That’s what it looks like when the lights come on each night at the Menashe Family‘s Beach Drive home – where you’ll find West Seattle’s biggest and brightest Christmas lights display. You won’t usually hear that loud set of oohs and aahs, though – tonight, the lights had a special audience: Family and friends there for the videotaping of a cable TV show. They had to throw the switch a few times to get extra angles, like this:
Here’s the camera crew:
Really important to note – the show, which we’re told features several spectacular holiday homes around the country including the Menashes’, won’t air until NEXT holiday season – as in, late 2010; it’ll be on TLC. Too much production required to put it together in time for air this holiday season. But you can go see the Menashes’ display any night in person; as has now become an annual WSB tradition, we asked Josh Menashe to give us the 2-minute tour of what’s new in the display this year:
The Menashe display is along the southern stretch of Beach Drive – no direct access from the east but you can either hit Beach Drive from the Lowman Beach area and head north, or from the Jacobsen Road end and drive south. Here’s a map. Meantime, we’ll be spotlighting lots of light displays – let us know about yours, or something cool you’ve seen – here’s the archive so far, from this year and the past few years.
An unusual late-night announcement from the King County Council. An advisory committee has narrowed down the list of 11 candidates seeking appointment to the Council seat given up by Dow Constantine when he became King County Executive last week. They are recommending four candidates be interviewed for Council District 8, which includes West Seattle and White Center. All four are current elected officials; two say they’ll run for the seat in November 2010, 34th District State Sen. Joe McDermott (the only West Seattleite in the quartet) and 11th District Rep. Zack Hudgins,, while the other two say they will not run for the “permanent” job – outgoing Seattle City Councilmember Jan Drago (who ran for mayor instead of for council re-election) and 34th District State Rep. Sharon Nelson. Read on for the full announcement and what happens next:Read More
Two more gorgeous photos tonight, following up on the great ones shared earlier – thanks again to EVERYBODY. Top photo is Mount Baker, as captured by David Hutchinson tonight from Alki with the pink light of sunset/dusk. Next, Max caught tonight’s moonrise:
We’ve been planning some upgrades – mostly the behind-the-scenes stuff that you wouldn’t notice immediately, but which would pave the way for us to make some much-needed improvements – and we’d hoped to be able to warn you before we started tinkering with the live site, but a little earlier tonight … we suddenly had to tinker with the live site, without warning. So you might have noticed some slowness. If you notice ANYTHING different regarding the way you access/navigate the site, including the iPhone version if applicable, PLEASE let us know, either in a comment or through e-mail etc. – we are still kicking the tires following a major upgrade in content-management-system versions, and we also are upgrading the WSB Forums‘ behind-the-scenes stuff, which could lead to some hiccups we won’t notice till you point them out. Thanks for your patience and help!
Quality’s not big enough to blow it up full width, but while heading home from downtown on 35th SW (no sign of The Missing Totem Pole yet), we passed historic Fire Station 37 and noticed it’s got Christmas lights again this year – so we stopped for a quick photo. Not a giant display, but this is probably the last year that the landmark building will be in service as a fire station, as the new one (under construction a few blocks south) is scheduled to be finished in the middle of next year, at which time the old one will be put up for sale. FS 37 is at 35th/Othello; here’s a map. And we’re ready to showcase YOUR Christmas light photos – editor@westseattleblog.com or add ’em to the WSB Flickr group – what we have so far (plus past years) is archived here (and find other holiday haps here).
From City Hall downtown: The Seattle Design Commission has finished its two-part review of the portion of the Admiral Safeway redevelopment project on which it’s required to sign off, the “alley vacation,” and the vote was in favor of approval. (If a project requires a street or alley vacation – asking the city to give up its right of way – that requires several levels of approvals, including the Design Commission’s blessing in two stages, urban design and public benefit, what citizens theoretically are getting in exchange for giving up publicly owned property.) After the first presentation (WSB coverage here), which resulted in the group approving the urban design, they made it clear they wanted more information about its possible traffic effects, so at this afternoon’s review, architect Bill Fuller was joined by a traffic consultant. She said they’d studied the effects of five Safeway redevelopment projects in the region and by extrapolating those results – particularly knowing that these projects are not geared to bring more people to the store, so much as to add improvements that would have existing customers spend more money at the store – they do not expect a sizable traffic impact – about 300 additional “trips” per day beyond what the site generates now. The project will include about three dozen residential units and almost 100 “flex-work units” as well as almost doubling the size of the grocery store and adding a 6,000-square-foot retail building along California on the northwest edge of the property. Landscape architect Andy Rasmussen also joined the presentation, during which it was noted that the project will be trying for LEED certification. The only member of the public to attend and speak was longtime Admiral neighborhood advocate Dennis Ross, who again voiced strong support for the project. Leaving City Hall now to return to West Seattle, will add details of the commissioners’ concerns when we get back online.10:33 AM FRIDAY: Highlights finally added, ahead (note – we also have added graphics from the presentation – thanks to Fuller Sears for answering our request for digital copies):Read More
First – you’ve no doubt heard by now about the Papa John’s Pizza fundraiser, in which the company says it will donate its regional profits from orders next Tuesday/Wednesday to the families of the four Lakewood Police officers killed last Sunday. We just confirmed that the Papa John’s in West Seattle is participating. Meantime, another dining fundraiser has just been announced by Merrill Gardens (WSB sponsor), which has two West Seattle locations, where all proceeds from this event will go to the officers’ families:
Wednesday, December 9, 5-7 pm, Merrill Gardens at Admiral Heights & West Seattle will host a Pasta Dinner with all the fixings to raise money for the families of the fallen police officers in Western Washington. The dinner will be available for a minimum $10 donation. All money collected will be donated to the fund for the families.
