“Something sad has happened,” I told my five-year-old son yesterday morning.

I hiked him up on my lap, he leaned into my chest, and we spent the next hour slowly tapping through the New York Times’ photo essay on Nelson Mandela on my iPad.

As I’ve mentioned, we named our boy, Zevin Rolihlahla Schwartz, after Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, in the hopes that Mandela’s legacy might inspire and guide him. Rolihlahla was the name given Mandela at birth and means “tree shaker” or “he who bends the branch” in Xhosa. And so, our house felt Mandela’s death more so than we might have otherwise.

There’s lots of room for debate between the “Great Man Theory” of history versus the notion that the general course and trajectory of culture is guided by inevitable sequences and diffuse causes. But when you look across the many, many nations in the world riven and decimated by civil war, it’s hard to imagine how the relative peaceful transfer of power in South Africa could have been achieved without the singular influence of Mandela. A nation of millions saved from bloody massacre by one man’s studied dedication to justice.

How do you explain apartheid to a five year old? How do you explain non-violent resistance? How do you explain 25 years in prison?

We looked at the pictures, and read the stories that went with them, and I answered his questions as best I could. It’s a day I hope he’ll remember when he’s older, and always.

The world is less one great man today, but I believe that the greatest contribution anyone can make is to inspire those who come after them. His greatness lives on in all those who aspire to live by his example.

Let’s shake some trees.

Steven from Wally Pets (4411 Wallingford Ave N) writes:

Santa will be at Wally Pets on Sunday, December 8th for free photos of your four pawed buds with Mr Claus and a stocking stuffer full of treats to boot 11 am to 4 pm.

This will be a memory your pet will treasure forever.

(Photo by KatieBread)

Continuing the parade of options for interesting holiday shopping in the ‘hood, Om Culture (2210 Pacific Ave) will be hosting the Bizarre Bazaar this Sunday from 1 – 5:30 pm, and featuring the work of 26 local artists and artisans.

Barges have set up and are getting ready to dredge the bottom of Lake Union just  west of Gas Works park. Larry Altose, from the Washington State Department of Ecology, writes about the work on their blog:

The contamination we’re about to remove existed before the present owner purchased the property in 1994. At that time, Northlake Ship Yard and Ecology signed a legal document called a Prospective Purchaser Consent Decree (PPCD). It’s a cleanup agreement for someone who buys already-contaminated property.

Many commercial and industrial sites have such agreements, but this one has an unusual twist. Normally, a property owner – current or past – conducts the required cleanup work. Northlake Ship Yard opted instead to deposit funds into a bank trust account over several years. Ecology is using that account to conduct the cleanup. This is our first cleanup under such an arrangement.

What’s down there

A previous owner used ground-up slag from the Tacoma Smelter to sandblast ships. The slag was inexpensive and plentiful many years ago. It also was rich in arsenic, a toxic metal. Sandblasting also produces other residue from ships’ metal and paint. Today it is illegal to sandblast over the water.

We estimate that our contractor, Redside Construction of Port Gamble, will haul away about 8,000 cubic yards of this material all told. That may take about three months. Unless we find the contamination is much higher than we’ve seen in our sampling, we expect it all can go to a regular landfill.

A clean cleanup

If you have ever had to clean up a big mess, you know that cleaning up is itself messy. That’s true for this project. This will look like what it is: dirty work. Here’s what we have to deal with:

Wet muck

Each scoop of mud is up to 60 percent water. We can’t haul that in our trucks. It’s too heavy. And, we don’t want water from this muck on our streets. So the mud lands first on a barge so that water can slowly drain back to the lake.

About every three days, we’ll have a truck-out day. Covered trucks will haul moist, but not soaking, mud. There might be 20 to 30 truckloads on each of these days.

Silt, and plenty of it

We’re going to raise clouds of silt in the water from digging and from the water draining off of the muck-drying barge. To keep this silt from getting into the rest of the lake, we will surround the project with a fine-mesh silt curtain. It hangs from floats and is weighted at the bottom.

The curtain will stay in place until the work is done and we have tested the water to make sure all silt has settled. Also, we monitor the water outside the curtain continuously, so we can stop work and fix any problems we find.

Oily sheen

We expect our mucking with the lake bottom will release some oily substances that will float to the surface. The work area may contain sheen, a thin coating of oil on the surface of the water.

To keep that out of the rest of the lake we will add another barrier: a bright yellow or orange oil-spill containment boom.

We’ll have spill response equipment on hand. Often, though, sheen is so thin that cleanup materials cannot remove it from the water. We will clean the sheen whenever possible.

Many people keep an eye on the busy waters of Lake Union and the Ship Canal. Ecology follows up on reports of oil slicks and sheen in this area on a regular basis. We’re making every effort to keep sheen from this cleanup out of the rest of the lake.

Odds and ends

We expect now and then to pause our muck picking to remove the odd log, barrel or whatnot. We know of some such objects from surveys of the lake bottom. Still, the mud may hide any and every kind of object, so we’ll see what turns up.

That’s another good reason for the silt curtain and the spill gear. You can never know.

Before we leave

We expect to dig down about two feet to remove the contaminated mud and grit. We’ll close by covering the area with a half foot of clean sand. This will make the lake bottom more suitable for nature’s return.

