This is a Sunday staple that Eric Tanaka’s kids love, including the finicky eaters. It’s easy to put together and requires minimal clean up.
Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
1/3 head of cauliflower, finely chopped
1 lb. dried split peas
4-5 pieces of bacon, chopped (optional)
1 quart chicken broth
½ c white wine
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In a Dutch oven, over medium heat, combine olive oil, bacon, onion, garlic and carrots. Cook until vegetables soften and plump up. Add wine, stir and continue to cook. Add cauliflower and split peas. Pour in broth and bring to simmer. Check every 20 minutes and add water if necessary. Continue to cook until peas are fully cooked, about two hours.
If you like timber and tranquility, this Broadview listing north of Carkeek Park could be your dream treehouse. Set back behind a hedge and deep landscaping—seriously, you can't even see the house from the street—and with aesthetically worn wood siding, the home looks like it just grew with the rest of the forest. Inside, unique pockets of space, often framed by large wooden beams, come together in a cohesive, open-feeling home.
The front entrance leads to a small atrium, with an open wooden staircase to the second story above. Timber beams reach two stories high, with a peaked skylight at the very top sending light back to the floor. This area is part of a circular floor plan that includes the dining room with a fireplace, a small breakfast nook with built-in benches, and the semi-closed, window-lined kitchen. It loops around to a short hall lined with Japanese-inspired sliding wood-slat doors (no shoji…yet), which leads to both the first-floor bathroom and one of three bedrooms. This particular room is window-lined and spacious, and includes a door to one of the larger parts of the home’s back deck.
The living room is up a few steps to the left of the front door, mostly separated from the atrium by a wall with built-in shelves, which lets it maintain its own quiet, cozy feel. The vaulted ceiling, lined with exposed-grain wood, meets in a peak at the center, and the far wall is covered in windows that reach right up into it—not unlike some midcentury living rooms. None of these windows appear to open, but there’s a nice little patio and wooden bridge just outside, anyway.
Upstairs is a supremely serene suite, some of it open to below and wrapping around the stair like a terrace, including a large office nook in one corner and a tokonoma-style display alcove. The walkway wraps around behind a wall as it turns into a walkthrough closet with built-in shelves and drawers and, finally, a three-quarter bath. (Don’t worry, the toilet and shower are behind a closed door.)
The bedroom itself is secluded behind sliding shoji screens, wrapped in windows and opening to a private wraparound deck. A smaller area within the bedroom—either open or closed off with more shoji—has a wood-slat floor and a water hookup, perhaps for a soaking tub.
The third bedroom, tucked away in the basement past a large utility room, is the least glamorous, but the most private—plus, it has its own exterior entrance.
Outside, the 7,500-square-foot property is dense with foliage, and even paths through the side yard feel a little like nature trails. Most of the entertainment-friendly space is concentrated on the incredibly large back deck, split up into a few large areas, the biggest just outside the bedroom at the rear of the house, and has a wide Puget Sound view. Another sits beyond the dining room and kitchen and has stairs descending to a stone patio and the double carport below.
They arrived with backpacks, anticipation, and some mixed feelings.
"This is my first day at school and I'm so excited,” said 5-year-old Nico Coronado. “I'm feeling a little bit nervous but it's still going to be fun for my first day.”
Nico’s mom, Juanita Coronado, said she supported the teachers’ strike and wanted them to get the resources they were asking for.
“When teachers are supported, kids are supported more,” she said.
But Coronado recognizes that strikes can be hard on people.
On Nov. 29, Andy and her partner gathered in the large tent that abuts their sleeping tent with a few friends, all trying to warm up. Her partner got a fire going with pallet slats, pieces of a broken Ikea futon and whatever paper happened to be lying around.
Their tent complex shares the block behind a Comcast service center with several other large tent structures and a few RVs. One of those RVs is the instantly recognizable camouflage rig owned by Pedro, featured previously in this column. While she wasn’t swept out of the encampment next to the Halcyon Mobile Home Park where Pedro lived, Andy did live there at the same time. His garden survived the sweep, she said: “I went back there and picked a bunch for him.”
