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In the spirit of community and Thanksgiving, we invite you to join your neighbors and students at St. Catherine School in Maple Leaf to collect food items for the residents of Nickelsville in Lake City and Tent City 3 in Meadowbrook.
What is needed: Food items that don’t need to be heated or refrigerated. Good examples are fruit, breakfast bars, muffins, small bottles of fruit juice and meat sticks. Other great contributions are small bottles of Purell and hand wipes.
How to make a donation: Drop off your donations at the Lake City Neighborhood Service Center (12525 28th Avenue Northeast
Seattle, WA 98125-4319) Monday 11/22 – Wednesday 11/24 from 8 am to 5 pm. Please note that no money contributions can be accepted. **
Deadline: All donations need to be received by Wednesday afternoon, November 24th. St. Catherine students and parents will assemble gift bags (decorated with Thanksgiving messages by the students) on Wednesday night and will deliver them on Thursday morning.
Questions?: Renee Staton, reneeastaton@gmail.com, 206-225-5739
**Note: If you cannot donate at the Lake City Service Center, please contact Renee Staton at the above phone/e-mail to arrange an alternative drop-off.
Hooray! The bids came in, and the chosen contractor’s bid was less than the budgeted amount. Parks Department has given notice to the contractor to begin work. We should have a grand shelterhouse by the end of the year. A good excuse to celebrate?
This week’s art in the Pinehurst Pocket Park at 19th Ave NE and NE 117th St is by Austin, a 5th grader at Sacajawea Elementary. Thanks, Austin!
Ed Pottharst emailed this out to many people in Lake City and Renee forwarded it to our list but I wanted to make sure as many people got to see it as possible.
November 15, 2010
Dear Lake City residents,
I am writing to let you know that the vacated former Fire Station 39 will be made available as
shelter for the camp known as Nickelsville for a period of 4-6 months.
This winter could be unusually wet and cold, and during a time of economic hardship and limited
resources, it is incumbent upon the City to make use of resources such as the former fire station
with creativity and compassion.
The building is located next to the brand new Fire Station 39, and will provide security and warm
showers for Nickelsville’s campers. Kyle Joyce, a property manager from the City’s Department
of Fleets and Administrative Services, has been assigned to oversee the facility while it is being
used for this purpose. The City will keep residents informed about the old station, but it is our
hope that the temporary use by Nickelsville will be met with understanding.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mr. Joyce at (206) 684-7154.
Sincerely,
Michael McGinn
Mayor
It’s also being covered here in the SLOG: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/11/15/mayors-office-moves-nickelsville-to-lake-city and I’m sure there will be even more details over time.
[EDIT:]
And I was right about more details. Danae over at LakeCityLive was able to grab some recent pictures of the setup here: http://lakecitylive.net/2010/11/15/nickelsville-moves-to-lake-city
[EDIT #2:]
SEATTLE – Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith announced today the site of the former Fire Station 39, located at northwest corner of Northeast 127th Street and 30th Avenue Northeast in the Lake City neighborhood will provide a winter shelter for the homeless encampment known as “Nickelsville.” Under the agreement signed with the city, the encampment will be housed at the site for approximately four to six months. It will be managed by the city’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services, which owns and manages the city’s fire stations.
The station was vacated when the brand new Fire Station 39 opened next door. The new station was built as part of the city’s Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy program. The city plans to eventually sell the property to support the levy.
“With snow forecast for this weekend and warnings of a long winter ahead, we moved fast to get the tent city residents into a secure and warm spot,” Smith said. “During this time of economic hardship and limited resources, it is incumbent upon the city to make use of resources, such as the former fire station, with creativity and compassion. It is our hope that the temporary use by Nickelsville will be met with understanding.”
The city is considering a city-sanctioned homeless encampment of up to 100 to 150 people at the site of the former Sunny Jim peanut butter factory, located in the SODO district at Airport Way South and South Snoqualmie Street. The city’s traffic signal and traffic sign shop occupies the south end of the site. The north end is now open because the building that housed the old peanut butter factory was destroyed by a fire a couple of months ago. The site will be cleared and graded flat, offering sufficient space to support an encampment and services for residents. Seattle would seek a nonprofit or other organization to manage the encampment, providing services to residents and data to the city. If the Sunny Jim site is deemed viable, it is not expected to be available until next spring at the earliest.
Experience has shown getting someone housed is the fastest and most effective way for a person to become self-sufficient. Unfortunately, the region has not been able to keep up with the demand. Since the beginning of Seattle’s participation in the 10-year Plan to End Homelessness, Seattle has provided funding to produce 1,601 units of housing for formerly homeless adults, families and youth. These units have been realized through a combination of acquisition and rehabilitation of existing buildings and new construction. Additionally, Seattle has secured operating and rental subsidies in existing housing to support another 967 units for formerly homeless adults, families and youth. Similar efforts elsewhere in King County have produced 464 units and secured operating and rental subsidies for another 1,117 units.
