KUOW Story About Comet Lodge Cemetery

KUOW is running a story about Comet Lodge Cemetery right now. You can hear it on the archive at minute 0:43.

They just mentioned that residents as far away as 26th and Graham talk about seeing spirits, especially those of children, in their house. (I live closer to the cemetery than that. Eek.) There also have been reports of evil spirits roaming around. They're saying it's an active, restless place.

From the KUOW website (note that there's not actually a dog park there):

At 2:50 p.m. – The Comet Lodge Cemetery
Land is hard to come by in the Seattle area, but this isn't a new problem. Beginning in 1927, parts of Comet Lodge Cemetery were sold off. More than 800 people were buried at this Beacon Hill site. Now, there are only about 20 gravestones left. Houses stand on old burial plots and there's even a dog park on cemetery land. Mercedes Yeager runs Market Ghost Tours in Seattle's Pike Place Market. And she just learned about the Comet Lodge Cemetery recently, including stories of hauntings that so many nearby residents talk about. She shows Jeannie Yandel around what's left of the cemetery.

The KUOW page links to an old post I made about the cemetery, here.

Sunny Afternoon in Columbia City

An Anchor porter at Lottie's Lounge.



Love the old license plate holders.



Ten years ago I hitched to work every day. I paid cash.







Smoked tukeys.



Gather has a beautiful neon art installation of found letters from signs. It's shocking how many brands you can recognize just from the font and color. Like the "a" from Radio Shack.



The "x" isn't really an "x." It's that Cingular character thing.



This target will one day grace the roof of artist Jeremy Bert's Boulevard Park home. If you don't see it at Gather, you should be able to see it from a nighttime flight in or out of SeaTac.



(I just now realized that I've admired Jeremy's work at McLeod Residence before.)

Then a trip to the last Columbia City Farmer's Market of the season.







This is what I bought.



I doubt there will be a day this nice again for the rest of the year.

Article About Buggy in the P-I

"Last weekend, Buggy celebrated its first anniversary as a retail hybrid, a children's boutique on Beacon Hill that sells new and gently used clothes -- from new T-shirts for urban toddlers and used ski jackets for babies to organic bubble bath for newborns and slightly worn rain boots for kindergarteners.

Read the article.

Free Seattle: Volunteer Park Conservatory

My pal Chuck in San Francisco recently blogged about a free thing I should do with my free time here in Seattle: visit the Volunteer Park Conservatory. So I did.



It was nice and warm in there. I should go back in December.











































Then walked around Volunteer Park on this beautiful fall day.











To make this post topical, I'll throw in a neighborhood compaint here at the end.

On my way home on 12th -- the major arterial connecting Beacon Hill with the central part of the city -- a produce truck blocked one of the lanes of traffic for a really long time at the start of Friday rush hour. Is that even legal?

Jungle Discussion, New Beacon Hill Blog

Craig Thompson recently sent the message atthe bottom of this post to the Slumberland neighborhood mailing list. It advertises the Oct. 21 Beacon Alliance of Neighbors meeting, where state and city reps will discuss the future of the Jungle.

Also, the automatically appended signature at the bottom of the mail advertises a new-ish neighborhood blog that the mailing list organizers have started up. That blog looks like it will be an excellent source of information about neighborhood events.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about whether I want to:

--change this blog's format (like the Capitol Hill and CD blogs) and try to ramp it up a little

--keep it a low-key, infrequently updated, personal blog with random pictures and commentary about how I happen to see the neighborhood while continuing to ignore most announcements I get about neighborhood events like pancake breakfasts and school performances and volunteer opportunities and all those other things that really do need some publicity

--put it to sleep while I raise my kid and go back to my full-time job

Here's Craig's message about the meeting and the sig with the link to the new blog:

Subject: [Beaconhill] Oct 21 7pm BAN Meeting - VIP speakers!
To: beaconhill@slumberland.org

My friend Dean has organized this event - please consider coming.

Hi there,

Come meet with Washington State Representative Sharon Tomiko-Santos and Lorena Eng of the Washington State Department of Transportation. We will discuss the future of the Jungle and the Washington State property along Beacon Hill. We will also have representatives from the City of Seattle Dept. of Transportation, Dept. of Neighborhoods, and Mayor's office, plus directors from the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and other involved non-profit agencies. The trail coordinators for King County and Seattle will also attend.

This will be an information-packed session with important stakeholders to discuss creating a permanent public safety solution for the East Duwamish Greenbelt, the Jungle, several city parks, and the neighborhoods along west Beacon Hill.

The meeting is this coming Tuesday, October 21, at Quarters 1, PacMed Campus, northwest corner of 14th Ave. S and South Judkins Street, at 7:00 PM.

(FYI, tomorrow, Friday, I'm going to get 50 flyers to Craig for the pancake event. If anyone can help pass them out, that would be great. Unfortunately, I have another volunteer commitment and can't attend the pancake event.)

