Stories

The waterfront office building at Wards Cove is now fully leased, the Wards Cove Packing Company announced this morning.

The 12,500-square-foot building, which was previously part of the company's salmon packing operations, will be open to seven tenants who will begin moving in on April 1:

• Envirotecture
• Shilshole Development
• Dave Dykstra Architect Group
• Lally Consulting
• Shoreline Marine Engineer
• SoundEarth Strategies
• the sales center for The Enclave, the 21-unit townhome development across the street

The Wards Cove development includes 12 houseboat slips and a 10-slip marina, a new beach and a conference room. The renovation of the office building included use of recycled, reused and sustainable building materials.

Seattle City Light’s four-year “re-lamping” project for streetlights is headed Eastlake’s way, and it may include installation of the new LED lights seen on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in the city.

Suzanne Hartman, director of Communications and Public Affairs for City Light, says this year’s re-lamping work will start at Denny Way and go north to 65th, starting sometime at the end of March. The schedule isn’t set yet so she can't say when the work will get to Eastlake. 

As part of the project, City Light is using federal stimulus dollars to replace high pressure sodium (HSP) lights with light emitting diode (LED) lights that are brighter, last longer (12-15 years versus four to six for HPS) and cost less to operate. 

In an article written in February, City Councilmember Bruce Harrell and City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said approximately 5,000 LED lights will be installed in this first round. Eventually, all 84,000 city streetlights will be replaced with...

On Wednesday, United States Senator Marie weighed in on NOAA’s now epic attempts to move to Oregon. The Puget Sound Business Journal reported that Sen. Cantwell is demanding a federal investigation into the NOAA’s attempted move. Specifically, Sen. Cantwell is seeking review from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Inspector General in evaluating the move, which will ultimately result in a loss of Washington jobs.

In addition, Sen. Cantwell volleyed several claims directed at the NOAA’s operations—stating that the investigation should include an analysis of NOAA’s business practices and whether the move is a result of the organization’s lack of due diligence. Sen. Cantwell decried the NOAA’s move, saying that “Taxpayers deserve better.”

The full Puget Sound Business Journal Article can be found here.

Marjorie Nelson's daughters announced today that the Life Celebration for their mother will be at 6:30 p.m., Monday, March 22, at the Leo K. Theatre at Seattle Rep, 155 Mercer St., at Seattle Center.

Nelson, a longtime Eastlake resident and well-known actress, died at her Franklin Avenue home on Feb. 12.

Nelson's daughters, Judith and Rachel, are welcoming help with food, setup, performing and video production for the event. Or, if you have photos to show in the lobby, they'd like to hear from you.

Contact them at marjorienelsonactor@gmail.com or call Judith at 206-524-6699 or Rachel at 206-200-8192.

It looks like road work continues today on the stretch of E. Roanoke between Franklin and Eastlake. The street is closed and you'll have to take detour routes. Make allowances if you use that stretch to get to Seward School or down to Eastlake.

The Washington State Department of Transportation is sponsoring a public hearing and open house on the SR520 bridge expansion project from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday evening (Feb. 23) at the Naval Reserve Building at Lake Union Park, 860 Terry Ave. E.

Anyone who is interested is invited to attend and review and comment on the environmental analysis of the 520 bridge expansion and the west side interchange designs. You can speak to a court reporter at the event to have your comments recorded.

Documents related to the project can be found on the WSDOT Web site. You can also comment on the EIS and the project at that site. You can also e-mail comments to sr520bridge_SDEIS@wsdot.wa.gov. Or call the project office at 206-770-3500 to request the executive summary and CD for the project.

Comments on the supplemental draft EIS must be received by March 8.

UPDATE: This post has been changed since it was first published to include the day Mrs. Steinbrueck passed away. A link to Misha Berson's obituary on the Seattle Times has been added at the end of this post. Minor editing changes have also been made.

A longtime Eastlake resident and well-known Seattle actress and theater director, Marjorie Nelson, 86, has died.

She passed away Friday at her home on Franklin Avenue E. after a brief illness, according to her family.

In a blog post, her daughters, Judith and Rachel, said:

Marjorie was an amazing, courageous, inspiring human being who brought her creativity and humanity to everything she did including her work in theater, the arts and activism.

Ms. Nelson, a Seattle native, was the widow of Victor Steinbrueck, a prominent Seattle architect credited with saving the Pike Place Market when it was threatened with demolition. Her step-son is former city councilor Peter Steinbrueck.

