Neighborhood volunteers put their skills and grit together on St. Paddy’s Day (March 17) to wipe out some blackberries that were beginning a takeover of Lake Washington Boulevard by East Huron Street. A truck-and-a-half of weeds were extracted or cut back, opening up a new area to plant with native vegetation later in the year and staving off blackberry dominance along the Boulevard. The hearty volunteers included Diane Morris, Jan Solsa, Sally Wagner, Carlos Arriola, Tracy Bier and John Barber. Later, Myra and Larry Faust came along to help with the wind-up. All-and-all it was a time to enjoy working together on a beautiful early spring day.

Dian Ferguson shared the latest in Senior Center news at the third Wednesday member meeting which followed one of the favorite Central Café’ lunches: Broccoli Cheese Soup with Shrimp Salad in Pita. Before Dian arrived, Nyla Gray showed us some posters of Tuskegee Airmen celebrating Washington State’s designation of Tuskegee Airmen Day in the state of Washington (March 23). Although all the Washington Airmen are no longer with us, the exercise class at the Center has both a daughter and a widow of Tuskegee Airmen. Joan Ervin told members about the Mobile Cause, an app where you can purchase tickets for the Green Dolphin using your phone or your computer. Dian arrived with the big news: the new Bingo Board should be here by the end of the month and big Bingo events are being planned. Although I have not been to a Bingo event since I was a kid and accompanied the elderly woman I lived with to a church basement bingo party, I remember thinking what fun it was to hear these older folks get excited and shout bingo! Having reached a “certain” age, I will try this out for myself when the events begin. Dian has hired an administrative manager who will begin on the first Monday in April. This person will be responsible for training, recruiting volunteers, communication through social media and the newsletter, program development and a sharing of the rentals with Dian. This person will start on a 9am–3pm schedule and work up to an eight-hour day. The Central needs to get its paperwork into the City of Seattle by April 15 (for buying the building). This is a draft and the City will respond with any need for clarification or additional paperwork. The final needs to be in by April 30. There was discussion about the Green Dolphin and evaluating acts as to ‘income”. Dian F said that she had never considered Green Dolphin as a fundraiser; when she came on board, it often lost money. She has revised the program so that it breaks even at least, but there are a few performers who do bring in extra. However, it will be kept as is considering that the neighborhood often supports performers that the members don’t. There were many compliments for Rachel Foxx who appeared in March; the members liked her and especially liked the fact that her band members did not drown out her voice! Rachel had been one of the Supersonic Soul Sistahs and is now on her own. The Taproot Theater will be holding improv classes again and the first class starts on March 26 (sorry!) But there are three more classes: April 2, 16 and 23. Classes are $2 each. Unleash your inner actor! There will be CPR class and a workshop on property tax and how to apply for an exemption but check with the desk on the dates, as Dian did not have them, 206-726-4926. ~Diane Snell

At our June meeting, we will honor Leschi Stars who have come to the attention of the Board, but we know there are more stars out there and we hope the community will help identify them. To nominate someone for the Leschi Star award, please write to the Leschi News or Janice Merrill Brown (LCC president) at janicemb@comcast.net ) with the name of the person and a description of why you think they deserve to be recognized as a star The Board will consider all nominations at the May Board meeting (5/7/18) and make their decisions. Either email leschinews@comcast.net or write to Leschi News at 140 Lakeside Ave., Ste A, #2, Seattle 98122. ~Diane Snell

