20 Cent Shopping Bags

Last week, the Seattle City Council approved a 20 cent per bag tax on retail shopping bags. So the question that check out baggers have asked for about the past 20 years: “Plastic or Paper” will now have some cost attached to it. We can assume the retailers will pass this tax along to the customers. This is a somewhat controversial move on the part of Greg Nickels and his council and is not being that well received. However it is what it is – a necessary move in greening up at least our part of the planet.

What can you do? I know what I’m doing. Investing in cloth shopping bags! These were vogue in the 1990′s but faded away. Now they’re making a comeback and with good reason. There are 2 Quality Food Centers (QFC) in the Greenwood area: one is on 15th near 85th and the other is on Holman Road. The Holman Road QFC is currently selling cloth bags for 99 cents (with your QFC advantage card). These bags are light-weight but full sized shopping bags. They have vinyl bottom liner inserts to give the bag form and reinforce the bottom (so don’t lose those). These bags are green in color (of course) and are branded with the QFC logo but it’s not overly large branding so you can take them anywhere.

For a buck, these bags are a good deal. Just work them into your regular shopping and soon you’ll have a collection of them. The tax doesn’t take effect until January 1st. After that if you use only them 5 times, they’ll pay for themselves. Otherwise, you’ll get dinged and your shopping bill will go even higher after January 1.

3 Libraries

There is an amazing choice of libraries in the Greenwood area. There are actually 3. There is the Greenwood Branch itself located on Greenwood Ave near 80th. The Broadview branch is also nearby located on Greenwood Ave at 130th. And of course there is the Northgate Branch located just east of the mall. The great thing about the Seattle library system is that you don’t need to go to different branches. Just use the one closest to you or the easiest to get to. In the Seattle library you can use the website to search for and reserve books located at other branches. These are called “holds”. The holds are transferred to your home branch and you just go pick them up when they’re ready. Your web account will tell when they’re ready and you also get an email alert.

You can also return your books at any branch of the Seattle library system regardless of where you checked them out. Greenwood is my home branch, but I often return the books at the Northgate branch early in the morning on my way to work. The Greenwood Branch has the least parking but is easily walkable to those living in Greenwood. Broadview has some parking and is a decent sized branch. Northgate has the most parking but it also has the most people.

Oh one more note: don’t get the Seattle library confused with the King County library system. If you drive to neighboring Shoreline or Lake Forest Park you will find libraries but these are of the King County Library. Nothing stopping you from getting a card there too, but they’re in a different library system.

Seattle Library Home Page

La Botana Yuck or Yawn

Most of the ratings on YELP for La Botana at 8552 Greenwood Ave N are fairly favorable with just a few negative ones thrown in.

We went there last week and unfortunately found it very disappointing. The food was bland for so called ‘Mexican food’ and the place looked dirty and unkempt. Granted, this place is in the older part of Greenwood but they could stand to improve at least their menu. Some of things on the menu were not available or they were ‘out’. This is not a place I can recommend.