Belltown Messenger - Documenting Belltown Since 2003

As advocated by many parties, including Friends of Seattle, city voters approved neither a new Alaskan Way Viaduct nor a replacement tunnel project in a March advisory ballot. A Friends of Seattle press release called the vote's result "a clear victory for the surface/transit alternative, and a promising start to reclaiming the waterfront for the citizens of Seattle."

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The just-opened Olympic Sculpture Park has become the first U.S.-based project to win Harvard University's biannual Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design. The park's designers, New York-based Weiss/Manfredi, were awarded $50,000 along with the prize.

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This month, the Ronnie Pierce Jazz Ensemble celebrates its third year of weekly gigs at the Whiskey Bar, 2000 2nd Ave. Check them out every Wednesday night.

Also in the realm of what some call "America's great indigenous artform," assorted jazz combos are playing sporadic nights at the Spice bar, on Fifth Avenue north of Bell Street.

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Wanna see the Chief Sealth statue in Tilikum Park lit up at night? Local design firm Studio Lux would like to, and presented a "mockup" demonstration of its proposal to neighborhood representatives on March 20. While Studio Lux's design work is being provided "pro bono," materials and labor costs would total $19,000 to $21,000. The Belltown Housing and Land Use Subcommittee plans to ask $15,000 from the Starbucks Neighborhood Park Grants Program, and to raise the remainder from neighborhood donors.

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The Plymouth Housing Group has announced plans to rebuild the William Tell Apartments on Second Avenue. PHG has managed the low-income housing structure for 21 years. It currently has 50 units, a mix of single-room-occupancy and studios. The new William Tell will have 71 full studio units in a new six-story structure, to be built around the existing three-story fa�ade. The top three floors will be set back from the fa�ade/mansard roof, maintaining the current environment at the sidewalk.

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Phil's Custom Bindery, located at 2315 Western Ave. since 1987, is moving to South Park and will reopen April 16. Five members of the Goldader (Phil is the patriarch) family work at Phil's, which will continue to do custom-binding jobs at 309 S. Cloverdale St. For more info call 728-1541.

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Belltown-based artist Laura Castellanos has been awarded a $15,000 Pollock Krasner grant based on work from her recent project "bummerbunny." Originally from New York, Castellanos has been a Seattle resident since 1991. Her works are represented in the City of Seattle and Tacoma Art Museum collections, and can be viewed at www.bummerbunny.com.

In other visual-art news, April's show at Suite 100 Gallery, 2222 2nd Ave., will feature "Line Theory Cityscapes," a series of abstract-expressionist inspired paintings by Tony Taj (Jose Torres Jr.), a Cornish BFA student who was born in New York and first came to Seattle at age 13. The exhibit opens Friday, April 6, 6-10 p.m.

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Belltown-based Synapse Corporate Solutions has launched Down2Night.com, an online guide to nightlife in Seattle and other U.S. cities. The free service that broadcasts SMS text-message notification of a users favorite local nightlife venues they choose, on the days they choose. Founders Mark A. Michael and Daniel Rust promise a public launch party later this spring.

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The Senior Services Transportation Program, 2208 2nd Ave., currently needs volunteers to help transport seniors to their medical appointments. Call (206) 748-7588 or email sarac@seniorservices.org.

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ENDINGS: The Starlite Lounge, 1921 1st Ave., suddenly closed in mid-March. The curse of the old Butterworth mortuary building, where many restaurant-bars have come and gone, continues.

And the current Teatro ZinZanni show, "Love and Lunacy," closes April 15. With it goes the dinner-cabaret's space for the past five years, at the former Frederick Cadillac lot on Sixth and Bell. That block's being redeveloped for (yep!) a mixed-use condo project. ZinZanni reopens on lower Queen Anne later this year.

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Eager crowds boogied to the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall on March 24-25 for VegFest 2007, presented by Vegetarians of Washington and featuring over 100 booths with free samples, plus guest speakers.

A variety of snacks were available to sample, including vegan cookies from Liz Lovely of Vermont, Mighty O Donuts, HempBliss Organic Hempmilk, and a half-dozen varieties of "soysage." The take-home swag, however, left something to be desired. The Messenger ended up leaving with a 20-gram packet of Vega!" Whole Food Meal replacement protein supplement, a four-gram packet of Emerald Forest all-natural wood sugar Xylitol, a tiny sample of vegan dog food, and a packet of Celtic Sea Salt.

-CH and ARM

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A BELLTOWN MANIFESTO
46.
I like jazz, therefore I don't listen to Kenny G. I like beer, therefore I don't drink PBR.