Wind and rain and crime! Oh my!

CASA Latina moved into the neighborhood just over one year ago, after remodeling and older office building at 17th & Jackson. Now the day-laborer social service organization is planning a big expansion with a new 3-story building that will fill in the vacant lot to the west of their current location.

Here’s how Casa Latina Executive Director Hilary Stern described the project in an email to neighbors around them:

I wanted to let you know that Casa Latina is about to go through the Early Design Review process for our second building and welcomes feedback from the neighbors.  You saw our plans for the project during the Good Neighbor Agreement process.  Our current plans are basically the same, but we have made a few changes that we hope will make our building even better integrated into the neighborhood.  The Department of Planning and Development just sent out a written notice to everyone within 300 feet of our building to invite them to a public meeting on April 27 as part of our Early Design Review.  At that meeting, neighbors will have the opportunity to comment on the architectural features of the building design—such as height, bulk, scale, and street presence– and how it fits into neighborhood. The meeting will be on April 27 at 6:30 pm at Wellspring Foundation building which is located at 1900 Rainier Ave S.  I wanted to tell you this personally because I know that you are interested in making sure that our building is well integrated into the neighborhood.

I’m pretty sure that if we write about the possibility of a big storm, it will probably end up fizzling out. But we trust weather blogger Cliff Mass, so we’ll raise the warning flag anyway:

An unusually strong spring storm is approaching and will hit tomorrow. It could end up being the strongest winds in several months for the Northwest lowlands. And we have the added complication of some trees starting to leaf out–which makes them more vulnerable to a strong blow. …

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The largest pressure gradient and strongest winds will be later in the afternoon…not the morning…for Seattle and vicinity. What kind of winds? Would not be surprised to see 40-60 kts over Puget Sound and 20-40 kts over land. Expect some power outages.

See Cliff’s site for pretty colored maps and more details.

We’ll have our CDNews Storm Trackers Team ™ ready to go and will keep you up to date if it does hit.

And we can always use your help too. If you have problems like a power outage, fallen trees, or other issues, email us at [email protected], tweet us @cdnews, or call the CDNewsDesk(tm) at 206-926-3537. Then we can track the issue and help communicate repair estimates out to the neighborhood.

Introducing Matt, the new guy in town.

Former Bellingham man, Matt, just moved to the Central District (near Squire Park) a few days ago and is anxious to become a positive asset to the community. Matt enjoys frequenting local bars and clubs such as the Twilight Exit, to name one.

In an interview with his brother, a long-time resident of CD, Matt said, “I like beer”

So if you happen to see Matt in the area feel free to say “hi” and you are sure to get a friendly greeting in return with a true hearty smile.

We promise no foolin’ in the reports below:

Here in the Central District we’re very heavy users of transit. Our bus routes are standing-room-only for much of the day. And we’re also naturally big supporters of transit, giving super-majority votes to recent initiatives to expand light rail and increase bus funding. But with light rail running on I-90 and the streetcar on Broadway, so far we’ve only been skirted by the improvements. We’ve been left out of any planning that would bring the capacity, speed, and reliability of rail transit to the core of the neighborhood.

Back in November we asked our new Mayor to focus on a citywide plan for transit expansion that would include the Central District. With all the talk of adding rail service to West Seattle and Ballard, it was alarming that there still wasn’t any long-range plan to connect our neighborhood and other parts of the city to the growing regional light rail system. The obvious risk is that at some point our local support for transit could start to wane if our taxes only go up while others get the goodies.

We’re happy to report that the mayor’s office responded to one of our earlier queries, and announced that the city is beginning a new Transit Master Plan that would provide a long-range vision for the expansion of transit around the city, including here in the CD. Here’s part of the email from Nathaniel Merrill in the mayor’s office:

The mayor shares your view that Seattle needs to update its transportation planning to include a more robust transit element.  The new Transit Master Plan, which we expect to begin developing within the next few months, is envisioned to serve as a blueprint for transit investments in the same way that the recently adopted Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plans are guiding the development of improvement to help make biking and walking easier in Seattle.  With a Transit Master Plan in place, the City will be able to pursue funding to make key transit investments in neighborhoods like the Central District and throughout our city.

