CHS broke the news earlier this month that the Seattle City Council was starting the process to decide the future of the controversial program that placed state-of-the-art surveillance cameras inside Cal Anderson Park. After last week’s Council parks committee meeting, we now know that Capitol Hill is about to get the public meetings to discuss the cameras that it never got the first time around when the cameras were installed in 2008.

According to a report issued by the city auditor’s office presented at last Thursday meeting (and available here on CHS), after a $144,000 outlay for hardware and installation and two years of use, city staff were “unable to determine the cameras’ statistical effect on crime with current City crime data” and reported that the cameras had not yet aided the police in crime detection or investigation. Chair of the Parks Committee, Council member Sally Bagshaw was less than pleased with the findings. “I’m troubled by a couple of things. First of all, we’re two months late [hearing the report], so there are cameras that cost $144K to put in the park and we’re not using them…that doesn’t shine too well on us.” After questioning how the city could be using the cameras for this long a period and still not know if they’re making the park safer, she asked the committee “Are we wasting money and are we imposing ourselves in a nanny state effort on people on Capitol Hill?”

According to the SPD, while the cameras continue to operate, the department is not currently utilizing the technology pending the decision by the Council whether to continue the program. SPD says there have only been five requests for live monitoring since the cameras were installed in 2008 and not all of those could be filled. There were six requests for reviews of footage as part of criminal investigations. SPD says that none of the evidence provided by the cameras was useful in the investigations.

After some back and forth between Council members (especially Bagshaw and Tom Rasmussen) doubting the efficacy of the cameras and representatives of the Seattle Police Department defending their effectiveness, Bagshaw proposed that one or two public meetings be held on Capitol Hill concerning the Cal Anderson Park cameras to ensure that the City Council heard from those most affected by the cameras before they made their decision. CHS will keep you updated as to the date and time of these meetings as they are announced. In the meantime, public comment can be addressed to Councilmember Bagshaw at sally.bagshaw(at)seattle.gov.

One interesting exchange from the meeting involved East Precinct Commander Jim Dermody disagreeing with Rasmussen’s assertion that the cameras are not useful. Dermody said he’d like to see the cameras reactivated and cited a recent incident in the park — “a potential felony” — that he would have liked to have used a review of the camera footage to investigate.

Note: Props to Phil Mocek for giving public comment at a morning weekday committee meeting and representing the neighborhood!

Click here for video of the March 18th meeting of the Parks and Seattle Center Committee, agenda item Clerk File 310465, Report of the City Auditor on Cal Anderson Park Surveillance Camera Pilot Program Evaluation.

Usually it’s enough to put up an event post on CHS for the monthly Capitol HIll Community Council meetings. But this month, like in January, the Community Council as some big stuff on the agenda, some of which needs to go to a vote. So I feel it is my responsibility as CHCC president to get the word out far and wide about what we’ll be talking about in our general meeting this Thursday (7-9pm, Cal Anderson Park Shelterhouse). You can see the whole agenda here, but below are the big discussion items:

Guest Speaker: Jonathan Dong, SDOT –
Discussion on Metro’s consideration of the replacement of the Electric Trolley System with diesel hybrid buses in order to reduce budget shortfalls. SDOT is collecting feedback from the community on this idea and are presently conducting a straw poll among community members to develop a policy recommendation.

Which option is greener? How much cheaper are hybrid diesesl buses than electric trolleys? Can we have them run on biodiesel? Have all these questions answered and more this Thursday.

Guest Speaker: Ethan Melone, SDOT –
Debrief on current status of the First Hill Streetcar Project.

The Seattle Dept. of Transportation is expected to make a streetcar route suggestion to City Council on Wednesday, and the mayor’s office is holding a First Hill Streetcar Stakeholders meeting on Wednesday as well. That means that there will be a lot of juicy streetcar news for Ethan to tell the community on Thursday night.

Guest Speaker: Tony Russo and Cathy Hillenbrand, TOD Stakeholders Group
Discussion on the transition of the TOD Stakeholders Group into “TOD Champion”, and the proposal to create TOD Champion as a joint committee of the Capitol Hill Community Council and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce.

This is the big-ticket item of the night. Transit-oriented development, aka what’s going to get built on top of the Broadway light rail station once it’s completed, is a hot topic. Sound Transit will be in charge of writing the contract and long-term lease with the company that will eventually develop the space. In the meantime, the present TOD Stakeholders group is making the transition to a more proactive, advocacy oriented TOD Champion group. The question is, what role with the Community Council play in this process? It’s up for you to decide.

