Tire slashings on E. Mercer between 20th & 21st

From some neighbors:

In the last two weeks we have had four tire slashings on our block of East Mercer Street between 20th and 21st. Two were on my wife's car and two were on my neighbors car. Both were parked directly under the street light when the vandalism took place. All four occurred on separate nights and on the street side of the vehicle. We called the Seattle Police non emergency number to report this. All four tires have had a small puncture on the side wall and were not repairable.

Holiday Weekend Links

• Predicted I-90 and SR 2 Holiday weekend traffic patterns
  
  
• Saturday Morning 4AM: rare and dramatic meteor shower
  
  
• Bonus website: Seattle couple are WALKING (and paddling) from the Puget Sound to the Bering Sea! (I've known the woman since she was ~ 5: this is real, and totally wild). You can hear them on Weekend America.
  

Lost Cat

Bottled Water!

"Sylvia", 8/29/07

On my recent vacation we went backpacking to the beaches of Cape Scott, the VERY northwest tip of Vancouver Island, about 20 miles from the nearest village, 50 miles from the nearest small town and hundreds of miles from a major city.

Nonetheless, as we walked along the beaches we met a constant supply of trash that had floated in, with plastic water bottles being the most common, about one every 200 yards on the beach.

Eclipse: VERY early Tuesday

Neighborhood & Personal Safety Against Shootings

EAST PRECINCT CRIME PREVENTION COALITION

Thursday – August 23, 2007
Seattle Vocational Institute,
2120 S. Jackson St. Parking is on the north side of the building
6:30 - 8:00pm

Welcome/Introductions – Stephanie Tschida, Chair - EPCPC 6:30 - 6:35

Neighborhood & Personal Safety Against Shootings 6:35 - 7:05
Seattle Police Department

Community Concerns/Announcements 7:05 - 7:40
State of the Neighborhood
• Community Crime Mapping

Precinct Update - 7:40 – 8:00

• Enforcement Updates – Capt. Paul McDonagh & Lt. John Hayes
• Additional Govt. Agencies Represented - City Attorney, DOC, WSCLB etc.

• High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) - Denise Harnly, SNG

• "Get Off the Streets" Program - Mary Williams, SNG

Tuesday is Election Day

Nobody I've asked has received a Voters' Pamphlet for Tuesday's Primary Election, so here's a substitute:

All the Candidates on the ballot

Find out who you can vote for (and where)

Seattle Voters' Guide: online or as a printable PDF

Here's a summary of newspaper (and other) endorsements from Crosscut Seattle (an onilne newspaper).

See you at the polls.

Changing of the Guard at CHHIP

Capitol Hill Housing (CHHIP, till recently) has long been our neighborhood's major landowner and low income housing provider. They have, for ever, been wonderful neighbors and advocates for neighborhood safety and everything else that we long for, and have helped to turn round several problem properties in our area. That is surely due, in large part, to the efforts of their longtime director, Chuck Weinstock. Below is an announcement from CHHIP about the appointment of a new Executive Director at CHHIP, and of a goodbye party for Chuck. Please join me in welcoming Christopher, and in thanking Chuck for his decades of service to the neighborhood.

For a quick review of Capitol Hill Housing's mission, you might read the articles in the July 92 and Spring 96 editions of the Miller Times, or you can hear if from Chuck himself in this Council Committee hearing. From CHHIP:

On behalf of Capitol Hill Housing Board of Directors and Staff we are pleased to announce the appointment of Christopher Persons as new Executive Director. Persons replaces Chuck Weinstock who is leaving the organization after 19 years on August 30, 2007. Persons, who was selected by the CHH Board of Directors following a national search, will be relocating from Chicago to begin with the organization on September 4, 2007.

“Christopher will be a great new voice for affordable housing in Seattle and a thoughtful and enthusiastic addition to the community leadership on Capitol Hill,” said Richard Yarmuth, CHH Board President.

Persons, whose work for Inspiration Corporation was lauded for its entrepreneurial nature and client focus, has been a strong advocate for affordable housing in Chicago highlighting that concern in a recent run for local political office. Persons’ community involvement runs deep, serving on several boards including the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness.

“I look forward to continuing Capitol Hill Housing’s strong presence in the community on Capitol Hill and other Seattle neighborhoods. Capitol Hill remains central in the city’s plan for growth, transportation and economic and social diversity. I look forward to being a voice representing families, lower wage workers, and seniors who want to live in Seattle for the great city that it is. I can’t wait to get started,” said Persons. “I am also excited about continuing the organization’s strong partnerships with others in the affordable housing industry as well as the Capitol Hill community.”

Persons will take the helm at CHH on September 4, 2007. A celebration for Chuck Weinstock, the outgoing Executive Director, is scheduled for mid-September.

Capitol Hill Housing is a non-profit provider of affordable housing with over 1,000 units in various Seattle neighborhoods. CHH seeks to build and manage the best in affordable living and preserve the character of Seattle’s neighborhoods.

If you have any questions please contact Teresa Macaluso, Deputy Director at tmacaluso@chhip.org or Chris Cooper, Director of Fund Development ccooper@chhip.org, or (206) 329-7303.

Hit and Run incident

A report from a neighbor on 24th. Not clear what we can do, other than try and get license plate numbers,

Friday, August 3, 2007 9AM, 2200 block, 24th Ave E.

