The Seattle City Council’s Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee will hold and follow-up discussion and vote on the preferred location for Queen Anne’s Fire Station 20, tomorrow, Wednesday, October 7 at the City Council Chambers inside City Hall, at 600 4^th Avenue at 9:30 a.m.

Currently located at 13th Avenue West and West Dravus Street on the north side of the hill, the Council is charged with deciding whether or not to rebuild the existing station or move it to a new location at 15^th Avenue West and West Armour Street. Tomorrow’s vote is one of two deciding votes coming up in the next week.

According to Christa Dumpys from the Queen Anne/Magnolia Neighborhood Service Center, a Council staff report on the new site will be presented before the committee tomorrow, after which Councilmember Tim Burgess invites public comment and discussion before taking the vote. The proposal will then be voted on by the full council on Monday, October 12.

For more information on tomorrow’s meeting, click here. The October 12 meeting before the full council will be at 2 p.m. More information on that here.

If you can’t make it to the meeting, you can watch the cablecasts live on Seattle Channel 21, or read the meeting minutes, which will be available on the City Council website.

The Interbay Whole Foods is approaching its opening date, now scheduled for one day earlier than previously announced. Originally set to open on October 14, the store will be opening its doors one day early, on Tuesday, October 13.

“Yes we are opening one day early as we are so organized!” said PR representative Vicki Foley.

As you can see from this picture, the store looks pretty much ready to go. The shelves are stocked and everything seems to be in place.  Whole Foods announced in January that the store in the Interbay Retail Center on 15th Ave West would open in December but have since continued to move up the time frame.

Our sister site, Magnolia Voice was the first to report last September that the project at Interbay was stopped when the developer filed suit against Whole Foods for breaching the lease.  The original opening was set for last Thanksgiving.  Peet’s Coffee, Subway and Dry Cleaner have already opened.  The Magic Dragon Chinese Eatery is set to open soon.

Last night was the Mayoral and City Council Candidate Forum, held in the Ballard High School auditorium. Put on by the Magnolia/Queen Anne and Ballard district councils, community members were invited to ask the candidates questions about their policies and future plans. Moderated by Seattle Channel‘s C.R. Douglas, the forum was comprised of questions submitted beforehand by the communities, audience queries and a series of “lightening rounds,” where candidates held up one of three cards: “Yes,” “No,” and “Waffle” (Literally. The card showed a picture of waffles).

First up were the eight City Council candidates. Beginning promptly at 6:30 p.m., each candidate was given one minute to summarize why they wanted the position. Some topics of particular interest included the Viaduct construction, the proposed tunnel, and whether or not these projects should come before or after critical and much-needed maintenance of other citywide infrastructure, such as the Magnolia Bridge.

The candidates also discussed a recent statistic stating that violent crime in Seattle went up 22 percent in the first six months of the year, debating over how the city should expand it’s law enforcement programs – if and how the numbers should be increased, if the city should revamp the way it utilizing its officers, and whether money should be taken from other programs to fund an increase in law enforcement.

The candidates also discussed the proposed Mercer Street Corridor, budget prioritizing, public transportation and district representation. In the lightening rounds, all favored expanding the park ranger program in the city, and Mayor Nickels’ gun ban in Seattle owned properties such as parks, city run buildings and the Seattle Center. They all agreed that developers should be required to provide public open space, and that foot and bike patrols should be expanded in neighborhood business districts. None of them believes that human services should be cut in order to balance the budget.

Next up were mayoral candidates Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn, who took that stage for the second half of the forum, demonstrating, along with Douglas, that they could have a little fun amidst a serious discussion. During one of the the lightening rounds, McGinn held up the back-side of his waffle card, to show a blank white page. After a few moments, Douglas poked a bit of fun at the candidate, asking him what the blank page meant, to which McGinn responded “I don’t know what it means. I think we have to look at it. Some questions actually require answers.” Rather than moving on to the next lightening question, on several occasions each candidate began to explain their reasoning to the room, at which point Douglas had to intercede jokingly, “No talking,” and “Soon we’ll have questions that actually allow answers.”

