West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
More major summer events ahead this week – starting with Tuesday night’s West Seattle Hi-Yu Concert in the Park. Bring a chair/blanket to the east lawn of 
Hiawatha Community Center/Park (the Walnut Avenue side) and enjoy the West Seattle Big Band at 7 pm Tuesday (July 16th). Hi-Yu royalty will be there – so, though the concert’s free, bring a few dollars if you can and buy a button to support the city’s last traveling community float (which you’ll subsequently see in next Saturday’s West Seattle Grand Parade). During a break in the music on Tuesday, you’ll also get a chance to applaud this year’s Orville Rummel Community Service Award honoree, local watershed advocate (and more) Judy Pickens, who will also be in the parade, with the trophy that’s being presented Tuesday. Hope to see you at the concert Tuesday – it’ll be a great way to cool down after a day that just might make it into the mid-80s.
Thanks to Don Brubeck from West Seattle Bike Connections for sharing photos from today’s “Mini-STP” bicycle ride – a family-friendly ride for those who didn’t make it to the Seattle-to-Portland megaride this weekend. Above, they gathered at Hamilton Viewpoint Park, near the Seattle (Street) start in North Admiral; below, the Portland (Street) stop in Gatewood:
Don reports, “About 30 riders made it from SW Seattle St to SW Portland Street in about an hour, and were at West Seattle Summer Fest in another 45 minutes and a nice easy pace.” Once there, a transportation discussion ensued at the GreenLife zone. You can see more photos on the WSBC Facebook page.
The date is now set for a public meeting focusing on a proposed development project in Alki that would not have been the subject of a meeting if area residents hadn’t requested one. We first reported in April on neighbors gathering signatures to convince the city to schedule a meeting about 11 residential “rowhouse” units proposed at 2414 55th SW; then in May, we published a followup with word that the city agreed to host a meeting. Now, neighbor Marie McKinsey says the meeting is set for 6:30 pm this coming Wednesday, July 17th, at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, “to give residents an opportunity to comment on the environmental impacts of the rowhouse project proposed … Comments can be written, oral or both. All will become part of the public record on this project.” McKinsey’s been researching the situation and writing about it online; she even maps out an alternative for the site. Everyone’s welcome at the Wednesday meeting, by the way; Youngstown is at 4408 Delridge Way SW.
(Photo courtesy Scott Taylor – thanks!)
5:51 PM: A power-pole problem – reported a few hours ago as “wires down” – has led police to block off Bonair just south of Alki Avenue (map), so you can’t turn onto Bonair from Alki, and you can’t get to Alki from Bonair. No ETA for a fix; we’ll check back at the scene later.
10:48 PM UPDATE: As of about half an hour ago, Luke Trier reports – sharing the photo below – the crew’s still “working tirelessly”:
11:14 PM UPDATE: An update from Luke – the crews are gone and it appears the pole’s fixed and the road’s open.
Even if you’ve already been to West Seattle Summer Fest this year, come on down one more time before it’s over! Thanks to Krista for sharing the top photo – “beautiful day in The Junction,” she noted; so true! Music, shopping, food, art, and more – it’s all here, until 5 pm. Art, by the way, is here to observe, to purchase, and to create – Jessie shared this photo from the kids’ area by Wells Fargo, where youth can create along with Young At Art:
For our quick links to info – see our first morning report. And we would love to share your festival photos too – share them by e-mail at editor@westseattleblog.com, or via the WSB Facebook page.
1:38 PM NOTE: From Don Bereiter at Prudential NW Realty (WSB sponsor), whose booth has a fun game to check out: “For every child that participates, we are donating a can of food to the West Seattle and White Center Food Banks. 979 so far. Come on out and help a great cause!” (added) Here’s Tom Root and Chariti McEndoe photographed late in the day – note the counter’s gone up:
2:40 PM UPDATE: The last musical act of the day, The Jellyrollers, is scheduled to start right about now. Earlier, we caught Jazzberry with a young fan up front:
Summer Fest has been a bit lighter on political visitors than past years, but we’ve seen two mayoral candidates so far at the Info Booth – Mayor Mike McGinn, talking with, at right, Dave Montoure and Nancy Woodland from the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce:
And State Sen. Ed Murray, photographed talking with Susan Melrose from the West Seattle Junction Association:
WSJA, by the way, presents Summer Fest every year. Meantime, outside West Seattle Optix, balloon-making was in full swing earlier:
And there’s still time to get down and meet representatives of businesses, organizations, and service providers – we photographed Lisa at the Highline Medical (WSB sponsor) booth, handing out reusable bags.
More to come in the final few hours!
