♪♪
-Today we're doing a tour on the Duwamish River.
-Once polluted, now much improved,
the best way to see the progress
on the Duwamish River is by boat.
-Other people who have gone on to be very successful there
did go through this program.
-With hundreds of wineries in Washington,
South Seattle Colleges Wine Academy
has become a much needed resource.
-When I watch these shows, I'm like a kid again.
-We peek behind the curtain of the nation's longest running
comedy/variety show -- the Moisture Festival.
These stories and more next on "CityStream."
♪♪
Hello, I'm Jeff Renner.
Welcome to "CityStream" from the Marra Farm P-Patch.
♪♪
This spot in southwest Seattle
is one of 89 community gardens across the city.
We're here for two reasons.
First, this year marks the 50th anniversary
of Seattle's popular P-Patch Program,
which allows residents to grow fresh vegetables
and herbs in public gardens.
We're also here to observe Earth Day, just 11 days away.
Earth Day gave rise to the Clean Water Act,
the Environmental Protection Agency,
and many other programs.
The EPA factors into our first story
about Seattle's only river, the Duwamish,
just a few blocks from here.
Once pristine and a lifeblood for tribes,
the river became toxic in the 20th century.
This prompted the EPA to declare the lower Duwamish
a Superfund site in 2001.
Since then, much has improved,
and the Duwamish River Community Coalition
offers boat tours to show the progress made.
Producer Pete Cassam took a ride.
[ Beeps ]
[ Motor starts ]
♪♪
-Today we're doing a tour on the Duwamish River
on the Admiral Jack.
The Admiral Jack is a marine high school boat
that they use for educational purposes.
Today is a community tour.
This used to be one of the largest mudflats
on the West Coast.
People that are coming from the community
actually get a chance to see the river from the river,
and that's the best way to see the river.
[ Bald eagle caws ]
It was one of the richest places,
as far as wildlife was concerned,
anywhere around.
It was one of the largest mudflats on the West Coast.
♪♪
This river is basically named for the tribe
because this was our place...
...and the very beginnings of the city of Seattle.
The mudflat was worthless to the settlers.
They started filling in the mudflats
with anything they could find,
everything from Yesler's Mill to all the sawdust
and everything went out into the bay.
Even rubble from the San Francisco earthquake.
This river has been straightened.
It's right now is five miles.
It used to be 15 miles.
The meanders that a normal river would have,
you'll see some of those here.
The old river, the way that it used to be.
So what we're coming up to is what's called Duwamish Diagonal.
Duwamish Diagonal is a combined sewer overflow,
drains 30 square miles all the way up to I-90
all the way down to Lake Washington.
As soon as they started dredging here,
all of that contaminated mud went up and down the river.
If there wasn't a place
that wasn't contaminated on the river,
it probably got contaminated from this early action area.
This was designated a Superfund site in 2001
from just beyond the Turning Basin
all the way up to Harbor Island.
♪♪
What we're coming up to now
is previously known as T-107 Park,
but now it's known as "Hah-ah-poos",
which is the Indian name for this -- for this place.
This place had a lumberyard that did creosote.
A very polluted area back here.
The lumberyard has been completely cleaned up
and now is actually an intertidal habitat.
This is part of the mudflat that you can see right out here.
And that's the only remaining part of the old mudflat.
This place is one of the most important salmon habitats
that we have on the Duwamish River
because it's the old habitat, not new habitat.
♪♪
So more cement companies.
We have many, many cement companies here.
They have their problems, but in most cases,
they're better now than they were before.
This is the First Avenue Street Bridge.
That's an all-purpose grater,
'cause you can put a school bus into that thing
and it comes out in little pieces.
-No way. Wow.
-When it rains here,
a lot of that just comes right into the water.
We have to have source control sufficiency
to be able to do the cleanup.
Kicking and screaming, they'll come along,
I can guarantee you that, 'cause they have to.
Boeing Plant 2 --
You can see the habitat that they've redone here.
Innovative things that Boeing did on this site
of a series of four ponds that water goes through
and then is able to be brought into the river
as clean water.
Malarkey Asphalt was a very contaminated area.
Because of that, we now have this habitat site here.
This is the estuary.
This is where saltwater and freshwater meet.
We're still not seeing salmon increase here yet,
but we're not seeing them decrease, either.
