From Beacon Hill to Bernal Heights

I've been in the Bay Area the last few days.

As soon as we got into town we checked out the Lee Friedlander exhibit at SF MOMA, which inspired me to start shooting street scenes with my point-and-shoot right after we got out of the museum.



I'm now too pregnant to zip up my coat.





An example of facadism. I'm glad they kept the front-facing wall of this building, even if the inside no longer exists.



Friday night we stayed with friends in Oakland, and Saturday we were passed off to our Fairfax friends for lunch, then to garden blogger Chuck B. from Bernal Heights, San Francisco, who drove us down to Santa Cruz on Sunday.

We went to the marine center at his alma mater, UC Santa Cruz.





And then to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. See the Twinkie stand on the left?



They ooze white filling. So gross.



One of the many rides I did not go on.



My husband and our wonderful host (far left and far right, respectively) checked out some of the rides while I waited.

















Chuck's garden deserves its own post, so that's it for now.

Admin Note: Comments Back Up?

Shoot. Someone told me comments have been screwed up here, and now I'm having trouble posting this post. Sorry about the errors. Not sure what's up.

Coming soon: Review of Shell station, report of new bar at Beacon and Columbian.

"Some residents want the wall saved"

Theres a story in today's Times about how Sabey has filed plans to build the Ice House portion of the "Original Rainier Brewery."

Looks like the reporter talked to Sabey VP Jim Harmon and a single Georgetown resident, Peter Reiquam, and the latter summed up the situation this way: the Ice House design was pretty well-received by the community and the fate of the remainder of the Stock House wall will come down to money. Fair enough.

Here's the part that's a little confusing to me:

Sabey prefers to demolish the stump of the Stock House wall next to the Brew House, an existing building just north of the Ice House site. Some residents want the wall saved.

Sure, some residents want the wall saved; that sentence is so vague that it's meaningless. I suspect that "some" is really closer to "most" if not "virtually all."

Obviously the Sabey folks want to see the wall gone, but they're not locals. I want the wall saved, but I'm not a "bona-fide-resident-in-Georgetown," either.

So, what do you bona fide Georgetowners think? Are there really any of you who hate this "stump" of wall to the left of the tower and can't wait to see Sabey tear it down?



Regardless of whether the wall stays or goes, pedestrians on Airport Way will still have a view of the tower. If the wall stays, the view will be more limited, like a view in a well-designed Japanese garden. And we'll still have a view of that gorgeous wall, with the "STOCK-HOUSE" sign still there.

In my opinion, Sabey has yet to unveil any plans that make tearing down the wall seem appealing in the slightest. In this rendering, they show a bunch of people just standing around without benches or art or a fountain or greenery or amenities or anything on an expanse of nothingness (with, in an unexpected touch of verisimilitude, some asshole's SUV parked up on the curb right next to the Brew House).



It's like they haven't even thrown us a bone yet, yet already only "some residents" are in favor of retaining the wall. I don't get it.

Before the Attack

Since I'll be unable to attend the Georgetown Art Attack tonight, I stopped by before things officially got started.

First I went to Fantagraphics to check out the drawings by Drew Friedman, whose mean, sad, funny work has fascinated me ever since my husband introduced me to it eight years ago. I didn't buy the two books we don't already own or the signed silkscreen for the show because I figure my husband will go and spend his money on these things as soon as he reads this.

Then I headed north.





Then I went to Full Throttle Bottles and finally met Erica and her guy. I'm glad that this was the smallest space available to her, so she had to stock wine as well as beer. Since I'd just come from Wine Outlet -- where I picked up some Chateauneuf du Pape for a birthday present and some (premier cru -- so fancy looking!) Chablis to bring to a dinner tonight -- I did not buy any wine, even though all bottles here are priced under $30.



FYI -- she also carries small selection of non-alcoholic beverages, including N/A beer, Reed's extra ginger beer, Crater Lake root beer (made with cane sugar), and a couple other small-production sodas.

I didn't peruse the large beer selection too closely, but I did notice some oddball stuff, like a beer from Croatia.





Erica opened the back door of her shop to the place next door, also owned by her landlord, John Bennett. It's a cool private space where he keeps his jukebox collection and other coin-op stuff. He sometimes opens it up for public events, like this Art Attack. They were still setting up a barbecue out back but he let me wander around and take photos.























