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The Blue Scholars – the south-end’s own homegrown hip-hop kings – have updated their 2008 “Coffee and Snow” video with “Coffee and Snow II” (above):
It snowed again. So we filmed something… again.
The original “Coffee and Snow” (above):
It snowed. So we filmed something.
Which Coffee and Snow video do you prefer? The original (2008) or the latest (2010)?
The city recently announced the completion of a “comprehensive effort to revamp and upgrade its winter storm readiness and response plan,” including which streets will be the highest priority to plow, and in southeast Seattle, Rainier Avenue South is it (see dark green lines in map below).
The second south-end priority would be plowing one lane in either direction on main roads such as Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Beacon Avenue South, Wilson Avenue South, 50th Avenue South, South Graham Street, South Othello Street, South Myrtle Street and South Henderson Street (see dark blue linesin map below).
“Based on nationwide best practices, our new plan will ensure Seattle is ready for any kind of winter storm,” said SDOT Director Grace Crunican. “With an aggressive, high-tech oriented approach and new leadership, SDOT will keep people and goods moving in Seattle during challenging winter weather.”
Learn more about the city’s new winter weather plan and preparations for the upcoming winter season tonight, Tues., Oct. 20, at 7 pm at Jefferson Community Center (3801 Beacon Ave. S.) or get more info here.
Snopocalypse 2008 proved to be a political disaster for Mayor Nickels and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). Photo/do communications, inc.
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Mayor Greg Nickels invites Seattle residents to tell him and his department heads just how bad they @#$%-ed up last month in allowing the city to become paralyzed by a little bit of snow and ice.
Good thing it was just Mother Nature and not a terrorist attack. Who needs a dirty bomb when you’ve got snow falling in the freaking Northwest?
Anyway, according to the mayor’s peeps, “the input is being gathered as part of a citywide performance review of emergency snow operations” and “will offer residents an informal opportunity to talk one-on-one with the mayor and meet with staff from transportation, utilities and other departments.”
The closest one to our ‘hood is tomorrow, Wed., Jan. 14, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Garfield Community Center (2323 E. Cherry St.).
And if you really want to follow the big investigation the city is conducting, we suggest that you hop over and visit our friends at the West Seattle Blog where Tracy Record has been providing the kind of ultra-thorough coverage that she is so darn good at:
A question from Councilmember Jan Drago then drew an admission from Graff that emergency-management leaders were not getting the same input as councilmembers and the mayor, regarding public feedback that things were a mess. The council is going to figure out how to fix that for the future; as Councilmember Sally Clark noted, “One of the knocks we are all getting is that the city didn’t realize how bad it was, and why DIDN’T the city realize how bad it was and change the plan?”Councilmember Tom Rasmussen wanted to know more about whether emergency managers could have helped the apparent communications gap between SDOT and Metro, in which Metro’s Kevin Desmond had said he wasn’t getting his phone calls returned. Don’t Desmond and SDOT director Grace Crunican have each others’ phone numbers? he asked. “Well, I’m sure they have them NOW,” Graff replied, adding, “We accepted a lot of phone calls from Metro that I can say we channeled to a ‘live person’ at SDOT.”
Reads like a freaking soap opera, I tell you. It’s GREAT. Pathetic to be sure, but entertaining nonetheless. Did we really elect these people?
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In a Bushian effort to claim “mission accomplished” before the event is even over, the Mayor gave the city a “B” for effort nearly two weeks ago, even as garbage continues to litter south-end streets more than three weeks after some SPU customers last had their trash picked up.
So it’s not surprising that there was an unprecedented response to our most recent poll asking “What grade would you give the city in its response to Snowpocalypse ’08?” Nearly 130 readers responded and most (35%) gave the city a “D”, while 30% gave local government a failing grade. Only three people thought it deserved an “A”, while 11% said “B” and 20% said “C”.
South-end streets are still a mess in many places. These trashy photos were taken just a few hours ago and while the top one was taken behind a Beacon Hill apartment building, the bottom photo was taken right on MLK, Jr. Way, just south of Othello Station. What gives, SPU? Photo/do communications, inc.
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Rainier Valley neighbor and faithful reader Anne-Marie Eitreim spotted this one-horse open sleigh on Wilson Avenue South in the Seward Park/Columbia City area yesterday. What fun! Thanks, Anne-Marie!
Taejon Park on Beacon Hill is named in honor of Seattle’s South Korean sister city. The park features a traditional Korean pavilion and views of Mount Rainier.
This lovely scene was caught half-way between Mt. Baker and Mt. Baker Beach.
One of the best ways to get around the valley right now being expertly demonstrated by Othello neighbors Tamara and Jemma Guyton. You go, girls!
Can you see the menorah staying warm inside behind the icicles? Happy Hanukkah!
Through rain, sleet or snow is your reliable postal carrier…
Photos by do communications, inc. unless otherwise noted.
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We spent two hours traversing the valley today for photos and details of road conditions throughout the south-end, and there’s a lot to tell, if you’re into that sort of thing. If you’re not, then here’s the bottom line: It’s a hot (cold) mess out there on the roads, and unless you’ve got chains or 4WD, you really shouldn’t bother.
