Written by The large aerospace company I work for hosted a great office party for our organization at Renton’s own Maplewood Golf and Country Club. Here is a nice picture of me and my wife visiting with Santa at the event.
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Renton’s downtown is already Benson Hill’s downtown
From Benson Hill resident Kari Kopnick:
It’s been a long week. Somehow, I’m not sure how this happened exactly, but somehow, it’s almost Christmas. Again. And somehow, again, I’m not done with my Christmas shopping. For anyone. Even the dog.
So my dear husband and I decided to take a break from the shopping and budget and deciphering of our sons’ Christmas lists and go out for a quick pint of beer here in our local town. Now, Downtown Renton has a lot of great little spots to grab a quick pint. I love The Whistle Stop and always try to lure anyone who wants to meet for a lunch meeting to come and split sweet potato fries with me there.
The Dog and Pony is great, with a fantastic list of local beers that is always changing. And Giant’s Causeway is a treat, especially if you catch the live music.
But if you’re out looking for a place to grab a quick date on a Sunday night, those aren’t even an option. All closed. It’s quiet on Sunday nights here in our town, the Piazza is all lit up, the transit center looks active. But there aren’t a lot of our eateries and pubs open.
So my husband and I wound up in one of the hang outs in town we like best: La Hacienda. Once last fall we even stopped in to celebrate our friend’s new tattoo from Diamond Lil’s. It was full blast– fun, great service and fantastic food. So we hit La Hacienda at, oh about 8 on Sunday night.
The place was pretty empty, just a few folks hanging out at the bar and a few couples eating and chatting, good music on the jukebox, and a nice waiter. Gustavo took our whining for a dark beer seriously and told us about Negro Modelo, a Mexican beer which turned out to be good—smooth and not too heavy but with a good bite to it. We even split a second one. I think Gustavo was just showing off but he brought us new chilled glasses and I swear to the Christmas elves he split the bottle of beer perfectly between the glasses, must have been down to the drop. He kept us stocked up on the amazing pico de gallo and salsa, and brought our check fast so we could get home and back to stressing out about our how soon Christmas is coming.
Suppose once we get annexed we’ll have nice spots to eat over on Benson Hill? I mean, I love the new Pho World by Fred Meyer, but it’s just not the same as heading to a downtown. Even our little downtown. I love it. Hey, maybe I should head there during the day well, you know, for some Christmas shopping. Maybe someone will even meet me for some of those sweet potato fries when I’m done!
Kari Kopnick
(see Kari’s other entries by clicking the tag below)
You heard it from Karolyn Grimes, of Carnation: “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings”
My wife and daughter talked me into accompanying them to the Seattle Woman’s show last year. While they really had fun, and I found most of it moderately interesting, there was one definite highlight for me. We ran across Karolyn Grimes, a Carnation resident who had the most famous line in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Now a youngish-seeming grandmother, she remains recognizable at Zu Zu, and she is wonderfully willing to share about making the movie. She told me her strongest memory was of Jimie Stewert carrying her down the stairs on the set of the old house. At 6′ 3″, Stewart was soooo tall, she said, and he would hold her high up near his shoulders, making her feel like she was way up in the air. She also said she remembers him being very friendly and warm to everyone.
Here is a picture she signed for us.
If you go to This Website you can learn more about Karolyn Grimes and see pictures of her today.
Great time to purchase your first home! Potential buyers– now’s the time to talk with an agent!
If you have been hoping to land your first home in the Renton real estate market, now might be a really good time to see what you can purchase. Renton has some really great real estate brokers and some excellent local lending institutions, and they would all like to help you purchase your first home. They can also tell you about what assistance programs are available for first-time buyers….you may be very pleasantly surprised.
With inventory of homes-for-sale up, and interest rates headed down, we may not see conditions this good for first-time buyers again for a long time.
Many people are a little spooked by real estate across the nation right now, as banks are struggling with “sub-prime” mortgages, where they lent money to borrowers at initial teaser below-marker interest rates; then, when these interest rates climbed to market value (in two to five years usually), some borrowers could not afford the payments. Meanwhile, if their house value had remained flat, or even dropped, some buyers were defaulting on the loans. This has created a great number of foreclosures nationally, and spooked some investors about real estate. But, it also creates an opportunity for new first-time buyers, as long as you get a loan that you will be able to afford in the long term. With home prices depressed right now, and interest rates headed down, you may be pleasantly surprised in what you can buy.