She was one of the founding company members at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1963. She acted in all kinds of theater, from Chekhov and Beckett to plays for children, and performed at many theaters around town. She was also active as a theater director.

Ms. Nelson also made several movies, including one of Sidney Poitier’s first, “The Slender Thread,” which was shot in Seattle in 1965, and she appeared in the TV series, "Twin Peaks."

She received the Greg Falls Sustained Achievement Award from Theatre Puget Sound in 1998. 

A neighbor, Jules James, wrote in an e-mail how the community had a street party in 1993 to celebrate the 100th birthday of her house on Franklin Ave. Her “Victorian lady” is one of the oldest homes in the city and a registered historic landmark.

James said Ms. Nelson was also active politically and was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid and was an early supporter of Pete Holmes in his campaign for city attorney. 

“Her fundraisers for (her stepson) Peter's city council races were legendary in bringing a cast of characters all together,” James said. “Her front yard was regularly planted with a yard sign for one campaign or another, usually the opponent of the sign in my yard.”

Ms. Nelson was also very active in the Eastlake community. She served on the Seward School Design Departure Task Force in 1996-97, James said. She was also a past vice president of the Eastlake Community Council and had been involved in other neighborhood activities, according to the ECC’s Web site.

She also was active as a steward of her late husband’s vision for the Pike Place Market and the park there that was named for him. In 2008, she talked to the Seattle P-I about her concerns about plans to modify Victor Steinbrueck Park. The P-I talked with her as she walked through the park:

The widow of Victor Steinbrueck is strolling through the park on the north edge of Pike Place Market that bears his name, talking about his vision and the significance of the grassy hills, meandering walkways and wooden benches.

Suddenly she stops to stare at a vendor selling buttered corn on the cob from a booth that looks like it belongs at a carnival. An actress and activist accustomed to speaking her mind, Steinbrueck asks the vendor who gave him permission to set up there. He tells her it was the parks department. She shakes her head.

"It looks messy. It doesn't fit in the park. You can't just crap it up," she says.

Ms. Nelson is survived by her daughters, Rachel and Judith, and her husband's four children from a previous marriage. Details on plans for a Life Celebration planned for the end of March will be posted at MarjorieNelsonactor.blogspot.com.

Please feel free to post remembrances of Marjorie Nelson or condolences for her family in the comments on this post. I'd welcome a photo or additional details about her remarkable life. Please e-mail me at curtmilton (at) comcast.net.

RELATED STORY: Misha Berson's obituary of Marjorie Nelson is available online at the Seattle Times. The Times story has details of Nelson's early career, including her marriage to actor Howard da Silva and their blacklisting during the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Thanks to the Seattle Times for use of the photo.

UPDATE: This post has been changed since first published. A copy of the letter to Gary Locke has been attached and detail has been added.

The City Council and the Mayor's Office have released the letter to Gary Locke (see attached PDF). In it, the council and mayor say that locating at either NOAA's Sand Point base (the Western Regional Center) or the Federal Center South could be done "at a very small fraction of the cost of moving to Newport."

The letter notes that ships could be berthed at both Sand Point and the Federal Center South, and that "industrial work" that can't be done at Sand Point could be done at the FCS where maritime support services are close by.

The letter concludes:

Our proposal represents tens of millions of dollars in savings for the Department of Commerce, NOAA and, most importantly, federal taxpayers, compared to the alternative of moving from Seattle and building new facilities on leased property. These savings include approximately $7 million in one-time moving costs, more than...

Two of the bridges that feed traffic to Eastlake -- the University and Fairview Avenue bridges -- will undergo repairs starting next week, the Seattle Department of Transportation reports. The repairs will restrict traffic on the bridges during parts of the day.

• The Fairview Avenue Bridge (1300 block of Fairview, on the lake side of ZymoGenetics) will be painted begining Feb. 16. The work is expected to take three weeks. The bike lane next to the bridge railing will be narrowed during the work, so SDOT urges bike riders to be careful. Also, the contractor may reduce traffic to one lane in each direction during work hours. The full width of the bridge will be open for vehicle traffic between 6 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 6 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.
• On the University Bridge, the northbound, right-hand lane on the north approach will be closed for repairs under the bridge from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 17 and 18.

UPDATE: The five-car accident on the University Bridge has been cleared. Traffic and buses are moving again although Metro advises that slow downs are still occurring.

Original post:

An accident has closed all lanes on the University Bridge. Metro is rerouting bus routes through Montlake.

