Make an error in judgement at Hemp Fest? Got community service hours to fill? Here's your chance to help real people in your neighborhood.
-snip-
CraigsList: Massive sandwich/food bank program in desperate need of help
Reply to: mzemek@hotmail.com
Date: 2005-08-17, 7:43PM PDT
Sacred Heart St. Vincent de Paul is located at 2nd Ave and Warren, just west of the Seattle Center, specifically the Pacific Science Center in the shadows of the Space Needle.
Due to injuries, poor health and general frailty, Sacred Heart's volunteer base--with a median age of over 65 (if not 70)--is shrinking, and this program--which hands out hundreds of sack lunches and thousands of pounds of food each week to homeless street people and low-income neighborhood residents--faces closure by October 15 unless it can obtain a stable and significant new corps of volunteers.
Sacred Heart needs 7-8 people who can reliably and consistently commit to two hours a week. Monday thru Friday, sandwich makers are needed from roughly 630-10. On Monday and Friday only, people are needed to assist with hot food preparation, pastry packaging, and food bank grocery distribution from 8-Noon, in addition to the sandwich program.
Please e-mail me, Matt Zemek, and/or call Sacred Heart's program director, Jim Foskin, for details. Jim's phone number is 283-2104, and he's available to take your call every weekday morning, from 615am-Noon.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you can't volunteer, you can simply make a difference by notifying those you know who either can volunteer (seniors, perhaps) or who NEED to volunteer (kids in need of community service or service learning hours). This idea might be especially relevant for parents of youth in Catholic schools, but it's hardly exclusive. All are welcome to participate.
Thanks!
* this is in or around Seattle Center/Lower Queen Anne
* no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
-un-snip-
Tags: uptown, seattle, communityservice
Monday, August 22, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
WE'RE the Ones Polluting the Sound
New study out on pollution in Puget Sound. The good news: industrial waste levels in the Sound have decreased over the years. Yay! The bad news: car emission pollution keeps going up. Basically, your car exhaust either settles in the Sound directly or if it lands on a parking lot or street it washes into the water. The newspapers picked this story up, but no one has an easy solution. Drive less. Buy more efficient vehicles.
Tags: uptown, seattle, green, environment, pollution, pugetsound
Tags: uptown, seattle, green, environment, pollution, pugetsound
Let's See More Green Roofs
It would be great if we had more green roofs around - which is a enviro-trendy way to say "plants growing on the roof." Green roofs help clean the air from that nasty car exhaust, they regulate a building's temperature, and they look pretty good too. Granted, you may not be able to see them from the ground, but wouldn't it be cool to look down from the Space Needle and see a bunch of green roofs? The real ground is pretty much taken up with asphalt, so to grow plants...look up!
Green Roof Blocks is a great company, their blocks are easy to install and don't need to be watered. No word on if they can get TOO much water here in Seattle.
Tags: uptown, seattle, green, environment, urbandesign
Green Roof Blocks is a great company, their blocks are easy to install and don't need to be watered. No word on if they can get TOO much water here in Seattle.
Tags: uptown, seattle, green, environment, urbandesign
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
People can now wander Seattle naked
Want to walk around uptown without throwing on your track pants? Check out the new a9 Maps. While Google Maps let you fly around the world on a satellite and Microsoft's Virtual Earth copies GOOG, a9 gives you groovy snapshots of most streetfront action in town -- and in lots of cities across the country. It's so very groovy! Geek alert: I have fantasy of being out there the next time the a9 van rolls by my house so I'm in my a9 map picture!
Hometown dot.com legend Amazon is a busy body. Apparently, they're bored building the big department store in the sky. Lucky planet earth!
Tags: uptown, seattle, maps, a9, photographs, pictures
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
When Jean Godden was a Black Panther
From Sity Council Pos. 1's canned response to my e-mail asking her to get the monorail plan moving again:The freeway fights of the 1960s and 1970s weren't for the faint of heart. I still recall the evening when we packed the Seattle City Council chambers in protest. Along with the Black Panthers, we demonstrated against a bloated I-90.
"Pave Central Seattle neighborhoods and we'll burn your city," yelled the Black Panthers. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder and cried: "Burn, baby, burn!"
You're either part of the solution or part of the problem, indeed.
Tags: seattle, monorail, jeangodden, blackpanthers
Monday, August 15, 2005
Queen Anne land rush
In neighbor news, let the bidding begin. Queen Anne's school-house apartments are being converted to condos.
