West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Team WSB watched tonight’s “Project Runway“ episode with a spirited crowd – biggest since the premiere night – at Ginomai, where the air conditioning was heavenly and so was the potluck dessert selection – read on to see how Blayne did and what his Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) boss Lora Lewis says about it:Read More
This time last night, thousands of West Seattleites were out in the streets enjoying a summer night with their neighbors, as part of National Night Out. (Previous WSB coverage, with lots of pix, here and here.) Tonight – we have a few more photos to share, thanks to folks who sent pix from parties we didn’t get to. This one’s from the party Michal-Ann says was the “best ever” for the 4700 block of 25th SW:
That’s a homemade pinata that later yielded its treasure trove of candy. The block also got a visit from the firefighters of Engine 36:
And that meant kids got an up-close-and-personal look at Engine 36, too:
From another party last night, Luckie says her block’s turnout was the best ever — they expanded the invitation zone — and they were even visited by “royalty”: two little girls turned up in identical princess garb!
And from one of the parties we DID get to, Susie‘s block, one more photo – all 16 kids on the block posed for a group shot:
Beach Drive Blog, meantime, has not only a party photo, but also a recipe.
It’s been discussed off and on in this WSB Forums thread for a few weeks, but now the word from “Big Al” himself is that this new establishment in White Center (former site of Pacific Rim) opens at 3 pm tomorrow. 9832 14th SW (map).
Just got this in the Youngstown Arts Center e-mail newsletter:
As the weather finally starts to cooperate, we have many exciting events on the horizon for August. Please mark your calendars for Thursday, August 21st, at 6 PM, as we join forces with Rock School, Arts Corps, the Service Board, and Blank Canvass to host a fundraiser to support our afterschool classes here at Youngstown. We’ll have some special guests (members of Pearl Jam, Presidents of the United States, Guns and Roses, and the Dusty 45’s), as well as youth and teaching artist performances. There will also be an auction of collaborative artwork created that day, including work by Modest Mouse, and our very own staff and tenant organizations. All of the proceeds will cover the cost of space and teaching artists so that we can continue to offer our afterschool classes for free.
If you have somehow managed to not have visited Youngstown – it’s the renovated ex-school on Delridge across from the playfield/community center, and an AMAZING amount of activities happen there.
Just got word from the county that the next phase of noisier-than-usual work in the Alki pump-station project, pile driving — which literally will shake things up in the area, too — may start as soon as tomorrow. (First warning of the impending pile driving was reported here four weeks ago.) As it’s described in the county’s online project update:
Approximately 120 shoring sheets will be installed which are 20 inches wide by 35 feet long. A crane will be used to pick up the sheets and a vibratory driver will be used to vibrate them into the ground. After installation, the sheet piling will be left in place and additional excavation will occur.
Residents in the area can expect to see large construction equipment on site, such as a 200-ton crane and a large power unit, and should expect to hear additional noise. Residents may feel some vibrations during this work and may want to pack up breakable valuables as a precaution. King County’s contractor will closely monitor vibration levels to minimize disruption and protect against property damage.
If you have a construction-related complaint or question, the county has a 24-hour hotline: 206-205-5656.
Just got word of a crash on the high bridge, westbound, causing backups on The Viaduct and elsewhere. Stand by for details. 5:55 PM UPDATE: The bridge cam and 911 show the Fire Department just closed the incident, so hopefully it will clear before too long. In the cameras on the Traffic page, you can see that while the view looking east at the westbound bridge looks like a semi-normal backup, it’s clearly a chokepoint just before the camera view, because the view looking west at the final stretch of the westbound bridge (same one you see in the righthand sidebar on all WSB pages) is way too empty for this time of day.
The bit of yellow you see at the left side of that photo is from the lone flag that remains out of the two baskets of pedestrian flags delivered to California/Dawson (by Rite-Aid) a month and a half ago. Days after the delivery, the flag baskets at Avalon/Yancy (one of two other West Seattle ped-flag spots) were already empty, but quickly replenished, as reported here; we advised Kim, who e-mailed us about California/Dawson, to call the SDOT hotline at 206-684-ROAD in hopes they can fix the situation fast.
