West Seattle Blog…

Server move update: Closing comments/forums @ midnight

As mentioned earlier, we’re moving servers/hosts tonight to increase capacity and reliability – to help ensure we continue to deserve your trust as West Seattle’s 24/7 real-time news source. As part of the process, we have to “freeze” the site at midnight for the database move – so you won’t be able to use our discussion features (comments and forum posting) overnight, and we won’t be adding new items here till we’re sure everything’s up and running on the new server. But remember that we’ve set up two other ways of publishing news/info during the transition if needed – besides our Twitter feed (accessible online at twitter.com/westseattleblog), we also have a backup site (which also would be deployed if WSB ever went down for a significant amount of time) at westseattleblog.wordpress.com. If you don’t see a Labor Day open/closed-info post here first thing in the morning, your ISP may not be seeing the new server yet, and we’d want to hear from you at westseattleblog@yahoo.com – thanks!

West Seattle Crime Watch: Neighbors scare off car prowlers

From the WSB inbox, CB tells the story: Click to read the rest of West Seattle Crime Watch: Neighbors scare off car prowlers…

1 week till Alki’s Car-Free Sunday – here’s how Rainier went today

One week from today, as officially announced 7/30, the city shuts down Alki SW from California Way (by Seacrest) to 63rd, noon-6 pm on Sunday 9/7, for its last Car-Free Sunday of the summer. Last week, Car-Free Sunday #1 on Capitol Hill was cut short by rain and roiled by controversy, but the first report we’ve seen about Rainier Valley today calls it “trouble-free.” We’ll add other links as we find them; meantime, here’s the city page with all the info you need about next Sunday – we’ll of course continue posting info in the week ahead. ADDED MONDAY MORNING: The P-I has a Rainier Car-Free Day blurb up now.

Something thrilling in West Seattle: Join the quest for a record

(The Michael Jackson original is unembeddable, so we’re showing the Star Wars version instead)
The summer may be over but a thrilling new round of fun has begun, per Lora Lewis from Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor), who just announced … she’s putting together a dance team to “join the Thrill the World Guinness Book of World Records event!” — thousands (millions?) of people doing the “Thriller” dance in groups, worldwide. The team’s already got a blog (check it out here; looks like Blayne of “Project Runway” fame is involved too) – plus the date for the first rehearsal: This Wednesday, 8-9 pm, Ginomai (southwest corner of 42nd/Genesee; that’s conveniently right before this week’s PR viewing party) — you’re invited — just RSVP by sending Lora a note at lora@hotwirecoffee.com. Subsequent rehearsals will be the same day/time each week; the Seattle event for Thrill the World, at which time this team will strut its stuff, is 11 am October 25. Lora’s already registered the team so as she puts it — “all you need to do is show up and dance!” (and she has a step-by-step video, so don’t worry if you’ve never done it before). More at the team’s blog (thrilltheworldws.blogspot.com), and the official worldwide website is thrilltheworld.com.

West Seattle scenes: Westenders’ “Tour di Mari”

Spotted quite the lineup along California SW between Alaska and Morgan Junctions this morning, so we stopped for pix: The Westenders Scooter Club (mentioned here during the Sustainable West Seattle Festival in May) stopped at C&P Coffee during their weekend-long “Tour di Mari” rally — as the Westenders’ website explains it, this is “… the famous Water Ride … perfected during Amerivespa 2007.” (You might recall multiple scooter-group sightings during that mega-gathering.) Members told WSB they were heading toward Des Moines after the coffee-shop stop.

You can find out lots more about the club online at westenders.org.

WSB’er technical alert: Upgrade update

We mentioned this the other day; here’s another heads-up. **If** all goes as planned, tonight is likely the night we’re upgrading/changing servers (after 10 pm), to provide increased capacity and reliability, as we end the third consecutive month with more than half a million pageviews (and a new WSB traffic record). The server we’ve been using for the past eight-plus months has been RELATIVELY reliable but that’s not good enough for our commitment to be your 24/7 source of real-time West Seattle news. Once we point the site at the new server, there may be a lag before your Internet Service Provider (ISP) sees it, – most ISPs catch on within hours, but as we learned last December, not all – if you start to suspect you’re not seeing updated WSB content (between early morning and late night, we seldom go longer than a few hours without something new), please let us know (westseattleblog@yahoo.com will be the best address in this case) and also please bookmark westseattleblog.wordpress.com, a backup site (nothing there right this moment) we will use to communicate any updates on the move as well as any urgent news that happens during the transition time (we’ll also post updates on Twitter – even if you don’t want to join Twitter, you can read our updates any time at twitter.com/westseattleblog – we’ve also added a Twitter-centric page here on the site, click the tab). Thanks for your patience – and for being a vital part of WSB.