April is one of the most erratic, varied, and difficult-to-forecast months in the Pacific Northwest. Major windstorms, while rare, are not unheard of; just last April, the Portland metro area got walloped by a windstorm that brought the most power outages to the city since the Hanukkah Eve Storm of 2006. It’s not uncommon to even see brief spurts of snow in the overnight hours in a Puget Sound Convergence Zone or heavy shower, though this snow rarely sticks at sea level. And on the other side of the coin, our high sun angles open the potential for scorching heat waves if a ridge of high pressure builds over the area. Sea-Tac hit a staggering 89 degrees on April 18, 2016 and just hit 73 on March 12 this year; 20 degrees above average for that date and their earliest 70+ degree day ever. But if there’s one thing that truly defines springtime weather around the Pacific Northwest, it has to be our months on end of “showers and sun breaks.” As we transition into spring, the surface warms much more dramatically than the upper atmosphere, creating a large temperature decrease with height. The faster an atmosphere cools with height, the more unstable it is and the easier it is for convective showers to form. Some of these showers can be quite strong: Vancouver, WA, experienced the state’s only major tornado on record with a F3 twister in April 1972, and on May 4th last year, portions of the Pacific Northwest experienced a bona-fide severe thunderstorm outbreak, with areas of Thurston County getting particularly hard-hit as a thunderstorm with 70 mph winds and torrential rains toppled trees and power lines. Cumulus clouds and showers over Western Washington on the afternoon of 3/18/2018. These were formed as the surface warmed throughout the day, allowing air to rise and form clouds. Note the clear skies over the Pacific and much of Puget Sound, where surface temperatures are much cooler. Image credit: NASA But more often than not, our showers are much more benign and are associated with the same mechanisms that our wintertime showers are: unstable, post-frontal flow. The primary difference is not the showers themselves, but the sun breaks that follow. With such high sun angles at this time of the year, the sunshine that returns after a shower has passed is far more dramatic than it is near the winter solstice. If you like spring, I’ve got good news for you! Seattle hosts some of the longest “spring like” weather in the nation, with average temperatures not reaching the 70s until late June. This is due to our moderating westerly flow off the ~55 degree waters of the Pacific Ocean and Salish Sea. Our dark and dreary winters can sure test our grit, but our long springs and absolutely perfect summers more than make up for it. ~Charlie Phillips Charlie Phillips, a Madrona resident, received his B.S. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington and works in Portland as a meteorologist forecasting wind energy along the Columbia River Gorge. Check out his weather website at weathertogether.us.

The Leschi Park area was known as “Changes its Face” by the indigenous residents of our area before contact. It was felt that a powerful spirit available to shamans existed here. After urban expansion, it disappeared. Yesler Way was known as “little crossing over place” where freshwater Indians could connect with saltwater populations. Later it was called Mill Street by newcomers because it connected to Yesler’s Mill. Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe brought his people to this area for fishing and berry picking. He is buried in the Puyallup Tribal Cemetery in Tacoma. The Yesler Street cable car connected “Seattle” to the lake ferries, which took passengers to Mercer Island, Bellevue and other lake destinations from the Leschi Dock at the South Marina. Leschi Park was initially established as a zoo and amusement park to help sell real estate and draw people “out of the city’ in the 1900’s. In 1890, a big casino was built on the SE side of the park. It was a popular spot for vaudeville acts and concerts. Sarah Bernhardt performed here in 1906. The story goes that they rustled a bear for her to shoot! The circle in the center of the park was once a fishpond. The Park was a gathering place on weekends for ladies to stroll in their long gowns and big hats accompanied by men in suit and tie. Leschi Park was purchased by the City of Seattle from Seattle Electric Company who owned the Yesler Way cable car line. This established Leschi Park as the second oldest park in the city; Denny Park was the first. In 1903, the Olmstead Brothers were hired to design boulevards and parks for the residents of Seattle to experience nature on Sundays using their bicycles and Model T’s. Jacob Umlauff was heard gardener in 1894 and planted the giant sequoia in the center of the park. He became Seattle’s first parks superintendent until he retired in 1940. ~Sally Wagner

