The Golden Wheat Bakery, which straddles Leschi and Madrona near MLK, is a welcoming neighborhood gem, a colorful café filled with the scent of Vashon Island coffee (women-owned), freshly baked pastries, bread and now hot breakfast sandwiches. This morning, the folks at the next table were eating mouthwatering hot croissants filled with ham and cheese, and hot bagel sandwiches. There is also a complete lunch menu with soup, sandwiches and salad. Owner, Angel Rocha, a friendly and talented baker originally from Mexico, produces everything from French croissants to challah, tamales, savory and sweet empanadas, biscotti, quiche—an international array of delicacies! You can also order cakes, pies and tarts, or order an individual portion for pure indulgence. Really, I can’t say enough about this place, but you can Google them and find a number of reviews, YELP included, and all very positive reviews. What I like is that it is a real community café! Angel is celebrating his third anniversary in this space and wants to thank the communities of Leschi and Madrona for making his dream come true! ~Susan Roberts, Madrona resident Editor’s Note: We thank Susan for writing a review of the bakery after 3 years in business. We published an early review in the Leschi News, when they were first getting started and folks were mainly dropping in for a carryout pastry. As Susan says, it is now a community café with its small tables filled with satisfied diners, whether it’s breakfast or lunch. I ordered the Chocolate Mousse cake for a large family get-together and it was deliciously moist and dense. My waitperson raved about the Tres Leche cake and I must go back for that delicacy, which is not all that easy to find here. The Golden Wheat Bakery 2908 E Cherry 206.325.5055 7:30am-6:30pm

BOOK REVIEW Since we have a clutch of big tax chiselers right here in River City*, this subject interests me greatly. As the Great Recession drags on for six years, with 9300 homeless just in our county, I have been puzzled by our economy’s apparent inability to right itself. This book and a couple of others have opened my eyes to central problems that don’t seem to get much attention, and certainly not clear analysis, in the media. To my mind the problems are those of offshoring of jobs, offshoring and withholding of capital, the resulting debt and the avoidance and shifting of tax burden down the social scale, further reducing the spendable incomes needed for a robust economy. This has all been done under the rubric of “deregulation for efficiency” and the supposed provision of more for everyone. However, any greater efficiency and increased GDP that has occurred since the deregulation craze began in the Carter Administration is due to advances in science, I believe, not deregulation. The fruits of scientific advance, on the other hand, are not being shared fairly. Much of the great developments in science are funded by us all through government sponsored research, and in any case are not the fundamental product of the creativity of the 1% who have reaped most of the benefits. The book Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson deals with the offshoring problem, i.e., the wizardry of tax avoidance, tax evasion, and the hiding of illegally acquired assets. He makes the case that this seriously hurts us, Europeans and the people of less-developed nations equally. The money lost just by U.S. taxpayers is estimated to be $100 billion per year. Just think how that might be used productively here. Google “Jeff Reifman and Crosscut” for a local example. As I listen to Thom Hartmann today pointing out that a third of all U.S. taxes in the Eisenhower years were paid by corporations and that it is now down to 8%, I think about the story told so entertainingly and persuasively by this book. It is a story of the offshore ways that U.S. corporations have perfected since the Eisenhower years to accomplish this. It is also a history of the development of opportunities to hide illegally acquired loot that has been offered internationally to new political leaders as the French, British and American colonial empires were nominally dissolved and the local elites adjusted their larcenous methods. Shaxson is a journalist who has specialized in African affairs, has written for the Economist and Financial Times and is an associate fellow with the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He begins his story with his own introduction to a mixture of oil money, French politics, intelligence services and bribery as it was applied to wealth extraction in Gabon, the small ex-French colony in West Africa. Wealth extraction and its concentration elsewhere is the theme of this book and that is what he sees as the greatly destructive effect of tax havens. They often divert funds in ways that corrupt democratic government at the source and always leave it less productive at its final resting place, or worse, free to finance mayhem. The small oil-rich ex-French colony of Gabon is portrayed as a jewel in the crown of post-colonial power relationships. Here the French even bivouacked a few hundred paratroopers within quick reach of the dictator’s palace by means of a tunnel, just to assure his continued compliant reign. He