7 pm and time to start our coverage of the West Seattleites who are in the city’s biggest parade tonight, the Seafair Torchlight Parade. We’re along the parade route downtown. For starters, we just got word from West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival president Tim Winstonthat the Hi-Yu “Dreams Do Come True” float has won the Princess Award – same one last year’s float won! Just got one addition to the list of West Seattleites to watch for – Michelle Edwards, former Hi-Yu Queen, is playing cymbals with the Seahawks’ Blue Thunder. 7:54 PM UPDATE: And again this year, the Hi-Yu rep in the Miss Seafair program has been chosen as a princess – Tim just sent word that Margo Femiano was chosen 1st Princess. (Just got a photo of Margo from tonight’s coronation, via text message – thanks! – added it at left.) ADDED 9:54 PM: The Hi-Yu float went by our spot (by City Hall) a short time ago – here’s video:
11:48 PM: Adding some more video, as promised. Here are the Pathfinder K-8 unicyclists flying by:
And here’s new Seafair First Princess Margo Femiano, riding in the parade:
Margo was Miss West Seattle Hi-Yu for 2008-2009; because Miss Seafair candidates have a busy schedule, as do members of Hi-Yu royalty, Miss Hi-Yu isn’t in the Miss Seafair competition until the summer after her reign ends (Margo was crowned in 2008; she crowned her Hi-Yu successor, Georgia Mitchell, in 2009; and Georgia in turn just crowned her successor, Kelsey Bills, last Monday – Georgia will be Hi-Yu’s contender for Miss Seafair next year).
You of course have to take into consideration the fact that Vashon Island was where the forum was held – Courthouse Square, to be specific, part of a double bill with a forum for candidates in the other big open race that’s on Vashon, West Seattle, White Center and Burien (etc.) ballots, 34th District State House Position 2 (we’ll cover that one in a separate story later).
This race, if you’re just starting to ramp up, is for the County Council seat that used to be held by now-County Executive Dow Constantine. Former Seattle City Councilmember Jan Drago was appointed to do the job until this fall’s election, but wasn’t interested in running to keep it. Four candidates are running, and all were on hand for last night’s forum.
State Sen. Joe McDermott of West Seattle was the only candidate voicing unqualified support for the West Seattle Water Taxi run. Tim Fahey of South Park said he’d only found it useful to “go on dates” (and he hadn’t been aware of the Vashon run until it came up at the forum); Normandy Park City Councilmember Shawn McEvoy said West Seattleites had better “step up” their usage of the passenger ferry (seeming to infer “use it or lose it”); and Diana Toledo of West Seattle was noncommittal, saying she didn’t want to make promises she couldn’t keep.
And that was nowhere near the hottest topic they had to face in the hour-long forum moderated by Seattle University law professor (and Vashon resident) Craig Beles:Read More
He’s scheduled to ride in the Seafair Torchlight Parade downtown in about two hours, but right now, Mayor Mike McGinn is in West Seattle, at the Camp Long Lodge reopening party. It continues till 7 tonight, with tours of the million-dollar renovation work (including the expanded kitchen), cake, and other festivities, and at 7, you’re invited to stay in the park for GreenStage‘s free Shakespeare performance. More photos later; the mayor’s Twitter account just posted a photo of West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen speaking (video added later):
Rasmussen was chair of the council’s Parks Committee when voters passed the Parks and Green Spaces Levy, which paid for this project – plus this pic of the grand-reopening cake, attributed to Fauntleroy’s own Original Bakery:
(video substituted for photo, 7:48 pm) And of course, it can’t be a grand opening without a ribboncutting:
While, as Parks project manager Kelly Goold told us during our sneak-peek tour last week, this renovation is meant to help extend the lodge’s life into the future, its past is also something to honor, as Camp Long’s Sheila Brown noted at the party:
Find out more about Camp Long and its programs and features by going here.
Thanks to the tipster who called to tell us about what is apparently the latest broken-glass business burglary case in West Seattle, at the state liquor store in The Junction. A glass company was there fixing the rear door just about an hour ago. We haven’t reached police about the case yet, but the online “911 incident report” map confirms a “commercial burglary” in the 4500 block of California SW, reported to 911 at 3:36 am today. Previously reported cases include Northwest Art and Frame (reported here – a commenter on that story also mentioned break-ins at Uptown and Allstar), Zebra Print and Copy in The Triangle and Freshy’s Coffee in South Admiral (reported here), and The Swinery (mentioned here). ADDED SUNDAY NIGHT: We heard from a witness to the liquor-store burglary who wants to be anonymous:
The robbery happened at 2:30 am Saturday morning. It woke me up; the suspect took one bottle from the place as far as i can tell. He ran through the parking lot going west bound. They brought in a k-9 unit along with the fire department to secure the broken door. A person from the liquor store was brought in and stayed until around 4 am until the fire department completed the boarding up.
We hope to find out more from police Monday about whether this is considered an official “pattern” of break-ins, and what the status of the investigation is.
Remember Melanie‘s amazing photos of a great blue heron, published here two weeks ago? (Follow that link if you didn’t see them the first time!) This time, she shares a photo of baby seagulls, photographed atJack Block Park. Sorry we can’t crop it any closer, but even this size yields something we didn’t know – that baby gulls are speckled.
(WSB photo from Eat Local Now! in October 2009) Last year’s Eat Local Now! – held in West Seattle – was a hit, with hundreds of people sharing an evening of good good, good discussion, and interesting info about food sustainability. Organizers including Sustainable West Seattle and West Seattle-co-founded CoolMom are starting to cook up this year’s event, and hoping you can help:
Eat Local Now! is a joint fundraiser of Sustainable West Seattle, Cool Mom, and The Good Business Network with the mission to promote the importance of and strengthen the local food systems and economies of Seattle and Puget Sound. Last year our dinner served 225+ attendees at the Masonic Hall in West Seattle and was educational, fun, and a fantastic dinner value. This year we are very excited to be partnering with Herban Feast to have the event at their Sodo Park catering venue on September 30th. This beautiful space is sure to make this years event something to be proud of.
Our organizing team would love your help either in the coming weeks or the day of the event. If interested, please attend our next organizing meeting at Big Al’s Brewery (9832 14th Ave SW) 7-9 pm in White Center on August 5th. We could use more help in the areas of marketing the event, seeking food, beverage, or sponsorship donations, organizing a silent auction, decoration, tabling, poster distribution, developing the evening program, or serving and greeting during the event itself. If you can’t make this next meeting, please e-mail Bill Reiswig at bill@sustainablewestseattle.org with your interests. Thank you!
Welcome back, Camp Long Lodge! 4-7 pm today, you’re invited to the reopening party celebrating its levy-funded million-dollar renovation (previewed here). Also today, fun ways to do good deeds – benefit sales, donation drives, “Cones for Kids” in the afternoon on Alki; then tonight, the next edition of West Seattle Outdoor Movies features “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” There’s even more going on – just click ahead for this week’s West Seattle Weekend Lineup, brought to you by Skylark Café and Club (with weekend delights including brunch both days – get a dining coupon on the WSB Coupons page)!Read More
that the Hi-Yu “Dreams Do Come True” float has won the Princess Award – 
Welcome back,
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