It’s time for another batch of Capitol Hill commerce. Know something we don’t? chs@capitolhillseattle.com, please.

• Lots of storylines to the Wednesday morning opening of a new Umpqua Bank branch on Broadway. A tenant in  Joule’s massive retail space. The unveiling of a new ‘cafe’ concept for Umpqua’s banking ‘stores.’ Five new jobs on Broadway. A new CHS advertiser (yay!). But our favorite storyline is that, even if it’s only marketing, they’ve got a pretty good bead on the neighborhood. Store manager Stacey Krynsky tells us the bank’s first Hill promotion will be Saturday when they host a free Santa Paws pet photo day. She also says the open space of the branch’s design can be used for meetings and that she’s up for working with community groups to put it to use. We talked to Umpqua about their plans for Broadway — their fourth Seattle banking location — back in August. Umpqua is located at 539 Broadway East.
• A different storyline down in Pike/Pine where the City Home Store’s windows at 517 East Pike have been papered over as the home furnishing store has become the latest Hill retailer to go Internet only. The online store isn’t up and running yet but here’s the message posted at http://www.cityhomestore.com:

Our customers tell us that they want more selection, lower prices and online convenience. In response we will focus on completing and launching our online store which will feature 100′s of designer-selected products for your home at the lowest possible prices–shipped direct to your door!

Thanks to Kenneth for the tip.

Some other recent examples of Hill business moving to online only sales: 15th Ave East’s Tilden, paper shop Broadway News, and 14th/Pine’s Whimsy has said it plans to go WWW only, too.

• Around the corner from Whimsy — where they’re going online-only sale continues — the 14th Avenue Salon is now open for bidness. In a comment on the post we ran in October about the new life being breathed into the former home of watch shop Tiempo, 14th Ave owner Lori Anderson announced the opening:
  

  We will be open for business tomorrow, December 7th! We are a full service salon. $18.00 for clipper cuts, $22.00 – $35.00 for regular haircuts. Call us or stop by for more information. 1511 14th Ave (206)568-5366 Thanks, Lori Anderson Our OPEN HOUSE will be on Tuesday, December 14th, from 5:00pm – 9:00pm. See you then!

• We noted in a recent of biz notes the disappearance of the Swoon salon from the Braeburn retail at 15th and Pine. A new tenant is in place for a salon concept called Polished. We’re still checking into this but it *looks* like the owner might be a DDS??? Could this place be a tooth salon? If this is a nail place, we’re going to look a little silly. Oh well. UPDATE: We’re silly. Nails it is.
• 12th and Pike has some new life. A business called the Crow’s Nest (good name!) has taken roost in the space vacated by the ill-fated Snowmonkey’s House of Monsters. We’re told it’s an artist studio that is open for retail. We’ll add more when we hear back from zee arteest. Meanwhile, we don’t know when they slipped into the picture but Phoenix Art Restoration either magically appeared at 12th and Pike or we’re embarrassed to admit we missed their move-in. Regardless, you can learn more about their business at http://phoenixartrestoration.com/
• Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce holiday party is Wednesday night: “This Wednesday is our Holiday Party! 6pm @Still_Liquor Treats by @homegrownian @calfandkid @fuelhigh5 & @StreetTreatsWa ! Come by & say hi.”
• We hear different things about the retail season thus far on Capitol Hill but this upcoming weekend’s Babeland-driven Pike n’ Pine neighborhood sale should help put some more bodies in the stores. CHS is a co-sponsor. Want to get involved? Drop us a line and we’ll let people know about your amazing holiday offer, too. Merry #CHXmas.
• Finally, nothing says happy holidays like your friendly neighborhood merchants painting seasonal displays on their front windows. Leave it to Capitol Hill to make it weird. Thanks to Marty for the image from Madison’s Courtesy Tire and @bigmariospizza for, um, sharing.

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There will be more attention on improving Madrona Elementary and other central Seattle public schools Tuesday night as Parents and school officials will meet Tuesday night to discuss the scores and action plans for improving schools in central Seattle.

Seattle Public Schools recently released individual school report cards to the public for the first time. Tuesday night’s meeting will bring together parents, community members and school officials to talk solutions. Organizers say Nancy Coogan, Seattle school’s central region executive director and local school principals will be in attendance with an agenda including an overview of the region’s School Reports and breakout discussion sessions centered on improvement plans and next steps. Here are the details from the Seattle Council of Parent Teacher Associations:

Seattle Public Schools recently released its annual District Scorecard as well as individual School Reports. These are designed to show the community where Seattle schools are meeting state standards as well as district goals. There are some great successes; there is also a pervasive achievement gap in nearly every school in the district. 

The Seattle Council PTSA is co-sponsoring these meetings to help the greater community understand the challenge and to give community members an opportunity to speak directly to the administrators in charge.

We need your voices there. The first meetings are this Monday, Nov. 29, (NE) and Tuesday, Nov. 30 (SE). Following are a schedule and links to the reports. Each school has an improvement plan, those can be found on page 2 of the School Reports.

