Blogging Georgetown

Links a go go

2009-11-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

We're number 73!

Though we never got a reply from the SPD re: the body found at AWS and Lucile, the PI did run an article. The suspect apparently used to live in a Georgetown apartment.

Georgetown Art Attack, Saturday, November 14th.

"Two day artist workshop for traditional native story tellers and younger native hip hop artists", November 20th and 21st at the Duwamish Longhouse.

The folks at Georgetown History blog have a special project: rifling through the old Seattle archives for records "to see if there are any records of members of the secret societies - the Masons and the Oddfellows."

Three Tree Point Band at the Seattle Drum School's Slab, Nov. 20th.

Squid and Ink for Sale

2009-11-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

The Squid and Ink, over on Albro is on the market, via craigslist:

Squid&Ink-Cafe/Bar-Georgetown - $100000 (Near Boeing Field)

Turnkey - Cafe / Restaurant / Bar - Georgetown near Boeing Field.

Class 1 Hood - Full Kitchen - Serving Beer and Wine.

Serving breakfast, lunch, dinner with night time entertainment.

Jeff Gillespie
KR Business Brokers
206-909-9594

Ballot box in Tukwila tampered with

2009-11-05T19:27:00.000-08:00

If you are one of the folks that dropped off a ballot just south of us in Tukwila, check this out:

King County Elections officials said Thursday evening that a drive up ballot drop box located at Tukwila elections headquarters had been vandalized and the integrity of the hundreds of ballots inside was compromised.

Here's the rest of the PI article. You can check the status of your ballot at King County elections, in case you are curious.

'Lection Results, McGinn vs. Mallahan

2009-11-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

Here are today's mayoral results, and you can check back each day at 4:30 at the King County Elections page. I-1033, R71, the council races, and the Port races are all old news at this point, and are unlikely to change. But we all know which race is the nail biter:

Mike McGinn 52238 49.77%
Joe Mallahan 51776 49.33%

Mallahan closes in, cutting McGinn's lead in almost half. Recounts, anyone?

Body found near All City Metal

2009-11-04T14:55:00.001-08:00

Near the intersection of Airport Way S and Lucile St, police showed up just before noon amidst the discovery of a dead body. The Beacon Hill Neighborhood Watch blog states that the man has "been dead for a couple of days. Died of internal injuries. Evidence of a fight," and was found in the encampment on the SE corner.

I've sent an e-mail to Mark Solomon to get an update

Sandbagging and Cement

2009-11-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

Seattle Public Utilities will hand out sandbags in anticipation of possible flooding in three locations, including South Park, 731 S Sullivan. Per SPU:

SPU will have staff onsite on November 6 and 7, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with information about how to place sandbags and prepare for storm season.

If you are unable to pick up sandbags on November 6 or 7, you can still pick them up at any of these locations, any time of day, while supplies last. Sandbags will be left outside for public pick-up. To make sure there are enough sandbags available for all those in need, please limit your supply to 25 sandbags per address.

And Lafarge Cement on the Duwamish will shut down for a month due to excess inventory, they say. Per West Seattle Herald:

The Lafarge Cement plant at 5400 West Marginal Way will be shut down for approximately 32 days "due to full inventory" according to Plant Manager Richard Sebastianelli. A letter has been sent from Sebastianelli advising Community Liason members. During the shutdown maintenance will be performed and none of the 73 employees jobs will be affected. "This is a normally planned shutdown due to full inventory," according to Sebastianelli.

Plan for Green Port Trucks Sounds Like Non-Starter

2009-11-03T08:49:00.000-08:00

On a particularly clear morning, one can often smell the emissions from I-5 and the freight thoroughfares wafting through a window that has been open all night, in this little patch of houses and businesses we call Georgetown. Between that, and the emissions from KCIA, and the puffs from the concrete factories on the Duwamish, any opportunity to reduce any of it would be welcome. The question of course, when it comes to business is cost, and who will bear it. Two major organizations have generated publicity around the trucks issue--ACORN, which seems to have faded on the issue, and most recently SAGE, who issued a report that some in the neighborhoods of Georgetown and South Park (230 people surveyed) say that the trucks are harmful to their health. I'm certainly not going to dispute those figures.