This showed an eagerness on the part of the candidates, who expanded on key issues like the transportation, education, jobs, citywide environmentalism, low income housing and crime (to name just a few) when the floor was opened up to community questions. And, of course, one of the biggest topics was the Viaduct, its optioned plans, and other proposals to better public transportation and ease congestion. This also happened to be where the two candidates disagreed the most. Mallahan is in support of the expansion of current highway systems and the Viaduct tunnel plans, while McGinn is against the tunnel, saying it’s too expensive, instead opting for the development of a comprehensive network of strong mass transit systems, including the expansion of Light Rail across the 520 bridge.

Both candidates concluded with strong words against the others’ transportation position.

“He’s not thinking about people,” Mallahan said of McGinn’s stance on the proposed Viaduct tunnel, and his plans for the future of public transport. “His vision is impractical, and it’s the worst thing we could do in this economy.”

McGinn emphasized the need for a new system. “We haven’t learned from 50 years of experience from highways,” he said. “High capacity transit is where the future is.” Though, he emphasized that his work would be reflective of the peoples’ opinions. “I think we should listen to the people, and if elected as mayor my goal is to work with the people just like I’ve been working for the last 20 years, to try to create the kind of communities we both know and love.”

A video of the candidate forum will be available in its entirety on Seattle Channel’s website.

Seattle City Light will be launching a home energy report project on Wednesday, October 7, providing bi-monthly home energy reports to 20,000 randomly selected homeowners as part of a pilot program to help Seattle homeowners reduce their energy consumption.

The reports will track the home’s energy consumption, and then compare it to surrounding homes, finding the most efficient homes in the neighborhood. Additionally, the report will give suggestions on how each homeowner can reduce his or her energy consumption, including City Light rebates and programs.

Customers randomly selected for the pilot program will receive reports every two months for a year. The first reports should arrive a few days after the customers receive their electricity bills. If you would like to opt out of this program, just call 1-866-352-2246.

In other news, City Light will be holding a meeting on Tuesday, October 13, from 6:30-8 p.m. to discuss last weekend’s planned power outage, and subsequent unplanned blackout. Click here for details.

You’ll have a chance to try a wide variety of street food in Interbay this Saturday, October from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Mobile Chowdown, where a bunch of Seattle’s street food vendors will gather all together for a street food fest. The event is free (other than the food that you buy) and you are encouraged to bring a chair and hang out with your fellow street food aficionados.

Vendors include Skillet, Parfait Ice Cream, Marination Station, Maximus Minimus, Gert’s BBQ and El Camion. In the lead up to Mobile Chowdown, there’s even a trivia contest on Twitter. Follow @mobilechowdown and answer their trivia questions each day for a chance to win dinner at Tilth, a night at the Sorrento Hotel, and a year-long subscription to Seattle magazine (co-sponsors of the event).

Mobile Chowdown vendors will gather from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the vacant lot at 1616 W. Bertona. Don’t miss your chance to check out all of Seattle’s greatest eats on wheels in one place!

Reminder: Tonight is the Seattle City Council and Mayoral candidate community forum, where candidates will discuss issues relevant to the neighborhood, including access and cost for the SR-99 corridor and tunnel, crime and other public safety concerns, the future of industrial lands and the maritime industry, as well as controls on the rate of growth and development.

Co-sponsored by the Magnolia/Queen Anne and Ballard district councils, the candidate forum will be moderated by C.R. Douglas of Seattle Channel. The forum is being held at the Ballard High School auditorium. Doors will open at 6 p.m., the forum will begin at 6:30 p.m.

We’ll be at the forum asking questions. What do you want to ask the candidates? Post a comment below, or email us topics that are of interest at tips@queenanneview.com.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has announced two lane closures due to construction this week that will affect those traveling in and around Queen Anne.

On Monday, October 5 and Tuesday, October 6 crews will be repairing the bridge deck on the West Emerson Street Viaduct, closing the eastbound, right lane from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. However, if the weather is unfavorable, this closure will be rescheduled.

From Monday to Friday, October 9, crews will be continuing the repair of a rail that was damaged in an accident on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The work will close the northbound, left lane between College to  Massachusetts streets from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

We’re very proud to announce that our sister site, My Ballard, has just won the very first Community Collaboration award at the 2009 Online Journalism Awards last night, beating out fellow nominees the Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald. This award is equivalent to an Emmy Award in television!!