Tags: seattle, queenanne, condos, realestate
Condo conversion will be lucrative, but not for district
The Times avoids the covetous-condo-hunter angle and focuses on the scool district's lack of foresight. Sadly, it seems this obvious move was not so obvious when the school district signed onto the deal 20 years ago, says the Times. No word on what the SeaTimes had to say about things back in the 80s, of course ;)Tags: seattle, queenanne, condos, realestate
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Fancy Seattle Soaps
A new Pioneer Square addition on the way is local company Seattle Soapworks. Seattle Soapworks makes yummy sounding wholesome "Milk Glow" soaps with names like Milk and Honey, which is made of milk protein, milk thistle, honey, canedula and honey fragrance. Mmmm. The creator is chemist cute girl Erna Portteus Patrawke. Apparently the secret is keeping the glycerine in the soap which, according to the Soapworks web site, attracts moisture to your face, but is taken out of a lot of mainstream products so they can use it in their fancy lines. Apparantly you don't need lotion if your soap keeps your skin soft. Sounds like a deal! The store will open at 157 Jackson Street in September.
www.seattlesoapworks.com
Tags: seattle, shopping, soap
www.seattlesoapworks.com
Tags: seattle, shopping, soap
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Doubts about Seattle density
Seattle Times reports on the ongoing discussion around the mayor's plan to increase downtown density and curb suburban sprawl.
Let it be known that we support the goal 100% -- that's why we live where we live, really.
But boy do we have doubts that Seattle is really on the path to achieving this. Case in point are projects like the new Cristalla complex that emphasize upscale over livability. Sure, you can build em taller -- but if you fill the place with a few million-dollar fancy-pants condos and then chop the rest of the building into little tiny studios, all you're going going to have living downtown are retired bank executives and single male bond traders. No offense to the MBA set, but we're going to need buildings with living spaces that a) are large enough and b) affordable enough for a family without a corporate lawyer at the table.
Instead, we have ridiculousness like these gems in an industry write-up on Cristalla:
"We asked buyers early on what kinds of things they would like to have, and wine storage kept coming up. So we put in a wine storage area with 15 different rooms that can hold from 200 to 1,000 bottles."
Williams determined that many prospective residents were dog owners, so the 22-story Cristalla will now feature a dog park on its roof.
Hello? Why the heck did we chase all the crack salesmen out of Regrade Park to make room for the Belltown dog-a-palooza?
For now, we'll try to remain positive. But it's Cristalla clear there's more to this than tall buildings.
Tags: seattle, density
Let it be known that we support the goal 100% -- that's why we live where we live, really.
But boy do we have doubts that Seattle is really on the path to achieving this. Case in point are projects like the new Cristalla complex that emphasize upscale over livability. Sure, you can build em taller -- but if you fill the place with a few million-dollar fancy-pants condos and then chop the rest of the building into little tiny studios, all you're going going to have living downtown are retired bank executives and single male bond traders. No offense to the MBA set, but we're going to need buildings with living spaces that a) are large enough and b) affordable enough for a family without a corporate lawyer at the table.
Instead, we have ridiculousness like these gems in an industry write-up on Cristalla:
"We asked buyers early on what kinds of things they would like to have, and wine storage kept coming up. So we put in a wine storage area with 15 different rooms that can hold from 200 to 1,000 bottles."
Williams determined that many prospective residents were dog owners, so the 22-story Cristalla will now feature a dog park on its roof.
Hello? Why the heck did we chase all the crack salesmen out of Regrade Park to make room for the Belltown dog-a-palooza?
For now, we'll try to remain positive. But it's Cristalla clear there's more to this than tall buildings.
Tags: seattle, density
Uptown Hall of Fame: Auto Gallery of Seattle
* Because it has fancy Ferraris and blinged BMWs parked... inside!
* Because it hosts parties that look like a Fitty Cent video
* Because some lucky teenager gets to drive the big $K machines into the alley to scrub them once a month
Auto Gallery of Seattle, even though we haven't hit you up for a test drive, we salute you!
* Because it hosts parties that look like a Fitty Cent video
* Because some lucky teenager gets to drive the big $K machines into the alley to scrub them once a month
Auto Gallery of Seattle, even though we haven't hit you up for a test drive, we salute you!
Monday, August 08, 2005
Help the monorail in only five minutes
New pals over at Seattle2045.org have a handy form mailer if you want to voice your opinion on getting the darn thing built. We wavered in our support as things got messy but now we want to be part of the clean-up and movement forward. Take a spin over to the site to see what it's all about and then decide if you want to add your voice and lend a hand.
PK's gotta know: Where are the alternative/gay joints in Seattle?