Good luck!
Read an article from today’s Seattle Times about the “buyer’s marker” in Renton and elsewhere…. CLICK HERE
Email from Police Chief Milosevich; Car-pedestrian accident on Duvall Sarturday afternoon
Information from Chief Milosovich about the car-pedestrian accident on Duvall yesterday. The preliminary investigation seems to indicate that a Renton jogger was killed by a car which drifted across the oncoming traffic lanes. Here is the chief’s email, sent to our council inboxes from the field. I’m sure this report is subject to revision as the police interview witnesses and learn more.
From: “Kevin Milosevich” <kmilosevich@ci.renton.wa.us> [ Save Address ]
To: “Clark Wilcox” <cwilcox@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Daniel Clawson” <dclawson@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Denis Law” <dlaw@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Don Persson” <dpersson@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Jay Covington” <jcovington@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Kathy Keolker” <mayorkathy@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Marcie Palmer” <mpalmer@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Randy Corman” <rcorman@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Terri Briere” <tbriere@ci.renton.wa.us>, “Antonette Nelson” <tnelson@ci.renton.wa.us>
Subject: Car-pedestrian accident on Duvall this afternoon
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:36:52 -0800
We are at the scene of what will be a fatality accident on Duvall.
A little different than the two recent accidents.
A jogger was southbound on the east shoulder when the suspect vehicle was
southbound on Duvall.
The vehicle drove gradually across both northbound lanes and struck the jogger
from behind.
The vehicle drove into a ditch, up an embankment and through several sections of
fence before resting on it’s side against a tree.
The driver was injured, and will survive. We are investigating the cause.
Sgt Wilcox will provide additional information later in the evening.
Reminder from Randy, added Dec 17: Until we get more information, we need to presume that this is just a terrible accident of some kind. The police will conduct an extremely thorough investigation, and determine if the driver might have any criminal culpability. Meanwhile, presume innocent of course. (I don’t know any more than what is in this email at this point, but I’ll let you know as soon as the police release a public update)
Plato’s great advice from 2400 years ago; Still applies today!
These are some of my favorites of Plato’s quotes; Renton is not exactly Athens, but the philosophy still seems to apply.
Email from Fred Jarrett; He’s switching from an “R” to a “D”
This news is now a day old, but here is the email I recieved from our 41st District Representative Fred Jarrett. About 1/3 of Rentonites live in the 41st district (Some of Renton Highlands, upper Kennydale).
Missed it by that much. Renton business came SO close to becoming billion dollar enterprise
“Missed it by that much!”
This Renton business was, in my view, and the view of many others, the first social networking site.
I had signed-up on Classmates.com in it’s early years, nearly a decade before I had heard about Myspace or Facebook. I posted a simple but accurate profile, and read some facts about some old and dear high school friends.
Looking back, I think the only flaw in Classmates.com’s plan, that ultimately prevented them growing into a top-visited, billion-dollar enterprise like Facebook or Myspace, was that they charged you a couple bucks a month if you wanted to actually contact all the high-school chums that you found on their site. I chose not to pay it. I didn’t trust online credit-card transactions very much at the time, and I decided my friends could find me through other public channels…I thought, “why sign up for another recurring cost?”
Thus, when MySpace, Facebook, and Livejournal came on the scene, and offered to link you for free so long as you did not mind ads scrolling around on the side bars, the critical mass flocked to these other sites.
This one business detail, which is much easier seen with 20/20 hindsight, possibly stopped Renton from hatching a huge Social Networking empire to accompany our jet aircraft empire and truck-making empire. Bummer.
Maybe it’s not too late. After all, Classmates.com has shown some staying power…it is one of the few companies that survived the internet bubble burst six years ago. And it sounds like finance experts are still valuing it above $100 million dollars, something anyone could be very proud of.
What do you web-savvy readers think… if Classmates.com revamped their business strategy right now, could they still be a contender for a significant position in the social networking world? Could a Renton start-up still scrap and fight its way to the top of the social networking charts? Or is it simply too late?
Jimmy Mac’s Roadhouse
Jimmy Mac’s Roadhouse, which started in Renton and then spawned a new Federal Way restaurant, was just reviewed by the Tacoma News Tribune. While the Federal Way restaurant was the one critiqued, my personal observations are that the write-up and recommendation seems equally valid for the original restaurant here in Renton (On SW 7th Stree, near Walmart.) If you have not tried it yet, you should go for a visit. While we have many excellent restaurants in Renton, Jimmy Mac’s remains one of my favorites.
