Tom Fucoloro

The water from some of the 12th and Alder Youth Services Center drinking fountains is truly nasty. Also, the place smells. Really bad.

The County Council recently decided to place a $210 million levy on the November ballot for public approval. If it passes, the area bounded by 12th, 14th, Remington Ct and Spruce St could see some dramatic changes as new areas open for private development and public space. The plans would replace both the detention and judicial facilities.

The levy would cost the average homeowner $25 per year for the next nine years.

Seattle Channel's City Inside/Out recently dove into the debate over the center, and several people involved with it made the case for a new facility:

The program gives a look inside the failing facility, with it's uncontrollable heating system, brown and gray water and lack of spaces for private family consultations. The panel attempts to make the case that even repairing the building's biggest problems, which could cost as much as $40 million, the center would still fail to meet the needs of the families and youth it is trying to help.

They also stress the need for the facility to have good transit access, one reason for not moving the facility entirely as some people in the neighborhood have suggested.

After winning two fights at the Women's World Championship Tournament in Qinhuangdao, China, Garfield alumna Queen Underwood lost by one point to Norway’s Ingrid Egner. The tournament is also the 2012 London Olympics qualifier, so Underwood's chances of making it to the games are now slimmer.

Underwood must now wait to see if the Olympic Tripartite Commission will grant her a spot in the games. (UPDATE: Emmanuelle Moreau at the International Olympic Committee says the Tripartite Commission will meet "sometime in June.")

Girlboxing reports that the Queen of the Ring lost the bout 26-25 after a big fourth round comeback. After losing the first two rounds 6:4 and 8:5, Queen tied the third 6:6. Then she had a thunderous comeback in the fourth, scoring 6:10, just one point shy of tying the bout.

The Queen has been training hard with her eyes on the prize for years. Training at Cappy's Boxing Gym at 22nd and Union, Underwood fought her way to the number 1 spot in the country, a position she still holds five years later.

Businesses in the neighborhood helped her get going down the Olympic road as best they could, but the financial needs to get to the Olympics are intense. Queen opted to train with Tacoma Boxing Club last summer, and has been working toward her goal ever since.

Her training has been trying both physically and emotionally. She went public to the New York Times in February with painful details from her childhood. Her father sexually abused her and her sister for years, something she has largely held inside until recently. Her story of fighting back and empowering herself has been inspiring people around the nation for months, through the national print media to The View to Anderson Cooper (who she punched in the stomach):

Stay tuned for more as the Queen waits to see if she will get a chance to fight for the crown... I mean, gold.

Bernard Mustafa III had an estimated $200,000 worth of suspected Fentanyl, loads of cash and a rifle attached to a tripod on the kitchen table aimed at the street below his 18th and Spruce apartment, according to court documents posted by Seattle Weekly. He was arrested April 19 and is now facing drug and weapon charges in US District Court.

DEA agents say they found about 20 grams of Fentanyl in Mustafa's apartment. While that may not sound like much, Fentanyl is an extremely potent narcotic — 80 to 100 times the strength of morphine — and is typically measured in micrograms. One gram can make about 4 ounces of sellable mix, and each ounce of mix can go for $1,000 on the street, the documents say (an excellent 2011 story by the Stranger notes a much lower selling point).

Though Fentanyl is still rare in comparison to herion, it is sometimes cut into heroin. This can have deadly results because the strength of hits can vary dramatically depending on how much Fentanyl is in each one.

In addition to the rifle pointed at the street (it was not loaded), agents also found a second rifle, a handgun and a bullet-proof vest. In addition to the large amounts of cash, he also had some gold coins and a diamond locked in one of two safes in his apartment.

You really couldn't ask for a better day for a neighborhood fair. Hundreds of families showed up for Saturday's Madrona Mayfair, which kicked off in the morning with a kids bike and tricycle parade down 34th Ave.

Festivities at Madrona Playfield continue until the evening. See our previous post for a schedule of events.

Attached are some photos from the fair. Feel free to add yours in the comments!

Middle and high school students need to register by June 1 if they want to take Hollow Earth Radio's August radio play and circuit bending classes.

Registration is $100, but there are some scholarship opportunities.

Details, from Hollow Earth Radio:

Hollow Earth Radio will facilitate Around the Bend, a Circuit Bending Camp on August 6-10th 1-4pm for high school aged youth. Around the Bend Circuit Bending Camp will explore this electronic art by giving youth opportunities to experiment with bending circuits on battery-powered toys to make their own musical instruments. Circuit bending is an electronic art that explores short-circuiting electronic devices, often children's toys, to create new musical instruments and sound generators. Youth will do hands-on experimentation and will learn about basic components of electronic design, soldering techniques, visual & interface design theories, and tactile manipulation of electronically produced audio. This camp will provide youth with knowledge and experience to venture further into this art-form on their own. The registration fee is $100, and there are a few scholarships available. To register for this camp, email info@hollowearthradio.org by June 1st.

Hollow Earth Radio will facilitate On the Air, a Radio Play Camp on August 13-17th, 9am-12pm for middle school aged youth. On the Air Radio Play Camp will give youth the opportunity to learn about the history of radio drama, making sound effects, writing radio plays and acting out their own creations. Youth will work together in groups to produce their own radio plays that will be broadcast on HER. The registration fee is $100, and there are a few scholarships available. To  register for this camp, email info@hollowearthradio.org by June 1st.

Both Camps will take places at Hollow Earth Radio (2018A East Union Street) in the Central District of Seattle!

Ambitious plans to redevelop Yesler Terrace are set to go before the City Council this summer as residents and planners prepare for the sweeping changes to the neighborhood.

In order to fund the creation of new subsidized housing units, the Seattle Housing Authority ("SHA") intends to sell some of the land it owns in the neighborhood to private developers. The full redevelopment is anticipated to take 10-20 years.

