The Jackson Place Business Association is working in conjunction with Arts Crush, Hiawatha Artist Lofts & Cafe Weekend to make this year’s Fall Open House an extra special event for the neighborhood and greater Art community in the North Rainier Valley/ South Seattle. The Hiawatha Lofts hosts two annual open houses in Spring & Fall (3rd Saturday in March & 3rd Saturday in October).

Hiawatha Open House: The open house event is an opportunity for the artist/ residents to showcase their current works to the neighborhood & greater community. Check out first Thursday & Cafe Weekend for the official line-up.

Arts Crush – is a month long arts festival Sponsored by Theatre Puget Sound

JPBA – Jackson Place Business Association, facebook – Please check out more details on our facebook and RSVP. Save the Date – October 23rd 4-8:30pm

Some of the things you’ll see this year alongside the open studios are: childrens story telling by Nu Black Arts West Theater, special performance by Seattle Thriller, dinner time w/ local mobile food trucks, Fall Harvest food drive – St. Mary’s Food Bank, resident & local musicians, and of course costumes are encouraged for all ages. *Enjoy some of the costumes from Fall 2009.

*we are looking for donations of pumpkins, candy & gift certificates for the costume contests. please feel free to contact us on our JPBA facebook.

We have two new dynamic businesses coming to Madrona shortly!

We have signed leases at:

1. At 1137 34th Ave: Zaw Pizza. http://www.zaw.com/

  They will be starting up in November with great gourmet “take home” Pizza. They expect to open in November.

2.  At 1135 34th Ave:  Grandesse:  This is a new business catering to retail home store goods and interior decorating business. Retail offerings will include, but no limited to, home accents, lamps, pillows, candles and books, vintage furniture, wall coverings and consignment goods. Grandesse expects to open in mid October.

We are exited and know that these businesses will greatly compliment our Madrona and Central  neighborhoods!

The Executive Board of the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition has written the following letter to the Mayor in response the August 26th presentation on the Night Life Initiative.  We appreciate any thoughts or comments you have regarding this letter.  You may comment here or at: http://www.sngi.org/welcome/contact.php?subject=Put%20me%20o!. abd letters may also be sent to the EPCPC c/o Seattle Neighborhood Group, 1810 E. Yesler Way, Seattle WA 98122 (206) 323-9666

Dear Mayor McGinn:

Thank you for sending your representatives to the August 26th East Precinct Crime

Prevention Coalition meeting to present the proposed Seattle Nightlife Initiative. In

attendance were a large and diverse representation of neighbors from Capitol Hill, the

Central District, the Pike/Pine corridor, and several other East Precinct communities.

We understand that there has been an extension of the public comment period. We are

taking this opportunity to provide you with our comments. We, as the Executive Board

of the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition, welcome another meeting with you, so

that we can discuss the proposed initiative in more detail. We have reviewed the

materials presented at the meeting and we have many questions and need more

information. We feel that the initiative’s components are insufficiently supported by

factual and strategic elements necessary to be viable and effective.

We do, however, support a vibrant Seattle nightlife and zoning for nightclubs in

business districts so long as the businesses do not impact residents.

The Seattle Nightlife Initiative needs far more discussion and investigation, and we

understand that it may be implemented incrementally.

Finally, we welcome you to attend one of our general meetings to discuss your plan for

nightlife as well as other public safety issues.

Very Truly Yours,

East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition

Executive Committee

SeattleCrime.com got a scoop on the drive-by shooting that we covered in last Friday’s Scanner report:

Gang unit detectives are investigating a possible connection between a drive-by in the Central District Friday afternoon and another shooting at a drug-deal-gone-bad in Greenwood earlier this month.

Police say four men in a brown or black BMW drove by a home in the 2800 block of E Arthur Pl. around 4:30pm on the 24th and fired seven shots, before they sped off down Martin Luther King Jr Way. No one was injured in the shooting.

Police believe the drive-by may be linked to an April 17th shooting in North Seattle. earlier this month.

There were no injuries in the Madison Valley shooting, but bullets did damage a home in the 2800 block of E. Arthur Place.

CDNews tipper Bill forwarded a note from Seattle Housing Authority noting their plans to demolish the vacant business block north of Yesler on 12th Avenue.  A fact sheet from SHA (attached at left) says that the demolition is moving forward “because it presents a safety hazard and blight in the neighborhood.”  Issues include repeated break-ins from transients who have been camping out on the second floor.

Although SHA has not immediate plans for development on the property, they’ve previously mentioned the possibility of expanded public housing to provide room for Yesler Terrace residents who will be displaced by the proposed redevelopment of the 70 year old housing complex. The block may also become home to the maintenance base for the 12th Avenue streetcar.

