Issue No. 147

The Mount Baker VIEW

News of the Mount Baker Community Club

• Upcoming Meeting Agendas
• Mt. Baker Community Club Newcomers Potluck
• Donor List for the MLK Scholarship Awards
• Twenty Scholarships awarded at 16th Annual MLK Celebration
• Update on Recent Burglaries
• DCLU Proposed Telecommunications Amendments, August 1999
• Looking for new Editor for the Mt. Baker View
• Looking for a Liaison Volunteer

• Neighborhood Church Helps Feed Seattles Homeless
• Recovered Property
• MLK Jr. Hillside Gardens Seeks Neighborhood Involvement in Improvement Plans
• "Save Our Valley" Update
• Local Community News and Events
• Classes at the Clubhouse
• Calendar

Upcoming Meeting Agendas

LouAnn Johnson from SDART on earthquake preparedness

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) on the changes to garbage, yard waste and recycling pick-up

Mt. Baker Community Club Newcomers Potluck

If you do plan to come and you think of it, please RSVP to Renee Holland at 722-5325.  Bon Appetite!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Fund Donors (as of 1/31/00)

Twenty Scholarships Awarded at 16TH Annual MLK Celebration

On January 21st, an overflow crowd gathered at the Clubhouse for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration - the biggest and best ever. Ron Sims and Carole Carmichael served as the master and mistress of ceremonies, again demonstrating their love both for young people and for this neighborhood. Norm Rice was the keynote speaker at our celebration this year. He spoke movingly about the goal that we should be striving for -- that all children be given the opportunities and tools they need to reach their full potential. He also spoke specifically about Martin Luther King's leadership and the importance of his contribution to social justice and greater human understanding (contrasting those contributions with those of Time's "Man of the Century," Albert Einstein). We also heard from Daniel Jahn, a 1997 scholarship recipient, who spoke about some of his experiences at the UW, where he is a member of the class of 2001. He told this year's award winners and other students in the audience to pay attention to their study skills so they can cope with the demands of college and exhorted them all to return and give back to the community after they've completed their studies. We also were treated to rousing performances of several musical selections from Shades of Praise and several dance numbers by TTAAPP Central. Reverend Leland Seese of the Mt. Baker Presbyterian Church gave the invocation and benediction.

This year we were able to grant twenty scholarships - more than we've ever given - of $2500 each, thanks to a huge outpouring of financial support from the community. The award winners were students of color from our neighborhood who attend high schools all over Seattle, who won by virtue of their academic efforts and their achievements in other aspects of their lives, including community service. This year's award winners are:

Each of the award winners spoke after they received their awards, giving us a sense of who they are and what their goals for the future are. Many spoke of the importance of their faith, especially in tough times. Many thanked their parents or others who have raised them. And in a spontaneous recognition of a local teacher, a number of students from Franklin High School thanked Sandi Everlove, a MLK Scholarship Committee member and former Franklin chemistry teacher, for the support she had given them during their high school years and for her inspirational teaching.

Donations this year were received from 200 neighbors, as well as corporate sponsors. The Pepsi-Cola Company and the Rainier QFC once again supported the program, each pledging $2000. In a wonderful carryover from last year, Gary Lundgren, a local businessman who gave $10,000 to one of the 1999 recipients who had been featured in the Seattle Times has again pledged $10,000, this time to help provide the scholarships for all twenty of our year 2000 award winners. (A list of donors as of January 31, 2000 follows this article.) A new development this year was that some of the students were approached by audience members who work in careers that the students had said they were interested in pursuing about possible summer internships.

The event included dinner for our award winners and their families and dessert for all attendees. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Committee would like to express its appreciation to Celester and Salina Gray of That's Amore for catering the dinner at cost and to Sprinkles Bakery and Espresso, Boracchini's and Starbucks for donating the desserts and coffee.

Update on Recent Burglaries

Carl Chilo and Mark Solomon of the Seattle Police attended the 2/7/00 community meeting and provided an update on the string of burglaries as well as a review of crime in the greater Mount Baker area. Car prowls are up; other crime is down. Suspects are being held in relationship to the burglaries; one suspect has been identified by several residents. Police remind citizens that they can be resources for residents on issues of security and safety; and they are partners with the community.

Citizens can contact our new Community Police Officer, Carl Chilo at 206 233-1541. Information on recovered stolen items and other details can be found at the Club web site. (www.mountbaker.org). The police agreed that information from the Club could be sent to area blockwatch captains to help coordinate citizen and police efforts. Citizens interested in knowing who their blockwatch captain is should contact Carl Chilo or Mark Solomon at 206 386-9766.

