day : 25/09/2008 13 results

Design Review: Link moves ahead; Admiral Safeway sent back

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That’s a view south down the sidewalk along the future 38th/Alaska building that Harbor Properties has named Link. Tonight, after its second Design Review Board session, Link won final DRB approval, but there’s more work ahead for the other project on the agenda:

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One week after its unveiling at a community meeting (WSB coverage here), the Admiral Safeway rebuild proposal made its debut before Design Review Board members – who had enough concerns that they asked Safeway and its architects to come up with more options and return for a second round of Early Design Guidance. ADDED EARLY FRIDAY MORNING: Here’s the full report:Read More

“Nickelsville” updates: Deadline past, still there

September 25, 2008 10:19 pm
|    Comments Off on “Nickelsville” updates: Deadline past, still there
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

nickelsvilleevictionsisgn.jpg… at last report, anyway, though the 72-hour grace period before eviction/clearing expired at 5 pm tonight. We’ll be checking in the early morning hours, since you never know what might happen when the TV crews pack up after the 11 pm news. And as we reported last night, at least one community liaison insisted the mayor told him that city crews would move in sometime Friday. A post in the Nickelsville Google Group says tonight that they want supporters to be there “as soon as possible … after the sun rises.” Blogging Georgetown went down this evening to check out the scene. We called the mayor’s office for comment and were told late this afternoon that the city doesn’t announce when sweeps happen, but in this case, whenever it happens, SDOT will clear the area because it’s their property, and Seattle Police will be there to assist just in case. The spokesperson also added that the mayor’s office is sensitive to the political nature of the protest, but (paraphrasing now) rules are rules.

WaMu, what it means to you

We’ve been out of the house since mid-morning, just catching up now on the WaMu failure/takeover/etc. news. That’s where we have two of our three accounts, none of them amounting to much, but having not been through this before, we wondered what this means, and found this on the Seattle Times site, for starters. (Wondered if the WaMu site itself would have anything, but so far it looks same as ever, replete with the WhooHoo nonsense that didn’t even make sense in theoretically good times.) Here’s the FDIC statement. Let us know if you’ve found any other good links; we’ll continue to look too. EARLY FRIDAY UPDATE: They added the new owners to the WaMu website – although the pre-existing cute-kid photo is just dying for a caption (“3, 2, 1, guess who owns you now!”):

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Councilmember plans forum on walking/biking improvements

The day before a pedestrian-safety demonstration is scheduled in West Seattle (WSB coverage here), City Councilmember Nick Licata is having a forum at City Hall about pedestrian/bicycle issues – read on:Read More

Alaskan Way Viaduct: Three more updates

LATEST BRIEFING MATERIALS: Want to see what the “integrated elevated” and “lidded trench” drawings look like, as mentioned in our earlier as-it-happened coverage of the advance briefing prior to the Stakeholders’ Advisory Committee meeting that’s under way? They’re now posted online. (You can see all the materials from tonight’s meetings, linked from this page.)

RETROFIT REITERATION: As mentioned in our running updates on that earlier briefing, Viaduct project leaders say they’re “done” with evaluating a possible retrofit. They reiterated it again at the Stakeholders’ Advisory meeting tonight, though committee member Peter Phillips said he felt they shouldn’t close the books on it without doing the type of evaluation suggested toward the end of this letter; WSDOT’s David Dye reiterated tonight that they feel they’ve spent more than enough time, money, and effort evaluating and re-evaluating it, and nothing new has come to light to lead them to say “ah-ha,” it should be back in the mix, so they’re “done.”

VIADUCT MOVIE: Some months back, we told you about documentary maker David Wheeler‘s search for a viaduct commuter to include in his forthcoming film about the Viaduct situation. The documentary’s done now – here’s the official news release (we’ll be checking with him to find out if screenings are planned):Read More

Be on the lookout for film crews in West Seattle

We’ve received a couple notes in the past week or so from folks who saw/heard what appeared to be film crew types doing some scouting in the Seacrest/Armeni area, and talking about what sounded like action scenes. So we checked with Chris Swenson in the Mayor’s Office of Film and Music to see if there was anything that could be said publicly (knowing most of these are supposed to be kept quiet); here’s the reply we received:

… unfortunately Seattle film permits are not available to the public until the filming is complete or the project is aired. We do have a number of projects happening in West Seattle over the next couple weeks.

Swenson also promised to forward our inquiry to the productions’ publicists in hopes they might care to tell us something. We’ll let you know whatever we hear; please let us know if you know anything and aren’t sworn to secrecy!

Prost West Seattle: A quick interview with the proprietor

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Ever since The Bohemian opened next door earlier this month, we’ve heard the question more frequently: When will Prost West Seattle (first mentioned here in May) be open? Proprietor Chris Navarra gave us a peek inside (photo above is the view looking left, south, from the front; we’ve got the bar view later in the story) during a quick interview today, so we’ve got lots more to tell you now about what he’s planning and when he hopes to be open:Read More

Traffic alert: Overnight closures on 99 ramp to 1st Ave. So.

