Neighborhood walk tonight, Thursday

We are starting another weekly walk on Thursday evenings. The first one will be tonight at 6:45 p.m. We will meet at 130th and 25th for our usual walk. They last about 30 minutes and are a good way to get some free exercise and this time of year enjoy holiday lights on your neighbor's homes.

We will note issues in our neighborhood and report them as usual. Some of us will collect litter, but you don't have to. It is mostly a brief walk with a chance to talk with neighbors.

Hope to see you there!  ( And sorry about the late notice. )

North Helpline donations down, need for assistance up

Iloya Martchyan, right, is given produce at the North Helpline Food Bank.

In these turbulent economic times of high unemployment and stagnant wages many are turning to food banks for assistance. However, Seattle-area food banks are reporting a dramatic drop in food and cash donations as the negative economic ripple pushes deeper into households that normally would help.

Donations are down by 31 percent, while need has increased 30 percent in the last four years, according to a recent U.S. Conference of Mayors study.

To highlight the need, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn came to our neighborhood and visited the North Helpline Emergency Services and Food Bank on Wednesday.

The food bank provides basic essentials to people that are having a challenge covering their daily living expenses. North Helpline assists about 850 households per week, nearly double what they did two years ago.

You can donate to the North Helpline Food Bank here or drop off food items Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 to 4, 12736 33rd Avenue NE.

Some of the items currently needed are: Protein (canned tuna, chicken, peanut butter), canned fruits and vegetables, 100% fruit juices, grains (pasta, rice, macaroni), condiments (ketchup, mustard, light salad dressings), meals in a can (canned stews, chili), soups (beef stew, chili, chicken noodle), multigrain Cereal (Cheerios, Cornflakes, Grapenuts, Raisin Bran)

Canned tomatoes

Canned food ready to be distributed

Linda and Howard Tomisser gather food supplies

Food ready to be distributed

Kate Murphy and David Ortiz give a cooking demonstration

Mayor Mike McGinn meets with volunteers

Bread

Television crews conduct an interview during the mayor's vist

PHOTOS: Holidays in the Park

Wednesday night dozens of neighbors came out to the annual Holidays in the Park tree lighting at the Lake City mini-park. The annual event is organized by the Lake City Chamber of Commerce and the Lions Club.

People enjoyed cookies and cider as they listened to music from the Ingraham High School Band.

And of course, Jolly Old St. Nick made an appearance at the event.

Here are some photos of Wednesday night's festivities.

Santa arrives in style

Art Carts collected food donations

Two Dog Yoga's Art Cart

Santa exits his convertible

Neighbors watch the festivities

Santa walks through the crowd

That hat is awesome!

Ingraham High Band performs

Santa can be a bit scary for some

Kaffeeklatsch Art Cart entry

Decorations on an Art Cart

Reminder: Holidays in the Park Wednesday night

Come out tonight to the Lake City Mini Park on the corner of 125th and Lake City Way for the annual Holidays in the Park community event.

Ingraham High School students will perform music, there will be cider and cookies and a community Christmas tree will be illuminated. And rumor is that a jolly ol' elf will be there too.

Event is tonight, Wednesday, beginning at 7 p.m.

Weekly Walk Report 04: December 5th

This week's walk went well. It was very quiet on the streets.

We picked up litter as we traveled the usual path. One of the two memorials ( the one in front of the future Elliott Bay Brew Pub ) was gone. At that location, there were a few plastic shopping bags tied to the hurricane fence with empty cans in them -  a makeshift trash container. They were filled, so we took them down and put them in our trash bag. The other memorial at the NE corner of 127th and 30th is still there.

By the 99 cent store, we heard kids singing Christmas songs as a family walked through the space between Cedar Park and the Panos building.

Comcast Internet outages?

A resident of 25th Avenue NE has been having intermittent Internet issues with Comcast for a few months. There have been nearly a dozen repair of service calls by the Comcast customer.

Twice a Comcast technician has been called out and at the last minute the service call cancelled because Comcast says there is an outage in the area.

We are curious if any other residents of our neighborhood are having Comcast connectivity issues lately? (Specifically last night, Sunday from 7p.m. to 12 a.m. Monday)

If there is an outage in our area we assume it affects other customers.

Traffic sign typo

 

A resident of our neighborhood, who just happens to teach English and has an eagle's eye for errors, noticed a mistake on one of our neighborhood signs.