Editor’s note: Last month we learned about a How-to Book for Activists, Eric Liu’s You’re More Powerful than You Think. This month a dedicated activist looks at the issues and boils them down to a single issue which, if corrected, could eliminate the ills of society. Guest editorial by Georgia McDade. Of the many posters I have seen at the March on MLK Day, the Women’s March, on social media and TV, my favorite is “There are too many issues to put on one poster.” I agree. But I think at least equally important is the existence of enough persons to correct all these issues. Really! One of the best truths of the March—actually truths about marches all over the world—is the great number of issues and the numerous similarities. Dr. Susan Noyes Platt clearly states the situation: “As these two marches (MLK Day and Day after State of the Union) and the Northwest African American Museum exhibition celebrated, we are moving beyond the divisions of the past, embracing the idea that all causes are one cause; we must all work together to realize the world we know we must have.” The one cause is justice. The world we must have is a world wherein justice reigns. As long as injustice exists, problems, friction, war will exist. Imagine what the world would look like if everyone had justice, the ones who now have it and the ones seeking it. If the ones who have it worked to see that the ones wanting, needing it received it, we could have a peaceful world. People all over the world are seeking to solve the many “issues” not named on that poster. I’ll confine my problem solving to the U.S. We can make it better, greater than the “Founding Fathers” ever dreamed because we know more than they knew. I think our biggest problem in the world is lack of justice. For many of us—Americans and those not Americans be they inside the U.S. borders or outside—the president’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) means excluding us and/or persons whom we care about. I have never heard the precise period the president has in mind when he says “great.” But some of us are convinced that he means “Make America White Again.” The President has made many statements to support the belief that he wants the country to be white or, at least, whiter. He has insulted just about every un-white people that you can name: Mexicans, African Americans, Asians and Native Americans, among others. And no one should forget his designation for Haiti and African countries. If there is any doubt about his stance, he makes himself clear when he says he wants folks from Norway to come here. Is there anyone out there who ever thinks America was “red” before it was “white”? No one listening to the Neo-Nazis would ever think so. Perhaps some Native Americans agree with the African adage the axe soon forgets what the tree always remembers. I do. Did you hear about the restaurateur stating, on camera, that once upon a time, migrants wanted to be servants? “Now,” says he, “they all want to go to college!” Are his children servants? Do they go to college? Yes, when we learn we do not have to pick fruits and vegetables, that our children don’t have to chop cotton or pick fruits and vegetables, we do not want them to have these jobs. Why is he so surprised? Why do some persons believe what is good for them is not good for others? A woman told me years ago about the worst flaw of President Lyndon B. Johnson: “He made all of ‘those people’ believe they could have what I have.” At varying levels are other examples of problems resulting from lack of justice and the power originating from the absence of justice. Do you know how many of the Fortune 500 companies paid no taxes or received six-figure refunds? What would have happened had Ride the Ducks gotten the axles on twelve vehicles replaced? What body agreed that the parents of foreign students should not be awarded damages in the death of their children? How many persons lost houses because of fraud on the part of banks? How many persons responsible for those housing scams are imprisoned? How many persons have been enrolled in colleges that provided no saleable skill? What’s fair about some persons getting pensions larger than the salaries they made and others who may have worked decades long at jobs they detested denied their pensions? Why is the planet—animals and plants, water, land, and air—in danger? Our multinationals damage one part of the world and move to another part. Fines barely touch their profits. Why do so many persons say, “Time’s Up” or “#MeToo”? How many lives would not have been negatively altered had someone reported Larry Nassar and Jerry Sandusky? We’ll never know how many lives these persons carelessly scarred. I believe each issue could be solved if we applied justice. Each of us could choose a place we see injustice and begin doing what we can to end the crisis. We haven’t time to tell anyone to wait. We must begin immediately to solve the problems ourselves. If family and friends aren’t interested in our causes, we must reach out to others who are. Now you may wonder “How do I know what is just?” I have an answer! Ask yourself if you would sanction the incident if it happened to you or someone important to you. You would condone someone’s harassing your mom, dad, sister, brother, niece, nephew, husband or wife? The molesting of a child you love is satisfactory? Having someone trick your loved one out of money has your approval? Perhaps all of us would not always agree, but most of the time, we would. Each of us mentally sound individuals is charged with spreading justice wherever we are whenever we can. ~Georgia McDade “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Spring is upon us and we are excited to bring three timely programs over the next three months. April 4th, at 7:00 pm we will have “Get Ready for the Big One,” with Sandi Doughton author of Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest and Cindi Barker, coordinator of the Seattle Emergency HUBS (disaster relief gathering places if disaster strikes). This should be a lively discussion and one that is a passionate issue in the minds of many. Your Board Members, Tracy Bier and Trevor Lalish-Menagh have arranged this program with the idea in mind it is the LCC’s duty to provide information to our residents in case of an earthquake. Recently a small 2.7 quake served as a reminder of this. In May, Shanna Crutchfield who is a Principal Consultant of Visions of Equity, will be heading a panel to discuss racism, inclusion, neighborhoods and how we can all best live in harmony. Finally, our June program before our summer break will honor those silent heroes who enhance people’s lives on a daily basis, but sometimes are so good, we forget to remember to thank them. Spring is here and it is time to embrace our beautiful neighborhood area. I encourage you to get involved. Make a difference. Join our lively, growing group of neighbors. I wish you wonderful blue skies, abundant sunshine and friendships that nurture your being. ~Janice Merrill Brown President, Leschi Community Council

