District 4 candidates forum (LIVE COVERAGE)

March 16, 2015 by 2 Comments

On Wednesday, March 18, the District 4 Seattle City Council candidates will once again meet before a live and local audience.

A forum is being held at Sand Point Community Church’s Perry Hall (4710 NE 70th Street) from 7:30-8:30 PM. Candidates have previously met before District 4 residents on two occasions (before the Eastlake Community Council and the Roosevelt Neighbors’ Alliance). 

Candidates participating include: Rob Johnson, Taso Lagos, Michael Maddux, Tony Provine, and incumbent Jean Godden.  

Nancy Bolin (with the View Ridge Community Council) will moderate the event, sponsored by Hawthorne Hills Community Council, View Ridge Community Council, Laurelhurst Community Club and Ravenna-Bryant Community Association.

Wednesday night’s event is the last scheduled one for the current candidates before the Northeast District Council forum on Wednesday, June 17. 

We will be attending this event and will provide live coverage below (as reception at the venue allows).

Filed Under: Bryant, City Council, Laurelhurst, Live Coverage, Meeting, Northeast Seattle, Ravenna, Ravenna Springs, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association, Roosevelt, Roosevelt Neighborhood Association, Sand Point, Sand Point Community United Methodist Church, University District, University Park, View Ridge, Wedgwood, Wedgwood Community Council, Windermere

Welcome to the 2015 Seattle City Council District Games (UPDATE)

April 21, 2014 by 7 Comments

Earlier in April, the City of Seattle finally released the official 2015 map of the Seattle City Council Districts. The reason for the map and the new way of electing our city councilmembers being (via seattle.gov):

In 2013, Seattle voters passed a measure amending our city’s charter to establish City Council districts. In 2015, voters will elect seven out of the nine City Council members by district. The remaining two positions will be elected “at-large” (city-wide) in positions 8 and 9.

Our Ravenna neighborhood is located in Council District 4, along with Bryant, Roosevelt, View Ridge, Sand Point, Windermere, Laurelhurst, Hawthorne Hills, the University District, Eastlake, half of Wedgwood, most of Wallingford, and a touch of Fremont — which is why it is so great to finally have a city-approved map with hard boundaries.

Northern portion of the Council Districts map. Click to open the interactive version.

Northern portion of the Council Districts map. Click to open the interactive version.

Within the interactive map above, Seattle residents can search for their address to find out which Council District they are located in, or just zoom in and around to see what neighborhoods are located in which districts.

On Wednesday, March 12, Crosscut held an event called “Mapping Seattle’s New Political Landscape,” where contributors Ben Anderstone and Knute Berger talked about Seattle’s newly created City Council Districts.

While we did not attend, we did follow along on twitter. Here’s what the duo had to say about our District 4, in one slide:

As for how City Council races will be scheduled in the future, the City Clerk’s office lays out the following timeline:

In 2015:

  • All nine Councilmember seats will be up for election and the transition will occur during that city election
  • Seven districted Councilmembers will be elected to four-year terms
  • The remaining two at-large Councilmembers will be elected to a two-year term

In 2017:

  • Seven districted Councilmembers will be elected to four-year terms*
  • The two at-large seats will be elected to four-year terms
  • The at-large Councilmembers will from this point forward be on the same election cycle as the Mayor and City Attorney

Then in the fall of 2022 (and every ten years thereafter), “a five-member Districting Commission will be created to redraw the district boundaries.”

Current City Councilmember Jean Godden has already tossed her hat into the ring for the newly created District 4 seat (she’s a View Ridge resident). But so far, at the time of writing, and with the filing deadline being over a year away, only current CMs have filed for reelection.

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One of Councilmember Tim Burgess’s legislative aides, Alex Pedersen, made a suspicious move earlier in April: His monthly “4 to Explore: A Northeast Neighborhoods Newsletter,” published online or sent via email since August 2013, showed up in paper form in the Seattle Times. When asked if he’s considering running, fellow Council District 4 resident Pedersen told us (via email):

We hear a lot from interest groups but not enough from families because they are busy working to get by. So the newsletter highlights not only important neighborhood issues, but fun stuff that will be engaging and relevant each month.

