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Who to know, where to eat & what to do in one of America’s most diverse zip codes!
{ 45 comments }
I noticed a small memorial of flowers and a candle on the corner of 50th and Henderson last night. A banner on the light pole had a name like Vendell.
Anyone know what that was about?
Did the kid from the shooting a week or so ago die?
It’s time to start tomatoes indoors! I am particularly excited about a new variety from territorial called “Indigo Rose.” Supposedly the tomatoes are deep blue! So excited…
Indigo would be between blue and violet, I’m not sure but I don’t think there are any naturally blue foods, even blueberries are more puple than blue.
I bet the tomatoes look cool though, I will have to look for some.
This is kind of cool, Little Richard when he was about 4 or 5.
http://www.wimp.com/oldschool/
Wow, thanks Mark B! That made my day.
It isn’t Little Richard, though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Chile_Robinson
Interesting that he basically gave up a career in music in favor of an education. I’d never heard of him before today – thanks again, Mark B.
I was sent some wrong info.
Thank You for the correction.
It’s fun when some new piece of information sends you off wandering the web – not like there isn’t other stuff I should be doing instead.
@Michelle,
Not to rain on your tomato project, but have you checked out Mintners? They have a ton of tomato varieties for starts in the spring. I tried one from Kentucky or Tennessee last year that was a deep red, almost blackish color. They had Brazillian rainbow peppers too that were hot but gorgeous.
what’s going on at rainier and henderson? It’s 5 pm on friday and the intersection is full of cops and I hear the news helicopter… don’t see any broken glass, so I’m assuming shooting and not car accident
On the other hand, I’m hearing a call coming in for a guy behind Dick’s drive in on Broadway swinging a sword. At least we don’t have that in the hood!
lady got hit by an apparently impaired SUV driver hurt pretty bad with life threatening injuries!
http://www.rainiervalleypost.com/woman-near-death-after-being-hit-by-suv-in-rainier-beach/
Minters in Renton is a great garden & flower place. Nice comment Carol.
I got our most prolific ever tomato plant at Minters last spring. Plan to get the same variety from there this year.
AWESOME NEWS……………
The Amazon Cafe and Karaoke Mess is NOW OFFICIALLY CLOSED! 2/4/12 was the last day! The landlord already has another tenant that will be a restaurant ONLY and no club! I can finally get some sleep!
Seadawg you beat me to it! I was going to announce that it looks like it might be some kind of Ethiopian restaurant. Not sure yet, but so glad the music has stopped there! Yeehaw! Enjoy your sleep, I know I will!
So, i’m curious. Was the “Welcome to the new sponsor, Mars Hill” post pulled because it got some negative comments, or was it because you’ve decided to not take money from a religious organization known for it’s extremist views?
Seadawg, great to hear there is peace in the valley!
“Extremist” is in the eye of the beholder. Why not let others sample what Mars Hill has to offer and agree or disagree with that opinion and judgement for themselves? Or is it diversity in everyting but thought and belief? In that area we must walk in Orwellian lock-step? In which case everyone must toe the politically correct, post-modern, progressive mantra? Or can we tolerate an organization that holds different views than our own? I certainly hope so.
You know, once you step outside of Seattle, there are vast swaths of the rest of the State of Washington and the rest of the country that believe that morals are not relative, that truth is universal and not relative to the individual, that gender role differentiation (without making one gender superior to the other) is appropriate and real, etc. I am not saying that I, or anyone else, should agree with that point of view, but shouldn’t we walk the talk as far as being tolerant and respectful toward one another?
After all, if one value is as good as another, as the post-modern, progressive world view advocates, then it also follows that no value, or set of values, is any worse than any other. You wind up in a Nihilistic world, where “truth” and “right and wrong” are merely what an individual affirms them to be for themselves. Law and the rules of society are merely what the majority decides it ought to be, and someone like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr., have nothing to appeal to (e.g. Universal truth and moral absolutes that transend the will of a majority – like that which existed in the “Jim Crow” South – a, or whatever the mechanism is that imposes law and moral order on a society) when the social contract – like that imposed by the electoral and social majority of the Jim Crow South – opresses them.
You can’t have it both ways.