This river is alive.
And when I first started here a long time ago,
it was -- it was not in good shape at all.
The process takes time to know where all the contamination is,
what is that contamination, and then go back
and check it to make sure we got things right.
That's what takes so long here.
Probably gonna take another 25 years
to get the rest of the cleanup done,
but every step in this process makes the river a better place.
And I hope that people take away that they are part of this,
that they can be part of this.
Just to understand it is the first big step.
And it's mostly a good story.
So much better than it was,
and it's only gonna get better.
-The Duwamish River Community Coalition
offers monthly boat tours.
For more information, check out their website, drcc.org
and search for "river tours."
Also, the man you just saw, James Rasmussen,
is a Duwamish tribal member and former Superfund manager.
This was his last river tour
after leading them for many years.
♪♪
Just ahead, the state's rapidly expanding wine industry
is looking to South Seattle College for help.
We'll explain as "CityStream" continues.
♪♪
-"CityStream" returns from the Marra Park P-Patch
in the South Park neighborhood.
♪♪
As we mentioned, 2023 is the 50th anniversary
of the city's P-Patch Community Gardening Program.
For five decades, residents have grown food, flowers, and herbs
on plots of land they pay a small fee to farm.
Managed by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods,
the program has grown to 89 P-Patches
and is now the largest municipally managed
community gardening program west of New York.
Those involved in the program say it can't be beat.
-The best part of the gardening
is breaking the dependency on mass-produced vegetables
from the large supermarket chains.
There's nothing like growing your own and tasting that --
those mustard greens, those strawberries,
those yellow ears of corn that have that sweetness in it
and know that you from the beginning,
all the way up to the time you bite into whatever you've grown,
you participated directly in that.
I love that part of it. [ Chuckles ]
-And the program provides more than just planting.
[ Bees buzzing ]
This was me a few years ago on the right,
inside the bee enclosure at the High Point Commons Garden.
-This is the inner cover.
This is always the most exciting part
during the field trips for the kids.
-Oh, there are a lot of them in there.
This impressive display is an example
of the educational offerings
that add to the richness of the P-Patch Program.
Finally, if you're curious where the name "P-Patch" originated,
it actually commemorates the Picardo family
who operated a truck farm in Wedgewood.
The family loaned a portion of its farm to the city,
which then became Seattle's first community garden.
And that explains what the "P" stands for in P-Patch.
Moving on now from community gardens to commercial farms.
This state is one of the most productive
agricultural regions in the world,
with more than 300 different crops raised.
But one in particular, premium wine grapes,
has fueled an entire industry.
Washington State now has more than 1,100 wineries,
with an economic impact of some $8 billion.
That's led to a surge of people wanting to learn more.
And thanks to the Northwest Wine Academy
at South Seattle College, they don't have to look far.
Nicole Sanchez explains.
[ Metal clanking ]
-So, this is our brand-new rosé
just released about two weekends ago.
-Allen Gregorios never dreamed he'd work in the wine industry.
-The Albariño Spanish varietal.
-But here in the tasting room at Elsom Cellars,
he feels at home.
-Even in my family, Filipino culture,
there's not that much influence in wine.
Mostly spirits, beer.
But it's crazy now how much I'm called
during family, you know, gatherings,
or I'm the wine guy now of the family.
What it does say is hand-harvested grapes.
-Allen credits the Northwest Wine Academy
with helping him to learn more about the industry
and advance his career in the world of wine.
-Cool. Let's taste some wines.
-The one thing that I loved about those classes
were how hands-on they were.
That's one of the one things with wine,
especially, like, if you're learning how to taste,
being able to go into a classroom and then being --
being curated by a sommelier as well, kind of opens your eyes.
-The Northwest Wine Academy is located on the campus
of South Seattle College.
It was established in 2004 and is the only working
and teaching winery in western Washington.
-This is basically the process,
so we'll let that run for 10 minutes...
-The academy offers certificates and degrees
in wine production and marketing and sales,
opening doors for a lot of people
who never thought they would end up working in wine.
-What's around, mm-hmm, and, like, the Sangiovese.
-Nihal Walimbe grew up in India and is an international student
who found his way to the academy.
-I'm doing the marketing and sales and food and wine,
currently taking classes like food and wine,
pairing wines of the world, and business operations.
-Walimbe has big dreams.