Reader report: How to handle a neighborhood parking problem

Not too long ago, Elise wrote with a question/concern about a van parked in her neighborhood and whether it had the right to be parked the way it was frequently parked. We made a suggestion or two in e-mail; some of her questions had to do with the rules about Residential Parking Zones (city webpage here), and as Elise proceeded to do some research, she thought you might benefit from what she found out:

1) Even if you have a zone permit (or guest permit) you must move your car every 72 hours. Basically, having the permit does not exempt you from those rules. But, you are allowed to park anywhere in your zone as long as you
have your permit.

2) The city is considering changing the rules on the # of permits that can be issued per/household to only 2. I asked when this would be in effect and she said she did not know. City Councilwoman Jan Drago chairs the Transportation Committee, so she would be a good person to contact in order to express support of this proposal (jan.drago@seattle.gov).

3) If you have complaints about habitual “junk” motor vehicles in the neighborhood it’s best to still call the abandoned vehicle hotline at 206-684-8763. This creates an electronic track record of the car(s) movements. Like the guy in our neighborhood with 8 cars – they refer to those people as “car ranchers” (anyone with between 5-30 cars) who constantly move their cars around on city streets to avoid getting tickets. The only way to have the city do anything about them is by creating the electronic track record. The person I spoke with at the Citizen Service Bureau (206-684-8811) also said the UW School of Law offers a free “Mediation Clinic” to help resolve issues between neighbors (obviously for extreme situations), but their # is 206-685-4140.

West Seattle Farmers’ Market: More tree fruit

There’s more tree fruit on the citywide “what’s new” list for farmers’ markets this week, including today’s West Seattle Farmers’ Market (10 am-2 pm, 44th/Alaska). Check it out here (and let us know if you encounter any surprise finds!).

From the WSB Forums: Happy ending to a frantic search

Most days, we get at least two or three lost/found pet reports to add to the WSB Pets page. Often, we get word of happy reunions within a few days. Sometimes, the search is so intense that, after the original post to the Pets page, there are in-progress updates, which we lately have been directing to the WSB Forums – and in one such case, that of Gibs’N the Irish Water Spaniel (photo above), the latest update is a happy ending – forum posts indicate he’s back home tonight. Some West Seattle pets are still missing – and have been for a long time – if you don’t routinely check the Pets page, please have a look from time to time – you never know when you might see one of those long-lost critters and be able to bring her/him home. (We have adoptable pets, and West Seattle pet owners’ favorite photos, on that page too!)

New bike, new challenge for surfing-injury survivor Addie Killam

That’s Addie Killam of Highland Park, getting ready to ride her new hand-operated bike along Alki this morning. If Addie’s name sounds familiar but you just can’t quite place it – we first told you about her in this April report, when news came that she had become paralyzed after a freak surfing injury. Later, friends, family, neighbors, and WSB’ers worked to help fix up a house so she could come home to West Seattle this past June after weeks of rehab in a Colorado hospital. Now, Addie’s in training for a special Mike Utley Foundation fundraising ride coming up in about a month. Along the Alki bike path, we talked to her for a moment before her training ride this morning:

Click pic to play video

The Mike Utley Foundation raises money “to find a cure for paralysis”; Utley’s story is detailed here – he is a Seattle native who was a football star at Burien’s John F. Kennedy High School and then at WSU, followed by two years in the NFL, till the injury that paralyzed him in 1991. He underwent rehab at the same place in Craig, Colorado, where Addie spent time earlier this year. Now he lives in Wenatchee, where she’ll be riding her new bike in the 50-mile Dam2Dam on September 27:

Click To Play

Addie’s looking for sponsors for next month’s ride; to find out how to help, check out this post on the blog about her ongoing recovery – it’s got full details on what to do (you can also go directly to this page on the Mike Utley Foundation website – just make sure you fill in Addie Killam’s name).