What is disputable is who people feel is responsible, and moreover, who should be on the hook to pay for this. Many trucking outfits in the "logistics" industry are small private companies, which are either privately owned by groups of individuals, or are subsidiaries of other companies in the freight business (e.g. Stevedoring Services of America owns Shippers Transport Express right here in Georgetown). Most of these companies hire drivers as "1099" employees --independent contractors, and these drivers actually own their machines. The only ties to the Port of Seattle that these companies may have is that they may rent terminal or warehouse space as tenants. The drives are one degree of separation from the Port of Seattle, since they are independent contractors. The Port of Seattle doesn't directly or indirectly employ these drivers. Knowing this, it may seem as a mystery to some as to why organizations like ACORN and SAGE are putting pressure on the Port of Seattle. To understand, we have to look at the Port in Los Angeles:

The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles adopted the landmark San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) in November 2006 to curb port-related air pollution from trucks, ships, locomotives and other equipment by at least 45 percent in five years.

A model for seaports around the world, the CAAP is the boldest air quality initiative by any seaport, consisting of wide-reaching measures to significantly reduce air emissions and health risks while allowing for the development of much-needed port efficiency projects.

This is from the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) website. These new regulations have been very controversial, and has led to some in the industry to make the claim that labor unions like the Teamsters are the hidden force behind these community organizations. For example, here is an article in the Journal of Commerce, about the reaction to politicians wanting these regulations (I recommend reading the whole article):

Motor carriers and cargo interests say they now must be more vigilant than ever to scrutinize legislation in Washington that could become a vehicle for turning the clean-trucks movement at the nation’s ports into a union-organizing plan for the Teamsters.

An industry group called the Clean Truck Coalition told the Los Angeles Harbor Commission meeting that an amendment to the F4A to open the door to unionization of independent contractor drivers is “unnecessary, unfair and unconstitutional.”

The rub is that by regulating the drivers, the contractor model becomes economically unsustainable, in that the thin profit eked by these drivers is not enough to cover the upgrading or replacement of their new rigs. The other option is for companies to buy a fleet of trucks, and hire regular employees to drive and maintain them. But there is one problem with that.

The independent contractor employee structure has been a legal buffer against the unionization of drivers. Before the 1980's, about 90% of drivers were in a union because they were direct employees of a company, and today the figure is closer to 10%, due to the explosion of independent drivers in the 80s and 90s. Numerous legal rulings have reiterated that independent contractors do not have the right to join unions, and the American Trucking Association, an employers group, repeatedly insists that they support clean air, so long as the unions don't get a say in the matter of actual drivers.

Bringing it back to the local level, a plan has been proposed to get older pre-1994 trucks off the road, while preserving in essence the current contractor employment model. At a Port Innovation Conference in April of 2007, we find these notes concerning the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle; here is the pertinent part, a little lengthy but relevant:

Cascade Sierra Solutions (CSS) operates a loan fund to upgrade trucks in Oregon, Washington, and California and processes SBA loans for truckers nationwide. Drayage trucks are typically at the end of their mechanical life and any efficiency upgrade that could be implemented is worth more than the truck. Simply put, these trucks need to be replaced. Replacing the 1,200 or so trucks that serve the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma would require an approximately $90 million investment. This money could come from a loan fund. The beauty of a loan fund over a grant is that at the end of a project, the money is paid back—so it is the most cost-effective way to accomplish the goal.

There are currently opportunities to access the money required for a revolving loan fund using the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHA) allocation of private activity bonds. How it could work:

1. Identify an issuer with the authority to issue bonds (state, municipality, or port).

2. The bond allocation would not count against the allocation of the issuer to issue bonds, but would come from the FHA’s allocation to issue Private Activity Bonds.

3. CSS is qualified as a surface transportation project for FHA funding (Title 23).

4. The issuer would simply issue the bonds in the name of Cascade Sierra Solutions (CSS). CSS would have the liability to repay the bonds in ten years.

5. CSS would work with stakeholders and truck OEMs to develop a practical, fuel efficient, no-frills day cab complete with a diesel particulate filter.

6. CSS would buy trucks with the money as truckers who want to upgrade order them. The balance of the funds would be drawn down as the trucks are leased.

7. There would be multiple truck OEM choices that met the criteria, giving options of colors, makes, etc.

8. CSS would provide a low-cost ten-year lease that comes with a maintenance contract. At the end of the lease, the operator would own the truck. Since this truck has been well maintained, there should be ten additional years of life left at the end of the lease.

9. The cost of the truck as paid by the driver over time would be less than the cost of the old dirty truck because old trucks are typically financed at 25 percent interest rates and have huge costs for maintenance and repairs.

10. The ports could use a number of incentive programs to encourage the use of these trucks over dirty trucks. (Fee-bate, express lane, increased pay rates for clean trucks etc.

