Perry, Principal at Nova.  And so we did. 

When the Seattle School Board voted to close numerous schools two years ago Meany Middle School, one of the smallest middle schools in the district, was slated to close.  At the same time Horace Mann School, once an elementary school which had housed Nova Alternative High School for decades, was deemed unsafe and unsound.  The district used this opportunity to move the Nova school from the Mann School building to the Meany School building, which it would share with the Secondary Bilingual School.  Mann was left vacant, its fate undecided. 

Now, just as Nova is midway through their second year at the old Meany Middle School building, a nonprofit group has arranged to lease the Horace Mann School from the Seattle School District to start a school for at-risk youth, focusing on 16 to 21-year-olds who have dropped out of high school and would like to earn their diplomas and get their lives straightened out – and they’re using a $100,000 Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Grant to do it.  Volunteers joined forces with BEAN Seattle and the Work it Out project to make repairs to the building, and it is slated to open in January 2011.

But wait a minute… didn’t the district say the building was unsafe and unsound?

“They said it was not restorable, that it had not been maintained so it wasn’t safe. But who was it that didn’t maintain it? The school district.  They were the ones who were supposed to be taking care of it, and they didn’t.”  That’s the opinion of Nova High School student Carter Allen, who attended Nova school for two years at the the Mann building and is now in his senior year at the Meany building.  

Though the Nova school was moved ostensibly to provide a safer school environment for its students, Allen said that wasn’t the case.  The Meany building also had structural and safety issues.  “The walls were not attached to the floors or the ceilings,” said Allen.  Additional safety concerns popped up, including chemistry labs with no running water – that meant no water for eye flushes, no water in the sinks, and no water in the emergency shower.  

Those structural and plumbing issues were eventually addressed, but Allen said that there were many small inconveniences that made the transition from Mann to Meany difficult for Nova students.  For example, Meany was designed as a middle school, so Allen said that things were simply smaller than the high schoolers were used to – chairs, desks, lockers, restrooms.  Additionally, even with running water the chemistry lab equipment does not meet the technological standards of a high school curriculum, says Allen, because it wasn’t designed to.  Though Horace Mann had been originally designed as an elementary school, Nova had been housed there for so long that things like desks and lab equipment had been retrofitted for high schoolers. 

Then there were the bells.  “We asked for them [the district] to separate the bell systems in the building” because Nova does not use bells to signify the end of classes, but the Secondary Bilingual School does.  Allen said that though they were assured the bell system would be adjusted for them before the school opened in September 2009 it was not, and though the district fixed it quickly in most of the classrooms some of them still had bells ringing months into the school year, which was a big distraction for teachers and students.

The architectural differences between the buildings has also affected the school dynamics.  Allen said that at the nearly 100-year old Mann school people were up or downstairs, but always easy to find and interact with.  In the Meany building its mid-century design means Nova’s approximately 300 students are housed in 13 classrooms in one long hallway. For Allen, it feels less connected.

Students we talked with say it was the sense of community that Nova faculty and students missed the most and are working hard to rebuild in their new home.  Students had painted murals and created art installations all around the Horace Mann building, and losing those was painful for students and teachers – but they are creating new art.  Nova students and faculty are doing whatever they can to stay positive and look forward instead of backward.  Allen said they didn’t want incoming freshmen and transfer students to feel like they missed out on anything by not attending school in the Mann building.  The first year it was discussed a lot more in terms like “old” and “new” because it was all so fresh, but now in their second school year in the Meany building, it comes up a lot less often.

Tammy Do, a senior at Nova, transfered from West Seattle High School after her sophomore year.  She never attended Nova at the Mann building, but said that she still senses anger from the other students and some teachers regarding the school’s move.  “It was a great loss in our community here at Nova,” she said. 