Like many women, Andy became homeless after an alleged domestic violence incident. As she puts it, “I made a bad choice in men.” Since then, Andy has been in a lot of encampments in the north end, starting with Green Lake.
“Toward the end, I got a motor home given to me from a friend, and then they decided to sweep us,” she said.
She wasn’t there the day of the sweep, so her RV got towed, and she had no way to get it back. She’d heard that campers from Green Lake were getting rooms in a nearby Holiday Inn Express, but that never materialized. Those rooms, she suspects, went to campers at the now infamous Bitter Lake encampment, which was on Seattle Public Schools property. That made it a higher priority, Andy said.
“Then they swept out the Bitter Lake people because it’s next to the school. Everybody’s having a fit, [saying], ‘The poor children!’ [Looking at us as] monsters. We all have children ourselves. We’re just people down on our luck, that’s all,” Andy said.
Her own children had gone to Broadview-Thompson, she said, the school whose property the encampment was on.
After Green Lake, Andy went to what she refers to as the “toilet bowl,” the place between Home Depot and Halcyon where Pedro had his garden. The garden was clearly a later addition to the space. Andy’s time there was marked by a catastrophe that would have nipped any horticultural ambitions in the bud. It is a drainage corridor, meant to receive excess water during periods of heavy rainfall, and the area did exactly what it’s supposed to do: flood.
“We ended up in an RV that was three feet underwater and couldn’t get out. I had to climb off the roof and onto a car and onto a trailer,” she said. That’s why they didn’t end up in the sweep that eventually scattered campers from that location. She and her partner had already decided to take off for another spot behind the Lowe’s on North 125th Street and Aurora Avenue North.
Lowe’s lasted for a little bit, Andy said, “until they swept us out of there.” Too many campers were stealing from the store, she said. They were offered a spot in a tiny home village in Burien once, Andy said, but that was a nonstarter.
“All they told us was, ‘Good luck. There’s a place in Burien that’s taking people.’ But we have doctors here. This is our neighborhood. I’ve been in this neighborhood since 1987,” she said.
Now they’re behind Comcast, which made a stir on social media recently for blasting loud music into the camp at all hours.
“The music just finally stopped yesterday. It’s been going since the day before Thanksgiving. So loud that it hurt your ears. Couldn’t sleep, couldn’t talk, couldn’t hear yourself think,” she said.
A security setup outside the Comcast facility reportedly played music during the middle of the night for several nights in November.
It was so loud, in fact, that neighbors called in a noise complaint against the camp. The cops showed up and were surprised to learn it wasn’t the campers. After that, Andy said, Comcast turned the music down a bit. Eventually, the company turned it off all together. The track selection was especially bizarre, she said, including everything from “the Star Wars soundtrack to Madame Butterfly,” with a few Disney tunes thrown in.
Andy’s current site is directly across from the front gate of a Pallet Shelter facility. Pallet manufactures tiny homes to combat homelessness. Its website does not list the location as a village or potential project, but the optics of it are still striking.
While some Pallet workers had expressed hope that the campers living on their doorstep would end up in one of the tiny homes, Andy said, she and her partner both said they hadn’t received much in the way of outreach.
“No,” she said, when asked if any city or county outreach workers had been up to talk to them in their current location.
“They’re building tiny houses across the street, [and] I’m sure we won’t get one.”
Given their history, she has reason to be skeptical. Despite being present at — or impacted by — a handful of different sweeps, she and her partner haven’t had much luck getting housed.
“They keep promising us all this stuff, housing, everything,” her partner said. “We have never gotten housing at any of the sweeps at all. Ever. Not one time.”
Tobias Coughlin-Bogue is the associate editor at Real Change.
It was an alphabet adventure during story time when Superintendent Brent Jones stopped by Broadview-Thomson Pre K-8 on Sept. 19.
As part of a back-to-school tour, Dr. Jones sat with young scholars in Patsy Burgess’s kindergarten class to read “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,” by Bill Martin Jr.
Dr. Jones attended Broadview as a child before it merged with Thomson.
