West Seattle, Washington
10 Tuesday
… seems to be the message Seattle Public Schools can take away from the “special election.” Both props are passing in a big way.
Not the owner of a business that’s moved out, if you are interested in its old space, apparently. Got e-mail from Emerald City Locksmith, which (as we mentioned last week) has left its JuNo — sorry, we mean, north-of-Junction-location. The e-mailer claims to be getting besieged by calls and respectfully asks everyone to please stop, so (he?) can finish working on the move to a new Harbor Ave location. If you’re interested in the space, the e-mail goes on to say, Landlord Management Inc. is who to call, NOT ECL.
Turnout at our precinct was pretty lousy by the time we voted at midday — only one other voter turning out for the school propositions. If you missed our thoughts on them a few days ago, just scroll down this page. Whether you vote no/yes, yes/yes, whatever, they do have “validation requirements,” which means TURNOUT. Only takes a minute. (Meantime, in a much less important but much more fun vote, thank you for helping us win our “bracket” in the Metroblogging Seattle blog-popularity contest — now we advance to the second round, so we’ll be begging you again Thursday to take a sec to vote, again, for WSB.)
A great, informative discussion in the comments here, after the Charlestown Cafe site/Petco project Design Review Board meeting, has led to action. Admiral Neighborhood leader Mark Wainwright has set up a Yahoo! group (with a cool logo) as a rallying point for those concerned about the development (and the way things are going around here in general). Go sign up!
2 hours and 40 minutes, but nobody was really fired up till the very end … shame, since by then, about 95% of what started as an SRO crowd had long since fled into the fog.Read More
So the very last speaker at The Windstorm/Snowpocalypse/Disaster-Prep County Council Meeting in Fauntleroy tonight was a literal space cadet; yet his comment was the truest of the night. A onetime political candidate now best known as Goodspaceguy (name changed to reflect his interest in space colonization), said something along the lines of this: “Honorable Councilmembers, a whole lot of people got up and left, disgusted, because they waited and waited and didn’t get a chance to talk. I respectfully suggest that next time you let the PEOPLE talk first, so that if they have to leave after a while, they can do it when it’s the presenters’ turn, not theirs.” A-men. Not a single NON-politico/bureaucrat got a chance to open her/his mouth until well past an hour in. More in a bit.
Last warning — 7 pm tonight, The Hall at Fauntleroy, our West Seattle rep on the King County Council, Dow Constantine, brings the entire council to WS to look back at our windstorm woes, and look ahead to how to avoid similar trouble next time. Councilmember Constantine’s office tells us this will NOT be televised live on public access, so if you wanna know, you gotta go. (It will be taped for broadcast online and on the air tomorrow.)
We mentioned last week that work has begun across the street from Gatewood Baptist Church, where land sold by the church is turning into “townhomes” (first noted here almost 3 months ago, then re-noted when multiple permits were issued just before Thanksgiving for four addresses all assigned to the one site – 7200 Cali, 7202 Cali, 7206 Cali, 7208 Cali). Now, with yet another permit JUST assigned to a fifth address at the site (7204 Cali) and the heavy equipment having arrived (photos below), neighborhood watchdogs have uncovered the magnitude of the project — contending this is ONE semi-big development that should have been subject to public hearings and a more intensive review process, instead of sliding through under the guise of multiple small projects. They’re conferring frantically about what they can do to get construction put on hold. They also say the work has opened “a natural spring” that’s causing water trouble at the site and may be reason alone for city review. They’d be interested in hearing from any land-use experts with thoughts on all this. (Side note, the house hidden in the trees at the upper right of the top photo is described by neighbors as an old “hunting lodge.” Who knew?)
As we noted when we discovered Metblogs Seattle planned to run a blog-popularity contest of sorts, it’s contrived … but nonetheless, it’s happening. And our appearance in it is apparently TODAY ONLY (unless we win this round and move on). So please take a sec, click here and vote for us in the first part of this poll. Thanks.
Highlighting here because you’d miss ’em unless you happen to check back on certain comment threads: First, the closure of El Chalan (ex-Ezell’s, ex-Wendy’s, south of White Center) is explained in a new comment on this post; second, those late-night half-closures on the WS Bridge are demystified by a commenter here. (Regarding the El Chalan site, records from the King County Parcel Viewer confirm the “Nickels Brothers Partnership” ownership — and an entry on this page from King County court records suggests some sort of recent court action was involved, elaborated on somewhat here.)
Second-to-last reminder: Tomorrow night, The Hall @ Fauntleroy, 7 pm, the entire County Council plus reps of Seattle City Light among others, our chance to hear them explain why we were in the dark so long after the December windstorm, and what’s changed (if anything) to prevent a rerun “next time” … we’ll of course post a report here afterward, but a full house would sure make a nice statement to TPTB.
