Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

Roosevelt Neighborhood Association Monthly Meeting

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Roosevelt Neighborhood Association meeting and bats, bees and bugs.

Last night at the April meeting of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association officers were elected for the coming year, it was confirmed that the Bull Moose Festival would again take place this year around July 17^th. The Sustainability Committee told of a new study that copper in our yards can prevent salmon from remembering how to migrate to their home stream by affecting their sense of smell.  In our area the Ravenna Creek watershed could be affected. Another report mentioned that the Friends of Cowen Park was ramping up a campaign to raise money and support for continued renovations to make the play area in Cowen Park cleaner and better. Volunteers are sought and you can find out more at the RNA website.

The bulk of the meeting was turned over to three speakers. We heard from Evan Sugden of Entomo-Logic who shared much information on bees, and how to recognize their habitat. He recommended the Xerces Society for continued study on pollinators. Evan noted that the bee box you often see on farms and at bee keeper locations is an American invention about 150 years old.

Michelle Noe, president of Bats Northwest, taught us that bats were identified as a keystone species, a species of animal, that when in healthy abundance in an area indicated that the region was in overall good health environmentally. Bats eat mosquitoes, beetles and moths, and are prevalent where there is a good water source and  night blooming plants. You may be able to attract bats by building a rocket box in your yard.

Marty Wingate from Seattle Tilth entertained us with slides and information on how to recognize the good bugs in our garden and the most sensible way to eliminate the bad bugs…with other bugs, bats, or birds, or with gloves, by squishing. No chemicals. No sprays.

The path to foster a healthy garden:

• Accept that some damage will occur.
• Use mechanical controls.
• Encourage healthy soil.
• Plant a diverse and appropriate range of species.

The Roosevelt Neighborhood Association April meeting then adjourned.

 Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

Green Lake market Report for April 2010

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Green Lake continues to sell well.

The Green Lake market is looking good this spring. There are currently 85 active residential and condo listings in the area. There are 43 pending sales and 19 closed sales in the past 30 days. That makes for an absorption rate of 4.47 or it would take 4.47 months to sell off the available listings. The absorption rate for the entire city of Seattle is 6.6 using the data for the past 30 days. There were 4076 listings city wide and 616 properties sold.

The townhouse and stand-alone home market was the strongest with  the highest sale of the year closing this past month at $1,280,000. The average price for sold listings was $581,863. On the slow side of things the condo market only enjoyed 4 sales with an average price of $290,000.

There is some question of how the market will fare with the end of the $8,000 and $6,500 tax credits arriving on the 30^th of April. Green Lake has been popular for a long time and we expect sales to continue pretty much as they have been.

Market times were a little faster than they were in the earlier part of the year. Sixty three per cent sold in the first 30 days. Spring is a wonderful time to shop for a new home or an investment property here in Green Lake. Give me a call and we’ll take a look at a few that might meet your needs.

Glenn Roberts | Ravenna Park | My Seattle | Lake & Co Real Estate

11723 Exeter Ave NE Cedar Park  $469,000

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1985 Cedar Park contemporary reduced to $469,000

Cedar Park Lake Washington View Property Now $469,000!

Townhouse style stand alone home with views of Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains.

The Seller just reduced this Cedar Park northwest contemporary to $469,000. No question that this San Francisco style home located in Cedar Park, a northeast Seattle neighborhood, is well worth coming inside for a look.

The lower level has a bedroom or office with sliding glass doors that opens to a patio with views of the lake. There is also a half bath and access to the extra large double garage.

Come up stairs and enjoy the spacious living room that has a full width deck on the view side of the home. There is a kitchen with an eating area and a small deck off the back of the house which is a perfect spot for the grill. A separate dining room and a half bath finish off the middle level of this view property.

On the upper level there are 2 bedrooms and 2 full baths. The master bedroom has a large deck that gives one a bird’s nest view of the lake and the mountains.