September 25, 2008 2:43 pm
|    Comments Off on Traffic alert: Overnight closures on 99 ramp to 1st Ave. So.
 |   West Seattle traffic alerts

Not IN West Seattle, but close enough that you might need to know – so we’re passing along this advisory from the city:Read More

Alaskan Way Viaduct briefing: Updates as they happen

We’re on the 24th floor of the Wells Fargo Building, aka headquarters of the Alaskan Way Viaduct project, awaiting the briefing on some of the first data from the evaluation of the 8 “scenarios” currently under consideration, as decisionmakers prepare to narrow down the options and take elements of various ones to combine into three “finalists.” We’ll post headlines from the briefing here “live” as they emerge, with a wrapup later. POST-BRIEFING NOTE: Click ahead to see the hour and a half of liveblogging we did while this was still under way:Read More

California/Dawson crash: Detective looking for witnesses

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Just got off the phone with the Seattle Police traffic-collision detective who is investigating the crash that killed 92-year-old Rosemary MacCorkindale in the California/Dawson crosswalk earlier this week (investigation photo above). We’d originally called to check on the 30th/Trenton June motorcycle crash (after publishing this story about its survivor) and the 35th/Juneau crash that injured a 15-year-old girl (short answer on both those – the investigations aren’t complete yet), and he asked if we could put out this request: He is still looking for witnesses in the California/Dawson crash. Not people who “heard” something about it secondhand, but anyone who actually saw it happen, or perhaps something just before it happened. If you were a witness, please call/e-mail him, or if you know someone who saw something, please ask them to contact him: Detective Michael Korner, 206/684-8927, michael.korner@seattle.gov – he also gave us some insight into how the process of investigating major crashes works, and why just because a citation’s not issued at the scene doesn’t mean something won’t happen later – we’ll post about that separately later, en route to the Viaduct briefing now.

Welcoming a new WSB sponsor: e-green landscaping and materials

This morning, we welcome West Seattle’s e-green landscaping and materials to the West Seattle Blog sponsor team! Here’s what they want you to know about their locally owned business: egren.jpge-green landscaping and materials has been serving West Seattle since its beginning in 1999, with quality landscape contracting services and maintenance. They specialize in natural stone and concrete paver patios and walkways, along with garden renovations and design and build projects. They also have an ISA Certified Arborist and do full tree pruning, windsail pruning and shaping, tree health and hazard evaluations, and some tree removals. In 2003 e-green opened a new landscape and stone supply yard at 9010 Delridge Way SW, on the former site of Lenny’s Fuel. Here they sell bulk Cedar Grove compost and Veggie Garden Mix, Steerco Mulch, bark mulch, clean and minus 5/8″ gravel, drain/river rock, and builders’ sand in bulk or by the bag. They also stock both light and dark Basalt Rockery stone to match most West Seattle rockeries, granite boulder, quartzite boulders, a number of varieties of flagstone for walkways and patios, decorative pebbles and gravels, beach pebbles and more! They are West Seattle’s biggest bulk materials dealer and the only full stone yard in West Seattle. This winter they will add firewood and 5 lb. press logs to their wide selection of items. e-green offers full delivery service, with two residential sized trucks that can easily get into your driveway or back alley gates, including a small boom truck that can lift pallets of stone up onto your rockery, or pallet bags of compost, soil or other materials! e-green landscaping and materials is open from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday. You can find them on the web through their easily browsed website at www.egreenlandscaping.com or contact them at (206) 763-7625. They are easy to find at 9010 Delridge Way SW, Seattle 98106, just south of the stoplight at Henderson and Delridge. They are approx. 3 blocks north of Roxbury, and 1/4 mile east of Westwood Village Mall.” Thanks to e-green landscaping and materials for joining the WSB sponsor team; the current lineup is on this page along with information on how to join them.

Another new West Seattle eatery on the way

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Despite its longrunning “grand opening” sign, the teriyaki/burger place next to Tervo’s on Fauntleroy (4400 block, kitty corner from Starbucks’ drive-thru) has been closed for a while – but something new is moving in. Tim Roberts sent a tip yesterday that he’d heard about a barbecue joint coming in; we went by, nothing in the window, couldn’t find anything online – but now Tim sends this followup – a sandwich board in the window:

OK Corral
Sam’mich Slingers

B-B-Q
Pulled Pork
Fried Catfish
Hot Link

We’re going by to check it out. 12:09 PM UPDATE: Added photo of the sandwich board. Nobody there so we couldn’t ask about plans for opening; tried the number, no answer. Will keep checking!

Happening tonight in West Seattle: 4 quick notes

September 25, 2008 9:09 am
|    Comments Off on Happening tonight in West Seattle: 4 quick notes
 |   Development | Safety | West Seattle parks | WS culture/arts

All from the WSB Events calendar page: At Southwest Community Center, help design SWCC’s new fitness room, first workshop at 6 pm; at St. James Place (9421 18th SW), South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition monthly meeting, 6 pm (reps from Seattle Police and King County Sheriff’s Office among other agencies/groups, always lots of great information); at Southwest Precinct meeting room (Delridge/Webster), Southwest Design Review Board, Admiral Safeway project at 6:30 pm and 38th/Alaska “Link” at 8 pm; at Bamboo Bar and Grill, auditions start for Alki Idol,” 9:30 pm