Telephone pole posters are a visual representation of the pulse of Capitol Hill – they show which bands are getting big, what posters aesthetics are in or out of style, recent fashions in event themes, and so on. This is why I was stopped in my tracks by the poster for DarGarth: A Live Action Wargame that advertised upcoming bouts in Volunteer Park. LARPers on Capitol Hill, the hipster stronghold of Seattle? That takes chutzpah.

I sat down with John Senner, organizer of DarGarth, to find out more: why here? why now? And ultimately, why beat each other with padded swords?  “I’m from Baltimore, where one of the largest foam fighting groups, Darkon, is located,” says Senner “I really miss swordfighting, and I think that Seattle has a perfect combination of geeks and outdoorsy people to create a good audience for a live-action wargame,” But isn’t that what they do in Ravenna Park every weekend? Why reinvent the wheel? “We’re not like the guys in Ravenna Park. The focus is on fighting and strategy. It’s medieval gang warfare – we don’t have tea-parties”.

Senner went on to tout the benefits of live action war games, aka foam fighting. “It is nerdy, but it’s a physically active and social nerdy,” says Senner, “It’s also perfect for Capitol Hill because of the DIY aspects: you have to build your own weapons, and you can make your own costumes and armor as well.That’s the best part of it – it’s not just one hobby, it’s however many hobbies you need.” Speaking of weapons – just how safe is foam fighting? Senner assured me that strict weapon construction guidelines are part of the DarGarth rulebook and that all weapons are tested for safety before each event.

If you too want  to partake of the benefits of live action war gaming, DarGarth’s their opening Tournament of Arms is this Sunday, March 14th in Volunteer Park from noon to 5pm, and their Zombie Uprising will be same place, same time on Sunday, March 28th.  “We put up flyers in the U District for the students, on Capitol Hill for the hipsters, and in Fremont for the weirdos,” says Senner, “I hope everybody comes!”

I’m happy to report that not only has the Cal Anderson Park Alliance recently appointed new board members, it’s also just expanded it’s board. That’s good news for everyone because it means that CAPA can take on more neat things like nifty events in the park (such as the last summer’s Sounds Outside concert series) or perhaps advocacy for more green space in the neighborhood. It’s good news to me particularly because I got tapped to be on the advisory board. Neat!

The Cal Anderson Park Alliance (CAPA) is pleased to announce the acceptance of four new board members and four new advisory board members. The new board members are Amy Faulkner, Ray Gastil, Margaret Pak and Erika Wilson. New advisory board members are Jerry Arbes, Jim Diers, Jen Power and Doug Schwartz. We were gratified at the strong response to our call for applicants, which made the decisions even more challenging.

CAPA brings together citizens who are dedicated to generating creative, innovative activities, programs and events to activate Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Our goal is to build on and sustain healthy, safe and varied uses for the park. As we grow, we hope to expand our scope to encompass projects which exemplify issues Cal Anderson championed, such as social justice and civic participation.

Cal Anderson Park was recently named one of the twelve Best City Parks in America by Forbes.com, confirming what we here were already aware, that the park, integrated as it is into the urban environment, is an immensely popular and natural gathering space. Its history, design and accessibility combine to serve a wide variety and number of people by providing a unique place to play, relax and gather.

We produce an annual Independence Day Community Picnic, sponsor a vibrant array of community events, collaborate with neighborhood businesses and local safety groups, and generate original art work for an annual calendar of public events distributed throughout the community.

CAPA actively seeks out partnerships and collaborations with schools, businesses, non-profits and other organizations to create programs we can all benefit from and enjoy. We welcome new ideas and proposals.

For more information: www.calandersonpark.org. We can be reached at [email protected].

BOARD MEMBERS: [*new]
Isaac Cohen Development Manager, Seattle Parks Foundation
*Amy Faulkner Director, The World is Fun
*Ray Gastil City Planner, Urban Designer
Jonathan Morley Landscape Architect, Principal, The Berger Partnership
*Margaret Pak Attorney, Corr Cronin Michelson Baumgardner & Preece
Kay Rood KRF Custom Picture Framing; park advocate
*Erika Wilson, Office Manager, Capitol Hill Housing
Ex officio:
Randy Wiger Community Commons Program Coordinator, Seattle Parks & Recreation

ADVISORY BOARD: [*new]
*Jerry Arbes Parks activist and historian, Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks
*Jim Diers Director, University of Washington-Seattle Community Partnerships
Cathy Hillenbrand Community arts activist
*Jen Power President, Capitol Hill Community Council
*Doug Schwartz Journalist, editor
Michael Seiwerath Director of Fund Development, Capitol Hill Housing

Contact:

Kay Rood, President
Cal Anderson Park Alliance
Creativity   I   Innovation   I   Inclusion

P.O. Box 12036
Seattle, WA  98102

www.calandersonpark.org

[email protected]

Earlier this week I got a chance to sit down and talk with Capitol Hill resident and author Cherie Priest about her most recent work, the Seattle-set steampunk novel Boneshaker. Much of my conversation with Priest boiled down to one question: “Why Seattle?”  “I tend to set things in places I’ve really been”, says Priest, “I’d been here a couple years when I started Boneshaker, so I figured that the time had come.”