I support Jean Godden and she’s aware of the newsletter 🙂

The deadline for getting on the ballot in 2015 is Friday, May 15, 2015, so District 4 residents have plenty of time to decide to run. You can track all the City Council candidates running in the 2015 Primary here, on seattle.gov.

And to all present and possible future Council District candidates, I say: May the odds be ever in your favor.

 

UPDATE (10:07 AM): Serendipitously, Crosscut’s Knute Berger has a piece out just this morning about this very topic: “New survey offers tips for implementing Seattle’s new city council districts.”

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* Correction: We accidentally repeated the “Seven districted Councilmembers…” line in both lists. Thank you, Tony Provine, for alerting us to this error.

Filed Under: Bryant, City Council, Civic Envolvement, Laurelhurst, Northeast Seattle, Ravenna, Ravenna Springs, Roosevelt, Sand Point, University District, University Park, Updates, View Ridge, Wedgwood, Windermere

Water main breaks between University Village and the NE 45th Street viaduct (UPDATE)

October 8, 2013 by 2 Comments

Updates appear at the bottom of the Storify window — hit the blue “Read next page” button below to view them.

Filed Under: 911, Laurelhurst, Open/Closed, Photos, Ravenna, Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Public Utilities, Traffic, University District, University Village

New eats and treats coming soon to Northeast Seattle (UPDATE)

April 12, 2013 by 24 Comments

Our favorite kind of news? NEW RESTAURANT NEWS.

And we have LOTS.

…

Coming soon, to the old Pied Piper Alehouse space (2404 NE 65th St) is…

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…a Patty’s Eggnest.

There are currently nine Patty’s Eggnest locations in Washington State, all of which are independently owned and operated. Patty’s specializes in breakfast. So much so that their Eggs Benedict have their OWN MENU. NINE different kinds, people.

Here’s more about their menu, from the About page:

We serve delicious, hearty meals made to order and made from scratch with fresh, choice ingredients. In a comfortable, family-friendly atmosphere, we’ll be happy to fill your table with home-cooked breakfast favorites. Fresh-squeezed orange juice, Swedish pancakes, scrumptious scrambles, and hearty chicken-fried steak are just some of the dishes that we feature on our menu at all locations. We also feature tasty lunches, like hot delicious sandwiches, big burgers with seasoned fries, and fresh salads. For several of our locations, we are open for dinner hours as well, serving fresh roasted turkey dinners and soup made-from-scratch.

…

Headed into some of the new restaurant space in the new south building at University Village is a new restaurant by Beecher’s Cheese Head, Kurt Dammeier: Liam’s.

Via Eater Seattle, Dammeier says:

We’ll serve all Northwest wine and our basic food I describe as ‘upscale homestyle’ — mostly dishes that are familiar or reasonably familiar to a suburban crowd, but made better.

Dammeier is also the guy behind Pasta & Co., which already has a home at University Village.

That same Eater piece claims that “a Joey’s and a Din Tai Fung will also be moving in.” That’s a lot of restaurants. But with 24,626 sq. ft. of restaurant space available in that new building, anything is possible.

…

Over in the Laurelhurst direction, Bill the Butcher is getting a new, unlikely neighbor:

Violet Sweet Shoppe, a vegan bakery and cafe, plans to open along NE 45th Street in May. If you’d like to help them along, financially, they’ve got a Kickstarter going.

I can't believe it's not butter. (Cake picture courtesy Violet Sweet Shoppe.)

I can’t believe it’s not butter.
(Cake picture courtesy Violet Sweet Shoppe.)

…

The old Casa D’Italia location (2615 NE 65th St) has been leased again, to a business under the name “Conception Hermosillo” (according to records with the Washington State Liquor Control Board).

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But this is about all we know so far. TO BE CONTINUED.

…

The overlap section of a hypothetical Northeast Seattle Venn diagram of “Cloud City Coffee” and “Magnuson Park” will be excited about this last one.

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Another find from the Washington State Liquor Control Board’s list of new liquor license applicants: CLOUD CITY SAND POINT.

O RLY? What’s the address? “6327 NE 74TH ST?”


View Cloud City Sand Point location? in a larger map

Hey, that’s inside Magnuson Park! What’s that address look like right now?

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Oh my.

Let’s zoom out.

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I don’t think it’s ready yet, do you?

Another one for the TO BE CONTINUED pile. We’ll contact Cloud City and Seattle Parks and Recreation on this one and report back.