OJA Committee Co-Chair Anthony Moore said, “We continue to be impressed by the way journalists are pushing the envelope and serving the public interest at the same time.”

Judges commented about the site:

My Ballard is exactly what newspapers are trying to do with hyperlocal content.  And these guys do it.  There was no site that fulfills the sense of community collaboration better.  It’s the literal definition of the category.  It’s extremely useful for the neighborhood and because it lists cool places to go, it works for others.

Congratulations to the Geeky Swedes, Cory and Kate! Read what they have to say about their win here.

Baily Bennett is four years old. He likes to ride his bike and take trips to the train store. Some of his favorite things are VW bugs – “Herbie cars” – and firetrucks. He loves his family and his friends. And six months ago he was diagnosed with advanced stage anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

After finding a large tumor in his left lung, protruding on his heart, while at the doctor for a cold, Baily underwent intensive chemotherapy. One month later the tumor had shrunk from 11cm to 3cm. By the end of June it had regrown to 7cm and Baily had pneumonia. Finding the tumor to be extremely aggressive, doctors have put him on another intensive chemotherapy regiment. Baily will be having a stem cell transplant in the next couple of months.

Originally from Tacoma, Baily’s family is moving to Seattle for his transplant and treatment. Many in the community have reached out to help and support the family of five during this difficult time. His aunt and Queen Anne resident Lisa Todd has put together a website for Baily, and has organized several events for hew nephew, including Cupcakes for Baily tomorrow, Sunday, October 4 from 12:30 to 5 p.m. at the Queen Anne Community Center.

Lisa aims to help raise money for Baily’s treatment and find his family a place to stay for the four to six months of his treatment in Seattle. She hopes to find them a place close to hers on Queen Anne, as the community has been extremely warm and welcoming. She writes,

My brother Mark and his family will need to relocate to Seattle while Baily has his transplant. Starting at the end of October they are looking for housing. I am hopeful (selfishly?) that they will find something close to me up on QA — one because it is the place I know and where there are resources for their other kids (Caleb 2 1/2 and Hanna and also it is a place that I have found so accessible and full of community support that I want to share that with them during this most difficult time.

For fundraising their costs have continued to mount. My brother’s employer changed insurance companies in September, which meant they had to satisfy two deductibles and co-pay limits for the year. There was also quite a nail-biting time during the insurance switch as the new carrier had a 6 month waiting period for transplant that they could have upheld but our attorney, Rick Spoonemore (also who lives on QA) helped enormously and the new carrier decided to not uphold the 6 month waiting period, so Baily has been able to move forward with planning for transplant. Other costs such as prescription co-pays, infusions, multiple visits/travel relocating to Seattle…even simple things like suddenly always eating out since they are not at home much when going to/from the hospital… it all mounts to large expenses.

My goal was to try to meet their expenses so that at least there was one stresser they didn’t have to worry about — I continue to work on this as a way to focus my energy and to hope to help.

In an attempt to raise money for Baily’s treatment and his family’s relocation, Lisa has put together a silent auction and raffle for the party tomorrow. Kids will be able to decorate their own cupcakes, while parents can participate in two silent auctions (at 3 and 4 p.m.) and enter into one of four raffle drawings (at 1:30, 2, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m.). Prizes include four Seahawks tickets to the game vs. the Detroit Lions on November 8tt, two 5th Avenue Theatre tickets to see White Christmas on December 2nd (center seats six rows back from the stage!), a Nintendo Wii sports AND The Beatles Rockband Wii game, and a one night stay at the Alderbrook Resort. Raffle tickets go for $10, and are available for purchase online here.

