4 shot near market

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/368885_shooting30.html

Seattle Police Sgt. William Robertson, left, talks to Seattle Battalion Fire Chiefs Mike Teffre, right, and John Gablehouse, middle at the corner of Western Ave. and Blanchard St. on Sunday. A fight at Victor Steinbrueck Park led to a shooting that sent four men to the hospital early Sunday. (Jim Bryant / P-I)

4 shot near Pike Place Market

Tourists take cover; police launch search for suspects

Last updated June 29, 2008 10:36 p.m. PT

By CASEY MCNERTHNEY
P-I REPORTER

A fight at Victor Steinbrueck Park led to a shooting that sent four men to the hospital early Sunday evening as tourists and onlookers took cover near Pike Place Market.

The men are expected to survive. Police made no arrests and were still searching for suspects Sunday night.

Police and witnesses said two groups of men, some of whom were believed to be transients hanging out in the park next to the Market, began arguing about 6 p.m. It was not clear what started the argument.

"They had knives and it was pretty chaotic," said Clint Caneen, who was in the park at the time the altercation broke out. "They were really, really going at each other."

The fight calmed somewhat, but a man on a bicycle continued to confront the other fighters going west on Western Avenue, according to witnesses.

Police said the four men were shot in their legs or feet near the corner of Blanchard Street and Western Avenue.

Officers were searching for a suspect seen running toward the waterfront, and also were looking for a black Honda that might be connected to the shooting.

Steinbrueck Park has been part of Seattle's most crime-ridden census tract since 1985.

A City Council vote earlier this month approved $850,000 for security cameras in the park and three other parks.

Victor Steinbrueck: Life and Ideas

Victor Steinbrueck (1911-1985) was one of Seattle's most outspoken proponents of preservation, conscientious urban planning, and labor. Best known today for his pen and ink sketchbooks of the city and his work protecting Pike Place Market, his life reflects a number of currents shaping the city's ethos, public policy and cultural identity.

His son, Seattle City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck (b. 1957), recalls his father's life and work: "He came from a working class background, for one thing. People think my father was rich. Often fame is associated with wealth. My father broke ranks with the family background ... getting a professional degree. He was well-educated, well read and fairly worldly, and always, throughout his life, read and expanded his understanding of a wide range of issues."

Working Class Family Portrait

When the Great Northern Railroad advanced west in the late nineteenth century, John Steinbrueck followed, bringing his family to the Pacific Northwest from their North Dakota home. John was Victor's father, and among the many railroad men who migrated from the Midwest. He was an engineer for the railroads, then worked in Seattle's shipyards and participated in the General Strike of 1919, one of the area's and the nation's most influential labor efforts. John then became an auto mechanic, and co-owned a business on Broadway near many other car dealerships and repair shops.

John's experience with his business partner, who fronted the money for the business, provided a lesson for future generations of Steinbruecks. John provided the labor for a business with a partner who was only a profiteer, and would prove to be unscrupulous. He made off with the business' funds, leaving Steinbrueck completely broke. John taught Victor the value of working and effort through this tough life lesson, and a lifetime of hard work. Conversely, those people who exploited labor and accumulated profits were reviled.

During Victor's education and experiences, his father's life would provide valuable fodder for a well-formed and often articulated morality, based in somewhat socialist beliefs. As his father believed in the value of work and workers, so did Victor. But Victor was an artist at heart, and brought a vibrant and nuanced view of people and society toward his work and family.

Life in Art

Over the course of his life, Victor used many different media to record the environment around him -- mostly Seattle and King County. Peter has a drawing made by his father in 1917. It was his first drawing of Seattle, made during a trip to Pike Place Market from Auburn.

In the 1930s, Victor worked professionally as an artist, with the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. He generated a series of watercolors illustrating life in the CCC camps. These are now scattered throughout the country -- with at least one in the White House.

Steinbrueck's household was always full of artists -- poets, writers, painters, sculptors. Well known artists of what would become known as the Northwest School of painters, like Morris Graves, Bill Ivey and Mark Tobey, were all family friends. As his son Peter recalls, "it was the world he loved the most. Architecture gave him a livelihood and provided a way for him to express his art."