The WashingTown Laundromat, 2501 Eastlake Ave. E., closed a week ago after burglars broke in, stole the coin box off the wall, and did some other damage.

Frances Skeete, who owned the laundromat for five years, says she was going to close anyway but the burglary just moved the date up a week. She had been planning to close this weekend.

Skeete had focused on a pick-up and delivery laundry service but wasn't able to make that part of the business go. She says she was using good quality, environmentally safe laundry products for that part of the business but those made her costs a little higher and "most people are just looking for something really cheap."

Skeete also lamented that some people used the coin machine at the laundromat as a source of change and that that drove up her costs as well.

She didn't know what business might go into the laundry's space next to Hiroshi's.

"This is a great neighborhood," Skeet says. "Please thank everyone for their support and wish them the best in 2010."

WashingTown...

The good news is: The tolls and years of construction hassles on the 520 expansion project will probably eliminate much of the traffic the bridge is being designed to accommodate.

But that's only if the project is ever actually built.

Representatives from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and the Montlake community spoke to a public meeting in Eastlake on Wednesday about the 520 project, which has been in the planning stages for almost 12 years and which the state would like to have completed by 2016.

The debate over the project heated up this week with dueling press conferences between those who favor more transit options on the floating bridge (Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, state House Speaker Frank Chopp, several state representatives and at least one member of the city council) and those who want to proceed with a design chosen by state legislators last fall, now known as Option A+ (Eastside government representatives, five Seattle City Council members, representatives of labor unions).

At Wednesday's Eastlake meeting, Daniel Babuca, an engineering manager with WSDOT, and Michael Horntvedt, a WSDOT engineer, explained the three options a state legislative work group selected from last November.

The legislators selected Option A (with sub options), which would construct a new six-lane floating bridge across Lake Washington to replace the current four-lane structure. There would be three lanes in each direction with one of those lanes reserved for transit and carpools. There would be a new seven-lane viaduct crossing Portage Bay and lids over I-5 and Roanoke, 520 between 10th E. and Delmar Drive, and in the Montlake area.

Also included would be a new drawbridge at Montlake, different and limited access to Lake Washington Blvd., and direct access lanes to the freeway for transit. All three options include a 14-foot-wide bike path across the lake.

WSDOT's map of the 520 project.

Horntvedt said that WSDOT looks at what effect the project will have versus not building it. WSDOT's numbers show:

• 1.1 million residents will live in the Seattle area by 2030.
• 115,000 cars cross the bridge each day now.
• Without the new bridge, that number will grow to 135,000 cars daily.
• With the bridge and its new transit options, the number will grow to only 120,000 vehicles.

Babuca said the connections between 520 and I-5 will remain pretty much as they are now. The big difference is that there will be direct connections for carpools and transit to the I-5 express lanes. Another difference will be the lids that, Babuca said, will help to reconnect communities severed by the freeways. The lids will be mainly passive use (no playfields, Babuca said), with trails and landscaping.

Right now, the state is taking comments on the projects supplemental draft environmental impact statement. WSDOT will hold a public hearing and open house on the project from 5-7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 23, at the Naval Reserve Building at Lake Union Park, 860 Terry Ave. N.

Ted Lane and Jonathan Dubman from the Montlake community spoke about what they see as WSDOT's misguided approach to the expansion project. They support the mayor and others who want to see the HOV lanes on the bridge dedicated exclusively for transit (possibly light rail). They'd like to see the project designed so as to control how many cars come into Seattle each day. They'd like to see better connections between the bridge and transit options on the Seattle side.

In general, said Lane, they just think the 520 expansion is too much. "The project that came out was too big, too wide and insufficiently friendly to transit," Lane said.

Lane said the Montlake community was surprised at how wide the shoulders are (and fears they could be restriped into two additonal lanes), how tall the floating bridge is (40 feet from the water to the top of the structure), how big the Portage Bay viaduct is, and how far transit riders would have to walk to get from stops near the Montlake end of the bridge to a transit hub at the University of Washington (1,200 to 1,400 feet).

Lane said Montlake wants an option that's "in scale and context sensitive to the urban environment."

Dubman said that the project has dragged on so long that the world has changed. Gas is more expensive and people want more transit options than when the project began. The bridge and Seattle approaches need to reflect those changes, he said.  

Those opposed to Option A+ have started a web site, sustainable520.org , to present their arguments.

