Received this afternoon from Jenny:

I live on the corner of 39th & Morgan. I’m writing to file a grievance and to announce a request.

After two days of carefully pruning two city-planted crabapples in front of my house, yesterday I clipped and bundled the twigs and then hand cut the remains for my Summer fire bowl, bundling them separately with hemp twine, intending to drive all bundles to my alley when the rain stopped. I went out today to find the bundle of firewood gone; the bundles of twigs remained. This was very special wood to me, not only because I have nurtured those trees since 2005 despite the fact that they grow out of control, but also because I spent a lot of time preparing them for my fire bowl. I imagine the person who took my wood is unaware that this wood was special with intended purpose, not disposable. I request the return of this bundle with much appreciation and no questions asked. The taker can put it on my front stoop at any time.

(WSB photos unless otherwise credited)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The main event at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting was a conversation with District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka, in his fourth West Seattle community Q&A in a little over two weeks

ACC president Charlotte Starck said she wanted to “set the stage for the conversation” with the context that Alki isn’t just another neighborhood, it’s a “gem for the city of Seattle … but the city does not seem to manage to the crowds when they flex,” and that means a lot of chronic problems go unchecked.

Before she got into specifics – starting with questions received before the meeting – Saka introduced himself, saying “you don’t just win and turn it off .. I’m here right now putting in the work …” and giving a shoutout to his support staff, two of whom were present, district-relations director Leyla Gheisar and policy adviser Heather Marx.

Starck had opened with the topic of dangerous driving along Alki, including two crashes in the past year involving allegedly drunk drivers and cars ending up in the water.

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Another community coalition with a lot going on …

That’s a photo by Alki Community Council president Charlotte Starck from last week’s personal-safety seminar, hosted by the ACC and presented by Seattle Police at West Seattle (Admiral) Library. She reports, “SPD Officer German Barreto presented, with Seattle Police instructor Sarah Lawson, who brought experience as a 911 operator and a victim of crime herself. She shared her own experience getting out of an attempted robbery and stabbing when a knife-wielding attacker came at her and she used her metal water bottle to defend herself and her loud commanding voice.” Speaking of loud voices, Starck recounts a memorable moment from the seminar: “There was one point when the basement meeting room at the library was anything but quiet as attendees found their voice in calling for help from police at the top of their lungs.” She also says participants learned about texting 911 and Smart 911, plus the overall importance of contacting 911 when something’s happening. “The message was clear, call 911. They are the experts in determining a response for emergency or non-emergency. Instructors said don’t ever assume that someone else called in any obvious emergency. It is better to have more calls on emergencies than to have few or even none because people thought someone already called.”

COUNCILMEMBER SAKA AT NEXT ACC MEETING: The ACC’s next meeting is this Thursday (March 21), 7 pm at Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds), and City Councilmember Rob Saka is the main guest, as he continues making the rounds of community groups. (Here’s our coverage of his three recent West Seattle appearances: District 1 Community Network, Admiral Neighborhood Association, and a small-business mini-roundtable.) Though ACC meetings are usually hybrid, this one is in-person only.

(WSB photo from last Tuesday’s City Council Transportation Committee meeting)

The Transportation Plan, the Comprehensive Plan, the Parks and Open Space Plan … the city is in a season of looking to the future. If you have a question about any of those for District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka – or about something happening right now – you’ll want to be at the Admiral Neighborhood Association gathering this Tuesday (March 12) – it’ll be his second West Seattle neighborhood-group appearance in less than a week (after this one). ANA meets at 7 pm, in-person only, at Admiral Church (4320 SW Hill), and other guests will include Southwest Precinct police. All welcome (even if you don’t live or work in Admiral).

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Public safety was first up at the second meeting of the new-era Alki Community Council this past Thursday.

For starters, ACC leaders are inviting you to a free personal-safety-training event the ACC is organizing with Seattle Police crime-prevention experts, 3:30 pm Wednesday, March 13, at West Seattle Library (2306 42nd SW) – here’s the registration link.

Guests from SPD were up first, including crime-prevention coordinator Mark Solomon, who brought trends and data: “2023 was a bad year”; though many categories of crime decreased slightly, all neighborhoods citywide saw a continued rise in auto theft. Alki had more homicides (two) and robberies (nine). Regarding specific recent crimes, the police delegation briefly addressed the one-night wave of Starbucks burglaries; we covered two, Admiral and Alki, but it turns out there was a third that night, 35th/Avalon. The burglars “knew enough to get in but didn’t know Starbucks doesn’t keep cash in the register,” they observed. Solomon said that while there were four assaults logged in Alki in recent weeks, they all involved people known to each other. And there was one “shot fired” incident (February 3rd).