"For years he did wonderful watercolors. There's one right there (hanging on Peter's office wall), 1934 Yesler Terrace before the housing project was built. He won a Northwest Artist Award for that. That was about the time he graduated from Architecture School at UW. He went through several stages. Charcoal renderings, and then the pen and ink when he did books on the city. He did the AIA guide to Seattle, more of a pamphlet. He used pen and ink because it was obviously more portable. Later on he used pastels and made beautiful drawings of still lifes, flower arrangements, and landscapes. He loved the natural landscape around Seattle, and turned us (Victor's four children) all on to parks.

The Ultimate Egalitarian

"While he focused on built environment and preservation, and design of the city, his motivation was more about people than about things and objects, about how we live and what we valued," comments Peter Steinbrueck. "When you look at saving the market, it wasn't so much about saving the buildings but about preserving a way of life, especially the presence of local farmers. He valued the relationship between the consumer and producer, which in modern society has been all but lost, enormously."

"Progress wasn't a good thing for him in terms of these traditional relationships, owner-operated mom and pop operations and the meaning they had. The culture of the market, the opportunities availed through that kind of environment, and preserving a place for people with low incomes was very important. The market was always associated with produce and services catering to these people. Only 30 years ago, the downtown was mostly low income people. Subsequently more people lived downtown. Only about half as many people live downtown today. He valued the Market's role and wanted to see the it continue to provide its historic function. The social role of the market was written into regulations protecting it."

According to his son, Victor was an eternal optimist and believed in the good and potential of human kind. He spent his life teaching others by example how to get involved and make a difference in the community. His outspoken beliefs were distinctly anti-capitalist. "Building one's wealth was a selfish and wasted life. This was amoral -- just accumulating money."

Father Figure

Victor Steinbrueck had four children with his wife, Elaine Pearl Worden (b. 1931), three boys (Matthew, b. 1953; David, b. 1956; and Peter)and a girl (Lisa, b. 1954). Peter is the youngest. All of Victor's children had limited career choices. Given their father's beliefs, anything smacking of money-making was completely ruled out. My "brother is a merchant in the market. My sister collects and sells NW Indian art and has a gallery, my other brother is a stonemason. All of us work for ourselves, always have. All independent, independently minded, fairly driven but not for wealth."

Victor Steinbrueck's principles came through in the way he raised his children. Peter recounts a telling story. When he was a teenager, there here was a Safeway in the neighborhood. Safeway workers went on strike, and management posted a sign on the store's windows advertising $6 an hour positions for replacements. "I did a lot of odd jobs, carpentry and such, this sounded appealing, easy good pay, so I got an application form and told dad. He threw a fit. 'You know what that is, you would be a scab! Not on your life are you going to take a job as a scab worker! I knew something about labor history, but not a lot."

Steinbrueck Legacy

Steinbrueck brought to Seattle a kind of preservation mentality that was just starting to grow in other cities around the country in the 1950s and 1960s. His version of historic preservation celebrated the relationships between people and their environment -- both natural and cultural. A kind of hybrid between socialism and romanticism, Steinbrueck's drawings and life's work celebrated the working class and the everyday, positive interactions between people and spaces.

from Historylink.com with excerpts of an interview with Peter Steinbrueck by Heather MacIntosh, 1999

making it personal without names

continuum by Beliz Brother, Seattle City Hall

Nagasaki memorial

One light for each victim.

light (& ephemerality)

Several participants in the design kick-off mentioned light & luminosity as important elements for this memorial. Light has the power to suggest healing & spirituality with it's ability to illuminate the darkest situation. The associations with candlelight, a hearth & the warmth of the sun form an opposite pole to the dark winter of death.

What also seems worth investigating is the play of light & shadow both day & night, with natural light filtering through some patterned scrim & the play of illumination on an iconic form at night.

 

Like life, light is fleeting...and precious. 

