1. Il Terrazzo Carmine
2. Fuel 3pm – 10pm
3. J&M Cafe – probably not til 2am, but open late
4. Maharaja – open til 9pm
5. McCoys Firehouse — should stay open normal hours

As an FYI:
Delicatus is closing at 3pm
Planet Java Diner (closing at 12pm — too quiet)

And I called others [at the worst time - lunch time] — no one answered the phones at:
Al Boccalino
Cafe Hue
Cafe Paloma
Collins Pub
Elysian Fields
FX McRory’s
Marcela’s Creole Cookery
Tats

If you have any info on more places that are staying open, please let me know! If you are a resident (like most who read this blog), it would be great to support our local businesses that are staying open as it will most likely be very slow for them.

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?

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.

www.DowntownSeattle.com

Meal service open to the public include the Pioneer Square, Lake City, Bellevue, Capitol Hill, University District, and South Park neighborhoods. New meal sites this year include South Park, Lake City and Bellevue.

In September, the Mission launched its 4th annual One Meal … One Hope Campaign with a goal of serving 190,000 meals by December 31.

PIONEER SQUARE:

• Men’s Shelter Thanksgiving Meal Schedule:

318 2^nd Ave. Ext. S. (corner of Washington St.)

5:30 am – Volunteers prepare an egg, sausage, bacon, and toast breakfast.

7:30 am – Breakfast begins

5:30 pm – Traditional turkey dinners served to anyone walking through our doors

To volunteer at the Union Gospel Mission (at any of their locations, not just Pioneer Square), feel free to contact Sharon Thomas at SThomas@ugm.org or call 206.432.8422.

AND they need your help. They need YOU to adopt trees and lamp posts. See more details here.

Your $30 ticket entitles you to tastes of the chocolate (bars and truffles), samples of the wines, and a bar of the Fortunato No.4 to take home.  Chocolate and wine will also be available for purchase.  These sales and silent auction items will also help support the Sanctuary Art Center.

When

Friday November 18, 2011 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM PST

Add to my calendar

Where

Greg Kucera Gallery
212 Third Avenue S
Seattle, WA 98104

Please register at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=5ykbncdab&oeidk=a07e4zwlktccddcff45.

Join the City’s Waterfront Seattle project on October 27 for an opportunity to learn about the project and share your ideas. Starting at 5:00 pm, listen to live music and grab a bite to eat from your favorite local food trucks – Marination Mobile, Curry Now, and Molly Moon’s Ice Cream. At 6:30 pm, James Corner will present the latest design ideas followed by idea sharing stations.

RSVP: rsvp@waterfrontseattle.org

Thursday, October 27
5:00 to 9:00 pm
Bell Harbor Conference Center, Pier 66 – Elliott Hall
2211 Alaskan Way
Seattle, WA 98121

Are you planning to be on the waterfront for Trick-or-Treat at the Aquarium? Stop by Waterfront Park
and visit our photo booth. Costumes are optional, though highly encouraged!

Saturday and Sunday, October 29 and 30
10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Waterfront Park, near the Aquarium entrance

Both events are free and open to all. For more information, contact us at info@waterfrontseattle.org or
(206) 499-8040.

facebook.com/WaterfrontSeattle
twitter.com/#!/WaterfrontSEA
WaterfrontSeattle.org

David Hiller of the Mayor’s office has been calling a few Pioneer Square stakeholders to let them know about the situation they are currently in. Part of their contractual obligations with Sound Transit included a scheduled streetcar coming by a stop every 10 minutes (called headway). Right now, it is timed for about 12 minutes, which is apparently most easily solved by stopping at 5th & Jackson. Although that is where the streetcar originally planned to stop, the neighborhood celebrated when the decision was made to bring it down Jackson and to loop back up Main Street.

In a blog post back in February of 2010, I included a list of benefits to the neighborhood from having the streetcar come through, including the following:

• Will be completed before the viaduct removal begins making our neighborhood more accessible during construction
• New connection helps with economic development in the neighborhood
• Adds to the marketing draw for residential and office development alike
• Allows commuters to safely navigate the intersection at 4th and Jackson
• Brings users closer to the Waterfront, creating a more walkable area
• Project is fully funded by the ST2 mass transit system
• Elegant transportation connection to the east from a convenient location in our Pioneer Square neighborhood
• Creates another leg to the transportation hub at King Street Station
• Helps eliminate the need for parking, especially during stadium events
• Environmentally beneficial as it should reduce the need for vehicles for many uses
• Crosses the ‘gateway’ into Pioneer Square

Hiller says that there are a number of factors that lead into this decision, including the lack of funding to purchase more than 4 streetcars. When meeting with Sound Transit to discuss the issue of potentially being unable to meet the 10 minute headway requirement, Sound Transit expressed a desire to find other alternatives so that the 10 min mark would still be met, even if it meant that the streetcar would no longer come through Pioneer Square.

The city is waiting to hear back on actual costs for the streetcars, and will know by mid-October what will happen. According to Hiller, however, they are very short on options. And although he says there is nothing that the community could do to affect the decision, I still urge you to write to the following people, to show them how important the streetcar is to this neighborhood, and that we’re tired of the city breaking its promises (i.e. waterfront streetcar):

Mayor Michael McGinn’s staff person, David Hiller, david.hiller@seattle.gov

County Executive Dow Constantine, Dow.Constantine@kingcounty.gov

King County Councilmember Joe McDermott, joe.mcdermott@kingcounty.gov

You will be pleased to know that our stadiums do well by most measurements when compared to other stadiums, such as Camden Yards in Baltimore (Stadium District and Inner Harbor), Coors Field in Denver (LoDo District), and Petco Park in San Diego (Gaslamp District).

Our stadiums are seen as effectively managed and maintained and are environmental leaders. Our analysis shows that Seattle generates more stadium district foot traffic than the other cities studied. On the other hand, our stadiums have not had the same economic or positive neighborhood impact in stimulating new housing, activating old buildings, driving retail activity, or achieving new public amenities like open space, pedestrian and bike friendly streets, sidewalks, and transit that other cities have experienced.

Denver, for example, has a stadium district population of 25 households per acre while the Seattle stadium district averages only two households per acre. For food and beverage revenue outside the stadiums, Seattle ranks last.

The Concept Plan goes into detail about a vision for the area and how the stadium district interacts with Pioneer Square, SODO, Chinatown/ID, and the waterfront. Part of the plan includes the following “targets under a 10-year plan for development within a 15 minute walk of the stadiums:”

1. Increase of 2,000 new market rate housing units
2. Minimum 2,000 new parking spaces
3. Enhanced pedestrian, bicycle and transit facilities and connections
4. A major new destination open space

(click image to view larger)

The plan goes on to break down the district into four different “faces” that can be improved: Occidental, 1st Avenue, PARKing, and Nexus. Ideas that are suggested include:

• a warehouse/industrial environment with outdoor celebrations and other places activity that make pre-game activity more enjoyable IN the neighborhood
• housing + hotels that increase activity on roof decks, and on the street
• covered open space that can provide outdoor venues for performance and events
• enhanced lighting (that also help with wayfinding)
• a (park)ing garage [a parking garage with a park on top]
• incorporating places to “get wet, play ball, swing, slide, etc.” — places for kids and families to get together and play

The report is packed with graphics and images, vision and possibilities. Go and check it out online, and please provide comments and ideas — there is no current deadline, but they want to hear from as many people as possible on what can make this district as successful as possible. (comments can be emailed to comments@stadiumdistrict.org)