lived to be the world’s longest serving chief of state. As it happened, the author’s visit to Gabon came as what became known as the giant ELF Aquitaine corruption affair began to explode in France, revealing some of the nastier political and criminal effects of such arrangements. That, as he tells it, drew him into the study of tax havens that produced the book. His narrative draws the reader in like a novel of international intrigue. It has the appeal of telling you about the bad and semi-bad guys who are reaming you tax-wise, supported by extensive footnotes you can ignore, while making the whole thing go down easily, greased with spicy details. There is the overly inquisitive accountant who is poisoned, a miniature coffin sent to a French investigating magistrate, secret handshakes, the detective who knows when to back off, an executive found in the back of his burning hatchback, and naked girls greeting drug lords when they touch down at private Caribbean airfields. Even the statistics are riveting: As the dust jacket blurb points out, over half of world trade is routed through tax havens. Off balance sheet practices that caused much of the crash of 2008 can be traced to tax havens. And ten times as many dollars we send in aid to developing countries slip out the back door to the secret tax haven accounts of corrupt rulers and elites. Shaxson digs deeper and deeper into the details of the tangled and growing mass of havens such as Liechtenstein, the Isle of Jersey, the Caymans,the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Nevada, Delaware, Wyoming, Nauru and on and on. He finds that the connections circle back to The City of London. This is a small enclave within London proper that has only 9000 or so real inhabitants. It has been the center of international finance since the glory days of the British Empire and because of the firms officially located there has developed the strands of what he characterizes as a web of unregulated and obscure financial transactions for the purpose of secrecy. While Switzerland may be the final resting place of a great deal of invisible money, the records that would be necessary to trace the travels of that money are protected from any agency’s discovery by this carefully constructed web at which The City is the center. As we know from our daily news, London continues to provide the seductive advantages of dodgy financial supervision. You get whiffs of this in the episode of Morgan Chase’s multi-billion dollar London Whale fracas and the criminal fixing of international interest rates, to say nothing of the several strange Morgan employee deaths. Then there is the chapter detailing the corrupting effect of captured small governments on larger countries through the threat that companies can then make of leaving a relatively respectable jurisdiction for more complacent climes. The examples of Delaware and Jersey are striking. There, successful efforts were mounted to effect lax legislation in Parliament and Washington allowing, respectively, audit firms to avoid liability for bad audits and banks to remove limits on usurious credit card interest rates, both things that certainly contributed to our current troubles. All of this is justified, it seems, using the new twisted free market philosophy of subverting and reducing government while using what government remains greedily for special purposes. But the most troubling aspect of this story is the effect these financial pipelines out of poor countries have on their economies. This, he claims, is why places with great potential mineral or agricultural wealth remain desperately poor. Contrary to self serving theories of the benefits of minimal government, he argues, poor countries need sufficient bureaucracy to enforce a system of taxation, one to create the proper infrastructure conducive to a modern productive society and prevent this very outflow of loot that drains the country of investment funds. A healthy and honestly administered tax system, he says, can encourage creation of local enterprise and the democracy giving residents a stake in civil society that we tell less developed societies they should have. He finishes by providing a list of several correctives to the ills he sees, all of which are impossible to enact given the present political scene. The next step in any program of reform will clearly have to involve removal of the suffocating influence of big money in U.S. politics. That is another book altogether and a rant I will reserve for another day. A book that explores the matter of the economics of less developed nations, and in my opinion pretty persuasively destroys the inflexible “free-trade” rationale of the IMF and World Bank, is Cambridge professor Ha-Joon Chang’s Bad Samaritans. He points out that, in contrast with less developed nations of the present day, in our Gilded Age we had the advantage that the loot of the great buccaneers was kept at home to be invested by them in our economy. That book won’t be as much fun. No death, drugs and intrigue, but you might try looking at it as well. The two together could just shake up your whole worldview. Good books can do that. ~Jim Snell *“Right here in River City” refers to the song “Ya got Trouble” from The Music Man.