He believes his schooling will enable him
to open his own restaurant someday.
-Hopefully work in a restaurant
as a sommelier for a couple of years
and then probably move back home and open up my own restaurant
because my interest is both culinary and wine.
-Lenny Rede leads the culinary side of the academy.
He's worked in the industry for several decades
and has a passion to help students
like Walimbe fulfill their dreams.
-Here we've got restaurants and retailers, importers.
You know, we're, you know --
we have graduates that have come out of the program
that have started import companies.
They're working for import companies.
You know, we have people that are working for distributors
that have started distributors.
And again, a lot of the sommeliers
I can't walk into a restaurant in this town
and not have one of the graduates, you know,
went on to graduate of the program.
-This is a very standard procedure.
-John Darin is the winemaker and winemaking instructor.
He says he has students of all ages
and backgrounds learning about wine.
-We have a real strong focus on diversity here.
We have students of every imaginable background.
You can see, you know, we have students that are international.
We have students that are, you know,
either older or come from, you know, backgrounds
that don't necessarily -- aren't classically aligned
with the winemaking community.
-The academy also has a tasting room that reopened
in late 2022 after it shut down during the pandemic.
This allows the public to sample its wines
and give students hands-on experience in a tasting room.
-There it is.
-And it's not just the students
who appreciate the classes that are offered here.
The wine industry recognizes the benefits
of the academy as well.
-The program does better, you know, they do better.
We are one of the main suppliers for a lot of the, you know,
labor coming into, you know, all of Seattle.
So a lot of the people who have gone on
to be very successful there did go through this program.
-Have you been here before?
-Back at Elsom Cellars,
which is a female-owned and led winery located in SoDo,
Jody Elsom, the owner and founder,
wishes the academy was open when she went to school.
She had to commute from Seattle to Prosser
when she took classes through the WSU extension program.
-They just want to share that knowledge,
and they have a passion for sharing it with everyone.
So it's been a huge benefit.
And we see it in our employees.
They come with a special passion for the wine
and an inherent knowledge that you wouldn't typically see.
-Elsom values the Northwest Wine Academy so much
she's hired employees who've taken courses there,
including her winemaker.
-Having it so close to where a lot of people live,
and there is a lot of passion for wine in this area.
We don't have a lot of vines here,
but being able to make it in the city
and learn about wines from around the world,
it's a very global industry.
-This is actually the first wine
that I ever had the experience of personally bottling.
I had no idea that there was any wine program
in western Washington,
and so I had started looking into it, thinking,
"I don't want to go for a full degree."
I don't ever want to make wine.
I don't particularly, at this point in my life,
want to work full-time.
So I contacted them and said, "Can I just take classes?"
And they were super open to that.
-This is our Mourvèdre.
-Gregorios plans to take more classes
at the academy while working at Elsom Cellars
to earn his AA degree, along with a wine certificate.
This will allow him to continue working in the field
he's so passionate about.
-Mix them together, right.
-He believes the academy
is critical to the growth of wine in Seattle.
-That's cool, guys.
-Especially for those with diverse backgrounds
who want to further their education in this growing field.
-Wine is starting to be a lot more accessible nowadays,
which is awesome.
And there's always been that stigma.
But, yeah, there's a lot more people of color -- Asian, Black.
Everyone's, you know, starting to get into it,
which is awesome.
-The tasting room at the Northwest Wine Academy
is now open Thursday through Saturday.
And since the academy is a nonprofit,
it works hard to keep prices affordable.
Most of the wines being sold right now are under $20.
Now, if you'd like more information
about the wine academy or the tasting room,
just go to nwwineacademy.southseattle.edu.
♪♪
Just ahead on "CityStream",
it's a dazzling display of onstage antics.
Seattle's Moisture Festival is next.
♪♪
-Finally, do you know the name
of the world's longest running comedy/variety festival?
It's the Seattle Moisture Festival now in its 19th year,
and there's no signs of it slowing down.
Audiences are astounded and bewildered
by the onstage antics,
But what happens behind the scenes is equally amazing.
Producers Kathy Tuohey and Valerie Vozza
take a rare peek behind the curtain.
-Are we going? Is it rolling?
Do we need to do the snap?
Snap! Begin.
[ Whimsical music plays ]
♪♪
-Moisture Festival is a festival of comedy/variety,
circus arts, neo vaudeville,
every kind of thing you can imagine on the stage.