One problem the project faces no matter which option is chosen is a shortage of money. The state pegs the total cost at $4.53-4.63 billion dollars and they're still about $2 billlion short. The floating bridge is funded but the Seattle end of the project isn't. Tolls on the current bridge (possibly $3.65 each way) are expected to begin next year but they won't be able to make up the funding gap.

Lane noted that the current bridge was done on the cheap and that we shouldn't make that mistake again.

WSDOT's Web site on the project has detailed maps, lots of background material on the project and the various design options, and a place to comment on the supplemental draft EIS (you have until March 8).

A video flyover of Option A is available on YouTube:

The Seattle Department of Transportation  will be doing road repairs on Eastlake Ave. between E. Galer and E. Garfield streets on Saturday. One lane will be closed in each direction.

Crews are planning to work between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

UPDATE: This post has been updated since it was first published. A link to Seattle Transit Blog has been added.

Two meetings are taking place this month (one this week on Wednesday, one later) that focus on the impact I-5 and 520 have on Eastlake:

• Eastlake Community Council public meeting, 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 3, Seward School, 2500 Franklin Ave. E.: This ECC public meeting offers neighborhood residents a chance to talk with representatives from the Washington State Department of Transportation about freeway noise abatement programs, opening a trail between Colonnade Park and downtown, decorating I-5 columns and the latest proposals on the SR520 expansion. 
   
  The state has built noise walls along I-5 in Eastlake in recent years. The ECC is wondering if more noise walls can be added. The state is also studying whether sound-absorbing materials might help cut the roar of traffic on the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge (see our video below). Expect these topics to be discussed at Wednesday's meeting.
• WSDOT hearing...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Friday that it will review whether there was a "practical alternative" to awarding a lease to Newport, Oregon, for its Pacific fleet.

NOAA announced last August that it was moving its base from Lake Union, where its been based for over 40 years, to the Oregon coastal port.

The review comes in response to a decision by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) in December sustaining a protest of the move by the Port of Bellingham, one of the sites bidding for the NOAA base. The GAO's decision hinged on the fact that part of the proposed NOAA base would be in a 100-year flood plain, which is a violation of federal regulations.

In a press release, NOAA's chief administrative officer, William F. Broglie, said:

“NOAA is proceeding with all appropriate actions and intends to fully comply with GAO’s decision and recommended corrective actions."

The press release says NOAA will:

• Conduct an analysis of the proposals from 1801...

UPDATE: This post has been updated since it was first published. Susan Forhan is the sole owner of Eastlake Massage, not a co-owner.

As the saying goes, every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

For Eastlake's business owners, that single step was a meeting Thursday morning at Cicchetti where the possibility of forming a merchants association was discussed. About a dozen businesspeople talked about the neighborhood, the business district and how an association might help them promote and improve it.

Two Eastlake residents -- Susan Kaufman, owner of Serafina and Cicchetti, and Susan Forhan, owner of Eastlake Massage -- organized the meeting. Kaufman said she had tried to form a similar group 15 years ago, but the business district wasn't ready for it and it eventually dissolved. She's optimistic that the time is now right to form an Eastlake Merchants Association.

"We're ready," Kaufman said. "We're ready to collaborate as a group."

Those present represented a variety of businesses, from restaurants to a dental office, a spa and two mail services, among others.

When Kaufman asked how people in the group perceived the business district, several agreed with Alcena Plum, owner of Louisa's Bakery Cafe that it's "a bit spread out." While other neighborhood business districts are more compact, Eastlake's runs from the University Bridge to roughly Zymogenetics, a long distance. It's not easily walkable and that can make it hard to promote.

"Alcena brought up a good point," Kaufman said. "We're disconnected by geography." There are too many vacancies, she said, adding that people will walk if there are businesses to draw them along. 

Lori Herbert, from Aesthetica Contemporary Dentistry, felt that one problem was the businesses don't know each other and neighbors often don't know the businesses. "We're our own best referrals," she said.

Other issues that make it challenging for local businesses are the fact that Eastlake is a busy street (it can be "intimidating," one person said) and parking can be a challenge. On the plus side, the neighborhood is centrally located with good bus lines that make access easy.

Kaufman noted that the challenges facing Eastlake businesses can seem "daunting," especially because everyone has their business to run. She advised that the group "chip away" at things and not try to take on too much too fast.

When she asked if the group felt like a merchants association was a good idea and if should they meet again, everyone said yes. The next meeting is tentatively set for 9 a.m. March 1 and each of those present was asked to recruit another business person to attend.

Eastlake's new noise walls along I-5 are tempting targets for graffiti artists.

