Search Results

A friend called me the other day and said how about checking out FATS Chicken and Waffles for lunch? Great idea. Walking a few blocks on a sunny day and having a tasty lunch at a very reasonable price is perfect. I ordered the catfish sandwich with a side of fries and she had the fried green tomato sandwich with a side of okra. We shared the generous sides and the sandwiches were a nice lunchtime size. The catfish was delicious with a light batter. Both sandwiches should satisfy non-meat eaters. When FATS opened, I will admit that fried chicken and waffles were not on my culinary radar. Several months ago, some former neighbors were visiting Seattle. They knew all about chicken and waffles and we invited them to try the new restaurant in their old neighborhood. On that visit, we ordered shrimp and grits, red beans and rice, chicken and waffles, assorted sides and a few beers. All very good. It is fun to have another eating choice in the neighborhood. And a special thank you to FATS for touching up the great MLK JR Mural! We’ll be back! FATS Chicken and Waffles 2726 E Cherry 206.602.6853 Hours: Tues-Fri 11-9; Sat & Sun 9-3 and 5-9; Closed Mondays ~Hope Hensley

May has arrived! If those 80-degree days last month were any indication of the summer that lies ahead, then we’ll need to be well stocked in rosé! It’s never too early to get into the rosé spirit. Here is the pre-summer Top-10 Best Rosé List! 1) 2015 Domaine de Triennes Rosé Vin de Pays de Méditerranée ($13.99) Always one of Leschi Market’s best sellers. “Pale pink. Red fruit and notes of citrus contribute to the aromatic complexity. It has the harmony and elegance that has earned worldwide appreciation of the rosés of Provence. Principally Cinsault, blended with Grenache, Syrah and Merlot.” –Winery notes. 2) 2015 Tranche Cellars Pink Pape Blackrock Vineyard Yakima ($14.99) One of the absolute best domestic pinks around! Consists of 31% Cinsault and 23% Counoise and 46% Grenache. “Pale salmon in color with light pink hue. Delicate aromas of rose petal, honeydew melon and white peach, with lifted notes of sweet pink grapefruit and lemon peel. The wine is fresh and lively with bright stone fruit and mountain berry flavors complemented by wet river rock minerality. Driving acidity and citrus qualities provide focus and direction, drawing out the palate to a mouthwatering finish. 637 cases made.” –Winemaker notes. 3) 2015 Gerard Bertrand Gris Blanc Rosé Pays d’Oc Languedoc Roussillon ($13.99) “A very pale pink color plus grey and almost white tints. Grenache is the king of grape varieties when it comes to making light, racy, fruity rosés in contemporary style. Grenache reveals all its suppleness and cherry aromas. Its fig and sometimes cocoa flavors, coupled with rounded sensations on the palate, make Grenache one of the great varieties of the south of France.” –Winemaker notes. 4) 2015 Villa Wolf Pinot Noir Rosé Pfalz Germany ($10.29) “Is made with fruit from vineyards farmed expressly for the purpose of producing a rosé. Upon harvest, the fruit is given a brief maceration to extract a lovely salmon color from the Pinot Noir grapes. The resulting wine is light and refreshing, with deliciously bright fruit flavors and a clean, zippy finish. It’s perfect for holiday meals, especially when ham is involved.” –Winemaker notes. 5) 2015 Vidal-Fleury Rosé Côtes du Rhône ($14.99) “Pale pink with salmon reflection. On the nose, delicate, based on a floral expression (peony) and fresh fruit (raspberry, strawberry). On the palate refreshing, fruity (raspberry). Mineral on the finish. A blend of 50% Cinsault, 30% Syrah and 20% Grenache.” -Winery notes. 6) 2015 Mr. Pink Rosé of Sangiovese Underground Wine Project Columbia Valley ($11.19) The first release of this all-Sangiovese Rosé from the Underground Wine Project, the collaboration of Mark McNeilly of Mark Ryan and Trey Busch of Sleight of Hand! Bright strawberry and watermelon fruit with spicy notes and a refreshing acidity make this a perfect go-to rosé. 7) 2015 Syncline Rosé McKinley Springs Vineyard Horse Heaven Hills ($18.69) “Our creation of this wine is in direct response to our love of crisp, dry Rosé. The color is a striking pale salmon pink with aromas and flavors of tart strawberries and melon skin. Finishing completely dry, this is as serious as Rosé gets. 39% Cinsault, 36% Carignan and 25% Grenache. 595 cases produced.” –Winemaker notes. 8) 2015 Château de Campuget Rosé Costières de Nîmes ($9.39) 50% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 25% Mourvèdre. “This wine is an intense peony pink color. Its bouquet is very aromatic, exhaling scents of small red fruits such as raspberries or black currants. In the mouth, there is a perfect balance between vivacity and mellowness. The final taste is very long, leaving a delicate impression of fruitiness.” -Winemaker notes 9) 2015 Château Beaulieu Rosé Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence ($13.99) “This traditional dry Provençal Rosé is bright and fruit-forward with exotic fruits of guava and papaya, and white floral aromas on the nose. It has body and structure, yet is fresh on the palate with beautiful minerality. A versatile wine that pairs beautifully with a wide variety of seafood.” –Winemaker notes. 