3:42 PM UPDATE: Just got a chance to upload video from today’s first performance onstage – that’s Rat City Brass! The festival is still crowded yet mellow. SPD Lt. Ron Smith, who heads up the on-site Summer Fest patrol, tells us there have been no major problems (and few minor ones) throughout the three days. As for the rest of West Seattle – we’ll get an update tomorrow, when the Southwest Precinct hosts the mayor, as the precincts around the city have been doing, for the latest on the Safe Communities project.
4:35 PM UPDATE: Down to the last half-hour, already. Another politician visited a little while ago:
With County Executive Dow Constantine – who said he had been making the rounds of festivals, including Kent Cornucopia Days earlier in the day – that’s Hamilton Gardiner and Jerome Cohen with him, both in the Info Booth today as community volunteers representing the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
5:04 PM UPDATE: And Summer Fest is a wrap for 2013. Thanks to everyone who’s been part of it – whether visitor, vendor, exhibitor, performer, staffer, local year-round merchant, volunteer, law enforcer, sponsor, etc. … it’s been awesome. We’ll have an update later tonight when the streets reopen – it’ll take a few hours for cleanup/breakdown/loadout.
P.S. Just for fun, we have a photo album on the WSB Facebook page with some of the dogs spotted at Summer Fest – see it here.
11 am is the official start time today for the final day of West Seattle’s biggest event of the year, Summer Fest (co-sponsored by WSB). And there’s more on the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar for today. Here are the Sunday highlights, starting with festival-info links:
WEST SEATTLE SUMMER FEST, DAY 3: Toplines:
*Hours today – 11 am-5 pm
*Metro bus-stop changes, linked route-by-route here
*Music – Here’s (the lineup) – today’s first act is bound to be a highlight, Rat City Brass at 11:50 am; last scheduled act on the California stage is The Jellyrollers at 2:40 pm, but you’ll find musicians elsewhere during the day too – maybe even these two who were performing outside La Romanza Bistro (WSB sponsor) on Saturday (or catch them during La Romanza’s regularly scheduled musical meals):
*GreenLife: Find GreenLife on the south side of the festival zone; see the demonstration/event schedule here, with an encore of “Illuminatio – ‘Slavery of the System'” at 4 pm – here’s our Friday video snippet:
The GreenLife day begins with “Cooking in Season,” 11 am.
*Vendors/exhibitors: Here’s the directory (use the column titles to sort alphabetically or numerically)
*Map to booths: Vendors/exhibitors map is here (PDF; we’re not listed because WSB is headquartered in the Information Booth for the 6th consecutive year)
*Kid Zone: On Alaska WEST of California, where the food used to be; $20 for unlimited rides all day; same hours as festival, 11 am-5 pm
*Food: On Alaska EAST of California (sort the vendor list by “location” and click ahead to the pages starting 151 and 176 for the “F” as in “food” entries – earlier in the list, note “Sidewalk Cafes” too at )
*Art Dive: North side of the zone, north of SW Oregon
ALSO HAPPENING TODAY…
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: Same hours, same spot! 10 am-2 pm, 44th/Alaska – enjoy Summer Fest AND the market.
MINI-“STP” BIKE RIDE: Family-friendly, fun, AND headed for Summer Fest! Meet at Hamilton Viewpoint Park at 9:45 am; ride starts at 10 am. Traveling California SW from Seattle (Street) to Portland (Street). Then at 11 am, join a discussion about local greenways and more with West Seattle Bike Connections at the GreenLife zone at Summer Fest! Details in our calendar listing.
More on the WSB calendar!
ALKI POINT LIGHTHOUSE: Open for free tours, 1-4 pm today.
It’s the third and final day of West Seattle Summer Fest, so, here again for quick reference are the road/bus-stop changes, as well as what’s up if you’re leaving the peninsula:
ROAD CLOSURES: For the festival, California SW is closed between Genesee and Edmunds (except for through traffic on SW Oregon) and along SW Alaska between 44th and 42nd.
METRO BUS CHANGES: All listed here; also, here are direct links to Metro’s PDFs with individual routes’ reroute info:
*RapidRide C Line
*Route 22
*Route 37
*Route 50
*Route 55
*Route 57
*Route 128
*Route 773 (Water Taxi shuttle)
While the festival is officially over at 5 pm, it takes hours more to get everything cleared, so the road/bus changes are officially scheduled until almost midnight (though things might get back to normal sooner, and we’ll be monitoring).
****
OFF-PENINSULA: The 520 Bridge/Highway 405 closure info is here; alerts for big events around the city are here.
| 2 COMMENTS