The work should begin any day now, and you can follow the progress on their Twitter feed and their Flickr site.

How’s the holiday shopping coming? On the Jewish side of the neighborhood, we’ll be lighting the eighth and final candle on the menorah tonight, so the season is more or less by us. In our house, in any case, we seem to have let that whole piece of the holiday slide into neglect: it was Day 6 before Zev remarked “hey, aren’t we supposed to get presents?”

But, should you be part of the vast majority of Wallingfordians with gift-giving days ahead of you, there’s quite a bit going on this next week to make your job easier. Sarah Eckman from Trilogy Chiropractic writes:

Come out to Trilogy Chiropractic’s first ever Holiday Bazaar on Saturday, December 7th from 10am-2pm. We’re located in Stoneway Center at 3933 Stone Way N, right beside the 7-11. We want to make the holidays as easy as possible on you and are gathering some of the best businesses in the Seattle area to come together to provide you great deals to check some gifts off your list! We’ll have holiday deals from all the vendors, mimosas, hot cider, hot cocoa, holiday snacks, and a gift wrapping station! Yes, you heard that right.  Anything you buy in the office, we will gift wrap it for you!

Here’s a list of the incredible businesses that will be

 here: Jack-b-Nimble candleworks, Deep Root Wellness (bath salts), Edge Integrated Massage with sample massages and gift certificates, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Lemongrass Spa, Tastefully Simple, Restoration Artwear with handmade Jewelry, Bambu Organic Salon, American Athlete – a local Greenlake gym, Masa Integrative Clinic, RosaLe with handmade Shea Butters, and It Works Body Wraps!

Everyone will have great deals for you, so come ready to buy and have some fun, we can’t wait to see you all here!

Also, don’t forget that Liz Gamberg will be holding a sale at her studio at 1513 N. 39th (three blocks west of Wallingford Ave) Friday through Sunday.

It’s open house time season for independent schools. With Baby Z no longer a baby, Family Wallyhood has been doing the tour of the local kindergartens. While we live across the street from the John Stanford School, we’re not guaranteed a spot there with the new school districting plan. Plus, JSIS doesn’t even offer tours until February, long after the deadline for applications to the area independent schools. It’s actually been quite a bit of fun checking out the schools and kind of makes me yearn to be a kid again (did you know UCDS has 3D printers and laser cutters?! And Evergreen is building an “Invention Lab” for the kids? I didn’t even have “shop” at my grade school!)

Barb Gordon asked us to let folks know about one local open house happening this Saturday, right across from the Woodland Park Zoo:

Kapka Cooperative K-5 School Hosting Open House for Prospective Families on Saturday, December 7 at 2 pm. 510 N 49th St.

Would you like your child to wake up each morning eager to go to school? Come learn about KapKa’s progressive curriculum, passionate teachers and close-knit community at our Open House, Saturday, December 7 at 2 pm.

With a 25 year history in the Woodland Park neighborhood of Wallingford, KapKa Cooperative K-5 School is a thriving learning community. KapKa is a Klamath word meaning young pine. Like forest soil, our community nurtures KapKa children in building the social, emotional and academic skills to become informed and caring contributors to our wider society. KapKa’s approach is based on small classes and differentiated instruction to challenge all levels of ability. Our theme-based, inquiry-driven curriculum excites children’s natural curiosity. This year, our Inventions theme has students exploring and building their own inventions while developing their literacy, math, design and science knowledge.

Being a cooperative, KapKa is distinct from other schools. At KapKa parents have the opportunity to take an active role in their children’s learning environment. Each family in the KapKa community contributes time and skills that fit their schedule and ability. KapKa kids get to know their classmates’ parents and siblings, and parents get to know all the teachers and Kapka families. The result is a truly nurturing learning community.

“Our daughter is thriving at KapKa. Things we love: small class sizes, top-notch teachers, rich curriculum that encourages investigation and independent thinking, strong community traditions, public service orientation, ample outdoor time, solid literacy and math teaching…“
- a current KapKa parent

Come take a look at KapKa for your family on Saturday December 7 at 2 pm (parents and caregivers only please). Tour the school, meet the teachers and hear the experiences of current parents. For additional information or directions, please visit www.kapkaschool.org or take a glimpse inside KapKa with this video. Need more information? Take a look at some of the parent reviews of KapKa on the Great Schools website.

Two years ago, the Wallingford Community Council and Seattle Public Utilities conducted months of negotiations regarding the rebuild of the North Transfer Station in our neighborhood. As a result, SPU and WCC entered into a detailed contract governing a wide range of issues concerning the construction and operation of the new facility. In an unprecedented process, the contract was not only signed by SPU, but was specifically approved by the City Council.

The contract requires that SPU investigate and analyze a wide range of topics, and then report to and consult with the WCC.  SPU has some of its analyses ready to share with WCC and the community on subjects relating to the control of particulate matter, odors and noise. SPU has requested a meeting with WCC this Wednesday.

WCC will hold its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, December 4, at 7:00 PM at the Good Shepherd Center. Everyone is welcome.

In addition to the Transfer Station update, WCC will consider ongoing land use issues in our community.