West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network: CPTED refresher
You’ve heard the basic crime-prevention advice and probably follow it – standard advice such as lock your doors, close your windows, don’t leave anything in your car. But crime prevention goes beyond that. There are other steps you can take to make your property less attractive to criminals, and there’s an entire school of thought/advice called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Southwest Precinct Community Police Team Officer Jonathan Kiehn is trained in it, and this week, for the third time in 13 months, he gave a CPTED presentation to the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network. Seems like advice you just can’t hear TOO often, so we covered the meeting and his presentation, in case you couldn’t be there.Read More
West Seattle schools: 2-fair day for Denny Dolphins
According to the Denny International Middle School website, this day started with a Book Fair, and wrapped up with a Science Fair. The photo is from Denny principal Jeff Clark, who reports:
We had amazing projects and a great turn-out at the Denny International Middle School Science Fair tonight. Congratulations, Dolphins! Thank you to our terrific science teachers and volunteers!
Followup: New fencing up at Genesee Hill campus, as promised
Thanks to Rob for the photos from the ex-Genesee Hill School campus, where Seattle Public Schools has just fenced off building access – as they had told us two weeks ago that they planned to do in the “near future.”
District spokesperson Tom Redman had told WSB that they planned to fence off the buildings because of increasing crime – graffiti, other vandalism, break-ins – but that garden or field use wouldn’t be affected. Rob says that with the fencing, “The buildings are still accessible from the west side (51st) and the park is only accessible from the south end (Genesee Hill).”
Last month, the district had fenced off field access from SW Genesee, citing vandalism concerns.
Another traffic alert: West Seattle Bridge ‘rolling slowdowns’
Also from SDOT – heads-up for “rolling slowdowns” on the West Seattle Bridge next Monday:
The Seattle Department of Transportation will be inspecting the Fauntleroy Expressway bridge deck on April 30th between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. The inspection team will establish short-term lane closures of the right hand lane using truck-mounted traffic warning devices. The inspection will begin near West Seattle and move westbound. The inspection team will make short-term (15 minutes) stops at any given location along the bridge deck. After completing the westbound route the team will then inspect eastbound, toward Downtown Seattle, also along the right hand lane. The entire inspection will be completed by 3:00 p.m.
This is part of the Fauntleroy Expressway Seismic Retrofit Project; we took an up-close look at some of the earlier work for this story back in January.
West Seattle student, friends create Eturnalife ‘scarves for a cause’
(Photo shared by Lauren: Six of the Eturnalife scarves, modeled)
We’re all familiar with bracelets for a cause, pins for a cause … how about a brightly colored eternity scarf for a cause? West Seattle native Lauren Holman e-mailed WSB to share the news about the business she and friends at the UW have created to raise money for nonprofits:
My name is Lauren Holman and I’m a senior majoring in Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the UW. I have lived in West Seattle my whole life, attending West Seattle Montessori and living in the same house above Beach Drive for 22 years. As part of my major, I’ve been fortunate enough to take a class on creating a company and myself and three friends decided to start an eternity scarf business through it.
The name of our company is eturnalife, and we are selling seven different colors of eternity scarves. What sets our company apart is that each scarf color corresponds to a cause. When you purchase one, the profits will go to the cause associated with the scarf. Each scarf is $28. Because we are doing this business for a class, we aren’t personally profiting … and we are giving back ALL of the money that is made above cost of producing these scarves. We are aiming to raise as much money as we can for these causes. Here are the colors and the charities associated with them:
Black – American Cancer Society (Cancer Research)
White – Children’s Hospital Seattle
Pink – American Cancer Society (Breast Cancer Research)
Blue – Humane Society
Purple – Autism Speaks
Red – AIDS Prevention
Green – People for Puget Sound (Environmental Conservation).
The scarves are available via the online shop on the Eturnalife website. Lauren and friends’ company is of course on Facebook too.
West Seattle Crime Watch: Intruder on video – recognize him?
A Seaview family is reporting a burglary attempt – and they have video showing the person they believe responsible, so they are offering a cash reward for identification of the suspect. Their story ends with a link to the video:
A man entered our fenced yard in the area of 44th Ave SW and SW Findlay St yesterday morning on 4/25 at 2:50am. Our security camera captured him on our deck after he entered our gated and fenced yard from the alley.