Residents and team members at each of the 22 Washington State Merrill Gardens retirement communities will host this fundraiser that is open to family, friends and the general public. All food and beverages will be donated by Merrill Gardens.
Where: Merrill Gardens at Admiral Heights
2326 California Ave. SW, (206) 938-3964
Merrill Gardens at West Seattle
4611 35th Ave. SW, (206) 932-5480
Tomorrow, Friday, December 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Seattle Department of Transportation crews will close the left lane of Alaskan Way Viaduct northbound at Massachusetts Street. During the closure, the crew will install a temporary railing until a permanent repair can be made. The guard rail was damaged by a recent one-car accident. Motorists should expect slowing and use caution through the work zone.
Two months after West Seattleites Marty Riemer and Jodi Brothers were dropped by The Mountain (where he’d been for 12 years), he’s just announced a new gig, via his Facebook page, where his status reads:
We have a new home! Starting Monday, December 7, Jodi and I are bringing the comedy to 96.5 JACK-FM. Tune in on Monday to 96.5FM (my old home from the KXRX days) for the “7:19AM Funnies” and “5:19PM Funnies.” We bring you the comedy 1 minute faster; first with the funniest. That’s what happens when you give us a little free time to be creative .. we come up with a 5:19 Funny. Awesome! Details at martyriemer.com
A day and a half after our first report of arrests on the February 1st murder of Steve Bushaw in West Seattle, police have issued their official news release – with one new bit of info: They’re still asking for tips in the case. Read on for the full text (including where to direct tips):Read More
Notice something missing in that photo? At West Seattle Rotary Viewpoint Parkalong 35th SW at Alaska, overlooking the West Seattle Golf Course, the totem pole’s gone, with only that blue steel post in place. (Here’s a Flickr shot of what you SHOULD be seeing there; [added 6:48 pm] at left, a Rotary photo.) After a WSB’er e-mailed us yesterday to say she noticed it missing, we put in an inquiry to the Parks Department to ask if it had been taken away for maintenance – and also went over, not just to get the photo you see above, but also to see if there was a note about work being done. Now we’ve just learned, Parks thinks it may have been stolen. We just talked with Terry Boden, who works on maintenance for parks in this area; he says he checked throughout the department to see if anyone has any knowledge of the totem pole being taken away for maintenance, but hasn’t turned up anything – so he’s planning to call Seattle Police to report it as a theft. As donors and stewards of the 33-year-old park, Rotary Club of West Seattle has been investigating too, Josh Sutton tells us – checking out a report of a stuck truck getting towed from the scene, possibly while trying to take the pole away; in fact, while there yesterday, we noted these tracks in the grass:
Parks received that report too and hasn’t been able to confirm it. So if you know anything about what happened to the totem pole, Terry Boden would like to hear from you – he’s headquartered at Lincoln Park, 206-684-7457.
Thanks to those who answered the call for photos of the full-moon-rise that brought photographers to West Seattle viewpoints in droves last night, looking for a shot like … that one there! Thanks, Greg! (He’s also wondering if anyone can identify the specific peak in front of the moon in his image.) Also just in, Derek’s view from a little while later:
ADDED 11:11 AM: Two shots from Alki photographer extraordinaire David Hutchinson. For the technically minded, he includes this note:
The full moon photo is actually a combination of two taken on a tripod. The first was at a shutter speed of 1 second to expose for the downtown skyline and the second taken immediately afterwards at 1/60 of a second to expose for the full moon. At 1 second the moon shows as a white featureless disk and at 1/60th second the downtown lights are hardly visible. Our eyes do a great job of compensating for this difference in brightness.
David photographed from the Seacrest area, and went back for this morning’s sunrise:
ADDED 3:24 PM: Thanks to Sean for this closeup of just the full moon:
Thanks again! If any more come in, we’ll add them to this item.
Also happening today – a tribute procession and memorial service downtown for a Seattle Fire Department Battalion Chief who worked in West Seattle for more than half of his long career with the city. Battalion Chief David H. Jacobs, Jr., was with SFD for more than a quarter century; spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen tells us he worked at West Seattle’s Station 29 (in North Admiral) from 1987 to 1997 as a Lieutenant and again from 2004 to 2008 as the Battalion Chief. In 2003, he was honored as SFD’s “Chief of the Year.” Last month, Chief Jacobs died after a battle with cancer. Prior to this afternoon’s memorial at the Lake Union Naval Reserve Center (map), a procession will follow this route, per SFD: “The Seattle Fire Department Honor Guard, Seattle Firefighters Pipes & Drums Band, fire engines and fire trucks will leave Sixth Avenue between Battery Street and Bell Street at 1:30 p.m. and head south down Sixth Avenue to Bell Street, go east on Bell Street to Ninth Avenue, then go north on Ninth Avenue to Republican Street and then East on Republican Street to Terry Avenue. The procession will finish heading north on Terry Avenue to the memorial site.”