 

Vigil for four men

Yesterday I stood with Women In Black for the first time.  The vigil honored four men who died outside over the past month.  Standing still in honor of lives lost was a moving experience for me. It gave me the quiet time to reflect on the names, ages and places of their deaths.  Two of the men died in neighborhoods near mine.  Stanley Sorgenson (I think that is his name, I've misplaced my paper flyer)  died near a small store I visited the day before.  He died from apparent beating. He has a scandinavian name.  I am half Finnish.  Standing there I thought of my Uncle Milt who spent most of his life moving from one town to the next homeless and unemployable.  He led a solitary life, but called me every now and then.  He died alone at the State Veterans Hospital without any family contact.  I thought of the man with a Finnish name whose death was honored by the Women In Black last spring and whose vigil I missed.  I also thought of my Uncle Arvid that died a week ago who grew up with Milt.  How different their lives unfolded.  Uncle Arvid died in the house that his parents built, where he raised his sons and spent 50 years with with his wife.  He never lived anywhere but Astoria, Oregon.  Milt died alone, no home, no family close to him.  I hope he had a community in the hospital, but I know he didn't want to be there.   

When not lost in my thoughts I noticed that people were truly curious about the 10 or so women standing in line dressed in black.  Some were moved to thank us.  I especially was touched by the woman who gave us each a long stemmed white rose and thanked me for being there.  Silence is powerful when it is shared.

Victor Steinbrueck Park

healing hands

winds of change

homelessness

Point mentioned at our kickoff meeting about the experience and iconography of homelessness. Does a blanket, a shopping cart, a pack of cigarettes, a bag of food, etc. (the elemental realities of homelessness) somehow fit into a place of remembrance? 

How do we convey the depressing mundane realities without abandoning the loftier goals of hope, healing, education, community, peace, etc? Is there a way to acknowledge the stark reality while encouraging a hopeful vision?

a little love

At the 2nd Parks' meeting for Victor Steinbrueck, Karen described quite eloquently how the place simply needed a little love and then gently patted Rich Haag on the shoulder.  

What a framable moment!

reflections

The power of reflectivity to draw inward...

...and out.

cell phone narrative

In the past few years, numerous museums, zoos, botanical gardens and cities have begun to use cell phone services to provide audio tours related to points of interest.  Using an auditory approach, these organizations are able convey information effectively through multi-sensory input.  Research has demonstrated that such synesthetic environments nurture an imaginative approach to problems.

Perhaps this might be appropriate for the Homeless Place of Remembrance, providing a means for individual stories to be linked to places and names.  A brief biography, poetry, favorite passage from literature or some other personally-relevant information could be told to the listener, bringing a greater sense of connection through the spoken word.

design elements & ideas

Themes

Diversity, 10’s & 10 yr plan to end homelessness, circle of life/whole world/homeless over the entire world, foot in two worlds – land and sea, Native American and farmers in park and struggle to survive, neighborhood garden, heaven’s home, color, movement, circle/4 directions, crossing over, what you would need out in the wild, represent each life, drifter, thunderbird (Phoenix rising), nature, a song to sing, whimsy, no whimsy.

 

Elements

Time capsule, gazebo/pergola, arbor gateway with quote, bell to toll, basin overflowing, benches, no benches, labyrinth with angels, fountains/ponds (with bridge), plants/flowers, large dreamcatcher with sayings/prayers/mementos, roof (need for shelter), art, walking labyrinth, totem pole, medicine wheel with colors reflecting all races, remembrance wheel, statues, crystal pyramid, garden art, spirit houses, monolith/prism/pyramid.

 

Imagery

Blankets, homeless people (sleeping on benches or boxes), depiction of ways people can end homelessness, passage to another world, different worlds we live in, canoe, footprints with names, statue at end of trails, statue of Women in Black holding hands, birds – Mockingbird/messenger of death, birds and ribbons.

 

Writing

Poetry (of community), quotes, Dylan’s – ‘Blowing in the wind’, “These are the men and women who have walked these streets”, a list of resources, names and tribes slanted into the earth, store of one person without a name, “All who have passed away” or “All who have entered the spiritual world”, how many people die without recognition, information on who to help end homelessness, “We no not have to have homelessness.”, fire in the belly statement about homelessness and struggle, statement about community – people don’t understand we’re a community, big prayer. 

