We stopped by to check out the fire callout at on Fir. Although it was listed as fire in a building it turned out to be a trash fire on the corner of an apartment building parking lot.
From the remains, it appeared to be a piece of furniture that had burned, taking several other trash recepticals with it. The home to the west also sustained some minor damage to its vinyl siding.
This is an observation and if any one knows why I would love to know:
Yesterday, after a few buses during the hot afternoon hours I noted that few buses used their air. Routes included the #48, #3, #4, #2, community transit, and #43. The #43 was the only one to use air conditioning. I just wonder why since under some other less warm circumstances I have noted the air conditioning when I didn’t think it necessary.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever remember feeling so oppressively hot and unproductive indoors. That includes the month in Aug/Sept I spent in an un-airconditioned dorm in College Station, TX. At CDNews World HQ, it’s currently 93F downstairs and 97F upstairs, and well over 100F in the backyard.
The city sent word earlier today that five libraries are now closed due to indoor temperatures above 90 degrees, including the Columbia City branch. Luckily our library at 23rd & Yesler has A/C and will be open until 8pm for your cool reading enjoyment.
Seattle Public Utilities also says that water usage is at a recent high as people water their gardens and find other ways to cool off. But interestingly, conservation measures have it at 20% less than similarly hot days in the 1970s, and water storage volume is still at normal levels. They recommend only watering between 7pm and 10am due to the effect of rapid evaporation in this heat.
There have also been reports of electrical outages as equipment gets overtaxed, and brush fires in other places. We’re keeping an eye out for any of that around here and will let you know if it happens.
In the meantime, refer back to our keeping-cool story from Sunday, and stop by some of these local businesses that have A/C:
And finally, commenter arch shared this useful link a few days ago: http://www.wikihow.com/Cool-Yourself-Without-Air-Conditioning
Today the Weekly released their annual best-of list, and a lot of great Central District spots made the list:
Rahwa Habte, who cooks and organizes most of the restaurant’s events, notes that “there aren’t places in the Central District that have live shows. So we wanted something that’s accessible, where people can walk in and see people that look like them doing art, and hopefully that inspires them.”
Best Music Venue That Isn’t One goes to 20/20 Cycles:
There, amid walls adorned with bike parts and hanging wheels, you can catch up-and-coming bands as well as local institutions like Karl Blau and the Dead Science. Snarky wannabe fashion plates are all but nonexistent here. Best of all, it’s OK (well, if you’re sneaky about it) to bring in your own booze, thereby saving yourself the five bucks you’d otherwise spend on a watered-down whiskey-ginger.
Best Red Velvet Cake goes to Bella Dolce in Madison Valley:
“Magenta cakes are all over this town, but Bella Dolce’s red velvet cake—really good as a cupcake, fantastic if you can commit to a 6-inch ($25) or a 9-inch ($35) cake—is one of the best, with a moist crumb, a cream-cheese frosting that’s not overpoweringly cheesy, a hint of Dutch-process cocoa, and a color most likely a combination of FD&C 40 and FD&C 3.”
Best Place for a High-Heeled Date goes to The Harvest Vine, in Madison Valley:
A nibblet of perfectly tender calamari or a snifter of foie gras will whet your appetite for rich fare like suckling pig or braised venison, while simple dishes will surprise you with their nuanced delicacy. Sautéed with golden raisins, pine nuts, and cream sherry, the longstanding spinach dish offers a near-perfect blend of herbal flavor punctuated by nutty richness.
Best Hidden Gem off Lake Washington Blvd goes to Leschi Mart:
Venture inside this unprepossessing, multi-generation, family-owned market along Lake Washington, and you’ll find a fantastic meat counter and one of the best wine selections in town
Best Viewpoint You’ve Never Heard Of goes to the new Mt. Baker Ridge Viewpoint Park:
A community-led project opened up the space down the street from the cafe and turned it into Mt. Baker Ridge Viewpoint Park. Finished a few months ago, it’s a serene little spot, with a steel-mesh deck inviting visitors to gaze at the newly landscaped ridge below, the neighborhoods that stretch beyond, and Seattle’s famous vista beyond that.
Best Late Night Illegal Drinking Hang-Out Spot for High-Schoolers goes to Leschi Park
Beautiful and completely hidden from busy Lake Washington Boulevard, Leschi Park is and has been for some time the preferred rendezvous spot for the underage partier.
Remember last year when we talked about neighborhood efforts to expand the residential parking zones around the Swedish Cherry Hill (nee Providence) campus. Since then, some neighbors have been hard at work to add their blocks to the zone and prevent Swedish employees from taking up all of their on-street parking.