"It bothers me every time I drive past," she said of the sign on NE 125th Street.

Have you noticed this?

Neighborhood photo, then and now

We have heard all likely heard stories about what kind of agricultural operations were in our neighborhood before it was developed into residential housing. There has been talk of horses in the neighborhood —evidenced by horse shoes regularly dug up in people's yards, the old polo club, a mink raising operation, a mushroom farm and chicken farm.

The photos below are of the intersection of 26th Avenue NE and NE 127th Street, part of the Kenwood land plat. The site is the modern home of the Seattle Gymnastics Academy and Daily Racing Form printing press.

This is part of an occasional series that features old photos from our community. If you have an old photo you would like to share send it to us and we will post it!

Also, if you have any more information on what kind of agriculture was in our neighborhood please leave info in the comments field below, comment on our Facebook Page, or email us at douglasparkcooperative@gmail.com

The intersection of NE 127th Street and 26th Avenue NE. Part of an agricultural and farm operation.The photo is from King County property records and apparently is from 1955.

That same intersection today, home of Daily Racing Form printing press and Seattle Gymnastics Academy. Photo from Google Street View.

Lake City Community Center wall repaired after fatal accident

A Seattle Parks and Recreation crew was repairing the east wall of the Lake City Community Center Thursday afternoon after a recent accident punched a large hole in the side of the building.

In late October a woman directing a car into a parking space at an early-morning event was pinned between the building and a car. The driver of the vehicle she was guiding accidentally hit the gas in the accident. The woman later died at the hospital.

Neighbors meet with police, city officials to discuss crime

Lake City neighbors listen to Terrie Johnston of the Seattle Police Department

Wednesday night concerned Lake City neighbors and block watch groups met with Terrie Johnston, crime prevention liaison with the Seattle Police Department.

Johnston presented some of the latest crime data and discussed ways we can work to prevent crime in our community. She also listened to concerns from area residents, some who have been victims of recent crimes.

Johnston said that residential burglaries have made a substantial leap in northeast Seattle this quarter, although not as significant as some other neighborhoods. So far for this quarter there have been 37 reported residential burglaries. Of those 14 were non-forced-entry burglaries, meaning a burglar entered through and unlocked door or window.

She also said that during the month of December residential burglaries tend to increase as thieves know that homes hold more loot —in the form of holiday gifts— and that often residents are out of town.

Johnston said that Seattle Police have made some significant arrests of burglary teams in recent weeks. In both instances the team consisted of two male burgulars and a female lookout. Often the female would pace the street, talking or texting on her cellphone, acting as a lookout. In one case an alert neighbor noticed the nervous-looking woman pacing near a home and then saw two unfamiliar men come out of the home. The female lookout likely texted the men in the home when she realized the neighbor was watching her. They were later arrested because of the alert neighbor.

Johnston said that 90% of residentail burgularies occur between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Our own neighborhood includes a number of residents that work out of a home office and she said that their watchful eyes during the daytime are one of our best defenses against home burglaries.

Some other tips she offered to help prevent home burglary are

• Always make your house look occupied.
• Have a trustworthy neighbor gather your newspapers and mail while you are gone. She said that alerting the newspaper carriers that you are away just lets more people know that your home is unoccupied.
• Have those same neighbors move trash cans and recycle bins from the curb. Unmoved trash and recycle bins are one of the clues that thieves use when looking for a victim.
• Install motion-sensitive lighting. Criminals like darkness and do not want to be identified.
• If someone unfamiliar knocks on your door answer it but do not open it. Burglars are often checking to see if someone is home. Also teach children to answer the door but not open it.
• Keep inventory lists and serial numbers of possessions to help recover stolen property 
• Call 911 if you suspect suspicious activity. She said that calling police gives officers a reason to speak to suspicious people
• Do not rely on burglar alarms. Johnston said that 97% of burglar alarm calls in Seattle are false and that most systems are usually not a good investment. She said if you want an alarm that you should have one that makes lots of noise instead of a silent alarm.
• Probably most importantly she said, get to know your neighbors. She said that statistically people are much more likely to call 911 and report suspicious activity if they know their neighbors' names. And often people living in our neighborhood do not know one another.

She said that she is available to come out and to a do a security assessment of your home. Her email is terrie.johnston@seattle.gov