11. A great idea would be to pay drivers $5k–10k when the old truck is traded in. CSS
would contract with a truck recycler to make sure the old truck was forever taken out of service and the grant would make a down-payment on the new truck, giving the operator instant equity.

12. Any defaults would be recovered by CSS and re-leased.

The group suggested pilot programs to test various solutions, including:

5.1 A straight leasing or a lease-to-own program for cleaner trucks. It would get drivers into cleaner trucks faster and provide upfront monthly savings to the drivers through reduced operating and fuel costs. See Box 8 for a proposed approach).

5.2 A feebate program, potentially revenue-neutral, that would pay higher per container rates to operators with cleaner trucks. This program would require collaboration between shippers, steamship lines, terminal operators, and trucking brokers, as well as the truck drivers as they would need education about the program. The Washington Trucking Association could possibly provide this education.

5.3 An express lane for clean trucks at the terminal gates, allowing for faster turnaround times and more container moves per truck per day. This program needs to be evaluated in conjunction with anti-idling policies so that dirtier trucks aren’t waiting—and idling—for longer periods.

5.4 A competition between truck manufacturers to create a clean truck designed specifically for drayage. The winning design models would be showcased in a lease-to-own program targeted at replacing the existing dirty fleet.

The trucking group also recommended that each port and terminal be evaluated in a holistic way to determine the most efficient method of moving containers off the terminal...

You got all that, right? What we have, in a nutshell, is that a private non-profit will facilitate a lending program, at zero or low interest rates, backed by public bonds, on a piece of equipment that loses value over time and may become obsolete during the term of the lease (10 years), on a design that doesn't exist (as of 2007), assuming that all drivers have good credit, plan to stay in the industry for at least 10 years to pay off their debt, with a "cash for clunkers" type program to come up with the down payment.

Okay, and we gotta remember-- in 2007, the economy had not tanked yet, and so how feasible is this plan now?

Who benefits? The trucking companies, who can been seen as "green" while the public subsidizes an end run around labor law so that they can remain "union free".

And who assumes the risk? The taxpayers, of course, because those bonds have to be paid back sometime, which are bets that a non profit non banking institution will make good loans.

What this amounts to is a huge risk of systemic failure of the plan, as no driver stays in the industry for more then a couple of years as a contractor, and may have to default on his loan or lease just to make a career change, since there is a good chance that the truck will be worth less then what is owed, due to depreciation. After all is said and done, the industry may have to revert to hiring direct employees anyway, since this end run around unions is so complex and dependent on many uncontrollable factors.

A source tells me that high ranking mucky mucks at the Port of Seattle are liking this plan. Aside from the fact that it amounts to union avoidance being subsidized by the public, would it actually work in terms of cleaning up the air? Maybe in a perfect theoretical world. But last I checked, we don't live in such a place.

Links a Go Go (updated)

2009-10-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Duwamish Harvest Celebration, 6-9pm, Halloween.

McKinstry to open "innovation center" for project development in sustainable biofuels, wind manufacturing, solar energy, energy efficiency and smart grid technology.

The Sabey Corporation has spent $90k on a lobbying firm in DC, an outfit by the name of Denny Miller Associates, over the past year. How much play 90 grand buys is anyone's guess.

Seattle Biodiesel LLC will pay Wa Ecology $12,000 for the chemical spill in the Duwamish in 2007.

Washington Bus will do "trick or vote" canvassing in Georgetown on Halloween night.

Worst case flood scenario: 300,000 to exit south King County. And according to this Army Corp of Engineers map, the Black River may rise again (scroll to center, far left). This isn't pretty, actually.

Airport Way S to be resurfaced between Spokane and Dearborn, according to this DPD permit concerning potential combined sewer water runoff issues.

David Bloom on South Park Bridge

2009-10-28T09:05:00.001-07:00

He breaks it down pretty clear in terms of a priority, vs. the Mecer Street Project. Via WSB:

Bloom noted that the South Park Bridge is in serious need of replacement, he says, but there is some craziness to it.

“The county is applying for federal stimulus dollars ($99 million) to help replace the South Park Bridge at the same time that the city, led by the mayor with the acquiescence of the City Council, is also applying for about $50 million of federal stimulus money for the two-way Mercer,” Bloom says.

“We are not going to get them both. There is a perfect example of a lack of coordination on critical infrastructure needs. The more critical need is the South Park Bridge, but the mayor and Vulcan and a bunch of other folks really like the two way Mercer. They already tried to get stimulus money for Mercer and failed.” (Vulcan is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s company.)