But despite that great progress, Seattle stills lack sufficient resources and facilities to meet the considerable needs of the unsheltered. In the most recent count, Seattle found nearly 2,000 people on the streets between 2 and 5 a.m. Waiting lists for housing are long, and shelters can pose serious challenges to people trying to hold down a job or in need of a safe place to spend the day.
Great Songs, beautiful women with great voices, a sleazy lawyer, and more keep you entertained at Seattle Musical Theatre’s production of Chicago. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll recognize some of the songs and remember many jail scenes, but there’s a lot of energy and power to the live show that can’t be captured on screen, no matter how nice your personal media setup may be.
The show is full of a great variety of song and dance and includes everything from mellow to frantic and everywhere in between. The cast was great from top to bottom with a couple really strong female leads. And Doug Knoop was perfect as Amos, Mr. Cellophane. On a side note, he was also amazing in SMT’s production of my favorite show ever, The Producers.
Unlike many musicals, the band was front and center on stage, built right into the middle of the set. This plays into the central theme of music (and all that… Jazz) and really livens things up. The music is fun and witty and the show isn’t afraid to transition between scenes with a song or dance when others might think a fade to black would be enough.
From my Fiance who’s seen Chicago live in London: “Chicago is probably on of my favorite shows to watch on stage. SMT’s production’s engergy, dance, and bold style really pops.”
I also can’t end this without mentioning the amazing costumes. I don’t know how everybody managed to change so often but it seemed like every five minutes there was something new to sparkle under the lights.
And of course, Chicage is still running with a buy one get one half off discount for blog readers again. Call the box office and mention the code “Billy Flynn’s Blog Fee”.
November 12 – December 4
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30pm
Sundays at 2:00pm
Thursday, Dec. 2 at 7:30pm
Disclosure: I was given complementary tickets to the show, my fiance has worked at the theatre, and I know many people involved in the production. However, I still thought it was awesome and I’ll be back for their next production.
Due to the high amount of chatter on the Pinehurst mailing list, I thought I would create this open thread for discussion.
Topics raised on the mailing list in the past day:
- NE 125th St road diet
- Technology improvements: forums, etc.
- Sidewalk funding
- Property crimes
Or talk about whatever you’d like!
Who else has been to the new Safeway already? What does everybody think of the new building? And the selection? And everything else? You can comment below and if you’ve got pictures you’d like you share you can email them to phillip@pinehurstseattle.org and I can add them.
As you can see, somebody already noticed the expanded beer selection…
Oh, and I’m trying a photo gallery this time (instead of a long list of pictures but if people have trouble with it let me know and I can go back to the old fashioned one instead. This just seemed like more fun.
Our new GREEN Safeway is finally open! I’ll have pictures from the opening festivities soon but in the meantime here are some details on what makes this new Safeway so green.
The Pinehurst Safeway is a ground-up replacement store for the Safeway that originally opened in 1923 serving the community for 87 years. Touted as the “greenest” store in the Seattle Division fleet, the Pinehurst Safeway was designed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification standards, a designation given only to buildings that meet strict standards of sustainable design, construction
and operating practices. The 47,000-square-foot store features environmentally focused innovations such as:
- Store will use at least 17 percent less energy than an ASHRAE-baseline building. This translates to an average savings of $31,000 per year.
- Approximately 20% of the building materials purchased on the job, by cost, will contain recycled content.
- Approximately 75% of the construction waste, by weight, will have been diverted from the landfill.
- Approximately 10% of the materials purchased on the job, by cost, will have been harvested and manufactured within 500 miles of the project site.
- All paints, coatings, adhesives, sealants, flooring, furniture, ceilings and wall systems meet strict standards for indoor air quality and low volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
- The Protocol refrigeration system saves over $10,000 per year. Its energy efficiency amounts to taking more than 160 cars off the roads and planting more than 250 acres of trees per year.
- The state-of-the-art exterior signage is constructed from environmentally friendly LED lighting, which uses less electricity than standard signage.
- Bioswale collects runoff from impervious surfaces in the right-of-way and filters water before it re-enters the ground.
- The bioswale filtration also removes 80 percent of the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) from over 90 percent of the storm water.
- Green screen installations help minimize heat reflecting from the building out into the neighborhood, helping to reduce the urban heat island effect.
- Preferred parking spaces are provided for low emission and fuel-efficient vehicles.
In addition to the environmentally friendly construction of the Pinehurst store, Safeway earns its title as one of the greenest retailers in Washington with environmentally sustainable practices throughout all its stores:
- Safeway recycles almost 100 percent of the cardboard they use.