The walls are mostly inaccessible on the freeway side, but not totally. I noticed the graffiti in the photo on the Harvard E. side of the freeway on Monday. There's a planting area on that side so it's possible to gain access to the wall.

Tim Ditch, bridge supervisor for the Washington State Department of Transportation says that graffiti facing the freeway is the responsibility of his department. If it faces the street (which is much easier to access), the responsibility belongs to the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Ditch says that WSDOT has a graffiti report page on its Web site: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Maintenance/Graffiti/report.htm

SDOT also has a graffiti reporting page online: http://www2.seattle.gov/util/forms/graffiti/graffitiForm.asp

Ditch says the graffiti in the photo has been painted over. It's still visible, but not nearly as bright as it was in the photos.

UPDATE: This post has been updated since it was first publlished. Joe Mabel granted me permission to include his photo in the post.

Eastlake is already known for having one of the more unusual parks in Seattle: I-5 Colonnade Park, two acres of stairways and mountain bike trails located under the Interstate highway.

If Jules James, longtime Eastlake resident and businessman has his way, the neighborhood will be noted for another unique park: Submerged Parcel Park (SPP). James has submitted a formal proposal for funding for the park as part of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund.

The land in question is located under Lake Union in front of the ZymoGenetics building, the old Lake Union Steam Plant. This area is one of the last open pieces of Shoreline on Lake Union. James is proposing that it be formallly acquired as park land and incorporated into the Chesiahud Lake Union Loop Trail.

According to James' proposal, the underwater land was originally platted and sold in 1907 as a funding mechanism for the Alaska-Yukon Exposition. One of the pieces of land was purchased by the Water Department to protect the outflow from the Volunteer Park Reservoir. Part of this land and a piece on the land was transferred in 1910 to the new Lighting Department as the site for a hydro-electric plant that used excess Volunteer Park Reservoir water to generate electricity.

City Light owns another piece of land in the area, which it has leased to the Lake Union Drydock for over 60 years, James says. When the steam plant ceased operations in 1984, the two pieces of submerged land became surplus but were never sold. ZymoGenetics built a floating sidewalk and a small dock within the Fairview Avenue right of way that are open to the public.

James' proposal says the area is included in the Eastlake Neighborhood Plan "and has consistently rated a high Eastlake neighborhood open space priority."

James admits in his proposal that the project "will not rank well" in the Green Spaces Levy's criteria. Eastlake is considered to already have enough open space, he says. "Nor does SPP contribute much to solving social ills," James writes, "such as too many miles driven or two few child-compatible urban housing units built." 

The property is protected by a 1990 City Council Resolution that says it can't be sold without "a process with provides significant opportunity for public participation" and directs the mayor to "consider how both Submerged Parces of the Lake Union Steam Plant property be maintained as open space." 

James' fear is that someone will find a way to buy the property and threaten this open waterway "thus compelling us into a crisis response."

"I'd rather act with quiet prudence now," he writes, "than by headlining desperation later."

Joe Mabel has a photo on Wikipedia of the area where the park would go which also includes the dock and the ZymoGenetics building.

The official criteria for the levy's Opportunity Fund are on the PDF attached to this post. 

The Eastlake Community Council has an article online about the Lake Union shoreline that mentions the submerged land (see item #1).

The Seattle School Board passed the attendance transition plan for the 2010-11 school year late this evening. The vote was 6-1 with school board director Betty Patu the lone dissenting vote.

The plan includes a one-year continuation of a tiebreaker provision setting aside 20 percent of kindergarten seats at TOPS@Seward School for Eastlake children. The provision has been in effect for several years but will probably disappear after 2010-11 when a new geographic zone tiebreaker is created for Seward.

The big focus of the evening for TOPS parents was a last-minute change to the transportation grandfather clause in the plan. The original plan had said current students at a school who live outside the school's service area would continue to receive bus transportation for five years. That was reduced to two years.

The change has the potential to be a big blow to TOPS which is an alternative school and draws students from all over the city. Many students come from southeast Seattle and won't be able to get to TOPS...

Linda Shaw, the Seattle Times' education reporter, has a story today about Seattle parents unhappy with the school district's transition plan to its new neighborhood-based attendance strategy.

Shaw reports that the parents are upset that, despite their intense lobbying efforts, the transition plan, which the board is set to vote on tonight, doesn't guarantee that siblings will be assigned to the same school:

The affected families are those with children already in elementary school and younger ones still at home. They want their younger children to be able to attend the same school as their older siblings — something that was virtually guaranteed under the old rules and will be guaranteed again once the new assignment plan is fully in place in 2015.