It's the longest running festival of its kind
in the world.
[ Lift whirs ]
All shows are here at Broadway Performance Hall.
Yeah, this is mine. No costumes.
We've got four weeks of shows.
The first three weeks of shows are variety arts.
The final week, fourth week is burlesque shows.
And then closing night of the fourth week
is another variety show to close out the whole festival.
♪♪
In 2004, the first festival was held in a tent
in a parking lot in Fremont.
-One of the key things about this festival
is I was at a festival in Berlin.
There was a comedy/variety festival there.
And so I came back and talked to Maque DaVis
and Tim Furst and said,
"Why don't we try this in Seattle?"
And so we didn't know it was going to last 18 years.
After that first year,
we were invited to relocate to Hale's Palladium,
and now we're here at the Broadway Performance Hall
on Capitol Hill.
Sometimes we just shake our heads and go,
"How does this even work?
How does it even work?"
-It works because of our over 250 volunteers --
the people you see at the box office...
-Welcome. Glad you're here.
-...all the way up through the lobby,
our concessions, all the crew working the shows,
all the people working backstage with our artists
to make their experience amazing.
[ Instruments tuning ]
-This gonna work for you?
-That is all volunteers.
-So nice to finally meet you. -Nice to meet you.
-Works are going out. -Right now there on...
-Heads up.
♪♪
-The yellow balls.
-It's purple, purple-blue.
-Purple with blue.
White, white-blue, white-red, white-purple, white-green.
The balls will glow. -Yeah.
-Jen Wensrich is the heart and soul of Moisture Festival.
She holds all the keys and all the secrets,
and she knows everything there is about this festival.
It would not happen without her.
-This year we have 156 artists performing,
and one of the reasons they come here is for the camaraderie.
-'Cause they're always performing in different places,
you know, this fair or that theater or that cruise ship,
but they never get to hang out together.
And this festival lets them all hang out together.
"Where have you been? Where have you been?
Tell me where I can get a gig." Blah, blah, blah.
You know, they have fun together.
The other thing about the camaraderie
is that the artists and the volunteers
all share a meal at the end of the show.
The volunteers get to know the artists.
The artists get to know these people in Seattle
who come and work long hours to put these shows on.
Ron Bailey, he is --
He becomes our Scottish leprechaun,
and he always has a smile, always has a laugh,
always has a clever thing to say.
He is the artistic heart and soul of this organization.
-[ Chuckles ]
-Don't talk about RB. Ron Bailey shouldn't --
should never be mentioned in public.
You should keep that private.
We only talk about him in the restroom.
-Hey!
-I just cover this bass and that bass
and do whatever's necessary.
And I'm also a musician, so every now and again,
I'll sing a little song.
♪ Why do they call it the Moisture Festival? ♪
♪ I want to give you my two cents ♪
The live show bands really are a key part
of what makes this thing happen.
And each week has a different show band.
[ Up-tempo music plays ]
♪♪
So when you have a live band accompanying the artist,
that's a beautiful thing, a beautiful thing.
The last week of shows at the festival are burlesque shows.
If you've never been to a burlesque show,
they are so much fun.
I mean, it's basically sexual humor, and it's not lewd at all.
It's not lewd.
There's so many creative approaches
to how one takes this off and puts that off.
♪♪
-Shall we go in? Come this way. Walk this way.
Come on. Come walk this way.
Keep coming. This way.
It's right up here. Come on.
Up the stairs. Careful, careful.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You know, it's hard to describe
really why I love this kind of entertainment so much.
I believe in laughter and I believe in appreciating
some of these bizarre skills we see on the stage.
♪♪
[ Crowd gasps ]
That combination of appreciation of an art form
and laughing together...
[ Laughter ]
...that's what keeps me excited about this.
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
-The Moisture Festival wraps up with five burlesque shows
and the big finale April 16th
at the Broadway Performance Hall.
We'll be right back.
♪♪
-That wraps up this episode of "CityStream"
from the Marra Farm P-Patch in southwest Seattle.
If you'd like more information about
the City of Seattle's Community Gardening Program,
check out this website --
seattle.gov/neighborhoods and select the tab
"P-Patch Gardening."
I'm Jeff Renner.
Thank you for watching.
♪♪