We’re at Alki checking on Heat Wave ’08 (warm and hazy but not THAT bad) and just noticed the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza is really taking shape in a big way. The big dedication celebration, in fact, is scheduled for exactly one month from today (tomorrow marks one month since construction began with site demolition/prep). After we took today’s photo and went across the street for a beverage and wi-fi, we looked back across the street and noticed two people we believe to have been the original architects, Matt Hutchins and Chris Ezzell, over at the construction site, taking pictures (added later: Matt confirms it was an onsite meeting for SSLPP reps and adds, “Construction is proceeding nicely, and we’re pretty excited to see it starting to take shape!”). We’d also received word a few days ago from David Hutchinson that “Kenadar has just about finished the production of all inscribed bricks. The bronze bench and landscape plaques will be cast by the end of (this) week and the new pedestal is being cast offsite for later installation.” All our Alki Statue of Liberty coverage is archived here, including video from the early stages of construction last month, such as the semi-famous “flying lady” clip.
Two weeks into serious work at the Fauntleroy Place site (current status: big dirt piles, as seen above), we checked as promised with developers BlueStar this morning to ask if the Whole Foods trouble has led to any concern for them about the grocery chain’s participation in the project (mentioned here last night). BlueStar’s Eric Radovich says no — “We have a lease that’s signed and recorded” — 25 years — and adds that they’ve been working closely with Whole Foods in recent weeks to finalize the design, looking ahead to next week’s Design Review Board meeting (8 pm 8/14, High Point Community Center). He adds that Whole Foods is considering the design for this store to be something of a template for their next generation of stores.
Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) barista Blayne is still in the running on “Project Runway,” and for week 4 tonight, the guest judge is from Seattle — Olympic speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno (the challenge apparently has an Olympic theme). You can watch PR with a congenial group at Ginomai around the corner from Hotwire (SW corner of 42nd/Genesee); bring a nonalcoholic beverage and small dessert to share, doors open 8 pm, show at 9, fun way to beat the heat.
In this time of government budget crises, the world seems to run on volunteer power more than ever. All you need to do is give a little time – it adds up to a lot of help for those who need it. Latest example, out of the WSB inbox, is from Kerrie Carbary, the new West Seattle coordinator for Volunteer Chore Services. Here’s their announcement; maybe there’s something simple here you can make time to help with:
* A woman with severe arthritis needs companionship to the grocery store.
* An elderly woman is worried about falling down her front stairs as she does gardening, and would love for someone to help her out.
* A disabled woman needs help lifting her laundry into the washing machine.Help with simple tasks like these can make a real difference in someone’s life.
Volunteer Chore Services is a “safety net” for elders and adults living with disabilities who are unable or ineligible for state/paid chore services. All recipients are low-income, have health problems or difficulty with mobility, and most live alone. A growing volunteer opportunity in your neighborhood consists of driving clients to doctor appointments, grocery shopping or other chores. We carefully match volunteers to opportunities based on their personalities, neighborhood, and preferences.
Background:
In 1981 the Federal Government cut funding from their “service to the homebound” program leaving thousands of people in the Seattle area without the resources needed to remain independent, at home, and connected to their communities. Volunteer Chore Services, a community based non-profit program, was born shortly thereafter to try and cope with the need that was created by the lack of government funding.The Future:
Currently, volunteers are donating over 3000 hours a month in the Seattle area. However, there is still a huge number of people waiting for help, and a shortage of volunteers. Volunteers are needed all over Seattle and South King County, but especially in areas like West Seattle.For more information on how you can help in West Seattle, please call Kerrie Carbary, the volunteer coordinator in your area, at 206-328-6858, Volunteer Chore Services main intake line at 206-328-5787, or email kerriec@ccsww.org.
