16 posts tagged “seattle”

I was listening to NPR (KUOW) on my way home from a silent movie I saw at the Paramount Theater -- a silent movie accompanied by live The Mighty Wurlitzer and a few chatty girls in the audience. Anyway, bleeding-heart liberal NPR has a local call-in program which discusses Seattle government issues or actually any issue in a local context called "The Conversation". Hitomi laughs about how annoyed the host gets with all the flaky callers who constantly derail things. Loveline, a past favorite show of mine, was co-hosted by Adam Carolla who took joy in making fun of the "world's worst callers" he said, which made the show entertaining for me. Ross Reynolds tolerates the callers a bit more than he should.

Anyway, "The Conversation" focused on how effective the desegregation by-busing program was in Seattle, which I guess started in the late 1970's till about now, and was soliciting experiences and opinions from those who experienced it.

Pretty much everyone who called in was in favor of attending more diverse schools and thought that cultural diversity was important to their education. I agree that being with a variety of cultures and people with different economic status (rich through poor) is nice. But why was it not so good?

I was bussed from my first days of Kindergarten till High School graduation. Mostly I was "convinced" (or my parents were) to travel to far-away schools in depressed neighborhoods (i.e. the Central District) because those schools had the "honors" or "advanced" or "gifted" programs, rather than simply bussed because I was to whiten up a black school. But these programs were no doubt deliberately placed in minority communities to diversify the school. And though I was somehow "diversifying" the school population as a whole, the classes I were in were mostly motivated (smart?) white or Asian and a handful of motivated black students.

I can't say that busing was a success at diversifying the schools I was at. Rather, it never felt like integration would ever work, unless you got rid of any "tiers" in class difficulty. I recall teachers talking about removing "honors" classes. But even in honors I was often bored at school. And I wouldn't learn much in the "regular" classes. How could a teacher lead a class with students with a wide range of interest? Until they can figure that out--perhaps by having more teachers?--classes need to be broken up by student ability.

On the whole, I can't say busing was a success, at least from my perspective. It appeared desegregated on paper but in reality it wasn't.

Perhaps some people would call in with positive experiences? Several of the KUOW callers talked about what specifically was valuable about the experience. What callers I heard brought up "getting to know the Asians" and how that improved their experience. Of course I too met the Asians, because poor or not their parents expect them to study and stay out of trouble. I even had a crush on a few of the Asian girls. Maybe when I saw those Asian girls studying really hard, they'd fall for somebody who was good at math? None of the callers brought of having "African-American" friends, though I knew and talked with several in my honors classes. I felt sorry for them since their fellow blacks treated them like traitors: I guess they got called "Oreos" for being black on the outside, white on the inside.

None of the callers also brought up how cliquish and segregated schools were on the interior. Maybe my experience was unusual? I doubt it and the audience probably was the typical liberal crowd that says they'd feel more at peace having their kid around "other races," but as it turns out don't actually interact with them. I guess there's a certain bit of guilt or duty expected for whitey.

Besides callers sharing stories of busing, it's news that Seattle is in fact ending their busing programs. All schools are, on orders from the Supreme Court. What is the school administration going to do? Maybe the administration is relieved they have a valid excuse to spend so much energy on busing programs or balancing ethnic percentages, etc. Maybe the parents are pleased their kids won't be bussed across town. They're going to focus on "neighborhood schools" which will "hurt" the diversity. Though I didn't hear the end of the radio program, the "hack" seems to be to encourage more economic diversity by keeping seats available at magnet schools for poor kids, i.e. provide busing for those students eligible for "reduced price school lunch".

If (when?) I have children they're probably going to go to Seattle public school. Honestly, I wouldn't care if the neighborhood school population was 100% Blond Kids or 100% Jheri Curl Kids, as long as it was a good place for them to learn.

Interesting debate on bicycle lanes in Portland, actually a response to another article, which places the blame of several cyclist deaths on a combination of laws which require cyclists to unsafely position themselves at intersections.

I won't go into detail about the specific issues, some Oregon-law specific. Suffice it to say, it's often safest to ignore the law and use common sense. Don't pass vehicles on the right side, especially at intersections, is rule #1. (This is the corollary of "pretend you're invisible".)

Speaking of bicycle lanes, there's of course a number of problematic areas in Seattle where it's really not safe to use that lane, especially at intersections. One is a lane going northbound on to University Bridge where some unfortunate cyclist was plowed under by a truck turning right. (See rule #1.) Since there's two lanes of traffic going downhill, position yourself in the middle of the right lane, not bicycle lane, and so traffic turning right would have to either pass in front of you or stay behind.

