Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Goodbye Belltown, Hello Kent!

"At about 3100 square feet, it is definitely a change from our little 630 square foot condo"

-Nick, Katie, Ava and Bella...An American Family!

From Ashleigh:

"The Belltown Gothic section is FINALLY done.

This is merely a slice of old Seattle history with six major sections, including my collaborations with these amazing writers:
Jesse Bernstein, William S. Burroughs, and Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, Esquire.

The other sections include Old Belltown before it was bulldozed, razed and rebuilt,
SCUD (Subterranean Cooperative of Urban Dreamers) and the amazing Free Mars Cafe.

I went ahead and scanned all the artwork collaborations I did with Jesse, Wilum and Mr. Burroughs because all of my books are sold out and no longer in print."

http://www.belltowngothic.com/

From: Jamie Griswold

Sent: Thu, February 4, 2010 12:53:39 PM
Subject: new Belltown community page!

Hi there,

We wanted to invite you to contribute to the new Belltown community page http://local.mynorthwest.com/belltown on MyNorthwest.com.  It’s part of a larger network of 120 western Washington communities:  http://local.mynorthwest.com/ 

The page features community news, traffic alerts in your neighborhood, weather results and alerts, school closure alerts, a twitter feed with all your neighborhood’s twitter mentions, and a twitter alert system that will let you know if there is a dramatic increase in mentions of your community on twitter.

There’s also a community events calendar.  You can submit any events in your community to the event calendar here: http://local.mynorthwest.com/thesubmit.php?c=belltown

Take a look, let us know what you think.  If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

 
Thanks,


Jamie


Jamie Griswold

Online Content Producer | MyNorthwest.com

MyNorthwest.com...

From Belltown Messenger #76, February 2010.

ALEX R. MAYER is foiled by the Google Voice Service
Debunking Belltown's Bad Reputation

Even more on speech recognition technology in the February Belltown Messenger:
-Google Voice is a Balderdash Engine
-Be Very Afraid: Biometrics Expert Tells All
-A Garbled Word or Two About Google Voice

Comments about this? This is the place. I might pitch in. I neglected to mention that Ronald and I had a nice time at the Dahlia Lounge that night too, among other things. -Alex

Update 2-10-2010
The PI has given blogger David Nelson the lead story again, complete with another giant graphic. See screenshot #2 above and also his inanity here: Is Belltown Parking Too Expensive?

I love the comments this guy gets. And I love how ugly and useless the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has become. Only a year ago I was getting it at my doorstep every morning. And they paid their writers.

Update 1-19-2010
David,
I'm glad you are taking the high road in response to my snarky blog post!
I saw your web traffic (see screenshot) - people do indeed love those top 10 lists.
Although a Pulitzer prize seems out of reach for you, the more voices Belltown has the better, I say!

Truly,

-Alex (Gern

re:

David Nelson wrote:

http://2andbell.com/

Coming Saturday and Sunday August 14 & 15, 2010

Be updating this one soon ...

Belltown People
belltownpeople.com
Last post: November 30, 2009 "We'll be back soon..."

Belltowner
belltowner.com
Last post: October 16, 2008 "Sunset from the sculpture park"

Belltown Bent
http://belltown.typepad.com/
Last post: October 9, 2008 "Line of sight"

Belltown Seattle
belltownseattle.org
Last post: July 29, 2009 "Closing in on a Foreclosure"

In December we visited the Pacific Science Center and found a giant plastic blob trashcan advertising Coke outside the entrance to the IMAX Theatre (now playing: Avatar). In the background a donor wall honors the folks who sponsor the institution, with so many millions that you'd think they would not need to advertise corporate soda.

The Seattle Aquarium is always leaking, and who can blame them? The Pacific Science Center, not located over any body of water, is also always leaking. Here's a shot of a recent leak being stopgapped with a plastic chemical can. There's also a box being used as a trashcan there for an extra touch of class. The water smelled funky or moldy.

The kids love the Science Center. The young people who work there are great - obviously science geeks. Things went downhill in 2009. Complaints too numerous to mention here, but maybe we'll revisit this piece. Note to donor wall - give more money.

Austin A. Bell's final resting place in Seattle's Lakeview Cemetery is now home to a small fir tree of the Charlie Brown variety – which thrives on the roof of his tomb. What could be cheerier during the holiday season than this accidental miracle of nature blossoming in all it's pagan glory?

Austin is the son of Belltown's pioneer founder William Bell and you can also see his name on First Avenue and Bell streets on the Austin A. Bell building facade, above Starbucks. He killed himself there and some say his ghost can still be found wandering around Downtown.

Also growing on the tomb of "Seattle's first spoiled rich kid" are some flowers (see photos). The entrance to the tomb has been sealed with modern-day cinder blocks.

SEATTLE - A couple was attacked by about 10 men outside a hot dog stand as they walked home early Saturday in the Belltown area.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/78599827.html

Schram: Belltown should star in this 'B' flick

"It'll be a true-life little ditty about how upper crust yuppies buy overpriced condos in a once seedy Seattle neighborhood called Belltown.

