by roy, 2008/05/21

Perhaps the best aspect of living on Beacon Hill is the sense of community, and for many years one of the main social centers of the neighborhood has been the Java Love coffee shop and Baja Bistro.

It’s rumored that owner Oscar Castro started both (they share a conjoined space at the base of an apartment building) with only a credit card 13 years ago. Despite the two names they are really the same place, basically a coffee shop with a restaurant section in the back, you can order food or coffee in either. Over the past few years I’ve heard Oscar declare his plans to someday turn the back restaurant section into a bar/lounge. The idea of having another night spot on Beacon Hill caught the attention of many regulars - for many years the only option has been the Beacon Pub, which has a particularly divey atmosphere that’s often not what you’re looking for.

Oscar’s plans seemed like they might turn out to be just another great idea, until about a month ago when I walked into the coffee shop and found everything arranged - they explained it was because the coffee shop and restaurant were now combined, and a bar was being installed in the back part. The greatly anticipated new bar & lounge was finally being realized, and Saturday, April19th was the grand opening party.

The party was a great event, everybody from the neighborhood and beyond showed up. There was a buffet with great authentic Baja-style Mexican dishes, great music courtesy of Barista and resident DJ Waylon, also known as WD4D. I got a chance to meet some of Oscar’s friends and meet some of the bartenders who will be working the new bar. There was a champagne toast at midnight and a good time was had by all.

Over the next week I’ve only had the chance to stop by the bar once, which seems to be doing well. It certainly is a great alternative to going to the Beacon Pub - the Pub is a great place to watch the game, eat a hot dog, play pool, but the Baja’s new bar is more of a place you might choose to go to for friendly conversation, or on a date.

by mahalie, 2007/11/29

I’ve been spending some time lately thinking about things I’m really thankful for. Although I get SAD from time to time, I feel extremely fortunate to live in one the most environmentally progressive areas of the country. I work for a leading national sustainable architecture firm, I get to walk to work on the Burke-Gilman trail, and though it could be improved, the Metro Transit system is always at my service. Seattle City Light offers green power, there are robust recycling and composting options available, the list goes on. All of these things are provided for me, at no apparent cost beyond some portion of some tax (sales tax?).

Sims Global Warming Initiative provides a guide for the average citizen to take responsibility for their role in climate change. It’s worth careful examination, but here’s the summary:

1. Know your “carbon footprint”
2. Bus, bike or walk to your errands.
3. Change your commute times.
4. Make sure your next car is a “clean” one.
5. Use compact fluorescents AND solar power and other energy alternatives
6. Become and informed and active member of the climate action community.
7. Buy locally.
8. Optimize your house to reduce the carbon impact of household activities.
9. Let your friends, family and public officials know climate change is important to you
10. Change your thinking.

Informal poll: How often do you think about your impact on the environment, as a Seattlite, how important is it to you? Or is it? Do you have a personal plan? Let’s hear it in the comments!

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by mahalie, 2007/11/21

Photo by Bejan.

Flickr photophile K-ron75 writes:

Officially, it’s the South Lake Union Streetcar. But in the neighborhood where the new line runs, it’s called the South Lake Union Trolley — or, the SLUT. At Kapow! Coffee, a shop in the old Cascade neighborhood, 100 T-shirts bearing the words “Ride the SLUT” sold out in days, and another 100 are on order.

Apparently the Cascade Neighborhood has hi-jacked the Trolley. SLUT t-shirts are a both a sincere welcome to the addition of better public transit to the neighborhood and a somewhat subversive jab at the highly polished redevelopment of Vulcan’s South Lake Union neighborhood which has largely ignored the adjacent Cascade Neighborhood in planning and marketing. You can get your tshirt directly at Kapow Coffee or ordering at RidetheSlutShirts.com. A definite fashion statement, your support of the SLUT is in spirit only, all proceeds from shirt sales go to Jeremiah “Johnson” St. George and Don Clifton who have vigorously marketed (’Ride the SLUT’ is the one and only sponsored link returned for a google search for ’seattle streetcar’) and trademarked the design/idea. So take caution before rolling your own shirt!