This home was built in 1985 and has been well maintained by the owner. There is a fireplace in the living room. The yard is low maintenance. There is a dog run on the side of the house and the siding is real cedar. This Lake Washington view property is located on a street that does not go through. No traffic, no traffic noise.

I'd be happy to show it to you anytime. Give me a call and we'll both go over and enjoy the view.

 Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

The Roosevelt Sustainability Group April 27^th Garden Lecture - Seattle

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Bees, Bats and Bugs friendly to the sustainable garden.

The Roosevelt Sustainability Group’s vision is to make Roosevelt  a Seattle neighborhood of exemplary sustainable practices. Sustainable strategies include: energy efficiency, waste reduction, renewable energy, air quality, water quality, soil health, urban agriculture and neighborhood livability.

There will be a lecture on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM in room 242 of Roosevelt High School. This lecture is entitled Bees, Bats and Bugs : Secrets for a Sustainable Garden.

Evan Sugden of Entomo-Logic will share how to welcome bees in your yard.

Michelle Noe, president of Bats Northwest, will tell you how to build a bat house, and more.

Marty Wingate from Seattle Tilth will cover bugs - how to encourage the good and control the bad using sustainable methods.

The Roosevelt Sustainability Group is a part of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association. You need not be a member to attend this lecture. The group likes to think locally and act locally in hopes of influencing the greater community in a positive manner. Grass roots efforts like this should be started in every neighborhood. Wherever two or more people get together they should be cognizant of their environment and be interested in improving rather than using the space they occupy.  

Issues such as carbon footprint, the building environment, transportation, and local food production and use a but a few of the area of interest of this group. Come to the meeting on the 27^th and be a part of making Roosevelt, Seattle, and the world a better place to live.

If you would like to live in a community like this, please give me a call.

 Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

Open House...Play Ball

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Baseball vs. real estate.

I commented on a post earlier today about what to do at an open house when no one comes. I took this picture of my grandson on Wednesday. Be prepared, be focused, be ready. Remember the basics. Get that runner on third home. Anticipate what’s coming. Is it a fast ball, the curve, or a slider? Keep your weight back. Level swing. See the ball. A little tension is good for the athlete and the agent as well.

 Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

Seattle leads nation in food waste recycling

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Food waste into compost, the Seattle way.

In an article today the Seattle Times tells us that Seattlites  are recycling food at a rate 10 times higher than the national average. It’s interesting to note that 26,400 tons of food scraps yields 10,000 tons of compost in just seven or eight weeks. And all of this waste is now out of the garbage the city has to dispose of and out of the landfills, eventually headed back to a garden near you.

A few years ago we had some recycling, a yard waste container for leaves, grass clippings and pruning material. Then the city allowed some waste food to go in with the yard waste. This past year all food waste, including meat and fish, bones and all can go in the yard waste can, and it is picked up each week. If you don’t have much yard waste you can get a smaller can.

In the picture the blue can in the middle used to be for our garbage. Now we are able to use the small brown box on the left for non-recyclables, and rarely fill it. There is a can similar to the yard waste bin on the right for recycling paper and plastics.  Last year I used the blue can for growing potatoes and may just do the same thing again this year.

If you want to know more about why living in Seattle is so special, please contact me. I'm easy to reach and will be delighted to talk with you.

 Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

Roosevelt Development Group takes a new tack

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The Roosevelt neighborhood and growth issues.

Roosevelt Development Group, aka RDG or HB Management, brought the Great City Organization to the Roosevelt neighborhood April 14, 2010, seemingly to enlist their help in convincing the populace of Roosevelt, the Seattle City Council and Mayor, and anyone else interested that the development wishes of one property owner should be more highly considered than the decade long work of the community as to how the urban village of Roosevelt will grow over the next 25 to 50 years.

