West Seattle Blog…

From the Death Star Trench file

Kinda like that nickname for the upward development along Cali. Or maybe we’re just hopeless SW geeks. Anyway — today’s developer development: Houses going down, more townhomes going up, on the north end, on a lot sold to Omni for a cool $1.8 mil last spring.

But is it pro-tunnel, pro-rebuild, or …

Under The Viaduct, WSB reader Lillie found this wolf, clearly cousin to the owl and bear beneath The Bridge, perhaps howling in anger at the vote that’s wasting $1 million?

No flakes yet

At least at our house … though Everett, Snoqualmie Pass, and other areas are getting snow-blasted. Let us know if you see WS snow!

Give a little, get a lot

It’s school $-raising season, and the parents at Madison Middle School asked us to share this request: Donate to their upcoming auction. They’re looking for new items, open to just about anything — art, gift baskets, sports souvenirs, you name it. If you don’t have schoolkids in your family, you may not realize how important these annual fundraisers are — a couple WS elementary schools, for example, are raising $ to fix deteriorating playgrounds. To offer an item (or find out about auction tickets), click here to e-mail the Madison auction chairperson, who also explains where the $ will go:

The auction benefits the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) programs and this year’s fund a wish item is a message board much like the one in front of West Seattle High School which will help to communicate to the parents/community the events at the school as well as important messages that somehow seem to get lost in a pre-teenager’s backpack!!!

Pointlessness at the Polls, T minus 13 days

-City Council member Peter Steinbrueck says he’ll leave the council when his term expires this fall, to focus on The Third Option.

-His current council colleague Nick Licata, who’s pro-rebuild, answers questions on the Seattle Times website from noon-1 pm today. You can send yours now. (If you missed it, here’s the transcript of Hizzoner’s lunchtime online Q-n-A from yesterday. Even just the photo of him at the keyboard is worth the click.)

-No surprise, this ballot of too many options, yet too few, is apparently confusing people. (Can’t say we didn’t warn ‘em.)

Non-viaduct vote update

As of this writing, we’re a bit behind in the Metroblogging Seattle popularity poll, which closes this round tomorrow. Boo! Please vote again today. Show ‘em the West Side rules.

Showtime for the “nightlife” fight

One month after our last post on the controversy over the city’s proposed crackdown on “nightlife” businesses — the so-called “nightlife premises legislation” — opponents and supporters are about to get their day before a City Council committee. Opponents, including West Seattle restaurateurs whom you would never consider to be “nightclub” operators, contend this law will hurt their businesses and your/our right to patronize them — so they’re pleading for backup at the meeting (9:30 am Thursday, City Hall downtown) to make sure they’re not outnumbered by community groups (reportedly mostly from other parts of the city) who have rallied in support of the law. If you can’t be there in person, here’s how to contact council members to let them know what you think. If you want to read the whole ordinance for yourself, here it is.

Maybe we should follow suit

Thanks to CHS for pointing to Defend Capitol Hill. As in, from condos. In our case,  townhomes. Perhaps the iconic image could be a red circle-slash through the Death Star Trench (as coined by “Steve E” in a comment on this post).

More mindless destruction

Seems that somewhere around the time some criminal idiots were stealing copper wire and throwing hundreds of people off the phone system the other night, some (other?) criminal idiots were smashing out car windows on lower Gatewood Hill. Happened to us near The Beach years ago. If the cops don’t get ‘em, karma will. Here’s hoping.

Biggest campaign signs yet

Just spotted along the westbound Fauntleroy Way end of The Bridge — huge banners with a sequential message (a la the “Burma Shave” roadside signs way back when) — REPLACE IT?/NO … FIX IT! (We feel a growing sense of kinship in our pro-retrofit-ness.)

Hizzoner’s answers to viaduct questions

West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician is just wrapping up an hourlong q-and-a session on the Times website. Some WS-specific stuff, too.

Windstorm wrap-up

Two months after Wind-tastrophe ‘06, a new city report is out (here’s the city press release, with a link to the full report). Best quote is on page 11: “Seattle City Light should develop a more robust emergency power restoration plan for storms.” No comment. 

The weekend’s closer than it was yesterday

A little too cold for us personally to get out on the water (ice on the car roof this morning, yikes), but this photo (thanks to Bob Bollen) is immensely cheering anyway:

Pointlessness at the Polls, T minus 2 weeks

-Want to hear the experts discuss the viaduct situation, present and future? Tonight’s the big forum at West Seattle HS (6:30-8 pm) with panelists including City Council member Jan Drago and Seattle Department of Transportation boss Grace Crunican.

-Just two nights till you can get the mayor’s office perspective from Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, courtesy of the Fauntleroy Community Association.

-Ex-govs Gary Locke and Dan Evans declare themselves anti-viaduct (though not necessarily pro-tunnel) in today’s Times.

-MIDMORNING ADD: The No Tunnel Alliance says it will “rally” 4:30 pm-6:30 pm today at 35th & Fauntleroy.

Another disconnect, fixed

For everyone kind enough to have been voting for us in the seemingly endless saga of the Metroblogging Seattle popularity poll (we’re in it too deep now to quit) — the original polling service (dPolls), died, and they’ve just relaunched our part of the poll here. (We’ve updated the page that links to the tab atop this page, too.) Thanks for your help!