Whatever it is, whatever it’s called, I drove past the ‘Test Train’ yesterday as it was cruising down Terry Avenue and my jaw dropped. It’s finally here! The line has its own website, SeattleStreetcar.com, which details the NextBus! technology that will tell riders when the next car is coming and offers a route map showing the trolley’s route - a loop from Westlake Center downtown to Fairview Ave & Yale Ave.

by mahalie, 2007/03/31

Ran across this great photo of Dick’s Drive In. Like LA’s In-N-Out burgers, this is the best fast food in the city, a not to be missed hang-over cure late weekend nights.

Untitled by adkensmith (Flickr)

by mahalie, 2006/12/26

After seeing Seattle Busmonster and a dozen other cool Google mash-ups, I had the brilliant idea of creating a Seattle Happy Hour finder only to find out that it already existed. Unthirsty.com is a happy hour finder for anywhere (including Seattle of course) and as of this writing there are dozens of happy hours posted in the downtown area alone.

The web application displays listings with icons that tell you if the spot has food specials, drink specials, patio seating, and/or wifi and what the hours of the specials are. You can also search for the name of a bar instead of location and they even provide a url for mobile users.
Another good (if not visually titillating) reference is SevenNites.com “Seattle Happy Hour Search”, presumably named for the ability to search for places to get drink specials any day of the week, provides the ability to search by day, neighborhood, sexual preference and more.
List sources of information on Seattle’s Happy Hours:

• Unthirsty - browse happy hours via map or text search. (web app)
• SevenNites - search for happy hours by location, date and more. (web app)
• Stranger Forums: search for ‘Happy Hour’ - (portal, forum)
  
• CitySearch’s annual listing of Best Happy Hours - (portal, article)

My friends and I wanted to start a blog, I even procured a domain name, but there are a few already out there. I do think, however, there’s still room for a blog with witty and humorous reviews ala The Robotic Gourmand’s restaurant reviews that links to Unthirsty’s listing so the hours and details of happy hours can be kept up to date en-masse. Unthirsty does allow for comments but not full reviews with pictures and all.

If I’ve missed any great resources, please let me know! Also, what’s your favorite happy hour?

by mahalie, 2006/11/16

I’ve been thinking about getting all grown up and purchasing a home. A condo, to be exact. I don’t want to deal with a yard and if at all possible I’d like to maintain my walk-to-work urban lifestyle. The problem, real estate buys are complicated! The market is crazy (inflated? a good time to buy? who knows?) and mostly, real estate agents and sales offices scare me! Fortunately there’s Wendy Leung, a full-time Realtor specializing in Seattle condo purchases and sales with John L. Scott, who visits condo sales offices, the locations themselves and preview events and then reviews the various condominium developments on her blog. Her recent posts include the Cosmopolitan, Queen’s Court and the upcoming First Church Conversion.
I don’t think you could make a purchase decision off of her quick overviews but it could certainly help you decide whether a prospective development is worth taking a closer look.

Timothy Ellis writes on his aptly named blog, Seattle Bubble, about general housing market topics such as regional policies, area housing sales statistics, and humorous looks at Seattle’s neighborhoods. In a post entitled Our Town A to Z, a glossary of sorts, entries include:

Alki - What you will become after your home becomes a boat anchor

Capitol Hill - Enjoy wearing your fauxhawk while calling 9-11

Denny-ile - Denial over the negative appreciation in your recent downtown Seattle condo purchase

Neighborhoods - If you can afford them, Seattle has some nice ones

Tooth & Nail - How you’ll be fighting to make the payments on your 1960’s boxy Ballard money pit

I’ve added both of these blogs to my RSS feed collection (if you don’t have one, you should check it out, I use Google Reader). Let me know if you know of any other good Seattle housing blogs!

by mahalie, 2006/08/17

Grand Street: Texting by moriza (Flickr)

The City of Seattle is working on a Bike Master Plan to help complete Seattle’s
piecemeal bicycle network. To help target their efforts, the city is taking a survey of bicyclists (link is on the right side of the page, launches a popup window)
to find out where the best and worst intersections, railroad crossings, and bike
routes in Seattle are.

If you’re a Seattle bicyclist, please take this survey! Me, I’m not (yet) cause I’m afraid of getting run over…my usual transportation tactics are walk, sk8, bus or mooch rides from friends.

