West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
We’re continuing the countdown to West Seattle’s next major summer event – the Morgan Junction Community Festival on Saturday (June 16th), 10 am-4 pm at Morgan Junction Park [map].
Five unique reasons to go:
*See Desmond (Graves) Hansen paint a mural, live! His signal-box art has rocked West Seattle from Morgan to Luna Park, and now you can watch him in action, starting at 1 pm.
*Bubbleman – the bubbly entertainer performs from 10:45 am to 11:30 am
*Bark of Morgan – show off your dog(s) in a parade and contests, 1:45 pm
*Spatter of Morgan – it’s colorful, it’s deliberately disorganized, it’s fun! 12:30-2 pm
*Sidewalk chalk art with David Toledo, 10 am-12:30 pm
Plus kids’ activities (face-painting, balloon-twisting, crafts), food, live music, more. More in our next festival countdown! We’re among the co-sponsors and we’ll see you in the sunshine Saturday!
Reader report, with photos, from Scott:
West Seattle High School physics class had their trebuchet final in the sunshine today. What a great project for these scholars to work through.
They all were winners.
Last day of school is a week from Friday (June 22nd).
Tomorrow and Thursday, Highline Premier FC has one more round of tryouts for certain birth years. Here’s the announcement:
First round of Tryouts has concluded for the 2018/19 season. A second round of tryouts will commence on June 12 & June 14 for additional players for birth year 2007 through 2011 players & 2005 boys.
When: June 12 & 14th. Please attend both nights
Time: Based on Age Group. We will confirm field/time on Sunday via email to registrants.
Where: Chief Sealth Utility Fields or Walt Hundley based on gender/birth year(email will be sent to confirm field and time)
Existing teams may have limited spots. Email our Tryout Director at tryouts@highlinepremier.com to inquire.
If interested, register here ASAP!
During Mayor Jenny Durkan‘s West Seattle “town hall” in February (photo at right), Highland Park Action Committee vice chair Gunner Scott invited her to visit HP – and she accepted. HPAC has been working since then to get a commitment for a date, and they finally have one. HPAC announced today that the mayor will be guest speaker at their June 27th meeting. It’ll move up half an hour as a result – 6:30 pm (doors open at 6:15 pm) at Highland Park Improvement Club (1116 SW Holden). From HPAC’s announcement:
We have requested the focus of the Mayor’s remarks to address the infrastructure needs of Highland Park, specifically, the Highland Park Way & SW Holden St. intersection. This has been HPAC’s preponderant infrastructure project, which we have been working to bring to fruition for many years. Further, Highland Park has been working to make this intersection safer in varying capacities for well over 70 years!
Here’s our coverage of SDOT’s update on that project at last month’s HPAC meeting.
That’s the completed “tiny house” built by Holy Rosary Catholic School students. We reported last month on the project that Mike Ritscher’s seventh- and eighth-grade wood-shop students had been working on, and the plan to donate it to LIHI, which operates several encampments around the city. Today was pickup day.
Sent along with the “tiny house” were messages from the students, like this one:
While the city pays for some operating costs at encampments, we’ve learned while covering months of meetings of the community advisory committee for Camp Second Chance (the only city-sanctioned encampment in West Seattle) that it doesn’t pay for tiny houses, so those are all provided via donations.
12:49 PM: Just in from the mayor’s office:
Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan and members of the City Council including Council President Bruce A. Harrell, Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez, Councilmember Lisa Herbold, Councilmember Rob Johnson, Councilmember Debora Juarez, and Councilmember Mike O’Brien released the following statement announcing the consideration of legislation to repeal a tax on large businesses to address the homelessness and housing crisis:
“We know that there are strong passions and genuine policy differences between neighbors, businesses, community leaders, and people across our City on how to best address our housing and homelessness crisis. This crisis has been years in the making and there are no easy solutions. The crisis is tied to a range of complex causes, including lack of affordable housing, unmet mental health and substance abuse issues, and systemic racial disparities in our foster care, criminal justice and educational systems.
“In recent months, we worked with a range of businesses, community groups, advocates, and working families to enact a bill that struck the right balance between meaningful progress on our affordability and homelessness crisis while protecting good, family-wage jobs. Over the last few weeks, these conversations and much public dialogue has continued. It is clear that the ordinance will lead to a prolonged, expensive political fight over the next five months that will do nothing to tackle our urgent housing and homelessness crisis. These challenges can only be addressed together as a city, and as importantly, as a state and a region.
“We heard you. This week, the City Council is moving forward with the consideration of legislation to repeal the current tax on large businesses to address the homelessness crisis.
“The City remains committed to building solutions that bring businesses, labor, philanthropy, neighborhoods and communities to the table. Now more than ever, we all must roll up our sleeves and tackle this crisis together. These shared solutions must include a continued focus on moving our most vulnerable from the streets, providing needed services and on building more housing as quickly as possible. The state and region must be full partners and contribute to the solutions, including working for progressive revenue sources. Seattle taxpayers cannot continue to shoulder the majority of costs, and impacts.”
The signature-gathering drive to put the head tax on the ballot had been widely reported to have already gathered more signatures than needed.
