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.

Full story...

MORE FROM CENTRAL DISTRICT NEWS

State issues intent *not* to renew Waid's liquor license

'Divide and Conquer' movie looks at gentrification, murder

Ballard’s turned into Capitol Hill
I hate that place and I always will [oh-whoa]
there’s no place to park.
Everyone walks around like they’re some kind of movie star.
But I didn’t come to play for the rich and the beautiful
I’m-a playin’ drunk music for my drunk people.

Following the Your Real Capitol Hill site's battle against the gentrification of Broadway/Pike/Pine/etc.  we noted earlier this week, we've found somebody else who has a beef with Capitol Hill. Portland music artist Colin Spring. Here's what the translinguistic other blog had to say about his lyrics to the song Drunk Music for Drunk People , above:

First, I would like to point out the mean-spirited, classist negativity in this song to the people who are giving it airplay, just in case it changes anything. 

Second, I would like to encourage Colin Spring to ditch the gas-guzzling land yacht for a weekend, hop on the Amtrak Cascades and come see how much fun he has in Capitol Hill without his...

Last night — Wednesday night — Josh Trujillo, a colleague I greatly admire and used to work with at the Seattle P-I — he still does on SeattlePi.com as a photographer — tweeted live about seeing a woman hop a rail on the Aurora Bridge, in an attempt to jump. He called 911.

His tweets about her began at about 7:30 p.m.: “No. A girl is on the Aurora Bridge about to jump. My heart is sinking. Police not here yet.”

Full story at Fremont Universe...

Symbolically -- and practically -- the Sound Transit light rail station construction sound wall looms above Broadway as tall as 24 feet high in sections. Sensitive to its presence in the core of Capitol Hill, the public transit agency has hired an artist to give the wall a more pleasing aesthetic and put the space to use.

But Capitol Hill business owner Eric Hayes already knows how he would like to put that space to use. Hayes wants to use the wall to advertise the family business that he says is struggling to survive in the midst of construction-choked blocks near the future light rail station.

Read the full story here: 

Donna Morey wears a button behind the bar at the Buckaroo Tavern that says, “I am the Buckaroo.” And she’s not kidding. For the last 26 years, Morey has owned, lived and breathed the Buckaroo. Now, the 72-year-old business is just six weeks away from closing its doors.

“It’s an institution,” Morey tells us. “You’re not talking about a little old tavern that’s shutting down for some willy-nilly reason.” Morey tells us that the lease isn’t being renewed, a topic that she doesn’t want to discuss. (more)

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"Save the Buckaroo Tavern" Facebook page

Seattle Times story on the landmark closing

The political organizers behind MoveOn.org are politically organizing an event in Cal Anderson this week that will combine a fight against corruption in Washington, indie rock and the vocal stylings of City Council member Nick Licata. We assume they mean corruption in the other Washington. It's free, the weather will be slightly less crappy and you might learn something.

OK, forget nighttime paid parking, expanded restricted parking zones and more fines. Let's get these.

* Wireless parking sensors: "Wireless parking sensors can detect availability space-by-space, minute-by-minute"

* Data feed: "In addition to parking availability maps accessible at SFpark.org, information on parking availability will be dispersed via the 511 system, mobile devices, text message, and through new electronic display signs at high-traffic locations in the City"

* Demand-responsive pricing: "meter pricing can range from between 25 cents an hour to a maximum of $6.00 an hour, depending on demand"

So, where'd SF come up with the money to back this pilot? 80% of the $20 to $25 million the city says the program will cost is being paid for by the Department of Transportation’s Urban Partnership Program. Seattle, by the way, has its own Urban Partnership Program project. But our money will be spent on a program "to deploy 'open road' electronic toll collection equipment, allowing tolls to be collected... (more)

Two tales of caution this Friday for anybody thinking of putting up their shingle to run a small, indie business in the big city.

