Paul Dorpat is his own pioneer: then & now (Seattle Times)
THEN: The tarnished image of Sara and Henry Yesler’s home in Pioneer Square is the oldest surviving photographic evidence of any part of Seattle. It is conventionally dated 1859, or seven years after the first settlers on the eastern shores of Elliott Bay moved there from Alki Point.
Restaurateur Carmine Smeraldo dies at 69 (Seattle Times)
Carmine Smeraldo would greet customers at his Pioneer Square restaurant with warmth, offering a handshake, or oftentimes, a hug. He knew loyal crowds turned up for perfectly smoked salmon dishes and handmade ravioli stuffed with bursts of wild mushroom.
2012 guide to staying fit (Daily Helmsman)
Personal trainer Kirstin Piquette helps Paula Sampel during her morning workout at Seattle Fitness Club in Pioneer Square.
Gottesman does it again, wins Startup Weekend with home security product Iron Blanket (GeekWire)
Seattle Startup Weekend, a 54-hour coding marathon, hosted the most recent event at the Hub in Pioneer Square. Fifty four pitches were heard on Friday night, with 15 teams formed for the weekend competition.
p.s. Street Code — an app that lets you scan QR codes on homeless people (and donate) — is apparently already being used in Pioneer Square… has anyone heard about this???
The Climate Corp. picks Seattle for branch office, looks to cultivate talent to crunch weather data (GeekWire)
The Climate Corp. — a six-year-old San Francisco company that specializes in providing weather insurance to U.S. farmers — has chosen to establish a new engineering center in Seattle’s tech-heavy Pioneer Square neighborhood.
Landlord-Tenant Complaints Spiked in 2011 (PubliCola)
DPD spokesman Bryan Stevens attributes much of the increase to better record-keeping by DPD (counting email and in-person contacts, for example, in addition to phone complaints) and the fact that the Downtowner Apartments in Pioneer Square were renovated last year, resulting in the relocation of hundreds of tenants.
What needs to happen for Fortson Square to finally become a safe, welcoming place to be?
On New Year’s Day, two Pioneer Square residents were brutally attacked after confronting drug dealers blocking the entrance to their apartment building adjacent to Fortson Square (2nd Ave + Yesler). Multiple calls to police regarding the drug activity were unanswered, which, unfortunately, is understandable, given that it was New Year’s Eve and — what’s new? There’s always drug deals happening in Fortson Square.
Regardless, what happened in the square that morning, and what basically what happens every single day, is not acceptable. I live next door to where the attack happened, in an apartment building above the Chief Seattle Club (CSC) and the Lazarus Day Center. Although we have never had problems with the CSC, we routinely have problems with the men who utilize the services of the Lazarus Day Center, and the drug dealers who prey on them.
There is a Seattle PI article from three years ago that talked about the very problems caused by the Lazarus Day Center and the men who loiter on the corner of 2nd & Yesler. The sad part is that everything in that article is still true today:
He thought the brand new studio apartment a couple of floors up was a bargain for $900 a month, but it’s no longer worth dodging the drug sellers and buyers outside the front door each time he goes to walk his dog.
“It’s the same people on the same corner every day,” he said, standing inside the building’s glass entry watching drug deals made and crack pipes passed around right outside the window.
And don’t forget about the article in 2006 where Harbor Loft residents put up a banner facing Fortson Square, welcoming people to the local open-air drug market:
A group of residents is meeting with the mayor’s office this week to talk about the issues faced in Fortson Square in particular. They have also set up an internal website to share information and resources with one another and are determined to make a difference. In a letter to the Mayor by one of the residents who was attacked, he stated:
This is not how anyone should have to live and I am sick of being told it is our fault for living in a bad neighborhood! Pioneer Square could be a great neighborhood with vision, leadership and support. There are lots of great people working really hard down here to make this place a wonderful place to live and work, but I don’t think we are getting the support we need from the city. I fear for Pioneer Square as rising unemployment brings more people of need at higher risk into the missions, in a neighborhood already ripe with increasing storefront closures. We could see a larger pool of poor and underemployed people becoming victimized by the drug dealers whom act with impunity on our streets.
We know that the police get it — they’re constantly watching that corner, and even made 27 significant arrests of the most problematic drug dealers. But what more can they do? You take one off the street, and two more pop up in their place.