Bloom says his understanding is that the Mercer project does not rise to the level of need that the South Park Bridge does. “It does not make sense for the city and the county to be competing for limited dollars.” He says the Mercer project is way too expensive. “They are spending $300 million without really improving traffic flow.”

If the city were able to garner both, the $50m would cover the rest of the cost of bridge replacement.

South Park Library may only be open while you are at work

2009-10-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Libraries are increasingly becoming the portal for people to find jobs, resources for literacy, internet access for people who don't own a computer, as well as a place to get books and conduct research--as practically every other program run by the city and the state is scaled back. Now it seems that South Park's new library is on the list to be closed two days per week--Friday and Sunday, and only be open two days a week past 6pm, giving the concept of "only open during bankers hours" a whole new meaning. Says Friends of Seattle Public Libraries:

Overall, the Library would lose about 23 percent of its open hours compared with 2009. Here’s the list of libraries that will be closed both Sunday and Friday and with reduced operating hours if the proposed budget is adopted by Seattle City Council in November:

Northgate, Broadview, Greenlake, Greenwood, University, Montlake, Northeast, Capitol Hill, Fremont, Wallingford, Magnolia, Queen Anne, Madrona Sally Goldmark, International District/Chinatown, West Seattle, Columbia, Delridge, Highpoint, Beacon Hill, New Holly, and South Park.

The proposed budget will impact all of our communities and neighbors who are relying on our libraries for computer access, job search resources, educational support, gathering spaces, and librarian assistance. In 2008, more than 13 million customers visited the Library and so far this year, visits are up another 8 percent. Circulation of books and other items was up 20 percent in 2008; this year it is up an additional 11 percent.

Friends of SPL has been working on this issue for a while, and are asking for help from library patrons, or anyone else. An easy one is the Facebook petition, which they are pushing for 2,000 supporters by the end of the day. Go here for that. Also, that last of the public budget hearings is on Monday, Oct 26th downtown at City Council Chambers, 2nd floor, 600 Fourth Ave, 5:30pm.

If you are at the Bookfest this weekend in Columbia City, stop on by the SPL book swap.

Swap meet at 13th and Albro

2009-10-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

From the INBOX:

FREE Swap Meet at the They Shall Walk Lab Parking Lot. Bring your stuff, give it away, sell it, trade it. Rain or Shine, bring a tent or canopy if it looks like rain. Set up at 8am, first come first serve. Free booth space set up by the marked parking spaces in the lot. If you have truck load or car load bring your car into the lot before 9am, park your vehicle and unload your treasures.

Saturday October 24, 2009, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, at the They Shall Walk Lab Parking Lot, 6266 13th Ave S.

KCPQ Hat n Boots story FAIL

2009-10-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

Last night, KCPQ FOX "news" channel 13 ran a story about the completion of the Hat 'n Boots at Oxbow Park. Or rather, a hit piece, where the people being interviewed from the neighborhood looked somewhat unaware that they were about to be used as fodder form some kind of "outrage" about spending tax money on a neighborhood amenity:

The "Premium Tex" cowboy hat and boots used to be at the old Texaco gas station on Highway 99, but the landmark was moved to the Oxbow Park in Georgetown in 2003 as part of a $677,000 restoration project. $220,000 of that came from taxpayer money from the City Parks Department. An additional $457,000 came from community fundraising and neighborhood matching grants.

"That's insane. It's a lot of money right now in this economy," says Jean Ford.

In November, Seattle City Council will vote on Mayor Nickels 2009-2010 budget. He wants to cut more than $41 million and lay off 310 workers. The Parks Department plans to close five wading pools, get rid of trash pickup at some parks and eliminate its real time monitoring for its surveillance system. The Parks budget has been cut from $7.2 million in 2008 to $2.1 million for 2009-2010.

"I really think there is no waste here," says project architect Mark Johnson. "Public art and preserving landmarks is very important, otherwise what do we have?"

The city says this money was set aside for this project years ago and doesn't impact the current budget. Regardless, some say a project of this scope should never have been a priority.

If they had bothered to check their facts, they would know that this project was the result of years of hard work from people in the neighborhood dating back to 2001, and meanwhile KCPQ had to run all the way downtown to find an outraged citizen to be aghast about this.

Seriously? We have a decommissioned trolley that got shut down in favor of one that no one uses in SLU, fancy pimped out wheels for cops to catch speeders on East Marginal Way (Harleys too!), and the millions in the form of increased property value given away to developers in land use rezones, and KCPQ wants to drag Georegetown into it? Really?