A majority of steampunk novels are set in gaslamp London; moving the setting across the pond, to a Western frontier town no less, seems like a bold move. Priest’s answer: Seattle is steampunk ground-zero already – why not write the city into the canon? “[Seattle]’s dark, it’s cold, it’s good for wearing layers. The more laid-back attitude is good for the development of a subculture. There’s the band Abney Park, the Unhallowed Metropolis folks who wrote a steampunk RPG, and an existing goth scene out of which for the steampunk scene to grow.”

When it comes to historical material to work with (as anyone who’s been on the Underground Tour as many times as Priest has knows), it’s not as if there was nothing going on in Seattle in the 1800s.  If you add accelerated technology from a Civil War that stretches on for two decades, a Klondike gold rush that happens 40 years early, and an epidemic of the walking dead (like Priest does in Boneshaker), there’s plenty to write home about.

Priest also emphasized the sense of play that she finds in the steampunk world: “My bottom line is always if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.” The playful aspects of steampunk extend past the fun gear and steam-powered technology; the alternative history aspect of the genre lets the adventurous author play around with the past. “Part of the punk of steampunk is rewriting the history that created the rules that make some people ‘other’,” says Priest, “The joy of steampunk is that there is literally room for everybody, and you can rewrite the rules that put a group on the outside.”

In case you’re a voracious reader like myself and you read through Boneshaker in a couple of days, never fear: there are sequels on the way. Clementine is coming out at the end of May through Subterranean (the publisher where Priest works) and Dreadnought is tentatively coming out in the fall through Tor.  If you’d like to talk to the author herself, Priest will also be appearing a number of panels again this year at Seattle’s own Steamcon in November.

I’ve heard this question in chorus ever since I started hanging out at Metrix, and I’m sure I’ll hear it even more when I start working down there next week.  There really isn’t an answer to this question, or rather, the answers are legion: what can’t you make with a robot that prints plastic in three dimensions, a laser cutter, myriad computer parts, some solder, and a variable amount of ingenuity? (Hell, the present technological revolution started with only the parts, the solder and the ingenuity)

But, again, since I’m going to be working there soon, I thought I ought to make an attempt to catalog some of the more interesting projects that have originated in or found their way down to the Capitol Hill’s shiniest new Maker Basement.  Because, to be honest, “Anything” really isn’t the most useful answer to “So, what can you make down here?”

• Robo-Etch-A-Sketch – A keyboard, a screen, some stepper motors, a handful of microprocessors and your childhood Etch-A-Sketch.  I could really only get to happy face level on that thing…I wish I could have made one of these when I was a kid.
• Straight from the Vending Machine Slot C1: Bliplace 1.0 – Nothing says awesome like a sound-sensitive LED light pin that you can make yourself. Don’t be intimidated by the need to solder – I’ve seen first-time solderers get through this project with a pretty piece of jewelry and no scars to show for it :)
• Kiki the Robot– My friend MJ is using Metrix’s soldering facilities to make an actual-factual automaton.  Her name is Kiki, and she’s a three-wheeled maze robot.  When she’s complete, Kiki will be able to navigate mazes using just her light sensors and her wee little ATMega16 Microcontroller. 
• DNA cloner (PCR) – Seriously. You can make that here. And it’s legal.
• Laser-cut fractal quilt – Metrix isn’t only all about electronics and programming.  The fractal quilt project started when the ever inventive MJ realized she had the room and equipment to make a quilt at Metrix…the laser-cut part happened when, after experimentation, it turned out that you can cut fabric with a laser without catching it on fire. Besides being full of win, using the laser is a very fast and very accurate way to cut over 700 squares of fabric.
• Others things that can be made with the laser cutter- MakerBot cases, hobo tokens, tiny little Christmas trees… If it can fit onto an 11″x17″ rectangle, Metrix can probably cut it on the laser.
• Things that can be made with the MakerBot – I won’t even get started with this. Anything you want, made out of normal or corn-based plastic, 10cm x 10cm x 12cm.  One of the shop projects is to make a larger version of the MakerBot out parts printed from the MakerBot.  If these things ever gain sentience, I think we might be screwed.
• I swear, almost anything you can find on Thingiverse –  Maker-types like Thingiverse because you can get ready-made plans for amazing projects. Metrix Create: Space likes it because at Thingiverse, people share, and there’s nothing like open source plans to encourage more making of cool things at Metrix. They even offers a 20% discount on the MakerBot and the laser cutter for Thingiverse projects. 