10) 2015 AIX Rosé Coteaux d’Aix en Provence ($13.99) A Leschi Market staple, the Aix Rosé is a bright, pale pink in color and offers soft, ripe summer fruit character with delicate balance and crisp acidity. Aix is perfect for an aperitif and a great match with light salads, grilled fish, white meats and Asian food. CHEERS! ENJOY! Kenneth Benner, a Seattle area native, is a trained chef and has worked in such restaurants as Barbacoa, B.O.K.A. Kitchen + Bar, and Dahlia Lounge. Ken is the wine buyer at Leschi Market. He has a passion for learning, a meticulous palate, and a tenacity for searching out the best for his customers while offering some of the most highly coveted wines in the area. His wine column is intended to inspire and explore new choices in wine, learn about wine with his readers, and share his knowledge and experiences in the wine world. Check out the latest at www.LeschiMarket.com or request to be added to email updates or send questions, comments, or suggestions to ken@leschimarket.com and follow the wine department directly on twitter at twitter.com/leschimarket .

BOOK REVIEW The book Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill should be read by anyone who asks the question that is the title of this review. It is a history of the Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA during the last three Administrations and their counter-insurgency operations in the Middle East. This big book may not sound appealing at first glance, but it need not be read from cover to cover for its essential message. The fine details of the turf wars and policy disputes between the agencies and even the exciting shoot-outs in downtown Lahore and at the Bin Laden compound can be skipped without missing the valuable insights that the work offers. Just dipping into the material on our efforts in Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen will reveal why we are unable, after trillions of dollars and over twenty years of battle, to make substantial inroads against radical Islam. The story is one of blunder after blunder. By relying on the same crude and violent “pacification” methods that were so unsuccessful in Viet Nam, we create much more resistance among the common-folk, and even within groups that once were our friends, than we eliminate. We often seem very shortsightedly to associate ourselves with the most violent and corrupt elements within these societies while our fundamentalist enemies can bring a measure of law and order. Acting on supposed “intelligence” provided by local sources not fully vetted can result in killing mediators whose only crime, perhaps, is that they are not totally dedicated to our local policy position, or worse, are the subjects of a feud. But the most telling episodes are those recounted by Scahill in which people or groups are targeted for killing on the very questionable bases of personal associations, life patterns or simply expressions of political positions. Examples are the cases of the elimination by Hellfire missile of the whole Yemeni shepherding group that may have provided food to a nearby Al Qaeda camp, and the mistaken killing and attempted cover-up of a highly respected Afghan police official and members of his family. This last, especially brutal special operations episode reached the international news only because of the brave persistence of a British journalist whose reputation was put in jeopardy during the war of words that erupted from the highest command levels. There is also the matter of the killing, on orders of the U.S. President, of the U.S-born Anwar al-Awlaki and later his 16-year-old non-political son. The father’s life and evolving beliefs are followed in detail, and a case is made that he was killed simply for his ideas and the public relations power of his outrage over our targeted killings. As one reads of these affairs and the criticisms they have generated within our own foreign affairs and defense establishment, it becomes clear that for some reason, though we are generating more enemies than we are killing, those who assemble the weekly kill lists do not seem to notice. Why is this? Do we need wars? ~Jim Snell