Based on the video, he apparently attempted to enter our locked back door to the house, while we were asleep! You’ll see him go off screen to the left where our back door is. We have some stuff on the patio table during spring cleaning.
Read More
Followup: How to comment on Delridge ‘rechannelization’
One followup to a report we published Wednesday afternoon: Though the proposal for “rechannelization” – changing lane configuration and parking availability – along part of the northern stretch of Delridge Way SW has been bundled into discussion of other changes along Metro Route 120, SDOT does have a separate comment process. Here’s how SDOT’s Jeff Bender, who was at the Route 120 open house at Youngstown on Tuesday, answered our followup question:
The proposed Delridge rechannelization still needs to be reviewed and approved by SDOT. We worked with Metro to support their open house last Tuesday and to help gather more community input on the proposed rechannelization and other elements of the proposal. SDOT would like to approve a final rechannelization design within about a month so it can be implemented by September.
The City is very interested in comments on all elements of the proposal, and will consider all ideas we receive as the approval process moves forward. Interested parties should feel free to send any comments to me.
He’s at jeff.bender@seattle.gov – we have also asked if they have any renderings that more clearly show the proposed changes, since the only ones we’ve seen (PDF here) are difficult to read.
Want your own P-Patch garden? Dig into Westcrest!
Ready to garden? The Westcrest P-Patch is about to be built, and ready to build its gardener/volunteer team, too! Here’s the official announcement (along with the finalized design, shown above):
After two community garden design meetings, the Westcrest P-Patch community garden project is planning to start construction next month in Seattle’s Westcrest Park! (Located at 9000 8th Ave. SW) The plan is to create over 200 10′ x 10′ garden plots following the final design which will feature crushed rock and wood chip pathways that interact with existing park features, gathering and storage structures, an out-door “kitchen”, and lots of room for artistic elements and common spaces.
The plots will be open to both Seattle residents as well as residents living in nearby unincorporated King County such as White Center which is two blocks from the south border of the park.
If you are interested in a plot, your probability of getting a spot will correlate to the number of hours you donate to the project. The more you volunteer the higher your chances of getting a plot. The Steering Committee is currently trying to determine what portions of the construction will be performed by contractors and what we, as a community, are willing to take on. If we can keep costs below the $90,000 budget, we can use the surplus funds to enhance the project. There are innumerable ways that you can volunteer in both outreach and construction.
Please contact Phi Huynh if you would like to explore volunteer opportunities.
E-mail: phi.huynh@seattle.gov
Phone: 206-684-4531
West Seattle restaurants: Meet La Romanza Bistro Italiano
This is a big night for what was the Tuscan Tea Room Bistro (WSB sponsor) in The Junction – a winemaker’s dinner with Siren Song Wines and music by Pearl Django. The event is technically sold out but proprietor Aimee Pellegrini says there’s “limited seating at the bar.” But that’s not the really big news – she’s just renamed her establishment, which is now La Romanza Bistro Italiano, and expanded dinner service to another night! Here’s the announcement:
Kicking off with our sold-out wine dinner (tonight), we have finally, at the urging of our patrons and our good judgement, changed our name from ‘The Tuscan Tea Room’ to ‘La Romanza Bistro Italiano’. We are also expanding our dinner hours to add Wednesday nights. So, we will serve dinner and happy hour Wednesday through Saturday starting next week.
We are very excited about this change but also assure that these are the only changes. We offer our same dinner, lunch, brunch, and afternoon tea menus. We offer our wine list, cocktails and our 70+ fine teas and will soon have them available for purchase through our website as well.
About nine months after we opened we added dinner service as well as expanded lunch, brunch and dinner menus to include live jazz and happy hour. Our new name is more indicative of what we truly offer: a bistro experience with fine Italian cuisine.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
Aimee Pellegrini and La Romanza staff
ADDED 2:34 PM: Just discovered Aimee is featured in a cooking video online via the West Seattleite-produced “Brown Lounge” site – it’s a roasted-chicken recipe:
The actual recipe and other info can be found here.
