Hope for the Sunset?

We learned from our pals at My Ballard that there is new hope for the Sunset Bowl. Avid bowler Jim Bristow has started a web site called Save Sunset Bowl! They are looking to keep it open as long as possible and require the new owners to incorporate a bowling alley in the new design. We are so excited about this grass roots effort and encourage you all to help out. Really, take a stand before it's too late.

One other issue that may help the effort is the pending approval by the City of Seattle of the developer's plans. A good first step would be to talk to our Design Review Board member, Elizabeta Stacishin-Moura. Her term is actually up on April 4th if you want to apply. A Pro-Sunset board member sounds like a good idea if you know anyone who would be qualified. The Sunset Bowl project is not yet on the calendar for review, but you can sign up to be notified when review meetings are scheduled.

Ballard Participants - Dine for Darfur, March 4th

Who doesn't love a good excuse to eat out? Dine for Darfur is back for a second year and several Ballard establishments are participating. Eat and drink at the following spots on Tuesday and 25% of your money goes towards aid for Darfur.

• Ballard Loft
• Jolly Roger Taproom at Maritime Pacific Brewing Company
• The Hi-Life
• King's Hardware

Of course, you could always just donate money, but that wouldn't be as fun, would it? (Or you could do both so as to maximize your donation and take advantage of the drinking you're already doing.) I was a little curious about the Ballard spots that are participating. Both Dine for Darfur and The Hi-Life are Chow Foods enterprises, so that one was a given, but I'm not sure what the connection is to the others, or why there aren't more restaurants in the neighborhood getting in on the action. Personally, I might head over to Wallingford for pizza at Tutta Bella...but I have to confess that I haven't yet tried the wood fired pizzas at the Hi-Life.
Learn more about where the money is going or check out a region wide list of restaurants that are taking part at their website.

Rant of the Week - Sourpuss

Universally, not enough attention is paid to the fruit accompanying a drink. It's pretty common to get a slimy lemon or a browning lime but even we have our limits. This week we reached an all time low at the Copper Gate when my second drink was returned with the same mangled fruit from my first drink. Yuck. Can'you you afford a new glass or fresh fruit?! I pointed this out to my pal and she showed me the lemon in her drink that came with the Sunkist sticker still attached. Boooo! Maybe you should spend more time thinking about making good drinks instead of thinking about boobies - which now seem to adorn every wall in the place.

Springlike Saturday at Shilshole!

Beavers Can't Be Beat!

The Ballard Beavers are in it to win it! Hooray to the Ballard HS girls basketball team for defeating Inglemoor HS last night and setting themselves up as number 1 seed in the state tournament. The beavers swam though the play-offs, cutting up and chewing out the competition along the way creating in their wake a massive defensive dam. A dam to be reckoned with at the State tournament in Tacoma. Don't mess with the Beavers!



Check out the highlights:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/preps/352474_ballard23.html

Those teases at Monkey Bridge

Despite the appearance of several spiffy signs, including a fairly tasteful neon number, there is still no opening date listed for Monkey Bridge Vietnamese restaurant on Market Street. A peek through the brown papers reveals a distinct lack of tables, seeming to refute earlier rumors that they planned to be open well before March.
The only notes we've heard on the menu so far are that there is more than just Phở. Some noodle dishes are supposedly on the way and some other items to distinguish them from the specialists at Than Brothers a few blocks down.

We're dying for more info...opening dates, a menu!

Just Stop Calling them Affordable

There are lots of valid arguments why condo development is not necessarily a bad thing. Affordability is not one of them. Sure, a 400,000 condo is less expensive than a 600,000 house (at least before you add in the monthly fees). That does not mean that building more of them allows more people with lower incomes to move to the area. I'm sick of hearing that argument. People with lower incomes are being forced out. Buying a condo is still not affordable for a large number of people, especially as the no down-payment model falls out of favor. It also isn't the guaranteed good investment that real estate has always been touted as. Those who talk about how the demolition and building will stop when it ceases to be profitable for the developers have a great point, but the developers will have a much easier time of recovering from that than the people who bought the condos they could barely afford and find themselves unable to sell them.
The bottom line? Some people really do have to rent, and the 1 bedroom apartments that were $545-$625 less than 5 years ago are now starting at $925 (without any updates to the 50s buildings they're housed in).
It's a great time to be a landlord. I would encourage developers to consider getting into the apartment business.
Supposedly the plans for the old/new QFC building actually call for just that. Apartments. Maybe soul-less, new construction apartments, but there's a chance that they might go for under $1000/month. Construction is set to begin any day now on a 268 unit, mixed use building. Interestingly enough, most discussion I've heard around that has involved some skepticism about whether or not they're actually planning on keeping them as rentals. Knowing three different people who were kicked out of three different apartment buildings to prepare for conversions within a one-month period last year, it's easy to see where a certain level of paranoia comes from.
Speaking of mixed use, can we start seeing some more creativity with that than just smoothie places and tanning salons? Maybe like this last ditch effort for the Sunset?