West Seattle Blog…

And yet more from Admiral

Just verified a reader tip that Auto Buff, west of Metro Market, is moving next week (you can’t miss the huge banner out front, with the address of its new location on the east edge of The Junction). No detectable permit movement on the 42nd/Admiral mixed-use project planned for that spot, though.

Admiral action ahead

More going on than just repaving:

–Set aside some time this Saturday to join West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician and a multitude of cool people at the Admiral Neighborhood Clean & Green event, 9 am-1 pm, meet at the Metro Market parking lot. Read more here about the whole Clean & Green mission.

–Say “so long” to the SOA storefront headquarters of Megawatt. Big sign in the window notes they’re moving to the new West Seattle Resource Center as of next Tuesday. (We’ll miss their SOA presence; best place to walk by and check out posters for everything and anything coming up in the ‘hood. We don’t usually hoof along 35th so we’re going to have to get our poster fix elsewhere.)

WS scam alert

If somebody calls you and claims to be from City Light, put up your ripoff radar.

Rare treat(s)

While up around 35th/Holden on Gas Price Watch (for the 1st time in 3 mornings, no increase), we stopped at Carosello for our morning coffee, first time in a while. We were more than pleasantly surprised by some improvements there: They’re serving some local brands you don’t see many other places: coffee from Caffe Umbria, organic treats from Boulangerie Nantaise and Mighty O Donuts. (If you’re a public-service worker, drop by on Thursdays in uniform and drinks are 2-for-1.)

More backhoe-bound brickwork

The city just granted permits for the townhouse project that’ll replace this brick multiplex @ SW corner of Cali/Seattle (not far from similar projects).

Also on the topic of doomed brickwork, there’s an addendum to the saga of the unique fourplex that’s on its last legs across the street from Charlestown Cafe — scroll to the bottom of the original page to check out a comment just posted by one of its current renters.

Cali makeover crew moves north

When the city reported that the repaving was moving fast, that was no exaggeration. If you have to drive the north half of Cali, be forewarned that as of this morning, the heavy equipment has all moved north, currently focusing on a stretch from Admiral Safeway to McDonald’s — particularly challenging for drivers, considering there are two schools in that stretch (Lafayette Elementary and WS High). The work this morning is centering on the west side of the street and the crews are still straightening out the traffic flow on the east, so be patient — and watchful — our trip through was a bit of an adventure.

Beer buzz

3 months after going public, WS-based Schooner Exact says business is hopping. They e-mailed us to make sure you know they’re the “featured cask” tomorrow night @ 6 @ Beveridge Place Pub, with what Schooner Exact partner Marcus calls “a seriously over-the-top Imperial 3 Grid IPA, on cask, naturally fermented, dry-hopped.” (We are beer idiots but we’re guessing that means it’s fairly swell stuff.) Marcus also tells us they’re up to three kegs/week, with new equipment and more on the way. He says you can find their creations “on a rotating basis” at West 5 too; follow their adventures on the Schooner Exact blog.

New ferry ticketing system coming to Fauntleroy

The automated ticket machines and other components of “Wave 2 Go” have been working their way down from ferry routes further north; now the date is set for their Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth debut.

Not coming to a website near you

For those of you who have asked — the city transportation department says the Admiral/Olga cam that popped up a while back will not be providing webpix like other city cams; it’s for traffic-signal “video detection” only.

At this rate it’ll be 4 bucks in 3 weeks

Checked the 35th/Holden Chevron station this morning, for the 2nd straight day. Somewhere between midnight and 10 am, the price of regular jumped another 4 cents to $3.26/gallon (as shown at left). Our subsequent unofficial drivearound survey suggests this may currently be the most expensive price in WS (let us know if you find differently).

Art mystery apparently solved

This is one mystery we slightly, wistfully wish could have stayed unsolved … but the genie’s out of the bottle. Dan from Seattlest dropped in, two posts down, earlier this morning, to say the bear, the owl (the Grouchos too? they don’t seem to fit the theme), and much more, are the work of “No Touching Ground.” Watch the video linked to the name; there’s no doubt. The video doesn’t match a real-life name to the artist but a little rummaging around the web comes up with it. (And he’s got a show up at a Pioneer Square coffeehouse right now.)

Psssst

If you want to be ready for NEXT year’s windstorm, we saw a big pile of small generators @ the nearest Costco, less than $200 each.

Mysterious “artist” strikes again

Some would call him/her/them an artist, some a vandal. Whatever the case — looks like the person/s behind the bear, the owl, the Grouchos, etc., has struck again — the photo below is just in from Nick Peters, who spotted it under The Bridge (and at almost the same moment, we got a note from someone else saying only ONE Groucho is left! LATE UPDATE: a photopost proves it).

What’s that Bible quote about the lion lying down with the lamb?