Rule #2 is avoid bicycle lanes where you can get hit by a car door. Seattle has a few "door prize" lanes. Remember kids: On street parking is not only an automobile subsidy, it can kill you too.

Rule #3 is avoid bicycle lanes that continue on to nowhere. The intersection south on Greenlake Way intersecting NE 50th Street has a single bicycle lane which seemingly projects off to Kidd Valley, and through that intersection is no space for a cyclist with the adjacent traffic lane. Rather than negotiate a tricky merge, just take the second lane, which disappears in 100 feet or so and becomes a bike lane.

I came across Bike Works! which is a non-profit helping Seattle kids earn free bicycles through bicycle repair programs (among other things). There was a link from their web site to a video that the local public broadcasting station KCTS put together describing their programs. Their link was broken and so I surfed on over to the actual KCTS web site and took a look at their streaming video selection, specifically for KCTS Connects.

For the curious, here's the video of Bike Works which I have downloaded and uploaded again. (To download I was forced to upgrade Real Player. Which even post update at version 11 is still a piece of shit: The audio often cuts out and video playback causes my screen to blank out a couple of times.)

... upload failed, all I have is a link.

Paging down through about 800+ clips to find clip 435, I noticed a familiar name in the list: John Keister. He used to host Almost Live! before it was canceled in 1999. Almost Live! was a local Seattle comedy show preceding Saturday Night Live, which I ended up watching, actually I most often taped the program, using the VCR for at my Dad's place, and watched it the following day. Anyway, John Keister's still out there on T.V., on PBS. From the numerous clips I've watched he offers personal commentary on local and national political issues in sometimes a humorous vein. And though obviously still his bald self he looks a bit pudgy and haggard; he's obviously older than last time I saw him.

In some ways I hate the way media's gone totally international. Where's the local television personalities I used to see? I'm to blame, watching more anime, movies, and even YouTube than network television.

I came across a web page for Bike Works!, a non-profit helping Seattle kids earn free bicycles through bicycle repair programs (among other things). There was a link from their web site to a video that the local public broadcasting station KCTS put together describing their programs. Their link was broken and so I surfed on over to the actual KCTS web site and took a look at their streaming video selection, specifically for KCTS Connects.

For the curious, here's the video of Bike Works which I have downloaded and uploaded again. (To download I was forced to upgrade Real Player. Which even post update at version 11 is still a piece of shit: The audio often cuts out and video playback causes my screen to blank out a couple of times.)

... upload failed, all I have is a link.

Paging down through about 800+ clips to find clip 435, I noticed a familiar name in the list: John Keister. He used to host Almost Live! before it was canceled in 1999. Almost Live! was a local Seattle comedy show preceding Saturday Night Live, which I ended up watching, actually I most often taped the program, using the VCR for at my Dad's place, and watched it the following day. Anyway, John Keister's still out there on T.V., on PBS. From the numerous clips I've watched he offers personal commentary on local and national political issues in sometimes a humorous vein. And though obviously still his bald self he looks a bit pudgy and haggard; he's obviously older than last time I saw him.

In some ways I hate the way media's gone totally international. Where's the local television personalities I used to see? I'm to blame, watching more anime, movies, and even YouTube than network television.

Today was my first Critical Mass Ride. I've been meaning to go on the ride, but somehow I've had schedule conflicts all year.

It's been cold, nearly freezing in Seattle at night. It's also dark around 4:30PM. But the ride still goes on.

I joined a group going downtown at the UW, in Red Square. People were nice, people had nice bicycles and camaraderie was evident. It felt like a regular Cascade Bike Club event except people were about 30 years younger on average. There were a lot more fixxie bicycles as well.

A lot of people liked my singlespeed Casserroll. The fenders on it stand out especially at night with the lights on it, the hammered facets somewhat resemble a disco ball's surface. There were a lot of well-loved frames, some more than 20 years old. Everyone had a lot of pride in their ride, to use a little alliteration.

Getting to downtown our group of 30-40 or so riders mostly obeyed traffic signals but it was a little difficult. We headed across University Bridge and along Mercer, down 5th and to Westlake Center. With all the traffic and some people obeying and disobeying rules, the group was chopped up a bit. It was 5:30PM and traffic was heavy, making it actually easier to bicycle without worrying about cars.