And now, after years and years of drug dealers on this corner, two residents were actually attacked. Is this what it takes for change to happen? What will it take for other residents to get involved? Or for the Mayor’s office to finally listen?
| Your Host: | The Alliance for Pioneer Square |
|---|---|
| Host’s Message: |
The Alliance for Pioneer Square invites you to the first ever Pioneer Square Tech Social. As part of our neighborhood’s emerging tech startup scene, you are integral to making Pioneer Square a bustling hot spot on the Seattle map. Come celebrate with us! EMC Isilon is hosting this networking event on Thursday January 12th from 5 to 6:30 pm. Our gracious hosts will be providing beer, wine, and appetizers. Capacity is limited to 100, so RSVP today. Administrators, please forward to tech employees. To send an RSVP invite to a colleague, please visit the event webpage and click on the forward icon. |
| What: | Pioneer Square Tech Social |
| Where: | EMC Isilon 505 First Avenue South |
| When: | January 12th, 2012, 5pm – 6:30pm |
From the PSBJ:
Restaurateur Carmine Smeraldo passed away peacefully Wednesday night (Jan. 11) at his home.
Blessings and prayers poured out to the Smeraldo family as they dealt with the illness of their beloved patriarch and iconic owner and operator of Il Terrazzo Carmine, a classic Italian restaurant in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Carmine’s, as it came to be known, has been a haven for a legion of loyal customers since 1984.
As neighborhood residents + business owners, if you have thoughts or stories to share with his family, you can go to CaringBridge.org to visit his personal page (log in required).
Phone hand-off results in New Year’s Day robbery, assault (KOMO News)
Woman robbed after meeting a man in PSq to retrieve a lost iPhone. Biggest mistake to withdraw $400 right before meeting a stranger in the wee hours of the morning.
The rough road to a safer 3rd Avenue (Crosscut)
People in Pioneer Square, Belltown, and the International District have long struggled with public safety problems due, in some part, to the high concentration of shelters and services in their neighborhoods. In Pioneer Square, the hope for the future is to bring in market and workforce housing to restore some balance to the neighborhood, which in turn would help bring in a more diverse mix of retail businesses.
A plan to honor 130 years of fallen Seattle officers (Seattle Times)
Veteran Seattle Police Officer Mike Severance is seeking city approval to place signs near where Seattle police officers have died in the line of duty.
KK Does Aerosmith at Fuel in Pioneer Square: “Even When I Suck I’m Pretty Good” (Seattle Weekly)
Read more about how Fuel does Karaoke.
Afraid that I wouldn’t be able to leave my warm apartment if I stopped there, I headed out to the art walk right after getting off the bus. As a reminder, Art in the Park doesn’t happen January through March (something I had forgotten and was disappointed about).
It was cold and dark and occurring only two weeks after Christmas, not too many people were out in the neighborhood. After stopping by one of my favorite Pioneer Square stores (Fireworks) — I headed over to the studio opening for Tiffany Colors. She was recently featured in Seattle Magazine for her new “flexible space [that] will play host to revolving artist displays, including framed art and jewelry, as well as act as a private salon.”
By the time I arrived, her studio was already full of people mingling, looking at jewelry and art and using the photo booth (hosted by local photographer Sarah Rhoades).
The 900 sq ft studio is available for rent/hire for photographers, videographers, graphic designers, art shows, etc. They have a lot of studio amenities available, including the one thing you can’t get anywhere else — the amazing atmosphere of a historic Pioneer Square building. Contact info is as follows: info@tccreativestudio.com or www.tccreativestudio.com
On my way out of the building, I came across another studio that hosted art by Teesha and Tracy Moore. Not only did they have intricate art journals you could look through, but they also had lomo cameras and other unique art supplies for sale. Not being particularly artistic, I’m always excited to see art happening live:
Painting done by daughter Tiffany
Although there is an obvious “Art Walk” absence with the loss of the 619 building, it is inspiring to see other studios popping up and sharing their talents with the rest of us.
A recent email from the DSA:
Dear Downtown Residents and Families,
The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) is developing a grant application to the City of Seattle to construct a children’s playground in Downtown, and we need your help.
Today, there are more than 3,000 children living in Downtown Seattle, an increase of approximately 50% since 1990. However, most Downtown neighborhoods lack public play spaces designed for children who live or visit Downtown.