Seattle Times Science writer, Sandi Doughton, writes about the probability of a 9.0 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest. She imagines what the huge earthquake of 1700 must have been like for the native people living here and it is chilling! Reading this graphic description made me feel ashamed of my pathetic store of gallons of who-knows-how-old-water stored in the storage room with everything from Christmas ornaments to the cache of Leschi CC material that tends to reside at our house. No, I confess I am NOT ready and I need something to light that spark of survival. I probably have a lifetime of dried beans but without water and fuel, they might as well be a collection of seashells. Thanks to Tracy Bier, our Public Health and Safety Chair, for bringing this overdue program to fruition. With the help of LCC Vice-President, Trevor Menagh, the program will also include Cindi Barker who chairs the program for city communications through neighborhood “hubs.” Communication will not be as easy as it is now with massive disruptions to broadcasting facilities, buckled roads and slides. Even if you are, like me, ashamed of your meager hoard of survival goods, please plan to attend and learn what can happen and what the city has planned for the aftermath. April 4 at 7pm, in the Solarium at the Central Area Senior Center, 500 30th Ave S. ~Diane Snell

Garfield High School Class of '68 invites you to an evening of jazz and R&B The Royal Room, 5000 Rainier Ave S., Seattle WA 98118, 206-906-9920 Monday, February 26 7:00 p.m. (doors open 6:00 p.m.) $15 cover by donation Featuring: Dennis Blackmon, GHS class of 1968: Keyboard and piano player who has been performing professionally for over 40 years and has collaborated with several established Jazz Artists and most recently performed at the Bleu Note restaurant and lounge with the Ed Taylor Group. Hammond B3 organ and keyboard player Mikal Majeed (locally known as Michael Burks), who has been performing in Los Angeles area jazz venues as part of the JazzZone Network of Showcased Artists and most recently performed at the NAACP Image Awards show, will join Dennis for an evening of a soulful jazz experience. The evening will be capped off with the sultry voice of Tess Thomas who will share her rhythmic song interpretations which she has been performing for audiences throughout the Northwest for years. Tess Thomas has opened shows for such notables as Della Reese, James Brown, Bobby Blue Bland, BB King, Tina Turner and a host of others. Tess has been a favorite in the Seattle area. She is a song stylist bringing her unique voice to music. Click here to download a flyer for the event.

King St. fund refers to the King St. street end and the funds are leftover from a grant several years ago. John Barber is the chair and tells us that SDOT does not pay for gravel and there is a need to redo one of the gravel paths as it is starting to puddle in one area. There are also plans to purchase some flowers for this street end. John reported that there had been some vandalism in this area: cutting down of rose bushes. Gateway project: this refers to an area where the next work party will be held where Huron meets Lake Washington Blvd. There has been an ongoing struggle to keep native plants safe here as Parks has sent in mowers who tend to mow down everything in sight: shrubs, flowers, etc. The design for this area was developed at the UW and donations were made by residents to implement the plan. Sadly, the volunteers and Parks seem to be working at cross purposes. John Barber is hoping to laminate some signs to protect the area.