Nobody’s stopping anyone from ‘sampling’ the Mars Hill megachurch. If that’s the kind of thing you’re into, “have at it,” I say! Those professing to be Christian are still the majority in the U.S., so I don’t think they have anything to fear from the naysaying of non-believers like me.
so, george, you’ve no problem with the RVP being sponsored by a church that practically condones homophobia and misogyny, huh?
well, i do. i would think it would have something to do with unbiased reporting….
@musicanimal & others: I am taking the issue, including some of your comments, under consideration with the intention of making a thoughtful decision one way or the other.
I will say that spirited, civil debate is the cornerstone of a free, democratic society, and – IMHO – one of the most valuable and rewarding things about the RVP and its readership.
George, there are certain religious organizations that prey on the weakness of people and use their power over others in a negative way. Mars Hill is one of those organizations. When some homeless people were living in their cars near their Ballard location many years ago, Mars Hill went to extreme measures to have those people removed. Did they attempt to link them to services? Did they offer them food or a place to keep warm? No. They had tantrums, and called on the city to have them removed.
This organization also has a history of spewing hate towards sexual minorities. Should that be religious freedom or freedom of speech to preach hate? I don’t think anyone in the valley wants to open their arms to the KKK, but they have freedom of speech.
Women are seen has weak and in need of a man in this organization. Is that something we want to teach our daughters?
They have a right to preach, but I would hope that the people of RV reject this ideology. It’s not “progress”.
I am not a Christian, but there are a number of Christian organizations that I respect for their work in our community, for their compassion. This organization is not one of them. And I can make a choice to no longer participate in the comments or read the information that RVP has provided for me for 5 years. It would be a loss in my life. Amber does great work. It’s sad to me. But I cannot support Mars Hill. I cannot support the Komen Foundation after last week’s debacle. Those are my choices. I support women’s health. I support services and outreach for the poor, and I definitely support my own Gay Family. My daughter needs that from me, and I won’t have it any other way.
musicanimal,
You are stating bias and opinion of your own and stating it as fact. Why not let a news outlet do what news outlets are supposed to do and report (or take statements from both sides on its opinion pages) on the issue and let readers decide for themselves. The point here is not which side is correct, but that their be a forum for both sides to make their case and for readers to make up their mind.
There shouldn’t be you, me, Mars Hill, or anyone else getting to silence speakers in the debate by shutting out a voice or voices from the public square. If the politically correct left can do that, how are they any better than the churches of old that used to do the same thing.
The French philosopher Voltaire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire was right. He wrote in the time of the French Revolution against the totalitarianism and injustice of Monarchy. Those that deposed the Monarchy in the name of liberty and democracy, went on to create a mob rule that resulted in wholesale lynchings, imprisonment and slaughter. Thomas Jefferson, who was initially for it, became appauled.
We can’t be a freedom and diversity, in everything but thought, society. If we do, we become totalitarian (whether the totalitarianism and political correctness is imposed by censorship of the left or right matters not, the result is still the same) and tyranical.
Give the people of the Rainier Valley some credit. Why should you or Mars Hill have the right to decide for them by shutting your opinion or theirs on the subjects you raise out of the news and information publications of the community? Are you so paternalistic as to deny them that and to criticize the Rainier Valley Post or any other information source for allowing each side’s case into the public square?
BTW, I’d feel the same way about the issue if it was the Humanist Church, the Atheist Club or a GLBT sponsor that wanted to support the RVP and get their five minutes of fame with that sponsorship. The point of view is not relevant. Preserving civil liberties and tolerance, including tolerance for thought we might disagree with, or find abhorent, is what a forum like the RVP ought to be about. It is consistent with the diversity and tolerance that makes the 98118 so great.
I respectfully disagree, George. A sponsor is not participating in dialogue. They are paying money to promote their business. Mars Hill has a lot of money. I have no idea what Island Soul thinks about me and my wife, but they are RVP sponsors (I do love their catfish and greens). Also, if an organization that serves GLBT communities has a history of preaching hate (minus – hey you don’t support me marrying my partner, f*** you), then I would definitely think that would affect their ability to be sponsors of media outlets. We would all know about it, and we would all be repelled. I have a similar response to Mars Hill. I don’t agree with any religious organizations, but I definitely see their purpose in society, just not in my life. I support freedom of and from religion. Mars Hill has the freedom to f*** over and manipulate all the puppets that they want. I won’t buy RVP wears, donate whenever asked, or read as frequently if RVP wants to promote Mars Hill or any other hate preaching organization (honestly, I am not going to break anyone’s bank with my contributions…I live in a tiny house in the hood and drive a car that’s 16 years old. mkay?)
