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In one of Aurora|Seattle's first posts we mentioned the recent removal of the Aurora Rents elephant from its perch near 88th street, so that it could undergo a process of restoration. For the past two months, Bill Heath of W.R. Heath, Inc., a Snohomish based concrete contractor and friend of Aurora Rents, has been working on the elephant whenever he has had a chance. More recently, he's been showing up every day in the hopes of finishing the elephant in the next few weeks. In a recent visit with Mr. Heath, Aurora|Seattle learned a bit about what exactly this project has entailed. "One of the first things I had to do was get the pigeons out." According to Heath, there were pigeons living in the booth on top as well as the belly of the elephant, which was moved to its current Aurora location from Fremont in 1946. Heath put in some new wire screening to keep the pigeons out, but apparently they weren't pleased. "The pigeons still daily leave me some little things here and there,...
This past week two articles from Aurora|Seattle - "Vacating Homelessness" and "Refugees: From East Africa to City Hall to Aurora Ave." were part of the Seattle Times "Invisible Families" project. People all over Seattle are throwing around ideas about what to do with the Aurora motels that are for sale. My Green Lake is announcing that volunteers are needed to promote and help out at the Stone Ave. street mural painting party, which is taking place on Sunday, September 26 between noon and 5 p.m. Volunteers are also needed to help collect food for the hungry the day before, Saturday, September 25 at the Green Lake PCC. Fremont Universe is reporting that the infamous rivet buster that is being used to build the suicide prevention fence on the Aurora bridge will be taking the Labor Day weekend off. Fremont Universe also has some beautiful photos of the new mural under Aurora at 4...
As we announced last week, Motion Boardshop, which specializes in longboarding, kiteboarding, and paddleboarding, is coming to the neighborhood at 8310 Aurora Ave. In fact, they're open now. Check out the video that their crew made as they transitioned from "Old Motion" to "New Motion" - skip to the 4 minute mark for a walk through of the new Aurora space.
Twenty years after opening his long-running and successful "Thai on Mercer" restaurant, after a two year hiatus, owner and chef Eddie Khoabtrakool is at it again - only this time, he's brought his delicious cuisine and jovial spirit to Aurora Avenue and 79th Street with "Eddie's Pan Asian Restaurant." Check out our profile of Mendoza's Mexican Mercado just down the street as well.
From Thera Martin, Communications Manager for Volunteers of America Western Washington:
Yesterday the Seattle PI announced that a handful of Aurora motels owned by Dean and Jill Inman were up for sale, going above and beyond a plea agreement reached in April between Dean Inman and the City of Seattle in which they were required to sell or lease 2 of the motels, the Isabella and the Italia, to non-profit organizations for use as emergency shelter or low-income housing.
After at least fifteen minutes, no one from the Mayor’s staff had emerged to check on the situation, and the receptionist had not given him any updates, so Richard approached her desk. Again she said, “People are making calls.” Richard replied, “I’m in a ‘No Parking 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.’ zone and I have to leave. I trust that you’re going to find them a place. What happens to them from here is your responsibility and I’m going to be looking.” He turned to the Sami’s, informed them of the situation, and gave them his phone number. With that, he left the Eritrean refugees in the lobby of the Office of the Mayor of Seattle.
NO ROOM AT THE (EVERSPRING) INN Two weeks later, Habtom was pacing back and forth in another lobby – this time it was not at City Hall, but the Everspring Inn, at 8201 Aurora Avenue North. The location was different but the feeling was similar:...
The following story is about a refugee family that fell through the cracks of a broken system and the group of Seattle neighbors who came alongside them to help keep them from becoming homeless. Despite the fact that the family has chosen to remain anonymous (their names have been changed), that the man who originally helped them also has chosen to remain anonymous (his name has also been changed), and that the Seattle Mayor’s Office did not respond to our inquiries, this is a story that needs to be told to raise awareness of the difficulties that countless refugees face upon their arrival to the United States. On Thursday, March 18, an Eritrean refugee family that had been in Seattle for only six months found themselves in the unlikeliest of places. At 3:30 p.m. that afternoon Habtom and Hannah Sami, along with their two young children, were brought to the Office of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn by a man named Richard who was desperately trying to help keep them off the streets. They met Richard downtown the...
-An essay written in conjunction with the Seattle Times' collaborative project on family homelessness- Every Wednesday for the past two summers my wife and I stroll down the street with our two young children towards Aurora Avenue and 90th Street, an intersection known for prostitution, drug dealing, and other criminal activity often called, “the switchblade”. But just before we round the corner to get there, we duck into the lot of a quadplex, which is home to a small community garden. The tomatoes may be struggling this summer, but here in this garden a new kind of Aurora Avenue is sprouting as every Wednesday night anywhere from fifty to one hundred neighbors gather for a meal hosted by Awake, the neighborhood faith community where I serve as pastor. It’s like a weekly block party – and everyone’s invited: families from owned townhouses and rented motel rooms, coffee-addicted graduate school students and recovering drug and alcohol addicts from the nearby AA meeting...