West Seattle Thursday: Dining Out for Life; Genesee-Schmitz future…
(Lincoln Park photo by “old desolate” from the WSB Flickr group pool)
Our slightly-later-than-usual daily highlights, from the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar (available for direct perusal any time!):
VIADUCT/99 CLOSURE TONIGHT: Again tonight, Highway 99/Alaskan Way Viaduct will be closed overnight SOUTHBOUND between the Battery Street Tunnel and West Seattle Bridge. 9 pm-5 am.
WEST SEATTLE DEMOCRATIC WOMEN: Daytime meeting today, with the discussion group about to start, followed by lunch (or dessert/coffee), West Seattle Golf Course, details here. For first word on their upcoming events, westseattledemocraticwomen.org.
DINING OUT FOR LIFE: A portion of tonight’s proceeds will be donated to the Lifelong AIDS Alliance. This year’s West Seattle/White Center participants, according to the DO4L website, are Buddha Ruksa, Company, Skylark, and Talarico’s. For the citywide list (which includes some venues participating earlier in the day), go here.
WINE TASTING: Tonight at West Seattle Cellars (WSB sponsor), it’s the Wines of Europe, 5:30-8 pm (6026 California SW).
GENESEE-SCHMITZ LOOKS AHEAD: It’s the first general meeting of the Genesee-Schmitz Neighborhood Council in a long time, and it includes a look ahead to the year 2020. What do you want to see in the neighborhood? 6:30 pm, West Side Presbyterian Church. Here’s our preview from last week.
BURLESQUE AT SKYLARK: Also tonight at Skylark Café and Club, 9 pm, it’s the Westside Burlesque Revue.
235+ sales for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day 2012
Registration closed overnight for this year’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day – coming up Saturday, May 12th! – with more than 235 sales signed up, north to south, east to west, small to big, all over the peninsula! A BIG part of making it a successful day is for us as WSCGSD’s coordinating organization to finish The Map (printable and clickable versions) so that it can be made widely available a week in advance, and the map-creation process starts now.
BUT FIRST: If you signed up, PLEASE check to be sure you have both the official confirmation note from us AND a receipt from PayPal – the form we use does NOT finalize sale listings unless both parts of the process were completed (we realize some might change their minds midway through). We already sent notes to several would-be sellers who didn’t complete the process, and it looks like we have more to send today – but if you don’t respond to our note, we can’t get you on the map. If you have any question about your sale’s status, we’d be happy to check the list to confirm; e-mail us at garagesale@westseattleblog.com. Watch for more updates between now and Sale Day here, on the official site at westseattlegaragesale.com, and on Facebook (the WSCGSD page is here, and we’ll crosspost major updates to the official WSB FB page here).
West Seattle pride! Give a couple hours to rev it up
(Photo from last Saturday, courtesy WOLLRG)
It was a valiant crew – but a small crew – that volunteered last Saturday to help transform the area by the “Walking on Logs” sculptures along the Fauntleroy end of the West Seattle Bridge. Yes, we know it was a ridiculously busy and stunningly sunny day. Lots going on this Saturday too – but maybe this time around you can spare a couple hours to help the “gateway to West Seattle” with a project that’ll pay off for years to come. An updated invite from Nancy Driver and the Walking on Logs Landscape Restoration Group:
Enjoy seeing “Walking on Logs” looking good? Take pride in your community? Then give 2 hours of your time to this community icon, this Saturday.
The Walking on Logs Landscape Restoration Group is looking for volunteers for Saturday, April 28th for two hour shifts between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. We are re-landscaping the area around the Walking on Logs statues with native plants and aspens to create a “Woodland Grove” theme as a backdrop to the statues. Our goal to create more attractive landscaping with less long term maintenance by installing plants suitable for the conditions at the site.
Last weekend we did the prep work, i.e, most of the really hard work. Now we have 75 trees and over 500 shrubs to get into the ground and can use plenty of volunteers. This is a big project that will benefit the entire community. We need the community’s support.
We’ll have gloves on hand as well as water and snacks. We’ll also have shovels and other tools but as we have a limited supply, if you can bring your own shovel, it would be much appreciated. Mud boots are recommended since the site is very wet this time of year.
If you’d like to volunteer, email Ruth at Ruth.Hoover@comcast.net to sign up. Ruth will get you the details on where to park and how to get to the site. Hope to see you there.
This project is funded in part by a Neighborhood Matching Fund award from the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Funding was also provided by the West Seattle Garden Tour and numerous West Seattle residents.
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