We followed up with the city Department of Transportation to find out more, and SDOT spokesperson Rick Sheridan told us that while it’s too early in the process to get many specifics, the broad goals of the plan will be to:

• Develop transit service and capital investment priorities and recommendations
• Make commitments to provide minimum levels of speed and reliability for high-ridership transit routes
• Identify minimum service frequencies and span of service for high-ridership routes 
• Generate more transit funding to support growth in Seattle and the region 
• Improve coordination with Metro and Sound Transit planning activities 
• Include a plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transit vehicles

If done correctly, the plan should give us a prioritized list of potential transit investments based on real data such as cost, ridership, and time savings. Ideally, that would help take politics and geographic biases out of the equation and help route funding to areas where it’s most needed.

Sheridan says that work will begin this year with a goal of finishing the plan by the end of 2011. We’ll be following this closely and will keep you up to date as it develops.

Seattle Crime is reporting that a man was pistol whipped last night at 17th & Spring:

We’ve just gotten word that police are on the hunt for two men who pistol-whipped another man near 17th and Spring around 12:30am.

We’re told the 20-year-old victim sustained some sort of head injury. No word on his condition, but only one aid unit was called to the scene, which is typically a good sign.

And Capitol Hill Seattle has a detailed story about a woman who was threatened with a gun and robbed just north of Safeway. She used a knife to defend herself and scare off her attackers:

A woman decided she had had enough after two men claimed to have a gun as they robbed her in the street near 22nd Ave E and E John late on a Friday night, earlier this month. According to the SPD report on the March 19th incident, the woman fought back after the two men had already taken her cell phone. The report says that the men implied they had a gun telling the woman they would “blow her brains out” if she moved. As one man reached into her front pocket to grab her wallet, the woman turned and saw that the other man was not holding a gun. At that, she grabbed her knife out of her back pocket and sent the men running west on Denny toward Madison, according to the report.

I+say+many+patrol+cars+on+jackson+around+26th+apparently+arresting+people.+Anybody+got+the+scoop+%3F+Looked+like+a+big+deal.+Couldnt+find+any+info.+Hmmm%3A)

Dixie Mitchell has lived in the Central District since 1967, but now she faces getting kicked out of her home due to foreclosure. She says the bank is only days away from taking it over, after a series of lenders have bought and sold the loan and the adjustable interest rate has risen up, pushing the monthly payment up to $2,568 a month, an amount that is unaffordable to a woman and her husband who only have their monthly social security checks to live on.

She and her family and friends are positioned around 23rd & Union today with signs, protesting what they see as predatory lending and asking for help from anyone who can offer it. “I’ve met with Gregoire and she said she’d help, but hasn’t. I’ve talked with KING 5 and channel 7. I’m just trying to do anything I can to save my house.”

Tears streamed down Mrs. Mitchell’s face as she told us the story. “I’ve done everything I’ve known to do. My husband is now in a nursing home due to a stroke, and the doctors say that it was the stress of this situation that caused it. They’ve bailed out the banks, bailed out Chrysler. They bailed out everyone but the poor and people who really need it.”

Taking to the streets was a last-ditch way to fight for a woman that is quickly running out of other options. “If they take the house tomorrow, then that means I’m out on the street. But at least I know I put up a fight.”

Any readers interested in helping the Mitchell family can contact Dixie directly at [email protected], or via phone at 206-330-3355.

Via a tweet from our friends at The Bottleneck, Seattle Metropolitan is reporting that Bill the Butcher is opening their fourth store in Madison Valley in April:

If you haven’t been to BtB yet, prepare yourself. You are in for some beautiful grassfed meats and housemade sausages. Each location caters to the neighborhood it serves, and if you ask for it (you want goat? you want goose?) they’ll find out how to get it for you. Stores are staffed by a head butcher with a culinary background, and, in addition to meats, stock local sundries like scavenger chicken eggs, Boat Street Pickles, and milk and cream from Golden Glen creamery.

We were talking with another business owner last week about how great it would be if we a small collection that included a neighborhood butcher, a bakery, a green grocer. With BtB opening, we just need to work on the latter two options.