A big crowd is forming up around Judkins Park, preparing to march down Jackson Street.

Bus loads of marchers are arriving every few minutes, and the marchers are getting fired up with chants of “si, se puede.”

Immigrant rights are a big part of this year’s event, driven by the controversial new law in Arizona that targets undocumented immigrants.

The march is scheduled to kick off at 12:30. Expected Jackson Street and all cross streets to be closed to traffic for an hour or more as the march heads downtown to Pioneer Square.

We’ll have live updates throughout.

WHAT: 2010 Legislative Wrap-Up at the Leschi Community Council Meeting

WHEN: May 5th @ 7:30-8:30 p.m.

WHERE: Central Area Senior Center — 500 30th Ave So. 

Adam Kline, Sharon Tomiko Santos and Eric Pettigrew will be sharing their views on the just past legislative session as well as next year’s session. This is a great opportunity for community members to hear from their representatives and to ask them questions.

Looking for something fun around the ‘hood this weekend? Here’s some items from our community calendar:

Saturday, noon to 5pm: The artists and businesses near 23rd & Cherry are having open houses. Check out the stuff from Miss Cline ress, Natalie Ramsey, Tutta Lou Press, and RDA Flower Studio.

Saturday, noon to 2pm: May Day rally and march starts at Judkin’s park, heads down Jackson to Occidental

Saturday, 3pm: Kentucky Derby!

Saturday, 5pm to 11pm: Get a tour inside of a neighborhood landmark at the Washington Hall House Party and open house.

Sunday, 11am – 3pm: Soho Coffee (CDNews sponsors) are holding a Trunk Show with gifts you can get for Mom. (Mother’s Day is just 1 week away!)

Sunday, 1pm – 4pm: Your other chance to enjoy Washington Hall

Your Neighborhood Movie – Our friendly neighborhood movie house Central Cinema (CDNews sponsors) is showing Fresh (New thinking about what we’re eating) at 7pm and 9:30pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and an extra 5pm showing on Saturday. Also: they’ll have the director in the house for the 7pm Friday showing, with Q&A afterwards.

And so goes the month of April, 2010 (!). Here’s the Friday update in Seattle’s East Precinct:

                                            Hidmo Community Empowerment Project Presents….

                                                           “Neighborhood Agreements”

A Cross-Cultural Dialogue Focused on Understanding Our Neighbors & Transforming Our Relationships From ‘Agreeable’ to Accountable

              Residents, Community Organizations, Businesses hold cross-cultural forum on May 3.

SEATTLE —Hidmo Community Empowerment ProjectDepartment of Neighborhoods Seattle Parks & Recreation Neighborhood Agreements,   Monday May 3^rd5:30 to 7:30 p.m.Garfield on 2323 E. Cherry Street, Seattle.

A recent article in the explored the cultural ramifications of gentrification in Portland and Seattle’s Central District.Implicit in the article was the notion that the Central District is in cultural flux and would not find its identity for some time.That statement may be debatable, but most in the “CD” are aware of the changes, tensions, assets and needs of residents, youth, and institutions.With a community so rich in history, leadership and programming, how can we create a stronger community based on good will, trust, and the assets each individual brings to the table?

Participants in the May 3 “Neighborhood Agreements” event will be invited to share their history, culture and assets in order to shift our paradigm of deliberating and communicating.Our normal paradigm for convening is to hear from leaders who tell the “audience” what the agenda will be moving forward.While this event will begin with a large group discussion on the history of the CD from a multi-cultural perspective, the event will break into small groups using past or present interactions in the community as a catapult to understanding and community-building.

“This event is free, but it does come with a price,“ remarks H.C.E.P. director Jason Davison.“The price is to come as a participant who listens, learns and leads.This sounds ambitious, but really this event is about understanding our neighbors, our disagreements, and in the midst of what fractures us to find how we can support each other anyway.That’s what it means to be a neighbor.”

“Neighborhoods Agreements” is the seventh and final forum this Spring lead by neighbors, organizations, and the Hidmo Community Empowerment Project.This forum’s goal is to promote relationship and understanding as the mechanism of empowerment in the Central District.

Tomorrow marks the running of the 136th Kentucky Derby, which is the first leg of the Triple Crown, the most prestigious set of horse races in the U.S.  We all can’t be in Louisville to watch the race live. However, we can all tip a glass, while watching the Derby at a couple of neighborhood watering holes.

• CDNews Sponsor Bottleneck Lounge is hosting its 3rd annual Run for the Roses Party.  Doors open at 1:30 pm and the race begins at 3 pm & will be shown on 2 large flat screen televisions.  They are offering a $50 prize (Bottleneck gift certificate) for the Best Hat Award and the Seattle Slew Dressed for Overall Derby Excellence Award.  Winners will be announced at 4 pm.  Chef Ashlyn Forshner (of Belltown’s Tilikum Place Cafe) will prepare pulled pork sliders & veggie mac and cheese.  And of course, Maker’s Mark Mint Juleps will abound.
• Tavern Law, located on the Capitol Hill/Central District borderline that is Madison Street is also throwing a Derby Day party.  Doors open at 2 pm and Maker’s Mark will subsidize the bourbon drink specials Tavern Law will be offering all day.  Additional drink specials between 3 and 5 pm.  Like Bottleneck, Tavern Law is offering a prize for best dressed.  Here is the invite. 

Josh Mahar (on the CHS blog) highlights a program to make “stalled” building sites more attractive while they await the revival of our economy.  Jim Mueller’s 23rd & Union project had independently done that last summer, with the art installation there. However as time passes the artworks are gently decomposing and the weeds are taking over as the site takes on the appearance of what Europeans of a certain age would refer to as a bombsite. (I alerted Jim to the issue, via this photo, and he promises to get on it).

Maybe we can inspire him to be part of the City program? Any other stalled lots in the CD that you’d like to nominate?

(BTW: smart phones as instruments of change: saw the weedy lot while taking part in a street cleanup. Took and E-mailed the picture on the spot, and had a reply from Jim by the time I got home!)

Tonight I came home to find my ten solar-powered sidewalk lights had disappeared. Sadly I’m not surprised – I knew when I installed the lights there was a chance some selfish person would grap them for their own – but I am very disappointed. It’s not so much the dollar value as they are easily replaceable, it’s the whole idea that someone is walking down the street, spots my lights and thinks “hey those are cool, I think I’ll take them for my home.” And given that you have to walk up a set of stairs to get to the lights, there was purpose involved, not just some snatch and go.

You may be getting a friendly knock on the door soon.

Just weeks after the deadline passed to mail in 2010 Census forms to the government, workers have arrived in the CD to touch base with those who haven’t done it.  On our afternoon walk today, we briefly chatted with a group of women near 28th and Jefferson — with nifty Census  bags and armfuls of forms — who were beginning their first day of making door knocks.

They said it was a “training period,” but any information they gather is recorded and turned in.  If you didn’t fill out your Census form, you can expect a visit.  Every 10 years, according to our country’s constitution, Census takers must account for every person living in the U.S.  

Back in February we wrote about the proactive repair work that was going to replace about 50′ of saggin sewer line near 31st & E. Thomas. Originally estimated to last 2-3 weeks, the work there is still ongoing.

SPU project manager Young Kim tells us that the scope of the work unexpectedly expanded once construction started, and now includes a full 150 feet of pipeline between two manholes.

The expanded worked has taken the project across Thomas, regularly interrupting traffic there.

Kim says that the new estimate for completion is within the next couple of weeks, and that once it’s finished SDOT will come out to replace the concrete in the street, sidewalks, and adjacent curb-ramps.