West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Just found this in a city traffic advisory:
The March of Dimes March for Babies will occur on Sunday, May 4, with as many as 10,000 walkers participating. The northbound lanes of the Alaskan Way Viaduct will be closed to traffic from 9 to 11 a.m. The march will begin at Qwest Field at 10 a.m., move south on Occidental Avenue South to South Royal Brougham Street, west on Royal Brougham to First Avenue South, north on First onto the northbound lanes of the SR-99 Alaskan Way Viaduct, and north on the viaduct to approximately the Western Avenue off-ramp. Then they will make a u-turn and move back to Qwest field along the same route.
KING 5 reported tonight (see the clip here) that a hearing on Monday could close the case of the June 2005 W. Marginal Way shooting death of Mike Robb, a West Seattle resident who coached tennis at Newport High School – with his killer declared not guilty by reason of insanity. (More background on the case in this September 2006 Times article; KING reported tonight that the lawsuit discussed in that story, against the killer’s parents, has been settled.)
Two weeks ago, we mentioned the CL rental listing for the soon-to-be-vacated Murphy‘s on Avalon suggested it would be a good space for a restaurant. Tonight, verification that one is on the way. It started with a tip from Kate (thank you!) that she met a couple who told her they planned to open a “Northern Italian” restaurant in that space. She didn’t get their names but recalls that “the chef has worked at and opened other restaurants.” As of tonight, we haven’t found their identities, but we do know the Seattle DPD website shows a permit application for converting the space to a restaurant. (The only name on the online application is that of the architect, Daniel Corcoran.) Side note — a couple blocks north, along the east side of the intersection where Harbor becomes Avalon, the long-defaced-by-a-tag Luna Park sign has finally been replaced (after a year).
Another “first” this weekend in The Junction — the first Sustainable West Seattle Festival, 10 am-3 pm Sunday in the Wells Fargo parking lot. We’ll be there on behalf of West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (which is really just a different way to recycle!) – stop by and say hi! – but more importantly, it’s a chance to find out about an amazing lineup of local organizations working on small-step solutions to some of today’s biggest problems. And don’t miss the Transit Forum nearby at ArtsWest (talk about a problem in search of a solution) … But the SWS Festival is just one of 45 events listed ahead:Read More
Just in from city Parks Department spokesperson Dewey Potter, who had most recently said the clearing was likely to happen Monday:
I have just learned that the encampment has been removed and that our crew delivered to our warehouse the belongings that appeared to have any personal or monetary value. The cleanup took place after outreach workers notified our crew that they had completed their efforts to notify the people there.
We first told you about the encampment on Monday; WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham had been monitoring it for more than a month.
No punchy answer, just the facts: The Feet First chicken greeted the Fast Feet Fridays walking-to-school contingent — including a guest appearance by West Seattle’s school board member Steve Sundquist (he’s in the blue jacket telling the chicken “good morning”) — at 34th/Morgan in High Point, where the long-sought crosswalk was just painted two days ago. (Also in the video, you see Leah the crossing guard, who was nearly hit by a car while we were covering this dangerous crossing spot a few months ago.) This is part of Walk to School Month and Feet First’s ongoing Safe Routes to School campaign; it’ll feature special events like this every Friday this month on the route to West Seattle Elementary. This group walked from 31st/Graham; another group started at Hughes Playground at 29th/Holden, and “a Sunrise Heights neighbor” sent us this photo from that site (thanks!):
Just in from Charlestown Cafe co-owner Larry Mellum:
I finally have some good news to report. Everything is finally signed sealed and delivered!! Meaning that the Charlestown St. Cafe project is finally underway. I will do my best to keep you aware of our progress but as I have said previously, this is a four week project. Which means we should be open for business sometime around June 1st, with any luck possibly Memorial Day weekend.
It’s been almost three months since the Feb. 4th fire that closed the restaurant; we’ve been chronicling (scroll through our complete Charlestown Cafe archive here) the ups and downs of the owners’ quest for repair approvals ever since. Ironically, just days before the fire, we had reported the shelving of the controversial plan to build a Petco store on the site.
With so much going on last night, we sought some help making sure the major events could all be covered — and a WSB’er who has reported previously for us, Evan Baumgardner, agreed to handle one of them — the Seattle Public Schools hearing on the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse sale (one month after a community meeting about it, WSB coverage here). Here’s his report:Read More
From the “Campus Security Report” in the latest South Seattle Community College newsletter:
April 28: Student directed to leave the Library after repeatedly refusing to stop using his cell phone, to library staff and then security officers.
Actually that’s just one small snippet from a newsletter jampacked with other news from West Seattle’s only college; the folks at SSCC invited us to share the whole thing with you here.
We mentioned it briefly last night, and promised more details: After weeks of declaring the decision was made and space for a “skate feature” would definitely be reserved in the new Myrtle Reservoir park, city Parks Department managers announced an abrupt about-face last night. That left opponents happy, skatepark supporters fuming, and other issues with the park plan bubbling to the forefront:Read More
| Comments Off on Traffic alert: Short partial Viaduct closure Sunday morning