Category: Seattle

Here’s another house nearby mine, that is now gone, gone, gone. The stately 1905 construction was completely demolished, and in its place will come two 3-story buildings with three net-zero condominium homes each. (A net-zero home has zero net energy consumption).

I am sure there will be stretches of winter months when the new homes will not achieve net zero energy consumption (cold weather, short days of sun for the solar panels) – but they will then make up for it in the summer months.

The Star Legend passenger ship went through the Ballard Locks today to get to Lake Union from Puget Sound. News reports said it was the biggest vessel yet – but that must be by tonnage*.  The Star Legend’s beam is 67.5 ft (20.6 m), and the lock is 80 ft wide (24.4 m), so there was room to work with.

*In 1975, on-lookers beheld the extraordinary sight of a wide floating dry-dock vessel 81 ft wide (24.7 m), that was manoeuvred through by listing the vessel on her side, here.

Today I went to the annual downtown mayhem on Fourth Avenue – called the Seattle Pride parade – and stayed for some two hours to take a few pictures.
Then I walked down to the festivities (food & trinket booths, fountain, sound stage) by Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle.  The Center grounds were packed with so many people, that one could hardly move. I took a few more pictures, and then thought: Alright, I did my part, let’s go home.

Tonight, the sun set at 9.10 pm here in Seattle. It will rise at 5.11 am.
I see our pitch black night length here at the summer solstice point is only 1 hr 43 mins, if one takes out all the kinds of twilight.

It’s been more than three years since the Capitol Hill light rail train station here in my neighborhood opened (March 2016).

The construction of apartment buildings on the surrounding open plots of land will finally start. There was a little ceremony on Tuesday, with a few farmers’ market vendors on hand, and displays of the proposed construction, as well as the expansion plans for the light rail.

Some future stations were marked ‘service starts in 2036’ and ‘service starts in 2041’. Whoah. Where will the world be, and what will the world look like, then?

Here’s the scene at Madison Park Beach* late Sunday afternoon.
*Not a true beach. It’s a pebble beach on Lake Washington, northeast of the city of Seattle.

We had cool weather the last week or so. The high was 66°F/ 18 °C today, with a little bit of welcome rain here in the city. I see there is warm summer weather on the way for next week: low 90s/ 33 °C.

Wow. The Seattle City Council voted today to completely reverse the controversial ‘head tax’ that it had approved just on May 14.  There had been considerable opposition to it, and a grassroots effort garnered enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot.  Word is that the City Council feared the head tax, as well as an education levy (already on the November ballot), would be overturned in November by the citizenry, so they cut their losses and voted to reverse the head tax.

The homelessness problem is very complicated. No question that housing is too expensive. (So – find money and build more public housing?). Yes, many corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes, by using complicated offshore tax avoidance strategies. But it’s not just about affordability, either.  Many people are on the streets because they are mentally ill, or drug abusers, and the services available to them are too thin and underfunded.

It was ‘beers & a bite’ night for me and my compadres, at our usual Irish pub (The Chieftain) on 12th Avenue.
We usually try not to make the conversation all about politics and the Trump Administration Circus .. but it’s really hard not to!

Below is a still frame of a successful mountain rescue mission on Monday.  Four hikers got in trouble high up on Mt Baker, and had to shelter in a cave on Sunday night.

The rescue helicopter only had a 30 minute window of clear weather conditions.  Landing in the snow created tricky white-out conditions (churned- up snow powder), and the four hikers were the maximum load that could be accommodated by the helicopter.

I got my first of two shots, of a new shingles vaccine called Shingrix, yesterday.  My left shoulder was sore for a good day or so. I thought o-ouch! every time I lifted up my arm, but I am much better today.

The vaccine is effective, and strongly recommended for everyone over 50. Shingles can be a debilitating affliction with long-term consequences. This new vaccine has an adjuvant (agent) that will boost the body’s response to it, and it does not contain the live virus – just parts of the dead virus.

The Space Needle’s $100 million renovation project is coming to a close. Crews have started to remove the covers on the top. The paneling that is obscuring the rotating glass floor will be removed over the next four weeks as well.

Update Fri 5/18:  All the construction wrap was removed by Friday morning.

We hit 85°F (29°C) on Sunday – but now we are back to normal May temperatures of around 68°F (20°C).  It’s great to have daylight left after dinner (sunset is at 8.40 pm).  That way I can escape from my house and the relentlessly bad Trump Administration news on cable TV. (Yes, I know: I should just turn it off).

The Seattle City Council passed a controversial ‘head’ tax on large businesses in the city today (a tax per employee, instead of a payroll tax).  The tax is about half of the original proposed amount, and will sunset in 2024. It is meant to address homelessness and affordable housing.

The Downtown Seattle Association (business association) does not support it, though*, and Amazon is still not happy about it, either.  However, Amazon will resume construction on a building that it had halted, to protest the much larger head tax that was originally proposed.

*Nor do residents, with only 38% in support of the tax, per a poll by a local TV station.  Critics – and Amazon – point out that the City of Seattle revenues have grown dramatically from $2.8 billion in 2010 to $4.2 billion in 2017, and will be even higher in 2018. Why is this not enough?