West Seattle, Washington
23 Friday
As the number of pay-to-park lots around WS increases, watch closely for the signs, and do be aware that the enforcers make the rounds — as discovered today by the spouse of a regular reader. Reportedly, more than a dozen cars in the lot near Wells Fargo in The Junction all got simultaneously ticketed during the Farmers’ Market across the street. The reader went back for a closer look at the signage … and yes, it’s posted (reader photo @ right) … but that doesn’t make the $35 ticket any easier to take. (Payable online, courtesy of the industrious folks at Diamond Parking.) Yes, of course lot owners have the right to charge whatever the traffic will bear, as discussed after our recent post about the future Fauntleroy Place site converting to a Diamond-managed pay lot. But you can’t help wonder if it’s a slippery slope. The Junction merchants have worked hard to keep several free lots available for us all, and lobbied against paid parking on WS streets (earning us the envy of other neighborhoods). But as the pay lots multiply, can the city resist trying for a cut of the action?
Just four months into its hopefully long lifespan, Sustainable West Seattle continues to grow. Tomorrow night, you’re invited to its next meeting — 7 pm, Camp Long, family-friendly, so kids are welcome — where county and city reps will talk about transportation and climate-change issues, respectively. The latter is of special note, with a Seattle CAN (Climate Action Now) kickoff event in WS next Saturday. (Here’s a new reason to care about climate change.) If you can’t make tomorrow’s meeting, see the Sustainable WS website, which includes contact info for the people running its action groups (Energy, Transportation, Food & Health, Water & Waste Reduction, Green Building & Planning).
Crews working on the bus shelter next to KeyBank in The Junction — spotted this morning as we headed to the Farmers’ Market — reminds us it’s time to talk about many changes for WS bus riders …
Some of those changes involve renovations, repairs, and replacements for many other WS shelters. More on that in a few sentences. First: Some bus routes will change starting next weekend, in preparation for the reopening of the downtown bus tunnel on Monday, 9/24. Lots and lots of changes, all detailed here. People who know the quirks of the Metro system much better than we do say that some of the changes are positive for links between WS and other parts of the area. Now, as for those bus-stop/bus-shelter changes — after a few people e-mailed us with questions about work they had noticed, Chris Arkills from the office of West Seattle-representing King County Councilmember Dow Constantine was kind enough to get us a list of what Metro’s working on. We’ve had this in queue for about a week and a half so some of these projects may already be done, but you might find it handy anyway (it also explains exactly what those crews shown above are doing at the shelter by KeyBank):Read More
–The Northwest Hope & Healing Half-Marathon (and accompanying 5K walk) takes off from Lincoln Park @ 8 am. Click here to see the route they’ll follow on their long loop back to LP.
-Meet West Seattle authors at Square 1 Books’ “Words from the WestSide” event @ ArtsWest, 1 pm.
On each and every WSB post, there’s just no telling where you all will take the discussion — or if you’ll choose to discuss at all. Last month, we mentioned the addition of an ADULT DVD sign to a Morgan Junction market, with a headline citing Spanky’s, the adult retailer that closed on mid-Cali some years back. That led to some discussion of Spanky’s in the comments; tonight, its former proprietor wrote us (comments are closed on the original item since 3+ weeks have passed) to set the record straight. Here’s his note:Read More
| 2 COMMENTS