DCLU Proposed Telecommunications Amendments, August 1999

As cell phones and wireless technology become more available and prevalent, they require more equipment and infrastructure to make them work. The number of antennae sites is multiplying rapidly. The City regulates the design and installation specifications of wireless antennae sites, including those on commercial buildings and homes, as well as the large commercial antennas mounted on free standing poles. Until now, it has done a very poor job of regulating the aesthetic impacts of cellular antennas, especially the large free standing poles. The result is many antennas mounted on free standing support poles (monopoles and lattice towers) or haphazardly mounted on buildings throughout the city.

There are alternatives. The technology is readily available, and in use in many other communities, to integrate wireless antennas and microwave antennas into buildings through use of radio-frequency transparent screens which integrate in an aesthetically-pleasing way with a building’s overall design. The photo on the left illustrates the use of readily available technology to screen antennas with materials which are transparent to radio frequencies and can be designed and constructed to integrate the design into a building. The photo on the right illustrates a monopole installation in Seattle.

The City Council is currently considering several amendments to the Seattle Land Use and Shoreline regulations which will affect the appearance and installation of wireless telecommunications equipment and antennas. Unfortunately, they are not strict enough, and don’t prevent to proliferation of more ugly free standing antenna support towers throughout the city. Although the proposed regulations are fairly stringent in Single Family Zoning and in Historic Districts, the regulations for the rest of the City, including Shoreline areas, remain pretty much unchanged. Problems with the proposed regulations include the following:

• Free standing antenna support towers continue to be allowed in all zoning districts. There is no distinction drawn or preference accorded to building mounted antennas which can integrate into building design and have little visual impact on the community.

• Installations, including free standing towers are proposed to be allowed in Shoreline districts where they have been prohibited in the past. Our shoreline locations are among the most visually sensitive vistas in the city.

• New cellular antennas or microwave dishes can be added to any existing freestanding tower without any review in any haphazard fashion.

This issue has received very little public attention. If unopposed, the proposed lax regulations may pass, threatening our cityscape and shoreline views. A Public Hearing is scheduled before the City Council Landlord/Tenant and Land Use Committee to review this issue on February 29, 2000 at 6pm. David Sherrad, a Mt. Baker resident who is professionally involved with wireless regulation in other jurisdiction and brought this issue to the attention of the View, will testify at the public hearing. It is his intent to send DCLU back to the drawing board with directions to develop more effective regulations. A copy of the Public Hearing Notice is posted on the MBCC website. Copies of the proposed regulations are available from DCLU and are on the DCLU web site.

If you are concerned, or have a preference what you would like to see in your neighborhood, please send a quick email to the Seattle City Council at council@ci.seattle.wa.us.

For further information or to join David in the fight to lobby for aesthetically pleasing regulations, contact David Sherrard directly at aproposant@aol.com.

Thank you David for bringing this issue to the community’s attention and supplying the detailed information for this article.

Looking for a new Editor for the Mount Baker View

The View is looking for a new editor to oversee the content of the monthly newsletter. Our current editor, Kat Randolph, has just had a baby and won't be able to continue as editor once she returns to work later this spring. She will continue as editor for the remainder of this school year, but would like to transition responsibilities to the new Editor when the View resumes publication in September. The editor is responsible for the overall content of the View, and works closely with the layout editor, the web master of the MBCC website and the clubhouse manager to produce each issue. Specific responsibilities include attending the monthly community club meetings, and soliciting, occasionally writing, and editing articles. It requires approximately 8-10 hours of work per month, and importantly, an interest in covering the many fascinating issues taking place in our community. For more information, please contact Kat Randolph at 723-3433.

Looking for a Liaison Volunteer

The MBCC is looking for a liaison to the Seattle Federation of Community Councils. For more information, please email our current representative, Glover Barnes, at gwbarnes@u.washington.edu

Neighborhood Church Helps Feed Seattle's Homeless

Four nights a week, about 250 people gather on the 4th Avenue plaza outside the King County Administration Building. They are young and old, male and female. A few are children. Some carry bags and backpacks. All are hungry.

Four nights a week, they wait patiently for retired grandmother Kay Abe to back up onto the plaza in her station wagon. When she does, a few jump up to help her unload folding tables and urns of coffee, tea and juice.