Plant a freakin' tree

2009-10-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

According to Lina Anne Rose, Project Manager for EarthCorps, Georgetown has one of the lowest tree coverage rates in the city, at 17%. The Seattle Community ReLeaf program is offering free trees to households in targeted areas:

Local environmental restoration non-profit EarthCorps has teamed up with the City of Seattle to provide free trees to residents of the Beacon Hill, Georgetown and West Seattle Junction/Genesee Hill and Westwood/Roxhill neighborhoods. These communities have some of the lowest canopy cover on residential property in the city (19%, 17%, 19%, and 17% respectively) and some of the highest planting potential.

Through the program, residents of the targeted neighborhoods can apply for free trees for their property and street planting strips. Trees will be available for residents to pick up in early December. A workshop on proper tree planting and care will be provided for tree recipients. Tree watering bags will be provided next spring to ensure the young trees thrive. Houses outside of the target areas listed above are not eligible for the program this year.

Seattle currently has 23% tree cover. In the 1970’s, Seattle had 40% tree cover. Seattle has set a goal to retain some of that tree cover – and the many benefits that go along with trees – by reaching 30% tree cover by 2037. But we can’t reach that goal without the help and support of Seattle’s residents! Over 85% of the land in the city is privately owned. This means that we cannot meet the goal by only planting in parks and along streets – we need residents to plant trees around their homes and businesses as well.

For more information on the program, contact: Lina Rose, EarthCorps Project Manager, lina@earthcorps.org , 206.793.2454. For more general information and to download an application visit our website.

Finding a spot might be a challenge, of course, considering the overhead wires, waterlines, gas lines, and sewage systems (the latter locations can be looked up at this DPD site). Call PSE or SPU before you dig.

Duwamish Alive! + Links a Go Go

2009-10-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

Duwamish Alive is Saturday, the 17th. It is me, or does it freaking rain every year? It never seems to hurt turnout none the less, so hang out with the truely dedicated, hardcore, river loving folk.

The Port hands out the cash to private interests; nothing new here, except that the article appears in the Washington Free Press, which publishes too seldom.

Remember the on line survey about neighborhoods? Here's the 52 page(!, .pdf) executive summary of the remarks. Georgetown has a bookmark, but not much meat for the 75 replies, however; and so if you want to see the entire transcript, put on your glasses and go here.

The alley behind the 6200 block of Corson: Not a good scene.

Hat to be completed in November

2009-10-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

...says the folks at Seattle Parks and Recreation:

Seattle Parks and Recreation is happy to announce the restoration of the landmarked Hat ‘n’ Boots will be completed the first week of November. The Hat ‘n’ Boots located in Oxbow Park at 6400 Corson Ave. S. were moved from their former location at the "Premium Tex" Texaco gas station on E Marginal Way to Oxbow Park in December 2003.

"The restoration of the Hat at Oxbow Park is another gold star for this tenacious South Seattle neighborhood,” said Mark Johnson, Senior Associate at Jones & Jones Architects. “Without the vision of the community in the late 90's to save and relocate the Hat 'n’ Boots, one of Seattle's most iconic roadside attractions would have been lost. Let the celebration begin!"

The Hat n Boots restoration caps off the last major hudle in the completion of Oxbow Park, which began in 2001. (Photo courtesy of the City of Seattle).

Clothing Donations Needed for Onset of Colder Weather

2009-10-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

This e-mail landed in the INBOX:

WE NEED CLOTHING DONATIONS, especially warm sweatshirts, sweaters, and socks (even gently used socks, really!!) as soon as possible. We have had an influx of our clients coming this week needing warm clothing. Men's, womens, childrens, we'll take it all. Blankets also are really needed right now, especially with the colder weather coming this weeekend.

If any of you need to, or have been meaning to, clean out your closets, could you please bring it to us today? Or, as soon as possible? It would be GREATLY APPRECIATED, as always...

THANK YOU! We'll be here in the building until 2:30pm to accept donations.

This was from Povidence house in South Park. The contact info and address are here.

Half Past Lavish visits Eclectic Georgetown with Eco-style!

2009-10-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

On Friday, October 9th at 7pm the Second Annual EcoLavish Fashion Show will strut it's stuff through Georgetown's urban, rustic-chique Engine Room.
The show begins at 8pm highlighting local, eco-friendly designers such as: Deco Modiste, Texture Clothing, 6 Degrees Studio, and, the finale designer, Lizzie Parker who will be debuting her holiday collection, “Eco-Bespoke.”

