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front page fodder
Rick Klu, Art Beat, Recovery Cafe, Al Moscatel by Clark Humphrey 
Marchers carry a giant U.S. Constitution up Fourth Avenue, as part of the May Day parade for immigrants' rights. "Sometime this summer, the 1 Hotel Seattle should resume construction at Second and Stewart. The project's been stalled at the hole-in-the-ground stage since last August, while developer Starwood Capital redesigns it. Now, it will have more regular hotel rooms and only 44 condo-hotel suites (down from an originally planned 176). The 1's now set to open in 2010. Up the street, R.C. Hedreen plans to build a 51-story hotel (the city's tallest hostelry to date) at the Ninth and Stewart site of the 1930-vintage Greyhound bus depot. The structure will also include an off-site expansion to the State Convention Center. --- 
RICK KLU: Moo-ving on to drier pastures.
Sadly, we're losing neighborhood fixture Rick Klu. The 36-year-old T-shirt and poster designer, videographer, car customizer, actor, comedian, and ex-cab driver has succumbed to the siren song of La La Land. He's studying improv humor at the Groundlings School. The school's top grads get to work at the affiliated Groundlings Theater (whose famous alums include Laraine Newman, Pee-Wee Herman, and Phil Hartman).
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While construction slows down around the country, new projects here keep appearing. Harbor Properties has announced plans to replace the Musicians' Union building, built in 1948 at Second and Cedar, with a 17-story tower. It will have 185 apartment units, street-level retail, and a mere 86 parking spaces (encouraging car-free living).
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Art Beat: Suite 100 Gallery (2222 2nd Ave.) premieres the group photo show "This Place Is a Prison" on Friday, June 13. The works by Angela Dawn, Emily Ibara, and Jack Raynard depict what curator Monica HW Choy calls "the sometimes-stifling aspects of city life."
The same evening, Roq La Rue (2312 2nd Ave.) debuts new neo-swanky paintings by former Ren & Stimpy animator Chris Reccardi.
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The new DVD Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death... and Insects, includes a subtitle at minute 43: "Belltown is a Bohemian neighborhood of Seattle, a thriving colony of studios, galleries, cafes, and clubs." There are many sights of the neighborhood, including former Two Bells barkeep Ken Owen and the surviving pay phone at Second and Lenora, leading to concert scenes at Easy Street Records and the "legendary rock venue" the Crocodile Cafe, now, alas, part of history.
The DVD concerns the UK singer-songwriter recording his album Ole! Tarantula with his current band the Venus 3 (Seattle music legends Bill Rieflin, Peter Buck, and Scott McCaughey).
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We told you last time about the new women's shelter to be built at the Second and Bell site of the Recovery Cafe. This means Recovery needs a new space; as do, according to the P-I, some 240 other nonprofits in town(!).
The cafe and drop-in center hosts 12-step meetings, recovery circles, and workshops throughout the week, helping the city's homeless and addicted to put their lives together.
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A quick series of police raids resulted in the early-May shutdown of the independent purse-and-bag stores on Second (north of Stewart) and Fourth (north of Bell). Officers confiscated any merchandise believed to be based on counterfiet designs (i.e., just about everything in the stores except belts). The stores remain closed for now.
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The Moscatel family is downsizing its local furniture empire. It's keeping its flagship Continental Furniture (2111 1st Ave.) and its Thomasville franchise next door. It plans a new retail concept for the Western Avenue spaces previously occupied by a La-Z-Boy franchise and the It's Gotta Go clearance store.
The Moscatels' fifth local storefront, Urban Interiors, will be rented out to another retailer or restaurant.
Founder Al Moscatel Sr. first opened "Bell Town Furniture" in 1946 as a discount shop. The store, and its merchandise, became more upscale as the neighborhood did. His grandson, also named Al, says Continental will now incorporate some of the smaller scale, apartment/condo-sized room groupings that had been Urban Interiors' specialty.
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Thanks to our print edition advertisers this month: Moira Holley, Hawaii Express, Desert Sun Tanning Salons, Leone and Vaughn Orthodontics,
Belltown Barber, EasySeattleRealEstate.com, Mark E. Plunkett Attorney at Law, Continental Furniture, ctaww.org, Bayview retirement community,
Queen Anne Chiropractic, The Museum of Flight, Sugar, Shallots, SIFF, Antioch University Seattle, bokaseattle.com, The Blarney Stone, Lucky Palate,
Belltown Physical Therapy, Seattle Public Utilities, Tempo Apartment Homes, Biomat, Employment-Expo.com, 724-Kondo Konnection
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© 2008 Belltown Messenger