Friends of Peppi’s Woods received a grant in July from the Department of Neighborhoods to do the work to formalize the informal social trail at the north end of the woods. By widening the trail which currently exists and modifying it to save trees as well as reduce the slope of the trail, we will make the access to the woods easier for a broader range of people. Many Leschi residents as well as parents of Leschi students have committed time to participate in work parties or provide refreshments for work parties. With the support of Seattle Parks Department Natural Area Crew, we will prepare the route for the trail, and cover it with gravel. Our steering committee consists of John Barber, Erikka Sagor, Joanne Donohue, Jana Robbins, Liz Ohlson and 5 students from Leschi whose intimate knowledge of the woods is essential to our work. The focus of our Saturday, October 18 work party will be the removal of the ubiquitous invasive plants throughout the woods and removal of plants from the trail route. On Saturday, November 8, our fall planting will occur. Further work party dates will be determined as we coordinate our trail work with Seattle Parks Department. We thank Leschi residents for their enthusiasm for and appreciation of the work done to restore the woods. ~Liz Ohlson

Thanks to the Leschi residents who came forward to be bee stewards as we place mason bees throughout the neighborhood. Each steward receives a shelter with a wooden bee-nesting block. At the end of the season, the homes and the blocks will be collected. The harvested bee cocoons can be traded in for permanent nesting blocks and shelters should the steward want to continue, but the important object of this is to spread pollinator awareness and a sensitivity to chemical threats to bees and other living things around us. One of the stewards has a small orchard and the Mason bees really like early stone fruits so we are anxious to see what happens in this setting. Even if you don’t have a bee home, you can encourage bees by planting the flowers and plants that attract bees. Neighbor Ruby Holland has been doing this and sends us some suggestions. ~Jim Snell

BOOK REVIEW Michael Perino’s 2010 history of the Pecora hearings entitled The Hellhound of Wall Street will induce any reader to ask: Why we can’t find such a crossexamining prodigy today? The story begins in 1932 when a progressive Republican Senator, angered by years of the bankers’ poor treatment of farmers, and now Chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee, resolves to delve into the causes of the Great Depression. He knows he will soon be relegated to Senate obscurity as the Democrats take power and that this inquiry is his last chance to leave his mark and influence policy in a matter close to his heart. After a series of very cautious interrogators are appointed as Committee Counsel and go through the motions for short periods and then withdraw for various reasons, Senator Norbeck of S. Dakota finds Ferdinand Pecora, it seems, only as a desperate, flailing accident of history. Pecora is a diminutive Sicilian immigrant who, through prodigious effort and talent, and against all odds in a period rife with anti-Italian prejudice, pulled himself into moderate prominence as an honest New York City Assistant District Attorney. His life story in itself is a tribute to our dream of American opportunity for all and this appeal helped catch the eye of the press. However, the New York press had been strangely somnolent despite the graveness of the county’s situation until Pecora’s questions began to provide good copy. He soon had the Senate press gallery hanging on his every word as his remarkable skills of cross-examination begin to appear. The details of his investigative methods and his rather quick stripping-away of his tycoon subjects' supposed infallibility makes fascinating reading for anyone with a taste for courtroom drama. I am inclined to guess that another interrogator with the same energy, self-confidence, flair for the dramatic, integrity, and, most essential of all, the backing of a fearless Senator or two could do something similar to our lords of creation today, given the support of a truly independent major media. The author begins with a moving description of the state of the nation and Washington D.C. in 1933 as Roosevelt delivers his inaugural address. He reviews the stark facts on that day at the bottom of the Great Depression, and I take the following from his narrative: Thirty-eight states had closed all their banks. Bank failures had been running in the thousands per year. In those days, before Federal deposit insurance, one-fourth of the country’s families had lost their life savings. Industrial production was one-half of the 1929 level. Unemployment was at 25%. Shantytowns were popping up everywhere. Bread lines wound around city blocks throughout the country. The signs of malnutrition among schoolchildren were increasing. On the day before the inauguration, the DOW was down 86% from its extreme 1929 peak. The NY stock exchange had announced it would be closed indefinitely. Pundits had been calling for Roosevelt to assume dictatorial powers. In parts of the country, revolution was openly discussed. The previous summer Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower had dispersed hundreds of World War I veterans gathered to petition for early release of promised bonuses. Cavalry, drawn sabers, fixed bayonets, tanks and tear gas had been used. There was still tension in the city. Machine gun