To help remedy this, DSA is working to identify and develop kid and family friendly amenities in Downtown for residents and visitors with kids. As such, we’d like to enlist your help by providing personalized words of support for a children’s playground to include in the grant application which we’ll be submitting in early February. A specific location for a play structure within the Commercial Core will be identified in partnership with the City during the application process.
Please help support development of a children’s play space in Downtown by emailing your personalized words of support to Jon Scholes, VP of Advocacy and Economic Development for the Downtown Seattle Association: jons@downtownseattle.org.
1. Provide your name, the area of Downtown you live in and briefly explain why you support development of a children’s play space. Your personalized words of support will help strengthen the application to the City of Seattle for grant funding.
2. You can also mail a letter of support to: 600 Stewart Street, Suite 200 – Seattle, WA 98101.
For questions, please contact Jon Scholes at 206.613.3216 or via email.
Please feel free to share this email with other families who are interested in supporting more kid and family friendly amenities in Downtown.
Pop Artist Troy Gua pokes fun at the ‘Seattle Freeze’ at SOIL Art Gallery (Culture Mob)
Is Seattle really that cold? Is it really so distant? Is the ‘Seattle Freeze’ a real phenomenon? At least one local artist thinks so. Local pop artist Troy Gua‘ s new exhibition ‘N/ICE’, showing January 4-28 at SOIL Art Gallery in Pioneer Square, is an entertaining look at Seattle’s “friendly but distant” social deficiency. The show’s opening reception is Thursday January 5 – the First Thursday Art Walk – from 6:00-8:00pm.
Photo test: Think you know Seattle, but can you name that sign? (Seattle PI – BIG Blog)
The State Hotel sign on First Avenue is left over from Pioneer Square’s early days.
Vulcan sells part of Merrill Place (DJC)
Records show that an affiliate of Vulcan Real Estate sold a portion of Merrill Place, an office and retail building in Pioneer Square, for just over $23.9 million.
Seattle looks to clean up Third Avenue transit corridor (Seattle Times)
The city of Seattle is trying to make the Third Avenue transit corridor, where an estimated 40,000 people arrive and depart downtown each day, safer to protect shoppers and others from a gauntlet of open-air drug deals, the homeless, the mentally ill and crowds of loitering street kids.
Developers still piling into Seattle’s South Lake Union (TechFlash)
South Lake Union will remain a hot spot for commercial development in 2012, while Pioneer Square may emerge as Seattle’s next emerging neighborhood.
Christmas Muggings, Shootings, and Robberies (PubliCola)
A man was shot outside a Pioneer Square club this weekend after he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, according to police.
SAM’s Listening Room and “Record Store” are Painfully Out of Touch With the State of the Music Industry and Seattle’s Unique Scene (Seattle Weekly)
There’s a record store in Pioneer Square that doesn’t sell records. The Record Store, as it’s called, is a traveling installation put on by the Seattle Art Museum and Olson Kundig Architects.
Greyhound may test Seattle’s commitment to mass transportation (Crosscut)
The bus line is losing its home on the north edge of downtown. Is a move to Pioneer Square’s King Street Station the best choice, and perhaps the only way to keep the intercity service in Seattle?
A new (and well-traveled) web producer (PSBJ)
The Berliner in Pioneer Square reminds Jennifer Sokolowsky of the Döner kebab stands that are on every corner in Berlin, Germany, where she lived for three years.
Seattle wants to see shoppers in town and offline (King5)
The economy is down and online retailers continue to attract a big chunk of shoppers. However, that hasn’t slowed down the woman, who calls herself “Mouse.”
“I have a PHD from the school of hard knocks in retail,” jokes the owner of Magic Mouse Toys in Pioneer Square. “We appeal to all different ages, all different price points.” She has been in the same spot for 34 years, and won’t admit any concern over online retailers. “I would find that boring to exist, why even leave your house?” Mouse says.
Celebrate the last hours of 2011 and welcome in a new year by joining us for our special New Year’s Eve Underworld Tour & Celebration! The Underworld Tour is an adult-oriented guided tour of Seattle’s underground replete with the tales of graft, opium, sex, debauchery and Red Light district shenanigans that made Seattle what it is today. The tour ends in Doc Maynard’s Public House with a cocktail, and a champagne toast will be served at midnight.
For more details or to purchase tickets, visit www.UndergroundTour.com.