“Dreamy blues/mood indigo.” ~Duke Ellington, 1931 Breathe deeply as you enter the first gallery of “Mood Indigo, Textiles from Around the World,” then look carefully at the dried plants hanging on the walls. Now, enter a high enclosure of fabric dyed in many shades of blue and experience a constantly changing soundscape that evokes the sounds of color and the color of sound. The collaborative contemporary installation Mobile Section, 2015, by textile artist Rowland Ricketts and sound artist Norbert Herber provides a perfect introduction to this highly original exhibition. It gives us the material qualities of the immaterial, color, created only by the refraction of light. The first exhibition of textiles at the Seattle Art Museum since 1980, “Mood Indigo” features almost 100 different textiles and garments, many of them never before exhibited. While Pamela McClusky, Seattle Art Museum’s wonderful curator of Art of Africa and Oceania took the lead in the theme of the exhibition, she collaborated with the curators of Native American Art, Chinese Art, and Japanese Art, as well as, importantly, Nicholas Dorman, Conservator, and Paul Martinez, Installer, who solved the incredible challenges of installing flat textiles in a dynamic way. Together they excavated the collections with an eye for indigo blue, a radical project. Indigo does not actually exist in the world. It must be produced from a molecule in one of about 20 plants (of which there are 600 varieties). Rowland Ricketts explained the process in detail. When the plants reach waist high, they are harvested, dried, stomped on, mixed with water, left 100 days in compost, turned, sliced, watered and bagged. The resulting paste ferments in a vat with wood ash, lime and wheat bran (everyone around the world has a different formula, often a family secret). During the oxidation/reduction process as it is stirred daily, the color appears, like magic. Vats themselves apparently have attributes and respond to the person stirring it. The color comes alive in different ways according your own mood! (Basinjom mask and gown, Ejagham, cloth, wood, feathers, porcupine quills, mirrors, herbs, raffia, cowrie shells, rattle, eggshell, knife, and genet cat skin, 34 1/4 x 17 11/16 x 19 11/16 in., Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company. Photo: Paul Macapia. Kimono, late 19th - early 20th century) Focusing on indigo textiles erases borders of geography and categories. Textiles here emerge from the margins established by European academic traditions that privileged painting and sculpture, and from the depths of storage at the Seattle Art Museum. The indigo textiles in this exhibition encompass all classes of society and all parts of our life. They cover us when we sleep and work, they ornament us for special events, they define rituals and ceremonies, they wrap us when we die. Indigo blue clothing signifies status and royalty, but it also covers the backs of peasants, prisoners (in the 1940s), and “blue collar” workers. The textiles contain secrets and symbols. The indigo blue suggests many emotions, sad, reflexive, humble or joyful. The exhibition ranges from ancient African fragments to a towering Basinjom (spirit) mask and gown, from an imperial Chinese robe to a Japanese fireman’s outfit. It includes a Guatemalan cape, a Peruvian feather quilt, a contemporary American textile created from denim jeans, a Tlingit basket, a Javanese head shawl, a Laotian shawl and a Korean Bojagis. Japanese kimonos fill an entire gallery like fluttering butterflies. Colonial powers traded indigo in massive amounts, particularly from Bengal. Three huge Belgian tapestries made during the height of this trade anchor one gallery, each representing a different continent, Asia, America and Africa. The allegorical royal figures seated at the center of the tapestries are dressed in blue fabrics, and they are surrounded by a wealth of symbols. Meticulously restored, the tapestries have never before been displayed by the Museum (they were a 1962 gift from the Hearst Foundation). Fascinating as they are to view, I felt that they recapitulated the oppressions of colonialism as they towered over clusters of tapestries from each continent. The egalitarianism of the exhibition was disrupted by their scale and their academic imagery; the three royal figures were all women draped in fabric that exposed their breasts. The Belgian tapestries magnify the global scope of the exhibition, but the real joy of “Mood Indigo” is the range of cultures that it encompasses and the many different directions that focusing on Indigo blue can take us. Curator Pamela McClusky even pointed out that in May we will have a blue moon (when there are two moons in one month). “The deeper blue becomes the more urgently it summons man toward the infinite, the more it arouses in him a longing for purity, and, ultimately, for the supersensual.” ~Wassily Kandinsky Mood Indigo: Textiles From Around The World April 9 – October 9, 2016 Seattle Asian Art Museum Journey to Dunhuang: Buddhist Art of the Silk Road Caves While you are at the Asian Art Museum, visit the exhibition of photography and painting based on the Buddhist art in the thousands of caves of Dunhuang, a World Heritage site in Western China. Now in a desolate desert landscape, it formerly lay at the crossroads of several civilizations on the “Silk Road.” The exhibition intersperses historical photographs from the 1940s by James and Lucy Lo, and replicas that they commissioned in the 1950s of some of the ancient paintings. It provides an insight into an important phase of Buddhist art that lasted from the fourth century to the fourteenth century. Some of these painters may have travelled from Ajanta in India, where you see similar caves with early carvings of giant Buddhas and stories of the life of Buddha painted on walls and ceilings. Journey to Dunhuang: Buddhist Art of the Silk Road Caves March 5 – June 12, 2016 Seattle Asian Art Museum By Susan N. Platt, www.artandpoliticsnow.com