Information on how to donate to Baily’s cause or volunteer your time can be found on his website. All donations are confidential and will go directly to the family to cover the costs of medical bills, deductible payments, co-pays, prescriptions, home infusions and “ease the burden” of the family’s relocation to Seattle and loss of income from missed work.  And whether or not you have $10 to spend, your support and warm wishes for Baily and his family will be greatly appreciated. Lise writes,

Many people have come forward to help and to give of their time and efforts. Kerrie Malone, who lives on QA, has been amazing. She initially responded to a question I posed on the QA mom’s site about help with fundraisers — she had just spent the year prior assisting with many events to help support a dear friend of hers who passed away from Cancer. She is a web designer and has created the artwork for the t-shirts, the website, postcard, thank you cards, posters… all the materials and they look amazing. She has also become a wonderful rock of support during a very rocky course with Baily.

My neighbor Lonni Gonsolus has twin girls, one of whom had leukemia when she was young. Lonni has been an amazing well of information on how to assist with navigating treatment, the needs of the home and family and the small practical ways to help that make a great difference.

We organized with a group called Gloria’s Angels (gloriasangels.org) who helped to create a framework for volunteers. They got us started setting up structure to meet the needs of the family. We now have a meal schedule to deliver food to them twice a week and to keep their freezer stocked, have housecleaning and childcare volunteers too.

I created the website with the goal to have one place in which to learn about Baily and to express support. It has had an amazing response. We also started a Facebook cause, which now has over 1000 members from all over the country and more! It’s amazing how far reaching the networking has gone.

Thank you for your generous gift to Baily!

This morning, at approximately 12:40 a.m., off-duty officers went outside to investigate a disturbance on the 500 block of Queen Anne Av N., where they found three suspects assaulting a cab driver. According to the report, the Yellow cab driver picked up the three suspects at 3rd Ave W and Mcgraw St and took them to Queen Anne Av N and Mercer St., when the suspects refused to pay the $11.00 fare and fled.

The driver then spotted the three suspects at a business in the area and asked them for his money. The suspects then assaulted him, catching the attention of the off duty officers. The driver suffered minor injuries from being struck by the suspects but did not require medical attention.

One suspect was arrested immediately, while a second second fled with one of the off-duty officers in pursuit. Responding units helped cepture the second suspect in the alley in the 500 blk between Queen Anne Av N. and 1st Av W. The third suspect was not found. The two suspects in custody were booked for assault.

Looking for something fun to do with the family today? Swing by the Northwest Center’s annual ‘Fun Fair.’

Flier courtesy of Northwest Center.

Seattle City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco has invited the community to join in on Tuesday, October 13, from 6:30-8 p.m. to discuss last weekend’s planned power outage, and subsequent unplanned blackout. The talk will be in the Rainier Room at Seattle Center (northwest corner). For more information contact Mike Eagan at (206) 615-1691 or mike.eagan@seattle.gov.

Queen Anne residents experiences three power outages over the last two weeks. The first was on Wednesday, September 16. The second was a scheduled outage on Saturday, September 26 to repair damage from the previous blackout, which led to an unplanned outage later that day. The third outage occurred the next day, Sunday, September 27, knocking out power to 10,000 in Queen Anne and Magnolia for much of the night.

SHARE has announced that after three nights of protesting in front of Councilmember Tim Burgess’ Queen Anne home, tonight they will be moving to sleep in front of City Council President Richard Conlin’s Madrona home. In a press release, SHARE gave credit to Councilmember Burgess for speaking openly with the group over the last three nights, and writing about his experience on his blog, and called Council President Conlin “pedantic and patronizing.” They wrote:

This evening, the homeless men and women of SHARE will be sleeping on the sidewalk outside of City Council President Conlin’s house.

Last night’s sleep out protest in front of Councilman Burgess’ home went well despite the torrential rain. Mr. Burgess is keeping the line of communication open with the people.

Councilman Burgess seems to have some trouble understanding why we refused the strings on a proposed advance from the City: They expected us to promise that we would not be closing down the shelters when we run out of money.

Our expenses in November and December (not including bus tickets) will be over $80,000.   We have $14,000 in bills outstanding today. If we spent the last $50,000 from the City in October there won’t be enough to pay the bills in November and December.

Councilman Burgess called the City’s Offer a ‘Sound Financial Practice.’ How does telling people to spend their last dollars on new expenses when old expenses aren’t paid equate to ‘sound financial practices’?

Do the math….Our budget already relies on SHARE raising $30,000 in October on our own with no City help. We cannot guarantee that we would raise more than this.