Seattle Weekly just posted its “Best of 2008” winners’ list, with some West Seattle representation: In the readers’ poll, Buddha Ruksa was voted “best Thai restaurant,” Husky Deli was voted “best takeout deli food,” Cupcake Royale (which of course has branches outside WS too) got “best cupcakes,” and we thank you for voting WSB “best neighborhood blog” – the Weekly kindly included the description, “keeping us astoundingly well-informed on goings-on across the bridge.” You can read the entire Best of 2008 readers’-poll list here. In addition to the reader votes, the Weekly also profiled its staff “best of” picks; Spring Hill is “best new restaurant“; Rocksport is lauded as “best unvarnished sports bar”; Redline Music and Sports is written up here as “best way to keep your Cougar pride in Seattle,” Kitty Harbor is profiled here as “best place to melt your heart,” and WSB also got a bonus shoutout in this section, courtesy of Weekly managing editor Mike Seely, who lives on this side of the bay. You can browse all the writeups from this “Best Of” start page; there are a TON of categories and we just read through as quickly as we could but have to leave the computer for a while – let us know if you see a West Seattle winner we missed and we’ll add it here later.
Diane sent this, with that plaintive plea in the subject line:
On Sunday, July 27 someone decided they needed to remove my sixteen-year-old Acura Vigor from my driveway in Pigeon Point. I am hoping that it is sitting in your neighborhood taking up space. It is black with a spoiler on the back with a good-looking outside and a well-worn inside. The license plate number is 861RMX. If you have seen it, I would love to bring it home.
Side notes: According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Seattle’s auto-theft rate is #16 in the nation, with more than 24,000 vehicles stolen last year. The police department has an auto-theft-prevention webpage here, and crime stats by census tract (including car-theft breakouts) on an interactive map here.
The water’s really the place to be when the temperature peaks in the early evening – David Hutchinson sent that Tuesday sunset shot of Argosy’s Goodtime II off Alki. Temps could be into the 90s by day’s end (and that Smog Watch is still in effect). And if you’ll be looking for a place to chill with good company by evening, join the “Project Runway” viewing party at Ginomai (southwest corner 42nd/Genesee) to cheer for Hotwire< barista Blayne — 8 pm doors open (bring non-alcoholic beverage/small dessert to share), 9 pm show.
In report #1, we showed you the pix we took and posted while traveling around West Seattle 6-9:30 pm last night to visit Night Out parties. Only made it to a dozen of the 32-ish stops we’d hoped to visit – next year we’ll split up AND recruit reinforcements! But luckily pix are starting to come in from places we didn’t get to – like the Pigeon Point party with almost 100 participants — Pete Spalding, shown below with Southwest Precinct Captain Joe Kessler, sent some pix:
Capt. Kessler and other precinct leaders made the rounds to other Night Out events around West Seattle; we’ve heard of at least a few other sightings. Back to Pigeon Point, here are three other shots Pete sent – note they had Fire Department representation too – in this next photo, Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council president Matt Swenson is in the foreground, with longtime neighborhood volunteer Ed Doyne in the center:
Now, from Arbor Heights, State Sen. Joe McDermott sends a photo of Joy and Anna, whose karaoke number he found himself introducing when he stopped by their neighborhood’s block party near 100th/California:
Speaking of music, here’s that video we promised with the jam by the 40th Street Band, headlining the Fairmount Springs block party we featured in our first report:
And we have a block-party report from Arbor Heights Elementary teacher Mark Ahlness, who shows us what happened in his Gatewood neighborhood:
Mark also shared this report:
OMG what a beautiful night! At the corner of SW Elmgrove and 39th SW we had our annual Night Out. We were definitely feeling the absence of co-host for so many years Wilma, but husband Wally, son Ed, and neighbors carried on. We wished Wilma a speedy return from the hospital – sent her a banner and a group “Hi†picture tonight. Our local fire department spent some time with us again – a tradition we really appreciate and enjoy.
Here’s the banner they made for Wilma, followed by the visit from Engine 37 (which is getting a new station at 35th/Holden – city status reports say construction starts soon), and the group shot Mark mentioned:
Next chance to meet neighbors and local law enforcers: Picnic at the Precinct, Saturday 8/16, 1-4 pm at the Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster; map).
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