Long-time reader, 1st-time caller PK writes:
--snip--
Hi,
Ive been reading your blog for a while. Im moving to Seattle and I was wondering where the Alternative/gay hang outs are?
PK
--un-snip--
Dear PK --
Glad to know you're heading our way. I get jealous of the outflow to places like NYC or even, ahem, Portland OR sometimes so it's good to know that fresh recruits are coming - especially fresh recruits in search of alternative/gay joints.
I'm glad you turned to us for the download -- but I do want to caveat everything here by stating that we are pretty darn straight so are approaching this from 3rd-party POV. Should a sportswriter not cover baseball if he can't hit a curveball? That's what I'm saying!
So, by alternative, we'll assume you mean 'freaky cool' and not necessarily the alternative in 'alternative rock radio' (alternative to what? one might ask) or, conversely, alternative as in co-op food stores hawking carob-coated everything. We're hoping you mean weird and wonderful and out-of-the mainstream. And gay or gay friendly or gays-for-president, even, as a bonus.
We'll also assume that you know that Capitol Hill is where you go if you want to revel in good old-fashioned super-queer disco, etc. That's where the boys-who-love-girls-who-love-girls-who-love-boys-who-love-etc. action goes down in its most accessible and public form. Faves in that genre include The Wild Rose and Neighbors (btw, my including them here guarantees you that they are not cool in the GLBetc. circles -- or are so bad, they are cool. either, or!)
But I'd encourage you to explore Seattle in another way. I'm sure there are times when you want a guaranteed alt/gay experience. They're out there. But we're pretty relaxed on things up here (true cliche!) so lots of the best alternative folks are mixed up with the rest of us. No, you won't find your homies out in Belltown on a Saturday night or shooting pool at Jillian's with the boys from Belleveue, but any list of the weird and wacky goodness from Seattle will be bespeckled with gay folks and the people who love em.
Also, Seattle's gay population is graying, so some of the 'gayest' places in the city are coffee shops and furniture stores.
For specific 'please, gay only action' tips, I'd post your query to the Seattle LiveJournal and let the masses speak.
Or you can check out sites like GaySeattle.com.
In the meantime, you can also consider these places for everybody to hang. I've limited it to places within walking distance from uptown. They're mostly outside of the mainstream in the best possible way.
Freaky Cool Seattle
+ Rendezvous
2nd ave is as alt as it gets downtown and the Rendezvous is the weird-n-wonderful HQ
+ Five Point
Alternative and divey but not *gay*. I would think a gay posse would do ok there but I'd want reinforcements nearby.
+ Noc Noc
One mission: get you drunk. Dark and dirty, gets even grittier at night. Weird shit happens. Where the Stranger Classifieds folks meet, I like to think.
+ Macrina
Gay people like bakeries, right?
+ Sea Sound Lounge
Young, beautiful dancing people. Many likely gay.
+ Contour
Only late-night dancing that didn't leave me depressed and wondering why.
Pickings are kind of slim around downtown -- if I were moving to Seattle and wanted to be as close to the alt as possible, I'd either go with the tried-and-tested CapHill or Fremont, which is nearly unclassifiably strange and cool.
--snip--
Hi,
Ive been reading your blog for a while. Im moving to Seattle and I was wondering where the Alternative/gay hang outs are?
PK
--un-snip--
Dear PK --
Glad to know you're heading our way. I get jealous of the outflow to places like NYC or even, ahem, Portland OR sometimes so it's good to know that fresh recruits are coming - especially fresh recruits in search of alternative/gay joints.
I'm glad you turned to us for the download -- but I do want to caveat everything here by stating that we are pretty darn straight so are approaching this from 3rd-party POV. Should a sportswriter not cover baseball if he can't hit a curveball? That's what I'm saying!
So, by alternative, we'll assume you mean 'freaky cool' and not necessarily the alternative in 'alternative rock radio' (alternative to what? one might ask) or, conversely, alternative as in co-op food stores hawking carob-coated everything. We're hoping you mean weird and wonderful and out-of-the mainstream. And gay or gay friendly or gays-for-president, even, as a bonus.
We'll also assume that you know that Capitol Hill is where you go if you want to revel in good old-fashioned super-queer disco, etc. That's where the boys-who-love-girls-who-love-girls-who-love-boys-who-love-etc. action goes down in its most accessible and public form. Faves in that genre include The Wild Rose and Neighbors (btw, my including them here guarantees you that they are not cool in the GLBetc. circles -- or are so bad, they are cool. either, or!)