Arriving at Westlake Center, there were around a hundred or so riders. Some bicyclists were older, some were riding unusual bicycles, some were women. Beers and flyers were being passed around, people were chatting, music from the nearby Merry-go-Round was playing Christmas music. People had signs saying "Honk if you Love Bicycles". I was cold. The main ride eventually started.

Hundreds of cyclists taking off in a pack downtown is pretty amazing, especially at night with all the flashing lights and all. The group moved fairly slowly, but did not stop. To keep the flow of bicyclists moving, if the light would turn red, bicyclists would block cars from entering the intersection on a green. And so I would later discover most honking was not encouragement from cars, but from mostly upset or irate drivers trying to move through. Bicyclists were breaking the law, obviously. But really, it seemed more efficient to move everyone through as a group than divide up the mob. I guess if the police had been paying attention (there was no sign of them except once I saw a police car at an accident scene) there might have been mass arrests or what-not.

I heard that last week, the group actually bicycled onto the Viaduct. The route this week was not on any major freeway, but still problematic to some cyclists, like those on tall bikes, who had to take some steep hills. The route was a loop, at least in the beginning. Back at Westlake, down to the waterfront, we headed back into downtown but again on a very steep cobblestone road. Obviously, the route was not thought out. It was too steep for my single-speed bicycle, for sure. Then, though I heard talk of heading to a particular watering hole on Capitol Hill for some libations or the like, the mob wanted to do yet another loop in downtown, down and up another steep hill. It was cold and riders weren't obviously into vigorous hill-climbing. Critical Mass Rides aren't organized, which is good in some sense and bad in others, obviously.

A couple of highlights: Seeing hundreds of cyclists descending a hill with all their blinking and strobing lights all going at different rates. Chummy guys passing around seasonal micro-brews in knit hats. A rider with a Bakfeit with his son inside a covered tent watching in the front, watching a DVD during the ride. A cute Asian girl with silver streamers on her old pink Scwinn lady's frame. Some guy carrying enormous speakers on the front of his bike -- but please better music next time. The occasional happy motorist who didn't mind the wait and could enjoy the show.

I left with some riders heading to Ballard, mid-forties, veteran-looking types who also were cold. My right foot was cold through the cleats, and my finger tips were frosty. I was wearing fleece lined jeans which, interestingly, made me tired at the pedals. The two guys gave me pointers to Dexter, and I took it hard up, and hard up Stone Way, Greenlake and back home.

Hitomi had dinner going and I was cold and hungry. It was a welcome return.

The Seattle Bicycle Club (SBC) has a weekly ride from Gasworks Park at 6PM. Since I wasn't having my regular Wednesday night game night, why not go for a ride tonight?

It's been about 40 degrees and clear at night these past few nights. Add 15-20 miles per hour of head wind and you have cold extremities. Luckily, I have a full array of warm gear, so no problems there.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I was at Gasworks at 5:50PM and nobody was there yet. A few more riders show up, it's now 6PM and we are waiting for a few more to join. Seems like the group is pretty serious, from the looks of the frames I'm sure some bicycles were in the $5,000 and up range. I had my singlespeed Salsa Casseroll CroMo frame with 30mm tires. I was outclassed, bicycle-wise.

However, I've been riding some serious hills and knew I'd be capable of sustaining the 16-18mph advertised range.

Rides don't always go as advertised. Right away, most of the riders took off faster than this, and at the beginning I had a tough time keeping up the pace on the flats. And on downhills, I would just spin uselessly, where they could crank it up. But I would close the gap on the uphill sections--and there were more than a few of these. We got to Discovery Park and I was fine.

There were 5 of us, one of them a person I knew from prior rides, named Ken. He was probably the most serious of the riders. Before the ride, he talked about having done the Death Ride. He obviously does difficult rides. He took over the lead position and sent us on a couple up and downs. (He also rode from Bothell -- about 20 miles -- to join the ride, and he had talked about another 30 mile ride tomorrow. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving. Admittedly, I considered a morning ride as well.)

We rode from the top of Discovery Park down to the lighthouse/sewage treatment plant on the water, and then back up again. The road is about 18% grade, according to some other riders. I have to walk the middle section on my singlespeed. We do a couple more descents and climbs in the park. Then from the top of the park, we ride down Perkins Lane to the water again, then back up to the scenic Magnolia bicycle road. Since the return climb is not as steep I don't have to walk my bicycle, luckily. Then we ride down on Magnolia Bridge, down Elliot Avenue, Nickerson, and the ride ends.

