Whenever I journey off leaving Sage behind, I turn on the Animal Planet for her to enjoy while I’m walkabout-

More often than not I hang around a bit with her, stretching out my coffee slurping, watching Steve Irwin run around behind the screen doing all sorts of incredible things.

Some time before now I drove with my bushie mates from Mooloolaba to Beerwah to visit the Australia Zoo that Steve Irwin’s father had founded some years before our visit. My Aussie friend, a barefoot bush enthusiast, knew Steve and his Da and wanted me to have a look at what they had created with their zoo. He also wanted me to see a crocodile jump vertically to further educate me on crocs prior to our jump off to the Pennefather, north of Weipa, where these critters flourish full of crankiness.

When we arrived we were disappointed to find out that Steve had headed to Brisbane for the day. All was not lost as his wife Terri was on the property. My friend Terry made the introductions and she enthusiastically gave us a bit of a tour before getting into a “do you know so and so” with one of our group who had family in Eugene, Oregon, where Terri was brought up.
We blokes broke off from the conversation to watch the feeding of some mighty hungry crocs. When one went vertical to snatch a piece of meat dangling from a tree branch Terry leaned over and said, “Mick, be sure to climb to the top of the tree.”

After a few hours of we said our goodbyes and headed back to the beach at Mooloolaba for a swim and a pint or two.

I wish I had met Steve Irwin.
Knowing what I know about the kind of men tramp around the bush of Australia caring for the land, the animals and the people I am positive I would have held that meeting as one of those “special good times” that have thrown themselves in my path.
In some ways Steve Irwin represents all my friends downunda. His spirit, enthusiasm, humor, knowledge, courage and love for Australia radiate off of all of them-

I miss them.

Aroo.

The woman behind Capitol Hill’s Ghost Gallery used to curate art events at other people’s venues. Now Laurie Kearney is doing her own thing where Denny Way and Summit meet. She has grown the Ghost for a year now. CHS checked in to see how her spirits are holding up.

Does the name Ghost Gallery refer to the gallery’s former ephemeral state, as a series of events and shows held in a variety of locations, or do the words “get out” appear written on the walls in blood occasionally?
The first part’s definitely true. I decided to keep the name when I took over this space because it’s comfortable, and some people knew it. (Laughs) There haven’t been any ghosts—I think I’d panic!

What changes have you made to the way Ghost Gallery is run to ensure it will thrive in its current space on Olive?
I painted the walls bright colors so it would be noticeable from the street. It looks a bit like an apartment, so we had our logo carved on the door. We’ve started displaying local art on the fence.
What have you learned about the neighborhood since the gallery opened here a year ago?

I’ve lived two blocks away for six years, so I’m familiar with the neighborhood and I love it. Businesses here are really supportive of each other and into collaboration. It’s very comfortable.

Most people would probably like to drink wine and peruse art galleries while covered in jewels, but do you think there’s something about Capitol Hill that necessitates Ghost Gallerie’s multiple functions, as gallery, music venue, jewelry store, and wine shop?
The main reason I created the hybrid is to survive in this economy. Many traditional art galleries are suffering right now. Not everyone can afford to buy art. We have handmade jewelry in order to be more accessible. People here are very fashion-forward. We can’t have too many live music shows, because it’s a residential area, but Damien Jurado played here on Friday–there were almost a hundred people in here. I’m very interested in wine, personally, and it’s often served in galleries. I thought it would be nice if people could grab a bottle on their way out.

Would you say there are characteristics that unify the many facets of Ghost Gallery?
There’s definitely a vintage feel to a lot of things in here. I’m very detail-oriented. I try to display things as if they were in my home–to make them exciting and interesting. The styles of art I show here vary. I want to explore what’s out there. The jewelry styles vary too. It’s not just what people around here are wearing, but overseas, and on the east coast.