And that once they move in, are then left cowering in fear of those seeking spare change."

Paid professionals at nbcconnecticut.com say downtown New Haven, Connecticut (7,000) has greater population density than downtown Seattle. Ten thousand folks live in downtown Seattle.

In this radical new era of unpaid journalism fact-checking is hard to come by, even for affiliates of multinational media monopolies.

And less than 7,000 in downtown Chicago? What a hick town.

-Rex

New Haveners Hate Driving

Updated 1:00 PM EST, Thu, Nov 12, 200

"Unlike cities like Hartford, which fills up with employees mid-day and then turns into a ghost town around 5:30 p.m., New Haven claims 7,000 people who live in the downtown area, making its population density greater than downtown Seattle, Chicago or Baltimore."

Google Alerts for Belltown - Friday, October 30 2009

Google News Alert for: belltown

Belltown Messenger Crosscut.com, Felony Prostitution, Bell Street Park Belltown Messenger The online-news business may still be a struggling fledgling, but Belltown and vicinity are emerging as its local center. Crosscut.com, ex-Seattle Weekly ... See all stories on this topic

Belltown Messenger A Window on the World Belltown Messenger Now open at First and Battery is Ventana, with Joseph Conrad at the stoves and longtime Belltown barman Armin Moloudzadeh mixing drinks. ... See all stories on this topic

Belltown Messenger Why I Voted Joe Mallahan for Seattle Mayor Belltown Messenger I met candidates McGinn and Mallahan at a Belltown Business Association-sponsored early-morning forum and pastry feed back on October 16; the BBA likes ... See all stories on this topic

Seattle Post Intelligencer Three condo projects going to auction; one to market Seattle Post Intelligencer Gallery in Belltown did it. Condominium auctions are the latest boom...

Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan at the BBA-sponsored chat at Belltown's Palace Ballroom this morning. More later if I feel like it.

If you can overlook the typo in the headline and other grammatical atrocities (a trademark of the belltownpeople.com blog) here's Jesse of Belltown People interpreting the BBA event:

Mayor Candidates Debate over Issues Affecting Belltown

---

See also: Mike McGinn: Chicken Waffle

"Felony charges have been filed against a 28-year-old woman accused of running a brothel in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood.

In charging documents, King County prosecutors claim Kaiyana McCloud had been promoting prostitution out of an apartment at 210 Wall St.

In July, according to the allegations, Seattle police received reports that men were seen wandering in and out of the posh apartment at all hours, usually staying for less than an hour. Vice squad detectives stopped one of the men as he left the apartment; according to police, he told officers he'd been with a prostitute hired through an online site.

In the days that followed, three undercover officers met with escorts at the apartment, prosecutors allege. An undercover officer also applied for a job there. According to police statements, the recruiter offered to pay the officer $210 to $250 per client.

Having come to believe the apartment's rent was being paid by McCloud, officers arrested her at her Renton home on Oct. 2. Police allege she admitted to operating...

"Bummerbunny" creator and artist Laura Castellanos is interviewed in the October 2009 Belltown Messenger. Our quirky alt-monthly neighborhood newspaper managed to squeeze eleven images of the bummerbunny into the issue.

The first person to identify all eleven bunnies (by commenting below this story) wins a bummerbunny t-shirt and some other cultural treasures from the Belltown Messenger archives.

(Hint: six of the bummerbunnies are web-only. And a pdf of the print version can be found here.)

---

Has it really come to this?

A Bummerbunny contest? What happened to quality investigative journalism?

Truth is, this here blog is experimental and we can do what we want, like taking the month off again. Bummerbunny and maybe a little tinkering on our Top 75 Seattle Media Websites 2009 is all she wrote, for now. Too busy having fun with our dead-tree Belltown Messenger. It's an actual physical newspaper and not just some bullshit blog.

-Alex

Belltown People: Belltown Filmaker Awarded Macarthur Genius Grant

"Seattlest broke the news that the documentary film maker James Longley was awarded the prestigious Macarthur Genius Grant."

Thanks to Jesse at Belltown people for linking to the July 2007 James Longley interview in the Belltown Messenger.

New Belltown neighblog - the Hearst-sponsored "insidebelltown.com" which redirects to:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/insidebelltown/

From: "Ho, Vanessa"
To: "Ho, Vanessa"
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 5:20:38 PM
Subject: New Belltown blog on seattlepi.com

Dear Belltowners,

Seattlepi.com has launched its latest neighborhood blog, Inside Belltown (www.insidebelltown.com), featuring a fabulous crew of writers who are putting their neighborhood know-how to good use: Shedding light on where they live. They plan to chronicle, observe, narrate and riff on all things Belltown, from art and cocktails to real estate, crime, community and torn-up streets.

Don't miss Igor Keller's funny, insightful post today on City Hostel Seattle.