Afterwards, Broadview-Thomson Principal Tipton Blish led Dr. Jones around the school to visit with third graders who were learning about time. He also visited a middle school class where students were learning the importance of staying organized.
Earlier that morning, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell read to kindergarteners at Olympic Hills Elementary. Mayor Harrell read “I Am Every Good Thing,” by Derrick Barnes then took questions from students.
Thank you to the more than 200 students, families, and staff who joined us for the Ingraham community meeting. I am grateful for the engagement and support of the Seattle Public Schools community in the face of the tragic death of one of our students on November 8.
Several families requested an anonymous way to report safety concerns. You or your student can use the SPS Safe Schools Hotline 206-252-0510 to report any threats to SPS schools. This phone number is managed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
You also asked for a reminder on any supportive resources to help sustain you during the holiday break. The SPS Coordinated School Health team collected some suggestions to help families support their students after gun violence:
How to Help if You Are Concerned About Your Student
Listen and validate concerns: Respond honestly to any thoughts or fears expressed in an age-appropriate manner. Identify social supports (e.g., family members, friends) with whom they can discuss their feelings. Don’t push your child to discuss how they feel. Different people will have different reactions.
Model and practice brave behavior: Parents/guardians can model brave behaviors by continuing to participate in community activities. Encourage your child to engage in these activities as well.
Have a conversation about media: Repeated exposure to the media content can exacerbate concerns. Parents/guardians should do their best to have conversations about what they are seeing in the media and help students make informed decisions about the media they are engaging with.
Access mental health supports (if needed): If fears are causing significant impairment (e.g., impacting social, occupational, or educational functioning), support from a mental health profession may be warranted.
The following resources offer a collection of local agencies that can help support our community.
Teen Link offers young people peers to listen and discuss concerns. Calls and chats are confidential. Call 1-866-teenlink (833-6546)
I am encouraged by the compassion, strength, and resilience of this school community.
During times of need, each of us is challenged to be there for one another. Let us try to give grace when we can, knowing that others may be struggling in unseen ways.
Thank you and best wishes as we head into the long weekend. We will continue to work on your behalf to ensure that better and stronger days for Ingraham and all SPS schools are ahead.
With Gratitude,
Bev Redmond Interim Chief of Staff/Assistant Superintendent of Public Affairs Seattle Public Schools
Posted: Nov. 17
Dear SPS Students, Families, and Staff,
I feel the pain and frustration of our community in the wake of last week’s tragic death of one of our students. Like you, I continue to grieve the violence that occurred at Ingraham High School.
I, and my team, continue to provide additional support to the Ingraham community. Principal Floe will be holding an Ingraham community meeting next week. Ingraham families will receive a message directly from the school with details about the event.
For the wider SPS community, I am working with my leadership team to create an event for all families and students to join us in a conversation about school safety. You will receive more information about this event once it has been scheduled.
Safety remains a top priority for all of us at Seattle Public Schools. Keeping our schools secure is part of our daily work. Here are some of the safety and security measures our district is actively engaged in and work that will soon begin.
Building Safety and Support
Our work to ensure school buildings have updated security systems, entryways, and door locks continues. We have installed new inside locks on more than 4,000 classroom doors across the district.
We are currently working to add intercoms and cameras at school entryways.
The district has committed funding from the Building Excellence (BEX) V Capital Levy toward security resources and improvements. This work will help SPS reinforce data security and beef up school building access systems. View the list of BEX V projects that Seattle voters approved in February 2019.
The district security staff monitors alarms and responds to suspicious activities 24 hours a day. They quickly respond and coordinate with community emergency responders when an incident occurs.
The security team facilitates school drills with first responders.
Preparedness training provided by Safety and Security includes verbal de-escalation, conflict management, and critical incident management.
Our Coordinated School Health team provides support immediately following critical incidents. The health services team and employee assistance program help our schools respond to the emotional needs of staff, students and families.
School and Community Partnerships for School Safety
All our schools have a safety plan developed in collaboration with the SPS Safety and Security Team.
Seattle Police Department and SPS Safety and Security meet regularly to discuss strategies aimed at reducing crime in and around schools, offer training opportunities, participate in drills, and enhance communication.
