It’s time again, buskers and talented musical folk, to sign up for summer concerts in Pillars Park. The busy intersection of Boren and Pike will get its annual musical accompaniment thanks to neighborhood groups and businesses:

The performances will take place each Friday between July 5th and September 6th 5-8:30pm. They will be located at the corner of Pike and Boren in front of the columns across from Tango restaurant. Local businesses will choose the performers based on the applications. Artist/Performers must be willing to  perform for free but will be allowed to put out a tip jar.

If you’re interested, drop patrickjones321@gmail.com a line.

Data provided by the Capitol Hill Coalition at one City Council hearing illustrated the “tsunami” of microhousing hitting the city

Powered by a set of community meetings to discuss the issue, members of the City Council have sent a set of “amendment requests” to the Department of Planning and Development as City Hall works to change the rules by which microhousing developments are regulated in Seattle. The full memo from Council members Tom Rasmussen, Nick Licata and Sally Clark is below.

The document calls for the development type — boarding house-style apartments that currently fit through wide-open loopholes in the city’s building and review codes — to be better defined and for new requirements that will pull the projects into a more regulated design and environmental review process. Here are the three amendment requests:

• A new definition of “microhousing” for inclusion on the Seattle Municipal Code;
• New design review thresholds that would apply specifically to microhousing; and
• A revised method of counting dwelling units in microhousing projects for the purposes of SEPA review and tracking progress toward the achievement of 2024 neighborhood growth targets.

The memo also includes a secondary set of areas for DPD to review and provide more analysis about. You’ll find DPD has been set on task to review whether private bathrooms should be required, for example.

The full memo is below: Continue reading →

A new film set against the backdrop of civil unrest at Seattle Central Community College forty years ago features protest leaders of the school’s past talking about their fight for equality. The project by Capitol Hill resident Kevin Owyang and filmmaker Matthew Bane, in their words, ”examines the challenges of diversity” –

“I hope young people will glimpse a part of history they didn’t know about.  And I hope older generations will understand the wisdom young people possess”, said Owyang.  “It’s only 5-minutes.   So if you have the attention span of a mosquito, like me, it’s perfect.” Owyang says jokingly.

History Is Undivided Yearning (http://UndividedYearning.com )looks at racial division in Seattle’s past and highlights changemakers building a better future.   The film walks a fine line of presenting a hopeful future without diluting the challenges of transforming diversity into resilience.

“I wanted to tell the story of resilience”, says filmmaker Kevin Owyang.    “And that means, if you have my back and I have yours, even though we don’t agree on specific solutions, we will stand up to those who’d rather use violence as an answer.  We will agree that it should be unimaginable to plant a bomb at the finish of a Marathon, we will agree that it’s unimaginable that our kids can’t play in the neighborhood without fear of abduction, and we will agree that it’s unimaginable that kindergarten is a place requiring lock-down security.  Only then will diverse communities be transformed into resilient ones.”

History Is Undivided Yearning is part the 3rd Annual MOHAI History Is ____ Film Competition