Jet City Journal

Fixing Aurora Avenue North

Thunderbird Motel, originally uploaded by Kevin Pedraja.

If you live within a quarter mile of Aurora Avenue North, you're probably familiar with the problems highlighted in a recent Seattle Times story.

"About 20 motels operate now from North 40th to North 145th, the Seattle city limits, and peeling facades, burned-out neon signs and buckled asphalt lots hint to conditions inside."

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"The density of cheap digs has fueled Aurora's reputation as a magnet for drugs and prostitution. An average room goes for $50 a night."

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"'Crime on Aurora has been a deeply ingrained problem that's lasted for decades," said Seattle police Capt. Mike Washburn, commander of the North Precinct. "Aurora is a state highway, it's easy to get in and out of ... and the motels are certainly a piece of this.'"

While the article points out that many of the hotels on Aurora are well-managed and not contributing to the area's crime problem, there are clearly some landlords who permit illegal activities to take place on their premises.

I'm probably not alone in wishing that the motels would just go away. But advocates for low-income and homeless families insist that the motels are a necessary evil, as they provide much-needed housing for the city's less fortunate. That's a fair point, but many of the motels charge outrageous sums for rooms that are, in a word, horrible. Even worse, the city, state and Federal government are actually paying for this squalor through various housing assistance programs. Put another way, you and I are keeping slum lords in business through our tax dollars.

So, here is a modest proposal to address the problems of Aurora Avenue. The city and state should start a program to acquire the offending motels through eminent domain, refurbish them, manage them and rent them out to low-income residents at reasonable rates.  Couple that with the establishment of a Seattle Police storefront station on Aurora somewhere between 85th and 120th streets and the initiation of regular foot patrols. Clean, well-managed motels and a stepped up police presence would do much to eliminate the underlying problems that have made Aurora Avenue a boulevard of broken dreams.

As long as Aurora Avenue continues to be a haven for petty crime, drugs and prostitution, there is no hope that it can rise above its current seedy circumstances. Respectable businesses won't want any part of a neighborhood where potential customers fear to walk.

Spaced-Out Needle

DSC_0329, originally uploaded by Kevin Pedraja.

Post-fireworks haze creates an eerie pall over the Space Needle.

Gaming the Seattle DPD permitting process for fun and profit

I live in a North Seattle neighborhood of modest houses built mostly in the early to late 1940s, generally single-story brick ramblers along with a few slightly larger houses of 1960s or 70s vintage.  Back in January, I noticed some renovations being done an unassuming little house around the corner from mine on North 90th street. The house, which had a detached garage with a mother-in-law unit over it, appeared to be getting a much-needed makeover. 

The original 1911 North 90th Street (or according to Trulio.com, 1917 North 90th St.). Clearly this is a single property. (Photo snatched from Google Maps.  Sorry.)

A few weeks later, construction crews started taking the garage apart. Or so I thought. Within weeks, the garage became a full-fledged and very tall modern home that towered over the surrounding houses. Not only was this new house out of scale and out of character with the rest of the neighborhood, no public notice of land use action had ever been posted signaling that the lot would be subdivided. I decided to try and find out how this could happen.

Mariners Opening Day 2009

Played a little afternoon hooky on Tuesday to go to Mariners Opening day.  With the Red Sox looking completely overmatched this season, I may have to temporarily transfer my allegiance to the local 9. 

A few pics from the day:

Safeco was dressed up for Opening Day.

My Evening with Paul Feig*

[Ed.:* OK, so it wasn't MY evening with Paul Feig so much is at was Bob Young's evening.  Bob is a local journalist, garage band rock star and all around good guy.  He sent this along last week and for a variety of reasons (mostly having to do with my Xbox 360) I just got around to posting it today.  Also, be forewarned.  I no longer have the election to obsess over so I might actually start writing about, you know, SEATTLE.  In any event, without further distractions, here's Bob's (excellent) post.]

What am I doing here?
It's just me, Paul Feig -- my current hero -- and a few nervous Borders' employees.

I figured the place would be jammed, here in Redmond, WA, the geek capital of the Pacific Northwest, to see the guru of geekness, Mr. Feig, creator of the cult TV show Freaks and Geeks.

If you haven't seen the 1999-2000 dramedy, cancelled after 18 glorious episodes on NBC, go rent it. Unless you're really cool. If you were a jock, a cheerleader, or rich; if you had dates and sex and confidence and the clothes and car to match, then it's probably lost on you. Because this is a show about three freshman geeks and three upperclassmen freaks. Caught between the two is an Army-fatigue wearing Mathlete, Lindsey Weir.

KEXP Summer BBQ

KEXP's Summer BBQ is fast becoming the anti-Bumbershoot.  It's inexpensive. The music is good.  You can actually see and hear the bands. There are no hippies trying to sell you stuff made out of yak hair.  And the only time you have to stand in cattle lines is when you need to use the bathroom.  The beer is better, too.

Courtney Taylor-Taylor of the Dandy Warhols

Blue Angels at SeaFair

Some shots of the Blue Angels from Saturday and Sunday.

Steam vapor streams off the wings during a high-G turn.

In formation.

Tails of a back yard bird feeder

Get it?  Tails?  Ya, OK...

Two black-capped Chickadees share a meal.

Seattle cops bag a suspect

On Tuesday I was running out to grab some lunch at great little pho joint downtown.  At the corner of 9th and Stewart, I saw a bunch of cops standing around over a guy lying on the sidewalk.  Then I noticed something weird...the guy on the ground had a bag over his head.

So I snapped a photo with my iPhone (A crappy photo.  Really, the iPhone's camera blows.) 

Here it is cropped:

Not sure what was going on. Did the guy have some communicable disease and was threatening to spit on people?  Was it some new kind of cop submission technique?  Later, when I came out of the pho place, the guy was being loaded into an ambulance.  He still had the bag on his head.  Definitely not something you see every day...

Carkeek Park

When summer doesn't start until July, it's easy to forget that Seattle is a coastal city with real, honest-to-goodness beaches.  Carkeek Park is one.  It's a mecca for kiteboarders as well as plain folk.  (Too bad I only had my iPhone with me.  Hey Steve, how about a real camera in the next version, m'kay?)

High tide, with a train passing by.

Sunbathers and kite boarders.