West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
(WSB photos/video)
Historic day at Louisa Boren STEM K-8 in Delridge – the school hosted its first robotics competition today!
17 schools were there for the VEX IQ Challenge. Working in pairs, students had to get their robots to haul more plastic rings than their opponents’ robots. Here’s a bit of video:
If you drove, rode, or walked past the school during the competition, you might have noticed the Seattle Police bomb squad’s vehicle – a texter asked us about it. They were there for a demonstration toward the start of the event:
According to the awards list (scroll down this page and you’ll find the tab to click), the STEM K-8 Bots won the Design Award, which qualifies them to move on in state/regional competition – congratulations! This is the third year of robotics at STEM K-8; last year, you might recall, a team went to worlds.
Thanks to Lisa, Kristin, and Mark for letting us know about this! If something cool is coming up at your school (or business, or community center, or …), we would love to hear about it – editor@westseattleblog.com – thank you!
Via e-mail and text, we’ve received multiple reports of something loud that shook homes in northeast West Seattle just after 7:30 pm – North Delridge, Luna Park, east Admiral/south Harbor Ave. areas. Reports were like this one from Steph: “Our house shook so hard things moved a little.” We’ve checked around and there were no SFD emergency responses for explosions, fires, crashes; also, no earthquake reports. So far, officially a mystery, but we’re mentioning it in case you wondered too.
(Camp Second Chance entrance, photographed December 2017 by WSB’s Leda Costa)
If you’re interested in the city-sanctioned encampment on the southeast edge of West Seattle, Camp Second Chance, you’re invited to the next monthly meeting of its Community Advisory Committee, 2 pm tomorrow (Sunday, January 7th) at Arrowhead Gardens (9200 2nd SW). The city-mandated committee gets updates on what’s happening at the camp and what’s happening with its operator (which changed last fall to the Low-Income Housing Institute), which has a contract with and funding from the city for basic camp operations. The camp’s been on city-owned Myers Way Parcels land for a year and a half, but the city approval and funding didn’t start until about a year ago, and could be extended for another year. As of last month’s report, the camp had about four dozen residents.
12:21 PM: Thanks to Mark for the photo from Upper Fauntleroy – the sailboats are part of the Three Tree Yacht Club‘s Duwamish Head Race, which started this morning in Des Moines.
(Photo by Gary Jones)
Speaking about points south – Kersti Muul has been keeping us updated on resident orcas (K Pod) seen south of here, heading this way. Orca Network commenters have seen them off north Vashon as of a few minutes ago, still northbound, so if you’re interested in whale watching, you might grab binoculars soon and head to the west-facing West Seattle shore. It’s murky out there but on the other hand, the whales stand out even more against silver water.
By the way, there’s also word a whale was seen in the area a few hours ago – swimmer Melissa was out and said her group thought it might have been a humpback – if you saw that one, let us know!
12:55 PM ORCA UPDATE: Kersti says they are moving fast, now north of Vashon.
1:04 PM: We can see them from north end of Emma Schmitz Overlook, with binoculars.
1:16 PM: Lost track of them and we’re moving on. Some of the racing yachts are still out there, and the weather has cleared somewhat, so it’s a nice view anyway if you want to try your luck.
(Added: Photo by Monica Zaborac)
2:57 PM: Orca Network commenters say the whales are north of West Seattle now – so our viewing time is probably over. Thanks also to Donna Sandstrom of The Whale Trail for calling earlier to be sure we’d heard.
(Photo by John Saalwaechter)
And thanks to those who’ve sent more photos of the sailboats – we’re adding a few more above. Some of them must have had a great view of the whales!
5:50 PM: Thanks to Kersti for posting orca photos in comments – and to Monica Zaborac for e-mailing some, including this one showing the research boat you might have noticed today:
Researcher Mark Sears talked at last month’s Whale Trail gathering about what they do while out with the orcas.
11:57 AM: Thanks to the texter who let us know about a crash on the eastbound bridge, not far from the Fauntleroy entrance. While there’s no SFD dispatch or SDOT traffic alert yet, we have just heard via scanner that police are reporting two incidents in that area – a crash and a vehicle “with a broken axle” – so if you’re outbound any time soon, you might want to plan to get onto the bridge east of there.