Tickets: $25
When: starts at 10pm
Where: 610 First Avenue, Seattle
Who: 21+
Three foreclosed Pioneer Square buildings sold (Seattle Times)
Canadian investors have acquired three historic buildings in Seattle’s Pioneer Square — for about half what the previous owner paid four years ago. An affiliate of Seattle residential-developer Intracorp lost the buildings to foreclosure this year.
Pioneer Square to Get Its Streetcar; Aloha Extension Still Up In the Air (PubliCola)
At tomorrow morning’s meeting of the city council transportation committee, council members will discuss a proposal to extend the route of the proposed Capitol Hill/First Hill streetcar into Pioneer Square, a response to Pioneer Square businesses and residents who argued that the neighborhood would benefit from the extra transportation option, especially during construction of the Alaskan Way tunnel.
Heroes Catering Is a Blue-Collar FareStart (Seattle Weekly – Voracious)
With far less fanfare, Pioneer Square’s Bread of Life Mission has since 2003 operated a similar program, Heroes Catering, albeit one which sports a far bluer collar than that of its uptown peer.
Dudley: Dinner with Zynga CEO a game-winner (Seattle Times)
Seattle’s Cara Ely, created the blockbuster “Dream Day” franchise for Oberon Media’s I-Play, went to a Zynga recruiting dinner and ended up sitting next to founder Mark Pincus. Now she’s been commuting constantly to Zynga’s San Francisco offices, where she’s the creative director on a new hidden-object game called “Hidden Chronicles.”
At the Seattle Art Museum, listening to old records is the show (KPLU)
SAM has also launched a second pop-up installation called “Record Store.” It’s another kind of listening lounge (no actual records are for sale) where visitors can practice the art of looking and listening to albums. It’s located in a Pioneer Square storefront at 406 Occidental Ave.
Why a $490,000 viaduct museum now? (Seattle Times)
The government-waste question of the week is: Why is our state opening a viaduct museum, of all things, in Pioneer Square?
With Pioneer Square, a historic district, “we are going to mess up their lives for four years with this project,” Hammond said. “So we see this as a small price to pay to mitigate that.”
New Museum in Pioneer Square (PubliCola)
Erica has already made it clear that she thinks the uproar over the new museum in Pioneer Square dedicated to the tunnel project is faux populist journalism (and GOP rhetoric) at its silliest.
Viaduct replacement museum fulfills state’s obligation to protect Pioneer Square (Seattle Times)
An exhibit devoted to the project that replaces of the Alaskan Way Viaduct has generated some controversy over government expenditure. Guest columnists Charles Royer and Kevin Daniels say the law requires such a treatment because of its effect on historic Pioneer Square.
Schrammie: Wasting $485,000 on viaduct museum (KOMO News)
Secretary Paula spent some time with me explaining why the state DOT is opening a museum in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. She says its focus will be on providing a history of the neighborhood as well explaining the tunnel project that will replace the viaduct.
Midday Scan: Viaduct museum; see you in court over liquor jobs; Kalakala’s ‘significance’ (Crosscut)
In fact it’s mitigation (or horse-trading or politics). Pioneer Square will take a hit during the tunnel’s construction, and this is a tangible way to say “sorry about that.” As Westneat writes, “It’s just a cost of doing business.”
Turks, Looking To Do Business with Native Americans, Say They’re Related (Seattle Weekly)
You might think this is just the art of schmooze. But Sedat Uysal, the Turkish-born proprietor of Pioneer Square’s Cafe Paloma, lights up when asked about this affinity. He says he was struck by the same thing when he immigrated here 26 years ago.
Crystal Palace or Legoland for new Pioneer Square development? (King5)
The new “Stadium Place” development is now being built in Pioneer Square in the north parking lot of the Seahawks’ Stadium. It’s 25 shiny stories that will be one of the most unique buildings in the state. The defining points are several two-to-four-story sections of the building that are stacked askew, kind of like 50-foot Jenga blocks. But does it fit with the Square’s red brick and turn of the 20th century charm?
Slide show: North lot project to rise near Pioneer Square (PSBJ)
When completed in 2015, the project will include three residential towers, a hotel, offices, retail space and a parking garage. The developer started work last month, clearing away some contaminated soil on the site. Daniels expects he will be able to make up some of the time lost on the project.
Seattle seeking affordable space for artists (KPLU)
“We’re working on programs that would help bring artists back into the downtown. We’re expanding our partnerships and our work on the Storefronts program to really look at how we can use arts to help revitalize empty retails areas. So, there are a lot of challenges that we face.”