In the meantime, SHA says that the property will be fenced and well-maintained.

The Seattle Fire Department will be using the building for fire training on Wednesday of this week, and may include some “harmless, artificial smoke” in their drills. That could be a fun daytime outing if you have any young kids who like to watch big trucks, ladders, and people in fire gear.

The City of Seattle is short on money, and out of options to avoid painful cuts.  With a $67 million shortfall predicted for next year, today Mayor McGinn released his plans to balance the budget through spending cuts and increased fees.

The good news for the Central District is that it appears we’ve been spared some of the biggest cuts that will be hitting other parts of the city. Here’s what we’ve found after reading through hundreds of pages of budget documents:

• Parks – the wading pools at Peppi’s Playground and Powell Barnett Park will remain closed in 2011, and there are no plans to convert them to spray parks
• Playfields – Less painting and less ballfield maintenance
• Pool – No cuts at Medgar Evers pool
• Community Centers – Both the Yesler and Garfield community centers will remain open at current operating hours, while community centers in other parts of the city will be closing.
• Neighborhood Service Center – Our city office at 23rd & Jackson will remain open for paying bills and accessing other city services. But others are closing, including the one on Capitol Hill, which will spread the staff at our service center across a wider geographic area.
• Crime Prevention Coordinators – 3 of the 7 current citywide positions will be cut. We’re already sharing 3 coordinators from neighboring areas, so it’s not clear how this will affect us
• Police – Although the city will not hire the planned 64 new officers this year, reassignments and closure of the mounted patrol will provide 2 new patrol officers and one new sergeant for the East Precinct. That’s a budget increase of $689,873 vs. 2010.
• Libraries – All neighborhood libraries will stay open at current operating hours. However, the Sally Goldmark branch in Madrona will have less on-site library services, turning it into a “circulating” library focused on youth and using librarian services from other facilities.
• Fire – No reductions in neighborhood firefighting staff, though some savings will be achieved by modifying training
• Streets – Less street repair, slower pothole fixes, and less maintenance of vegetation

The city is looking for some new revenue from areas like parking fees. In addition to expanded evening and Sunday paid parking hours, the city will get aggressive on parking scofflaws, putting a boot on any vehicle with 4 or more unpaid tickets.

The next step is for the city council to review and finalize the budget, which could result in significant changes from what the mayor has proposed. Stay tuned…

All the news from the last Monday in September in Seattle’s East Precinct:

With the beginning of fall, Madrona wine bar Bottlehouse has rolled out several new features and changes.

Starting Friday, October 1, the bar will debut four rotating wine taps. This is a new trend in wine serving as it produces less waste and lowers the cost related from corks, bottles, etc. Already popular in California, wine taps are now starting to pop up in Seattle. The Bottlehouse taps will showcase wines from the downstairs Wilridge Winery as well as other artisan wineries from the Pacific Northwest. Going forward, the bar hopes to contract with local winemakers to develop its own custom blends.

Beginning Sunday, October 3, Bottlehouse will shift to fall hours. It will be closed Sunday and Monday, and open noon-11pm Tuesday-Thursday, noon-midnight Friday and Saturday.

You can see all the details in their newsletter on their Facebook page, including info about a new cheese offerings at happy hour and a new selection of bottled beers for Oktoberfest.

We got a note from the organizers of the Second Saturday art walk that they’re planning a special ARTober event for October 9th, and are actively looking for more neighborhood artists to participate.

The Central District Artwalk (Second Saturday) is looking for performers, musicians and artist for our “ARTober” event on Oct 9th. We would really like for more of our participants to be living or working in the CD. (In the past they have been coming from all over the region)

The event details are as follows:

• 1-5pm on Saturday October 9th.
• There will be a raffle for an art filled basket and we would like to artists/performers of all types. 
• There is a $10 fee for artist selling goods, to help cover printing flyers.

We’ve got a very artistic neighborhood, so it would be great to see more of our neighbors out showing off their talents. If you’re interested in participating, send a note to [email protected]. And you can learn more about the event at Centraldistrictartwalk.com.

This time around the perps smashed the front door with a piece of granite and tried (but failed) to take the flat screen TV above the kids area. They destroyed some other stuff in the process (the flat screen tv they dropped and shattered, the wall, the wall mount and it looks like some shenanigas were happening around the cash register again making the phone inoperable among other things). I am getting a new phone today once the glass guy shows up and installs the new glass for the door.

The police officer said he got one print off of the tv whilch we are hoping turns up a perp!

I will be looking for help soon with repairs to the drywall once an insurance claim goes through so if anyone is a handyman with abilities in that area let me know!

Thanks

Kedra