Blogs about ballard:
Edith Wrap-up.
Remember the saga of Edith Macefield? She's the little old Ballard lady whose house was being eaten by a L.A. Fitness and a Trader Joes. She hadn't wanted to sell to developers, and eventually passed away in her home, as she wished. There was a rumor that she'd willed her house to the developer's construction manager, who'd been taking care of her.
News piece number one is someone vandalized Edith's fences with the messages "LA Fitness killed Edith" and "Save Ballard". Yet another example of how deeply Seattle values it's neighborhoods.
"News" piece number two is that that the New York Times has finally caught onto this story. (If the NYT website says you must register to read the page, just clear your cookies and refresh the page.) NYT was able to confirm that the construction manager was willed the house, and he'll sell it to help pay for his daughter's college. I'll be interested to see if and how the house gets integrated into the business complex.
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Famous Boats.
In other news of TV I like, we watch a lot of Deadliest Catch around our house. We feel a special sense of kinship with the crab fishermen because many of them and their boats live in Seattle, some even dock in Ballard.
My daily commute crosses a bride over the Fisherman's Terminal, where many working boats are moored. Frequently I'll look out the window, hoping for a peek of a "famous" Deadliest Catch boat.
I did see the North American for a few days. While I am charmed by Sten Skaar and his goofy sweaters, the North American just isn't a major player.
A couple weeks ago, the husband and I were at Shilshole avenue, and we saw the Wizard, parked in drydock. Now THAT's a famous boat. It was very large and impressive. We didn't manage to spot any Coburns, though.
An afterthought: Are these crab fishing vessels "boats" or "ships"? I sure don't want Sig Hansen yelling at me for calling his rig the wrong thing.
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RIP Edith Macefield.
A while ago, I talked about the little old lady (Edith Macefield) whose house was being eaten by a proto-Trader Joe's. Edith has passed on. All she wanted was to spend her days in her house. Congratulations Edith; you got that.
There are some charming post-scripts to Edith's story. The company doing the new construction make some preparations for absorbing Edith's lot into the building; should it become available. I'll be very interested to see how that works out. Second, a construction manager took care of Edith (groceries, errands) and she may have left the house to him.
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Ballard News.
We live in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, which has a rather interesting history including lots of Scandinavian fisherman, an independence from Seattle, and acting as a smuggling drop off point. (I'm told that "Snoose Junction" was how 19th century smugglers referred to Ballard; where they could drop off illicit cargo before going to Seattle.) With all this history, Ballard feels like it's own little community, and here are some of the community issues floating around lately.
First off, there's the Trader Joe's that's being built around the Little Old Lady's house. (It's the teeny brown house in the pictures at right. ) Well, it's not only a Trader Joe's, it's actually “a Trader Joe's supermarket, a health club, and a 468-stall parking structure”. There's a whole block of construction there, except for a chili joint, and one little house. According to folks on the bus, the owner of the house (a Little Old Swedish Lady) was offered a price three times the market rate, but simply wouldn't sell. It's a bit sad, actually, to see this one house, surrounded on 3 sides by another building three stories high. But the husband and I will be rather glad to get a TJs in our neighborhood.
Secondly, there's the saga of the old Denny's. (Also covered on the AP Wire.) These article contain most of the relevant details. I wonder what will happen to the little blue house with the boarded up windows near the Denny's? According to family history, the husband's grandfather and grandmother rented a room there when his mother was born.
Lastly, there's the this satisfying conclusion to the smashed cars that we saw after picking my mom up from the train station last week: Suspect Tasered in Interbay after wild ride, carjacking.