day : 03/06/2015 9 results

Saturday’s approaching, so you’re days away from a three-in-one way to share ideas for, and get information about, eastern West Seattle projects and plans. From the city:

Join us at the event to join your neighbors to:

*Provide direction on the North Delridge Action Plan (North of SW Elmgrove St.)
*Help design future multimodal improvements to Delridge Way
*Learn about Longfellow Creek Basin Natural Drainage Systems

Here’s what we have heard at previous Delridge meetings:

*Create more community and cultural gathering places
*More places to shop and eat
*Improve walking, biking, and transit connections
*Create more recreation and cultural programs

The Delridge Projects Workshop – which we mentioned 2 weeks ago along with a survey you should answer if you haven’t already – is set for 9:30 am-noon Saturday (June 6th) at Southwest Teen Life Center (2801 SW Thistle). Lots of background info, here.

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West Seattle Car Show is saved! New community-suggested location

June 3, 2015 4:33 pm

| 36 COMMENTS

| West Seattle festivals | West Seattle news

(WSB photo from 2014 West Seattle Car Show)
When the new presenters of the West Seattle Car Show had to regretfully announce one month ago that it wouldn’t happen this year, because the streets in The Junction wouldn’t be available, community commenters suggested South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) as an alternative. And now – it’s happening! Just in:

Swedish Automotive and West Seattle Autoworks are pleased to announce that the 2015 car show will happen on Sunday, September 13th, at South Seattle College! We are excited about this new collaboration with the college and thank the West Seattle Community for the idea. Registration and more information to follow soon!

WSAW and Swedish (both WSB sponsors) took over the show after its founder and longtime organizer Michael Hoffman died suddenly last year at age 47, and last September’s show was the biggest one yet.

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Next lineup: See who’s playing 2015 Summer Concerts at Hiawatha!

June 3, 2015 3:29 pm

| 2 COMMENTS

| Fun stuff to do | West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

(WSB photo from 2012 Hiawatha performance by Caspar Babypants, who’s back this year)
Today’s second big summer outdoor-entertainment lineup announcement: The Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s Summer Concerts at Hiawatha lineup for 2015! From Katy Walum – who’s organized the series from the start – here are the six acts booked for six consecutive Thursday nights, 6:30-8 pm on the east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center:

July 23rd – Carrie Akre

July 30th – Naomi Wachira

August 6th – Star Anna

August 13th – Modern Relics

August 20th – Ayron Jones and the Way

August 27th – Caspar Babypants

The concerts are free – bring your own chair, blanket, picnic dinner, family, friends, neighbors, and have a great time. (We’re proud to have co-sponsored Summer Concerts at Hiawatha every year since its start in 2009; this is the series’ seventh year!)

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West Seattle restaurants: The Lodge Sports Grille coming to opening-soon Junction 47

June 3, 2015 12:54 pm

| 57 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle restaurants

(UPDATED 3:15 PM with added information including the restaurant’s exact location in the project)

We now know the identity of the second commercial tenant at Junction 47, the almost-complete two-building apartments/retail project at California/Alaska/42nd. The first, reported here in February, is Starbucks. The second, announced today: The Lodge Sports Grille. It’s “a family owned, locally based restaurant known for its wide selection of craft beers and innovative American-style menu,” according to the official announcement. The Lodge already has five locations in the region – SODO, downtown, Kirkland, Mill Creek, and Mukilteo, with a sixth planned in Greenwood. For its seventh, here, it’s leased 4,200 square feet, about a fifth of Junction 47’s retail space. Proprietor Shawn Roten says the Junction hours will be 11 am to midnight Sundays-Tuesdays, 11 am-2 am Wednesdays-Saturdays, adding, “We open for breakfast during the football season at 9 am.” (Preview their current beer list and menus on the left sidebar here). Read on for the full news release (plus, 3:15 pm update, answers to two questions):

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West Seattle development: Ex-Charlestown Café demolition day

June 3, 2015 11:06 am

| 32 COMMENTS

| Charlestown Cafe | Development | West Seattle news

(WSB photo)
FIRST REPORT, 11:06 AM: We’ve been following the final run-up to the demolition of the former Charlestown Café – and contrary to our most recent information from Intracorp, which plans to build 27 live-work and townhouse units on the site, the teardown is happening now. Just started – thanks to the person who tipped us; the heavy equipment wasn’t there when we drove by around 9 am.

