day : 12/11/2008 11 results

34th District Democrats: Time to celebrate, and to look ahead

November 12, 2008 11:00 pm

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| Fauntleroy | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

Eight nights after an election in which most of their endorsed candidates/positions emerged victorious, the 34th District Democrats gathered tonight at The Hall at Fauntleroy, in a celebratory mood but not at all ready to rest on their laurels – here’s our report:Read More

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West Seattle business closing: On the Way Maternity

November 12, 2008 5:39 pm

| 12 COMMENTS

| West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

Just got a short note from On the Way Maternity owner Rosa Lim, asking us to post to tell you that “we are closing our doors.” The store opened 14 months ago at 5446 California SW. ADDED 6:02 PM: Rosa also wanted to share a message explaining what happened, and detailing her going-out-of-business sale — read on:Read More

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Update: Jefferson Square power outage

November 12, 2008 4:42 pm

| 1 COMMENT

| Utilities | WS breaking news

Scott C just called to report the power’s out in the Jefferson Square area – he says Safeway seems to be running on generator power, but “people are being led out of Bartell (Drugs) by flashlight.” Checking now to see what’s up (or down, in this case). Nothing on the City Light outage website or recording so far. 5:02 PM UPDATE: Co-publisher Patrick just checked out the area – while the Jefferson Square businesses are dark (including the street-level eateries on 42nd) aside from Safeway and the apartments above it, surrounding areas don’t appear to be affected. 6:48 PM UPDATE: Just drove by JS again – the 42nd-front businesses have power, as does Safeway, but the other stores around the upper parking lot still appear out.

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3 more for tomorrow: Time capsule; Viaduct briefing; Art Walk

November 12, 2008 4:08 pm

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| Alaskan Way Viaduct | West Seattle Art Walk | West Seattle history

TIME CAPSULE: One more reminder before the big day arrives — tomorrow is the day that will be memorialized in a time capsule to be buried next year at the new Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza; the Southwest Seattle Historical Society/Log House Museum folks are inviting contributions from all over the city, with an emphasis on items that will represent what life was like in Seattle on November 13, 2008 (157th anniversary of the Denny Party landing), when it’s opened on November 13, 2058. See this WSB update for more details on what to save and how to submit it; we’ll be offering electronic and printed copies of all tomorrow’s posts so we’ll be out taking more pix than usual, literally for posterity’s sake.

VIADUCT: This one’s for the ages too — a media briefing’s just been called to announce more findings about the possible options for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct‘s Central Waterfront section. The 2:30 pm briefing downtown will preview what the Viaduct Stakeholders Advisory Committee (which includes West Seattleites Vlad Oustimovitch and Pete Spalding) will review at its Town Hall meeting 2 hours later; we of course will be at the briefing to bring you the newest information as state, city, and county leaders get closer to figuring out the plan for what happens after the central section comes down in 2012.

ART WALK: Tomorrow night, the weather should improve in time for the monthly West Seattle Art Walk – more than 40 venues are participating now, all over West Seattle, 6-9 pm, and many have artists’ receptions (like WSB inaugural sponsor Hotwire Coffee, which is having a staffers’ art show, including Blayne of “Project Runway” fame) – see the full list of participants, and get the map, at the WSAW blog.

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West Seattle signs: You saw these two coming

November 12, 2008 3:16 pm

| 6 COMMENTS

| Gas prices | West Seattle news

Just back from an errand break, during which we spotted two signs worth passing along, even though neither is a surprise – Delridge Arco has broken into the $2.10s (how long till $1.99?), and Zeeks Pizza has finally put up “coming spring 2009” signage at its future location, the ex-Corner Inn (Fauntleroy/California; we first reported their West Seattle plans back in September, thanks to a tip from Rick).

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Welcoming a new WSB sponsor: Tilden School

November 12, 2008 1:31 pm

| 9 COMMENTS

| West Seattle people | West Seattle schools

WSB welcomes another sponsor this morning: Tilden School, an independent K-5 school located north of The Junction, providing “a rich and rigorous program for the intellectual, artistic, social, and physical development of each student. Small classes and a low student/teacher ratio enable teachers to respond to the individual development needs—academic, social, and physical—of each student.” Tilden emphasizes cooperation and consideration of others.

Above, you see students from Tilden School‘s current 5th grade class, taught by Karin Beck; the school recently invited WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand to talk with the 5th grade students about evaluating sources of information when doing research. At the end of the talk, Patrick asked the class to tell him what they like about their school. Here are a few highlights:

SCIENCE: From Casey — The whole school does science, from K to 5th grade, beginner to advanced; starting in the earth, then sprouting up like a flower or a rocket shooting up, up, and out of the ground. Virgil, the science teacher, teaches it all.

MUSIC CLASS: From Owen — Tilden School has a very uplifting music class that is held every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. When I go to music, I always know that it will be a wonderful time.