Our security team monitors trends related to school safety and security, working with our local community emergency responders to help prevent or mitigate incidents.
Moving Forward
I am introducing three actions as part of a district-wide safety initiative that will:
Complete a district-wide safety and security assessment.
Establish a Community Action Team to help SPS determine immediate steps to improve school safety.
Launch a child well-being council that will be led by nurses, pediatricians, psychologists, and others who have expertise in supporting mental health and social-emotional needs.
This fall, SPS and the educators’ union came together to finalize the 2022-25 collective bargaining agreement. That agreement included several services related to school supports including:
Adds mental health support with an additional half-time social worker at each comprehensive K-8, middle, and high school this school year.
Lowers the counselor-to-student ratio at our highest-need secondary schools.
Actions Families Can Take
Please talk with your student (as age-appropriate or appropriate for your family), about school and personal safety.
As with any school-related issues that are important to your family, you are always welcome to contact your local, state or federal representative. You can find your representatives by visiting the Washington State Legislature District Finder website.
We all play a role in school safety. You can use the SPS Safe Schools Hotline 206-252-0510 to report any threats to SPS schools. This phone number is managed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We are SPS, and together we will continue to look out for one another.
Sincerely,
Dr. Brent Jones Superintendent Seattle Public Schools
Posted Nov. 12
Watch Superintendent Jones’ Nov. 12 video message.
Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is committed to providing safe and welcoming learning environments.
While last week’s tragic event happened at one school, it affects us all. Our collective hearts ache for this senseless loss of life. Our community is experiencing a wide range of reactions and emotions. Supporting student and staff wellness has been and will remain the highest priority.
At Ingraham, students will be returning to their classrooms on Monday to reclaim their learning space. Principal Floe, school staff, and district teams have provided a supportive, safe space while giving the school community time to heal.
Last week and this weekend, emotional and wellness supports have been available for Ingraham students and staff. On Monday and in the days following, additional counselors and social workers will be at the school. Additional security will be provided on the school campus. While Ingraham will follow its regular bell schedule, educators will be available for students during the morning classes to discuss their experience.
The SPS Health Services team continues to be available for those who need emotional support. Our Safety and Security team continues their work to provide additional safety measures to SPS schools.
Gun violence is something no student, family, or educator should have to endure. Tragic events like this hit home especially hard. As a community, we can steer our students away from violence. We can teach our children the value of tolerance.
In his comments at last week’s Seattle School Board meeting, Superintendent Jones introduced a safety initiative comprised of three elements:
A district-wide safety and security audit
Creation of a community action team
Launch of a child well-being council
As a reminder, our community has access to the SPS Safe Schools Hotline. You can use the SPS Safe Schools Hotline 206-252-0510 to report any threats to SPS schools. This phone number is managed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Tuesday morning, we had an incident of gun violence at one of our schools. Tragically, an Ingraham student was shot and killed on campus. Our collective hearts are broken. We send our deepest condolences to the victim’s family and the entire Ingraham school community.
Seattle Police are on the scene and working with the district’s Safety and Security team. A suspect is in custody.
Ingraham students were released from classes for the remainder of the day and are being reunited with families. After-school activities at Ingraham have been canceled. Classes at Ingraham have been canceled for Wednesday, Nov. 9 and Thursday, Nov. 10.
Coordinated School Health and Staff Wellness (EAP) are available to help our community process this tragic incident. Below are some resources to help families.
Additionally, Crisis Connections provides a 24-hour crisis line 866-427-4747 www.crisisconnections.org or Teen Link 866-833-6546.
I am grateful for the quick response and thorough investigation by the Seattle Police Department and the SPS Safety and Security team. I want to commend the responsiveness of Ingraham Principal Martin Floe and the Ingraham staff. Thank you for your rapid response to secure the campus.
Please hold your loved ones close and seek comfort in one another. SPS will keep families and staff updated as information becomes available.
Sincerely,
Superintendent Brent Jones Seattle Public Schools
Reunification Update Posted on Nov. 8, 2 p.m.
