day : 30/10/2007 10 results

Frank Coluccio e-mailed WSB late tonight with a hearty “GO GATORS!” — on behalf of the Holy Rosary 7th grade girls’ soccer team, which has made it to the Catholic Youth Organization championship game, after defeating St. Bernadette of Burien, 3-0. The Gators play Sacred Heart for the title at Bishop Blanchet, noon Saturday.

Last pumpkins of the night

October 30, 2007 10:54 pm

| 2 COMMENTS

| Holidays

Before Halloween Eve makes way for Halloween … more pumpkin pix. First, call it the ultimate glass pumpkin — outlined in the windows of the WaMu Center, visible from West Seattle’s north- and east-facing shore – several people sent us photos (thank you SO much!!!!) – this one’s from Allie:

Now a few more jack-o-lanterns from WSB-land, starting with these from Cori and Keith:

Here we have Claire‘s pumpkin:

And from the Heck Family:

Thanks to everybody who’s shared their pumpkin creations with us and the rest of WSB-land … more to come tomorrow (and you can still e-mail us your pix!).

Share This

West Water, the website

October 30, 2007 9:30 pm

| 29 COMMENTS

| Gatewood | West Seattle housing | West Seattle online

For everyone who just couldn’t wait to find out more about this suddenly much-advertised condo conversion south of Morgan Junction … the website is now up. (As are [illegal] sandwich-board signs all along southbound 99 going at least as far back as the Battery Street Tunnel.) If you’ve got some time to kill, take a look at the site and (a) find the errors and (b) tell us if you recognize the coffee shop on the “contact” page.

Share This

More fun than “NORAD Tracks Santa” …

October 30, 2007 7:07 pm

| 11 COMMENTS

| Holidays | West Seattle people

NOTE ADDED 12/22/07 FOR ANYONE WHO FINDS THIS WHILE GOOGLING FOR “NORAD TRACKS SANTA” SINCE IT’S FOR SOME REASON THE #1 RESULT – YOU’LL FIND THAT SITE HERE.

… it’s “WSB Tracks the Art Attack(er)”! Well, “tracking” isn’t quite the right word, but we have received another communique from the mysterious artist leaving glass pumpkins in deserving West Seattle yards. “AA” reports having visited Alki already tonight and is at last report headed elsewhere. (Should we be leaving cookies and milk on the doorstep?)

Share This

They say they’re ready – really and truly ready

October 30, 2007 4:49 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| Transportation | West Seattle weather

More detailed declarations are out today from various local/regional government agencies saying they are all set to handle whatever winter throws at them (oh, say, something icy like the weather that led to the scene below in Upper Fauntleroy last January). Here’s what the state says; here’s what the county says; and here’s how the city puts it. There are some specifics of interest, including, from the county press release: “Through an effort spearheaded by the King County Department of Transportation, cities all across the county have teamed up with Metro Transit and the county’s Roads Services Division to more closely link priority snow removal routes with bus routes.” And from WSDOT’s press release: “This year WSDOT has: installed new, more reliable wind sensors on the SR 520 and I-90 bridges; added new supply stockpiles at locations closer to the roads they serve; added more deicer capacity to dozens of trucks; provided hand-held road temperature sensors to dozens of drivers; incorporated transit routes into snow removal plans; sent more staff to snow college to become better trained in snow fighting; cross-trained additional staff to work in the emergency operations center and serve as plow truck operators Incident Response Team members.” The various agencies also are teaming up on the Take Winter by Storm website. No early November storm in sight at this point, knock wood; the forecast for Friday and beyond looks promising.

Share This

Halloween countdown update, plus jack-o-lanterns with an edge

October 30, 2007 2:26 pm

| 5 COMMENTS

| Holidays

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN: Fun stuff happening around West Seattle tonight, including Costume Karaoke at Skylark; check the WSB Events page for more.

JACK-O-LANTERN WATCH: Thanks for sending in the pumpkin photos — keep ’em coming; even after this batch we have more left, but we’ll get them all in before Halloween has come and gone. Our theme this time — jack-o-lanterns with an edge (to say the least). First, we have Luckie‘s cutely cannibalistic creation:

The other two “edgy” jack-o-lanterns are even more PG-13 so our dainty sensibilities are leading us to put them a click off the home page — YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!Read More

Share This

Tuesday tidbits, early afternoon edition

October 30, 2007 1:21 pm

| 6 COMMENTS

| Seen around town | West Seattle housing | West Seattle politics

-After driving under the Fauntleroy overpass “Help 7-year-old Dylan fight leukemia!” banner again, we caught the phone number (and realized we originally posted the wrong name – surname on the banner is actually Redlinger). So we called that number last night to try to find out more; it was answered by a very generic voicemail/machine message. We left our contact info; no response yet.

-More on the lightning-speed condo conversion at the newly renamed West Water, south of Morgan Junction. Sarah e-mailed to say she saw a TV commercial for it, adding: “Thought it was interesting that they didn’t show any pictures of the condos themselves, but there sure were plenty of Alki and downtown!”

-One week till Election Day. You may well have voted already (if you vote in person, like us old traditionalists, this may be your last chance, we’ll see you at the polls). There’s been so much great election coverage all over other media sources lately that we haven’t had anything unique to add, but here’s one note we’ve been meaning to mention — if you are still trying to sort out where you stand on Proposition 1 (“Roads & Transit”), Chas Redmond pointed out the recent Sustainable West Seattle forum on Prop 1 is captured in a podcast (mp3 download) on the SWS site. One other election note – saveseattleschools.blogspot.com has an interesting West Seattle-specific observation on the School Board District 6 race. (Though the entire city votes on every School Board seat that’s on the ballot, whoever wins District 6 — Steve Sundquist or Maria Ramirez — will be “our” representative, replacing Irene Stewart, who decided not to run again.)

Share This

West Seattle Art Attack!

October 30, 2007 10:01 am

| 17 COMMENTS

| Seen around town | WS culture/arts

If you’re at home – go peek at your yard – you might have a present from a mysterious, anonymous local glass artist who tells WSB he/she has been leaving surprises in yards around West Seattle “that look like their owners would appreciate a new bit of unexpected art.” The artist sent photographic proof (the one at right was taken under cover of night):

The artist says you’ll know it’s one of theirs if it’s signed “West Seattle Art Attack.” Let us know if you find one! (P.S. More jack-o-lantern photos coming; still time to get yours in.)

Share This

2 things Water Taxi supporters need to know, now

October 30, 2007 6:52 am

| 12 COMMENTS

| Elliott Bay Water Taxi | Transportation | West Seattle news

First one is a simple reminder: The Elliott Bay Water Taxi between West Seattle and downtown is in the final days of its extended 2007 season; after the afternoon/evening commute runs on Friday, it’s docked for the year. Second one, not quite so simple, but even more important:Read More

Share This

Tomorrow’s not just Halloween …

October 30, 2007 12:39 am

| 2 COMMENTS

| How to help | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

… it’s also the fundraising deadline for Friends of Ercolini Park, to help them qualify for city matching funds in their work to create a park for the growing residential neighborhoods west of The Junction. (The land has been set aside — but now it’s time to start putting in the features that will transform it into a park.) The group says work should be starting within a few weeks, and they expect to have “a park to play in by spring!” Read more about the project on the city’s page about it, and to help Friends of Ercolini Park get across the $ finish line, use the “donate” link on the group’s website. (Also coming up, this blog post from an Ercolini relative reminds us, is the deadline for the city to accept name suggestions, though as that writer notes, it’s hard to imagine it could end up being named anything else.)