Other resources on the City’s site include Bicycle Maps and information on the Bike Program, Urban Trails System, Bike Racks, Bicycle Spot Improvement Program, Trail Etiquette, Traffic Codes and more! If you’re really gung-ho you could try to get on the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board. Or, if you’re of a more dissenting nature, there’s always Seattle’s chapter of Critical Mass, the group that rides together during peak commuting time to take back the roads from vehicular traffic, or to quote their “what & why” section:

on the last friday of every month in over 100 cities around the world cyclists congregate together to ride in demonstration and in celebration. critical mass has no leaders and no set agenda and people come together to ride for many different reasons.
just a few of those reasons are…
to assert cyclists right to the road, to promote bikes as a fun, healthy, viable alternative to cars, to build a greater sense of community, to get more folks on bikes, or simply to celebrate bike love and ride in solidarity with other like minded individuals and have some fun!
overall the ride is what you make it! - SeattleCriticalMass.org

by mahalie, 2006/07/29

Q: “How do you know if a Seattlite is dressed up?”

A: “They’re wearing their dress fleece.”

That joke pretty much sums up the sad state of fashion in Seattle. Although the scores of new designer clothes boutiques to open in the last few years indicate some hope for the fashion inclined, it’s a well-observed fact that Seattle natives dress very casually. I call it ‘the Northwest Look’ and I’m sure it has to do with why people live here. The most frequent answer to “Why did you live in Seattle?” I’ve heard is not friends, family, school, culture or a job (or fashion!); it’s an enthusiastic “the ocean and the mountains!” People here love to recreate. They want good jobs but they also want to spend a lot of time in the great outdoors.

This may come as a suprise to people of think of Seattle as Rain City. Our anomolistic geographic circumstance doesn’t extend far…it takes an hour at most in any direction to get a nice change of weather and a contra-urban experience.

Mt. Stewart taken from Longs Pass, photo by Mahalie.

There are a lot of sources to help you recreate maximally while visiting or living in Seattle. If you live here consider joining a club like the Mountaineers, which accepts and helps educate all levels of recreators and has an array of scheduled activities including Alpine Scrambling, Backcountry Skiing, Backpacking, Bicycling, Climbing, First Aid / MOFA, Hiking, Navigation, Photography, Sailing, Sea Kayaking, Snowshoeing and Whitewater Kayaking.

Hikipedia is a new wiki for hikers. That is, it’s a community-written repository for good hiking spots. It also includes a Google mashup that allows you to search for hikes by location. A search for trails within 100 miles of Seattle returns eight hikes (at the time of this writing) but will be revealing more as people contribute to the site.

Washington Trail Association is the official source of trails, though they don’t offer searches in terms of distance from Seattle, they do allow you to filter trails by general region and thier side offers a flora and fauna guide as well.

Seattle is also home to the REI flagship store (an architectural destination unto itself) which will not only supply you with gear and guidebooks but also hosts many clinics and events onsite (view calendar). They also provide this list of hikes near Seattle (PDF) as part of their ‘Kid’s Passport Program’ which encourages parents to aquaint their children with non-televised activities. Other local outdoor gear retailers offer events as well including Feathered Friends and Second Ascent.

That should keep you busy! However, this is by no means an exhaustive list of trail and recreation opportunities near Seattle. Please recommend your favorite sources by leaving comments below - this page will be continually updated.

by mahalie, 2006/07/21

Is it April 1st? What a forcast!

by mahalie, 2006/06/01

This blog is a resource about Seattle - I like to write about things I find here in the Emerald City, and hope that anyone may stumble onto this blog at any time and find relevant information.

I’ve mentioned some current events in the past, but henceforth I will be posting them on 43places, an excellent community site about where people go and what they do there.  Why?  I do like to promote certain events that I’m particularly excited about, but because anyone can post events at 43places it is a better and more comprehensive repository for time sensitive data than any one person ever could be.

Events like the upcoming and free Tadao Ando lecture at the UW aren’t really about Seattle and there are so many great places to find current events already such as the obvious SeattleTimes site, The Stranger and Seattlest.