Concerns About the Stock House Replacement

I didn't go to the Georgetown Community Council meeting on Monday. I know that Holly Krejci would be totally welcoming, but I've still been reluctant to attend these meetings since I'm not a neighborhood resident. (But just now I took a look at their website, and I saw that "All residents or friends of the Georgetown neighborhood are encouraged to attend." OK, now I have no excuse.)

It sounds like the Paper Noose showed up, though, and he's provided a good account of what happened.

I haven't been down there since early Saturday morning, so I haven't seen the demolition so far. But apparently everyone has discovered that downtown Georgetown now has "a view of the interstate, as well as increased noise, normally buffered by three stories of brick."

Oh, yeah. I didn't even think of that.

Holly has summarized the community response about the demolition and building replacement in a letter to the Landmarks Board. I'm not surprised, but I am a little disappointed with the community's insistence on having Sabey's architects try to emulate the gorgeous 100-year-old buildings on Airport Way. I'm afraid that any Johnson Architects attempt at "classic and traditional ... brick" will end up looking less like the rest of Georgetown's Airport Way and more like Disneyland's Main Street, USA.



But Johnson's efforts at modern and industrial might have failed spectacularly as well. And, as I've said before, the community's opinions are worth more than mine. I'm sure if Sabey builds something that Georgetown is happy with, I'll be happy with it too.

From Holly's letter to the Landmarks Board:

1. With regard to the design of the new building, the community is overwhelmingly in favor of keeping with the classic and traditional design elements of the other buildings, including the brick and arches. We very much want a design that is compatible and complementary with the remaining buildings rather than something that is a radical departure and modern. Ultimately, we do not want to see something magical replaced with something ordinary.

2. With regard to setting the new building back, there was a simple majority in favor for the new building being set back 10 feet from the street. This will of course depend on the design of the new building and its ability to maintain continuity with the mass of the buildings as a whole.

3. With regard to the remaining portion of the stock house wall, the community is overwhelmingly in support of preserving the remaining portion of the wall to help maintain the continuity of the mass of the buildings and to protect the business district from additional industrial views.

For over a century, the mass and scope of the brick buildings, including the Stock House wall, has protected the Georgetown community from the freeway and the railroad. The buildings provided beauty in our gritty industrial area. And when the Stock House wall was partially removed, the view was that of the freeway and the railroad. It, in effect, added more industry to our already industrial-burdened community...

Always with the Exclamation Point, Please

Today I found out the name of this Georgetown car:



Monstero!

According to the owner:

Our giant skull car -- it's name is Monstero! (always with the
exclamation point, please, if you should need to write it somewhere).

Fearless Raccoons(?) in North Beacon Hill

Some critter crawled into the Pac-Med parking garage and was checking out my car today. I rarely see raccoons in the daytime, or in structures, but I can't think of who else could have done this.

Public Service Announcement

Today's Seattle Times has a cover story on Maria Federici, a woman who lost her sight and most of her face four years ago when her car was struck by a board that flew out of someone's unsecured U-Haul truck. Since then, the state has passed "Maria's Law," which made it a crime to carry an unsecured load.

Jesus Christ, people. I don't ask much of you, but before you get on the interstate, please tie down all that loose crap in the backs of your pickup trucks.

Yesterday I was driving north on I-5, and suddenly in front of me, there were these 8-foot-long sections of pipe bouncing up and down, like 10 feet into the air. Lucky for me, they settled down before I got up to them, but I still had to swerve wildly on the wet pavement to avoid running over them at 60 miles per hour. I somehow came out fine, but I swear to God, I was just seconds away from having that shit come right through my windshield.

I don't know if they came from an unsecured load in one of the zillion Saturday afternoon pickup trucks on the road ahead of me, or if they came from an unsecured load from a vehicle on the overpass above me (it must have been the latter, given the height of the bouncing), but it's clear to me that Maria's Law isn't really working.

Airport Way Open for the Rest of the Weekend

It was closed when I was there this morning, but it reopened at noon and will stay open for the rest of the weekend. It will be closed again next weekend.



From Sabey:

Hey all: Just to let you know, our work for the weekend was completed
this morning and Airport Way was re-opened at Noon for the rest of the
weekend. Our final closing of Airport Way will be next weekend. This
weekend's closure allowed folks to see what it will look at next
weekend.

Where on Beacon Hill Am I? #1

I thought it would be fun to take photos around the neighborhood and ask you guys to guess where the photo was taken.

We'll start with what I think is an easy one. Where was this shot taken?

The 1992 Washington State Caucus

I just posted about the locations for the upcoming Democratic caucus. And I got all mad about it because I hate the caucus system.

I've never actually participated in a caucus. I was out of town for the 2004 caucus. I was registered in Oregon (which has a meaningful primary system, as Washington should) in early 2000 and in 1996. And I was shut out of Washington state caucus in 1992 -- the first year that I was old enough to vote in a presidential race -- because I had to work.

I'm less indignant about it now, but I remember at the time, I was outraged that young/poor people like me who had to work in the evening had no opportunity to cast a vote.

And it's not like I didn't have an opinion. I was so intensely excited about Bill Clinton's candidacy that I attended all his rallies, which were like super-crowded rock shows. I'd transcend my claustrophobia and politely push my way to the front so I could be as close as possible to him. And when he got close, I'd thrust my hand out and hope he'd grab on, preferably with both his hands, preferably with a local photojournalist capturing it for a feature story in the paper several days later.