Dear Ingraham Families and Staff,
We had an incident of gun violence at our school. The campus is secure and currently on lockdown. Seattle Police (SPD) are on the scene and working with the district’s Safety and Security team.
All after-school activities at Ingraham today have been canceled.
Students will be released at noon. A reunification site has been set up at Meridian Ave. North and North 135th St. Families can prepare to meet at that location. Families are asked not to go to the school to pick up their student. SPD will be on site at the reunification site.
Classes at Ingraham High School have been canceled for Wednesday, Nov. 9, and Thursday, Nov. 10.
We will keep families and staff updated as this is a rapidly evolving situation.
Sincerely,
Office of Public Affairs Seattle Public Schools
Announcement Posted Nov. 8, 11 a.m.
Dear Ingraham Families and Staff,
There was gunfire reported in our school this morning. One student is believed to have been shot.
The campus is currently on lockdown. Seattle Police are on the scene and working with the district’s Safety and Security team. SPD is searching the area for the suspect.
The campus is secure at this time. We are remaining in lockdown.
No students are being released at this time. A reunification site has been set up at Meridian Ave. North and North 135th St. Students are not being released at this time, but families can prepare to meet at that location. Families are asked not to go to the school to pick up their student.
We will keep families and staff updated as this is a rapidly evolving situation.
Architect Gene Zema was the very first to win the Home of the Year award from the Seattle chapter of American Institute of Architects—for his very own home, built in Northeast Seattle. He’d only gotten his license four years before, after honing his residential design skills with other legendary midcentury home architects like AO Bumgardner and Benjamin McAdoo.
He didn’t just design houses. He lent his skills to a number of medical buildings, and even two buildings on the University of Washington campus: More Hall Annex (formerly the Nuclear Reactor Building) and Gould Hall. But it was the houses that kept bringing in the awards, starting in the midcentury era, then carrying that ethos along until his retirement in 1976.
This house was built in 1970 and combines that midcentury sensibility with then-emerging contemporary trends. The original owners held onto the property for nearly 50 years, and when it hit the market for the first time in 2019, a couple of Zema fans scooped it up and got to work with a thoughtful remodel that preserves the architect’s striking style. No walls appear to have been harmed or disappeared in the process.
The entrance is through a serene tunnel of wood slats, leading to a foyer with a dedicated mudroom area and open staircases up and down. At the home’s center, a living room with a classic, exposed-grain slanted ceiling doubles as a sort of atrium, with a lofted floor above and little pockets of space all around. The first floor is open and airy, with many spaces delineated by framing; the dining room, for example, is only separated by a post and crossbeam. The foyer and an office connect to the central area with wide cased openings, making them more annexes than separate rooms. A deck with Puget Sound views lines the entire western wall of the house, accessible by glass french doors nestled in a wall of windows.
The kitchen stays open to the dining area via a slightly widened counter, but a slatted pillar—a new addition, formerly home to the wall ovens—with a cabinet-look fridge adds a stronger boundary. The cooking area itself is huge, and, off to the side, includes a more secluded eating area. The remodel expanded the kitchen space back here, allowing for more work and counters. (Sadly, although the current version is much more useful, this came at the expense of an original built-in radio.)
There is one closing door along the living room walls, and that’s for the large bedroom suite just behind the fireplace, complete with private access to the deck and an en suite bath with generous closet space. Upstairs, a sitting room and a long, shelf-lined library are open to the living room below, with extra light coming from skylights above. Beyond them is a cozy little hideaway: a private office beneath a steeply slanted ceiling.
The rest of the home’s four bedrooms, along with a den with a brick fireplace, are on the lower floor. Because it’s built into a steep hillside, the rooms still get plenty of light and even a little view here and there—they’re at a higher grade than much of the backyard, and even the sleek stone patio has a little elevation gain. The lightless hill side of the floor is home to two bathrooms, one with a sauna, an electrical room, and a huge utility room with tons of period cabinetry and even a dog bath.
The property’s lush 1.66-acre grounds include gardens, a stream, dense forest, and a brand-new pickleball court. On this wood-lined, dead-end street, there's not a lot of hustle and bustle nearby, just wildlife and other natural wonders.