I turned on the news this morning and the first thing I saw was that piece of sh*t killed his 2 children (and presumably his wife) WTF is wrong with people these days.
Well what did you think he was gonna do miss social worker? You dont just take a mans children and expect him to walk away. The system blew it.
Whitney,
Not far from what you are saying to an Orwellian Thought Police. The press needs to take advertisements (speech)/sponsorship from everyone or nobody. That is the policy of the Seattle Times, KUOW, and even The Stranger. That is what the media does. Allow people to purchase speech in a public forum.
… and as a practical matter, how long do you think the RVP can survive and offer this forum to everyone on a shoestring before its owner decides “screw this, I’ve got mouths to feed?” Then nobody gets this forum. Its not adds from the humanist, post-modernist, left, OR the social conservative “Mars Hill” “Right”, but “BOTH/AND”. If you want to arrange the firing squad in circle, that seems both intolerant and self-defeating.
George, I am talking about my own personal choice. I am not talking about a system that support my own personal choice. There can also be communities that live by certain standards. Seattle doesn’t always make choices as a group of people that I agree with, but I know that I won’t lose my job or housing, and my kid won’t be denied an education because she has two moms. Seriously man, you’re not making sense. Your rational is similar to the conservative senators on the floor of our state senate last week that claimed if gays could marry, there would be intolerance and hatred toward religious organizations and people that oppose. It makes no sense. keep these people (scary gays) as second class citizens or they could have the power to persecute others? Really, my wife and I just want some f’ing equality. Otherwise, kindly reduce the taxes that I pay to the system that supports our unequal status.
I always find it odd when a religious org advertises at all, like it’s a business, but they don’t have to pay taxes (all of these orgs should pay taxes since they are businesses).
I also dont get george’s extra verbosity defending wacky Christian Fundies. Remember the recent hate speech about Mitt Romney’s Mormon background a couple months ago? As the tired saying goes: kettle, pot, black when it comes to borderline cults. Mildly amusing…
If the operators of RVP want to take on Mars Hill as a sponsor, then so be it; if some of the readership leaves because of it, it’s on them. Like Devo says, freedom of choice, it’s what we got. Besides, it’s not like there’s other sponsors out there.
Here’s the Seattle PI article about said Mars Hill wackiness from Oct 2011, enjoy:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/10/19/mars-hill-pastor-mormonism-is-a-cult/
I was glad to catch up via your online Rainier Valley Post with some of the local events of the last few months. I wanted to drop a note to you as I prepare to go to the Seward Park Lakewood Community center this evening to hear city leaders speak on the recent increase in street crime and violence. While reading your RV Post I was struck that your blog was almost entirely crime stories. I was hoping for a far more positive and interesting stories of the people and events of the area.
An example of another local online neighborhood news / community blog I frequently keep up on the the Capital Hill Blog. I see two very different impressions of vibrant growing neighborhoods. The Capital Hill Blog (CHB) reports on all manner of positive events and developments as well as concerns and crime events. Capital Hill has more crime mostly because of the population density. The reporting of crime on Capital Hill in the CHB is set amongst rich and varied reporting of all the other things going on around the Hill. My comment is meant as positive input about the direction and possibilities of the RVP. In reading the RVP today the reporting was about 80% crime. Reporting and follow up reporting on the same events. While crime reporting is an important informational service to the community it reads like a scare sheet focused on the crimes, dangers and generalized fear of living in this area. It does not begin to fully describe the neighborhood I know. I’ve lived here in Seward Park for twenty years, sent two kids through local schools and have been reasonably active in supporting the local schools. I’ve never had a negative run in that was out of proportion with any other area of Seattle. Gangs, street thugs, house break ins, car-jackings, armed robberies, domestic violence, and even murders happen quite simply everywhere. Our neighborhood is no exception. Frankly the neighborhood I read about in the RVP I would never want to drive through, go to, or get out of my car and walk around, let alone live in.
I do not have rose colored glasses on. Having lived in Manhattan for many years, I have a good sense of the constant effort it takes to keep crime at bay and how important it is for the community to band together. That is why people are rallying to head off a spike in street crime. That said I would encourage your RVP to broaden it’s reporting and story development to include the incredibly diverse and overwhelmingly positive events that take place here every day. It would be great to see 85% of your stories to be of expanding interest and engagement in the lives and businesses of your neighborhood. It is in fact a great neighborhood to live here in Seattle.