emplacements were set up along the inaugural parade route. A crowd of 100,000 shivered expectantly before the East Portico of the Capitol. Roosevelt promised “action and action now” while Hoover sat next to him grim-faced. Applause suddenly erupted from the quiet crowd when he said that the moneychangers had fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization and that we may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. Roosevelt said that the words came to him as he sat in church. But, as the author says, it was clearly Pecora’s revelations of greed, arrogance, bad judgment, and tax evasion in hearings concluded just two days before that prepared the country for the reforms of Roosevelt's historic "100 Days." The lesson for me is that even Pecora could not have done what he did without the support of a sympathetic press and a resolute Senate Committee willing to issue subpoenas to obtain answers under oath to his penetrating questions. Today, that appears to require campaign finance reform. ~Jim Snell

Now that Peppi's Woods has become an easier area to navigate, the children who frequent the woods daily after school wander about looking for sticks or digging for treasures such as old pieces of pipe. They discuss the rules for stick fighting and express great joy when they discover an old bottle that was discarded there many years ago. The woods for them represent adventure and opportunity. Parents appreciate being able to view their children as they run through the woods. The adults have also developed a community as they watch their children play. The adults support each other as they help their children RESOLVE conflicts. Volunteers continue to to be drawn to Peppi's Woods. A group of 20 Seattle University students cleared ivy and spread mulch on Earth Day on April. The following week, neighbors and parents of Leschi students continued to eradicate ivy, particularly at the south end of the park along the road. Kudos go to Hank Stephens and John Barber for their diligent work on the old growth ivy. Jana Robbins, parent of Leschi students, and Liz Ohlson are currently taking Forest Steward training classes through Seattle Parks Department and Darrell Howe, Forest Steward at Frink Park, will be their mentor. We now have our own job box at Peppi's Park filled with tools from work parties. You will notice it chained to a tree near the brick building. Our next work party will be Saturday, June 22, 2014 from 9:30 to 12:30. Tools, gloves and snacks are provided. Join us for the last work party of this school year. Use it as an opportunity to get to know the woods more intimately and help us continue to remove the invasive plants so we can add to our plant collection next November. ~Liz Ohlson

Our March speaker, Nick Licata, was encouraging us to become citizen activists and more importantly than that, do it effectively! When speaking to elected officials, he urged us to not stop at asking for their support, but ask for their VOTE and even ask for their sponsorship of a bill that will accomplish what you are seeking. He used examples like the $15 per hour campaign to illustrate his suggestions. That campaign illuminated how clueless some politicians can be. If one gave any meaningful thought to the reality of trying to live on the (then) minimum wage in this city, one would realize it isn’t possible. Even $15 will be a struggle. The Washington Economic Institute’s Executive Director, John Burbank, said at a public meeting over a year ago, that if wages had followed the same trajectory as in the 50’s, the minimum wage would be $18 per hour and recently Noam Chomsky said on Alternative Radio, it would be $20 per hour. Boosting low wage workers’ wages not only gives them a living wage, but also boosts their purchasing power, resulting in greater sales at local businesses. Imagine being able to patronize the business where you work! We were able to begin our stairway cleaning again this month; the rain held off and the small crew of Jeff Floor, Janet Oliver, Tracy Bier, Jim Snell and the two Dianes were able to clean the King St. stairs and to pick up the scattered branches brought down in the recent windstorm. The Senior Center is currently short-staffed with building attendant positions open and it was a big help for us to spruce up the grounds. Diane Morris is sprucing up the Center’s flowerbeds every Thursday morning and is gracious about accepting volunteer help if you are free. After the stairway work party, Janet Oliver, our resident expert on all things transportation-oriented, took the Snells for a ride on the new link to the University campus. We caught the #8 bus to the Capitol Hill station where we joined what looked like all of Seattle residents trying to board the new train to the new U W station. Despite the crowds in the station, we were able to board quickly and find a seat. Janet sat next to a young woman who was ecstatic about the train and plans to take it every day on her way to college classes. There were musicians in the University station and musicians in the tents at both stops. Not sure what the policy on buskers will be; this may have been part of opening day festivities. Food trucks greeted us outside the U W station. One has to believe that this University stop will relieve some of the pre- and post-game traffic; it conveniently drops riders off at the entrance to Husky stadium. The ride itself was quiet and fast; the escalators up and down were equally smooth and quiet, a far cry from some of the old, creaky wooden escalators one finds in London. Seattle is slowly entering the 21st century! Be the change you want to see in the world. ~Gandhi ~Diane Morris & Diane Snell