It says on your web site Ghost Gallery can be hired to host events. What does this usually entail, and does it involve a karaoke machine?
(laughs) First of all, I’m terrified of karaoke, so no karaoke machine. We’ll bartend, handle sales. We’ve been asked to collaborate on events out side of the space. We’ll curate and do promotions.

I read that in the past Ghost Gallery has collaborated with the Pretty Parlor, a vintage and locally designed clothing boutique. Have you always been interested in fashion and clothing design?
I’m definitely interested in clothing, but I wouldn’t call myself an expert. Anna Banana, the owner of Pretty Parlor, really has an eye for it. There’s a rack of her clothes by the door. I worked at Pretty Parlor for a while.
Are there grounds on which you would deny someone rental of Ghost Gallery, besides installations involving floods, plagues or meth labs?
I have a lot of restrictions because of the building—curfews, noise levels. It couldn’t be a big rock show and it would have to be pretty contained. I’m into a lot of things. I’d have to read the proposal. Anything that doesn’t put people in mortal danger, I guess. A woman wanted to do an installation here involving spaghetti, and I told her, sure, we’ll just cover the walls with paper!

What does summer have in store for Ghost Gallery?
We kind of kicked it off with the Damien Jurado show last week. We’ll have paintings by Tyson Anthony Roberts here from June 9th until July 8th. That show is called “Pixel Pusher.” In July we’re doing the second installment of a show of video work called “Action,” involving Joe Gray, Keith Tilford and other people from the Dumb Eyes crew. Amanda Manitach is building a tunnel in the gallery for that. In August there will be a show of illustrations and paintings by Natalia Czajkiewicz and Kristen Ziska. We also plan to have barbecues all summer!

Learn more at http://ghostgallery.org/

The accompanying photograph is of Dzunuk’wa, a shy hairy giant found in the forest within the Kwakwaka’wakw territories, towards the northern end of Vancouver Island.  Some view her as a fearsome creature that can be the source of great wealth.
When Duane Pasco completed this carving in 1973 he probably never envisioned how it could represent wealth pouring into Seattle city coffers. The carving now resides in Occidental Park looking away from the water. When all is as it should be the pole would face the water, as they did when such things mattered.

If you are a resident of Seattle you have noticed that parking meters are appearing faster than mushrooms in our rain soaked woods. Not only are meters appearing overnight but also the hours of payment have been extended to eight PM in a number of neighborhoods. More meters, longer hours combined with the increased cost per minute is inviting many to stay close to home nodding to the redundancy of their TV machine.

Recently I weathered buckets of rain to spend the afternoon with Woody Allen and invited guests romping around Paris in the middle of the night. I cruised the neighborhood deciphering all the posted instructions on how long I could park and in which geographic direction the car must not intrude into while I was enjoying the film.
I thought I had it all figured out.
I parked about five blocks from the theater, as I knew any meter would expire leaving me indebted to the city for yet another parking violation.

Surprise, surprise! When I returned to my car, after spending $10.00 to get in the film and $5.50 for popcorn, I was welcomed with a $48.00 ticket for enjoying myself for way too long. I missed the part about not leaving your car past six PM on days beginning with any letter in the alphabet.

I long ago gave up going downtown as there is no longer any there there that justifies the parking rates in the garages. Am I going to have to consider staying even closer to home?

I get it. You want us out of our cars though you are not offering good alternative methods of getting from neighborhood to neighborhood in a timely manner. I just wanted to see the film, not spend half a day dedicated to the getting to and the getting from logistics.

At $63.50 per film I’m thinking about increasing my indebtedness to Netflix, who somehow finds me within a day-

Miller Community Center got out of the last round of budget cuts mostly intact, but several other centers around the city did not. By dramatically reducing use at several centers, the city was able to save $1.3 million, and now they are looking at ways to restructure community center operations and revenue streams in order to reduce the department’s reliance on the city’s general fund.