Central: Dec. 7, 7-8:30 p.m. at Washington Middle School, 2101 S. Jackson St., Seattle 98144

Central schools include:
Franklin HS, Garfield HS, Nova HS
Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center
McClure MS, Washington MS
Blaine K-8, Madrona K-8
Coe, Gatzert, Hay, Jophn Muir, Lawton, Leschi, Lowell, McGilvra, Montlake, Queen Anne, Stevens, and Thurgood Marshall elementary schools

You can find specific school reports and improvement plans here.

Seattle Schools overview on the reports and these plots of school performance

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Here’s  the poll.

2. The five-member Seattle Port Commission narrowly rejected two resolutions that were supported by environmentalists and social-justice activists yesterday, thanks to a vote against both resolutions by commissioner Gael Tarleton, who, seen as the swing vote on the issue, ran as a progressive alternative to her predecessor, Bob Edwards, in 2007. The votes came after nearly two hours of testimony, mostly in favor of the resolutions, including comments from city council members Mike O’Brien and Nick Licata and from state Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-33), who spoke on behalf of the state Democratic Party.

The first resolution, sponsored by commissioners Rob Holland and John Creighton, would have directed Port director Tay Yoshitani to come up with three alternative plans to clean up the Port’s diesel truck fleet by July 2011 in keeping with the Port’s stated commitment to become “the greenest, cleanest, most energy efficient port in North America.” The port’s existing clean trucks program, the resolution said, doesn’t go far enough to clean up the Port’s truck fleet, whose emissions impact residents of the Georgetown and South Park neighborhoods as well as truck drivers.

“If these activities were happening in Laurelhurst or Madrona or my neighborhood of Fremont, we wouldn’t be looking at pie charts” that break down the sources of Port emissions, O’Brien said. “We would quickly address it. … I urge you not to let the citizens of that neighborhood, even if it’s only a handful of them, be brushed aside in the interest of regional competitiveness” with other ports.

Holland’s resolution would have required the Port to come up with a timeline for bringing 100 percent of the Port’s trucks into compliance with EPA standards for diesel emissions; create measures to enforce emission standards that would allow the Port to directly monitor compliance, gather and analyze data, and keep non-compliant trucks and trucking companies out of Port terminals; and identify stable funding to buy and maintain trucks that meet EPA standards.

Opponents said diesel trucks don’t make up a significant portion of the Port’s emissions (about three percent), and said the commission should focus instead on cleaning up cruise ships and cargo cranes instead of its truck fleet.

Tarleton was joined by commissioners Bill Bryant and Tom Albro, who also voted no.

“Policy is a very blunt and clumsy instrument to try and influence what happens,” Albro said. Albro also questioned “the amount of time we’re spending talking about how to improve a program that we don’t know what its results are yet.”

The second resolution, also sponsored by Holland and Creighton, would have expressed support for the federal Clean Ports Act, which has 92 sponsors in the US House, including Washington State Reps. Jim McDermott, Jay Inslee, and Adam Smith. That act would give ports the authority to set environmental, safety, and other standards for their port trucking operations.

That proposal failed because Tarleton and Bryant abstained from voting, while Albro voted against the resolution.

3. State Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-44, S. Snohomish County) got back to us about our report yesterday that Democratic leadership had left him off the K-12 education committee—a move that angers education reform groups like Stand for Children. Hobbs said leadership told him it was a gaffe that the committee had been downsized. (Hobbs was on the committee last year.)

However, they did not guarantee that Hobbs, who unions dislike (and spent over $72,000 against in independent expenditures this year, including nearly $10,000 from the teachers’ union) would be put back on the committee.

Upon seeing the list, Hobbs says he told his caucus that he wants to be put back on the committee. He did not stress his ed reform bona fides (a controversial stance in the Democratic party), but instead reminded his colleagues that he has three school-age kids, including two with special needs, which makes him devoted to fixing failing schools.

4. Contrary to council claims that they didn’t propose amending the city’s sign ordinance specifically for the benefit of Russell Investments (which wants to put a large lighted sign on top of the building it will soon occupy downtown) council president Richard Conlin told the Seattle Times last year that the city council would consider changing the ordinance for Russell’s benefit.

Last September, the Times reported that Conlin “said the only other possible city action for Russell would be a change to the restrictive sign ordinance to allow the firm to put a large Russell logo on its new building.” After yesterday’s public hearing on the proposed changes, Russell issued a statement calling the proposal “a tasteful and modern update for the city, and an effective vehicle to prompt economic development far into the future.”

5. In response to a federal ruling that struck down Seattle’s strip-club ordinance as unconstitutional because it didn’t give applicants a deadline for obtaining a license, a city council committee voted yesterday to require the city to act on license applications within 30 days. Previously, the city could sit on an application indefinitely.

In 2005, a federal judge struck down a seven-year-long moratorium on new strip clubs as unconstitutional.