Or maybe “strange bedfellows” is better. Anyway, we mused last month about the proximity of the new Temenos spiritual center to Mars Hill-WS. Now, they’re truly rubbing elbows; on off-days, the MH buses have their own little pen in the Temenos lot:

Up, up, and away

The headline about 4-buck gas might not be so far off. Example: We passed the 35th/Holden Chevron twice in the past hour. First time by, a worker was taking down the 3.18/gallon price for regular. Second time by, when we had a camera in tow, the new price was up (left). Good site for checking local gas prices is here. UPDATE: Even the state wants to know how come we pay more around here.

Never a dull moment

Some of what’s happening in WS this week, before we get anywhere near the next fun-filled (Water Taxi! Farmers’ Market! Hall @ Fauntleroy open house!) weekend:

-Tonight (Monday): Celebrate National Poetry Month (and Shakespeare’s birthday!) with a Poetry Read-Around @ the gorgeously renovated Southwest Library (35th & Henderson).

-Tuesday: Have dinner tonight @ Endolyne Joe’s and part of the proceeds will go to the Fauntleroy Fall Festival.

-Wednesday: This is your last-chance deadline to register a yard sale as part of Megawatt’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale on May 12.

-Thursday: Dine Out for Life to fight AIDS. West Seattle participants are Abbondanza (dinner), Angelina’s Trattoria (lunch & dinner), Blackbird Bistro (lunch & dinner), Buddha Ruksa (dinner), Eats Market Cafe (breakfast/lunch/dinner), Mission (dinner), Ovio (dinner), Skylark (lunch & dinner). Also: After an early dinner or before a late one, check out WS-based Adventure Associates‘ free slideshow “Adventures in Mexico: Copper Canyon,” 6:30 pm @ C & P Coffee.

More great pix

As Earth Day meanders toward evening … two photo posts from WS-based bloggers:

-At Beach Drive Blog, Rhonda captured the graceful great blue herons often seen at water’s edge (especially at low tide).

-At Alki Beach Walks, Cathy captured some of Alki’s Sunday morning beauty.

Here’s somebody swimming against the tide

For once, a local storefront formerly devoted to food/beverages has gone in the non-consumable direction: North of Morgan Junction, the former Al’s Deli & Espresso (previously Bubble Lounge Caffe) space is now an expansion of the salon next door.

More condos coming soon?

Just happened onto the “for sale” ad for the waterfront apartment building at 3633 Beach Drive. It touts “excellent high-end conversion opportunities.” (We have a memory of this building: a little-remembered windstorm in fall 1991 that caused some roof trouble, and other mayhem along that stretch of Beach Drive; the repair permit is still in city records.)

Too soon to say

Not surprising, but in case you were wondering, Seafair says it’s too soon to say if today’s deadly Blue Angels crash will affect the plan for their annual appearance here (Aug. 4-5). We looked up what happened after the Angels’ last deadly crash, in 1999; looks like they were back in the air pretty quickly that year. On this year’s schedule, they have 16 shows planned between now and Seafair. (Note for any of our fellow geeks out there: not having been to the Seafair site in a while before tonight, we noticed they’ve redesigned in a big way after years with a relatively anemic site.)

Need the wisdom of the masses

Two Three (adding one since original post) questions arrived in the e-mailbox today. We have some thoughts on the first two but not a clue on the second third, so we’re throwing them out to the wonderful WSB readership to answer via comments on this post:

#1 — A new WS arrival wants to plant a vegetable garden and is looking for advice on “good times to plant, and good vegetables that thrive here.” (We had success with cabbage, lettuce, and spinach some years back. Planting time would be now, though, since those are mostly cool-season veggies. What else?)

#2 (added 10:16 pm) — A local family is moving from one WS location to another and plans to handle it themselves. Recommendations for who to use for trucks/etc. for self-moving? (We had a good experience with the 35th/Morgan U-Haul, but that was loooong ago.)

#3 — Someone else reports a woodpecker “attacking” their house. For now, they put a rock in the resulting hole (photo below), but they’re wondering what else they can do to discourage it from further attacks.

The question that will go unanswered …

… unless you can answer it for us: What IS a “Snooty Walk”? We thought we’d get the answer if we showed up for the last half-hour of the Pet Rodeo & Snooty Walk, but the party was already breaking up. Did spot Hizzoner, however, probably there to cheer on his wife in her role as Head Judge.

Blue Angels pilot killed

The Blue Angels become local news once a year around here during their Museum of Flight-based Seafair stay, and we’re major Blue Angels fans, so we are taking some space to say we are sorry to hear that a BA pilot died in a crash at a South Carolina airshow this afternoon. UPDATE: Other sites tracking this include BeaufortGazette.com and Bluffton Today.