Hot headlines from the Alki Community Council meeting

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| WS breaking news

We went to hear the latest developments in the Statue of Liberty situation, and came away with information on much more. Full reports to come, but for now, the headlines:

-A big new “workforce housing” (we’re guessing that’s the new buzzphrase for “affordable housing”) project is under consideration for Port of Seattle property along Harbor Ave (south of Florida).

-A little further west along Harbor Ave, there’s a new proposal for a Water Taxi terminal at a site adjacent to Jack Block Park known as Pier 1/2. With 500 parking spaces!

-New Liberty developments, too, including the Parks Department announcing an official public meeting about its future, 7 pm Sept. 13. (Location TBA.)

Stand by for more on all of the above and then some …

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Bakery that’s not opening in WS

| Not WS but we're mentioning it anyway | West Seattle people | West Seattle restaurants

Don’t faint. A West Seattle-based couple is opening their own bakery — but not on our side of the bay.Ã‚Â We bestÃ‚Â remember StephanieÃ‚Â CrockerÃ‚Â and her “Sugar” creationsÃ‚Â from the Farmers’ Market last year; also, lastÃ‚Â November we told you aboutÃ‚Â the pie fundraiser to help Stephanie and her husband John with expenses from his fight against cancer. That’s going well and now they’re getting ready to open their own place, Sugar Bakery & Cafe on First HillÃ‚Â (and blogging about it too). Stephanie tells WSB they hope to open in October –Ã‚Â just in time for the bakery-mania of the holiday season.

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Commuting critter

July 19, 2007 12:41 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| Transportation | Wildlife

So it seems thatÃ‚Â before The Commute From Hell became hellish yesterday, it got a little wild. Reader e-mail that just came in:

Did anybody see if the smaller possum that was trundling earnestly up
the center lane (right along the cement divider, not in a traffic lane)
of the eastbound West Seattle freeway at about 7:20 yesterday morning
got up and over the bridge?

When I saw him/her, the little feet were scurrying right along, and
however I felt about possums, I wanted him to get to safety!

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City cash for two WS projects

July 19, 2007 10:49 am

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| Gatewood | How to help | West Seattle parks | West Seattle schools

The folks working on Ercolini Park on SW Alaska just west of The Junction are in line for a $90,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund Award from the city — this isn’t a giveaway, but a hard-fought win that’s only possible when community members commit time and money to projects, enough to impress city leaders to chip in. Ercolini Park organizer Bill Barna says they have a little more fundraising to do — $6K worth — you can go to the Ercolini Park website to find out how to contact them to chip in $ (or anything else the project needs). Congratulations also are in order to Gatewood Elementary School; the next phase of its playground project also is in line for a $90K matching-fund grant. (Full list of matching-fund projects citywide, including a South Park skatepark, is readable here.)

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Gatewood townhouse tussle gets a citywide spotlight

July 19, 2007 7:12 am

| 8 COMMENTS

| Development | Gatewood | West Seattle news

Less than a week after we told you about the deal that ended the fight over the clump of townhomes going up (one nearly complete building, shown below) at the SW foot of Gatewood Hill, the situation gets ink in this week’s Stranger (one correction, the church wasn’t demolished; the property had belonged to Gatewood Baptist Church across the street and was sold along with it, but the developers re-sold the church to Seattle International; also the arrival of equipment wasn’t the first word of the development — we posted here 3 months earlier when the permit applications were filed). P.S.: You can expect work to start any second now on the final disputed row of townhomes (permit just issued); the selling agents have just planted a big sign plugging the “Seattle Townhome Team“; and developer Dan Duffus is on the panel for a city-organized “Forum on Housing Affordability” this Friday.

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Liberty sooner or Liberty later: Meeting #3 tonight

July 19, 2007 6:37 am

| 3 COMMENTS

| Alki Statue of Liberty | West Seattle history | West Seattle parks

One year ago tomorrow, the old Alki Statue of Liberty was taken down and trucked away. Tonight at the monthly Alki Community Council meeting, it’s a third round of discussion about what could, should, and might happen next. (This follows two meetings in the past 8 days organized by community members Libby and Paul Carr, who are trying to re-start the project to build a plaza around the recast statue; here’s our report on the first meeting; a WSB reader’s observations from the second one is in the comments here.) Parks Department rep Pamela Kliment, who’s collecting public comment on all this, tells us she’ll be at this meeting after having to skip the last one; so will the Carrs. It’s an important debate about a West Seattle icon; get in on it by going tonight (7 pm, Alki Community Center) or by e-mailing Kliment (click here).