For more information Please go to www.halfpastlavish.com/events.html for event details.

Business on EMW seeks to increase Diesel Emissions

2009-10-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is soliciting comments from the public through November 8th, on the application from Saint-Gobain Container Corporation, 5800 East Marginal Way. Saint-Gobain is a manufacturer of glass container products, and uses natural gas as a primary fuel source for production, but relies on diesel during "during periods of natural gas curtailment." The PSCAA's website provides a summary of the application:

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is providing public notice that Saint-Gobain Container Corporation has filed a Notice of Construction application to allow up to 31 days per year of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) firing in their glass furnaces during periods of natural gas curtailment. The use of ULSD is presently limited to 52,000 gallons per year per furnace under Order of Approval Nos. 9322, 9369 and 9397, which is equivalent to about 7 days per year of oil firing. During the past 20 years, the maximum number of days per year of natural gas curtailment was 6. No increase in emissions is expected from the glass furnaces, which are used primarily in the manufacture of wine bottles....

More of that here, as well as the various permitting documents in .pdf format.

The contact info for comments is as follows:

Puget Sound Clean Air Agency
Attention: Gerry Pade
1904 Third Avenue – Suite 105
Seattle, WA 98101
Or Email: gerryp@pscleanair.org

Links a Go Go

2009-10-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the light posting; lots of around the house projects going on to prepare for the rainy season. Here's the link roundup.

Georgetown Art Attack is this Saturday, the 10th, at 6pm.

Duwamish Alive, October 17th, sponsored by the DRCC. Also, they are sponsoring a candidate forum for King County Executive on the Environment on the 12th at the Aquarium.

Re: McGinn and South Park Bridge: it's worth noting that he campaigned against the ballot measure that would have funded its replacement.

Half Past Lavish is sponsoring an "Eco Friendly Fashion Show" over at Georgetown Studios, Friday the 9th.

Puget Sound SAGE has released the results of a survey of Georgetown and South park re: "Port of Seattle" trucks and pollution. It's worth mentioning, however, that private cartage and logistics companies contract out the trucks, which are largely owned by owner operators-- not the Port of Seattle.

Comic artist Johnny Ryan will be having a signing during Saturday's Art Attack at the Fantagraphics store on Vale.

Seattle Public Utilities is remapping the flood areas in the face of possible flooding along the Green/Duwamish this winter.

Georgetown History Blog is back from the dead, announcing the 2009 Georgetown Haunted History Tour.

If the Port Reform people were running a candidate in this race, he or she would be a shoo in.

Susan Hutchinson wants to send the Marines to the Green River Valley. I'm proposing that she adopt this as her campaign theme song:

Some council candidates on "the poor"

2009-09-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

Homelessness is coming to Georgetown. It has been with us for quite a long time.

Most recently, police have been "cleaning up" the most visible parts of downtown, to entice more shoppers in this already dead economy. As a result, people who hang out in those spaces, because they don't have office jobs with computer and facebook or a hovel with a crappy TV, or even regular work, have to go someplace. So they head to places that are not so visible. The Duwamish River valley is one of those places. It has been said that the "spare changers" we see only represent a small slice of who is actually living on the street, because most of them would rather remain invisible. Many of them are basically kids trying to survive. But to be poor and visible invites the anger of the media, the police, and the politicians.

Our most recent example of political pandering toward the fear and denial that our economy produces an underclass that makes the well-off, well, feel icky, comes from Tim Burgess. Tim Harris, director of Real Change writes on his blog:

Council member Tim Burgess will soon introduce legislation to the Seattle City Council to restrict panhandling in Seattle. He says his proposal simply sets a few minimal standards of behavior in the interest of public safety. Not true. Tim Burgess is sucking up to money, pandering to fear, and punishing the poor.

Laws that target the visible poor are in increasingly popular municipal strategy for managing the contradictions of radical inequality. They lead to deepened poverty and the expanding incarceration of the very poor. These laws represent an immense failure of political and moral imagination, and simply sweep the wreckage of a failed system out of sight. We have to do better.

We saw this coming long ago, with our "Social Disorder" post. A year ago, Burgess declared it a "crisis". OMG, civil collapse. Pretty soon the trains won't run on time.

John Fox of the Seattle Displacement Coalition sent us some e-mail a while back, discussing his inquiry to Burgess as to what this proposal was:

I am writing to express great concern about the Times editorial indicating that you have a proposed ordinance you are working on that would criminalize panhandling - or rather be so sweeping in nature that it would have that effect.