Thank you,

Dean Olson
_______________________________________________
To post to the Beaconhill mailing list, email post@beaconhill.seattle.wa.us
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit http://beaconhill.seattle.wa.us/list
Visit the blog at http://beaconhill.seattle.wa.us

Teen Shot by Jefferson Park

I'm not sure this warranted an actual article, but it made the P-I's Seattle 911 blog. Incident occurred early Sunday morning.

A 17-year-old youth was shot in the leg early Sunday in South Seattle after he and a girlfriend exchanged words with occupants of an SUV.

The incident occurred at about 16th Avenue South and South Spokane Street when the youth and the girlfriend were walking home. Seattle Police spokesman Jeff Kappel said the two decided to try to hitch a ride, the SUV drove by and shots were fired after the verbal exchange. ...

More Cheap South End Fun: Western Bridge

Friday I finally checked out Western Bridge, a free art "venue" in Sodo.

I love their stealth front door -- clever!



The main exhibit right now is this huge white-on-white painting that stretches across the walls and onto the floor. It looks like shadows of trees coming in through big, high horizontal windows. Which confused me a little at first since the building does have big, high horizontal windows. Except it's on 4th Ave. South, so there are no trees around. (Also, a shadow would bend at the corner.) It's like a trompe l'oeil for the stupid and/or unobservant.



Another exhibit featured very dark photos of the banks of the Amazon. I didn't love the art, but I did love the building itself and decided that I wanted to live there.



This feeling got much stronger when I wandered into the living area upstairs.



The other two patrons were hesitant to enter this section, as it didn't seem like people were supposed to come in. But I told them they had to because it was the best part.

The tub is sunken into the cement.





This place belongs on the hipster street of dreams.









And it's just two blocks from Costco!

Western Bridge is open noon to six, Thursday - Saturday. It's located at 3412 Fourth Avenue South. 206-838-7444. Admission is free.

Cheap South End Fun: Museum of Communications

I'm in the middle of a five-month, mostly unpaid maternity leave, so I've been searching for cheap (or better yet, free) things to do nearby with the baby. Tuesday I went to the Museum of Communications in Georgetown.





Every Tuesday until 2 p.m., volunteers give free tours of this old telephone station.



I'd tell you what I learned, but most of it went over my head. But still I had fun looking at all the displays of cool old stuff.

Cordless phone circa 1964.





Remember this voice?



The Museum of Communications is located in Georgetown at 7000 East Marginal Way South (at Corson), telephone 206-767-3012. Museum hours are Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and by appointment. The museum is handicap accessible. There is no charge for admission, but donations are gratefully accepted.

Coyotes Kill Pets on Beacon Hill

A neighbor who lives near Beacon and Columbian says she saw a coyote kill a tortoise shell cat in her front yard in broad daylight. She sent this photo of her cat keeping an eye on the animal.



Anyway, she asked me to remind everyone to keep your cats indoors to keep them safe from the coyotes that roam our neighborhood. Her mail:

Yesterday a coyote came to my garden and roamed for about 2 hours (from 8 to 10 am), after killing a cat in my front lawn (had to call animal control to pick up the poor victim!). The cat was a tortoise shell cat, no collar, no microchip; never seen it before.

Animal control has not jurisdiction over wild animals, but they said that as long as the animal is not injured and representing a treat to the public, fish and wildlife just leave them alone. I took a picture of my cat looking at the coyote, picture is attached.

I wanted to post this message at the listserv, but the message gets rejected. Could you please post this for me, if it is not too much to ask?! I just want people to know so they do not leave their cats go outside and become a victim of the coyote. BTW, the coyote was gorgeous and skittish. Thanks!

Baby Mama Review of Calamity Jane's

I promised this wouldn't become a baby blog, and I plan to keep that promise. But now that I have a 5-week-old infant, I'm seeing the world -- and, more to the point here, our neighborhood -- a little differently. From time to time, I'll share some of this new perspective with you. This may be of interest to those of you with infants, or who plan to have kids, and it's likely the rest of you won't give a damn. So it goes.

Calamity Jane's, the restaurant I frequented most frequently before I had the baby, is still my go-to restaurant now that I have an infant.

(I've also taken the baby to Stellar Pizza, Cutting Board, and Via Tribunali, and I keep meaning to go to Hangar Cafe. I'll probably write about those later. Smarty Pants, Nine Pound Hammer, Georgetown Liquor Company, and Jules Maes are totally off limits to minors, though.)

Reasons that Calamity Jane's is great for a mom with an infant:

1. The restaurant side is spacious and feels like it's connected to the happening bar side of things.

(As much as I love Stellar -- another great place to take kids -- I feel like a second-class citizen having to enter through and sit in the family ghetto side. Though as a solo adult, I love that the bar side of Stellar is blessedly kid-free!) The floor plan at Calamity Jane's makes it easy for grownups to feel like grownups even if they have to sit on the north side. You can sit down and still see the taps and bottles.

2. The long bench against the wall leaves plenty of room for stashing a diaper bag and Baby Bjorn and all that extra crap. Request to sit over there if they don't automatically put you there.

3. The happy hour menu is good in the restaurant as well as the bar. A buck off beers! Gyoza dumplings or johnny cakes with mozzarella and marinara or pork sliders for $3.88!