The plan includes 661 "extremely" low-income units to replace the 561 currently in the neighborhood as well as 290 "very" low-income units and 850 "workforce" units. In addition, the plan calls for 3,199 market-rate units, mostly in high-rise condo and apartment buildings.

The changes will likely mean that Yesler Terrace will shift from being one of the lowest-income neighborhoods in the city to having an affluent majority. Residents will also lose the front yards that adorn the current homes.

One sticky issue with many current residents is fear that they will not be able to return to the neighborhood once they are displaced from their current, aging housing units. The SHA has promised residents that everyone who wants to return will have a unit reserved.

For more background on the plans for the neighborhood and a look at what the unique neighborhood is like today, see our two-part series (part 1, part 2).

Seattle Channel's City Inside/Out recently spoke to proponents and concerned residents about the plans and the road ahead:

Other big changes are already headed to the neighborhood. The city and Sound Transit have already begun construction on the First Hill Streetcar, which will go through the heart of Yesler Terrace with a stop at the community center at Broadway and Yesler. The streetcar should be operational in early 2014.

Here's some data on the current make-up of the Yesler Terrace population, presented to the City Council in April:

Texting while driving is extremely dangerous. Yet, even though it is illegal, it is remarkably common, especially among young people.

But some Garfield High students had the chance to see how distracting texting behind the wheel can be Wednesday morning. Councilmember Bruce Harrell gave a talk, and students had the chance to use a driving simulator that demonstrates first hand how texting slows response times significantly.

From Councilmember Harrell's office:

In an effort to raise awareness of the dangers of texting and driving, Councilmember Bruce Harrell, chair of the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety, Civil Rights and Technology Committee, met with students at Garfield High School this morning to discuss the issue. 

The Peer Awareness Foundation and AT&T made available a driving simulator on campus to demonstrate how dangerous it is to text and drive. Students had the opportunity to sit behind the wheel of a real car and experience the dangerous impact of texting while driving through a pair of virtual reality goggles.

“Driving and texting is against the law. Fatalities related to distracted driving are among the highest for people under the age of 20,” said Councilmember Bruce Harrell. “Do not risk your life and the lives of others by thumbing lol, cul8r, ttyl, idk, gtg; no text message is worth the risk. Education is the answer for this national epidemic and we will work with teen drivers, families, and schools to stop this.”

This educational program is part of AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign, a national effort to educate the public about the dangers of texting while driving.

 

Below are some startling facts about texting and driving:

·         Slower reaction time when required to brake:

§  Unimpaired: .54 seconds to brake

§  Legally drunk: add 4 feet

§  Reading email: add 36 feet

§  Sending a text: add 70 feet

·         Texting takes your eyes off the road for an average of 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that is the equivalent of driving the length of a football field completely blind.

·         Those who send text messages while driving are 23 times more likely to be in a crash.

·         Some studies indicate that texting while driving is twenty times more dangerous than drinking and driving.

·         One in three teens sends more than 100 text messages a day, or 3000 texts a month.

·         One in three texting teens ages 16-17, say they have texted while driving.

·         48% of all teens ages 12-17 say they have been in a car when the driver was texting.

Wanna spend time on a farm this weekend? Well, CD-based Clean Greens is taking a van of people out to their farm in Duvall Saturday to help plant seedlings.

From Clean Greens:

This weekend is supposed to be gorgeous, and our greenhouse is overflowing with seedlings to plant! Please come help us out on the farm this Saturday, the van is leaving the CG office at 9am, 116 21st Ave @ Yesler. Hope to see y'all there!

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The food justice organization and farm runs a summer CSA that starts in July. They have also been working to renovate a house across the street from New Hope Baptist Church with plans to turn it into a community space with a commercial kitchen and green building techniques. The G.R.E.A.N. House could be completed as early as late summer.

Madrona K-8 enrollment peaked six years ago. Today, the student body has declined by 160 students.

Much of the enrollment decline is due to parents sending their children to other private and public schools. Due to continually poor test results, students within the Madrona K-8 area can enroll in other SPS schools. But some of the troubles also stem from racial tension at the 15-percent-white school, KUOW reports.

Below is an excerpt of the radio story. You can listen to the full story on KUOW's website.

From KUOW:

The school principal suggests low test scores scare some parents away. She admits those need to improve. Also, the school fails to meet federal requirements for yearly progress. So, students assigned here can pick a different school if they want.

Besides all that, Karin Richard sees another possible reason for low enrollment. Something she calls "playground chatter."

Richard: "I had a friend who said she'd moved to Madrona and within the first three weeks of being here at the playground she said she'd heard everything about the school."

Her friend heard things like the school doesn't have an arts program. There's not much recess. That advanced kids don't get enough attention.

Richard: "And none of it was true."

Richard started her networking in the park to set the record straight.

A man crossing Rainier Ave at Dearborn was hit by an 18-year-old driver Tuesday morning. He was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

From SPD:

On May 8th at approximately 11:05 a.m. officers responded to a vehicle/pedestrian collision with injuries.  Preliminary investigation indicates that a black Subaru Impreza was travelling southbound on Rainier Avenue South approaching South Dearborn Street.  At the same time, a male pedestrian was crossing Rainier Avenue South at South Dearborn Street in the north crosswalk, walking west to east when he was struck by the Subaru.

SFD medics responded and treated the 24-year-old male pedestrian at the scene.  He was then transported to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

Officers evaluated the 18-year-old female driver of the Subaru for signs of being under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.  No signs were detected. 

There were no citations issued at the scene, which is standard procedure in serious traffic collisions requiring extensive follow up investigation and collision reconstruction.

Traffic Collision Investigation Squad detectives responded to the scene and continue to actively investigate.