Got a request for a WS Super Bowl poll. Bears or Colts? We don’t have time to go find some site that’ll give us real poll code but tell everyone your prediction in this post’s comments! (P.S. If you’re making Super Bowl guacamole — which we did LONG before it was trendy — Thriftway has a killer deal, tons of mega-ripe avocadoes for 45 CENTS EACH.)
Yard signs have finally popped up, but, especially if you don’t have a kid in Seattle Public Schools, you still might not be entirely aware there’s an election on Tuesday. Yes, there is — almost $900 million dollars worth. Here’s our 2 cents, if you haven’t already voted by mail, or haven’t really thought much about which way to go: Seattle School District Proposition 1 could be considered discretionary; it spends hundreds of millions on construction projects (including a new Denny Middle/Sealth HS campus here in WS) that some say don’t represent the most urgent needs for this kind of $. However, Seattle School District Proposition 2 is NOT discretionary. A “yes” vote on Prop 2 renews a levy (in other words, no change in tax rate) that provides a quarter of the district’s budget. If you vote no on Prop 2, students WILL be hurt. And unlike some of the people in this article, many local families don’t have the $ to just say “oh well, it’s off to private school then” (and trust us, even if they do, some private schools are startlingly overrated). No matter what you decide to do regarding school Prop 1, please vote yes Tuesday on school Prop 2.
Seems we’ve dissected the pizza issue down to the last clove of garlic. Now if you can bear one more food fight … WS needs non-KFC fried chicken. Got a craving for spicy fried chicken tonight and we had only two real choices: drive to Renton for Popeye’s, or drive to the Central District for Ezell’s. (We chose the latter.) Long ago, Ezell’s had a nearby outlet — the south-of-White Center spot that was previously a Wendy’s and more recently El Chalan (now mysteriously closed; even its entrances are blocked). Yes, we know grocery-store delis have fried chicken, but that’s not the same!
Remember the exotically named, misleadingly marketed Verge Condos on Harbor? Six months to the day after we muttered about the peculiarities of their website, seems at least a few remain available, since today a soggy sign-waver was stationed nearby:
Yet another grand-opening date to mention. Thanks to the folks at Friends of Southwest Branch Library for writing to say the branch’s reopening celebration is set for Saturday, March 10. This is the library branch on 35th in the Westwood area; hard to believe construction’s been under way more than a year!
Just when we were about to declare this a slow Friday night and back away from the computer, e-mail arrived with a note a WSB reader says he just got from the King County Elections Department, warning that Providence Mount St. Vincent will not be a polling place next Tuesday because of “sporadic cases of the norovirus over the past month.” According to the letter, three precincts whose residents usually vote at PMSV are instead being directed to vote at High Point Community Center. (Can’t reach anyone to find out more on this, but the Times did recently mention a general increase in local nursing-home noro outbreaks.)
Things are going to be busier along Cali Ave just south of Morgan Junction — construction has begun on the townhomes-to-be across from Gatewood Church (this land was sold along with the church, which is still up for re-sale, though its listing now says “subject to inspection”) — the building on the north end of the property is already gone and the heavy equipment’s moved in.
Probably not as sunny as last weekend, but hey, who needed another long walk along the water (sigh) … Today and tomorrow, check out the classes @ PCC West Seattle … This afternoon, the High Point Library screens a documentary about Cambodian refugees in Seattle … Tonight, roll into Friday Night Family Skating @ Alki Community Center … All weekend, “How I Got That Story” continues @ ArtsWest … Saturday night, Camp Long’s offering a winter pottery class for almost all ages (brochure page 12) … Sunday, go to The Junction to look for surprises at the Winter Farmers’ Market (10 am-1 pm, don’t miss the Fuji apples); after that, if you want to avoid everything connected with That Allegedly Big Football Game, it’s the TV-free Anti-Super Bowl Party @ West 5, promising “happy hour pricing” from the moment they open, till 6 pm. (Anything else worth mentioning this weekend? Let us know.)
OK, we are completely aware this is a gimmick cooked up by Metroblogging Seattle to try to get more readers, by conning other blogs into a link, though we wouldn’t have known they were running a “Best Blog in Seattle” contest except for the fact one lone person followed a link from there to here. NONETHELESS — we don’t suppose it would do any harm if you drop by MS to vote for us on Monday. Seems the preliminary round is one day only (like those olden-days sales at Bon Marche Bon Macy’s). Even more important on Monday, don’t forget about this (we’ll be there too).
Construction appears to be starting at the Gionnoni’s Pizza (STILL don’t know who they are)/Taco Del Mar site at Westwood Village. Noticed tonight that a fence is up (where a tree lot stood weeks ago), with a construction trailer and Honey Bucket on hand too.
In December, the city promised curb bulbs, for starters, to make things a little bit better at the 47th/Admiral intersection where Tatsuo Nakata was hit and killed. Construction was supposed to have started by now; an e-mail tip noted there’s at least an outline on the street (which we subsequently, albeit non-thrillingly, photographed):
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