As we've reported previously, Eastlake parents and activists have been seeking better access for neighborhood kids to TOPS@Seward School, Eastlake's local school. A plan to offer a geographic zone for Seward in the transition plan was dropped. An amendment restoring a provision setting aside 20 percent of the kindergarten seats at Seward for Eastlake kids is on the table this evening.

Read the rest of Shaw's story here.

Meeting tonight: The Seattle School Board's meeting begins at 6 p.m. at school district headquarters, 2445 3rd Ave. S. You can also watch on Comcast channel 26. The board is expected to vote on the transition plan this evening.

Bob Simmons is reporting on Crosscut.com that the Web site is hearing from some civilian employees of NOAA -- "a small sliver of the 175-member civilian work force," he says -- that they aren't thrilled about the agency's pending move to Newport, Oregon.

Their main concern is about the quality of life in Newport:

The employees who are quietly in touch with Crosscut worry about the schools in Newport, the scarcity of housing, and the cuts in pay they will face when they move. Federal workers are paid according to the purported cost of living in the region where they're assigned. Seattle ranks high in cost and equivalently high in pay. Newport doesn't. The NOAA workers we heard from expect to lose as much as 7 percent in wages because, according to the federal formula, living's easier in a small town.

That's ironic because the quality of life was one of the main reasons NOAA sited in its decision to move its fleet. But Newport isn't exactly a culture center (it's main industry pre-NOAA was tourism). The...

It appears the Seattle School District heard Eastlake's parents at its Jan. 6 meeting.

A provision that sets aside 20 percent of kindergarten seats at TOPS@Seward School for Eastlake kids has been restored to the district's New Student Assignment Transition Plan (NSAP) for the 2010-11 school year. The set-aside, which has been in effect for several years, had been dropped from the plan, sparking a petition drive in the neighborhood and testimony at the Jan. 6 school board meeting.

The school board will vote on the amended transition plan at their meeting on Wednesday evening at school district headquarters, 2445 3rd Ave. S.

In an amended transition plan, posted on the school district's web site (and attached to this post), the 20 percent provision has been reinstated for the 2010-11 school year. After that, a new tiebreaker based on a geographic zone is supposed to be implemented to help determine how many Eastlake kids can attend their neighborhood school.

The full text of the relevant portion of the amended...

William Yardley, a New York Times' Northwest correspondent, covers NOAA's move to Newport, Oregon, in an article in Saturday's paper (and online here).

There's not much new in the story. Yardley recounts Bellingham's challenge to the Newport move on the grounds that the new site will be in a floodplain, which is a violation of federal requirements:

Here in Newport, officials cast the flooding issue as a technicality, and suggest a little gleefully that people in Washington may have taken them too lightly.

“They probably thought, ‘Newport’s so small, they’ll never even get the paperwork together,’ ” said Terry Thompson, a Lincoln County commissioner. “They didn’t realize they were running into a buzz saw.”

One theory going around, according to the article, is that the move was prompted by the fact that the new head of NOAA, Dr. Jane, Lubchenco, taught at Oregon State. But the decision on the move was made without her consultation, says a NOAA spokesman.

Read the complete New York Times article here.

UPDATE ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON: Traffic is still restricted at the southern end of Eastlake Avenue, near the corner of Eastlake and Blaine. Looks like crews are working on cables along that stretch of the street. Traffic is one-way in each direction. See the photo for details.

Get ready for traffic disruptions on the south end of Eastlake Avenue E. on Saturday.

Seattle Department of Transportation crews will be making repairs to the street between E. Garfield and E. Blaine from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Traffic will be restricted to one lane in each direction during the work. Sidewalks will remain open.

Crews are replacing concrete panels in the roadway.

Gabriel Campanario, the Seattle Times' "Seattle Sketcher," took a walk along the east side of the Cheshiahud Loop trail.

He made some sketches at Good Turn Park on Fairview Avenue E. And he noted that the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs has a call for artists out for a new media project for the Cheshiahud Loop. Here's what they're looking for:

The selected artist will create a new media project drawing on the history and/or context of the site. Possible media include podcast- or cell-phone based audio work, audio and/or video tours using mobile media and GPS, and walking tours or interactive events using the Web.

Deadline to apply for the $18,000 grant is next Tuesday, Jan. 12 (sorry for the short notice). Go to the Arts and Cultural Affairs Web site for more info on how to apply.