First, we found a SPD report of a business break-in early Friday morning in the 600 block of E Pine. We knew Third Man Video had been welcomed to the Hill with a break-in back in February. Owner Shane Benson confirmed for us that, yes, his store was again broken into this morning but this time, the damage was much worse. Benson tells Capitol Hill Seattle blog that after the February burglary, he spent more than $1,000 adding bars to the store's doors. The bars didn't stop this thief, Benson said, telling us the burglar used "a huge ass crowbar" to pull the doors open and enter the store before making off with a couple hundred dollars cash and a stack of Blu-ray discs.

Meanwhile, a bother of another variety for a Capitol Hill business on Madison has the operator thinking creatively about her response. Vanny Him of Madison/15th's roll-up Baguette says she wouldn't normally... (more)

In conjunction with KBCS, we're posting a transcript of Martha Baskin's latest story. Listen to her radio story here.

When it comes to merlins, the predatory bird popular in falconry in medieval times, seeing them in urban Seattle seems like a stretch of the imagination. But Thor and Spike, the names of the merlins, appear to have taken up residence in a neighborhood near Thornton Creek. Green Acre Radio takes us for a visit to learn why “98115” has become the merlins' favorite urban ZIP code.

Narration: A pair of merlins -- members of the falcon family once popular in medieval Europe -- have been raising their young in urban Seattle.

“The nest is about 80 feet up in that second tree. We never could really see it. We’d just see the adults go in there," says Audubon volunteer Barb Diehl, who stands with others on a street in Northeast Seattle.

Merlin-watching has become a science here where neighbors gather each evening, scopes positioned upward to study the birds. For three years, the merlins have... (more)

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.

Full story...

    Map from University of Washington's Segregated Seattle web page

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

Neighbor James Knapp alerted us to his photo of an important milestone for the Starbucks Olive Way overhaul: the first liquor license application notice for a regular old green and white-branded Starbucks.

Looks, by the way, like the 14-day public posting period for the application ends on Tuesday. If you have any comments for the Washington Liquor Control Board, you can send them e-mail here wslcb@liq.wa.gov

And, yes, if you haven't heard, the Olive Way Gaybucks will reportedly be shutting down late this month for two months of construction to transform the location into a revamped version of the coffee storeswith skinny, barista-friendly counters and, for some reason, an indoor/outdoor fireplace. SBUX sez you'll still be able to get a cup of coffee during the construction from a van parked at the location. But it might not be the best place for a first date until they re-open in the fall.

Capitol Hill Seattle blog advertiser Twilight Exit has decided it's had enough of global financial behemoth Chase Bank's shenanigans. The Capitol Hill expatriate dive bar announced via Facebook that it will buy you dinner if you show proof you've quit banking with Chase:

Twilight might think about getting the Bliss Soaps folks involved with the promotion. Bliss claims a Chase error put them in such a financial bind that they could not recover and were forced to close. No word from Twilight about specifics behind this promotion. We'll ask if they can shed some light on what went down between the Cherry St. bar and the financial giant.

Central District News reports an agreement to create a transitional home in the 100 block of 22nd Avenue for men recently released from prison.

Working with the state Department of Corrections and other social service organizations, the house would be staffed 24/7 and residents would be given support for addictions, life-skills training, and job assistance. 

Details of the plan can be found here.  

From Central District News:

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...

 ...

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)

more at Central District News

A new mural is going up on North 42nd Street off Aurora. If you're wondering why the design doesn't take up the whole space of the wall, Fremont Universe provides a reason:

Artist Todd Lown needed to alter his design to accommodate trolley bus lines that run along N. 46th St.

             Below, 2nd day of painting...            (Photo from the project's Facebook page.)

 According to Fremont Universe:

“We like the way the redesign turned out and actually think that the irregularity of the top edge has made the overall design more dynamic,” Patricia Hopper, Project Manager of the Public Art Program in the Mayor’s office, wrote in the approval letter.