West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Surely you’ve heard by now that the next couple of days will be ridiculously hot. That means discomfort will skyrocket with the temperatures, since most of us don’t have air conditioning and just aren’t acclimated to 90-plus degrees. 
But we don’t all have to pack ourselves onto the sands of Alki to stay cool. We thought it would be worth discussing alternatives in advance; for starters, we managed to cope with the last megahot spell by taking a late-afternoon walk through Schmitz Park (photo @ right). The trees of Lincoln Park, Camp Long, and other green zones in WS can do the same trick. (You can follow up a walk through LP with a dip in Colman Pool, which is open through the peak of the heat, till 7 pm.) Got a heat-beating tip to share with the rest of WSB-land?
From a reader:
An Aussie was seen Monday afternoon around 5:25 pm on the corner of 35th Ave SW and SW Barton St, in the parking lot of the little fresh market on the corner there. The dog did not belong to anyone there.   The dog had a collar on with a visible bright blue bone-shaped tag on  it but the dog would not let me get close enough to check the tag. It seemed confused and scared. I offered some water which it drank but then was scared by the cars and another dog there and it was last seen heading north on 35th Ave SW. Animal control was called and was sending someone out but may not have been able to find the dog after it ran north. I’m posting this just in case someone might be checking here for a lost dog. Hope it finds its owners and home.ÂÂ
If you’re at Lincoln Park tonight, you might run into the 34th District Democrats, enjoying their annual picnic (6 pm, Shelter 3). You might see a few candidates too, since the primary election is so early this year (six weeks from tomorrow). In the interest of equal time, we tried to find out when the local Republicans are picnicking; closest thing we could find is the local GOP women having a bash at Salty’s tomorrow.
If you have passed through the Fauntleroy/Alaska intersection lately, you might have noticed the big new sign on the side of the Schuck’s/Hancock building that Fauntleroy Place will replace, trumpeting “Coming Soon … Whole Foods Market.” Not that soon, according to the latest info from the project’s development/management company (more below the pic) …
We pinged Blue Star to find out the latest on how soon “coming soon” might be, and spokesman Eric Radovich was kind enough to reply quickly. He writes, “Timelines have been a bit of a moving target but suffice to say we would like to move forward as soon as possible with construction. We still have some work to do with the City of Seattle. The process of securing building permits from the city will likely take 8 to 10 months. It is possible that demolition of the existing structure and groundbreaking for the underground parking garage could begin as soon as late February 2008. If the above timeframes hold true we could begin construction in spring of 2008, with a 16-20 month buildout taking us to late 2009 for completion.”
He also notes that Blue Star will have a booth as part of its sponsorship of this weekend’s Summer Fest, and you can drop by to get more questions answered about Fauntleroy Place.
P.S. on the subject of the potential grocery-store glut once Whole Foods and the new QFC to the west arrive — anyone else notice that Target in Westwood Village is expanding its food aisles, with a slew of new refrigerated cases just arriving, and some shelf-shuffling under way on the south side of the store?
We know you’re mad about crime and ready to tell the crooks “enough” — one way to make a stand is to organize a block party for National Night Out on August 7th. If you sign up with Seattle Police within the next few weeks (full info here), you get to close your block to traffic and dance (or whatever) in the streets.
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