West Seattle, Washington
13 Friday
One year to the day after the bicycle-vs.-van crash that killed Susanne Scaringi @ 35th/Graham, people have been stopping by the corner today to leave flowers and candles in her memory. (Eerily, the radio station we were listening to on the way there played the ’80s hit “Send Me an Angel” just before we pulled up.)
If you have gas service from Puget Sound Energy, don’t faint, it’s cutting rates. 
However, this is reminiscent of the price of the “other” gas going up, then down a bit, then up; exactly one year ago today, in fact, PSE announced a gas rate increase of almost 9%, which means this new cut only takes us down to 4% over where prices were a year ago. We are quite dependent on PSE here at WSB HQ; when we bought our gas-heated house last decade, natural gas was relatively cheap, so we had the line extended to our kitchen. As the chart accompanying today’s Times story shows, prices have more than doubled since then.
At left (photo by Matthew Durham, courtesy ArtsWest), it’s the amazing Bat Boy, no longer just the figment of active tabloid imaginations (RIP, Weekly World News). ArtsWest‘s season opens next Wednesday with the Seattle premiere of “Bat Boy: The Musical” (tickets available online). For the theater-intrigued, one free event during the “Bat Boy” run is particularly worth noting: Next Monday @ 7:30 pm, ArtsWest’s director of theater will be among those participating in what AW describes as “a lively discussion about music as a character, musicals as social commentary, and how this all relates to the strange boy with pointy ears at the heart of “Bat Boy” … Zinovitch is directing “Bat Boy” and has something to say about the show in this new post on the ArtsWest MySpace blog.
This comment just in on the seal-photo post:
I was lucky enough to visit Seattle this year, do some work, and see the Gray Whales. With mountains, seas, beaches, forests you live in a wonderful part of the world! Having spent a fair bit of time on the East Coast my few days in Seattle changed my perception of the US significantly!
Awww. That’ll keep us warm till the fog lifts.
A WSB reader e-mailed to ask about a scene on West Marginal Way Tuesday afternoon, “just under the low bridge,” involving police and what was clearly a (covered) body. No major crime investigations were under way, but we just checked the King County Medical Examiner’s latest report on recent deaths, and there’s one case that’s a potential match — a 43-year-old man listed as having committed suicide Tuesday in Seattle, with the cause of death explained as a number of injuries that would be tough to suffer all at once without having jumped from quite some height. Last bridge suicide we know of was in mid-June. If you know anyone contemplating suicide … there is a comprehensive list of suicide-prevention resources here.
Photographer par excellence Christopher Boffoli wants everyone to know he took these baby-seal pix on Alki with a long lens from the prescribed distance, with Seal Sitters standing guard. We’re envious, since we have been down to the beach several times in the past few days but haven’t managed any in-person seal sightings ourselves …
Christopher also shared some gorgeous shots of the water, the Olympics, the lifting fog … here’s one of them. Truly a lovely afternoon:
Hot out of the inbox 2 minutes ago. Not verified but passing along in case you are waiting for someone:
Just got a call from my husband that the throttles on the Water Taxi
are broken. The captain is taking it out for a cruise right now but
would not let passengers aboard. They are hoping to have it fixed by 6:50
p.m. Just wanted you to know in case there are people waiting for
someone to arrive on the Water Taxi (like I was).
8:30 PM UPDATE: From the same reader (thank you SO much!):
My husband just got home….but on the bus. As of 7 p.m. the Water Taxi was still out testing the throttles in the bay. Therefore, the 6:50 never took off. Don’t have any more info.
Two bits of red meat for you, so to speak. First one is a reader recommendation request, second is more like a reader invitation.
READER RECOMMENDATION REQUEST: Someone who just moved back to West Seattle after 12 years away is hungering for a “good old-fashioned butcher shop” somewhere in the area. Is there one? Maybe even White Center or Georgetown?
READER INVITATION FOR OTHERS IN WSB-LAND: Reader Megan e-mailed us looking for others to join her in a meat-buying club:Read More
VIADUCT MEETING: “Scoping meeting” regarding the project that the state says will replace the south end of The Viaduct no matter what’s decided about the rest of it — 5-8 pm tonight, with the official presentation starting at 6, Madison Middle School.
DINING FOR LITERACY: A portion of tonight’s proceeds at three WS restaurants — Angelina’s Trattoria, Garlic Jim’s Pizza, Talarico’s — go toward a literacy campaign, as part of Page Ahead’s area-wide Dish Up Literacy campaign.
In the “reserve” greenspace near Salty’s, this blazingly bright little tree:
This sighting also gives us an excuse to mention a new site – featuring an interactive map to find “urban nature” near you.
The rest of this post, anyway. Its loose theme — history.
-This obituaries (Times, P-I) for ski-school legend “Buzz” Fiorini, who died in what’s described only as a “West Seattle nursing home” the other day, makes us think — when you drive by all our fine elder-care facilities, The Kenney (11:20 PM UPDATE: a reader tells us that’s where Mr. Fiorini died) or The Mount or any of the many others, think about who’s in there, living out lives that were remarkable in their own way, big or small. Programs like Friend to Friend find people to remind them they’re not forgotten.