Damn, that BBQ picture is making me hungry.

I also dropped by Georgetown Tile Works and saw a really cool leather bag by a local artist who used to work down at All City. She incorporates metal art into her handiwork. I wish I'd taken a photo. I also went to George to get a birthday card and saw some really reasonably priced paintings on old windows. The cityscape one with the Christmas lights behind it looked especially cool.

OK, I'm going to get ready for dinner now. My neighbor Lisa-Marie is going to Art Attack tonight and she said she'd send me more photos and a report. You should go too. It's really, really nice out there.

New Blog Header

Wow. Someone I've never met before sent me this amazing new header for my blog. Wow. I love it.



His name is Mark, and I think he's a Georgetowner, and he says he got the image from this photo that I posted at some point in the last year. He said it was a thank-you for all the work I've done on the blog. Aww...

The sign in the photo, which I don't remember taking, says 16th Avenue South, so it must be on Beacon Hill somewhere, looking west toward the Olympics. (Probably North Beacon Hill instead of Mid Beacon Hill, but very much close enough!)

I need to try and fix the box that surrounds it so it fits the image instead of stretching to the width of the page. But not tonight.

Thank you, Mark!!! I will try to live up to my new image.

UPDATE: I've removed the super-lovely header from the top of my blog for the time being since the shot that it was taken from does not belong to me, but rather to the talented litlnemo. (No wonder I didn't remember taking it!) She graciously posted the photo with a Creative Commons license, and she said I can still use it if I use proper attribution. (Thank you!) So I will either do that or use one of my own inferior shots, which I feel would better represent the content you normally find here (inferior, but mostly original). Thanks again to everyone for being so generous with their talents!

Free Self-Defense Workshop This Thursday

The Chinese Information & Service Center is holding another workshop in the hopes of educating local women on how to protect themselves from the still-on-the-loose sexual assailant who's attacked 23 women on Beacon Hill and elsewhere in South Seattle.



Paraphrase from the Big Blog and Seattlest and the Beacon Hill mailing list, etc., etc.:

The Chinese Information & Service Center is hosting a Sexual Assault Survival Skill and Self Defense Workshop on Thursday, April 10. The workshop will offer information on what to do if you're attacked and personal safety tips to avoid trouble. It will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Chinese Information & Service Center, 611 S. Lane St., in Seattle. It's free. Those attending should wear comfortable clothing. To RSVP, call Alan Lai at (206) 624-5633, x4111.

If anyone attends one of these workshops, please report back on what you learn. If they teach you any "unladylike karate chops," I might just sign up next time.

Mayor Hitting the Green Stuff

There was chuckling on the Georgetown mailing list today about a fresh press release from the mayor's office: "Nickels and Conlin Propose Green Fee on Shopping Bags, Ban on Foam."

Many of us were pushing for this action last year when fighting the proposed Georgetown dump. But rumor had it the mayor was not ready to take this stance.

What a difference a year makes! Especially when that year is an election one.

Nickels has been hitting the green stuff extra hard lately, having his office produce 18 environmentalist press releases so far in 2008, versus just 5 during the same period last year.

But personally, my very favorite ridiculous item from the mayor's office this year came via Neighborhoods guy Steve Louie in a recent e-mail to the G-town list:

Hello all, we've been asked by the Mayor's Office to assist with the outreach in getting your responses, which will then be used in developing a Customer Bill of Rights. Please log on to the site below for more information and take a few moments to respond to a few questions. Thanks...and I'm apologizing now if you get this more than once...

http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/issues/BillOfRights/

Steve Louie
Department of Neighborhoods

I actually went and took a look, hoping for a chance to enter some specific requests (like, can we get assigned a tracking number when we submit graffiti complaints to SPU, so we can later find out what the status is, as you can with DPD complaints).

Instead, the only three questions are totally bullshit:

* What does good customer service mean to you?

* What do you think should be part of a customer bill of rights?

* Do you have a customer service experience with the city of Seattle that you would like to share?

I couldn't care less about this "Bill of Rights." The City already knows what it is that they need to fix. They outlined it in this Customer Service Initiative Overview from last fall. Better accessibility, efficiency, and accountability. There--they've got it right there.

I just wish Nickels would start working on fixing the actual problems now, rather than collecting more data on "what good customer service means to us." But then I guess he'd have nothing to promise us for his next term...