Great City  is “a strategic urban advocacy group that believes smart and responsible urbanism is the solution to many of our social, economic, and environmental challenges” according to their website. Five or six members of that group along with about 15 residents of the Roosevelt neighborhood were in attendance. RDG presided with their architect, attorney and possibly their public relations firm on hand to answer questions. Ed Hewson and John Breiner opened the conversation showing some charts and graphs that conceivably demonstrated that if the area in question (the approximately 45 properties owned by Hugh Sisley, as well as several that RDG has purchased over the past two or three years) were to be developed with taller buildings, there would be more “public space” at ground level, more green space, more walk friendly areas. Along with the charts and graphs were some “foot prints” of tall buildings and of short building. The neighborhood has been asking for almost two years to be shown what the buildings would look like but so far, there have been no profiles of the proposed skyline in the urban village.

A concern was raised about the number of units, and therefore the number of  people, that would be added to a relatively small area of the village, and how that number compared to how the population would be affected by development to zoning changes as recommended by the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association. The architect gave a surprising answer. He seemed to say that the number of units in a 16 story building would be the same as the number of units in a 4 story building, because a taller building would be more slender and then talked about something in the Seattle Building Code called “floor area ratio.” I would guess that his answer would be true if sixteen story zoning were granted to the site, but the builder chose to build only four levels. But given what he said, the question was raised, “Why then would a builder build a more expensive taller building, when the same density and number of units could be achieved with a cheaper design?” The answer was as vague and unsatisfactory as the answer to the first question.  

There are many residents of the area that a)Would like to see the derelict properties of the landowner torn down, and b)The property developed in a manner consistent with the carefully thought out Roosevelt Neighborhood Plan. RDG might be the best group to work with or there may be someone else. One thing the neighborhood is sure of, having experienced over 30 years of property abuse by the current landowner, there is no hope of working in a constructive manner with him. There is also no desire to see his interests sustained. He has resisted city and neighborhood efforts to clean up his holdings.  There is no reason to believe that once developed there would be a more harmonious bond between this person and those of us who reside in the area.

For example, the homes in the pictures have been neglected for years. The entire block with the exception of a fruit stand on the corner has been vacated and fenced for almost two years now. The sight is an eyesore. It has been requested that all of these buildings be razed, but those requests have fallen on deaf ears. Our beautiful part of the city has to endure this landowner’s stubbornness and vindictiveness. 

Someday these properties will be developed, but in the interim, there is opportunity for community gardens, neighborhood events like block parties, and educational opportunities. Should the landowner to participate in something like that, it would be one small step in the right direction. No one expects it to happen.   

Fortunately, there are enough concerned residents of the Roosevelt urban village, that our grassroots effort to achieve growth in the area with the right buildings in the right places will prevail.  

Contact me to be put on a mailing list for more information on the proposed development, or just give me a call.

 Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

Advice for Gen-Y home buyers

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Gen-Y home buyer profile, and what to watch.

 Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

Nine year old Seattle High-Rise to be Destroyed

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A Seattle building fails and so too with many products in our lives today.

According to KOMO News yesterday and The Seattle Times today a 25 story commercial/apartment building at the corner of 2^nd Ave and Wall Street in the hip Belltown district will be torn down because of construction problems. In fact, it’s falling apart and expected to fall down.

In 2008 estimates to repair were $23MM but this year they have escalated to $40MM, twice the cost of the original construction.

The building consists of about 250 units, mostly residential, but plenty of commercial/retail/sevice spaces on the ground floor. Residents are being paid a bonus for getting out within the next two months.

The City of Seattle claims that they don’t do inspections on high-rises, but rely on inspection reports from private companies which are licensed to perform them.

Aside from the immediate problems of the owner and the tenants, is this just the tip of the iceberg in our country? Has everyone gone over to the cheaper is better, as long as we make more money philosophy? I remember as a kid in the 50’s there were a lot of complaints about cheap knock offs from Japan flooding the toy and gimmick market. Sixty years later we have a myriad of problems relating to quality verses cost.

