I started writing for Wallyhood this past spring when Jordan took off because I valued a Wallingford community site and wanted to explore writing as a creative outlet. I was also hoping to form constructive relationships with the city in getting good things to happen for Wallingford.

Constructive relationships with the city proved impossible, largely because the city no longer has anyone assigned to support neighborhoods. It’s all downtown meetings based on city functions without visits to neighborhoods when making plans. To be successful with advocacy, you must be like the Seattle Bike Blog or the Seattle Transit Blog and …

Ducks are returning to our streets as of today. Ducks were approved for road use during World War 2, so due to inertia they remain street legal today. The fact that their new mission is to amuse tourists and that they’re going to crush Wallingfordians instead of Nazis and their allies is irrelevant.

The specifics of the accident on Aurora are being addressed, just like specifics from several previous fatal accidents have been addressed. These are the latest changes:

I’d like to apologize for language I used in an article I posted here this morning. It was offensive and hurtful to the community.

The article used a pejorative term for Japanese people when spoofing how people spoke during World War 2. I had never heard the term used outside of World War 2 documentaries and should have done a better job researching it. While I knew the term had a racial component (see internment camps), I believed that the term was primarily used as shorthand for the Japanese empire in World War 2 and that its use was anachronistic …

People think telling politicians their ideas is how to make things happen, but that’s just a test of how well a politician can fake empathy. If you really want your idea to happen, you need to go through a city funding process.

The Neighborhood Park and Street Fund submission deadline is 2/8. The fund provides for small-scale improvements to streets and parks, up to $90,000. Last year we held a vote on Wallyhood and the winning project got funded. Projects are chosen by the Lake Union District Council, then implemented by parks or SDOT.

If nobody submits ideas for Wallingford, …

Seattle Public School tours begin as early as today, depending on the school you choose. Enrollment choice forms must be submitted between 2/17 and 3/1. Regardless of the level of school you are entering, you have choices.

For Elementary, Wallingford has two language immersion option schools (McDonald and JSIS) and then two “neighborhood” schools that are outside the neighborhood- BF Day and Green Lake. There’s also K-8 option schools (Hazel Wolf, Salmon Bay, Licton Springs), and APP (at Lincoln) to choose from. Here’s the K-1 registration process.

For middle school you can choose your neighborhood school (Hamilton) or K-8 schools …

We poked into CVS a couple days ago and the main difference we saw with Bartell Drugs is that CVS sells spirits. Prices were similar across a sampling of beer, shampoo, and medicine. The store front looks to be well restored:

It seems pretty clear they are in direct competition with Bartell Drugs and Walgreens, and Bartell Drugs has been stepping up their game in response (see the new refrigerators). There were only a couple people in CVS, about 10 in Bartell Drugs, and easily over 100 in QFC with all the checkers having long lines. The neighborhood really needs …

In part 2 of looking at teacher reviews, today we focus on middle and high school. The net for high school is cast wide, since APP students from Hamilton go to Garfield or Ingraham. Here are the teacher survey results for middle and high schools your student may attend (for K-8 schools, see yesterday’s post):

Having had our kids go through both Hamilton and Garfield, …