"I grew up during the darkest stretch of seventies," Keller writes. "Back then, it seemed like nothing would ever be brought right. The decade played host to war, corruption, financial, energy and international crises, Richard Nixon, terrible fashions and even worse hairstyles."

Also appearing today...

Belltown's own Open Circle Theater is please to present MADNESS OUT OF TIME, the theater's 8th annual installment of horror from the master of the macabre, H.P. Lovecraft - running October 9 thru November 14, 2009.

Based on Lovecraft's novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, local playwrights Dustin Engstrom (In the Kafka Colony, The Center of the Universe) and Ron Sandahl (The Necronomicon, The Colour Out of Space, Arkham) have teamed up to take Lovecraft's longest work and adapt it for the stage.  Set in Providence in 1953, the story follows Charles Ward, an odd young delver into the past. When he uncovers a previously unknown ancestor, Charles is exstatic and tracks down everything he can. As he stumbles upon his ancestor's notebooks, his discoveries take a darker turn, and Charles retreats to his laboratory. But is it madness or something far worse that now haunts Charles Ward? What happens when you pursue the past, only to find it pursuing you back?

Directed by Gary Zinter (Who's Afraid of the Big...

Can the owners of Belltown's Sidney Apartments sue porn producers who insist on using a "Sidney Apartments" sign in their abusive sex video?

The opening scenes take place on a public street - protected speech even if someone else's advertising message happens to be visible. Still, if I was an attorney for the Sidney I'd feel comfortable asking the site to take this film down or alter that opening shot.

Shout-outs to the sicko who sent us this link to a Belltown-produced Internet porn video that has been viewed a quarter of a million times at popular smut site tube8.com. WARNING: Adult content, and gross. Why must there be so much drooling in porn these days?

Long story short - a young lady meets a pervert with a camera at Uptown Espresso on 4th and Wall and they walk past the adjacent Sidney Apartments through an alley and up to a Belltown condo for lewd behavior that the woman is clearly being paid for.

http://www.tube8.com/hardcore/tasia-rodney-moore/141303/

---

Here's the Dispatch bit about the Sidney being purchased...

Im trying to get a web page/blog discussion going at http://lowerbelltown.blogspot.com join in...

Saving the Belltown Needle

Early Sunday morning Bedlam took the first steps towards getting the Belltown Needle installed in
the proposed Bell Street Parks project.

We have already made contact with the original artist Andie DeRoux and she has expressed excitement
at getting a look at it, and helping us to restore it. We are still in the very early stages of this, but have the
idea to raise money to build a high pedestal for it to stand on at 2nd and Bell St.
-images all click for larger view

http://bedlamite.com/next/?p=429
---

bedlam

News Release

*Bedlam Coffee brings caffeine, sugar, and chaos theory together for a one of a
kind mix that is sure to please.*

/Bedlam Coffee House has Grand Opening on May 27, 2009. Hours: Mon.-Thurs.,
7am-10pm. 24-hour weekends, Fri. 7am – Sun. 10pm./

*Contact: *Ben Borgman, 206-910-2300

*Address: *2231 2^nd Ave., Seattle, WA XXXXX (@ 2^nd & Bell)

*Email: *bedlam@bedlamite.com

*Website: *www.bedlamite.com


higher .dpi images available via the web at
http://www.bedlamite.com/bedlam_photo.htm<...

Update 5-21-2009

Another neighborhood news enthusiast loses interest in blogging: "inbelltown.com" is a dead link.

---

Looks like inbelltown.com and belltownpeople.com are providing daily information for the neighborhood.

I like how belltownpeople.com has a list of Belltown blogs categorized as "dark" and "active." Telling.

Most blogs last about three months and then fade away. I'd like to see some of these newer blogs have some staying power. Also want them to start posting 5,000 word investigative pieces on controversial subjects. For example, why is it that almost every Belltown condo has needed re-habbing after only a few years? Loads of court documents show buyers suing developers suing contractors suing just about everybody, and everybody losing money.*

And what about the new alliance between Mars Hill Church and the Belltown Business Association? I would not call this sinister, but it certainly is bizarre. Is Mars Hill not the right wing conservative pentecostal church accused of being sexist and homophobic?...

ELAINE BONOW revisits rooms full of memories ...

From Belltown Messenger #67 - May 2009

I went to the Apex Belltown Cooperative to get a tarot reading from my friend Xtina Larson. Walking up the stairs after she buzzed me in, I was reminded of the many times throughout the years that I had gone there to see my friends. The hallways were the same. I’ve always liked the feeling of the place, which has been distilled in time. Bulletin boards announced chores and events. Individually designed doors characterized the current occupants. Its neat kitchens and bathrooms defined its spirit of communal living.

Xtina met me in the second floor commons room, which was sunny and bright with a nice view of the sound, only a bit corrupted by new downtown construction. Up on a narrow roof plants grew in pots. There was a piano, a large kitchen area, tons of VHS tapes, and comfortable sofas and chairs. We sat at a small table for the reading. Xtina and her daughter have lived in the Apex for quite a few years. She is a beautiful...