 

Function

Place for candles, visibility balanced with intimacy, no hiding places, prevent drug dealing (sightlines), seating, benches should face the water (not street), level or move mound (Victor Steinbrueck park), lights, cameras, a place to do arts and crafts, a place for smudging, a place to gather and tell stories, interactive (a place to leave flowers, etc.), bowls for burning sage, kleenex receptacles, umbrella or overhang to keep rain off and warm, place for meditation and prayer, kiosk with information, prayer bowl, something to touch, low barriers, information – 211 phone, sound barrier.  

emotion/feel of place

The list below is a condensation of the list of emotions noted at the meeting facilitated by the Homeless Place of Remembrance Committee at 7 predesign meetings March to September 2007.  Following each emotion written in bold is the number of times (#) the emotion, or similar emotion was noted.  The words following the emotion in bold are other words used to describe the emotion or similar feelings. 

Hope (11) – positive, felicity, something to look forward to, light, circle of life

Healing (9) – comfort, solace, warmth, cozy, safety, security, refuge, allay fears, closure, no feeling of being trapped.

Educational (8) – illumination, a way to help people understand realities of homelessness, statement on classicism, motivate people to help, people helping people, reflect causes of homelessness, drifters, struggle.

Community (7) – connection, togetherness, reflect Seattle, take ownership and feel that the City did something for me, passing on of culture. 

Peace (7) – tranquility, serenity, meditative.

Spirituality (6)– reverence, love

Home (6) – we’re home, rootedness, welcoming to all, privacy.

Dignity (4) – respected citizens, worthy, life of value.

Humility (2)– it could happen to anyone.

Ecstasy (1)

Moving (1)

Breathtaking (1)

Self satisfaction (1)

Sorrow and mourning (1)

WPA model

Awoke this morning with possible approach to project.  

Similar to previous projects where we've involved numerous volunteers, I'd like to utilize a sort of WPA/job training approach for Homeless Place of Remembrance.  

Through the design of a purposely labor-intensive and necessarily collaborative project, such as mosaic, there's the opportunity to help build community through common purpose while making our match for Department of Neighborhoods Large Matching Grant.  Other possibilities include design of components used to demarcate individuals, 'rolling workshop' used to plant markers, mosaic work, finish work, planting & plant maintenance, etc.  All of this could be part of a 'streets-to-greens' training program that helps bring folks from a place of homeless destitution to a community of cultural workers.

irish famine memorial

Walking through the entry corridor that is reached under a cantilever on the western end of the memorial, a voice recites statistics and descriptions of hunger around the world. This sound is accompanied by text that follows the bands of stone and light that wraps the memorial as well as the entry corridor. Both extend the purpose of the memorial beyond the historical event it is name for, to the ongoing plight of hunger throughout the world.

As many Irish emigrated to New York City during Ireland's famine, the location of this memorial makes perfect sense. As does its size, exactly one-half acre, "as a clause added to the Irish Poor Law by Sir William Gregory during the famine meant that anyone who owned more than a half-acre of land was not eligible for any aid or relief," according to this web page. The journey through the corridor leads to a reconstructed ruin of 19th-century stone cottage shipped from Ireland. This ruin merges seamlessly with native weeds, grasses, and wildflowers atop the whole memorial. Like the 1/2-acre size, the memorial is loaded with symbolism, some more obvious than others.

To me the appeal of it is it's completely alien presence between the Financial Center and new residential buildings currently under construction in Battery Park City. The skyline of New Jersey (above) is slowly revealed as one ascends to the prow of the cantilever, giving the visitor a view of the Statue of Liberty to the south. But for a moment, one doesn't walk on the earth of Lower Manhattan; instead it is the earth of some other place and time.

It's the corridor that helps create this sensation, as unlike other memorials it immerses the visitor into something else, as opposed to just letting them look at something. It creates a transition between the outside world and an introspective other, at least for a few moments. As it and the visitor goes above ground, it doesn't abandon the outside world, instead it asks the us to look at it from a different perspective.

John Hill, NYC, 1.15.07

subtext

This is a piece I created for Franklin High School here in Seattle.  It's called 'Key Grove' and references ideas about the role of imagination in education based on Ben Franklin's famous experiment with a kite, a key and lightning.  That's one, fairly-obvious layer of meaning.  

There's others...

Such as the idea of critical 'key groves' or stands of trees that have significant environmental and metaphoric meaning--holding an ecosystem together or creating a sense of place. In this case, there's a corresponding grove of native trees (big leaf maples, dogwoods, etc.) on the other side of the plaza. 

