In honor of Seattle Aquarium Octopus Week, February 14-24, I want to give you an update on the effort to ban recreational harvest of giant Pacific octopus (GPO) off of Seacrest Park. You might remember that last Halloween a state-licensed SCUBA diver caught an octopus off of Seacrest Park and brought it out of the water at Cove 2. [...]

We few, we hearty few, we band of neighbors.  Thanks to Linda Mitchell for organizing the event; thanks to everyone who showed up and picked up trash; thanks to Bob Donegan from Ivar’s Acres of Clams and Kyle Griffith from the Great Wheel and Sour Dough Bakery for the breakfast and lunch, and thanks, to [...]

Today in the Parks and Neighborhoods Committee meeting, we did the following: Passed two pieces of legislation on to full council, Held a public hearing on the partial transfer of jurisidiction of two pieces of subterranean property from Parks to SPU, Heard from our wonderful Parks Trusts volunteers, and Got caught up on events and [...]

At the upcoming special November 20, 11 a.m. Parks and Neighborhoods Committee meeting, we will discuss proposed legislation – a council bill and a resolution – that address the Sand Point Overlay. While the legislation is specific to Subarea C (see map), Building 9 will be discussed because it falls within this area. Building 9’s [...]

I am pleased that after months of discussion, we are seriously considering a new arena for our SuperSonics and potentially an NHL team. I have moved from “Really? Spend public money on yet another sports arena?” to a qualified, “Yes.”  The proposed plan can work for the people and entities that concern me deeply: the City [...]

We started the June 21 Parks and Neighborhoods Committee meeting with a report from Department of Parks and Recreation’s acting (DPR) Superintendent Christopher Williams. Superintendent’s Report Christopher opened his report with the great news that the Coca-Cola Company gave Beacon BIKES a $10,000 award for the Beacon BIKES Circulation Plan Congratulations to Beacon BIKES! Coming up [...]

In last week’s Parks and Neighborhoods committee meeting, we gave four homeowners some good news – we approved their applications for a program that preserves green space in return for a tax break. The program, called “Current Use Taxation,” or CUT, gives tax relief to property owners who agree to maintain their property as open [...]

This blog features highlights from the Parks and Neighborhoods committee meeting of April 5, 2012. (See the meeting on video instead.) Funding opportunities for local parks projects Reminder! The technical assistance workshops for the Parks Opportunity Fund are coming up at the end of May. These workshops are open to anyone interested in learning about [...]

Conserving what’s on the bottom of our oceans can be a tough sell.  We can’t see it or touch it.  It’s out of sight and out of mind for all of us except a few scientists. That’s changing, thanks to the contributions of marine scientists James L. Bodkin and Elliott A. Norse, and others like them, to the [...]

As I walked to work in the sunshine last Thursday, I noticed something I’ve seen too many times downtown lately – private clean-up crews out with noisy gas powered blowers blowing leaves off of their sidewalks directly into the street. Property owners may think they are doing the right thing by cleaning off their sidewalks, but [...]