These cost-cutting measures range from restructuring centers into geographic groups that coordinate programming to closing centers entirely with hopes of finding third parties to take over operations and costs for their own uses. While a Microsoft datacenter wouldn’t fit with potential third-party programs, foundations and community organizations such as the Pratt Fine Arts Center that could utilize the space would. Queer Youth Space, by the way, is already hard at work bringing its plan for its Three Wings community space to fruition.

Two public meetings on the plan are currently scheduled, though neither are on the Hill. The first is June 15, 7–8:30 p.m. at the Bitter Lake Community Center, 13035 Linden Ave. N. The second is on Beacon Hill June 16, 7–8:30 p.m., at Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Ave. S.

You can also weigh-in by completing an online survey expressing your level of support for the nine options prepared by the study. The survey also has a brief description of each option and the anticipated affects of each on the budget. If you want to read more about each option, you can download PDF documents of each from the Parks website.

Among the highlights of the studies, Parks determines they could save $126,000 by raising participant fees by 10 percent, then offering Seattle residents a 10 percent discount. Several nearby municipalities already do this, including Renton, Mercer Island and Des Moines.

The options that save the most would close some of the centers and attempt to find organizations that would take out long-term leases on the buildings. Example of such an arrangement include the Cascade People’s Center, the Madrona Dance Studio and the Pratt Fine Arts Center. This extreme option would, of course, make it difficult to change the buildings back to community centers if budget conditions improve.

Brief descriptions of the options, from the Parks survey:

Option 1: Geographic Management of Community Centers

Organize community centers into 7 geographic groups of 3 or 4 centers that are managed and programmed in a coordinated fashion, and partially or fully restore the current limited use sites (Alki, Ballard, Green Lake, Laurelhurst and Queen Anne).

Potential savings: $665,000 if hours are partially restored at limited use sites

Option 2: Tiered Community Centers

Each community center is classified as belonging to a tier, based on criteria including physical facilities, current use, and demographics. Public hours and staffing depend on the tier. As in Option 1, the centers are managed in geographic groups with programming done on a coordinated basis.  

Potential savings: $1,230,000.

Option 3: Tiered Community Centers with 2-3 Centers Closed or Run by Others

Tiered community centers as in Option 2 but with 2-3 lower tier centers closed. Closed centers are made available for partnerships to operate all or part of a center.

Potential savings: $1,779,000.

Option 4: Close Community Centers

Stop City operation of between 7-10 community centers (no City staff, no public hours). Closed centers are made available for partnerships to operate all or part of a center. Community centers that remain open operate as they did in 2010.

Potential savings: $1,458,000 – $2,714,000.

Option 5: Increase PAR Fee

The City currently retains 3.25% of gross revenue from associated Recreation Council (ARC) classes, sports fees, and childcare services  (10% for Lifelong Recreation courses) to support community center  operations. This percent retained is known as a Participation Fee or PAR fee. Change the PAR fee to 4% or 5%.

Estimated savings: $126,000 for increase to 5% or $47,000 for increase to 4%

Option 6: Resident Discount

Pilot raising basic fees for programs and services about 10% but offering Seattle residents a 10% discount. Pilot could be at Amy Yee Tennis Center or at all swimming pools.

Potential savings: $7,000 for tennis center pilot; $47,000 for pool pilot; and $126,000 for all facilities

Option 7: Volunteers

Expand use of volunteers in order to forge stronger connections with the community, free professional staff for duties requiring their expertise, make community centers more welcoming to all users, and make programming and rentals more affordable during times when a community center is not open or is underused.

Potential savings: Unlikely to be major source of budget savings.

Option 8: Reprogramming of Underused Spaces

Times when a community center is not open to the public or when it is   underused are called dark hours. This option would recruit outside organizations (partners) to provide programs or services using community center facilities during dark hours. Partners could include other governmental organizations and private or community-based organizations. The goal is to maximize use of community centers and provide a range of services to the public.

Potential savings: Unlikely to be a major source of additional revenue.