West Seattle Crime Watch: Mail-thief alert

Out of the WSB inbox, from Don, who wants you to be aware of what happened to him:

In the neighborhood due south of Alaska Junction’s Jefferson Square, we discovered that mail had been taken from our box, opened, and gone through, in search of credit card information and anything else of value. The perps tossed the remainder in our yard, which was ironic, as one thing of value turned out to be some expensive train tickets for an upcoming vacation trip. The only thing we actually lost was one of those fake credit-card-like things on a junk-mail come-on from American Express, but we found pieces of the neighbor’s mail near our house as well. When we mentioned this to USPS personnel, they told us to call the police and file a report, and let the local postmaster know as well.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT. These creeps take advantage of unlocked mailboxes and have no problem committing local and federal crimes. They are probably working neighborhoods across the area.

In a later e-mail exchange, Don told us police would not take a phoned-in report because nothing of value was missing. We will be checking with local police leadership after the holiday to see if there is a baseline for reports to be taken in this kind of situation; Don’s filing a report online with USPS, in the meantime.

Ready to change your commute? Here’s a High Point proposal

Just posted on the High Point Neighborhood Association website – a call from the HP Green Living Committee for High Point residents who work downtown to commute together via the Elliott Bay Water Taxi next Wednesday, and maybe weekly after that if it works out. (The EBWT season continues through 10/31.) To get in on this, start here.

Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza, 1 week till dedication

While at Alki for another story this morning, we checked in on the Statue of Liberty Plaza — since the big all-day dedication ceremony is next Saturday, just one week away (there’s extensive coverage in our Alki Statue of Liberty archive, plus a full schedule of events is on the Plaza Project website). As you can see in the photos above and below, there’s not much still missing but the new pedestal and the statue itself (this 7/8 report includes video showing it “flying away” when temporarily removed for the construction); plantings are even in place now:

West Seattle Weather Watch: Early-morning rainbow

Thanks to Imelda for that photo looking southwest from just south of Alki Point around 6:30 this morning. The latest forecast promises a “mostly sunny” holiday on Monday! ADDED 1:26 PM: Just found out that co-publisher Patrick got this great shot of a great blue heron near Alki Bathhouse this morning, so we wanted to share that too:

Never too young: 4 chances to learn about helping little ones read

One week from today is the first of four presentations at West Seattle-area library branches focusing on early literacy. They’re happening at four different branches, one day each month from September through December, and they’re geared toward parents, educators, and child-care providers. Free of charge, but you need to register; more info here.

Happening this morning: Bake sale for pets’ sake

That’s Westcrest Park Off-Leash Area (map) — West Seattle’s only off-leash park (featured in this West Seattle 101 chapter) — and in the north parking lot adjacent to it, you’ll find some “Westcresters” having a dog-cookie bake sale this morning, 9:30-noon, raising money for the upcoming PAWSwalk. (If you can’t go buy treats, but would like to find out about supporting them in the walk, here’s their page; the walk is a week from today in Magnuson Park.)

West Seattle Crime Watch: Friday night miscellany

A few miscellaneous notes to share, including one from the scanner moments ago: Click to read the rest of West Seattle Crime Watch: Friday night miscellany…

West Seattle Weather Watch: Potentially windy night

Click pic to play video

(Short video clip of the brightly lit Royal Argosy under dark clouds post-dusk tonight, just south of Alki Point)
We were checking the ferry system’s website to see how Holiday Getaway Night was going, when we noticed the Port Townsend run was having trouble because of “high seas and wind”; checked our forecast and “gusts up to 30 mph” have been added to the city outlook for later tonight. Here’s the forecast.

West Seattle Weekend Lineup: So long, summer

Where did it go? Let us know as soon as you figure that out. (Monday’s the last day for West Seattle’s 7-day wading pools, by the way, so in their honor we’re illustrating this with the photo above, from Delridge on the first Sunday it opened after a neighborhood campaign to change the schedule.) Meanwhile, if you’re not going away for the holiday weekend, here are your West Seattle options — 31 events and activities listed ahead (including Monday holiday schedule-changes): Click to read the rest of West Seattle Weekend Lineup: So long, summer…

No surprise to Metro bus riders: The numbers behind SRO

New post on County Executive Ron Sims‘ blog: Charts showing this summer’s rise in Metro ridership. Previously, he notes, the trend was for lower ridership during warm weather. (Well, we haven’t had that much warm weather this summer, but never mind that. Some of the ridership-rise reasons seem obvious – hello, $4 gas.) 400,000 boardings per weekday, as of last month. Meantime, reminder: Metro’s on Sunday schedule for Labor Day; Water Taxi and its shuttle are on Saturday schedule. Here’s the official advisory.