But I'd encourage you to explore Seattle in another way. I'm sure there are times when you want a guaranteed alt/gay experience. They're out there. But we're pretty relaxed on things up here (true cliche!) so lots of the best alternative folks are mixed up with the rest of us. No, you won't find your homies out in Belltown on a Saturday night or shooting pool at Jillian's with the boys from Belleveue, but any list of the weird and wacky goodness from Seattle will be bespeckled with gay folks and the people who love em.
Also, Seattle's gay population is graying, so some of the 'gayest' places in the city are coffee shops and furniture stores.
For specific 'please, gay only action' tips, I'd post your query to the Seattle LiveJournal and let the masses speak.
Or you can check out sites like GaySeattle.com.
In the meantime, you can also consider these places for everybody to hang. I've limited it to places within walking distance from uptown. They're mostly outside of the mainstream in the best possible way.
Freaky Cool Seattle
+ Rendezvous
2nd ave is as alt as it gets downtown and the Rendezvous is the weird-n-wonderful HQ
+ Five Point
Alternative and divey but not *gay*. I would think a gay posse would do ok there but I'd want reinforcements nearby.
+ Noc Noc
One mission: get you drunk. Dark and dirty, gets even grittier at night. Weird shit happens. Where the Stranger Classifieds folks meet, I like to think.
+ Macrina
Gay people like bakeries, right?
+ Sea Sound Lounge
Young, beautiful dancing people. Many likely gay.
+ Contour
Only late-night dancing that didn't leave me depressed and wondering why.
Pickings are kind of slim around downtown -- if I were moving to Seattle and wanted to be as close to the alt as possible, I'd either go with the tried-and-tested CapHill or Fremont, which is nearly unclassifiably strange and cool.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Who are these guys? Monorail don't need more badness
UPDATE: Just got a late-night e-mail from the 2045 folks. Despite the slickness of it all, I am reassured that 2045Seattle.org truly is a grassroots effort to change things and not another 'new media' PR effort. That's good news. Too bad I'm so jaded that I mistake workmanship for spin. Hopefully the monorail can deliver me back to my previous state of eternal optimism ;) Anyhow, 2045 says they'll look at the whole transparency thing soon so stay tuned and get involved if you give a hoot.
----------------------
Here's a blog that smells a little funny. 2045Seattle claims to be written by some confederation of concerned citizens but there are no names and no contact info anywhere on the site. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but the monorail hasn't been the most trustworthy entity I've ever backed. I've written in and tried to post a query to find out their relationship to the monorail powers that be but, so far, they haven't approved the post and haven't responded in e-mail. Hmm. At this point, the last thing the monorail needs is another batch of spin and poor transparency.
----------------------
Here's a blog that smells a little funny. 2045Seattle claims to be written by some confederation of concerned citizens but there are no names and no contact info anywhere on the site. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but the monorail hasn't been the most trustworthy entity I've ever backed. I've written in and tried to post a query to find out their relationship to the monorail powers that be but, so far, they haven't approved the post and haven't responded in e-mail. Hmm. At this point, the last thing the monorail needs is another batch of spin and poor transparency.
Urban fishing: catching salmon in downtown Seattle
Ok. That headline is a bit of a lie. It's more like fishing for salmon in downtown Seattle. But I needed to get your attention.
Did you know that one of the coolest fisheries in the world is right down the street from you? Elliott Bay has been abused all to hell. But it still supports abundant marine life and, for the next few weeks, a fishable salmon run.
Most of the fish will be caught by the money boats during the open weekend fisheries or in the tribal nets that dot the bay. Make sure to check the regs, money boys.
But for the rest of us proles, just 1 mile from the edges of uptown Seattle at the northern tip of Myrtle Edwards Park, there is a nifty finger of access that juts out into the bay and lets regular Joes take a swing at the passing salmon.
The Elliott Bay Fishing Pier is special -- and it's in our backyard. So get your buzzbombs collected and get out there to pluck from the biomass.
** PRIZE ** $50 for best picture of an EB Fishing Pier-caught salmon ON THE PIER! Just post a comment to this item before 8/31/2005 and we'll have a little reader roundtable to determine the winner.
Did you know that one of the coolest fisheries in the world is right down the street from you? Elliott Bay has been abused all to hell. But it still supports abundant marine life and, for the next few weeks, a fishable salmon run.
Most of the fish will be caught by the money boats during the open weekend fisheries or in the tribal nets that dot the bay. Make sure to check the regs, money boys.