Now that you’re done with this list, just remember, these are only the most intriguing things that we could recall that have been made at Metrix so far.  We have not yet begun to plumb the depths of crafty awesomeness.

When I think of community supported agriculture, I get visions of farmer’s markets and little family farms out in the country. What I don’t usually think of is garden plots in abandoned lots or tucked behind apartment buildings, and deliveries made my bicycle. However, that’s the vision of Sean Conroe, the founder of Alleycat Acres, a start-up urban CSA.

Conroe says his inspiration is his childhood experiences in the gardens and farms of the New York countryside: “I want to provide that garden experience to the city, mainly to youth…I want to provide access to fresh, healthy food to people who are traditionally under-served.” Alleycat’s initial area of operation will be Capitol Hill and the Central District, though Conroe says he’s interested in expanding to other agriculturally-deprived neighborhoods once he’s built up business.

Conroe says he’s still working to define what an urban CSA will look like: “It’s a learning experience as I go through this figuring out which particular models will work out or not.”  If you’re interested in sharing the agricultural learning experience or scouting for garden spots, get ahold of the Alleycat Acres team at info(at)alleycatacres.com. 

Jen loves gardening almost as much as she loves Capitol Hill. You can see her write about both at Life on the Hill and Other Stories.

These days, it’s not uncommon to find high carbon-consciousness on Capitol Hill.  Many Hill residents don’t have cars or own a hybrid, are conscientious of how many airline miles they log, and some even take the leap and go vegetarian to keep their dietary footprint down as well.  At the end of the day, Hill-folk can look around themselves and be satisfied with their carbon karma…or we can look closer and see there are steps we can take to shrink down our footprints even further. Carbon Coach David Lyman is one for taking a second look. After taking the Carbon Coach training course through the City of Seattle and Washington State University, Lyman decided he would spread the word via an upcoming free carbon coaching workshop in order to start shrinking footprints throughout the neighborhood.

If you think that you have the smallest possible carbon footprint, Lyman says to think again. “Lots of high carbon footprint things hide out in weird places, like leather shoes,” says Lyman, “People with pets have a huge carbon footprint”. While he will be covering the usual bases – transportation, housing, food – Lyman is also willing to assess impacts that others may not. “One that people really don’t like to talk about is the carbon footprint of having children. Your footprint goes up 5 times if you have a child because we’re assuming your children will have children, and so on. Adoptions are the eco-friendly choice.”

So, what can you do about it? “It’s just good to measure the impact of your lifestyle,” says Lyman, “And talk to others about carbon reduction. That may be the biggest way to help.” (Lyman also says that anyone who signs up at the Seattle Climate Action NOW website and takes a look at their carbon reduction tools before the workshop gets bonus points.) If you’re willing to take a long, hard look at your greenhouse gas impact, come to Lyman’s workshop at the Capitol Hill Branch Library on January 23rd from 3-4:30pm. Your carbon footprint will never be the same again.

Jen is a happy resident of Capitol Hill who hopes she never has to leave. She also pontificates about neighborhood issues on her own blog, Life on the Hill and Other Stories.

When I heard the rumor that a new bakery was coming to the neighborhood, I was interested.  But when I heard there was going to be pie…I knew I had to investigate. Mini Empire Bakery, brought to you by Capitol Hill residents Morgan Greenseth and Christy Beaver, is the newest contender in the fight for baked-goods supremacy on Capitol Hill.  What are they bringing into the ring? Small portions, less sugar, and of course…pie. 

On the smaller portions front is Christy Beaver’s creation, the “scookie”, a scone the size of a cookie. As for pies, Greenseth and Beaver claim that they’ve mastered the art of making pies in mason jars.  They’re sold already assembled and frozen, ready for gift-giving or baking.  In true Capitol Hill style, there are vegan options explicitly on the menu, and any other item Mini-Empire provides can be baked up vegan as well.

Beaver and Greenseth say they’ll have their big public launch on January 23rd to coincide with National Pie Day. The event will take place at Porchlight Coffee, and it will be a celebration of their signature mini-pie, the launch of their in-store sales and the launch of a shiny new website. While this event will be their introduction to the neighborhood, they’re not ready for brick and mortar just yet. “A storefront is at least one year out”, says Beaver. “We have a little more work to do financially, though we’re sailing right through perfecting recipes.” Until then, Greenseth and Beaver will be taking orders by email as usual and they also plan to sell their delicious creations at Porchlight Coffee and other Capitol Hill locations.