Option 9: Long-term Lease of Entire Community Center

An outside organization assumes total responsibility for operation of a community center that would otherwise be closed (see options 3 and 4). Parks retains ownership of the facility and responsibility for major maintenance costs.

Potential savings: Avoids General Fund net expense of $400,000 per standard center, or $100,000 per current limited use center. Rent payments by lessee would provide additional savings.

I’ve been continually impressed with Sound Transit’s STart Program, Sound Transit’s program that uses light rail construction sites to cultivate and curate art installations. One in particular caught my eye just recently. 

Mapping Capitol Hill is part art and part historical cartography, mapping the changes in Capitol Hill’s transportation infrastructure over a period of more than 100 years. Artists Jess Rees and Nicole Bernard are hoping to engage passers by with maps showing the continual evolution of transit on Capitol HIll. 

One compelling thing for Capitol Hill residents will be running a finger along streets to find familiar land marks or addresses and tracking what’s changed; what’s there now, what used to be, and what might be on it’s way. 

From the press release: 

We tend to think of a neighborhood as ours. Timeless, changeless, and pure. But of course cities and especially the Capitol Hill neighborhood are vibrant and dynamic places. It is the nature of a living neighborhood to develop and grow- sometimes the changes are celebrated, sometimes painful, and sometimes bittersweet. When something we love seemingly disappears, it’s hard to see how transformations are always positive, but its in the character of a lively neighborhood like Capitol Hill to be in a constant state of flux.

That says it really well. And more change is coming with the arrival of light rail in 2016. Those of us who are light rail and Transit Oriented Development fans are looking forward to more people, more activity, and more new places on Capitol Hill. But in order to make that happen a whole block had to disappear. Change is good, but not always easy or certain, no matter how much we plan for it. 

Mapping Capitol Hill will be on the big red wall through 2012. 

The John Court apartments are mostly full. Retail space on the hill is in fairly high demand, and E John Ct and 15th Ave E has good bus access and a lot of foot traffic from the Safeway and Group Health buildings across the street. So why have most of the building’s retail spaces stood empty for years?

“Most is the fact that we don’t have any parking,” said Adam Greenberg of First Western Properties, which leases the retail space. “But that’s kind of indicative of that area.”

But on transit-oriented Capitol Hill, surely there must be a progressive business owner who will take a risk on people walking and biking to their business. And there is a giant Safeway parking lot and non-metered street parking only steps away.

It seems John Court’s retail must suffer from a double whammy. Aside from the lack of parking, the John Court spaces are also large, which can be intimidating to businesses during tough financial times.

“People who previously were not afraid to take on 2,700 square feet now don’t want to,” Greenberg said, referring to the size of the main corner lot, which has never been filled.

Make that a triple whammy. The space is also not set up well for restaurants.

“That building was not constructed to be able to vent for a restaurant,” said Greenberg. It could handle a coffee or sandwich shop, but installing a class one or two hood is not possible.

Meanwhile, coming soon from 19th and Madison to Pine and Belmont is a new wave of mixed-use retail space. A quadruple whammy?

John Court is currently home to Green Clean dry cleaners and an Edward Jones office. Greenberg said parties have been expressing interested, from financial firms to yoga studios.

“We’re getting more phone calls,” he said.

Next weekend, from June 11^th to August 6^th, St. Joseph Campus will welcome Tent City, to be located in the parking lot area of the school and church.

This will be the third time St. Joseph has hosted Tent City. If interested in volunteering or helping out, there will be sign up sheets for volunteers and items needed for hosting events throughout their stay located in the church vestibule.  You do not have to be a member of the Parish to help out, and all are welcome.

The church and members of the community hope to offer fun and hospitality to the tent city guests and have opportunities for parishioners and neighbors to get to know tent city residents.