Any residents within the zone, or “RPZ”, get a special parking sticker for their cars, giving them permission to park on the street during normal work hours. People parked there without a sticker will be ticketed by the city’s parking enforcement officers.
It’s easy to see the effect the expanded zone has had on daytime parking. Here’s a photo of Columbia St. between 20th & 19th, showing only a single vehicle parked on the street. This block was added to the RPZ earlier this year:
Go just one block east, further away from the hospital and outside of the RPZ, and it’s a very different story, with cars lining both sides of the street:
These spaces are 1/3 of a mile from the nearest entrance to the hospital, and neighbors here tell me that they’re working on adding their block to the zone too.
Want to get your block added? The requirements are that you be connected to an existing block in a zone, i.e., you can’t be a no-parking island unto yourself. See the city’s map here to see how close you are to the zone. You must also get the signatures of at least 60% of the residents on both sides of your block. Once you’ve done all that, follow the instructions here to complete the process: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/parking/parkingrpz_how
From Seattle’s East Precinct, Wednesday, July 29, 2009
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Lots of sirens around MLK/Union or nearby (11:20pm)…. Any idea what’s going on?
Wow…sitting down to right an email to my block and the night was lit up with flashing police lights and sirens. Something big is going down in the neighborhood. I jumped on the scanner feed and heard them chasing someone out of the Grocery Mart parking lot south on MLK. Sounds like a police chase also occurred.
Next Tuesday is National Night Out Against Crime, and you have until this Friday to get your neighbors together and register your event. The whole idea is to get out with your neighbors and enjoy some food, maybe a few drinks, and get to know everyone around you.
Registration is free, online, easy, and gives you authority to block off your street and get to visit with all sorts of luminaries like the mayor, city councilmembers, and police command staff.
Register your event here: https://www.seattle.gov/police/nightout/eastregister.htm
And let us know in the comments below if you’re planning an event. We’ll be building an interactive map to let everyone know where to go and to give us a route to follow for event photos.
Yesterday CDNews World HQ was bombarded with several highly annoying press releases. The first, from county councilman Dow Constantine, announced that he would propose to move money from the county ferry district to support flood-control projects in the south part of the county. A later release from county executive candidate Ross Hunter blamed Constantine for ever supporting ferry funding in the first place, and also pushing that ferry funding go to flood projects in the Green River valley.
A little background: you, residents of Seattle’s Central District, are already paying significant property taxes for both pedestrian ferries and south county flood control. Those are things that most of you will never see any benefit from. In the meantime, the county is getting ready to cut huge amounts of bus service and social services that we do use, and heavily rely upon, due to the overall economic downturn.
So county leaders: how about we take that ferry funding, which is transportation related, and use it to support the bus service that benefits everyone in King County, including transit-dependent people across Seattle?
And how about if we let all of the big warehouses, retail operations, and other commercial property owners in the Green River valley pay a separate property tax to fix their potential flooding issues? After all, they’re big corporations who knowingly chose to build in a flood plain, and should be able to afford to pay their own way. Why should we foot their bill when so many other county services are on the chopping block?
This whole episode just brings up a lot of long-term county issues for me. I can’t remember a time when any county leader openly advocated for the interests of Seattle, which is 1/3 of the county’s population. We pay all sorts of taxes to support county services like law enforcement in unincorporated areas, roads out in the suburbs, parks outside of the city, county libraries, etc. But we get no benefits other than feeling good about it – none of that funding goes to help provide for the similar city services that we also pay for. Plus there’s all sorts of other issues, such as the 20/40/40 rule that dedicates most new bus service to put empty buses out in the hinterlands, while bus routes in Seattle remain standing-room-only.
And what services we do get from the county are about to dry up, as they’ve recently decided to slash human services funding that thousands of people in Seattle depend on in real life-or-death situations.
This election season, I’ll be listening for the candidates who have the courage to openly advocate for the city of Seattle. And I’ll definitely remember the ones who only posture and pitch their message to the suburbs.
Update: It looks like at least County Councilmember Phillips is trying to do the right thing here:
With bus service at risk of drastic cuts at a time when money is slated for increasing passenger ferry service, Ferry District Boardmember Larry Phillips today proposed cutting the Ferry District tax levy to $0 in 2010 in order to make tax dollars available to keep Metro buses running. The net impact on taxpayers would be no increase in taxes.
“King County must make the same kinds of choices taxpayers are making when it comes to which priorities to pay for when there’s less money to go around,” said Phillips. “When it comes to a choice between keeping existing countywide bus service on the street or providing a more expensive and selective enhancement like passenger ferry service, we need to choose buses for all county residents.”