1:01 PM: Here’s the announcement of a special council meeting at noon tomorrow to consider the proposed repeal. Here’s the agenda; its accompanying “fiscal note” points out that “… King County Elections will bill the City some additional cost for having the repeal measure on the November 2018 ballot. If the City acts to repeal this legislation without the referendum, these additional election costs will be avoided.”
1:49 PM: Both of the two councilmembers who did not sign on to the repeal plan have commented via Twitter. Citywide Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda issued her statement here, saying she will not support the repeal. Councilmember Kshama Sawant calls the repeal move a “backroom betrayal.”
West Seattle’s biggest party of the year is one month (plus two days) away. The West Seattle Junction Association is providing the official neighborhood notification about Summer Fest, and as a festival co-sponsor, we’re sharing it with you:
WHAT: West Seattle Summer Fest
WHERE: West Seattle Junction – California Ave SW from SW Edmunds St to SW Genesee St, SW Alaska St from 42nd Ave SW to 44th Ave SW
DATE(s): July 13-15
TIME(s): 10 am – 11 pm Friday and Saturday, 11 am – 5 pm Sunday
WHO: West Seattle Junction Association
CONTACT: Lora Swift 425.445.5672 Oliver Little 206.403.8507
On July 13th-15th, our organization The West Seattle Junction Association will be producing a special event in the Junction neighborhood called Summer Fest. The Junction Neighborhood has hosted Summer Fest for 36 years. We are thrilled to host Summer Fest in your neighborhood and it’s important to us that we are communicating clearly with you, the neighbors.
EVENT DESCRIPTION:
• Event hours are from Friday, July 13th 10 am to Sunday, July 15th 5 pm.
• We will be loading in beginning at 6 pm on July 12th, and will load out until 11 pm on July 15th.
• We will leave your neighborhood as we found it: litter and recycling will be handled by Recology and Waste Management.
• During the event hours, we expect between 5,000 to 15,000 attendees per day.
• Streets may be closed or have limited vehicle and/or pedestrian access between the hours of 4 pm on July 12th through 11 pm on July 15th.
• We will have amplified sound during the hours of 12 pm to 11 pm on July 13th and 14th and 12 pm to 4 pm on July 15th.
• Sound will be from the North stage on California Ave near Genesee. (See map)
We are working closely with the City of Seattle Special Events Committee to minimize the impacts of the
event. Our goal is to create an enjoyable and positive experience in your neighborhood.If you or any of the surrounding residents and businesses have questions or comments about impacts of
this event, please email us at:Lora Swift, Executive Director, West Seattle Junction Association lora@wsjunction.org
Chris Swenson, Chair, City of Seattle Special Events Office chris.swenson@seattle.gov
And there’s lots more festival info online here.
(Photo by Carolyn Newman)
From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar, as a new week begins:
GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE: 1-7 pm blood drive at Peace Lutheran Church in Gatewood, closed for a break 3-4 pm. (39th SW/SW Thistle)
LEARN TO ROW! The Duwamish Rowing Club has sessions this month, for both youth and adults, and the next one starts tonight – this one’s for youth:
DRC will be offering 3 three weeklong learn-to-row classes this June. Two sessions will be for adults and one session for youth, ages 10 to 18.
For Youth (ages 10 to 18):
Session #2
· Monday, June 11th at 6-8 pm
· Wednesday, June 13th at 6-8 pm
· Sunday, June 17th at 9 am to 12 pmNo experience necessary; we teach everything you need to know. Adult classes are for 18 and up. $60 for three classes (7 hours of instruction) – scholarships available. Please contact rowdrc@gmail.com if the fee is a hardship. Cash or Check to ‘SPARC’, sorry no credit cards.
Tonight is dry-land training, at South Park Community Center. (8319 8th Ave. S.)
EVENING BOOK GROUP: 6:45 pm at West Seattle (Admiral) Library. This month’s title is “Men We Reaped” by Jesmyn Ward. All welcome! (2306 42nd SW)
SOUND TRANSIT LIGHT RAIL DISCUSSION: Sound Transit reps will be at the Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council tonight to talk specifically about the future West Seattle light-rail line’s North Delridge/Pigeon Point prospects. All welcome. 7 pm, Pathfinder K-8. (1901 SW Genesee)
MADISON CONCERT: The Madison Middle School Orchestra performs at the school at 7 pm. (3429 45th SW)
CAROLINE ROSE IN-STORE: 7 pm at Easy Street Records, Caroline Rose performs a free all-ages in-store concert with songs from her new album. (California/Alaska)
(SDOT MAP with travel times/video links; is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE)
6:57 AM: Good morning! No incidents reported in/from West Seattle so far this morning.
STADIUM ZONE: The Mariners are back home starting tonight, vs. the Angels @ 7:10 pm. That means extended Water Taxi service tonight.
8:45 AM: Emergency response at the south end of the 1st Avenue South Bridge – a reported motorcycle/car collision.
8:56 AM: That incident is closed out already. Meantime, if you are traveling the California SW corridor in Fauntleroy, between the church and old schoolhouse, police are responding to a report of a man behaving bizarrely, in and out of the road, and having tried to board a bus (but the driver wouldn’t allow him to, per the scanner).
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