Red Apple Harvest Summer 2010

The reason I started this blog was to give voice to the collective grief our community felt when we lost our local grocery store. Over two years later we still don't have a grocery store, but now we know the reason why.

Red Apple grocery stores thrive in small towns where there is no other grocery store of a similar size to compete. Here in Newport Hills, we have two grocery stores (Safeway and QFC) immediately south of us, and again, two grocery stores (QFC and Safeway) to our immediate north. Easy drives. There's also Costco, Trader Joe's and Puget Consumer's CoOp: though they are a more substantial drive away folks are willing to drive the distance for the additional selections those stores offer.

Our Red Apple couldn't compete with their prices and selection...back in the day we actually had two grocery stores ourselves, Albertson's and Tradewell, later Red Apple. They were the only game in town and thrived for a short while before the competition drove them out.

Now I look for surviving Red Apple stores to try and understand what makes them thrive where they do.




Red Apples from our August road trip through Eastern Washington:





Chelan









Winthrop












Sultan











Manson

Favorite rest stop on the Slog

If you drive south to Eugene and back to Seattle as often as I do(both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year) you look for any alternative to the bleak rest areas spotted every 45 miles along The Slog (click here for Alaska Airlines' very witty map/ad) If there's a place to walk the dog, so much the better. There isn't one here, but it features a Starbucks, a grocery store and a Sonic drive-in where you actually get served at your car window. I can't vouch for the burgers, because I only needed caffeine--and to pick up some last-minute giftcards at the Albertson's. It was Christmas Eve, after all.

Wilsonville is now synonymous with traffic congestion. A while ago it was just a snoozy suburb of Lake Oswego, itself a sleepy suburb of Portland. Development seems to have leapfrogged over Lake Oswego and landed here. It's just off I-5, so if you're headed south, stop here after slogging through the congested Terwilliger S-Curves or if you're headed north take a breather before it gets too intense.

As an afficionado of supermarket parking lots, I give this one highest marks. Permeated with through-roads, it's village-like, and easily navigated.

Up one road


and down the other

A church appears to have been moved here, or perhaps it was always here. A much-needed historic landmark, in any case.
Public art, which makes me think that this is part of a planned transit station. Click here for Portland regional transit map showing Wilsonville as WES terminus of MAX. Very nice.
Site marker for Wilsonvile School. Not sure where it is now--demolished? But still, nice.

The brick "windows" provide a place to sit, a sense of unity, and boundaries. They give you a feeling of safety, guiding you around and through. This is something very rare in a parking lot.

And if you get lost, follow the puffballs!

Merry Christmas from Newport Hills

Every year, on the Saturday before Christmas, Newport Hills has had a tradition of hosting a firetruck to weave through every street in the neighborhood, siren blazing, followed by a station wagon bearing oranges and candy canes for the kids.


This year, the truck was not in the budget, but we made do with the ever-cheerful Sandi Tampa (with the bullhorn in the backseat), who gamely shouted out the names of residents as she and newly-elected Newport Hills Community Club president Michelle Hillhorst made their way in an open-air Bug. I was very impressed, although I couldn't stop for long as my neighbor and I were on our way to see Black Nativity at the Intiman Theatre. They must have been freezing! There was also a sleigh with Santa and his elves tossing oranges and candy canes following behind. Aah, the simple pleasures!



What really impressed me no end was the follow-up to Santa's tour: the first-ever holiday bazaar held outside the empty Red Apple. Talk about freezing! These brave pioneers are sowing the seeds of community right where we most need it, and when it's most needed: on the first anniversary of the store's closing. Talk about spirit! And hope for the future! And amazing knitted tree ornaments! It was rather short notice for participants, but I can feel my inner Martha tuning up already in anticipation of next year's event. Maybe I can pay off this year's gifts with the proceeds...these photos are from the Newport Hills Community Club blog and I'm pretty sure were taken by our ace blogger, Grace Whiteaker.

The Place to Hang in North Bellevue

OK, so some might say the grocery store is butt-ugly. But hey, it's open. And there's actually a lot going on here. In the parking lot. Families from the surrounding neighborhoods pull up alongside one another and let the kids run around the playground. Guys listen to the game on the car radio. A couple of dogs frolic with their owners in the buffer behind the QFC. Bicyclists headed for Kirkland pull up for a hotdog.


The park
The buffer
The Chevron
The signboard
The coffeeshop

Bellevue Farmer's Market

Where can you find a Brandywine the size of your head? Boxcar Willies, or Black Krims? Where can you be inspired to grow them yourself? How about a fresh 5.00 bouquet of red, white and blue fireworks?




The Bellevue Farmers Market is now open at a fresh new location:

410 Bellevue Way NE across from Bellevue Square (free parking) in the old Safeway parking lot from 3-7pm Thursdays and they're adding a new time which will help ease some of the traffic congestion surrounding the Thursday rush hour time slot:

Saturdays 9-2pm June 6-November 21



There are lots of flower stalls which offer the best deals in the entire Bellevue downtown area. $5.00 a bunch! These are gorgeous flowers, absolutely fresh and beautifully put together by very friendly ladies.