Alaskan Way Viaduct future: Another West Seattle open house

Just announced by WSDOT – another round of open houses to share the latest on what might happen to the Central Waterfront section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct (the part that Governor Gregoire vows to bring down by 2012; what will replace it, is still being worked out). One of them’s in West Seattle — 5:30-7:30 pm September 16th at Fauntleroy Church. This is from the latest AWV bulletin, which also reminds us all that the next weekend-long inspection closure for The Viaduct is set for October 18-19. (And if your head’s not already spinning from all these dates, remember that the first closure related to the Spokane Street Viaduct project kicks in on September 8th – we’ve got the WSB archive with the details permalinked atop the right sidebar to make sure nobody misses that news.) Back to The Big Viaduct – here’s the info page with all the latest on the Central Waterfront project, including the upcoming West Seattle open house.

Superintendent and mayor to open the school year in West Seattle

Seattle Public Schools‘ communication team has just announced the plan for Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson’s appearances on the first day of school next Wednesday, and the biggie is right here in West Seattle, at Denny Middle School:

At Denny Middle School, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson will join Mayor Greg Nickels in a press conference, welcoming students back to school and encouraging middle-school students to start thinking about college. 10 am–11 am.

Her other announced appearances include Concord and Wedgwood Elementaries.

Crime/safety update for south WS, including some good news

Some of what was discussed at last night’s South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition meeting will be of interest to anyone living/working in south West Seattle – including some good news about ongoing issues in the area — so we’d like to point you to the full report we have just posted on partner site White Center Now; you can read it here.

No West Seattle route for the Breast Cancer 3Day after all

Scenes like that one along Alki SW won’t be repeated along West Seattle streets next month, after all. As Beach Drive Blog first reported, the route for this year’s Seattle-area Breast Cancer 3Day Sept. 12-14 has been revealed, and it’s traveling along the Eastside plus the edges of North Seattle (see the “cheering stations” listed here). Nonetheless, more than a few West Seattleites are among the walkers, so if you get a chance to go cheer them, you’re bound to be giving some neighbors a boost.

Greenery at 42nd/Alaska: Junction Plaza Park update

Here’s another photo from The Junction, taken the other day and waiting patiently in queue since then: The site of Junction Plaza Park, northwest corner of 42nd/Alaska, with its brand-new lawn. The city has updated its official webpage, making note of the additional fundraising that’s needed before further park improvements are possible, and projecting that design work will resume next spring.

The signs, they are a-changin’: “Sleepers” finally swaps

A changing of the (sign) guard in The Junction this week: Six years after Also Furniture changed its name to Sleepers in Seattle, the Also signage came down, and Sleepers signage went up:

The photos come from Sleepers in Seattle owner Meryl Alcabes, who notes that her company’s been in The Junction for 17 years in all.

Community Police Team update: Back to regular roles “next week”

We’ll be posting a few updates from tonight’s South Delridge/White Center Community Safety meeting, both here and at partner site White Center Now; because of the area covered by that meeting, law enforcers from both the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct and the King County Sheriff’s Office attend. One major update tonight came from SW Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen: He says the Community Police Team officers (meet them here) will be back to normal duties “next week.” You may recall, the precinct’s been dealing with personnel challenges mostly caused by officer injuries, and Lt. Paulsen announced in late July that the CPT officers would have to move to patrol duty, though they would continue to work in their usual areas; he said at the time that this situation was likely to last “a month to a month and a half,” and it’ll be right in that time frame when they return to normal duties next week.

Reader report: Vashon ferry-dock trouble

Trouble at the Vashon ferry terminal, described rather simply in this update from Washington State Ferries, but more vividly by Luckie, who writes:

… spent the afternoon at a friend’s house, about a half-mile up the hill from the Vashon ferry dock. Around 3:00 we heard lots of sirens. Then, the KING5 helicopter circling overhead. It turns out a guy in a pickup with a huge trailerload of rusty scrap had come down the hill, lost his brakes, and crashed into a couple of dumpsters right next to one of the ferry slips, pushing a dumpster into the water. He then jumped into the water himself and tried to swim away. We caught the 4:30 ferry, and the pickup and trailer were still there, roped off with yellow tape. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera! This may affect traffic going to Vashon ….