From the front lines

Or the front SEVERED lines, anyway … those caught up in crime-caused phonelessness (see below) include one of the blogs linked from our Other Blogs in WS page, Cracks in the Facade.

Adding insult to injury

The wire-theft epidemic has not only hit another utility, it also cut off phone service for hundreds of folks in WS.

Traffic alert

If you’re seeing this in early afternoon, stay clear of Fauntleroy/California/Morgan for a while … lots of fire engines checking out something (our witness doesn’t see any smoke so we’re not sure what) at the renovation-in-progress bank, and that means traffic tieups till they’re done.

Packing up

A reader e-mailed us with word that Retroactive Kids is leaving its space north of Morgan Junction and moving to Columbia City; the store’s site and blog (with construction pix from the new space) confirm it. Perhaps no surprise, since the three-business building it’s in has been for sale for a while.

Pointlessness at the Polls, end of weekend #1

-Interesting explanation from another “no and hell no” voter.

-Pix of the anti-viaduct “kids’ parade.”

-The Stranger rebuts The Times’ “voting ‘no/no’ is stupid” editorial.

-The Urban Environmentalist says pro-tunnel and pro-Third Option folks should bond.

Fruit and vegetable fans, rejoice!

The WS Farmers’ Market is on hiatus till April, but there’s still somewhere to load up on great produce for cheap — we just noticed Tony’s is back from its winter break! Sample of today’s prices — 69 cents per huge head of garlic, less than a buck for a head of lettuce (half the current grocery store price).

Never mind the Oscars, help us win … The Metrobloggies

It’s neck-and-neck; our neck is currently the one behind … we’re not going to be able to pull off the win without you … you can vote here once a day from each and every place you go online … and we’ve added a handy tab at the top of this page (see VOTE DAILY FOR WSB tab) for quick access. Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Sneak peek inside

After the latest update from the guy opening Garlic Jim’s in The Junction, we asked if he could share any interior-in-progress photos, since they’ll be cultivating sit-down biz as well. So he sent a few — including this one showing where monitors are going in over tables:

Another sign of change

You might have noticed this sign that just went up in The Junction, over Matador. Seems to be a personal-training franchise, according to this press release (the company’s own site isn’t working at the moment.)

Beneath the bridge

We had heard the Bear Under The Bridge had been joined by an owl, but hadn’t gotten a chance to seek it out with our camera. No need now; somebody else captured it.

Semi-secret streets

Just when we thought we knew every square inch of West Seattle … sharp reminders that we don’t, not by a long shot. Drove out to look for something that somebody e-mailed us about; haven’t quite found it yet, but we did find incredible curving semi-secret streets on the bluffside over Beach Drive (such as 54th south of Genesee), stretches of road we never knew existed (Hillcrest to Andover north of Genesee is pretty wild too, especially the steep slope on Andover). Next time you’re bored with the same ol’ scenery, check ‘em out (but not in a big car — they abruptly dead-end with driveways).

Pointlessness at the Polls, weekend #1

Since we’ve got our ballots and you probably do too, let’s call this the first weekend of the election, which could be dubbed Pointlessness at the Polls, even though we’re not going to the “polls,” aka “polling places” (however, the big envelope of dead tree matter that accompanied the ballot reveals we can drop off the ballots rather than entrust them to USPS, so we’re going for that option — here in WS, a dropoff spot will be open at High Point Community Center on 3/8, 3/9, 3/10, 3/12, and 3/13 **only** — before 3/8, the only dropoff available is downtown). As a service to anyone still deciding whether to go no/no, yes/yes, no/yes, or yes/no, here are today’s related headlines: “Tunnel lite” MIGHT work (Times), Scare tactics in the election? EEK! (Times), N/N wins Stranger poll (Slog), P-I editorial board boss sort of plugs retrofitting (P-I). P.S. To hear in-person debating on all this, check out the WS Chamber’s transportation forum at WSHS Tuesday night.

From the Land o’ Land Use

Interesting tidbits in the city’s latest sheaf of Land Use Permits/Applications:

-Part of the “greater than the sum of its parts” townhome project across from Gatewood Baptist Church needs an environmental review. We non-experts are guessing that’s why the sudden sign went up. But is it enough for the upset neighbors?

-Speaking of GBC, its new home (formerly Calvary Lutheran) has spawned two applications (here and here); both appear related to its auxiliary child-care enterprise.

-A bit to the north, sign installation appears to be next for the ex-Doxa home of Mars Hill-West Seattle.

Return of the West Seattle weekend event roundup!

So much going on this weekend (and slightly beyond), we couldn’t resist. Full list ‘n’ links on the next click. Click to read the rest of Return of the West Seattle weekend event roundup!…

Restaurant reports

-Ryan, owner of the forthcoming Garlic Jim’s in The Junction, says the grand opening next month will now kick off with an 11 am ribboncutting on March 19 featuring WS-residing City Council member Tom Rasmussen. Ryan also notes he’s still looking for drivers (with tips, he says, they could earn $18-ish an hour).

-Not even a week after its closure, the ex-Guadalajara Hacienda is already sadly signless:

In news about that OTHER vote …

… we got our ballots today; did you? Half your WSB team has taken its stand: No And Hell No (even Susan Paynter is going that way). What DO we support, you ask? Retrofit. If you want to review other campaigns, try No Elevated, or No Tunnel, or No New Viaduct, among others (like the too-young-to-vote view).