Orwell’s 1984 came about due to DIVERSITY of opinion, and required tolerance of ALL views. This is what communism is all about. Achieving political correct perfection!
Through forced tolerance of all views, we arrive at no social consensus on what is evil, or what is good. The State is then allowed to determine this for us. The State is, of course, run by the ultra-wealthy elites, in a socialist or communist regime. So those elites get to choose what is good and evil for the rest of us. What is good is good for the State (the elites). What is evil is bad for the State (the elites).
Demoralization of the US is the communist method of destabilizing Christianity, which is the moral cornerstone of this country’s political framework. Communist influences have been working on the US for decades, slowly breaking us down. If you are strongly anti-Christian, pro-gay, and pro-environment, you have likely been heavily influenced by very manipulative media propaganda that has been going on for most your life. This propaganda is intentional and financially backed by the richest elites the world has ever known. You don’t believe it because it directly challenges “your” beliefs, but imagine it it was 100% true and you didn’t discover this until many years down the road? What a fool you would be for that, huh?
Scott,
I hate to tell you but you’ve been lucky. Based on SPD published stats, you are 4x more likely to be a victim of gun crimes in the South Precinct than you are in the North Precinct.
As for Manhattan it is mostly very safe with the exception of a few neighborhoods. Thank gentrification and the NYPD for that.
Stay Safe,
Tom T
@Buddhist Practitioner: Oh, please. Explain to us how a pro-gay, pro-environment “agenda” benefits the elite.
Sometimes I Feel Like I’m The Only One Trying To Gentrify This Neighborhood
When I moved into this neighborhood, I fell in love right away. Not with the actual neighborhood, but with its potential: It’s affordable, there are nice row houses all around just waiting to be filled up by my friends, there’s lot of open space to be exploited, and plenty of parking. Plus, this area has got a great authentic feel and, with a little work, it could be even more authentic. Perfect, right?
So why am I the only one doing anything about it?
I am always telling my other struggling artist, freelance graphic designer, and independent T-shirt-maker friends that this is the neighborhood to take it to. It’s the next big thing. Sure, it’s an hour from my day job and right next to a stinky canal and a power station, but that’s the whole charm—it keeps the yuppies out.
It’s frustrating, though. My friends insist they’re happy where they are. But if they only saw the idealized neighborhood I see, where that rundown old health clinic is turned into a tattoo parlor, and that Last Supper mural is replaced with one featuring Radiohead or a stylized corporate octopus, they’d come around.
The problem is that the property owners here are clueless. They fill their yards with pavement and statues of the Virgin Mary, when all they have to do is clear that brush and we’d have a great beer garden or bocce court. They’re spending all this money to renovate the old church, when it’d be put to better use split it up into condos. My landlord has no idea this apartment—hell, every apartment in this building—is undervalued. He could quadruple his profits by cutting my place in half. So I give him an extra 20 bucks a month hoping he gets the hint, but he just takes it out of the next month’s rent.
Do any of these people appreciate what the neighborhood they’re living in could be?
I’m trying to convince the owners of that taqueria on the corner to change their décor to incorporate some more of that funky Day Of The Dead motif I really like. But they insist on bland white walls. Ugh! I can barely pronounce the name, let alone enjoy its delicious, reasonably priced meals. Plus, you could take all the cool stuff from the five thrift stores and make one really great vintage shop. They’d make a fortune! And, you know, we would all have a fantastic view of downtown if only they’d tear down that dilapidated garage by the waterfront. Or, better yet, they could turn it into a restaurant with a roof deck. Can you say “brunch on the harbor”?
I can’t be the only one who’d like to see a community garden and dog run around here, can I?
It sure would help attract people like me if there was a record store, too, and not the one with the giant Shakira cutout in the window. I mean a decent one. I went in to see if they had the new Fiery Furnaces, and they had never heard of it. They said they’d see if they could order it for me, but I declined. I mean, what’s the point of supporting a local business if it’s not cool?
It feels like I’m the only one trying to do any good around here.
When I first moved in, I loved the 50-cent coffees—it was like living in the ’80s—but I wish they’d listen to me and start making lattes. I know I’d pay the extra three bucks, and I’m sure everyone else around here would, too.