From Jonah at SeattleCrime.com:
Even as WSDOT continues installation of the anti-suicide fence on the Aurora Bridge, a young woman was on the verge of jumping from the bridge last night. Fortunately, with the help of police, she didn't go through with it. FremontUniverse.com reports:
in the fall of 2007, the office of former Mayor Greg Nickels convened the Aurora Avenue Task Force, a group of area residents, property and business owners, community group representatives, and a man destined to create an Aurora blog that gathered together to articulate and implement a vision for Aurora Avenue from 72nd to 90th streets. The following emerged as their vision statement:
After the group submitted its plan, which was known as the Aurora Avenue Action...
A stunning photo from WSDOT: "From the Sunday, Aug. 15, rivet and bolt removal and replacement on Seattle's Aurora Bridge for the SR 99 Aurora Bridge Fence project. A flotilla of boats come through the Lake Washington Ship Canal after waiting at the locks." Thanks to @JJtweets for the "riveting view" title! Check out a project update from Fremont Universe here.
Pro Ski, home of the amazing Yeti mural, recently received a Seattle Weekly "Best of" Award. The independently owned ski shop on Aurora Avenue just south of 90th, which specializes "in goods and gear for backcountry skiing and mountaineering, alpine and telemark skiing, expert boot fitting and ski-tuning," was officially named "Best Start to a Ski Tour on Aurora Avenue North - 2010."
The Aurora Sharehouse, which is currently undergoing renovations at its 8914 Aurora Avenue location, is "a community collaboration birthed out of a faith community's desire to see [their] neighbors and neighborhood flourish." Awake Church, a faith community made up of neighborhood residents, has been serving the Aurora corridor for over 3 years through such initiatives as the Vacancy Project (a transitional housing program for homeless neighbors), the Aurora Communal Garden, and Aurora's Day of Gratitude, and now hopes to facilitate broader neighbor, business, church, and neighborhood group involvement through the Sharehouse. These two new AmeriCorps positions will help do just that! (Full disclosure, I'm co-director of the Aurora Sharehouse and pastor of Awake)...
Did you see what was on PostSecret the other day? The Seattle Weekly looked into the story...
If you're interested in learning more about the situation of many of our homeless neighbors, here are a couple of informative resources: Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County, an HBO Documentary by Alexandra Pelosi (interview here), "explores the world of children who reside in discounted motels within walking distance of Disneyland, living in limbo as their families struggle to survive in one of the wealthiest regions of America. The parents of motel kids are often hard workers who don't earn enough to own or rent homes. As a result, they continue to live week-to-week in motels, hoping against hope for an opportunity that might allow them to move up in the O.C." (full synopsis here).
View from the Tent: Thoughts from a Homeless Man. Saturday, July 31, 7:00pm. Saint Mark's Cathedral - Capitol...
Karen Cirulli has been an AmeriCorps Volunteer working as a community organizer along the Aurora corridor for the past year and half. In addition to gathering neighbors to create the Aurora Communal Garden and its weekly cookouts, she spends her time networking community groups, visiting area motels, and coordinating various neighborhood events. I've had the privilege of working with her for the past year as part of the local faith community that serves as her host site, but it's about time you met her and heard about the awesome things she is doing! Do you have any neighbors you would like the rest of us to meet? A community leader? A block captain? A teacher? A business owner? Aurora|Seattle would love to meet them! Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) recently held a meeting at Cyndy's Pancake House in which they conversed with neighbors about their plans for an affordable housing development "with supportive services for homeless men and women living with mental illness" at the current Cyndy's property (10507 Aurora Ave) to begin in the summer of 2011. But less than a year ago, Cyndy's was on the verge of becoming a strip club until the city declined to issue the prospective buyer, Bob Davis, the necessary permits - leading one Aurora|Seattle contributor to proclaim, "Pancakes Trump Strippers." The Seattle Times is reporting today that a federal judge has ruled in favor of Davis, who filed a lawsuit against the city in 2008, "saying the city's failure to provide applicants with a deadline for obtaining a license violates the First Amendment protections of would-be club owners." It remains to be seen whether or not the city will owe Davis any damages related to the loss of his potential business.
Aurora already has at least one place open 24 hours - the legendary Beth's Cafe. But it might soon have a number of early morning destinations - and they'd be serving more than a 12-egg omelet. As the Seattle Times reported earlier this week (see below), Mayor Mike McGinn is proposing letting bars staying open all night, or at least later than the current 2 a.m. closing time. Chris Dalton, owner of Beth's Cafe and the neighboring Duck Island Ale House, told Aurora|Seattle that he has a "neutral" reaction to the news. He added, "I don't see keeping the Duck open later and my guess would be more regulation on those bars that do close later. As to Beth's, could be a positive in that we wouldn't get slammed all at once and may end up with more biz overall. We'll see..." What are your reactions to the Mayor's proposal? Will you be showing up at Beth's at 3 or 4 a.m. instead of 2? Or is this a non-issue for Aurora?
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