Looking ahead to summer, there was some discussion of how disorder on the beach will be handled. Solomon said that park rangers will be deployed “in the neighborhoods” such as Alki, not just downtown as in years past. The SPD contingent explained that rangers – who will be uniformed in brown vests and brown pants – have powers of “citation and exclusion” but not arrest, and they’re unarmed. So, “if something bad happens, we will go onto the beach.”

One attendee asked about the carjackings in recent months.

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Tomorrow (Thursday, February 15) brings the second Alki Community Council gathering since new leadership took over. The first one was lively and well-attended (here’s our coverage). What will tomorrow night bring? The ACC plans another hybrid meeting – at 7 pm Thursday, be at Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds) in person or join online via this link. The full announcement is in our calendar listing (as are the codes you might need for online attendance). Here are agenda highlights:

1. Arrive to see the work of a local artist whose map of West Seattle immediately got crazy popular on (social media). Meet Sonja Rupnick.

2. A familiar face making impact across the city joins Alki Community Council in a Chair role to lead and inspire. He’s done a lot! What can we do together?

3. Seattle Police update on the rash of one-night smash and grab group robberies and advise on other safety issues.

4. Plus, we’ve got it locked in! We’re hosting SPD Crime Prevention and FREE Personal Safety training that could change the way you think as you move through town. Get the scoop on early registration. Customized content to target Junction to Alki.

5. Meet the NEW Seattle Parks Alki Playground Renovation Planner Kevin Bergsrud. (No presentation, but look ahead.) Plus, hear from the head of Recreational Programs, Tianna Scott, on shuffles to hop to and news on the Alki Bathhouse.

6. Alki Beach PRIDE readies to celebrate 10 years! Don’t know Roger or Stacy? They are ready to rock a soulful summer celebration. You can get involved!

7. That last cool person? That’s you! Got a passion for something particular? Love working on a safer neighborhood? Planning fun foodie events? Maybe you’d like to provide a front porch-style welcome to neighbors? We love all that! Join Alki Community Council to whistle while we work to make Alki the best it can be.

First 20 people attending in-person receive a sweeeet chocolate surprise!

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

What you see above – taped onto the door of Alki UCC Thursday night – was one sign (literally) of the Alki Community Council‘s “fresh start.”

Another sign – more than 20 people in the room, and others joining online, a much larger turnout than most recent meetings.

“We’re all here thanks to a very long history of volunteer service,” new ACC president Charlotte Starck observed in her introductory comments. “This group has done a lot for a long time … we’re all here because we love Alki, we love our home, we want to contribute … We’re not just driven by one issue.” Starck explained that the new leaders, elected in. November, see the role of the ACC ss to “facilitate the conversation and help keep the dialogue going,” not necessarily to advocate for any particular position.

New vice president Lindsey Pearsall elaborated that they hope “to bring the community together, to uplift Alki in general.” She said they’re working to streamline communications, including launching a newsletter – “a resource for the community to go to.” They’ll also be updating the website, automating membership technology, and working to circulate a community survey. That’ll be announced in the newsletter. She’s also interested in ideas of how you would like to see information distributed. They’ve also been connecting with other neighborhood groups, with new District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka, and others.

From there, it was on to the night’s featured guests and topics:

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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The Morgan Community Association‘s first meeting of 2024 was the first one in-person since pre-pandemic, facilitated by president Deb Barker. It was MoCA’s first in hybrid style – about a dozen attendees in person at Westside Unitarian Universalist, roughly an equal number via videoconferencing. As usual, it was a meaty meeting, with lots of news:

MORGAN JUNCTION PARK’S NEW PLAN: In advance of this afternoon’s 1 pm Seattle Design Commission review of the expanding park’s updated plan, with an “all-wheels” area, Susan Melrose of Seattle Parks joined remotely and Matt Johnston and Josh Radick were there in person. Their topic: What’s now known as the Morgan Junction All-Wheels Association. On behalf of the city, Melrose is supporting MJAWA in their part of the project, which has its roots in last year’s community activation of the empty park site as a makeshift skatepark. “The positive thing that came out of that was overwhelming community support for that kind of use of the space … an overwhelming message from the community that we wanted some kind of activation,” Johnston said. So they’re pursuing a 1,500 square foot “all wheels area” in the park for “anybody who wants to roll around” – bikes, scooters, wheelchair athletes, roller skaters, not just skateboard riders. “It’s not going to be an advanced skateboarding area or anything like that.” They’ve received a $44,000 neighborhood Matching Fund grant to bring this part of the design up with the rest of the park expansion. “We just want to get our part caught up with the rest of the park project.” They have a plan for public engagement and public meetings – the Parks team needs to be able to incorporate and use what this team creates. He added that the team is “very multidisciplinary and diverse” – “kids, moms, skateborders, bikers”- and they’re looking for more participation – Radick said they’re also looking to do some site cleanups in the next month or so “so it’s at least respectable to look at.” Johnston said the cleanup parties will start in February and supplies will be provided, all you’ll hace to do is show up.

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Back in November, many of the Alki Community Council‘s long-serving leaders stepped down – as they long had planned to – and new leaders stepped up (WSB coverage here). Tomorrow night (Thursday, January 18) is the first meeting under the new leaders; president Charlotte Starck says, “Our focus is to harness the love of Alki and Hit Refresh with ACC, which has been a historic part of Alki since at least the mid-1980s. We didn’t want to see this organization that has done so much, fade away. And we’re excited at the new interest we are already getting in redefining what an Alki neighborhood group could look like.” To be part of that – even if only a spectator cheering them on – join in tomorrow night’s 7 pm meeting. It’s in person at Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds) or online – the agenda (see it here) includes the link for attending online if that’s what works best for you.

Some community groups haven’t been able to return to in-person meetings since going online because of the pandemic – finding (free or low-fee) places to host an evening meeting with room for at least a few dozen people is more difficult than you’d think. The Morgan Community Association, which meets quarterly, is finally going in-person this Wednesday, and president Deb Barker sent this announcement:

First, there’s all this equipment you need to find – a functioning laptop, a projector, remote speaker, microphone, an auxiliary camera, and heavy duty extension cords. Then you need a public place to set it up. Then you send out invitations. Check, check, and check. What is going on??

It’s the first time in four years that the Morgan Community Association will meet in person. And not just in person, but with a HYBRID meeting.

We are grateful to the Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation for letting us use their Social Hall for our meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 from 7 to 9pm. The address is 7141 California Ave SW, and the zoom link is us02web.zoom.us/j/89608491338. Be sure to enter the Social Hall off the small parking lot on California Ave SW. Please do not park in the lot before 6:40 pm.

The meeting features Seattle City Light’s update on the Morgan Junction EV charging station, Seattle Parks’ introduction of Morgan Junction All Wheels Association and their ideas for Morgan Junction Park, welcoming the owner of Alki Arts Gallery and Event Space (newly located in Morgan Junction), and picking the date of the Morgan Junction Community Festival.

Here’s the full meeting agenda.

Everyone is welcome at the Morgan Community Association Meeting on January 17, 2024.

For a snapshot of history, here’s our report on that last in-person meeting, in January 2020. (And here’s our coverage of MoCA’s most-recent meeting, last October.)

Here’s what happened when the District 1 Community Network – representatives of various groups and organizations around the area – met this week for the first time this year, with Deb Barker of the Morgan Community Association facilitating.

WEST SEATTLE LIGHT RAIL: D1CN’s first guests were from Sound Transit, recapping the newest information presented regarding the West Seattle light-rail extension – early station designs. ST is still on track to publish the West Seattle project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement “the middle of this year,” Leda Chahim said – the board (which is getting some new members) will vote after that on final routing and station locations. The presentation went through the station-planning info shown at recent meetings including the West Seattle Transportation Coalition in November (WSB coverage here) and October’s “open house” in The Junction (WSB coverage here). ST’s station-planning lead Sloan Dawson headed up the recap, showing what were largely the same station design outlines presented at WSTC (with a few extra notations about bus access), starting with the Delridge station, northwest of the Delridge/Andover intersection.

Questions included how many buses the stop zone at the station would hold simultaneously – answer, three. Also: How is Metro involved in planning? Dawson said they’re “closely coordinating.”

The Avalon station is where the line starts going underground, with a “retained cut” station and then the tunnel leading into The Junction.

This station “straddles” 35th SW, with an entrance on each side of that street. Barker noted that Metro will be visiting the WSTC this year, so watch for that if you have questions about how bus service will interface with light rail. Dawson said that among other things, they’re working on street cross-sections to show more clearly how the station areas are supposed to work..

The Junction station will be “cut and cover,” spanning 41st SW.

