San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge.



To the lighthouse. Point Bonita Lighthouse.











Back in town on Telegraph Hill.







Hanging out in North Beach.



What's in there?





In Vesuvio.

















Thanks for alerting me to this photo op, Chuck.



No longer in North Beach. Rectangles.



More rectangles.



Circles.



And more.



And a tribute to the folks who brought us the parking garage.

Elandan Gardens, Note About This Blog

I'm considering reviving this blog now that I've fallen into the routine of raising a baby and working full-time. I miss it.

To those of you who have been submitting comments, I'm sorry I don't get around to approving them right away. I have it set up so comments on posts less than a month old are automatically posted. But I was getting so much spam on older posts that I instutited moderation on those.

Anyway, here's an off-topic post. I've been showing Chuck B. around Seattle for a few days. Friday we went to Elandan Gardens in Gorst. He took photos of the bonsai, and for some reason I felt like focusing in on the moss and lichen. I forgot to bring my good camera, so these don't really capture the place. Next time.







Elandan is located on an old garbage dump near the Bremerton Naval Base. It's pretty much the perfect destination if you're into bonsai and battleships.

Tonoho Chul Park

I've been admiring cactuses in the Sonoran Desert. These photos were taken at Tonoho Chul Park in Tucson.

Belle & Wissell Vitrine

Let's face it, this blog is essentially on hiatus, for an indefinite time. I've gone back to work full-time and I still have that baby to admire.

But occasionally I'll still post relevant stuff, like this video of the beautiful window display at Belle & Wissell in Georgetown.



And a picture of the view from the Pac-Med parking lot.



And occasionally I'll post irrelevant stuff, like pictures of that aforementioned admirable baby.

More Zoning Questions

Since looking into the land use violations at 2510 Beacon Avenue South, I've wondered about other properties nearby. After all, the whole area is supposedly zoned Neighborhood Commercial 2 ("A moderately-sized pedestrian-oriented shopping area that provides a full range of retail sales and services to the surrounding neighborhood").

Including this property right across the street at 2507 Beacon Avenue South.



Hmm. It doesn't look terribly retail-ish. Does the lease sign explain that the business will have to be a purely retail one?



Nope. It's advertising the space as potential light industrial. Let's double-check to make sure that this warehouse building without a single window out front really is zoned NC2, or retail-only.



Yup.

I don't know what to think about this. I would love for the center of the Beacon Hill business district to be a dense retail area, and I do think zoning enforcement can help turn things in that direction. However, some buildings just don't look like they were meant to be retail spaces. I guess business owners are supposed to try and make retail work in these awkward spaces, or the property owners are supposed to remodel the buildings to better suit that purpose. I don't know.

Planet Georgetown

Planet Georgetown is closing at the end of the month. A bunch of Georgetowners came by tonight to say goodbye.





They've been here 22 years.





They've served a lot of tan food.











Ice ice baby.













Peace out.

SPU Offers to Help with Christian Restoration Center Cleanup

After calling to hang up my hat as a graffiti ranger and turn in my little red wagon, I ended up chatting with graffiti guy Anthony Matlock at Seattle Public Utilities. I complained to him that the neighborhood miscreants just can't keep their hands off of the Christian Restoration Center building. And he mentioned to me that his team can help out with that problem. He can send out a team of court-ordered "volunteers" to paint out graffiti on frequently tagged properties like that one at least once a month.

Their help doesn't absolve the property owners from responsibility for the mess. (And I found out that the property manager has been out there as recently as this week to take care of the problem on both the wall and the windows.) But, let's face it, it's going to get hit again, so the building can use all the help it can get.

So I got Anthony in touch with the property owner and manager, and now they're working together on this. Let's hope it helps.