Do chose to attend Nova when she realized that what she was learning in a traditional high school wasn’t being applied in her life outside of the classroom.  While the opportunity to shape her own education and “stretch [her] mind beyond what is just needed to graduate” really appealed to Do, she admits that her first year at Nova was challenging because it was so different.  Students are not forced to attend specific classes or do standard homework, but rather work with education coordinators to create a curriculum for themselves.  They have to be self-starters. She said, “motivation is very hard” for some teenagers, but that help was always available to her when she asked for it and she always knew she had a support network there to go to, and so she did.  Do is very happy with her decision to attend Nova.

For Carter Allen, news that the district would be leasing out the building his school had been forced to vacate was upsetting.  He said even now there are rumors circulating at Nova that the district plans to move the school again, which he hopes are false.  While it is wonderful to see the Mann building used for education again, it does make Allen feel as though Nova may have been cheated out of something.  Certainly this turn of events is bittersweet. 

Sequoia sempervirens, originally uploaded by brewbooks.

Seattle University officials have invited the community to join them for this year’s lighting of the SU ‘holiday’ tree, a giant Sequoia tree in the middle of campus that some believe should be left alone and not damaged by another year of decorating. UPDATE: Seattle U tells us the decision was made to light a different campus tree — so, no controversy, just holiday cheer!

From SU’s The Spectator:

“If you look at the tree, you will see that it is dying … it’s browning at the top” said David Madsen, associate professor of history and medieval studies.

A few other members of the faculty expressed their concerns about the tree lighting to the Spectator after word of the cost circulated. Madsen notes that he got messages from approximately 15 other staff members in response to an email voicing his concern sent to both the Spectator and many members of the faculty.

“My main concern is the environmental stress on the tree. Half of the root structure is paved over – which is not ideal … does it make sense to add more stress?” said Gordon Miller, director of environmental studies who expressed similar concerns about the health of the tree – though he was unaware what the exact cause of the browning was.

The recent release of performance reports for Seattle Public Schools, including Madrona K-8, sparked debate on and off line over what the ratings signify and how to interpret them. The middle school at Madrona K-8 received a 3 on the new 1-5 scale (5 being the highest) while the elementary school received a 1 (full report here).

This Wednesday, December 1 at 5:30pm, Principal Farah Thaxton will host a meeting in the school cafeteria to discuss the report and the overall data in more detail. While Principal Thaxton has already met with the Madrona PTSA in November to discuss the report, this meeting will be open to the public and also have a district data coach on hand to share insight on how the information was collected. 

The goal of the meeting is to “give families another opportunity to learn about the data as well as invite the larger community and prospective new families to participate in the conversation.”

The school community will also discuss the two main challenges facing the school – student performance and under-enrollment – and the proposal on the table for addressing these challenges. The proposal put forward by Principal Thaxton is to bring unique programs in academics and arts to the school, including partnering with math and science program MESA and adding vocal and instrumental music and drama to the curriculum.

Incoming families and other community members are encouraged to attend tomorrow’s meeting.

Over on sister site Capitolhillseattle.com, we’ve posted a report card for how the city and Metro handled Seattle’s Thanksgiving 2010 snow .

Overall, compared to 2008/2009, it seemed like things were better this time around. Disagree?

Remember that rock hampering the Madison Valley project we wrote about before the Thanksgiving week snowstorm made slush and ice the main underfoot worry? It’s still there — and it’s still has further tunneling on hold while Seattle Public Utilities tries to figure out how to remove the stone from the path of its future storm drain.

We’ll talk with SPU for an update but when we last discussed the problem with the Shaft 5 project manager, the crew still wasn’t sure just how big this nuisance of a rock is. SPU said it could be up to 60 inches wide when we talked last week. It lies in the dirt beneath the pavement in front of Bailey-Boushay House. It doesn’t yet have a nickname. SPU just calls it “the rock.”

In the meantime, drivers in the area should be ready for delays as work to deal with the rock continues:

Drivers near the intersection of E Madison Street and 28th Avenue E should be prepared for intermittent detours and brief lane restrictions as crews perform minor drilling and potholing necessary to locate and remove the obstruction without impacting adjacent utilities

Though boring is on hold while the rock problem persists, excavation in Washington Park to prepare for tank construction has continued.