Buses from California, Alaska, and Fauntleroy would converge on the station. There would be a new signalized intersection at 41st/Alaska. Jefferson Square would be “acquired and demolished.” That led to one commenter voicing concerns about how business tenants would be compensated compared to property owners; Chahim said it’s a complex conversation and that they haven’t discussed specific dollar amounts with specific businesses yet.

Time ran too short for detailed discussion but ST reps also noted “concepts” for projects to enhance walking and biking access to the stations. Next up in the process – they’re analyzing more than 2,000 responses to the station-planning survey that closed just before Christmas. They also promised another “engagement” event in West Seattle in the months ahead.

‘NO-BUILD ALTERNATIVE’: Another light-rail-related agenda item later in the meeting – Marty Westerman spoke on behalf of the Rethink The Link group advocating for this alternative to Sound Transit light rail. They contend that the light-rail extension “will make West Seattle to downtown rider experience worse” and that the massive expense and construction-related pollution, among other aspects, are not worth it. They say ST only projects 400 fewer car trips as a result and contend that beefing up bus service would “make more sense.” One attendee asked how the ST3 vote could be “undone” to allow this. Westerman said that’s not necessary, as the ST Board has the power to “ignore the voters” and do whatever they think is right, for example.

TRIBAL ART UNDER THE BRIDGE: Here’s our previous coverage about this. Facilitator Barker recapped how she found out about this by reading a City Council agenda back in November. The new City Council will have to make a final decision on the matter, which involves $133,000 for the Muckleshoot and Suquamish tribes to create art on columns under the west end of the West Seattle Bridge. The Duwamish Tribe – whose longhouse is barely a mile away from the site – was not consulted, though the city said a different art project would involve the Duwamish. Barker invited Ken Workman of the Duwamish Tribe to the meeting. He said that “to our shock, this proposal was going through” on the “last Duwamish Village site in Seattle.” He said the two tribes involved “are good people” and do have some Duwamish ancestry, adding that his tribe supports native art, but “this place is home for us and for somebody else to come in and say they’re going to establish their territory (here) … doesn’t sit well with us.” He said they were grateful to Barker for bringing it to their attention. He was asked how the fight for federal recognition is going; “we continue this fight … our attorneys are pushing forward for an acknowledgment, a summary judgment that (the Duwamish) would be recognized … My fear is that if we as a Duwamish people fail to get our names on the registry of recognized tribes, we will go the way of the Aztec and Inca and people will say they have ‘ancestry’ but there won’t be an actual Duwamish people any more.” Back to the art matter, city reps said at the time of the bridge proposal that they would work with the Duwamish on a separate public-art project; Workman said that will involve sidewalk art. No date set yet for the council’s next consideration of the project with the Suquamish and Muckleshoot, Council Bill 120726; the Transportation Committee shelved it on December 5th and will have to vote before it could go to the full council.

CITY COUNCIL VACANCY: This is now open to applicants as noted in our coverage Tuesday of the council’s first meeting – but you have to apply by end-of-day Tuesday (January 9). Barker noted that a public forum will be held as part of the process and wondered if D1CN participants might be interested in sending in questions. When a similar forum was held in 2019, it was noted, 18 groups asked questions.

COMMUNITY NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: Kay Kirkpatrick from HPAC said they’re excited about the construction of the permanent signal at Highland Park Way and Holden … Facilitator Barker said her organization, Morgan Community Association, will have a hybrid meeting at 7 pm January 17th, at Westside Unitarian Universalist (7141 California SW) … The Fauntleroy Community Association expects a guest from Parks at its 7 pm meeting Tuesday (January 9) to talk about the Lincoln Park pickleball-court plan. That’ll be at The Hall at Fauntleroy (9131 California SW).

D1CN’S NEXT MEETING: 7 pm Wednesday, March 6, in-person, location TBA.

Also ahead this week: The next general gathering of the Admiral Neighborhood Association, in person on Tuesday (January 9th). Among other agenda items, ANA says it’s a chance to talk with police about community-safety concerns. Here’s the preview sent by ANA:

Join us Tuesday as we begin 2024 with updates from the Southwest Precinct, a conversation highlighting a campaign to create a more safe and livable, people-oriented district. We will also be giving previews and dates for 2024 events as well as presenting volunteer opportunities to get involved with us. The gathering will be held at Admiral Church, 4320 SW Hill St., at 7 pm.

Here’s our report on what happened at the ANA’s last general gathering, in November.