But for the rest of us proles, just 1 mile from the edges of uptown Seattle at the northern tip of Myrtle Edwards Park, there is a nifty finger of access that juts out into the bay and lets regular Joes take a swing at the passing salmon.
The Elliott Bay Fishing Pier is special -- and it's in our backyard. So get your buzzbombs collected and get out there to pluck from the biomass.
** PRIZE ** $50 for best picture of an EB Fishing Pier-caught salmon ON THE PIER! Just post a comment to this item before 8/31/2005 and we'll have a little reader roundtable to determine the winner.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Best site for pictures of Seattle
I get gushy about how cool flickr is so I'm all drippy about their cool new interestingness feature and other fun toys they've added to the pile. Like 'clusters' -- here's a link to one of the Seattle clusters of the touristy things people take pictures of in the city. If you want to see unique ways people capture our beautiful and neat-o spaces and places or just jonesing for yet another pic of the Space Needle, check it out.
Boat Street Kitchen where art thou?
July has come and gone and there's still no Boat Street Kitchen in uptown Seattle. They promised!
-snip-
-snip-
WE'VE SIGNED A LEASE!! The New Boat Street Cafe and the New Boat Street Kitchen will be located at the junction of Western Ave and Denny, in the NW Work Lofts Building. It's a great, hard to find space with a lovely garden and patio .... Well, it will be after we work on it. Watch for more news. Opening anticipated in early July.
-un-snip-
Monday, August 01, 2005
1st Ave gets a new place to hang
Positive vibes about Black Bottle, the new joint on 1st Ave. described as having informal, full-flavored food to accompany great drinks.
Sounds like my kitchen.
Adios, Two Dagos -- I'll remember you fondly as being the weirdest, dingiest left-over on 1st Ave.
Sounds like my kitchen.
Adios, Two Dagos -- I'll remember you fondly as being the weirdest, dingiest left-over on 1st Ave.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Why we need more trees uptown
The carob-smacking hippie in me loves this commercial justification for trees in the city.
Circus Contraption - last chance before NYC!
This is the last weekend to see Seattle's own organic circus, Circus Contraption, before the show hits big ol NYC. You can waste your money with yet another corporate piece of junk 'blockbuster' OR you can go see this simple magic happen live and in the flesh down at Sand Point. For those of you that like to mix a little activism into your entertainment, know that the Circus could probably use some more cash to help finance the trip. Get out there and be entertained, damnit!
A round-about uptown connection here, btw. You might have noticed a few of the freaky members of the Contraption house band busking down at the market from time to time with their ghoulish tunes and melancholy sawing.
A round-about uptown connection here, btw. You might have noticed a few of the freaky members of the Contraption house band busking down at the market from time to time with their ghoulish tunes and melancholy sawing.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
How many 911 calls in your 'hood today?
Remember the old lady who lived across the street who always seemed to be hiding behind her curtains and watching your every juvenile-y delinquent move? Here's a little link that will appeal to the worry wart in all of us. Real-time 911 logs from Seattle proper. The lack of significant detail and fruition of these events adds to the paranoia. Enjoy!
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Bite of Seattle name change?
Really, I don't know where Bite of Seattle came from (I'll have to google it later or just live with the mystery),and what its mission is today. But I'd love to see one itsy bitsy change (that I'm not sure will scale!) -- I'm cool with plunking down $5 for a tasty sandwich after I've perused the 100s of food booths but I'd rather buy lots of bites. Think 'Bites' of Seattle. As it was, I was able to sample a bite of my companions' tasty snacks (thanks girlfriend!), but I don't have enough friends to get a bite of everything.
We visited the Bite today to see the crowd and get some chow. Amazing how many people were there to do the same thing, wandering pretty much aimlessly, kind of trying to get somewhere but really just going nowhere with nothing much to do but listen to music and eat. Ladies and gentlemen, the human condition!
Between Folklife and Bite of Seattle, the free fests at the Seattle Center are pretty darn incredible. Super kudos to whoever plans these things -- I have no idea how you pull it together. Just planning a BBQ for 5 overwhelms us -- planning to feed thousands? Yikes.
We visited the Bite today to see the crowd and get some chow. Amazing how many people were there to do the same thing, wandering pretty much aimlessly, kind of trying to get somewhere but really just going nowhere with nothing much to do but listen to music and eat. Ladies and gentlemen, the human condition!
Between Folklife and Bite of Seattle, the free fests at the Seattle Center are pretty darn incredible. Super kudos to whoever plans these things -- I have no idea how you pull it together. Just planning a BBQ for 5 overwhelms us -- planning to feed thousands? Yikes.
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