A recent meeting of the stewards of the Leschi Natural Area resulted in a fundraising plan to hire the Conservation Corps or a similar group to work in the newly acquired area where Parks removed the residence and walkway. An authorized crew needs to be hired, as Parks won’t allow volunteers into the area. Parks’ latest directive indicated that they would return in the fall to plant native species BUT NOT TAKE OUT EXISTING INVASIVES! The group is hoping to raise enough money to be able to get a crew in there between now and then to remove as much as possible; the cost is about $1500 per day. No funds are needed to purchase plants; Forterra will supply those from the group’s list. (Forterra is an organization that works in conservation and sustainability.) Plants will be delivered in the fall, and work parties are planned to get them into areas not involved with the Parks’ restoration area. The Natural Area has been fortunate in getting volunteers from one of the University of Washington clubs: FIUTS, an organization that works with international students, connecting them with local community. Jim Bushyhead is taking the lead on fundraising and hopes to visit not only neighbors in the area but other larger groups/businesses who might be willing to provide some substantial funding. ~Betsy Zickler, Leschi Natural Area

People of all ages from excited toddlers to sprightly ninety year olds gathered during the weekend of May 13-15 to protest at the Tesoro and Gulf oil refinery sites in Anacortes. Refining oil from the tar sands puts out toxic emissions that we had to breathe and smell during our protest right beside the plants. The plants are on non-ceded Swinomish land that was taken from the tribe by Ulysses Grant in 1873 by Executive Order. They have been the site of deaths of workers and health violations for many years. All of the coverage so far has focused on the small group of people that were arrested after a three-day action to stop the oil trains going to the refinery. This was exciting and important, but I want to focus here on the Indigenous Day of Action at March Point on May 14. We had over 1000 people on the march, accompanied by haunting indigenous music, singing and dancing. In addition, hundreds of kayactivists held up powerful messages on the water, both at night and during the day. (Makah and Quinault ceremony) The indigenous leaders spoke to the heart of the crisis in a way that reflected their deep connection to the natural world. They are not on the earth protesting, but of the earth, they are in a continuum with the earth in a cycle of life. This profoundly important relationship has been forgotten by colonizers who, from their first step on the continent, saw only exploitable resources. The Tesoro and Shell refineries stand as a monument to that greed. Jules James of the Lummi Treaty Sovereignty and Treaty Protection group led the march, by way of honoring the Lummi’s recent success in defeating a coal terminal. At the ceremony after the march, Swinomish elder Diana Vendiola spoke of living on the other side of the peninsula, crabbing, digging for clams, with the belief that “water is life” and sacred. Today the fish are toxic, the water polluted. “How we treat the earth will be our legacy. If earth can’t support life, there is no life.” Many tribal groups participated, the Lummi arrived by canoe, an elder from the Tulalip blessed the water, youth from the Makah spoke of respecting the teachings of our ancestors. We had other honored elders who asked us to “repay and heal mother earth.” When the Lummi canoe arrived, dozens of people helped to carry it into the center of the ceremony: it set the theme of pulling together the concerns of the community before individual concerns. Makah youth leader Patsy Bane said succinctly “forget oil, it is killing us.” Lummi leader Jules James spoke of building coalitions as the key to winning “the battle to save the earth. They tell us we can’t, but we don’t live in fear, we love the earth.” He has visited the Cheyenne, the Sioux and other tribal groups who are voting no to energy plants that poison their people. Ruben George, an honored elder from Canada, spoke of the huge Boreal forest fire in the tar sands of Canada, “we must put a stop to this era of destruction.” Our actions joined hundreds of protests around the world during the month of May that are targeting refineries and other polluting industrial sites. The impassioned and urgent declarations of the indigenous speakers, as well as the deep commitment of the many activists I met during the planning and throughout the weekend, deeply inspired me to continue to actively work to “Break Free from Fossil Fuels” with the goal of one hundred percent renewables in twenty years or less. ~Susan Noyes Platt