At least, Mr. Burgess has been blogging about his experience with us and is willing to talk to us rationally about our bus tickets crisis.

So far all we have heard from Councilman President Conlin is a pedantic and patronizing reaction to our request for an extra $50,000 in funding. On September 28th in the Seattle Post Globe he called it “a bizarre proposal” and said that we should ask King County.

With all due respect, Mr. Conlin is bizarrely ignorant of the fact that King County Metro has been giving reduced rates on bus tickets to organizations such as SHARE and that the City has been supporting this program!!!

What’s more, METRO gave SHARE 20,000 free tickets in January and the King County Council people located in Seattle wrote to Council President Conlin in March asking for his help – bizarrely, Council President Conlin blew them off too!

Until we can afford a steady supply of bus tickets, we will “bizarrely” keep sleeping outside of these “bizarre” politicians’ houses.

There have been a lot of community reactions to SHARE since their first protest in front of Mayor Nickels’ home on Monday night. In the comments section following our story on Tuesday night’s protest and those thereafter, discussion arose over whether or not SHARE members are forced into participating in these protests. tstcman wrote,

i am a member of this so called SHARE group. its not fell will thats puts these people in this mix. it is mandated by the SHARE office THAT ALL shelter dwellers HAVE to BE INVOLVED i.e. sleep out until funds are found.

tstcman also responded to speculation over the uses of the bus tickets SHARE is fighting over, saying that at times in the past people have stolen and resold them. Name wrote,

SHARE is requiring the homeless they proclaim to serve to attend the protest. One member even reported in the comments section of a related article on the Seattle Times online that SHARE was closing their indoor shelters and shifting people over from both Tent City 3 and Tent City 4 in order to have people at Nickelsville and Burgess house.

Other readers brought up the Proposition 1 Housing Levy, as a possible way to assist with homelessness.

What do you think about SHARE’s three-night protest on Queen Anne? Or their week-long camp outs that will move them to Council President Conlin’s house tonight? Comment or email us at tips@queenanneview.com.

The Seattle Marine Business Coalition is having their annual Ship Canal Cleanup tomorrow, Saturday, October 3 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The group, in partnership with the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, the Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle Public Utilities and the Port of Seattle, will be cleaning up the Ship Canal from the Hiram Chittenden (Ballard) Locks to the Fremont Bridge as part of their commitment “To improve the working waterfront, to act on our commitment to a healthy marine environment, and to have fun.”

Anyone interested in volunteering is welcome to attend. Volunteers will be meeting at Fisherman’s Terminal, on the west side of Dock 9 and the West Wall adjacent to the orange cranes at 9 a.m., before climbing into a boat, kayak or tug and getting to work along the shoreline. Coffee and donuts will be provided for all volunteers, and if you register in advance, a halibut barbecue lunch courtesy of Jubilee Fisheries and the Seattle Marine Business Coalition.

If you are interested, please contact Lise Kenworthy at LiseKenworthy@comcast.net or (206) 270-8535 so that organizers can have an estimated head count. Download the sign-up sheet here.

This coming Monday, October 5, Seattle City Council and Mayoral candidates will meet in a community forum in the Ballard High School auditorium. Some of the issues expected to be raised at the forum include: access and cost for the SR-99 corridor and tunnel, crime and other public safety concerns, the future of industrial lands and the maritime industry, as well as controls on the rate of growth and development.

Co-sponsored by the Magnolia/Queen Anne and Ballard district councils, the candidate forum will be moderated by C.R. Douglas of Seattle Channel. Door will open at 6 p.m., the forum will begin at 6:30 p.m.

What do you want to ask the candidates? Post a comment below, or email us topics that are of interest to you and your community at tips@queenanneview.com.

Tomorrow, Saturday, October 3, community members are invited to a neighborhood celebration and ribbon cutting put on by the Seattle Department of Transportation and Picture Perfect Queen Anne, in honor of new pedestrian improvements on along Queen Anne Ave N.

From 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow, members of Picture Perfect Queen Anne, a volunteer-based neighborhood alliance funded by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and Office of Economic Development, will be installing plants around the new pedestrian plaza at Queen Anne Ave N and W Galer St, as well as curb bulbs near the new crosswalks at Queen Anne Ave N and W McGraw Street. The group welcomes anyone interested in assisting with the planting throughout the day.