Want to know what was going on in the Central District during the years from 1920 to 1950? Take a stroll down Memory Lane! Twelve long-time Central Area residents participated in interviews to give us a glimpse of the neighborhood during some critical periods of history: two world wars, the Great Depression and the incarceration of the Japanese residents. Privileged to view a short segment a few months ago, the removal of the Japanese families was the most poignant piece for me. The video was produced by Senior Center members over the past year and was funded by a grant from the Department of Neighborhoods. The premiere showing will be held at the First AME church, 1522 14th Ave., on May 15 from 3-5pm. A catered reception follows. ~Diane Snell

Leschi Community Meeting, April 6, 2016 Gazing out over Lake Washington with Mt. Rainer in perfect, plain sight, Leschi community members convened on April 6 to discuss two hot topics regarding the magnificent view, Colman Park and the Leschi moorages. The monthly community council meeting was welcomed by representatives from the Mount Baker community council as well as the Seattle Parks Department to have an open discussion about these two respective topics. The meeting began with a presentation from Mount Baker community members, Margy Bresslour and Evan Wright, regarding a project to restore Colman Park to the original Olmsted Brothers’ vision. What once was envisioned by the Olmsted brothers to be a beautiful park that “borrowed the landscape” from its pristine location has since become overgrown, littered and uncared for due to lack of park funding and involvement? The Mount Baker community council wishes to restore the park from Holgate to Massachusetts street, cut back and yes - cut down - some of the trees in order to establish a viewshed looking out over 31st Ave. The council members were present to gain feedback from the Leschi community regarding the project and sought any interest or additional involvement from residents. Their presentation garnered a lot of excitement and fond memories from attendees. One in particular spoke to the importance of opening up this viewpoint, she said, “It is a spirituality thing, being closed in within a city has an effect on people,” and many others seemed to agree. The presentation inspired interest from two community members who volunteered to sit on a committee for this Colman Park restoration project. They will represent the Leschi community in its undertaking, and others are encouraged to reach out and join the committee as well. In the future, there will be three public meetings regarding this project, and all community members are welcome to attend. These upcoming meetings will feature professionals, including an arborist who will be talking in more detail about next steps, especially the environmental preservation concerns of this community initiative. The second half of the Leschi community meeting was focused on the restoration of the north and south Leschi moorages. Paul Wilkinson, manager of moorage for Seattle Parks, and Paula Hoff, also of Seattle Parks, were present for an open discussion regarding the future of our community’s treasured marinas. Simply put, the Leschi moorages are slowly falling apart. They have not had proper upkeep, and the safety of these facilities has been questioned. While the Parks department is responsible for their upkeep, budgets are limited and the moorages don’t serve as many community members as other Parks’ initiatives therefore they are not as high of a priority for the department. However, Seattle Parks does indeed care for their history and the purpose they serve. This is why they recently put out a public request for proposal, or RFP, to garner third party interest in the management and restoration takeover of both the Leschi and the Lakewood moorages. There were two bids submitted to the RFP and Foss Marina Management was ultimately selected. According to Hoff, Foss’s priorities and plans for the moorages closely align with those of Parks and the community. Those priorities include making the moorages safe, accessible and affordable, protecting the surrounding habitat and the facilities’ original footprint, ensuring a community benefit, maintaining the sailing heritage of the area and improving public access. This agreement will be a strategic partnership between the two entities, and Seattle Parks will still own the moorages. (Images courtesy Kim Murillo) The Parks’ representatives made it clear that