Apparently blogs don’t rate to Weinstein PR flaks

I was hoping to be able to put up a post that had some great pictures on what the proposed new Columbia City Plaza development looked like.  I sent a nice request to the Weinstein AU PR people asking them for digital copies of the presentations they’ve already given to the landmark preservation board, but so far no response.  I can’t be sure, but I wonder if they understand this whole new media thingy?

Anyway, I’ll wait a little longer to see if they respond.  If not, I’ll post anyway and you’ll just have to imagine what it will look like from my description.

Update on the plans for Columbia Plaza

Remember good old Columbia Plaza?  That horrible ugly building right at the entrance to our fine city?  You’ve probably noticed it’s still there, haven’t you?  Weren’t developers going to tear it down and build something slightly more useful?  The answer is, they’re still working on it.

This afternoon saw a presentation given by Mr Weinstein from Weinstein AU, the architects which the developers have hired to plan the building. And he had an intriguing message: this isn’t really possible.

As Mr Weinstein referred to it, there is a “fundamental tension” between the landmark district guidelines and the city zoning of the area. 

You see, land is valued based on it’s potential for development.  It’s potential for development is directly based on how it’s zoned.  How it’s zoned is often based on information such as proximity to downtown or other service centers, as well as transit hubs.

So you have this site, which is right next to a bustling community of Columbia City, and a short hop away from a link light rail station into downtown, and the City has thus zoned it for high density.  In all of these regards, this plot of land should support high density of people – that’s what cities are all about.

Yet it’s also just within the landmark preservation district, whose guidelines call for new buildings to match the scale of those already in the district.  The landmark district doesn’t want a 6 floor building (even though zoning would permit that), since the tallest building around is only 3 stories.

So the city thinks 6 stories is fine.  The land is priced with that zoning in mind, so the developer can’t go much smaller then that and still make a profit.  The landmark preservation board doesn’t want anything close to that size.

A classic standoff between city and the board, with the developer caught in the middle.

Coming up next: a description of the current plan, and how Weinstein AU is updating designs to respond to feedback.

What's with the refrigerators at Tutta Bella?

One last note on the various restaurant inspections available online from the public health department of Seattle & King county - Tutta Bella has had a bit of a spotty record over the past few months.

It seems that each of their last two inspections have found a critical violation - they don't have their refrigerators turned down low enough.

The description of a critical violation states that "Environmental Health Specialists work with operators to make sure that red critical violations are corrected before they leave the establishment."  So in this case, they turn down the refrigerator temperature.

So which employee at Tutta Bella thought it would be a good idea, between October 2nd of last year and January 8th of this year, to turn the refrigerator back up so it wasn't keeping the food cold and safe anymore?

Revised bus service is announced

With the opening of Link light rail imminent, the bus' routes are being reworked.  Before the holidays metro asked for comments on proposals, and now they've released an updated proposal.

Big changes for Columbia City, straight from the news release:

Routes 7 Express and 34 Express - Keep some peak-period trips; no changes to routing.

Route 9 Express - Add more peak and midday service and extend route to Rainier Beach Link station.

Route 48 - Shorten to end at Mount Baker Station; improve weekday evening frequency.

Digging in a little deeper, some of the changes are extensive (goodbye 39!), some not so much.

Route 7

Increase night frequency from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes until midnight seven days a week in 2010. This improvement will be made possible by a financial partnership between Metro and the City of Seattle.

Route 7 Express

Provide five morning peak-period trips rather than the current eight trips. Provide five evening peak-period trips rather than the current nine trips.

Coordinate schedule north of S Genesee Street with Route 34 Express so that buses are evenly spread out. (See more information about Route 34 Express).

Route 9 Express

Extend Route 9 Express to serve the Rainier Beach Link station at S Henderson Street/Martin Luther King Jr. Way S.

Increase frequency to every 15 minutes during peak periods in the peak direction (northbound in the morning and southbound in the afternoon).

Increase frequency to every 30 minutes during midday hours (9 a.m.-3 p.m.) on weekdays.

Route 48

Shorten route to end at Mount Baker Station instead of current terminals at Rainier Beach and Columbia City.

Improve weekday evening frequency to every 15 minutes until 9:30 p.m.

Route 34 Express

Provide service connecting Columbia City and Seward Park to Link light rail stations.

Provide an east-west connection between Rainier Valley and West Seattle.