Before I and our members go jumping to conclusions, however, we would very much like to see a draft or drafts of this proposal if there are any at this time and any other written materials, correspondence, reports etc you may have assembled on this topic related to the proposed legislation. The editorial in the Times also refers to a stakeholders group of some sort that you have been conferring with while drafting this measure. Could you please provide a list of participants/stakeholders, agendas, dates, and written material like minutes, notes, summarizing activities at these meetings as well. We are very concerned that to date, you have not involved housing and homeless advocates, service providers, and the homeless themselves who we strongly believe must be involved up front whose concerns and thoughts must be considered before and during your drafting process not after the fact...

Sounds like this was supposed to go below the radar. Upon getting this communication from Fox, I was curious to see what two of Seattle's candidates for City Council felt about Burgess' proposal. In asking, I made reference to an article published on Publicola. I asked if the campaigns concurred with Burgess' proposal. Here is the non-answer from the Bagshaw campaign.

Q It has been said in the article, and in remarks following the article that Bagshaw supports this and similar initiatives. Would the campaign concur with this?

Sally Bagshaw responded with a non answer:

Is Sally supportive of public safety? Yes.
Does she want to criminalize homelessness? No. Absolutely not!

Since the legislation you refer to is currently being drafted, we can't really comment in depth since we don't know specifics. Sally's top concern, however, is the human element. She wants more service to those on the streets, meaning housing and treatment options, and providing more human and social services.

Bagshaw apparently doesn't give the issue enough weight to even consider what Burgess is trying to do, and she is pretty short on specifics. The article mentioned in Publicola summarizes an opinion: "On the “pro” side of the equation are City Council Position 4 frontrunner Sally Bagshaw—who says “a lot of people are really cranked at how uncivil the streets are right now” but adds that she wants to increase services for “people who are struggling on the street”

A lot of people? Really? Data please.

Jessie Israel's response isn't any better. I posed the same question to her campaign two weeks ago, and today we get a reply from her political consulting group:

Yes, Jessie believes that inappropriate behavior makes our downtown a place that tourists and families alike don’t want to visit and that it’s time we established a norm for acceptable and safe behavior to combat the increasingly hostile presence in downtown’s public spaces. Therefore, she supports Burgesses [sic] plan.

Inappropriate behavior? Are we talking not saying "please" when someone asks for a buck, or is it something else?

Now the answer one would expect, if either of these candidates actually gave a crap, might go something like this:

Our campaign is very concerned about the increasing numbers of people out on the streets, in a time of cuts in services, in a city that has already not provided enough support to get people off the street and into programs: We do not consider the criminal justice system a housing program, and continuing such a policy is not effective in terms of cost and success. We are actively talking to all advocacy groups and their constituencies to see what can be done to provide for the immediate needs of people forced to camp out in the green belts or live on public land in tents...Etc.

A side note: both candidates want to add 200 police to the streets; because more money on "public safety" makes people feel "safer" but it doesn't solve the problem.

But even if a candidate had the guts to say it, does the city of Seattle as an institution have the fortitude to even take this stuff seriously?

It's going to be a long, cold, and wet winter.

Links a Go Go

2009-09-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Green Industrial Business Expo, which we mentioned last month, is on October 9th, at the Georgetown campus of SSCC. Register here.

Second Use's Salvage Art Contest and Fall Fest is on Saturday, the 26th.

4th Avenue S. will soon suck as a route to downtown.

Seattle Teen Printmaker's classes start on Saturday the 26th.

A Georgetowner is seeking financial donations to finish school.

Nickelsville to celebrate their first year, yet are still looking for a permanent location.

Jackass alert for SoDo. Take note. Shit's on.

Green River Flooding? What Green River flooding?

Georgetown Art Attack, October 10th.

Bikes to Ghana over on 1915 South Corgiat Dr, Saturday the 26th.

Is Tim Burgess channeling Mark Sidran?

I made these pretzels. Twice. Amazing.

Seattle Mag Gives Blogging Georgetown Some Props

2009-09-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

Seattle Magazine is usually found in the magazine rack at your local grocery store, or at the checkout stand to entice the impulse purchase. They feature an article on neighborhood blogging, and it looks like we made the cut:

Of course, not all neighborhood blogs are equal. We sifted through Seattle-area blogs to find the good (frequently updated posts that serve and inform the community), weed out the bad (created by private or commercial interest groups) and ignore the ugly (’nuff said) to uncover the cream of the crop. In our research, we noticed one big trend: Seattle neighborhoods overflow with these postings—the suburbs, not so much.