Beyond these layers and others is a deeper personal meaning that motivated me to create this project in the first place. Yet it's the one meaning I couldn't really talk about until the piece was complete--as I didn't trust my client to not freak out before we were done. 

At the dedication, I revealed the true underlying meaning that this piece held for me.  Though the subtext is as plain as day--quite literally about 'keys'--the specific lock that they were attempting to open was less apparent. 

In 1983 my cousin, Linda Evans, a former Weather Underground member, was arrested along with numerous other ex-Panther and WU activists as part of a government sweep against a group that had been defined as 'enemies of the state'. She and her compatriots were brought in under 'conspiracy' charges but due to lack of evidence, were sentenced under various felonies. Though she was originally taken in for 'harboring a fugitive' (nursing a friend who had been injured in a shootout with police during a botched Brinks robbery) she was indicted for carrying an unlicensed weapon over state lines. 

At her arraignment, Linda offered a critique of imperialism as her defense, refusing to renounce any of her prior activities which included a fair amount of organizing and legal work on behalf of prisoners. Taking umbrage, the judge's sentence was merciless: 5 years per bullet (9 bullets = 9 keys) contained in her gun for a total of 45 years in a federal penitentiary. The judge happened to be the same one who tried and sentenced Oliver North for his role in Iran-Contra. We all know what harsh time he got for that.

So the year this piece was dedicated is 1990 and Linda--my childhood babysitter and hippy folk guitar singing cousin--has been in for seven without any options for release due to Reagan-era parole board appointees who want to make sure all these folks rot behind bars for the rest of their lives. She's busy making the best of a terrible situation, working on a masters degree in political science, practicing acupressure & eastern medicine on fellow inmates, working as a translator for Latino inmates, creating an herb garden, organizing AIDS awareness workshops and playing in the prison jazz ensemble. In short, being a model prison citizen.

For the next decade I was involved in an extended effort both here and in Europe to get Linda and everyone ensnared in the conspiracy rap freed. There were letter-writing campaigns, meetings with public officials and fundraisers to cover legal costs which all came to a head nearly a decade later in December 2000. Linda was included on the list of pardons handed out as Clinton left office.

Upon release, Linda became involved with an organization dedicated to prisoners with families who are trying to adjust to life on the outside. She is now executive director and a respected member of the Bay Area activist community. 

healing

The Gift of Water by Jackie Brookner.

This biosculpture was commisioned by the town of Grossenhain, near Dresden, Germany. Water, as a symbol of renewal, figured prominently in the town plan to build a remarkable new public swimming complex, where the water is filtered entirely by wetland plants, without the use of chlorine or any other chemicals.

bowling alone in my hummer

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm depressed.

The state of things is absolutely overwhelming: climate change, massive extinctions, overpopulation, food scarcity, increasing inequity, war, etc. Every day seems to reveal some new way humanity is fouling its nest. Behind it is the pervasive ideology of 'got mine...and yours...to rest there's nothing.'  It's enough to consider the alternative to life.

When Anitra and Janice described the sense of aloneness experienced through homelessness, it really resonated with me. Perhaps it has to do with being an artist--pursuing these lonely visions in my studio, then placing them in the world as orphans.  Might be, but I think the sense of recognition was shared by many others that night. 

In his book 'Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community', Robert Putnam describes many of the ways we've squandered our 'social capital' through the structures of daily life that we mindlessly accept as givens: work relations, suburban life, gender conditioning, technology, etc.  So many centrifugal forces at work, keeping us apart.  Then the endless individuation that is marketed back to us as a means to replace this void. 

Where this leads is a place 20th century thinkers like Walter Benjamin knew so painfully well. It is the force of fascism, internalized and perfected as a form of self-realization. What makes it so elusive to middle class American consciousness is the way it is packaged. The Italian film director, Pier Paolo Pasolini described fascism's triumph as embodied in the consumer society. Perhaps the Chilean writer, Ariel Dorfman summed it up best by describing how citizens knew things had changed under Pinochet when pedestrians no longer had the right of way on city streets dominated by Humvees.   

the god of small things

Holocaust Memorial, Budapest