As we all know, prices can seem kind of crazy at Farmers Markets. My understanding, however, is that the farmers don't really make much money off them. So support what you can afford, enjoy talking to the producers and sampling their wares, soak up the wonderful sights and smells.
I witnessed one of these heirloom tomatoes sell for $7.78. Another family spent over 10.00 for one "Mortgage Lifter". It's fun just to watch the spectacle as people get caught up in the circus-like atmosphere of farmers hawking their wares. And fishermen, nutbutter makers and toffee bakers. Oh my.


Then there's the best cheese on the planet. Seriously. Try the Valley Girl. Or Crush--a wonderfully strong cheese rolled in crushed grapes from the farmers nearby. In all, they have something like 124 cheeses which they offer on a rotating basis.
River Valley Cheese

Groundbreaking at Lake Hills

Sometimes I have to remind myself of the original inspiration for this blog--the demise of our neighborhood Red Apple and an active search for what will replace it. Yesterday I attended the groundbreaking ceremony at Lake Hills Shopping Center for a new library, and to view drawings of what the City says may be a model for Newport Hills commercial center development in the future.


Lolo the Clown and kids from the neighborhood dig in. Nothing like a pile of dirt to bond the community!


City of Bellevue Mayor Grant Degginger, Bellevue Councilmembers Conrad Lee and Patsy Bonincontri and King County Councilmember Jane Hague get down and dirty with a host of other (dig)nitaries


Lake Hills Shopping Center today

Nick looking cool while I make him late for his driving class

Main Street: Sumner Surprise

On a sunny day the parking lot at Whole Foods on a Friday morning can feel like Main Street. This little stud muffin had been rescued from a puppy mill by the Humane Society, who had parked outside Whole Foods with a glassed-in truck full of cats and bunnies and hamsters. Needless to say, they gathered quite a crowd.






This weekend we visited the tiny town of Sumner TWICE! What can I say? I love Main Streets. These photos of a cafe, florists, and a drugstore are actually on side streets from Sumner's Main Street. The Main Street itself boasts a bookstore, public restrooms, antique and cookery shops and, to my mind a necessity for an authentic mainstreet, a Salvation Army with everything 50% off.

The biggest surprise was one of the last remaining Red Apples: virtually hidden two blocks off Main Street and closed. I felt as though I'd journeyed to Mecca.

A Square, A Place and Another Square: Downtown Safeway Falls to the Wrecking Ball

The reason preservation groups are wringing their hands over the loss of this downtown Bellevue Safeway is its distinctive "bowstring" or marina-style roof (so named for a Safeway in the Marina District of San Francisco.)



Bowstring roof construction spotted in Edmonds




Bowstring roofed Safeway in Burquitlam BC.




(From The Seattle Times)
"We thought we could do it all at once," Freeman said. "We finally said, 'That's nuts.' "



Kemper Development has pushed back the timetable for its proposed Lincoln Square expansion in downtown Bellevue by at least 15 months. Construction won't start until summer 2010 at the earliest. Plans for Lincoln Square call for two towers atop a three-story base containing more than 350,000 square feet of retail and restaurants. One tower would house 200 condos and a 120-room luxury hotel. The other tower would have about 545,000 square feet of office space.

The Lincoln Square expansion site was home for 45 years to the downtown Bellevue Safeway. The grocer moved into larger space in the new Avalon Meydenbauer mixed-use project across Northeast Fourth.

When the existing garage is taken out of commission, the Lincoln Square expansion site will become a temporary parking lot with about 400 stalls (It should take about 15 months to finish The Bellevue's (Freeman's current high-end hotel project to replace a Belle Square parking lot) seven-level underground garage, he said.

When that garage is available, work on the Lincoln Square expansion will begin.

"This thing is like a juggling act," Freeman said.
By pushing back the Lincoln Square expansion, "I think we'll be on the front end of the next wave," Freeman said.

As if this weren't enough:

In addition to The Bellevue and the Lincoln Square expansion, Kemper is building a 351-room addition to the Hyatt Regency at its Bellevue Place development.

That project is scheduled to open in about a year.

Eric Pryne epryne@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

Signboard Haiku and Skate Parks

A few posts back we lamented the loss of the Red Apple signboard. And prematurely blamed it on what we thought was a turf war between shrubbery gangs. Now we know it was sold off in the Red Apple auction. Who would have thought our beloved signboard would fall into the hands of outside interests?


But seriously, we were sad to see the Red Apple signboard auctioned off with all the rest of the shelves, counters, market paraphernalia, etc. As a suitable memorial/neighborhood landmark I thought it would be fun to acquire a new signboard and make available a set of letters for the public to use in a weekly haiku. If you have any ideas for poems I'd be happy to post them here until we can locate a new signboard.


Meanwhile, Sean was allowed in to take photos after the auction. It's amazing to think of all the possible uses a giant space like this could become. Go-Kart raceway? Puffball gymnastics? How about a display space for artists or the Bellevue Historic Society? How about a Classic Car Museum? Dance Hall with 50's era diner? Movie house? Rehearsal space for dramatic productions? A branch for BCC classes--they have a north campus--how about a southwest one? Crafts market? Holiday bazaar? Community center with art classes?

Of course, this doesn't take into account the multiple uses a large space can be divided into: grocery store/cafe/tutoring center/hardware store/bookstore/space for small concerts and open mic nights.

Indoor skatepark/teen center anyone?