Then, a few minutes later, the food arrives: hot stew or chili or casserole, salad, bread, fresh fruit and dessert. Each night's meal is prepared and served by a different Seattle-area congregation. On the fourth Monday of every month, Mt. Baker Park Presbyterian Church takes its turn.

In the nearly three years that the church has been participating in Mrs. Abe's feeding program, which has no official name or sponsorship, the monthly task of feeding 250 people has become a comfortable routine for chief cook Linda Westbrook. The recipe she uses is Moosewood Cookbook's Peruvian Quinoa stew, with the addition of sauteed chicken. About a dozen volunteers help by shopping, pre-cooking the chicken, chopping vegetables, steaming rice, mixing salad, cutting fruit, baking brownies and scrubbing pots and pans. When it's time to head downtown, six more volunteers show up at the church's basement kitchen to transport the food (kept hot in coolers) and serve it.

Nearly all of the many church and community members who have volunteered to serve report that it has been unforgettable. More volunteers are always welcome, as are freezable contributions of baked cookies or brownies. If you'd like to help, call Mt. Baker Park Presbyterian Church at 722-5884.

Recovered Property

The spoons and property pictured below were recovered on 1/30/00 in West Seattle in a stolen vehicle. The vehicle had been stolen from the Mount Baker neighborhood on 11/22/99. No suspects were apprehended but inside the vehicle were numerous items. The items include a brown wood box containing numerous gold colored pieces of flatware stamped "Made in Korea," a sawsall, Black & Decker circular saw, 35 mm camera, Eddie Bauer travel clock, Eager Beaver chainsaw, etc.

Anyone with information on who owns this property is encouraged to call Detective Tom Pike of the Seattle Police Department at (206) 386-1855.

MLK Jr. Hillside Gardens Seeks Neighborhood Involvement in Improvement Plans

For at least the past fifteen years, the hillside gardens along MLK Jr. Way have been used by immigrants from southeast Asia, primarily from Vietnam and Cambodia, for growing vegetables. The Mt. Baker Housing Association, the non-profit owner and operator of the Mt. Baker Village Apartments, owns the land adjacent to the gardens but not the gardens, which are owned by the city. The bias of the Mt. Baker Housing Association and its residents is to preserve the garden as long as there is a need for it. Yet they would like to develop a long-term plan, with the Mt. Baker community's involvement to plan what the hillside garden should become over time. To do this, they are seeking a small grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to plan improvements to the hillside gardens along MILK Jr. Way.

The Rainier / 1-90 plan cited the hillside gardens as an area that could benefit from aesthetic improvements, but did not provide specifics or prohibit gardening. Over the years, the Mt. Baker Housing Association has received mostly very supportive comments about the gardens and their continued existence. Some neighbors have questioned the appearance of the gardens and from time to time we have stepped in to collect buckets and trash. (Vegetables are grown throughout the year and the gardens do look worse in winter when they are more exposed.)

The neighborhood grant, which would be in the range of $8,000-10,000, would be a planning grant to look at long-term use. The city would pay two thirds of the cost. A design consultant would be hired to lead the process and address critical issues, such as whether gardening continue indefinitely and if yes, what can be done to make the gardens more attractive; what are some alternative uses; how does the garden fit in with an entrance to the Mt. Baker neighborhood and the new transit center.

The Mt. Baker Housing Association is looking to assess the interest level and commitment of the Mt. Baker Community for this project. It's looking for residents who would participate in a few design meetings, make financial contributions, and volunteer. They are asking for letters of support for the grant. The next deadline is March 20. If you are willing to support this effort in community-based planning, please send your letter to: Mt. Baker Housing Association, PO Box 28119, Seattle WA 98118.

"Save Our Valley" Update

An update from the "Save Our Valley" group -- Working for a tunneled light rail system throughout the Rainier Valley to create a safe, strong, vibrant and united community.

By Colleen Browne, President, Save Our Valley, Colleen@zipcon.net

On October 17th, 1998, a roomful of about 125 people learned for the first time that a tunnel through Rainier Valley was indeed possible. Not only possible but affordable and practical as well. In addition, a tunnel was the solution to a myriad of problems that no one could quite figure out how to resolve, including the health and safety of the citizens of SE Seattle. That day those people formed a group called Save Our Valley.

Over a year ago, Save Our Valley asked Sound Transit and the City of Seattle how it was going to resolve the difficulties of the blockage that a train down the middle of the street causes when someone needs emergency services such as fire, ambulances or police. As of the meeting on Jan. 27th, this question is still up in the air. At that meeting, in fact, both police and fire departments expressed great concern because they still had no answers to these basic public safety issues. Police and fire departments rely on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South's two-way left turn lane and its relative lack of traffic signals to get around quickly in this part of town.