this project is in the very beginning stages of development, what will come next is a long permit process with a plethora of requirements to be met, then a contract will be negotiated with Foss, and what will follow will of course include input from the Leschi community to ensure the projects are executed in accordance with community interests. Once a contract is agreed upon and a design is drawn, there will be opportunities, including community meetings, for public and community input regarding the project. While there are a lot of fears regarding hiring a third party corporation to come in and manage Leschi’s marinas, Parks’ ensured Foss’s positive track record and intent to preserve the moorages’ historic presence in the community. Foss has taken on a similar marina restoration project in Tacoma at the Tacoma waterways near the Museum of Glass. One of the fears of the management change is that it will price out the lower end boater and lead to larger boats at the moorages and the stacking of boats. Parks mentioned that while Foss plans for a return on investment, as any business would in a similar endeavor, the history and traditions of Leschi’s moorages will be kept intact. Wilkinson said, “We want to preserve the boats that are there, but we can see stacking in the future: stacking of sail boards in order to increase the use of the facilities.” Tentatively speaking of a timeline for this project, Parks mentioned that they would like to start replacing the south Leschi moorage by the end of this year, with the north moorage replaced soon after. Once again, they highlighted the craziness of the permitting process, but hope to also have a contract signed and agreed upon with Foss by the end of the summer. In Foss’s proposal to Parks, they envisioned the timeline for the project lasting up to five years. For more information regarding Parks and the Leschi moorages, including Foss’s proposal, visit seattle.gov/parks/marinas. Park’s also welcomes any questions, feedback or input via email from the Leschi community regarding the future of these beloved marinas. ~Caroline Emde Caroline Emde is a recent graduate from the University of Missouri School of Journalism as well as a recent addition to the Leschi Community. She recently moved here from Chicago and currently works in public relations for a small firm in Seattle. When she isn’t writing for work or for pleasure, she enjoys being outside, hiking, swimming, painting and exploring the city! She is excited to have the opportunity to write for Leschi News and delve deeper into the local community.

I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that it is time to retire the caucus system and go to a primary. I did like the caucus when it was manageable. My first caucus upon moving to this state in 1978 was in a neighbor’s living room and there were eight of us. We had the opportunity to actually discuss issues as well as vote our candidate preferences; a kind of mini-town hall. The caucus meetings later moved to publicly accessible places and became larger in attendance. Accessibility seems negotiable; in 2008, our precinct caucus was held at Nova High School, which has a number of steps leading up to the front doors. We had a voter in a wheelchair who was understandably upset. With no accessible entrance to the main building, we were moved to a portable on the school grounds. The portable held about a dozen people, and our leader had to stand at the door to the portable to address the large crowd that could not get in. Fortunately, it was a warm day; if it had been raining, there might have been a revolution. At some point, we lost the ability to discuss any issues due to the large numbers of attendees. In retrospect, we probably should have gone to the primary system then, as we had lost the “town hall’ aspect of the meetings. But with a primary, we stand to lose the democratic electing of delegates to the next level. If the choice of delegates is transferred to the party “bosses,” the average person has no chance of becoming a delegate. It will always fall to the long-time party members who have paid their dues (both financially and in time, attending endless meetings). It is this piece that needs to be looked at; many young people were able to be delegates in this current caucus system, flawed as it is. Those who had to work or had physical issues in getting to the caucus were able to vote on “surrogate” forms, IF they applied a week ahead. This was an improvement over past caucuses. Our lower Leschi precincts met at Leschi School, and it was crowded with not enough seats, and the available seats were designed for little bodies. I felt sorry for those holding small children and for the older folks who find it difficult to stand for long periods or to bend their bodies into the shape of a “little person.” Resolutions were collected, but not discussed. Hearing instructions must have been difficult with at least five precincts convening in one large room. I