RESERVOIR PARK PLAN: Residents of Highland Park have been brainstorming for years about the future of Westcrest Park and extra parkland to be created by the covering of its reservoir (including June’s HP Action Committee mini-summit); now, the work is well under way, and while the Parks Department says park construction won’t start till 2011, its official meetings to plan and design the space start tonight. 7 pm, High Point Community Center (map).
ARTIST RECEPTION AT THE DUWAMISH LONGHOUSE: Photographer Joanne Petrina has been documenting the lives of Duwamish Tribe members for two years, and her work is on display at the almost-year-old longhouse in West Seattle ; tonight, you can meet her at an artist reception, 6 pm. Full details here. (Side note – there’s a holiday craft fair at the longhouse this weekend.)
TWO AFTERNOON REMINDERS: The “alley vacation” component of the Admiral Safeway redevelopment project goes before the Seattle Design Commission at 2 pm today (previewed here); another planning meeting for the Admiral-area kiosks and signposts in the West Seattle Trails project (second one this week) starts at 4 pm at the West Seattle (Admiral) Library (map).
More on the WSB West Seattle Events calendar and the West Seattle Holidays page – which includes ongoing “giving tree” and other charity efforts as well as specific time-based events – LOTS of chances to make this a happier holiday for those going through tough times.
Judging by our early-morning inbox yield, some folks followed up on the recommendation we shared Tuesday from Lura, who sent info about late night low tides continuing the next two nights – David Rosen from SlickPix Photography saw the stars you see above, and the Alki curve you see below:
We also have a bit of video from Alki – WSB contributing reporter Mary Sheely was out with husband Dave Sheely (catch his designs at Urban Craft Uprising this weekend!) and they spotted this camouflaged crab:
Also a photographer’s delight – the full moon that’s just graced us – the prospect of seeing it come up pre-dusk led to this lineup:
Thanks to “westseattledood” for that shot of photographers staked out at the Admiral Way viewpoint last night, awaiting the moonrise over the downtown skyline. Haven’t seen any photos of it yet but we’d love to run one if you have one! Facing the other way, we received a few dusk photos of the USS John C Stennis out and about again – this one from Chris S with the Olympics’ “The Brothers” peaks in the background:
From Wednesday night’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting: The group took the first steps toward forming committees with members focused on specific needs/concerns. As co-secretary Holli Margell (at left with Patrick Bergner) noted, the four board members can only do so much – they need help. The matter of who’s on which committee hasn’t been settled yet, but they did decide on the committees: Public safety, including attendance at monthly meetings at the Southwest Precinct; outreach, to get the word out about the council’s existence, and to interact with other groups, as well as planning events and maintaining a website; beautification, which includes the quarterly Adopt-a-Street cleanups and traffic-circle maintenance; streets and pedestrians, focusing on street improvements and how to make the area more walkable; and two other areas were being combined into one committee — transportation (bike lanes, bus routes, etc.) and planning/development. Meantime, NDNC revisited the road-project proposals they’re supporting for potential city funding; after getting an indication from the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council that only smaller projects are likely to succeed in getting funding, they dropped the $6 million Delridge traffic-calming idea for now. They’re instead asking the district council to consider championing the Brandon and Hudson sidewalk projects, as well as drainage/sidewalks for 25th SW between Brandon and Juneau. (See our NDNC report from last month for more on the first two projects.) Two more notes – The group is sending a card to the precinct, expressing their thanks and support, during what’s been a difficult time for law enforcers around the region – Margell is holding the card in the photo above left. Also, co-chair Mirro pointed out at the meeting that since the Delridge Library will be changing its hours because of city budget cuts early next year, the council will have to change its meeting time/day. No decision yet; we’ll let you know when they announce the plan.
Francinee-mailed to share the story of something that happened Tuesday because of the road work shown in our photo above (taken Wednesday) at the far north end of California SW – it’s part warning, and part thanks for Good Samaritans – read on:Read More
Quality’s not big enough to blow it up full width, but while heading home from downtown on 35th SW (no sign of 
required to sign off, the “alley vacation,” and the vote was in favor of approval. (If a project requires a street or alley vacation – asking the city to give up its right of way – that requires several levels of approvals, including the Design Commission’s blessing in two stages, urban design and public benefit, what citizens theoretically are getting in exchange for giving up publicly owned property.) After the first presentation (
along 35th SW at Alaska, overlooking the West Seattle Golf Course, the totem pole’s gone, with only that blue steel post in place. (
As co-secretary Holli Margell (at left with Patrick Bergner) noted, the four board members can only do so much – they need help. The matter of who’s on which committee hasn’t been settled yet, but they did decide on the committees: Public safety, including attendance at monthly meetings at the 
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