The Garfield High School Boys Soccer Team has finished first in the KingCo League after the regular season and now plays for the KingCo League Championship at 7:30 PM Tuesday, May 11, at Memorial Stadium. The game has high stakes; the winner goes directly to the state tournament as a #1 seed. This is the strongest Garfield team in a long time, it’s been a decade since a team from Garfield has made it to state. Come out to support your neighborhood team, and wear your purple!
You may have noticed a new byline on the last story about the new June restaurant in Madrona. Lisa Kennelly is a Seattle native who’s putting down new roots in Madrona, and will be helping us provide much enhanced coverage of “The Peaceable Kingdom.”
Lisa is a great writer with interests in food and culture, and already knows the neighborhood after growing up just down the road in Mt. Baker. She’ll be going to all of the Madrona community meetings and finding all of that neighborhood news that we’ve missed over the last couple of years.
We’re also launching a new blog within CentralDistrictNews.com that Lisa will be in charge of and using to organize all of her new content:
http://madrona.centraldistrictnews.com
You can also follow the new Madrona RSS Feed or on Twitter at @madronanews
Ever since Cremant closed over a year ago, people have been curious to know what would take the place of the chic and cozy spot on 34th Ave. Last week, signage went up for June, a new French-inspired restaurant headed by chef Vuong Loc.
June will have an invite-only soft opening this Thursday and then open officially on Tuesday, May 11.
Loc owns the well-respected French bistro Portage on Queen Anne and used to own the Pig ‘N Whistle bar and grill in Greenwood.
We talked with his sous-chef Nora Zartman this weekend and she offered some hints about the menu, which will be “a full range of French to American to Southern-style, kind of a melange.” She said you can also expect to see “fun little things like pickles and small plates and bites.”
The Seattle Weekly talked with Loc last month and reported that June will be a bit more casual than Portage, but the private dining room in the back will remain.
We’re at the scene of a bad vehicle vs. pedestrian accident at 16th & Jefferson, across from the Jefferson Tower medical building.
The victim was just taken away by ambulance in unknown condition. It appeared to a be a female, and could be serious given the size of the response and police investigation.
The vehicle involved is a 4-door Prius with a visible dent in the front.
It appears that it occurred about 20 feet east of the crosswalk. Cones there mark where the victim was struck.
The #3 and #4 bus routes are blocked, and will likely stay blocked for some tome while the investigation continues.
Update: According to Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vanderhouen, the victim was an 88 44 year old female. She was taken to Harborview with life-threatening injuries.
Update x2: The full story from the SPD blotter:
On May 3rd, at approximately 1:42 PM, a Toyota Prius was travelling southbound on 16th Avenue approaching East Jefferson Street. At the same time, a 51 year old female pedestrian started to cross East Jefferson Street from north to south. The driver of the Prius made a left turn onto East Jefferson to head eastbound. The Prius struck the pedestrian. The Seattle Fire Department responded and transported the victim to Harborview Medical Center with serious head injuries and possible internal injuries.
A DUI/DRE (drug recognition expert) officer responded as well and evaluated the driver for any signs of impairment or intoxication. There were no signs of any impairment on the part of the driver. She was interviewed and released from the scene.
Detectives from the Traffic Collision Investigation Squad (TCIS) responded and processed the scene. This is an on-going investigation.
Medics examining the victim’s personal effects
The cones mark where the victim was laying when police and medics arrived
A dent was clearly visible in the front of the involved vehicle
The Giant Magnet – Global Attractions Playing Locally – festival (formerly Seattle International Children’s Festival) takes place at Seattle Center May 11-15 and presents an extraordinary lineup of authentic international performances from across the globe including theatre, music, dance, puppetry, and circus arts. Like a Giant Magnet this festival attracts people of all ages and backgrounds.
Circus arts fans will love the clowning, juggling, balancing and acrobatics by Cirque du Soliel veteran Jamie Adkins from Québec. Music lovers shouldn’t miss performances by world-famous Black Violin who blend classical violin and contemporary hip-hop beats for a uniquely fresh sound. In addition, German group Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel present a magical, intriguing and eerie performance of the J.R.R. Tolkien classic The Hobbit that you won’t want to miss! With many more shows from around the world, including traditional Senegalese dance, Japanese puppetry, storytelling from 1
st Nations and music from Colombia, Giant Magnet has something for everyone.
Join us for a show and find out for yourself why people continue to be magnetically attracted to this festival year after year! More information and tickets available at www.GiantMagnet.org.
We’ve got a lot of public art around the neighborhood, but until we spoke to Coyote Central last week about their purchase of the 23rd & Cherry building, we had no idea how much of the neighborhood art that one organization was responsible for.
In addition to the tilework around the outside of their new building, Coyote Central has produced the tile totems in the small park at MLK & Cherry:
The recently added concrete benches at the northwest corner of Powell Barnett park:
The entranceway to Flo Ware Park:
The tilework around the Medgar Evers Pool:
The Millenium Tree sculpture outside the Garfield Community Center:
You can see the full list of Coyote Central’s work on their new website.
From the breezy streets of Seattle’s East Precinct:
The negotiations over the felon housing project at 22nd & Yesler has included a lot of talk about Good Neighbor Agreements, which attempt to limit the activities of businesses or organizations that may cause conflicts with the residents around them.
Tonight the Hidmo Community Empowerment Project is taking up the topic by hosting an open dialogue between residents and area businesses.
Previous communication between opposing sides have often broken down into unpleasant shouting matches. The format tonight will include a group of breakout sessions for several specific areas around the neighborhood, with a goal of creating some calmer, more productive discussions.
It begins at 5:30pm at Garfield Community Center.
Jean Hanson Sparks remembers when Washington Hall was the central part of her Danish community. Built by the Danish Brotherhood in 1908, it originally served as a boarding house for as many as 43 people at a time, and its large auditorium was the community gathering spot for weddings, anniversaries, and almost every holiday.
Jean and her two sisters visited the hall today for the open house and told us all about the memories of the time they spent there as children and young adults. Although the family lived way down in Kent, they would come up to Washington Hall in Seattle all the time for parties and holiday events. While the men played played in exclusive card games in the back (“you had to wait for someone to die before you could get a seat”), they’d dance and open presents at Christmas. The older revelers could enjoy generous amounts of liquor served in small plastic cups.
According to history panels at the open house, the Danes opened up the building to a variety of other communities and arts organizations as well. It hosted the first documented jazz performance in Seattle in 1918, and other jazz greats including Duke Ellington. It was also the scene for many other community events and celebrations, including Jewish theater and various political movements.
In 1973 the Danish brotherhood sold the building to the Sons of Haiti, ending the events that Jean’s family often attended. But the building took on a new life for the arts, becoming the original home for On the Boards contemporary theater productions.
The Hall is currently a candidate to win $1,000,000 in preservation funds. Make sure and take a few minutes to vote and keep it from losing to a boat.
