Renton’s 300-seat Carco Theatre was flooded in December, after Renton leaders initially downplayed the NOAA forecast that predicted we could see the worst flooding ever (see screenshots below). Nearly a year after the flooding of Carco, nothing has been done to reopen the theater. A local non-profit that leased space from Renton and helped community groups prepare programs for public access TV, Puget Sound Access Television, has also been displaced by the flooding.
Renton residents that would like to try Tai Chi walking can enjoy doing so for free in the heart of downtown Renton. Art Commissioner and Tai Chi instructor Scott Douwes has been leading some fun and well-attended sessions every Sunday morning at 9:00. Everyone is welcome to join in, and no experience is necessary.
You can find more information and sign-in in advance at Scott’s website, thesanctuarycommons.org.
You are sure to enjoy Scott’s informative and entertaining teaching style. He brings impressive experience with Tai Chi and physical fitness to these exercises, complimented by his mastery of art, affection for teaching others, and outstanding sense of humor.
Scott’s been a very active member of our Renton community for many years, and has designed beautiful murals and other media for our city in the past. His wife Jennifer is a writer who also manages the office of Renton Historical Society.
In a post last week I described my hopes that we could preserve our beautiful Piazza fountain. But on Monday night, Renton Council announced plans to turn this fountain into a planter.
The plans also eliminates the Piazza’s other water feature, the babbling brook featuring Renton’s “Summer Breeze” sculpture of a young girl stepping gently into the water.
Together, these two lovely water features have visually anchored the Piazza since the early 2000s. And the splashing water features incorporate generous bench seating which provide critical cool resting areas for scores of visitors on hot days.
Renton’s Piazza Fountain has welcomed visitors to Renton’s downtown since the Piazza park was built 24 years ago. In addition to making downtown more inviting, The fountain and surrounding Piazza are a gateway to Renton for everyone arriving by bus through the adjacent transit center.
The beautiful fountain is dedicated to beloved Renton resident Marge Richtor, who served our community for decades in numerous roles including on Renton Parks Board. She was a friend and inspiration to all of us who knew her. A plaque on the fountain commemorates the dedication.
In recent years, the fountain has not been maintained as well as in the past. And this year, even though temperatures are in the 80s and people are out and about, the fountain has been entirely neglected.
This should not be allowed to go on for long. It’s time to clean the fountain and get it flowing again. As in the case with our broken clock tower, the public notices when these community centerpieces are neglected.
Just as importantly, the city has been making plans to revise the Piazza landscape. If they do so, the fountain should remain the inviting centerpiece that it has been for the past two decades.
If you share my view that this fountain should be cleaned, maintained, and preserved you can let the Mayor and Council know by emailing mayor@rentonwa.gov and council@rentonwa.gov.
It was a dream come true for Renton’s Arts Community, our youth, and our Economic Development department. A world-class glass studio was relocating to Renton, headed up by the vice-president and operations manager of Chihuly’s workshop in Seattle. Billy O’Neill, who Seattle Times calls Dale Chihuly’s right hand man, was working on a gift for Renton that would have taught new generations of Rentonites how to create beautiful glass sculptures and containers. Mr. O’Neill has served on the Seattle Arts Commission, as secretary on the Executive Board of Directors of the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and on advisory boards for the Seattle Sounders and other non-profits– a perfect fit in Renton. He was instrumental in creating Chihuly’s Garden of Glass at Seattle Center.
But the exciting glass art studio fell victim to a School District Eminent Domain taking, along with numerous other businesses and homes, with no acknowledgment by the School Board of the glass studio’s extraordinary significance.
The business, called “Glass Eye” already has a permanent sales location at Pike Place Market, which would have soon been selling the Made in Renton glassworks. We would have a new Made-in-Renton products we could share with visitors and far-away family, to replace our much-missed Uptown Glassworks.
Erasmus the rooftop dragon was unveiled four years ago on April 13, and Renton celebrated his fourth birthday yesterday morning with a Dragon Dash fun run and party. City of Renton Recreation Division and volunteers did a wonderful job organizing the festive event.
If you haven’t heard the story of Erasmus’s creation, it’s covered well in this article.
There were both 5K and 10K runners in yesterday’s birthday run, and the whole event was great fun. The cool morning weather was perfect for the almost 300 runners and walkers that had signed up. Dragon theming was abundant, and the organizers kept the event running smoothly. Participants were given Dragon Dash shirts and snacks at the end of the race, along with a chance to try to pull a sword from a stone and be photographed with dragons, while the children hunted for dragon eggs.
My wife Cathy and I had a delightful time participating. With wonderful people, lovely nature on the Cedar River trail, exercise, and dragon theming all right here in our own downtown…who could ask for more?
A reader of the “Randy Corman for Mayor” Facebook page recently asked me to comment on whether our city was favoring big box stores at the Landing at the expense of downtown merchants.
It’s not one over the other. Both of these shopping districts, the the Landing and historic downtown, and all our other business zones, are extremely important to Renton.
Photo: Renton’s newest and likely most iconic art piece, Erasmus the dragon, was unveiled in Downtown Renton in April