The Charlestown Café closed in April 2011, after its final few years brought a variety of challenges:

Less than three years before it closed forever, it was shut down for five months following a fire in February 2008. That fire happened just days after the café ownership found out a retail-development proposal that had threatened to cost them their lease had fallen through, giving them a reprieve; first word of that proposal had brought a groundswell of public support via a community campaign in early 2007 (in our early days of covering news on WSB). After the restaurant closed in April 2011, a mixed-use-development proposal surfaced but didn’t go far; two years later, the Intracorp plan appeared, and that’s what’s going forward now.

ADDED 12:57 PM: The aforementioned community campaign eight years ago was spearheaded by Mark Wainwright, a former Admiral Neighborhood Association president who has been involved in other community-advocacy efforts along the way too. We asked him today for some thoughts on the end of the line for what was the Charlestown Café:

Was walking the dog last night and decided to wander by… I walked up the not-so-good alley (which I believe is being improved – yea!) and gazed over the old and beaten remains of the Charlestown Cafe.

Its easy to look forward to the demolition, as the building is a mess, but I do remember those breakfasts…

And how important a place it was when people in the surrounding blocks needed a warm place with food and coffee during that big winter storm and power outage we had years ago.

When Petco proposed a store on that site, I wasn’t too excited. I wasn’t a dog owner back then (am now), but regardless I wasn’t excited.

Lot’s of people weren’t excited – for lots of reasons. People wanted the Charlestown Cafe to stay exactly as it had been. People didn’t like the idea of a national retailer. People though a big store and big parking lot was a waste of space for housing. People thought lots of things.

But we managed to come together as a group – and not make it about Petco or other stuff. We came together out of a desire to support our neighborhood, to support our “Mickey Mouse pancakes,” and to show everybody involved in that whole thing that we gave a damn. And Petco walked away.

I learned a lot – about organizing people, about our neighborhood, about Larry Mellum (Charlestown Cafe owner), about the property owner (the name escapes me, but I think they own a ton of Seattle lots and live up in Edmonds). Most of all, I learned that people can make a difference.

I’m not down on this new development – it was going to happen sooner or later, and I’m looking forward to what comes of it. I’ll freely admit that I’m all for building more housing, because I believe that our current high prices (rent and for sale) are (at least partially) a result of high demand and low supply.

But really, I’m excited about the future. Maybe my daughter’s next best friend will live there. Maybe a teacher will live there. And maybe we can all make some new memories together there in the future.

Good memories, tho. And good Mickey Mouse pancakes.

Charlestown update: Mostly gone. pic.twitter.com/IQfVFLTxFw

— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) June 3, 2015

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West Seattle Outdoor Movies: Here’s the 2015 lineup! Also recruiting opening acts, raffle beneficiaries

June 3, 2015 10:40 am

| 6 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle Outdoor Movies

(WSB photo from past WSOM season)
Thanks to everyone who answered the call for suggestions for this year’s West Seattle Outdoor Movies series, six summer Saturday nights featuring free films at dusk in the courtyard by Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (4410 California SW; WSB sponsor), now just a month and a half away, with co-sponsors including WSB. The lineup is set – and the leader of the movie pack, Hotwire’s Lora Swift, has two requests. But first, the movies!

Sat, July 18th: “Zoolander,” 2001 (trailer above; PG-13)

Sat, July 25th: “Singles,” 1992 (PG-13)

Sat, Aug 1st: “Raising Arizona,” 1987 (PG-13)

Sat, Aug 8th: “Big Hero 6,” 2014 (PG)

Sat, Aug 15th: “Guardians of the Galaxy,” 2014 (PG-13)

Sat, Aug 22nd: “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” 1975 (R)

(“Rocky” ended its monthly Admiral Theater run last fall, so this will be its first screening in West Seattle in almost a year.) Now, the requests:

NONPROFITS WANTED: Every movie night includes a raffle to raise money for local nonprofits. If yours is interested, please apply now! You’ll have to contribute a few items for the raffle and have a rep there on your movie night as well as two volunteers. By the way, sponsors contribute cool raffle items too, all season long, so the raffle items aren’t ONLY from the beneficiaries.

PRE-SHOW ENTERTAINMENT WANTED: Lora is recruiting variety acts to perform in the courtyard before the movie (times TBA, since the movie starts at dusk and that gets earlier as the summer goes on) – go to this link (CL) to find out more.