Someone traveling at high speed in a late model Cadillac or other large gold vehicle totaled a parked Ford Escape which was pushed up on the curb as a result of the impact. The Escape was pushed into a parked Subaru, also pushed up on the curb, doing approx. $3200 damage to the Subaru. The speeding car continued down the street, sideswiping two other parked cars. (the driver of the speeding car must have been injured by the impact, and the front end of his car seriously damaged.)

This happened at 9 am....police were called / made a report, but the perp was not caught because none of the neighbors got the license plate. Car sideswiping happens on a regular basis on 24th, but the damage to 4 parked, unoccupied cars was extensive this time.
( I was at work. A neighbor reported the incident.).

Miller Blog updates

Back from vacation (see http://tinyurl.com/2g7ha2 if truly interested in what I did) and added a few blog updates:

Upcoming Bikery Programs - this Saturday

GOTS outreach program and 23rd & Union

City Free Tree application deadline extended

Big Brother is watching you

Back home from Vancouver Island

And the usual calendar items are at:

http://ical.mac.com/andrew_taylor/Miller

Enjoy the Summer
Andrew

Upcoming Bikery Programs - this Saturday

Join the Bikery this Saturday, August 18th, for some great programs!

The first, starting at noon is "Components 101 - 'The Drive Train'" Hey, what's going on down there? This class will focus on the drive train - you know, your chain, your cranks, and all those things that make your bike go!

Following the components class at 3pm, we will be hosting a forum titled, "Biking and the Law". Come and join us in this discussion with bike lawyer, Bob Anderton, who'll help you understand Washington State bike law and how it affects you - an essential class for everyone!

Tell your friends! This should be a great afternoon!

Click here for a dowloadable flyer

GOTS outreach program and 23rd & Union

PI article about Lt. Hayes's GOTS program, which started out at 20th/Madison and moved to 23rd & Union when the dealers moved there after Club Chocolate City closed.

Program aims to clean up busy drug area

Outreach workers try to help people get off the streets

By KERY MURAKAMI
P-I REPORTER

Sometimes crossing the street can save a life.

Crystal, a woman who spent most of her life on drugs, was talking about that one day recently, on the south side of East Union Street at 23rd Avenue in the Central Area. etc.......

City Free Tree application deadline extended

The Department of Neighborhoods Tree Fund deadline for applications has been extended to Friday, August 24th.

Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to get free trees for the planting strips (between the sidewalk and the curb) and green your neighborhood!

Get a group of 5 households together with a request of at least 10 trees and send in your application to DON. All you have to do is send a representative from your group to a tree planting and maintenance training on Saturday, October 13th, agree to maintain the trees for their first 3 years and the trees will be delivered, for free, to the location your group chooses one weekend in October or November.

Applications are available on the Department of Neighborhoods website, at:
http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/nmf/treefund.htm

Questions? Call Eden Trenor (206-684-4520) or John Eskelin (206-684-0359) at the Department of Neighborhoods.

Big Brother is watching you

A neighbor writes in to note:

This morning I awoke to a new surveillance camera installed atop the "Welcome to Capitol Hill" sign located just west of 23rd on John Street. I called the police to find out what the deal was since they hadn't even left a note with us and they said it would be there for a day to see how bad the red light violators are at that intersection (BTW, I have no idea how many people run red lights there but it IS a dangerous corner). Nevertheless, the cop did say it may permanently reside on the sign (over my dead body of course) once it goes through some permit procedure or it may be located somewhere else. The cop also said that the only images that would be captured would be (I'm paraphrasing) "pictures of the back of a car [traveling eastbound on John Street] and no images of people in the car (driver or passenger)".

Anyway, I thought you'd like to know that going forward people entering Capitol Hill via John Street will see the nice "Welcome to Capitol Hill" sign - with a police surveillance camera on it. And one last thing, the camera will NOT be used for anything other than catching red light violators so I assume any images obtained by the camera cannot be used (i) to prosecute any hit and run accident occurring at the intersection (other than simply citing someone traveling eastbound on John Street for driving through a red light), (ii) as evidence of the thriving - albeit diminished - drug trade going on across the street at the bus stop, (iii) by a victim in suing a driver who plows through a red light from any of the OTHER directions (other than eastbound on John - I assume a plaintiff would have access to the image if the defendant was cited for running a red light), or (iv) by one of the many people who legally park their car on John Street only to have it smashed by a Metro Bus making a right turn onto westbound John Street (it happens A LOT).

And last, the issue really isn't (or shouldn't be) that people run red lights - rather it is (or should be) that there have been a lot of accidents at that intersection due to drivers' speeds and the inane traffic light pattern that the entire city experiences. Citing people for running a red light WILL NOT make that corner safer. Also, I don't want to rant here, but why is that only with the closure of I-5 is the city finally looking into making the traffic light pattern more efficient?

Anyway, if you'd like to post something on your blog, you can probably just address the big issue here - We're living on Capitol Hill and now the police are putting cameras up...

Back home from Vancouver Island

(seen on logging road from Port Hardy to Cape Scott, the NW corner of Vancouver Island)



The noon gun, fired every day for the tourists at the Bastion in Nanaimo, BC. Yes, we did enjoy a Nanaimo Bar.

(Go here for way too many more pictures)