February 2, 2018—Attending: Janice Merrill Brown, Trevor Lalish-Menagh, Diane Snell, Tracy Bier, John Barber. Treasury report will be in March newsletter. Three items had been referred to the Ex Board from the general meeting the week before. 1. Support for mural project at 31st & Jackson. There were some voices of support but also some concern expressed that we would have to sign on to a design that wasn’t our choice. Decision made to request that final deciders on a plan be a committee consisting of two representatives from Leschi and two from Mt. Baker. These representatives should be residents of their respective communities and have some kind of art background. Secretary will draft a letter to the mural project committee to request this caveat. Trevor can take it to the next CANDC meeting. 2. There is controversy over a part of Frink Park which is being planted by a volunteer and is making changes to an open spot that neighbors enjoy for gatherings. Decision was to have John Barber contact the Parks person in charge of this area to work out a compromise between the two factions. 3. Sally Wagner brought up the fact that Leschi Park is being used more and more and is being tended less and less and is showing the wear and tear. Diane Morris suggested a community wide cleanup. Lawrence Pitre suggested a larger, district wide community wide effort. Janice will speak to her group at work that takes on community projects to see if they would host a work party on the second Thursday in May. John Barber will coordinate with the Parks representative to see if tools could be borrowed and specific tasks outlined. The District wide aspect could be addressed by each neighborhood choosing a project for May and we could feature all projects in the newsletter. In addition to these specific concerns, Bill Caldwell said he was willing to investigate what funds Parks gets and how they are allocated. Diane Ramsey Gayton offered to help. New Business Emergency Hubs: Trevor brought information on emergency hubs which are part of the city’s plan to address the aftermath from a natural catastrophe. He and Tracy are planning a meeting in April which will feature a possible event and the city’s plans for neighborhood recovery. Tracy said her speaker usually gets more than our $50 honorarium for speaking. Diane agreed to make her annual $100 donation to this project. Tracy felt that this would be acceptable. Elections: Since three of four officers are completing The second year of a term for folks who resigned and the 4th officer (secretary) needs to be elected for a second term, elections need to be held in May. Notice will be put in the newsletter for the two months prior as required by the by-laws. All current officers are prepared to run again. March program: Members of the Transit Riders Union, the folks who helped us get back the #27 bus, have taken on a new cause: housing for all. They don’t feel the city plan is adequate to address the needs of the ever-growing homeless population. Board Meeting location when Central not available: Dian F indicated there would be two months when she was away and we would need to meet elsewhere. All agreed that BluWater Bistro was convenient. Home Street Bank: When Janice met with difficulties over signing the bank card for our Bank of America account, she saw Home Street Bank nearby and went inside to discuss our needs. The Bank does service non-profits and would not require both new and old officers to be present for card signing. (Note: we have never before been asked to bring the outgoing officers for a signing.) We will ask Janet, our current treasurer, to assess their services and make a decision when she is back from her season in the sun. Old Business Racism: Janice has been working with a woman who does these programs and she is available in May for a panel discussion. Once again, her speaker fees are more than what we usually give, so Janice offered to donate $100 as well to boost the amount we can pay. ~Respectfully submitted by Diane Snell

A hearty lunch was served on 2/21/18, the member meeting day and it was vegetarian! Cheese tortellini with marinara sauce was the entrée served along with roasted vegetables. It was an enticing medley of roasted veggies with broccoli, cauliflower, green and yellow squash. A green salad with a tangy dressing accompanied the entrée. Fresh fruit for dessert with pineapple, blueberries, watermelon and grapes. All of this for just $5 and a chance to dine with neighbors. It was a glorious sunny (but cold) day showing off the incredible view of Lake Washington and the Cascades. Central Area Senior Center 500 30th Ave S. Lunch served 12–1pm weekdays