UPDATE (5:35 PM): We’ve heard back from one of the Sand Point Tennis Center managers, Scott Marshall, who said, “Cloud City will be the cafe operator inside of our 6-court building. We are extremely excited about this partnership.”

Learn more about the Sand Point Tennis Center being built at Magnuson Park here.

Filed Under: Construction, Food, Laurelhurst, Magnuson Park, Maple Leaf, Northeast Seattle, Photos, Ravenna, Restaurants, Sand Point, University Village, Updates

Three alarm fire in Laurelhurst (PHOTOS)

October 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Filed Under: 911, Laurelhurst, Photos, Seattle Fire Department

Author’s old Roosevelt residence to make way for apartments (UPDATES)

May 16, 2012 by 11 Comments

UPDATE (Sunday, May 20): We received an email from Paula Becker who wrote both the HistoryLink.org and Seattle Press essays on Betty MacDonald, and she has clarified the timeline for us:

Betty’s mother bought the house at 6317 15th Avenue NE around 1930.  Prior to that, the family had been living in Chimacum — Betty with her husband Robert Hackett and two young daughters Anne and Joan, her mother and other family members nearby — those are the years described in The Egg And I.  Betty left her marriage in ca. 1931 and moved in with her mother and other family members.  The following years are those described in Anybody Can Do Anything.  It was in this house that Betty was living when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and entered Firland Sanatorium for treatment during 1938-1939.  Her daughters stayed with her mother in the house.  The family lived in the house until ca. 1942, when Betty married Don MacDonald and her mother apparently sold the house — at any rate, they moved out.

____________________

The Roosevelt home of author Betty MacDonald (“The Egg and I,” “Mrs. Piggle Wiggle,” and more) will be removed should the city’s Department of Planning and Development approve plans for apartments in its place.

Author Betty MacDonald resided here at 6317 15th Ave NE between 1931 and 1938 (correction).

The large white Notice of Proposed Land Use Action sign describes Project # 3013282 as “Land Use Application to allow four three unit apartments (12 units). Existing single family residence (6313 15th Ave NE) to remain; existing single family residences (6317 & 6321 15th Ave NE) to be removed. For a total of 13 residential units.”

6313 15th Avenue NE (left, light green) will remain

The house was built in 1910. A picture of the residence taken in 1939 is included in the HistoryLink.org slideshow of the King County homes of Betty MacDonald and her sister, Mary Bard.

Betty MacDonald (1908-1958) was the author of ten books, many of which were autobiographies detailing her humorous and adventurous life in Washington state. The best known of these, “The Egg and I,” published in 1945, was based on her experiences running a chicken farm with her husband on the Olympic Penninsula. A film loosely based on the book came out in 1947, and starred Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

From the self-guided walking tour of MacDonald’s 1933 Roosevelt: “Time Traveling in the Roosevelt District with Betty MacDonald” (via the Internet Archive):

Elsie (Sydney) Bard, Betty’s mother, was widowed when Betty was twelve years old. Left with five children, Sydney lived on in the big house in Laurelhurst she and her husband had purchased in 1919. By 1924, reduced funds and the desire to be closer to the new Roosevelt High School, which opened its doors in 1922, brought the Bard family to 15th Avenue NE. Sydney and various of her children lived in the house, number 6317, for almost twenty years.

MacDonald describes the house at the time her family resided there in her 1950 book, “Anybody Can Do Anything:”

According to real estate standards Mother’s eight-room, brown-shingled house in the University district was just a modest dwelling in a respectable neighbourhood, near good schools and adequate for an ordinary family. To me […] that shabby house with its broad welcoming porch, dark woodwork, cluttered dining room plate rail, large fragrant kitchen, easy book-filled firelit living room, four elastic bedrooms–one of them always ice-cold–roomy old-fashioned bathrooms and huge cluttered basement, represents the ultimate in charm, warmth and luxury.

UPDATE (2:35 PM): The notice on the property lists a comment period ending May 16, but could be extended to May 30. Comments can be sent to PRC@seattle.gov or call (206) 684-8467. Be sure to mention the project number: 3013282.

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Filed Under: Construction, Government, History, Laurelhurst, Photos, Roosevelt, Roosevelt High School, Updates