I think there are other blogs not mentioned in the article that are worthy of notice. For example, Ranier Valley Post would have been a good candidate for the list, and maybe others, depending on one's tastes. Here's their take on Georgetown:

Territory: Georgetown
Posting frequency: Several times a week
Why we love it: Its focus on the arts and culture of Georgetown make this a perfect portal for following what the folks in this always creative and quirky hood are up to.
Example headline: “Seattle politicos will descend on Georgetown like locusts, drink a bunch of our beer, and then go back to town,” May 13 post...

Thanks for the props, Seattle Mag. Since no ads are sold here, it's not money in anyone's pocket, but recognition is always a good thing.

New tenant at former Uncle Moe's Planet Georgetown space

2009-09-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

The Georgetown Lab and Office of They Shall Walk is moving into the old Uncle Moe's space at 6266 13th Ave S, and their website is plugging for volunteers.

They shall walk is "a non-profit 501C3 medical research organization. It was founded to raise awareness of the plight of disabled persons and develop technology to improve their quality of life. Recognizing the need for better mobility beyond the wheelchair, They Shall Walk is developing an intelligent robotic powered brace called the LIFESUIT™ to allow paraplegics and elderly to freely walk again..."

Their grand opening is scheduled for November 14th, to coincide with the Art Attack. A message they sent out on a neighborhood list serve stated that "...a group of Georgetown business owners has committed to support the work of They Shall Walk by committing to pay the rent for the lab space for two years. " In contacting the non profit, I was told that the businesses wanted to "remain anonymous".

Updates are regularly posted on their Facebook page. [Hat tip, v.v.]

McGinn tacitly admits that he doesn't care about jobs

2009-09-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Maybe this issue will be McGinn's Jesus Christ moment. Here at Blogging Georgetown we've examined McGinn's apparent unwillingness to understand the impact on industry (i.e. jobs) of his ideologically based predetermination of no "tunnel" at all costs (see here and here and more generally, here). It's about to embroil industry here along the Duwamish. McGinn's Mea Culpa get coverage at Publicola:

McGinn says that without a new waterfront highway, there will be no need for a new underpass for trucks. He says freight can get across his proposed surface street on a regular surface roadway with a stoplight.

“The industrial folks all believe that having a tunnel spewing cars out into the industrial zone is good for them. I can’t figure out why they think that,” McGinn says. If the city and state build a tunnel with no exits downtown, “traffic around the stadiums is going to be worse,” he says.

Not surprisingly, industrial businesses disagree. Dave Gering, executive director of the Manufacturing and Industrial Council, says he would be “stunned if we would be in favor of giving up any of these improvements, because we had to fight like hell to get them funded.”

“I understand philosophically where Mike is coming from, and his philosophical opposition to road projects and vehicles, but in the real world it doesn’t work that way. … I sometimes wonder if we aren’t dealing with a cookie cutter approach to this stuff that is based on philosophical beliefs that have nothing to do with the reality of this [industrial] community.”

If any issue will galvanize his opposition, this would be it, especially considering he would have to buck the Port, Olympia, the MIC, the MLK County Labor Council, and perhaps the one in three people whose jobs depend on trade. It's no wonder Mallahan isn't spending a lot of time refuting McGinn's statements; it seems much more cost effective campaign dollar wise to just watch this guy whirl down a path of "green" fundamentalism.

I think they call this a "I told you so" moment.

Blogging Georgetown

Links a go go

Squid and Ink for Sale

Ballot box in Tukwila tampered with

'Lection Results, McGinn vs. Mallahan

Body found near All City Metal

Sandbagging and Cement

Plan for Green Port Trucks Sounds Like Non-Starter

Links a Go Go (updated)

David Bloom on South Park Bridge

South Park Library may only be open while you are at work

Swap meet at 13th and Albro

More Links a Go Go

KCPQ Hat n Boots story FAIL

Plant a freakin' tree

Duwamish Alive! + Links a Go Go

Hat to be completed in November

Clothing Donations Needed for Onset of Colder Weather

Half Past Lavish visits Eclectic Georgetown with Eco-style!

Business on EMW seeks to increase Diesel Emissions

Links a Go Go

Some council candidates on "the poor"

Links a Go Go

Seattle Mag Gives Blogging Georgetown Some Props

New tenant at former Uncle Moe's Planet Georgetown space

McGinn tacitly admits that he doesn't care about jobs