West Seattle sightings: From the Grouchos, to garbage trucks

| Seen around town | Utilities | West Seattle video

THE GROUCHOS: This is at least the third year that Groucho Marx faces have appeared in the bridgeside greenery of Pigeon Point. This news comes from Mark Bourne, who chronicles the sighting here and even wrote about them for Film.com last year.

GARBAGE TRUCKS: Not only did some trash/recycling procedures and pickup dates change starting today, WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli noticed something else:

He says that’s the first time he’s noticed one of the new “powered by natural gas” trucks, and adds, “You can’t really tell from the video but they are noticeably quieter than the old ones. They are also the cleanest garbage trucks I have ever seen.” We found a little more information at the Waste Management Seattle website — actually an excerpt from an earlier city news release about the new solid-waste contracts: “Sixty percent of the (WM) trucks will run on a bio-diesel blend and 40 percent will run on compressed natural gas.” Remember, if you’re STILL confused about the changes, you can find more info here or call the city’s “customer service” line at 684-3000.

BONUS SIGHTING: Moments after we published this item, we received a note, with pix, re: yet another interesting sighting — Larry Nitkey wondered if this was a “bridge to nowhere”:

Still looking for complete verification but 99% sure it’s for the Hood Canal Bridge project, judging by what’s in this Sunday article. (Note that the bridge’s six-week construction shutdown is just a month away – it starts May 1st.)

Harpo March 30, 2009 (10:45 am)

For a second I thought that Groucho’s Burgers was back in West Seattle. Let’s knock down the Starbucks drive-thru and rebuild it.

JanS March 30, 2009 (11:10 am)

I saw them as I was heading over the bridge earlier this AM…made me smile on a Monday morning…yay!!!

nuni March 30, 2009 (11:13 am)

I’m on the other side of the bay (in a building on the waterfront) and am watching the bridge float by. Weird!

Jo March 30, 2009 (11:26 am)

I absolutely loooooove the Groucho’s.
Saw them this morning, also, on my way to work.
Welcome back, Grouchos!

nudibranch March 30, 2009 (11:54 am)

I saw the bridge float by this morning (I work on Alaskan Way) and it totally made me smile. I love to watch what floats by on the water.

rockergirl March 30, 2009 (12:00 pm)

I viewed the “bridge” as it was being built several times while visiting Jack Block park viewpoint. It is amazing how much activity goes on in the sound that we have no idea about until someone snaps a pic like this.

rnl March 30, 2009 (1:03 pm)

I believe the artist responsible for these is located in the historic Youngstown/Frank B. Cooper School. http://youngstownarts.org/. Sometimes they have open house/studio events where the public can come & see what the artists are up to. Very cool.

KT March 30, 2009 (1:30 pm)

I give up on SPU. I live on 45th off Dakota. Today is our normal recycle pickup. Didn’t happen. Just happened to look at SPU’s new pickup calendar and it shows last week as recycle pickup and then next week as the next recycle pickup. That is complete BS. Recycle was not picked up last week. They changed the on-line calendar. Now we go 3 weeks without pickup. I don’t care anymore…the recycle goes in the garbage. If they have a problem I will dump in on the Mayor’s yard. Of course, the web site is down to report problems!

D March 30, 2009 (2:56 pm)

Here’s a webpage for tracking the location of the Bridge as it moves to the Hood Canal.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr104hoodcanalbridgeeast/follow

A March 30, 2009 (3:33 pm)

OMG KT you are totally right! I call bullsh*t on these m’fers. Why the hell did they change the schedule? Today is our regular recycle pick up day but now after reading your post I went to check the flyer that came in the mail and it’s not our recycle day now apparently. This is crap. Throw it all in the trash – who cares anymore!!

Dave March 30, 2009 (3:48 pm)

Right on, KT & A! I didn’t catch that they were changing our recycle day – why would they? Don’t they have separate trucks for recycle and yard waste? Why would adding yard waste change a recycle schedule? Why would expanding recyle pickup push back MY pickup day?

I’m *sure* we’ll get a credit for this…

WSB March 30, 2009 (4:08 pm)

Everything changed because the city has new contracts with its providers. It’s not just a matter of changing procedures.

AD March 30, 2009 (7:44 pm)

Arrrgh, our recycle was also not taken out. Laaame. We won’t throw it in the trash, we’ll just wait until the 4th.

Eddie March 30, 2009 (9:18 pm)

Still haven’t received my lame refund for 3 weeks missed pickups earlier this year, and now they skip another week pickup. I live near 47th and oregon and apparently I didn’t read the new schedule correctly either, because, although monday is (and was) my pickup day, apparently they shifted it from “this” monday to “some other” monday, which in my book, is another skipped pickup and should warrant another credit to my bill. Bet they are pretty swift to get that new food waste collection charge on there though.

So, am I not supposed to use my garbage disposal anymore either? What’s up with that?

LB March 31, 2009 (6:56 am)

That “bridge to nowhere” is indeed part of the Hood Canal Bridge project.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR104HoodCanalBridgeEast/Follow/

That pontoon had been at Todd Shipyard for several months.

GenHillOne March 31, 2009 (8:24 am)

KT, A, & Dave – we’re in the same boat on the recycling pick-up (and I see several neighbors have their bins still sitting out, thinking that it should have gone yesterday). Here’s the rub…I don’t have the flyer anymore – we saw our day wasn’t changing, so tossed it – but someone in our house checked the online calendar to confirm what was supposed to go out yesterday. She SWEARS that recyclng was on the 30th, because she noticed that it matched our original schedule. When I went to report the missed pick up last night, I looked at the calendar and it shows recycling last week (which of course it wasn’t) and the calendar says it was updated on March 28, Saturday. Was it really a last minute change? Did anyone else have this happen?

WSB March 31, 2009 (8:49 am)

The online tool hadn’t worked until Saturday and even then – that day, I corresponded with an SPU PR person who pointed out it was working, and I pointed out right back that while it correctly listed Tuesday as our pickup starting today (we were previously Monday), it also listed Tuesday last week, the week before, etc. He indicated he would call the SPU web folks’ attention to that. Shouldn’t have been a last-minute change, though, they were just switching on the online lookup, on a page that previously said it would be activated 3/30. All that said … we’ll see what happens in the ‘hood here today, now that our new day has arrived ..

GenHillOne March 31, 2009 (9:20 am)

There was some sort of schedule up before Saturday though, yes? They’ve been directing us to their site for a few weeks to check for changes. I’m leaning toward the thought that the two were not in agreement – at least for our neighborhood, because there are recycling bins up and down both the street and alley.

WSB March 31, 2009 (9:33 am)

Not in terms of being able to look up your own info. That wasn’t supposed to be posted till yesterday, for some reason – everybody was supposed to refer to the mailed flyer and also the notices taped to trash/recycling bins.

Eddie March 31, 2009 (10:05 am)

That lookup table seems to change history. The recycling pickup schedule shown for Feb and Mar is one week off from the pickup schedule I actually experienced for those past two months, and one week off from the pickup schedule we’ve had for the past 11 years.

alki_2008 April 1, 2009 (1:23 pm)

Yes – it sucks that recycling was missed…but this 3/30 thing is a major change for the city, so maybe it’s not yet time to get agitated about it. I’m sure that if the snow debacle wasn’t so recent, then this 3/30 thing would be as irritating.

And as far as refunds for missed recycling…recycling is already free!

Sorry, comment time is over.