Helicopter’s are visiting our skies from Fort Lewis
Several people have noticed an abundance of helicopters in Renton skies recently…yes, I can anticipate the sarcastic question, …are they “black helicopters” :-). Appearantly, Fort Lewis is conducting helicopter and fixed wing exercises in Renton area.
I don’t know the nature of the exercise…I would guess some sort of training, but I don’t really know.
Procedure for filling the council vacancy; also, one-year city residency required
Several citizens have recently asked about about the expected process we will use for filling the newly-identified council vacancy. These emails, from our Chief administrative officer and city attorney, will answer most of your questions. Read the emails by clicking here!
New contibuter Rose McMayhem: “me and my little army of proud Rentonites would like to talk to you.”
I’m enthusiastically introducing a new contributer tonight. Rose McMayhem grew up in our city, attended out local schools, graduated from University of Washington, and she writes some of the most creative, funniest journal entries I have read. She has generously agreed to share her writing talent with readers of this blog. Her perspective is younger than mine, which is a good thing, and far less city hall oriented…which is also a good thing. Please let her know what you think about her writing…help me encourage Rose and Keri Kopnick to keep sharing their talents with us by leaving them some comments.
Thanks!
Randy
_________________________________________________
Welcome to the South shore of Lake Washington. It’s maligned by many, is home to tens of thousands, and relatively speaking, has a pretty impressive history. In my 3rd grade class at Maplewood Heights, we did a unit on the history of the city, and I, for one, was impressed with how far back we’d been around and what a stake we had in driving the industrialization of the area- between mining, Paccar and Boeing, we were contributing quite a bit to the region as far as jobs and products at the beginning of the 20th century.
All history aside, though, the place is clearly not the pinnacle of white-trash-dom that John Keister would have the greater Seattle Metropolitan area believe (no disrespect, John- I know you have to make a living). Time and time again, when asked where I live, my response is met with a grimace and look of pity- much like the reaction one gets when they own up to a lifestyle so foreign to others that they assume couldn’t possibly have been a conscious choice, but must have happened by accident or coersion. To wit: I’m an atheist (cringe!). I have 10 stepchildren (gasp!). I bought a Ford (you poor thing!).
I had a city-dwelling friend who always made a point to tell others in my presence, apologetically: “She lives in Renton.” And so on; you all know what I mean. They assume there’s something wrong with us.
Don’t feel sorry for me; your pity is unnecessary. In fact, it’s insulting- while some extraneous circumstances may be assumed to exist, in general it’s safe to say that if I hated the place, I wouldn’t live here. On the contrary, 25 of my 27 ½ years have been spent in the little city that’s “ahead of the curve,” and let’s be clear on one thing: it hasn’t been against my will. Yeah, I got out for a little while. Left home after college and spread my wings all the way up in the Central District. Turned out that city life wasn’t for me, though- despite the crowding, everyone kept to themselves a little too much, and everyone had something to prove. So when I was looking to get out, I looked back from where I’d come and bought a little place not far from where I’d grown up- on familiar terrain, and near my dad’s shop (critical to those of us who drive older vehicles).
Did I find it to be a concession; the only feasible location for someone who had to keep her mortgage payments low? Nah, it was exactly what I wanted, and in the 3 years I’ve spent in my chosen neighborhood, I haven’t regretted it.
Well, save for the hoodlum neighbors on one side of me…but every town’s got those; there are jerks everywhere. Same as there are pleasant people everywhere, and we’ve got a surplus of those as well.
No…really. You just have to shake off the patina of prejudice you’ve been burdened with to see that Renton is just another suburb: in reality, it’s no more of a ghetto than the older parts of Bellevue, although people tend to miss that detail because we’re not all upper-middle-class whites here. But yes, it is a suburb, so if that’s the issue people have with it, I can’t defend it. However, if it’s a matter of it being any more or less livable than the surrounding environs, well then, me and my little army of proud Rentonites would like to talk to you.
Suffice it to say it annoys me when people put Renton down: I’ve chosen to live here, I like living here, no amount of good-natured chiding is going to change my mind about that- so take your pity and shove it. Myself and an army of perfectly normal people are happy with this place.
Rose McMayhem
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