K-BUDDIES: From Olivia — At Tilden School, the fifth graders and Kindergarteners get to have a special connection. Every year, fifth graders are paired up with Kindergarteners to do all sorts of activities throughout the school year, such as making Halloween bags, memorizing lines for poetry and plays, reading books, and much more.

To find out more about the school, its people, and its philosophy, you can explore its website at tildenschool.org. Tilden is currently scheduling visits for interested parents on Wednesday mornings; please contact the school to reserve a time, or for more information. Welcome to Tilden School; we thank Tilden for supporting WSB along with our other sponsors — the current list is on this page along with information about how to become part of it!

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The people who need West Seattle’s food banks need you. Now.

November 12, 2008 12:23 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| How to help | West Seattle news

The mayor had a media event in the Rainier Valley this morning to call attention to the dramatic rise in food-bank usage citywide, and his proposal to spend a bit more city $ to help (here’s the official news release). You don’t have to wait for city government to do something: Two food banks serve West Seattle (each has a distinct service area), and both are dealing with a HUGE increase in clientele: You can donate $ online to West Seattle Food Bank by going right here right now; donate $ online to White Center Food Bank by going right here right now. Money helps the most, because the food banks can use it to buy in bulk. We also just got an announcement from Shorewood Church and School that it’s launching a food drive for WCFB tomorrow – read on for those details:Read More

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The naked truth: Park Board to be briefed on nudity crackdown

November 12, 2008 11:08 am

| 29 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

Tomorrow night’s meeting of the Seattle Board of Park Commissioners is on our radar because of the proposal to seek a private operator for West Seattle Stadium — but it turns out that’s not the only item of interest on the agenda. The Parks Board will be briefed about a new proposed policy on nudity, and details have just been released. The topline goes like this:

The proposed rule of conduct would prohibit nudity in any public park or park facility open to the public. Violation of the rule may lead to the withdrawal of permission to remain in the park or park facility for a period of twenty-four hours or exclusion from parks, depending on the circumstances. There would be exceptions for children under the age of five, nursing mothers, and in restrooms, locker rooms and indoor showers.

But reading further into the briefing paper – which you can see in its entirety here – the proposal also would end the reported use of some public beaches as “informal clothing-optional beaches” and also would end the practice of granting permits for events such as the World Naked Bike Ride (which stopped by several West Seattle parks this past summer):

Event permits – The two most frequent requests for event permits are related to the beginning and stopover locations for the World Naked Bike Ride and for picnics at Magnuson Park. Recent World Naked Bike Ride events have resulted in complaints from citizens to the Seattle Police Department. These permits have been issued as the Superintendent does not now have a basis in law or regulation for denying an event permit as long as the permittee agrees to abide by applicable laws, rules and regulations, as is currently required by the permit. The proposed Rule will prohibit nude, or clothing optional events even under special permit. The Superintendent will no longer authorize permits for events where it is clear public nudity is planned.

After the briefing at tomorrow night’s park board meeting – 7 pm Thursday, Parks HQ in Denny Park downtown – a public hearing is planned for the Jan. 8 meeting, and a final vote on Jan. 22. Meantime, we’re reviewing the board agenda documents for tomorrow night’s West Seattle Stadium item and will post about that separately later. We’ll also be seeking comment on the nudity policy from the local WNBR organizer who participated extensively in the comments on our September report (and had in the past requested to rent Colman Pool for a nude swimming event).

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Happening tonight: Three highlights

November 12, 2008 10:08 am

| 2 COMMENTS

| Environment | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

From the WSB Events calendar, three highlights from what’s happening tonight: The 34th District Democrats meet for the first time since last week’s election; 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy — which is in the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, which in turn happens to be on the Seattle School Board agenda at 6 pm tonight (district HQ in Sodo), as they vote on approving the $1.8 million deal to sell the building and part of its site to the Fauntleroy Community Services Agency. One other meeting that’s not in West Seattle but affects our area – a draft habitat-restoration plan for the Duwamish River will be discussed at South Seattle Community College‘s Georgetown campus (here’s a map), 5:30 pm.

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West Seattle Weather Watch: Blustery, but no major trouble

November 12, 2008 9:40 am

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| West Seattle weather

Just in case you were wondering, no major problems reported anywhere in West Seattle that we’ve found as a result of the rain and wind. The forecast still calls for everything to ebb by evening.

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Another West Seattle winner: Cohen the Cover Dog

November 12, 2008 2:34 am

| 1 COMMENT

| Pets | West Seattle news

Not only is West Seattle home to the city’s new Poet Populist, WS also is home to CityDog Magazine‘s Cover Dog Search winner. We told you October 25th about Cohen making it into the Final 5; last night Cohen’s proud person Ray e-mailed WSB to say the results are in: Cohen’s the winner – read about it on the CityDog blog (which also is hawking a 2009 calendar that features this West Seattle doggie duo).