One of the highlights of the month was our Holiday concert on December 2. Four awesomely talented Garfield students played for an hour in the Senior Center Solarium and what an hour it was! Adrian Steele played a very long solo piece from memory: no music sheets to guide him. And Riley Calcagno switched quickly from classical mode to use his violin as a fiddle and perform a plaintive Appalachian song. After that, the talented Riley picked up a banjo for a fast paced number that left Dueling Banjos in the dust! Thanks to Adrian, Riley, Alexandria Chuang and Sophie Morada for an evening we will long remember. A group of concerned folks met on December 5 to review the Park’s RFP (Request for Proposal) to privatize the moorages. We compiled our concerns and a letter was sent from LCC and Leschi Market to the current manager of the Parks’ moorage. See the update on page 4. Our December Board meeting was cancelled by an unscheduled power outage that kept the area in the dark for many hours; we went out at noon and came back on shortly after midnight. We completed council business by email after the power was restored and voted unanimously to endorse a of support letter that the Central Area Neighborhood District Council was sending to the Housing office for the Capitol Hill Housing project on Union where the Key Bank was formerly located. This project would provide some much needed low income housing to an area that is rapidly being gentrified and forcing out lower income folks. CHH has worked with the neighborhood to incorporate some of the history of this site where the first black-owned bank once stood: Liberty Bank. In January, we like to print updates of our parks and it is usually good news: what has been accomplished by volunteers and the occasional grant, but this year except for the Leschi Natural Area, there are more concerns than victories. Usually our nemesis is a bureaucrat, but this time it is anonymous members of the public wreaking havoc on our parks. See the update in the following pages. One of your presidents, Diane Snell, met with our Art Critic, Susan Platt and Carolyn Walden who was once known as the “Fountain Lady” to strategize for the preservation of the neglected fountain in the plaza at 23rd & Union (site of the old big post office and now the new tiny post office.) See the story on page 4. We suppose our next concern will be the site of the post office as that large corner property is sold to a new developer. We hear that Vulcan is interested in the Promenade property; change seems to be constant. And speaking of change, we have reluctantly given up our attempts to alert residents to the traffic issues on our website as SDOT plans and then cancels intersection closings. It is better to go to their website or just Google 23rd Ave. construction to see the latest news before you leave the driveway. Be the change you want to see in the world. ~Gandhi ~Diane Morris & ~Diane Snell

Black Friday concert Owuor Arunga “The Sultan of Swag,” a world famous trumpet player, organized an astonishing Black Friday concert at the Langston Hughes Cultural Center. As he explained to us, almost all the now successful performers who shared their talents with us that night got their start as youth who first performed on the very stage where the concert took place. It was a moving evening, as we watched old friends greet each other, mentors give short presentations, and singers, rappers and musicians give extraordinary performances. Owuor Arunga spoke of his own mentors in the Central District and at Garfield High School, and he, in turn, is mentoring many others. Some of the incredible performers with a wide range of ages, included singers Marissa Garret, Dadabass, Adra Boo, Otieno Terry, Black Stax (four musicians, with a political and avant-garde edge) , rapper Yirim Sec, and the distinguished Josephine Howell. Owuor believes that music can “heal the world.” Several of the musicians are part of the One Vibe Africa’s Music and Art Program, based in Kisumu, Kenya. Each performance was punctuated by astonishing solo trumpet playing by Owuor along with his friends on trumpet, guitar, drums and keyboard. The importance of the Central District as an epicenter of Black culture in Seattle for decades disappears more rapidly every day as gentrification ravages the neighborhood. Wyking Garrett spoke of current efforts to save African American culture and businesses. One critical location is the block at 23rd and Union. The UmojaFest Peace Center is located on the Southeast corner at 24th and Spring Street. At the Black Dot Cultural Innovation Space on the other side of the block, participants are working on solutions to keep affordable rentals and businesses in the Central District. Fountain of Triumph In front of Black Dot on 23rd Ave., stands the 1995 Fountain of Triumph by famous sculptor James W. Washington, Jr., owned by the family that is selling the block. We must stay vigilant to make sure it survives any new development. Washington’s vision of it as a community gathering place with a message of struggle and determination, signified by the swimming salmon plunging toward the pool at the bottom, could not be more appropriate today. Actually, the City of Seattle as part of the 23rd Avenue “improvement project” has already commissioned a sculpture by prominent Washington DC based African American sculptor Martha Jackson-Jarvis for the corner of 23rd and Union. Her work is described as follows: “The artwork will include historically relevant narratives of the neighborhood and stories of the people who have lived or created significant impact in the neighborhood, as well as address the changing and widening demographics of this area of the city.” I don’t see any conflict with having both public sculptures! James W. Washington, Jr. came to the Central District in 1944 and lived in the same house until his death in 2000. That house today is a Foundation and Cultural Center thanks to his scrupulous planning. Hopefully, his example can be followed for preserving the cultural significance of the Central District. The Mayor has recently declared the “Historic Central Area