I’ve tried being proactive. But none of the locals I’ve talked to about bringing in a co-op health-food grocery store have seemed excited at all. Nor have I gotten any of them to take part in my community open-house idea for hip young people to come see what this neighborhood is capable of. What did they do instead? They had a barbecue. With very loud music.
I mean, I don’t want the people here to leave. I just want them to stay inside more. Especially if they’re not going to do anything to bring this community to life. But they’re always out on their stoops, just playing dominoes or talking. I like talking, but I do it inside, where it was meant to be done. It makes me uncomfortable to have people watching me all the time. Not that I think they’d do anything, but I just like to be a little more private.
Also, their dogs stay outside and bark all day. I like dogs just fine, but why can’t their dogs be smaller and more nervous?
It’s getting to the point where I feel like I’m tilting at windmills. But I can’t give up—I know this neighborhood would benefit from the diversity of more people like me moving in. If you need a good place to live, come check out my ‘hood. It’s quirky, but it could use a few more creative types to get it jumping. But no developers—those guys just ruin it for the rest of us.
From the Onion -2006
It intrigues me to see people argue in hating manners against so called religious institutes that want to come into Rainier Valley and most likely help the community. For you that speaks against Mars Hill you’re surely using a hatred tone. You are definitely no different.
@Scott: Seriously? The Capital Hill Blog also reports on Facebook rants by bitchy waitresses who slander innocent people and then lie about it. I certainly hope the RVP doesn’t aspire to be anything like the Capital Hill Blog.
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2011/10/14/chs-talks-to-the-wrong-andrew-meyer
Whitney,
No what I am saying is that, one’s committment to free speech is whether they will defend the right to speak of those they disagree with. Whether you, me, or anyone else agrees with Mars Hill’s position on homosexuality, a strong differentiation of genger roles, and other things commented on here is really beside the point. If we are truely tolerant, we will not try to discourage them from coming into the public square, and dialoguing with us, and us with them, by threatening any publication that sells them an add. Let them become a sponsor or advertiser and use that as a platform to speak, and let the rest of the community respectfully agree or dissagree. We can tolerate (we do more than that, we embrace it, that is one of the reasons I like it here) diversity of race here, diversity of culture, diversity of orientation, but we can’t tolerate diversity of thought and belief about social or other issues?
How do you justify that, without starting an objectively unprovable, intellectual pre-supposition that what you believe about those issues is correct and beyond question? How can they? Better to let everyone speak their peace and let folks decide. Are there some subjects that are off limits to disagreement and difference of opinion? Who decides? You? Mars Hill?
Political correctness and tolerance, as you seem to recon it, is not the lack of disagreement, it just means all of us, or certain out-of-favor world views, are off-limits and we will push those who differ with us out of the public square through explicit, implicit, direct, or indirect coersion into the closets and shadows. Sound familiar? It should. Having likely experienced it yourself, why would you impose that on others, or coerce one of the few publications that discusses the wonderful diversity and life of the 98118 at all, into doing it for you by rejecting a sponsorship or advertisements. Who’s next? A Somali group because their Muslim based views about women’s dress offend our cultural sensibilities? What about the Budhists, because they don’t believe in God at all, and we don’t want to hear their critique of our western, material lifestyles? Who’s next?
The more I read what is written here, the more convinced I become that Voltaire’s classic view of pluralism and tolerance was correct, rather than the post-modern, progressive view of “tolerance” that twists Voltaire’s conception of it on its head.
“I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death, your right to say it.” (especially if I disagree with it!)
Whitney,
Are you describing Mars Church or the Catholic Church?
Always tough to know where to draw the line.
@Whitney: I value your perspective, and am sad to lose your support, but respectfully disagree.
Ironically enough, I put your long-overdue “I heart RV” sticker in the mail just hours before your first Mars Hill comment. Sorry it took so long. It doesn’t have RVP anywhere on it, so I hope you’ll still wear it with pride.
I do have to ask though: What about a local publication that sells kids for sex on its back page? Or the local paper that takes ad money from corporate banks? Where does it stop? And who am I to exert such moral authority over the nearly 13,000 readers who use this site?
On a practical level, who do you think should pay to keep this site running? Me? The readers who use it so voraciously? Someone else?
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