2:17 PM: While there’s been no official update, the closest cameras – including this one – and the traffic-flow indicators on the city map suggest that this has cleared.
(Photo from Brian)
11:26 AM: Thanks for the photos and tips! The tower crane for The Foundry on the northeast corner of Fauntleroy and Edmunds is going up right now.
The crane is going up two months after work began at the 4754 Fauntleroy Way SW site, planned for 100+ apartments, ~10 live/work units, and ~100 underground parking spaces.
2:37 PM: Here’s how the crane-in-progress looked when we went by about half an hour ago:
By the way, this will be the second tower crane currently up in West Seattle. The other one went up last February at Upton Flats (35th/Graham) and won’t likely be up too much longer.
SATURDAY NIGHT NOTE: We drove by the site tonight – the crane installation appears to be complete. We’ll add a photo on Sunday.
(Photo by Robin Sinner, shared via the WSB Flickr group)
Here are ways to spend some of the first day of the first weekend of 2018:
GET FIT WEST SEATTLE: First group run for this beginner-to-half-marathon free training program – meet at West Seattle Runner (WSB sponsor) at 8 am to run one mile. (2743 California SW)
KING TIDE: Water-watchers will see a 13-foot high tide at 8:39 am.
CHRISTMAS TREE DROPOFFS: Ready to get the Christmas tree out of your living room? Take it to the Masonic Center parking lot in The Junction and drop it off with the West Seattle Rainbow Girls, 9 am-1 pm. It’s a fundraiser for the youth group, by donation. (4736 40th SW)
WEST SEATTLE LINUX USERS GROUP: 9 am, regular biweekly meeting, at the Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor). More info here. (9140 California SW)
THE HOLY YOGA EXPERIENCE: 9 am-1 pm at West Seattle Christian Church in The Junction. (4400 42nd SW)
LOG HOUSE MUSEUM: Visit the home of West Seattle’s history, noon-4 pm. (61st SW/SW Stevens)
BASKETBALL: Seattle Lutheran High School‘s varsity teams play at home this afternoon, both vs. Evergreen Lutheran. 2:30 girls, 4 pm boys. (4100 SW Genesee)
WEST SEATTLE MEANINGFUL MOVIES: “Dr. Strangelove” is this month’s movie, presented for WSMM by West Seattle Neighbors for Peace and Justice. Doors open 6:30 pm at Neighborhood House High Point; movie at 7, followed by discussion. (6400 Sylvan Way)
LIVE MUSIC: At The Skylark, 8 pm, with The Science of Deduction, The Almost Faithful, and Smooth Richard. $8 cover. 21+. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
MORE … on our complete calendar.
3:30 AM: An “assault with weapons” response is arriving at an address in the 9200 block of 17th SW [map], where a man is reported to have a gunshot wound to the leg. Police are searching for the suspect, last seen “running southbound in an alley,” though there’s no description yet.
3:34 AM: Now the report is that “two or three black males in hoodies” might have been involved, and this might have happened during “a robbery in an alley.”
3:51 AM: Medics describe the victim over the air as 19 years old with a thigh wound from a 9mm bullet, not believed to be life-threatening. They’re taking him to Harborview Medical Center.
3:59 AM: We’ve talked to police at the scene but so far they’re still trying to lock in some facts such as where the robbery/shooting actually happened. A K-9 is involved in the search.
16th SW is closed in White Center between 98th and 100th after a double shooting (update: one confirmed dead), in the same area where a man was shot and killed eight months ago. We’re updating on partner site White Center Now as information becomes available.
Road games for everyone on Friday night. Here’s the scoreboard:
WEST SEATTLE @ GARFIELD
-The #1-ranked Wildcat girls beat the Bulldogs, 58-48.
–WSHS’s Anthony Giomi was top scorer in the boys’ game, 22 points, but Garfield won, 64-58.
CHIEF SEALTH @ BISHOP BLANCHET
–52-50 was the final score in the Seahawk boys’ win over Blanchet.
–Sealth’s Celia LaGuardia was top scorer with 22 points but the girls lost to Blanchet, 67-47.
UP NEXT
-Sealth plays at Garfield, 7:30 Tuesday for the boys, 7:30 Wednesday for the girls.
-WSHS plays at Bainbridge, 7:30 Tuesday for the boys, 7:30 Wednesday for the girls.
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