6. Reminder: PubliCola is holding a tunnel debate on Thursday December 16 starring panelists from both sides, including Mayor Mike McGinn on the anti-tunnel side and Seattle City Council Member Tom Rasmussen on the pro-tunnel side.

Stay tuned for more details.

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The A-2 'Enatai' Park and Ride, image from KPFF

On Monday evening, the Bellevue City Council voted yet again along partisan lines, to award a $670,723 contract to Arup North America (the same firm that did Wallace’s Vision Line) to study the B7 revised alignment, which would include the new Enatai Park & Ride, a mere 0.5 miles from the current South Bellevue P&R.  The move was not unexpected, as the four-member pro-B7 council quorum has been desperately trying to catch up with Sound Transit in pursuing a study that would purportedly better compare B7 to B2, ST’s preferred alignment.

The study has a 6-7 month time frame, which by that time, the FTA will likely already have issued its record of decision for Sound Transit’s final preferred route.  Arup, fully aware of the timeline discrepancies, did insert a “tipping point” condition– a check-in after about 4 months and $504,000 to either proceed or cut the rest of the study depending on council action.

As always, the pro-B2 councilmembers asked tough questions about the wisdom of this kind of budgeting, particularly John Chelminiak, who has since returned to the council after a vicious bear attack.  The city has $6.2 million set aside for all work related to East Link over the next two years– only $650K of which is specifically appropriated for consultant work each year.  While the Arup study will use $270K of 2010 funds, the remaining amount would drain 60% of that $650k, money which could better used for things like impacts mitigation.

I think I’ve made it pretty clear where I stand on this issue.  A minimum of $504k for a couple pieces of paper that may never see the light of day isn’t exactly pocket change.  You can find the council’s study session materials for the contract here (PDF).

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This morning’s photo is courtesy WSB’er “Veteran Wisdom,” updating the installation of additional lampposts along SW Alaska in The Junction. A bigger light – Alki Lighthouse – figures prominently in one of today’s featured events (as does The Junction): The Kiwanis Club of West Seattle will hear all about it from U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Gary Blore, commander of the USCG’s Seattle-headquartered 13th District; the noon luncheon at Be’s Restaurant is $8, call the Kiwanis office ASAP for a reservation – 206-938-8032 … Tonight at C & P Coffee (WSB sponsor), 7 pm, West Seattle CoolMom talks about greening up the holiday season as well as looking ahead to 2011 … From the WSB West Seattle Holidays list, Westside Dermatology (WSB sponsor) presents its first-ever Holiday Skin Care Party, 5:30-7:30 pm, free but go here to RSVP … Fine Films at Freshy’s (Coffee, 2735 California SW) screens “Elf” at 7 pm.

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In the most recent incident we’ve come across, two suspects pulled a handgun on a man and pepper sprayed him on December 3rd after the victim stopped and asked the suspects for directions.

According to police, the victim pulled up to the two suspects at 21st and E Spruce around 5:45pm after he got lost on his way to a friend’s house.

One suspect then pulled out a black handgun and demanded the victim’s money.

CDN reported on what victims said was a similar hold-up of a car full of people on the icy night of November 24th at Columbia and MLK. That incident sent three people to the hospital to be treated for pepper spray exposure.

It is legal to own and carry pepper spray in Seattle and the state of Washington though you must be 18 years or older. While not available on the typical grocery mart shelves, it’s a relatively easy to acquire weapon as it is often marketed as “bear repellent.”

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Seattlest, we admit, is no exception in the game of recapping 2010. But local author Kathleen Flinn has a new twist on this tradition. She’s spending December counting down the top 25 food books that impacted her this past year. They don’t necessarily have to be new, she writes, or classics. Just ones that she finds important for one reason or another.

She begins with a classic, M.F.K. Fisher’s The Art of Eating. Flinn writes on her blog:

Generally considered one of the best food writers of all time, Fisher combines the wry wit and observation of Dorothy Parker with the lyricism of poetry. As a writer, I revere Fisher’s nimble use of active verbs and elegant economy of words. As a reader, I luxuriate in her descriptions.

If you’ve never heard of Fisher, you may be familiar with the title of the famous essay included in this book, “How to Cook a Wolf,” as the naming inspiration for Ethan Stowell’s Queen Anne restaurant. And if you’ve never heard of Flinn, you need to get a copy of her book The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, stat. She’s got a second book due out in 2011. But until then we are looking forward to rounding out our already-bursting shelf of food books with some of her December recommendations. Keep up with her list here.

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Metro’s website has a new tool to find the nearest bus stop to any point. The results page gives you a bunch of nearby stops, with links to more information about the stop and walking directions.

This won’t solve any huge problems, but I’m encouraged by the culture of continual innovation and improvement that a widget like this suggests.

Minor gripe: I’m able to generate some results where the walking directions turn up as “#11080–Walking distance exceeds one mile or is not safe”. If so, why is it coming up at all?

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