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Brenton memorial fundraising at 60% of goal, hoping for early October groundbreaking
The Leschi community’s efforts to build a memorial to fallen Officer Tim Brenton are getting closer to reality, with the group telling CDNews that they are at 60% of their fundraising goal and expecting several other large donations soon.
As we reported exclusively last month, the memorial committee is trying to raise $25,000 to fund a street-side memorial that will mark the spot where Officer Brenton was murdered last Halloween.
The cash and materials donations currently in hand are enough to allow construction to begin on schedule in October, pending city permitting that is currently underway.
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UPDATE Sept. 23: Goal has been reached
More problems for juvie hall: PCB contamination found
County administrators and elected officials have often said that the Youth Services Center facility at 12th & Alder was falling apart and needed to be replaced. Now you can add toxic chemical contamination to the list of problems with the forty year old building.
KIRO 7 is reporting that Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) have been found in the upper floors of the building, potentially forcing county prosecutors to be relocated. According to Wikipedia, PCBs were used as plasticisers and stabilizing agents in a variety of construction materials.
MORE FROM CENTRAL DISTRICT NEWS
How segregation shaped Seattle’s Central District
We like to think of Seattle as a progressive place, up on the top corner of the country and far away from the South where slavery was once legal and where segregated schools, water-fountains, and lunch counters were the law of the land up into the 1960s. But a pervasive system of discrimination was alive and well here too, and after talking about Edwin Pratt earlier today, we thought it would be a good time to discuss some of the larger history of the Central District too.
Map from University of Washington’s Segregated Seattle web page
Fate of Pratt mural up in the air due to graffiti; should it be destroyed altogether?
Back in the 90′s Derryl Durden hired two Garfield students to paint a mural on his building at 23rd & Union. Although their first graffiti-themed creation didn’t pass muster, he worked with them to create a work of art that paid tribute to three African American leaders: Madame CJ Walker, Malcolm X, and Edwin Pratt.
The mural sat mostly unmolested for years. Durden says that even when taggers would hit the building, they’d leave the mural alone “as if they respected the artist that did it.” But it seems like a new generation of taggers have hit the streets in recent years, and they have no qualms about covering over another work of art.
When it does get hit, city rules require Durden to paint over it within 72 hours or face big fines. And the last time it happened he had to cover up a big chunk of the Pratt part of the mural…
Read more here
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KING-5 TV: “No respect” as black history mural is defaced
100M gallons of raw sewage dumped into city waterways. Will you pay more $ to fix it?
About 100 million gallons of raw sewage is dumped into waterways around the city every year due to overflowing pipes. It most often happens during periods of heavy rainfall, when runoff from roofs and city streets overwhelms the sanitary sewer system, activating old pipes that direct the effluent into the lake, ship canal, and Puget Sound.
Fixing the problem won’t be cheap. Tighter environmental regulations are pushing the city to act to reduce the frequency and quantity of overflows over the next fifteen years, with a goal of reducing the total volume of overflows by 60% in 2025. According to early cost estimates, it will take $500 million to construct all of the projects necessary to reach that goal. That funding will have to come from the pockets of city sewage rate payers.
Seattle Public Utilities has forwarded recommendations to the city council that call for 4% increases in residential wastewater costs in 2011 and 2012…
Full story at Central District News…
Protest of Bay Area cop verdict leaves graffiti at 23rd & Union
Thursday night, several of our Twitter friends told us about an impromptu protest that marched up and down Union.
The signs and chants of the marchers said that they were protesting the recent manslaughter verdict against a transit police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man on an Oakland subway platform in 2009. The victim’s family and supporters expressed dismay that the officer escaped a more serious charge of murder. (more)
Seattle City Council expresses strong support as Metro considers replacing trolley buses
Wednesday the City Council transportation committee and chair Tom Rasmussen hosted a lunchtime presentation on trolley buses and their potential replacement by Metro. The transit agency is currently scoping a year-long study that will guide the county’s decision on whether to scrap the current trolley bus network and replace them with hybrid diesel buses.
- Purchase price
- Energy costs
- Scheduling efficiency
- Vehicle maintenance costs
- Maintenance of overhead electrical network
- Noise
- Air quality
- Climate change
- Environmental justice
- Pavement wear due to vehicle weight
- Funding & federal grant implications
The issue of environmental impacts and risks for the cost of oil was a consistent issue brought up by members of the Council. Council member Richard Conlin strongly encouraged Metro to include a range of possible fuel costs in their analysis, which is one of the factors CDN highlighted in a story last month.
Your chance to weigh in is next week when Metro will be holding a public meeting to discuss the trolley bus replacement study.
Story continues at capitolhillseattle.com
Arco = BP, reminds printed petroleum protest
Seen on a pole at 23rd & Cherry is this poster (at right):
more news at CentralDistrictNews
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Sculpture to honor woman killed when her Madison Valley basement flooded in ’06 storm
Kate Fleming was killed when her basement flooded during the Hanukkah Eve Storm of December of 2006. There have been several suggestions of ways to honor her life, including from CDNews members who have suggested that the new stormwater detention pond and park be named in her honor.
According to a recent email from the city, the parks department is working with artist Charlene Strong on a plan to erect a sculpture in remembrance of Fleming, as part of the second phase of stormwater improvements planned for the valley.
The 8 foot tall stone sculpture would have… (more)
more at Central District News