felt bad for the handful of folks who came after it was all over, not understanding that it was different from a “voting” day. The 37th District caucus had its own problems. With hundreds of folks lined up outside to sign in (it was sunny and 80 degrees!) one would hope that signing in was all they had to do, but NO! Someone decided to add several demographic questions to the form, which took time and even raised concerns. Some folks felt that adding their birthdate opened themselves to identity theft. The sign–in table should have been streamlined to add some semblance of efficiency to an impossible situation. Obviously, a limited number of folks are willing to subject themselves to this system, but how do we fare in a primary? It’s easier to mail in a ballot, but in King County, the August 2015 primary brought in 295,067 ballots from a total of 1,183,771 registered voters (25 %). In our own District 3, we fared somewhat better: 23,275 ballots were submitted for 62,821 registered voters (37 %). Pathetic. And what about these Super-delegates? I understand that the party powers-that-be don’t really trust the electorate to make a wise (read ”winning”) choice, but this is truly undemocratic. The Democratic super-delegates in Washington are not voting for the person who “won” in the caucus system; they all support the candidate with the smaller number of votes. So, is this the choice of the people? I also don’t understand why voting rules and regulations aren’t consistent across the country. When you move to a different state, you have to learn the new rules and if you don’t learn them, you may find yourself unable to vote in a closed primary. The idea of Federal voting rules probably makes the states’ righters livid, but we are one country and supposedly we each get a vote (except for super-delegates who get more than one vote) so why make it so hard? Why not make it easy for folks by adopting the best, most inclusive rules from across the country and adopt them for all 50 states. And make it impossible to purge folks from the voter rolls without advance notice and the chance to appeal. We have seen this in Florida in 2004 and again this year in New York for 165,000 voters. That’s enough votes to turn an election. Maybe our elections need an international team of observers. ~Diane Snell

Our April meeting on Moorage was lively; attendee questions addressed environmental concerns, a very different perspective from an earlier meeting with the boat owners, where concerns about individual boat safety were more prevalent. It will be interesting to see how the public is given more access to the water while the public is prevented from getting close to the boats… but this dilemma belongs to Foss and Parks. We hope that many neighbors were able to attend the April 30 Grand Opening of the new outdoor exercise equipment at Powell Barnett Park. Once the fence came down, we saw active use of the various stations. Thanks to Group Health for fitting kids with bicycle helmets. And a big thank you to John Barber, who worked with Parks Foundation folks and others to make this all happen. We will elect new officers at our May meeting, except for a representative to the Seattle Community Council Federation. That group has not met for over a year and we need to suspend that part of the by-laws until we know if the organization will regroup. There is still time to come forward for the other positions! We will award Leschi Stars to community members who have made a difference! There are many hard-working folks in this community and we like to extend our thanks! Past winners have been Allan Fink who created our website, Kim Murillo and Ann Conroy who worked tirelessly to put on our first Art Walk, Liz Ohlsson who spearheaded the renovation of Peppi’s Park and John Barber who put on a smashing 10 year anniversary celebration at Flo Ware Park a few years ago and actually spearheaded the whole renovation project 10 years before that. We two Dianes feel privileged to live in a community where folks give back. And speaking of privilege, it has been a privilege for the two Dianes to represent Leschi as your co-presidents since 2012. We were elected at a time when it looked as though the LCC might not survive and we kept our focus on putting this council (which has been in existence since 1958), on a strong fiscal foundation. We have been able to pay our printing costs with ad revenue, we found a less expensive printer, and we worked with a postal expert to streamline our mailing (the postal costs are paid for through neighbors’ dues as are many events and community donations). We have been fortunate to have a strong Board that works well together and a supportive community. One of our last acts was to create an Events Chair position and appoint Kim Murillo to that position. Kim is stepping down from the Treasurer position and as the Events Chair, will assist those who wish to plan an event with the permits and give advice on available grants. It has been our wish to expand our events to more of our parks during our glorious summers. Be the change you want to see in the world. ~Gandhi ~Diane Morris & Diane Snell