We saw the chopper too; went down to Fauntleroy thinking something might be up, saw only a Vashon aid car rushing away in the downtown direction, now we know why. At Vashon, WSDOT says Slip 2 is temporarily closed; we’ll let you know when it reopens. 6:36 PM UPDATE: WSF says Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth boats are running about half an hour behind because of this.

An “anniversary” thanks — and a heads-up

FIRST, THANKS: One year ago today was our first (and last) West Seattle Blog Pledge Day – we already knew thousands of people found value in visiting WSB each day, but we rather brazenly asked that day whether anybody cared enough to chip in a few $ so we could turn this into a business and cover more news for you. We are so grateful that many people did – it was the morning of the lunar eclipse (blurry photo at left is the only one we got), and while we were up watching it in the wee hours, the first pledges came in … the ensuing proceeds paid for the costs of setting up a business, plus a video camera to expand our coverage (we have 2 now), and most important of all, gave us more confidence that this just might fly as Seattle’s first true full-time all-online community-news business. A few months later, we started offering ad space. So we don’t need to ask you for $ — but PLEASE support our sponsors, all listed here (and in the right sidebar), PLUS if you are in a giving mood, PLEASE give some $ to your favorite West Seattle nonprofit (we don’t have a comprehensive list – gotta work on that – but you can use this site to search with terms such as “West Seattle” or “White Center”) – they all need extra help in these tougher times.

NOW THE HEADS-UP: As part of WSB’s continuing growth – this will be the third consecutive month with more than half a million pageviews – the site has outgrown another hosting service, and needs to make a change this weekend to increase capacity. Most of this process is invisible to you BUT last time we did it, last December, some readers’ providers (like a certain large aerospace company) did not pick up the change immediately because of “DNS caching,” and WSB updates didn’t go through on those systems for a while. We expect to make the change during the holiday weekend so that any glitches affect the fewest people possible. But if at any point around Labor Day you notice that you’re not getting updated WSB content any more – from early morning till late night, we seldom go more than a few hours without something new – please e-mail us; also note that we have a backup site at westseattleblog.wordpress.com (nothing there now – it’s just an emergency backup) in case this ever goes completely down

SIDE NOTE: Thanks to the folks from Cupcake Royale for letting a local magazine crew take over a corner of their Junction shop for a while this morning to photograph your editor here: Click to read the rest of An “anniversary” thanks — and a heads-up…

Red-light camera update: 2 still headed to WS, 1 now “on” nearby

It was way back in January when we first told you the city planned to add red-light cameras “this year” to those two intersections — 35th/Avalon (westbound) and 35th/Thistle (southbound). A comment in our latest High Point traffic-light update made us realize we hadn’t followed up on them lately, so we checked with SDOT, where spokesperson Marybeth Turner gave us two bits of news: First, those two West Seattle cameras are “still in design” and no date yet for installation. However, for those of you who drive through South Park, the 14th S/S Cloverdale red-light cameras (map) ARE now in operation – that’s on the way to the South Park Bridge if you head east from southeast West Seattle/White Center through SP. P.S. Just to be clear – while SDOT installs the red-light cameras, Seattle Police run the enforcement program.

Happening tonight: “Wizard of Oz,” Community Safety, more

(classic 1939 trailer for “Wizard of Oz”)
If you’re going through outdoor-movie withdrawal after the end of the West Seattle Movies on the Wall series last Saturday, you might want to be at High Point Community Center tonight, where Thursday night Family Night activities continue, with “The Wizard of Oz” showing just after 6 pm. As for something else a lot of people will be watching tonight – we haven’t heard of any major West Seattle viewing parties for Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech BUT the 34th District Democrats were promoting the 11th District Democrats‘ viewing party in Tukwila – here’s the info on that. If you’re in south West Seattle or White Center, tonight’s the monthly South Delridge/White Center Community Safety meeting, 6 pm at St. James Place (9421 18th SW; map) – with an excellent agenda item, best practices for when and how to call 911. LOTS of other events tonight, and you can find them on the frequently updated WSB Events calendar page.