Often, as Realtors we find furnaces and water heaters in older homes that are still functional, but in newer houses the inspectors are telling us the expected life of a furnace or water heater is ten years, and often they show signs of failing already. The difference, of course is the guage of steel used in the manufacturing of these product. Because of the Japanese thing from the 50's regulations were made in the 70's as to certain minimum standards and then everybody ascribed to those standards.  Harumph! 

A European home furnishing store is making a fortune distributing products that are incredibly cheap by comparison to locally made items of the same use. But where are most of these products 10 years later. I’ve seen many in the landfills and at yard sales, or else being given away. They look good to start with but seem to have no durability.

There is a product, EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finish Systems) by name that has had many, hundreds I would guess, of failures in Seattle. Almost all large buildings in the 1990’s used the product and almost all failed, and had to be redone.

There are many new products on the market for home construction that claim to be green because no tree was killed. But are these products any better for us? Plastic siding that traps moisture and there for mold in the walls. Composite materials (remember Louisiana Pacific’s siding) that bulge and become infested with fungus. Floors that look like wood but are plastic. I realize that the claim of many of these products is that they never need maintanence, but what's wrong with taking care of your home, as in painting it?  

Has anyone besides me had trouble repairing a light fixture or a space heater that is only a few years old? Have you ever tried to take apart something  seemingly as simple as an iron? Too many products that grace the entire spectrum of our retail industry are made for a short use-life so that we will throw them away and buy new again.   

There is a renewed interest in manufacturing in this country. A European car maker is looking to locate here because it is close to the source of material they need for parts of the next generation of automobile. Let’s hope it is an improvement in quality, rather than a cutting of costs that drives the industry.

Meanwhile hundreds of people are displaced because a less than 10 year old building has failed. Why worry? The insurance will pay for it. Therefore we’ll all pay for it as insurance rates go up. How can we stop this trend toward accepting products that are made to fail? I wish I had the answer.

 Glenn Roberts   |  Ravenna Park  |  My Seattle   | Lake & Co Real Estate

University District Farmers’ Market Seattle

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What one might find at the University District Farmers' Market in April.

It was sunny this morning and before we noticed the frost on neighborhood roofs, we had decided to head for the University District Farmers’ Market. It’s only about eight blocks from our house in Ravenna Park and we thought it would be nice to know what the farmers were up to in April. This market is open year around but we hadn’t been for a while.

So we grabbed a couple of reusable grocery bags and I grabbed my gloves.  We got to the corner of 50^th and University Ave NE at about 9:30 and found the market rocking. I was surprised at the variety of things that could be had so early in the year.

The University District Farmers’ Market usually has a lot of flowers, and no surprise, tulips were in abundance this week. April is the month of the Skagit Valley’s Tulip Festival and many of the farmers at this market are located there.  Another booth had nothing but organic potatoes. We bought a few to eat and a variety to cut up and use for seed. I like to plant about 24 sq ft of potatoes each spring just to see what we get.

We were tempted by this pies and bread booth but held off and also by this wood-fired pizza operation. Mmmmm! But it was still before 10:00 AM so we declined again.

Right next to this Oyster bed a farmer was cooking up some breakfast sausage and we opted for a pound of that. The samples were mighty tasty.

Two-fifths of the group Nettle Honey was playing some of their original compositions and I picked up one of the CDs they were selling while we waited for a raspberry crepe to be made especially for us.

What else was at the University Farmer’s Market? Well, they had chicken eggs, duck eggs, apple cider, many varieties of cheese, organically raised beef and pork, smoked salmon, frozen salmon, tuna jerky,  fresh made soup by the quart or the cup, plants, starts sets, and many root vegetables. With a little warmer weather we hope to see some local strawberries soon.

All in all, it was a great morning in the University District at the farmers’ market. If you would like to know more about real estate opportunities in the U District, or the surrounding communities of Ravenna, Roosevelt, Bryant, Wallingford and Green Lake, please contact me. This has been my stomping grounds for over 20 years and I’d love to show you around.