Provide three peak-period trips in the morning and three in the afternoon instead of the current four trips each.

Coordinate schedule with Route 7 Express so that the buses are evenly spread out.

Route 35 and 39, replaced by 50

Discontinue routes 35 and 39. Replace portions of routes 35, 39 and 106 with new Route 50.

Route 50 would operate between Othello Link station and West Seattle by way of Seward Park, Columbia City Link station, the Veterans Administration Medical Center and SODO.

Metro is considering two routing options for Route 50—via either Edgar Martinez Way or S Lander Street. Route 50 would operate by way of the West Seattle Bridge except for two or three peak-period trips that would serve Harbor Island.

Improve peak frequency to every 15 minutes in the peak direction (to Seattle in the morning and from Seattle in the afternoon).

Route 50 would operate every 15 minutes during peak periods and every 30 minutes at other times. Route 50 would operate until 11 p.m. seven days a week.

All told, I think it makes sense.  We'll see if reality matches up with proposed theory though.  I do like the idea of being able to get to the trains quickly though - I imagine they'll always be the fastest way of getting downtown, no matter how many busses continue to run along Rainier or MLK.

Comments are welcome before February 6th.  See the schedule they have set up (and a way to comment even if you can't make it to a session in person) here.

Pop Quiz: Which one is cleanest? Angie's, Lottie's, or CC Ale House?

I've been poking around online at all of the various info that's available from our fine government agencies.  There's all sorts of interesting stuff out there.  I happened to stumble across the inspection records for restaurants recently, which got me wondering from my recent night out - how do Angie's, Lottie's, and the Ale House compare?

Cleanest most recent inspection: Tie between Angie's and Lottie's, both with perfect scores (no violations found)

Most consistently good inspection record: Angie's by a land slide (Only 13 points worth of violations since the start of 2007, and all for non-critical issues)

Worst single score inspection: Lottie's, back in September 07, scored a whopping 58 points with two critical violations.  Good thing Lottie's track record definitely seems to be on the up swing.

Establishment that just can't seem to have an inspection without something being found: Ale House.  Every inspection since 2007 at least one violation has been found, although in that time only one critical violation was found back in October of 07.

See the results yourself: Angie's, Lottie's, Ale House.

A night out on the city

Went over to the cinema the other day, caught a showing of Jim Carrey's "Yes Man".  The admiral wouldn't even come with me since she was convinced it was going to be horrible (which it surprisingly wasn't, but perhaps I had really low expectations going in).

Since it was during the last week of the show, it was shunted off to cinema 3.  That theater is nice and small (the smallest of the three) and actually works pretty well.  The heat really needs to be turned up here in the winter, but otherwise I like the new digs.

Met the admiral afterward at Lotties for a couple of Hendrick's martinis.  We're pretty neophyte gin drinkers, but we appreciated the mixing prowess.  And a good conversation at the bar - did you know the root of english ivy is so hard that it can be turned on a lathe to make all sorts of interesting things?

All in all a good evening, if a bit quiet.  It reminded me though that it's been too long since I visited Roy's - gotta go back there soon.  Perhaps a taste test comparison vs the new Willie's a little further up Rainier (that I still haven't made it to yet) is in order.

The Genesee Mini Mart is getting bigger!

I'm a little behind the times on this one, as the notice was actually posted back in mid December, but it appears that the awesomely-great Genesee mini mart shell that I just oh so love is about to get bigger.

There's a land use application posted that states:

Land Use Application to allow a 2,460 sq. ft. expansion of existing retail building (gas station and mini-mart) and a 5,667 sq. ft. second story addition to allow office use. Parking for ten vehicles will be provided below and at grade.

If you look at the final decision, it states:

The proposed use will be a convenience store, gas station and accessory parking with accessory storage and office uses. Parking impacts are expected to increase slightly in that demand for parking for a second story addition with office use will be greater than the existing one story convenience store. Generally, however, the parking demand is expected to be minimal given the small size of the convenience store with second story offices, gas station and the location of the site in a fairly dense urban area of the city that is well served by buses and is expected to improve in the future with light rail service.

So it looks like more office space, more parking, and more people.  Why anyone would want to rent office space right above a gas station I'm not sure, but I guess they do.  I wonder if this means that they'll finally move their big sign with prices per gallon out towards the sidewalk so it's once again visible from Rainier?  Although I guess that hardly matters, I'm not ever going back...