We will be electing officers for the next two years and honoring those residents who have given back to the community! Our featured speaker is Captain Paul McDonagh, East Precinct. Central Area Senior Center, May 4, 7pm 500 30th Ave. S, one block south of Jackson

Trees are valuable not only to the environment but also to the neighborhood. Yet, sometimes it seems they disappear mysteriously, or sometimes not so mysteriously, in plain sight. Seattle has rules — many of them — about cutting trees. Namely, permits are required in most cases no matter whether the tree is on private or public property. Any tree that is on public property, including street rights-of-way, is protected by ordinance. One must obtain a permit from the appropriate city agency responsible for the tree before taking any measures to remove or prune it. In most cases, the applicant must pay a permit fee, hire a qualified arborist and replace each tree with two trees that are acceptable to the city. More information is available from the Seattle Department of Transportation at (206) 684-8733 and from the Department of Parks and Recreation at (206) 684-4113. Private property owners are covered by rules for any tree over 6 inches in diameter, or for any tree located on environmentally sensitive land (steep slope, or landslide prone, wetlands, wildlife habitat), or for any tree of exceptional value (any tree that is of significant size or has historical, ecological or aesthetic value.) The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections regulates tree cutting on private property and issues the permits. Private property owners cannot cut down more than three non-exceptional trees 6 inches or greater in diameter each year. Call at (206) 684-8850 for information or access to application forms. The rules, generally for privately owned land, are: You cannot remove any exceptional trees. Exceptional trees are trees that are of significant size or have historical, ecological or aesthetic value. You cannot cut down more than three non-exceptional trees 6 inches or greater in diameter each year. You can remove trees determined to be hazardous through a hazard tree assessment by a certified tree risk professional. The Department of Construction and Inspections also has restrictions on when private property owners remove shrubs and other vegetation. As citizens, we should feel free to report tree-cutting we observe to the appropriate city agencies to make sure that it is permitted and if not appropriate, enforcement actions are taken. ~John Barber, Leschi CC Chair of Parks & Greenspace

How I view the proposal for clearing a view through the trees at the upper, 31st Avenue, end of Colman Park, writing as a trained Urban Forester and as an active P-Patch gardener in Colman Park close to where trees would be removed or pruned, and as a former volunteer in Colman Park: Urban forest restoration recommends the installation and protection of large coniferous trees on steep slope land, especially where prone to landslides. The history of sites like Colman Park generally includes damage to soil structure by clearcutting, landslides. A view of the Lake and mountains from above Colman Park is not unique. There are similar views at seven locations along 31st Avenue South that are within a quarter mile -- S College, S Dose, S Plum, S Irving, and S Norman. Just look down these street corridors and you have really nice prospects of the Lake and the distant mountains. The view from the top of Colman Park is not what one imagines. There is no view of Mt. Rainier. There are many tall trees on the lower slope that obscure the view, and there are several tall trees including conifers, madrones, and deciduous just below the project area. It is unimaginable that we have forest restoration in reverse, by modifying or removing these trees. Because of the lack of uniqueness of the view there, the value really is for the homeowners, not much for the general public. The general trend of what happens to public views after they are created is that people begin to park during late night areas; then the adjacent residents push for no-parking areas, thus making the “public viewpoint” much less public. It’s really the health of the forest that should be the primary goal, and forest health means planting large conifers. ~John Barber, Chair, Parks & Open Space for Leschi CC

The Mason Bee nesting blocks, which we provided with cocoons, are filling up early this year, probably due to our warm spring. Two stewards’ blocks are in fact completely filled, and had to be supplemented with additional nesting tubes. Evidently, we are picking up nesting bees from our neighborhood’s pre-existing bee population. This is good, because providing clean and plentiful nesting holes can only increase the numbers of our native bees. ~Jim Snell