Not having the ability to turn left when you want to, and having both cars and delivery trucks wandering through narrow, unimproved neighborhood streets is inconvenient and a hassle for both drivers and residents. Having Medic One take six or more minutes to get to you due to clogged main streets and impassable side streets could be fatal.

Someone asked the other day what Save Our Valley was up to. We wish we could say we were able to move onto new issues. Unfortunately, the huge problems presented by the at-grade alignment in Rainier Valley still occupy our time.

To become involved in solutions to the problems posed by the current alignment, contact us at (206) 721-9898, or drop by our office at 5818 Rainier Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98118. Donations of time and/or money welcome. (And anyone who can help bring the website online especially welcome.)

Local Community News and Events

Do You Want to Sing? Come sing with the Community Choir at South Seattle Community College. We have openings for both men and women in our 50-voice choir, and we have a lot of fun. We perform a variety of music—everything from classics to folk music and show tunes. Rehearsals are Monday nights from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Join us for a rehearsal to see if the choir is for you. Auditions are not required. For more information, contact Paula Herd, Choral Director, at (206) 768-6450, or Mount Baker resident Dick Monroe at (206) 723-0084.

International Women's Day Celebration. Sunday, March 12, 2:00 PM. New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave S, Seattle. Hosted by Radical Women. For more information, rides or childcare, call (206) 722-6057 or 722-2453. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible.

Mount Baker Preschool Open House. The Mount Baker Cooperative Preschool is a Waldorf inspired school that offers the opportunity for a multi-age, multicultural group of children to explore together in self-directed play. Parents interested in finding out more about this school are invited to attend their Open House on Saturday, March 2000, 10 AM - Noon. School is located at 2800 S. Massachusetts St, Seattle, 98144. For additional information please call (206) 325-6711, between 9 am and 1 pm, or 725-6156 to leave a message.

Step Aerobics. Please note that Step Aerobics classes have been cancelled.

Calendar

Calendar of Events and Meetings

March
Tues, 2nd Deadline for articles and display advertising in the May View (5 PM)
Mon, 6th MBCC monthly meeting at the Clubhouse (7:30-9:30)
Tues, 14th Deadline for online Classifieds for printing in April View
Sat, 18th Pied Piper at the Clubhouse 10 AM-Juggle Tunes "The Music Room"
Sat, 18th Newcomers and Community Potluck, 6:00 PM

April
Mon, 3rd MBCC monthly meeting at the Clubhouse (7:30-9:30)
Thur, 6th Deadline for articles and display advertising in the May View (5 PM)
Tues, 11th Deadline for online Classifieds for printing in May View
Sat, 22nd Pied Piper at the Clubhouse 10 AM-Toucans Steel Drums
Sat, 22nd Spring Dance

May
Mon, 1st MBCC monthly meeting at the Clubhouse (7:30-9:30)
Thur, 4th Deadline for articles and display advertising in the May View (5 PM)
Tues, 9th Deadline for online Classifieds for printing in May View
Sat, 20th Pied Piper at the Clubhouse 10 AM-Charles the Clown (Last one until Sept!)

September
Sat, 16th Day In The Park

For a complete up-to-date calendar, see our Calendar page.

Classes at the Clubhouse

The following classes are held on a regular basis at the Mount Baker Community Clubhouse. All classes are subject to cancellation, please check the clubhouse bulletin board for schedule changes.

AEROBICS
· Cancelled.

TAI CHI
· Tuesdays 5:45 PM
· For information contact Connie at 322-7527

SWING DANCE
· Tuesdays 7:30 PM
· For information about the 8 week series contact Deborah or Jim at 725-5718

MOVEMENT CLASS
· Mondays 7 PM. Mar 13, 20, & 27th
· For information contact Julie at 523-0225

Classifieds

Views expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Community Club, its board members, or the editor. The Mount Baker View is published monthly, except for July and August, by the Mt. Baker Community Club, a non-profit community association located at 2811 Mt. Rainier Drive South, Seattle, Washington 98144. It is available at the first of the month and mailed free of charge to community residents and also available on the web at www.mountbaker.org. For more information on submitting articles for publication contact the Clubhouse by phone at (206) 722-7209, by e-mail at view@mountbaker.org, the web site, or the editors.