- Safeway recycles 100 percent of their plastic (including plastic bags that customers bring in), fat, bone and grease.
- All stores feature the Safeway lines of Eating Right, O Organic and Bright Green products to support healthy and environmentally friendly living.
In addition to the green aspects of the Pinehurst store, it boasts wall to wall specialty items ranging from: Starbucks coffee kiosk with indoor/outdoor seating and fireplace, soup & olive bars, Cheese World and deli department, bakery department, elite wine area, pharmacy, organic produce, service fish and meat, outdoor seating in front of store/urban garden with seating along 15th and many other surprises. The new store,
managed by Lori Gruber, employs 110 employees, an increase of 65 from the former store’s 45 employees. In total, the Pinehurst grand opening represents the completion of a project cost exceeding $18 million dollars, and an annual tax base in 2010 of $45,107 and a projected tax base of $180,000 in 2011.
From Michele: “A crispy, golden brown Banana Pecan waffle could be in your tummy this weekend. Stop by the Treehouse for a Caramel Apple cider or a slice of Pumpkin Walnut sweet bread before checking out Pinehurst’s new Safeway! Have a wonderful weekend everyone.”
Read more about Treehouse Coffee here and here.
This is the first in the series of updates on the North Link Project that I talked about earlier. You can sign up below (or here) to get these in your email too.
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This is the first in a series of regular North Link project updates that will be distributed electronically during final design and construction. Would you like to receive this newsletter via e-mail?
Click here to sign up.
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What is North Link?
North Link is a key part of the regional mass transit system approved by voters in 2008. The 4.3-mile light rail extension includes stations serving the University District, Roosevelt and Northgate neighborhoods. Most of the North Link route will be underground, with the tracks transitioning to the surface to serve the elevated Northgate station.
North Link is projected to add over 60,000 daily riders to the Link system, bringing total daily ridership to 176,000 in 2030. Construction of North Link is expected to begin in 2012.
Sound Transit hosted a public meeting on June 16, 2010 at Roosevelt High School to discuss current plans and next steps for the North Link project. Community members provided initial feedback on construction impacts, station access, portal locations (see below), bike storage, and other topics.
Click here to view the meeting presentation.
Final design getting started
Final design of the North Link light rail project is getting underway this fall. During this multi-year process, Sound Transit will work in close partnership with the community as project architects and engineers define what the stations will look like, determine how the stations, tracks, and tunnels will be built, and determine how construction work will be phased over time. As part of final design, several contract packages will be created for the construction of the tunnels, stations, and other elements of the North Link project.
The Sound Transit Art Program, STart, will also begin work to select station artists.
Early work will include geotechnical investigations primarily in public right of way along the North Link route. Neighbors will be notified in advance of this work.
North Link schedule
Sound Transit will work with the community throughout the final design process and will seek public input at key design milestones. The chart below shows Sound Transit’s current project schedule, though it is likely to be refined as the final design process gets underway.
Portal location change
Most of the North Link route will be underground, with the tracks transitioning to the surface to serve the elevated Northgate station. The opening where the tunnels exit the ground is called a portal.
The portal between the Roosevelt and Northgate stations was initially to be located alongside Interstate 5 at about Northeast 75th Street. Sound Transit expects to reduce construction impacts and save $5 – $10 million by moving the tunnel portal about a half mile to the north at Northeast 85th Street. By staying underground until that point, Sound Transit avoids the impacts associated with digging cut-and-cover tunnels under three major I-5 bridges. This change will also provide a way to more efficiently sequence and manage the tunneling work.
Click here for more information about the portal.
Proposed agency budget maintains North Link project
Like every other government agency, Sound Transit’s revenues have been significantly impacted by the national recession. Over the coming weeks, the Sound Transit Board will identify priorities for major investments and consider options that achieve the overarching goal of maximum public benefit and maintaining regional equity.
The good news is that most projects already in or near construction (which includes North Link) will continue to move forward. The Board recently approved funding for North Link final design, and current budget discussions call for North Link light rail service to begin within one year of the 2020 opening date that was anticipated as part of the regional mass transit system approved by voters in 2008.
A final 2011 agency budget is scheduled for adoption in December, along with a Transportation Improvement Program and Service Implementation Plan that guide investments beyond 2011.
Click here for more information about Sound Transit 2 project and service realignment.
Mass transit from Northgate to Lynnwood
Sound Transit is also preparing to extend mass transit from Northgate to Lynnwood, which voters approved as part of the Sound Transit 2 Plan in 2008. The North Corridor High Capacity Transit (HCT) project will connect to and build on the Link light rail line.
Click here to learn more about the North Corridor High Capacity Transit project.
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