4. No one seems to pass judgment when Mom orders a lot of whiskey. (Hey, it was a long, liquor-free nine months of pregnancy.)

5. Sarah designed the women's bathroom specifically to accommodate easy diaper changing on the long stretch of counter between the sinks. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I promise to bag my, um, garbage every time from now on. I'm prepared now.

6. People you've never met before coo over your baby and offer to take your family's photograph without prompting. Thank you! And thanks also to that friend of Holly and Kathy's who helped our old family friend Ann up the big step outside. And thanks also to our super-hot mama waitress, whose name I can't spell, for buying us a congratulatory drink. The folks at CJ's, both patrons and staff, are the best.

Cell Phone Antennas by Jefferson Park

T-Mobile was discouraged by the Jefferson Park Alliance's vehement opposition to their putting up a tower in the park itself, so now it looks like they're putting up antennas on the apartment building across the street.

Sorry I'm late on this -- the comment period just ended, though it says it can be extended to 10/15/08 by written request.

Click on the photo to see a version large enough to read:



Or trust my transcription here:

NOTICE OF PROPOSED LAND USE ACTION

Master Use Project # 3009423
Address: 1756 S. Spokane St.
Applicant Contact: Catherine Funtanilla
Phone #: 206-490-3813

DPD IS CONDUCTING ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF THE FOLLOWING PROJECT:

To install a new minor communication utility (T-Mobile) consisting of three panel antennas on the roof of an existing residential building. Equipment cabinet to be located in basement.

The comment period ends 10/1/08 but may be extended to 10/15/08 by written request. To submit written comments or to obtain additional information, contact Seattle's DPD, 700 5th Ave., Ste 2000, PO Box 34019, Seattle, WA 98124-4019. Contact by phone (206) 684-8467 or email PRC@seattle.gov. Be sure to refer to project #3009423.

"Just Another Day on the 36"

The Rainier Valley Post's "Bus Bitch" describes his experience on the 36 today.

The woman, whom witnesses claim was clearly drunk or high, refused to exit, pushing the bus driver away and collapsing on the seats next to the front door. When the bus driver attempted to remove her again, she attacked him, biting his hand with the tenacity of a rabid pit bull. The bus driver then struck her several times with his fists in an effort to subdue her and protect himself.

Not long after “Bus Bitch” got there, police arrived and handcuffed the woman. An officer sought witnesses for questioning, but no one obliged. Several people on the bus spoke with the “Bitch” though— with one claiming, “This is just another day on the 36.”

Jamieson on Violence in SE Seattle

The P-I's Robert Jamieson wrote about violent crime in SE Seattle today. Looks like he's had as much trouble getting crime stats as the rest of us have. Interesting to see that someone over there is hinting that numbers might finally be presented at the crime meeting tonight -- police officials have just directed community members to the public disclosure department at previous meetings.

It is no secret Rainier Valley gets a disproportionate share of Seattle's gang troubles. Gangs go hand in hand with trigger happiness. But neighbors feel as if the city and police just want them to buck up and deal with it -- bullets come with the territory.

"I never dreamed that I would be telling my 6-year-old that she can't go outside anymore," said Risley, who tells me two of the September shootings happened less than a football field from her daughter's bedroom window. "Tonight I get to explain to her what gunshots sound like and that she needs to lay down on the floor of our home if she hears them."

Did I miss the memo? When did Seattle steal a page from South Central Los Angeles?

Neighbors' perceptions of bureaucratic indifference -- police insist they're on the case -- are bolstered by difficulty they've had getting official crime statistics. I was similarly frustrated Wednesday when I dialed up SPD. A spokesman said I might get numbers galore at a community meeting with police Thursday, a gathering that promises to pack Holly Park Community Church.

I suspect squeaky wheels in other neighborhoods would get answers right away if a half-dozen gun incidents in a month were occurring in Ballard, West Seattle or Fremont, places where neighbors howl if a bullet gets in whizzing distance of the hot tub.

But in the South End that popping sound is no biggie, folks -- just ambiance, a teeny price to pay for life on the south side.

NIMBYism in Southeast Seattle

A reader asked that I draw your attention to this very long, thoughtful, provocative blog entry about NIMBYism in Southeast Seattle.

When I attended my first Columbia City Community Council (CCCC) meeting last December, I was naive and unschooled in the tender mercies of neighborhood politics. Since then, I've been to meetings all around the Southeast District and made myself a student of the values, grievances, and vendettas that animate the committed core of residents who always show up.

I have been surprised and troubled to find that, in a community famed for its ethnic, racial, and income diversity, one narrow worldview prevails among the small group of people who represent themselves as the leaders of South Seattle. Do you know what your local neighborhood activist is saying about you?

Advance Tickets for Georgetown Haunted History Tour

Since last year's tour was crazy successful, with people (well, me at least) begging to get in the last Brew House tour, the Friends of Georgetown History are selling advance tickets and expanding the tour to two nights with four tours each night (October 24 and 25). Hurray!

Here are some photos I took during last year's tour.