At 3 p.m. the ribbon cutting and ceremony will take place at the pedestrian plaza (Queen Anne Ave N and W Galer St.) with SDOT Director Grace Crunican.

The project was requested by Picture Perfect Queen Anne, who is working to revitalize Queen Anne Ave N from Galer to McGraw to provide a vibrant pedestrian and family-safe street-scape, through the Neighborhood Street Fund and funding by the Bridging the Gap Levy.

Students, parents and community members at The Center School unveiled the Washington State Student Bill of Rights on the roof of the Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center on Wednesday. The petition was written for students, by students, in conjunction with the League of Education Voters, and outlines the eight fundamental rights students say they are all entitled to get them Ready for Life.

Here are some pictures from the event and statements by those who participated in the writing of the Bill:

“The Washington State Student Bill of Rights is about empowering students to make our voices heard on education issues,” said John Gerlach (pictured above), a senior at Skyline High School and co-author of the Bill.

Students from The Center School also unveiled a mural of the Student Bill of Rights that was created in Andy Bell’s art class (above), Creative Responses to Social Issues.

Tatianna Alford, a student at The Center School who was involved in the designing and painting spoke about the first article of the Bill. “I believe the most important article is “equal opportunity” because a quality education should be provided for every student in our state regardless of where they live.”

The future of Washington’s public schools has been a topic on ongoing debate, coming to a head with recent changes in school policies, graduation requirements, funding, start times and bus schedules. By writing their own Washington State Student Bill of Rights, these students have banned together and involved themselves in the future of their education. They’ve made a statement that they hope will be heard by policymakers.

“The response from students about the Washington State Student Bill of Rights has been terrific,” said Maggie Wilkens, youth organizer for the League of Education Voters. “We hope to bring students and the Student Bill of Rights to Olympia next year during the legislative session to remind legislators that students have a voice in improving our education system.”

To read more about the Washington State Student Bill of Rights, or sign it, click here.

Thanks to Michael Itti at the League of Education Voters for tip and photos!

Tonight homeless men and women from SHARE will sleep outside of City Councilman Tim Burgess’ home for the third night in a row. The group announced their plans in a press release today, saying that they will continue their protest until their “transportation crisis is over,” and dispute the claim made by many in the Seattle community that their actions are merely a “publicity stunt.” SHARE wrote,

Last night, there was a police presence at the sleepout not because of our actions (as usual our protest was quiet and peaceful) but to appease the unsubstantiated paranoia of one of Mr. Burgess’ neighbors. It is unfortunate that with the current recession and budget cuts, the City can still afford to dispatch its public servants to serve as personal body guards.

We will continue our protest until our transportation crisis is over. This is NOT a publicity stunt, but a sad truth. The bus drivers union realizes it too and has invited us to come and meet with them tonight at 8 PM at the Labor Temple to see how we could work together.

There are some in the over-privileged strata of society who naively see our actions as a theatrical extortion tactic, which shows how disconnected some people are from the harsh realities of life. Too many Americans are one paycheck away from homelessness. Without transportation, we cannot access our safe place to stay at night. We choose instead to sleep out and protest at the houses of those (the politicians) responsible for our predicament.

Unsheltered people die outside. Already this year, WHEEL/Church of Mary Magdalene Women in Black have stood for 29 homeless people who died outside or by violence. This morning we just heard of three more deaths which occurred recently, including the death by immolation of a homeless woman in Woodland Park. Next Wednesday at noon our sisters will have to stand for them too.

SHARE members have been sleeping outside houses in protest since Monday night, when Tent City 4 residents camped outside Mayor Nickels’ home. On Tuesday protesters from Tent City 3 moved Burgess’ home on Upper Queen Anne.

Councilmember Burgess shared his experience talking with the campers on Tuesday night and speaking with four of them further during his morning power walk on Wednesday on his personal blog.