Ken rides home to Bothell. One rider ("Bob") is MIA, he runs marathons and apparently got his leg messed up recently and couldn't complete the ride. I share some beer and nachos with the remaining riders. Then, it's up Fremont Ave to Greenlake and home again.

[* Regarding the title: SBC doesn't hate single speeds, but let's just say, they don't coddle the weak.]

As predicted, it rained today. Though not before I got in the car to drive to an organized bicycle ride.

I got bamboozled by the various offramps from the West Seattle bridge -- again -- and arrive late. Nobody is around. Actually, I probably was at the wrong starting point. But the ride was probably canceled anyway as now it's steadily raining. It's 10:05AM and the sky is concrete gray. Alki Beach is fairly empty, though there are some joggers and a few bicyclists. I might as well join in the insanity.

Along the way, I ride up to three bicyclists, perhaps who were part of the organized ride. I stick with them, at least it makes me feel a little more comfortable on a ride. I imagine the other rides form some sort of human shield or bubble I can travel in. One of the riders has no mud flaps, so I stay out of his rooster tail. Another rider has some sort of rubber, possibly rubber stair tread cut into strips like I heard described online. Fenders on my bicycle keep me clean, but without mud flaps on mine, the occasional deep puddle shoots water into my shoes.

I ask the male rider if they are going to Burien. He seems to have some sort of cue sheet. "No. It's raining out and we won't go that far." The cue sheet was for a different ride. The group pulls over at some cafe and I, not interested in a meal at this time, carry up some serious hill in the direction to Burien. The rain falls heavier. Water is pouring over the roads, the steeper roads connecting to Marine View Drive wash into the road like streams connecting to a river. I'm wearing clear plastic glasses, to keep rain out of my eyes, but they fog up from my breath and are covered in drops. I can't see very well. Do I need to carry on to Burien?

I contemplate now that the trees have been removed, the enormous amount of land turned to pavement, and with the little vegetation still remaining, how the houses clinging to the cliffs will soon be riding some sort of mud wave into Puget Sound. I notice my shoes are full of water, and my feet feel leaden. I will too be washed into the sea.

I check my brakes, which I notice aren't working too well. Luckily, I don't really need to stop at all until back to the car. I wave to a couple of joggers on the run. I check the time, only an hour has gone past since I left. I pass by the car on the way back, not for lack of brakes though. I have hardly gone anywhere and I must go further! But I'm thoroughly soaked, and possibly delusional, so I give up and u-turn. A few minutes later, at the trunk of my I'm attempting to remove wet, sticky clothing from my boney, stiff body and tie down my bicycle in this continuing downpour.

Tonight we went to a rock concert at the Moore Theater for Puffy, a band whose music I fondly recall from my time in Japan. I was never a big fan of their music, though they had some catchy music and they were obviously at the height of their popularity back in 1998, as I heard their music all the time on T.V. and at stores and at karaoke.

Some years later in the U.S. they were discovered by somebody at Cartoon Network, who had them compose the opening theme for their show Teen Titans. Teen Titans was an amalgam of Japanese animation art style and a U.S. super-hero show and their catchy theme song bridged the two styles fairly well. Then later, Cartoon Network created a show called Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi based on these singers. I watched this show a lot when I was in Boston and had cable television.

Due to their popularity on Cartoon Network, the concert tonight had quite a few parents with kids. There were also quite a lot of teenagers, some looking a bit like anime convention-goers. Then there were more than a few Japanese, probably here on student visas, and some Japanese-White couples, like Hitomi and myself. Perhaps there were fans from Japan as well. I can imagine for serious Puffy fans, they wouldn't be able to see Puffy in a small venue like the Moore Theater in Japan.

The bad, or should I say unfortunate, was the theater was hardly full and quite a few seats were empty. And perhaps because of the kids or because it's Tuesday or because not everyone knows Puffy's latest music, including myself, the audience on the whole was not terribly pumped up. And since Ami Yumi are pretty women, I would have liked it if they dressed not in baggy shirts plus pants but something a little more befitting a rock performer.

The good was they do have a talented band, diverse and interesting musical composition, stage presence, singable lyrics, and Ami and Yumi sing fairly well. They also had the sense to put some of their better-known songs (high-of-their popularity songs) in at the end and encore so the audience finally got up and acted a bit more enthusiastic at the end. (That is not to say their new songs weren't strong, it's just nostalgia and familiarity plays a factor in enjoyment of music. In fact, what keeps people from some music, e.g. classical, is simply lack of exposure.)