What you see above is from Martin Luther King, Jr. Way (MLK) looking west on McClellan towards Beacon Hill. Note that McClellan is closed between Rainier and 23rd, so isn’t an option in getting up or down Beacon Hill.
And while arterials like MLK, Rainier and Beacon Avenue are generally plowed by the city, we noticed today that MLK is plowed from Henderson in Rainier Beach through Rainier in Mt. Baker only. After that, those roads get ugly for unprepared vehicles.
Lake Park Drive in Mt. Baker is a winter wonderland, especially from the vantage point above, which is from Mt. Baker Park looking down the hill to Lake Washington Blvd. The road however is mainly slush and compact ice, which makes for dangerous driving without chains or 4WD.
So worth the effort if you can make it though! Note that Lake Washington Blvd. is apparently not considered an arterial and therefore is not being plowed.
31st Avenue South in Mt. Baker is closed from McClellan to Franklin High School. Not sure what makes this street any different from 30th, 32nd or 33rd, but it was the only one with this cool sign. Other than that, all the side streets in Mt. Baker and elsewhere throughout the valley looked pretty similar.
We observed more incidences of reckless and aggressive driving in two hours today than we have all year, which is so weird and dangerous considering what the roads are like – even the plowed ones. Good news is that the Columbia City Starbucks was open… (MLK/Graham St. drive-through was not)
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if your car looks anything like this one and it has no chains, you will get stuck and/or slide all over the place and perhaps kill someone, crash into other cars and otherwise create mayhem. Doesn’t a cup of hot cocoa and a book by the fire sound better?
Rainier looking east up Graham Street – lots of snow and compact ice on the side streets and major slush and ice on the arterials.
A Seattle Police Department (SPD) patrol officer stops traffic while a homeless neighbor struggles to get his cart across MLK. It’s 33 degrees outside.
He finally makes it across with the help of a good Samaritan, and is even more screwed in the median where there’s nearly a foot of impassible snow.
Looking west up Columbian Way through New Holly towards Beacon Hill. Another bad choice for climbing the hill…
Rainier and Henderson looks exactly like Rainier and Graham, Rainier and Orcas, Rainier and Edmunds, etc., etc. In other words, lots of slush, compact ice and stupid people running red lights. Seriously.
Photos/do communications, inc.
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Beacon Hill writer, performer and raconteur Brian McGuigan publishes his “Bus Bitch” column on a semi-regular basis (when he feels like it). Email him with your stories, tips and pictures of your bus-riding calamities. In the meantime, here’s his latest – a super useful guide to getting around in what he’s so aptly coined the “Snowpocalypse”.
If you’re anything like me (and for your sake, I hope you are) than by now, the snow has lost its sedentary-inducing, Dean Martin-on-the-stereo-as-cookies-bake, cardboard-box-cum-sleigh charm, and you have probably done absolutely all the sitting on the couch, watching TV, Internets surfing, drinking, eating, anxiously cleaning, Christmas-shopping (Online, of course.) and planning you can handle.
And some of you may actually have to go into work or buy groceries or, dare I say it, just want to get out of the freaking house. Only there is—depending on where in the Rainier Valley you live—upwards of 12 inches of snow out there (More than a foot and a half in my backyard!). Not something you should be driving in unless you have 4WD, chains or a snow plow attached to your front end (Let Nickels know! He needs you right now!)
Of course, the poor weather doesn’t bode so well for Seattle Metro, which is running at a significantly reduced capacity. More than 300 buses had been out of commission over the snowy weekend— cutting service back to less than 80% of its normal levels (If you ride Metro regularly, you know the normal levels are crap, so crap minus 80% is…; you do the math.).
Despite the malevolent fisting the Rainier Valley usually receives from Metro, our buses are actually running, somewhat. The 7 (Minus the Prentice loop), 34, 36 (to Beacon and Cloverdale), 106, 42 (No service S. of Rainier and Henderson) and 49 are all reportedly running adverse weather routes. RV Routes not running are the 14 (No service to Mt. Baker.) and the 39 (Shuttle between the VA and Rainier Beach only) and most anything south of Rainier and Henderson.
However, reports from the commute this morning were grim, as it took commuters as much as two hours to get Downtown from the RV with buses stalling out on major arterials and some passing groups of bundled up straphangers altogether. This, of course, isn’t promising news for the evening’s commute when temperatures are expected to dip further below freezing with snow in the forecast for the next few days.
So, unless you’re hoofing it (Get out those boots!) or in the mood to wait in the cold for a few hours, your best bet is to stay in—no matter how close you are to cabin fever—or put your gloves on and shovel. Might as well get a head start.
If you’ve braved the Snowpocalypse by bus or by car, tell us how you did it in the Comments below. If you aren’t leaving your house until we go back to the regularly scheduled season of rain, tell us what you’re doing to pass the time. We need some ideas…
Lots of cold people waiting for a northbound bus at Rainier and McClellan. Photo/do communications, inc.
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Who to know, where to eat & what to do in one of America’s most diverse zip codes!