We’re still waiting on a comment from a SHARE representative as to why they’ve chosen to continue their protest at this location rather than move on to the home of another politician. Meanwhile, readers have delved into conversation via comment on yesterday’s update. Many have expressed distrust in SHARE’s management, while others say this is an issue not about one organization, but about homelessness in a larger sense. Michaelkelly wrote,

In the end, SHARE/WHEEL is not the issue here. The issue is that we don’t have enough affordable housing in Seattle to meet the (growing) need. The 2009 One Night Count found 1977 people living unsheltered on the streets of Seattle. That’s a 2% increase from the year before. This is in addition to the thousands of people staying in shelters and transitional housing on any given night.

We need to provide more housing that the most vulnerable and lowest income families and individuals in Seattle can afford. VOTING YES on Prop 1, the Seattle Housing Levy, will help us to do this. The bulk of the Housing Levy will help to provide or preserve thousands of units for people earning less than 30% of the area median income ($25,300 for a family of four). It will keep people in safe, decent, and affordable housing and off of the streets.

Proposition 1 proposes a seven-year tax increase for low-income housing. For more information, see Yes for Homes, and this no on Prop 1 editorial from the Seattle Times.

What do you think? Comment or email us at tips@queenanneview.com.

Did you know that in the United States 426,000 cell phones are tossed out every day? That 60,000 plastic bags are consumed every five seconds? How about two million plastic beverage bottles every five minutes? These are some of the questions Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan addresses in his large-scale images that most often depict American consumerism, for which he has received worldwide acclaim.

His most well-known exhibit, “Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait,” (also a book), a provocative and compelling social commentary on the way we live, is opening at the Pacific Science Center this Saturday, October 3, 2009. In “Running the Numbers,” Jordan uses statistics to portray the economy, American culture and our way of life.

Many of Jordan’s works are inspired and created by photographs of garbage, a technique he picked up while visiting an industrial yard. The final product is a print assembled from thousands of smaller photographs, many of which depict specific quantities of some item, like Cans Seurat (above), which is made out of 106,000 aluminum cans, the amount consumed in the United States every 30 seconds.

“Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view  like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress,” said Jordan in a Pacific Science Center press release. “I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is  a staggering complexity.”

Jordan clearly hopes to make onlookers think about their individual contribution to the American way of life with his exhibit, which is a social, but also by nature, political commentary.

Barbie Dolls (above) depicts 32,000 Barbies, representative of the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed in the United States each month in 2006.

When asked what the Pacific Science Center’s attitude was towards housing an exhibit that is not only interesting and scientific, but political by nature, President and CEO Bryce Seidl responded:

Often the numbers generated by common activities are so large they become incomprehensible to those not intimately involved in studying economics, resource utilization and consumption. In some cases, however, it is critically important for the average citizen to better understand the impact and importance of the cumulative impact of small activities that in total can only be expressed by large numbers.

We hear many statistics about consumption and waste, but they are often just numbers on a page. Chris Jordan’s work exposes some of these statistics in a powerful, visceral way. It is one thing to hear that we in the United States use 2 million plastic bottles every 5 minutes. Seeing images that help us understand the magnitude and impact of those 2 million bottles creates an undeniable impact. By illustrating some other more unexpected examples of consumption, the Artist is asking us to examine the attitudes and beliefs behind the habits that are impacting the world we inhabit.

The exhibit is not political by nature. It is just images of what is. How one interprets this reality is personal and may become translated into political activity. It is neither our role nor intent to present a political position. It is our intent to present to the community information related to science, math, engineering and technology and to foster discussions about how these subjects are relevant to our lives today and to the future. Chris Jordan combines the eye of an artist with real data about human actions in a way that invites thoughtful discussions about the  individual and collective impacts of human activities.

Some of Jordan’s other projects include “Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption,” and “In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss From an Unnatural Disaster.” Check those out at his website.

“Running the Numbers” will be at the Pacific Science Center from Saturday, October 3, 2009 to Sunday, January 3, 2010.

Also opening at the Pacific Science Center Saturday: “Animation,” an interactive exhibit of how animation is made from concept art, to storyboarding, character design, movement, filming, timing and sound. Check out the old-time animation in the screening room and cartoon museum. Also, running through January 3, both exhibits are included in the price of admission and are free to Pacific Science Center members.