We bought two of their more recent CDs, but somehow we didn't end up with their most recent CD, apparently a concert exclusive, due to confusion on my behalf. Both CDs came with signboards containing their signatures. Hitomi will rip them and we'll be better prepared for their return tour in perhaps a few years.

It was my first ride of the Chief Sealth Trail. All 3.6 miles of it.

My initial thoughts were it's really quite unlike most rails-to-trails trails in that it's quite hilly, it's also not very practical for transportation. I had my single-speed bicycle on it, and there's quite a lot of steep sections. I remember seeing a post complaining it wasn't straight, but it obviously curves to make it easier to climb. I was amused thinking about young kids trying to bicycle it. It was during the day and I didn't see see any bicyclists, just some walkers. I don't think there would be any bicycle commuters come evening.

On the plus side, there's some unobstructed views off east of Lake Washington and Mount Ranier looks lovely, but the power line towers cross the view a bit. And it is fair training ride, but would be improved if the sections of trail weren't continually criss-crossed with roads.

I've been trying to get Kevin to join me on a ride this year. Finally, I got him out today on a around-town ride.

We rode from his house through the UW marshlands and arboretum. We rode by college students tearing out non-native, invasive plants such as ivy and blackberry and planting pine trees and various ground cover. In other Seattle parks, you can see local plant restoration taking place as well. Greenlake and sections along Lake Washington Boulevard have had much the shoreline replaced as well.

Coming up Interlaken Boulevard, we rode along 20th Ave on Capitol Hill. I noticed that the Polish community center was having a fund raising event. I had no idea there was a local Polish community, or even a center for them. But there was a lot of Polish food being served, including dessert, Polish beer, and food to go. For a quick snack we bought tickets for soup, then sat down, then handed over tickets to our cute waitress for food. Polish dress is vaguely Bavarian meets Russian and the women wear enormously sized costume jewelery. Our food was good. There were plenty of desserts to chose from, priced a little high, priced perhaps for fund raising.

Our next stop was Beacon Hill. On the northwest face of the hill, roughly between the Pacific Medical Center and I-5 is a mostly neglected stretch of land, part of Dr. Jose Rizal Park, that's been developed into a dog park mostly by volunteers. Kevin came to see the nearly 180 degree view west. The land seemed a little bit too scenic for just running dogs. It felt like there was the beginnings of a nice park, but due to lack of budget or local interest, kept the land from being developed into anything more. Past the fenced portion to the south were a number of roads and homeless camp sites littered with garbage. We jumped a gate and entered an area of dirt roads and paths. A couple of shady looking characters were milling about this out-of-bounds area, but one fellow simply standing around said hi and acted friendly enough. Here's an interesting article about the recent clean up and plans for a bicycle/pedestrian trail.

We rode next along the waterfront and up on to Magnolia Hill. There's a long steady climb on Thorndyke Avenue from the north end of Portage Bay, but next time I'll try taking the Garfield Street Bridge as it seems to have two lanes on the uphill side. Kevin's into viewpoints and we wandered into Ursula Judkins Viewpoint, which as a very new park has no landscaping or even a sign indicating it's a park, merely a Rubbermaid garbage can at the chained-off entrance. According to information online, they're locating a landscaping architect. Heading around the top of the hill, there's a lot of other viewpoints, though as Kevin puts it "Downtown is cut off" from them. Hopefully the landscape artist will remove a few trees and add a terrace or two, and we'll see people congregating there like they do on the south side of Queen Anne for wedding photography.

Discovery Park has a nice viewpoint from the old military housing complex. I'm a little surprised that a number of buildings there are still boarded up, though with new roofs, and you'd think the city could run a special school or community center there with a few new windows. But perhaps things like plumbing, electrical, and fire safety might also be a consideration for not opening these old buildings to the public.

The sun was getting low and we wanted to find the new viewpoint park in Fremont. Heading through the Ballard Locks, and into Fremont, we literally carried our bikes up stairs to reach the promontory. The new park was fenced off however, and for the second time today we jumped the fence. A few bits and pieces weren't done yet, but most of it was. Lots of interesting sculpture and and an interesting mix of new foliage made what I thought would be merely a patch of grass and a fence overlooking the city into something more significant. I might be attending the opening on Tuesday.