The Parish Ad Hoc Committee has planned the following events for June and everyone in the neighborhood is welcome:

Saturday, June 11th – Move In Day – sack lunches and Welcome Meal for TC3 residents

Thursday, June 16th, 7 pm – Ice Cream Social – TC3 residents, parishioners and neighbors for sundaes, tours, and face painting for kids and visiting.  (This is a great opportunity to tour Tent City and really see what this is all about.  I went last time and took my kids and we’re all glad we got to meet these folks who will live among us for the next 2 months.)

Thursday, June 30th, 7 pm – Open Mike – Informal talent/stories and popcorn – TC3 and parishioners and neighbors.

Welcoming Tent City to St. Joseph’s is an extension of their goal of service to the community. 

At a meeting on May 31 at the Parish Center, representatives from Tent City told the attendees more about their program.  They are a community of up to 100 people of homeless men and women who’ve joined together to try to solve the problem of their homelessness.  Said one resident, “Since I started living in Tent City, I have moved over 60 times, and St. Joseph’s has been one of the most welcoming places I’ve stayed.” 

If there’s a problem with anyone or anything at Tent City, you’re urged to call SHARE/WHEEL at 206-448-7889, or St. Joseph’s Parish at 206-965-1646 or Clay Thompson at the City’s Code Compliance office at 206-684-7794.

Andy Kindler is known in comedy circles as a troublemaker. Originally from New York, and now complaining from California, he annoys people all over the world. You can see him in Seattle July 6th.

Andy is a frequent guest and correspondent for The Late Show with David Letterman. Each summer at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal he delivers the State of the Industry address to a packed ballroom filled with comics and Hollywood industry types. He is infamous for his scathing attacks on the world of entertainment, including the previously taboo practice of making fun of his fellow comedians. Just as the comedy boom of the nineties was imploding, Andy wrote the “Hack’s Handbook” for National Lampoon. This “how to” guide satirized and exposed tired comedy formulas.

Andy was recently seen as a judge on the 7^th season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. He is the star of two half-hour Comedy Central Presents specials and currently recurs on Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place and Fox’s upcoming animation Bob’s Burgers. He was also a regular comedy litigator on The Root of all Evil. Other noteworthy credits include the HBO Young Comedians Special, Late Night with Conan O’Brian, The Daily Show, Dr. Katz Professional Therapist, Home Movies and The Larry Sanders Show. Andy is often recognized for playing the life-affirming character “Andy” on the CBS sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond.

Donor Squad is proud to host the most epic kickball event you’ve played in since 4

^th grade recess. On Saturday June 11^th at 1:00 PM different groups from meetup.com and Facebook will converge on the Magnuson Park baseball fields to battle each other in an effort to prove themselves worthy of being the one and only Donor Squad Kickball Showdown 2011 Champions.

That’s not all; there is more to it than just a chance to relive your playground sports career. This is also a fundraiser for Seattle Humane Society and a food drive for Northwest Harvest. That’s right. We can all revel in kickball glory, save animals and fight hunger in our communities at the same time!

There will be food, refreshments, and of course, good times. There will also be a SPECIAL PRIZE for the winning team. Team themed costume is encouraged!

Payment is $15 dollars per person and the deadline to sign up and pay is by June 6th, the Monday before the event. You can participate on the Donor Squad team by signing up at http://www.meetup.com/DonorSquad/events/17759131 or you can compete with your own team or Meetup.com group. Email Lindsay at [email protected] if you are interested or have any questions. Payment and rosters must be submitted by June 6

^th. We are collecting paypal donations via http://www.paypal.com. Please send your donations to [email protected] and include your name and team in the memo.

The Seattle Humane Society is your classic animal welfare nonprofit. The Humane Society of Seattle/King County has been around for 114 years, so they know their stuff. They do everything from providing veterinary services to saving the lives of orphaned and abandoned animals.

http://www.seattlehumane.org

Northwest Harvest is not your average food donation nonprofit, their main focus is on providing nutritional food for those in need. They were the first food bank center in Washington State to focus on fresh produce as well as canned goods and packaged foods.

http://www.northwestharvest.org