Arts and Cultural District.” Hopefully this will connect to the local activists at Black Dot as well as to funding to make it happen. The Survival of Culture Troy Gua’s “Orange Dust” at the Bonfire Gallery, a new art and design space in the Panama Hotel, addresses the survival of culture from a different perspective. Bonfire director Bill Gaylord believes that “community engagement is the wellspring of civic vitality.” (By the way, the Panama Hotel itself is also up for sale) Troy, a delightfully smart, but straightforward, person, explained to me that he believes the “idea of America is falling away.” This is even before the recent Islamophobia hysteria. He has always been fascinated with King Tut and Egypt (coincidentally resonating with the recent announcement that the tomb of Nefertiti may have been discovered). But what will be discovered in an archeological dig in America, at some unspecified time in the future? Troy suggests some “fictional, metaphorical artifacts unearthed from America’s impending tomb.” Take the pyramid: he made it with a Dorito and photographed it so that it looks monumental. “Orange Dust” means Dorito color and texture echoed in dozens of cast plaster orange pyramids ($40, a great Christmas present!), but the pyramid also refers to the US (take a look at your dollar bill). Cleopatra with Marge Simpson’s hair in glossy gold, a plate of gold coated bullets, a giant knife and fork crossed in the position of the symbols held by ancient Egyptian kings, “emoji cartouches,” from the iPhone 6, “American pie” of gold plated bullets, sugar plastic caskets, Mt Rushmore heads as stoppers for canopics holding oil, blood, sugar, and bullets. You get the idea. Gua plays games and actually makes us laugh, even as he gets his more serious point across: what survives into the future reflects our values, and in the case of the US right now, they are pretty disturbing. Also related: Martha Rosler, renowned social critic artist, and a personal hero of mine, received $100,000 from the New Foundation in Seattle! Rosler’s “Housing Is a Human Right” could not be a better fit for Seattle right now, and it will have various permutations all over the city for the next year. Already on view at the Seattle Art Museum is “Martha Rosler: Below the Surface” two series: House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home (1967-72) and House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, New Series (2004-2008). The titles speak for themselves! by Susan Noyes Platt, www.artandpoliticsnow.com

Our February speaker, David Williams, was captivating as he explained how Seattle was reshaped to improve trade and transit. He spoke at length about reclaiming the Duwamish mudflats south of town (stadium area), and you don’t want to know what is under there, but some day archaeologists might enjoy the multi-layers. The second area of reshaping was the Denny Regrade, which was a monumental task with the removed dirt being transported to Elliott Bay and dumped there. David had many old photos which he projected, and there seemed to be a constant stream of onlookers watching the leveling of Denny Hill. The third reshaping was the Montlake cut and the Locks; the original thought seemed to be that large ships would enter Lake Washington, but that didn’t happen. More shoreline was exposed as the lake level dropped and Leschi’s lakeside businesses benefitted. David graciously signed copies of his book for us after the meeting. LURC (Land Use Review Committee) has been a big boon to the Central Area; they tackle projects early and give community input. Without this group, big projects would just occur and we would wish that we had been able to give some input before the project was completed. The value of the LURC process was apparent in the early review of the Promenade redo by Vulcan. Jeff Floor (LCC Board) is co-chair of LURC and brings us up to date on this impressive project (see page 4). A big concern in this area is the fate of the small businesses along 23rd. The original agreement with SDOT was that the work would be confined to the stretch between Jackson and Cherry and once completed, they would move on to the next phase, Cherry to Union. Before we realized what was happening, it seems everything was torn up and even extending past Union, which should have been Phase 3. So two years of community meetings and agreements were for naught. Please read Barbara Parker’s (Madrona News editor) article on this problem on the following page, and please try to patronize these struggling businesses while the construction work is going on. We attended a meeting on 2/6/16 of business owners and Kshama Sawant at the 701 Coffee Shop (NW corner of Cherry & 23rd) and ordered a Mocha Latte; it was delicious! Neighbors said the bagel sandwich is also a treat with the owner’s own cashew butter spread. We have begun planning for our annual Art Walk and invite interested persons to join the group as we want to expand into the park this year and we can use creative ideas! We are meeting on the 4th Thursday of each month at 3pm. at BluWater Bistro. Please join us! Please note the article on the LCC elections (see page 6), which are held in May. Officers are term-limited, and as we step down, we need some new energy in these positions. We would also like to identify someone who is interested in helping with the newsletter as an associate editor. If you are interested, please email leschinews@comcast.net . Be the change you want to see in the world. ~Gandhi ~Diane Morris & Diane Snell