The e-mail address for charities and pre-show entertainment is the same: westseattlemovies@gmail.com

ALSO: This year’s concessions will benefit, and be run by, the Southwest Seattle Historical Society. For more about the series, check out the official website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.

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West Seattle Crime Watch: Parkgoer’s warning; stolen chairs

June 3, 2015 8:55 am

| 4 COMMENTS

| Crime | Highland Park | West Seattle news

Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes this morning:

PARKGOER’S WARNING: Police were in Highland Park Tuesday afternoon looking for what was dispatched as a man asking women for hugs. Then overnight, a reader e-mailed us to say that the man “groped” her while she was at Westcrest Park playing with her child “and attending to the garden.” She added, “This same man also appeared at the park next to the Highland Park Elementary playground, which I happened to be at after the P Patch. I informed the other parents and then called the Police.” She says he is known to him, is developmentally disabled, and apparently “tends to run away from his foster parents and go to the parks where he asks for hugs from girls. If you ever see him, he is about 6’3″ about late teens with blondish hair, call the police and let them know.”

HAMMOCK CHAIR THEFT: Also in Highland Park, a case of chair theft:

Our hammock chairs were stolen off our front patio Monday morning between 5:30 and 8 am. We live on the corner of 11th and Holden Street. Chairs are rare (made in Hawaii, available only [online]) and we have never seen anything like them. Any and all help relocating them is much appreciated.

Please call police if you’ve seen them.

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West Seattle Wednesday: From the beach to the SSC Arboretum…

June 3, 2015 8:35 am

| Comments Off on West Seattle Wednesday: From the beach to the SSC Arboretum…

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(June bug photographed in West Seattle by Janet Pliske)

Midway to the weekend, here’s what’s ahead for the rest of today/tonight. From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:

LOW TIDE, WITH BEACH NATURALISTS: Seattle Aquarium volunteer beach naturalists are out at Lincoln and Constellation Parks again today, 9:45 am-1 pm, with low tide out to -2.2 feet at 12:06 pm.

WEEKLY ENTREPRENEUR/HOME-WORKER MEETUP: At West Seattle Office Junction (WSB sponsor), the area’s only co-working center, it’s the weekly “informal brown bag lunch for freelancers, independent business professionals, creatives, and entrepreneurs working from home or coffee shops.” Noon-1:15 pm. (6040 California SW)

LANDMARK STATUS FOR EC HUGHES SCHOOL? 3:30 pm today at the Muni Tower downtown, the city Landmarks Preservation Board considers whether the former EC Hughes Elementary in Sunrise Heights (built in 1926, leased by Westside School [WSB sponsor] until its move to a new campus this fall) merits landmark status. Find background documents here. (700 5th Ave., 40th floor)

SOUTHWEST DISTRICT COUNCIL, LOCATION CHANGE: 6:30 pm, the Southwest District Council meets but not at its usual location. They’ll gather at, and tour, the Arboretum on the north side of South Seattle College (WSB sponsor). All welcome – meet at the main entrance; the tour will last about an hour, and then SWDC will move into a classroom for its business meeting. (6000 16th SW)

WEST SEATTLE KIWANIS: 6:30 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle, it’s the regular meeting of the Kiwanis, who tonight will be assembling care kits for homeless people. Join them and check out the club! (Oregon/California)

FREE BIKE-COMMUTING WORKSHOP: Thinking about commuting by bike? Get your Q & A on first with this free workshop at Cycle U, 6:30 pm. (3418 Harbor SW)

JIM PAGE AT C & P: Live music at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) with singer/songwriter Jim Page, 7-9 pm. (5612 California SW)

MORE NIGHTLIFE … check the listings on our calendar. (And if you see something missing, please let us know! editor@westseattleblog.com – thank you.)

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TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: June’s first Wednesday

June 3, 2015 7:14 am

| Comments Off on TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: June’s first Wednesday

| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

(Four WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
7:14 AM: Good morning! Another routine commute so far. One note for later: It’s an early-dismissal day for Seattle Public Schools – students will be out two hours earlier than usual.

7:41 AM: If you use 4th Avenue to get into downtown – SDOT reports “police activity” has blocked a lane at Main in Pioneer Square.

8:08 AM: SDOT says that’s clear. No other problems between here and downtown right now.

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