-The Duwamish Tribe longhouse project on the eastern edge of WS — their ancestral lands — will get a boost from a fundraiser downtown tonight. The P-I has a good writeup with an interesting spin regarding how none of us really know how to pronounced “Seattle.” Meantime, Indian Country Today has an update on the project, as well as on the campaign in Congress to get official recognition for the tribe.
-West Seattle’s wonderful Log House Museum has remodeled its website. We discovered this after learning the Log House Museum is one of the participants in this Saturday’s Smithsonian-sponsored Museum Day (hat tip to saveseattleschools.blogspot.com for mentioning that nationwide free-admission event). Looking further into the fall, the museum will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a fundraising gala November 3rd @ Salty’s.
Finally, another live cam to add to our WS cams page! Hotwire Online Coffeehouse proprietor Lora Vickrey e-mailed us to announce Hotwire’s new baristacam. Unless you’re on a Mac (which unfortunately in this case we are), you can check it out here — Lora notes you likely will be prompted to download ActiveX in order for the live video to work.
The West Seattle Little League renovation project at Alki Point’s Bar-S Playfield just got a big boost — a $100,000 Boeing/Mariners Care Athletic Field Grant. The official press release says an official presentation is planned at Safeco Field this Friday night during a ceremony before the Mariners-Rangers’ game.
Received an intriguing note yesterday from someone saying she works with one of 
the two people forced out of their house by the Admiral/38th fire on Sunday night. The note-writer says the victims believe the fire was caused by something electrical, not “smoking materials” as the Fire Department was quoted in the P-I as saying, because, says the note-writer, neither of the victims smoke. We called the Fire Deparment’s public info office and left a message asking if anything about the suspected cause of this fire had changed; they didn’t call back. The note-writer says the folks at their unnamed workplace have started a collection for the fire victim, who reportedly suffered some other recent personal tragedy too. We’ll try the Fire Department again later …
The November 6th election is exactly six weeks away. 2007 is not as glamorous an election year as next one will be, with marquee offices like President and Governor on the ballot in ’08, but this one’s a bit of a sleeper, featuring ballot issues that could affect our community for years to come.
Brenda Peterson of the Seal Sitters sent us an update on the seal caught in a dangerous situation before a heroic rescue last night. If you would like to volunteer, e-mail us (please be sure to include your phone #, which will be used for no other purpose than forwarding to Brenda):
The same small pup is back on the beach today and resting now that the audio tape is untangled from his back flipper. We have named this pup Singer, because of the rather poignant audio connection that we are grateful will no longer harm him. He is still underweight, which means he may be getting weaned and just learning to fish for himself. There are a few seal sitters there but we always need more volunteers to send us a note with their phone numbers. Thanks!
Just seen on tv, can’t find it online yet – the Chief Sealth student who said he was attacked just offcampus at lunchtime last Friday, now apparently says he made up the story – it was some kind of “initiation,” not a random attack.
Will keep an eye out for more followup on this.
Time to get back on the horse and resume galloping around WS checking on gas prices, now that the price of regular unleaded is perched on the precipice of 3 bucks once again, after bottoming out in the $2.60s just six weeks ago. Two 76/Conoco Phillips stations in WS share the honors of highest per-gallon price for that grade as of late this morning, Fauntleroy/Alaska (left) and Lincoln Park. At the low end of the scale is Arco on Delridge, by Home Depot, $2.85/gallon for regular unleaded as of late morning. We’ve seen prices past $3 in other parts of town; the latest national coverage suggests prices won’t be dropping again any time soon.
Late September was an unpleasant time on our side of the bay last year. Today, Cathy Woo‘s Alki Beach Walks blog reminds us that yesterday marked 1 year since the Alki Ave crash that killed 2 teenagers. Later this week, it’ll be one year since the High Point bike-van collision that killed bicyclist Susanne Scaringi.
When the “Coming Soon/Office Depot” banner went up on the fence at the megaproject site across from Jefferson Square, we wondered why not a “Coming Soon/QFC” banner too, since those are the two major announced retail tenants. Three weeks later, QFC is now flying its colors too:
This reminds us that Seattle Public Schools had sent around a press release recently mentioning that just-retired assistant principal Nels Enquist from Chief Sealth HS will be honored as a “Distinguished Principal” at next month’s Association of Washington School Principals conference. But CSHS might want to add a letter or two to this tribute spotted on the school’s marquee this morning:
If you’re getting ready to head onto The Bridge — beware, there’s a big backup because of a three-car crash. The city bridge cam that faces west appears to be deliberately pointed away from it; the city bridge cam facing east shows things are OK once you get past it; the city cam at Fauntleroy/Alaska shows the backup waiting to get onto The Bridge (our source in traffic isn’t even going a block a minute). 7:59 AM UPDATE: Radio traffic reports say the crash scene is now clear, though residual backups will take a while to ease.
We wondered how much longer this triangle lot on the east side of Fauntleroy, just before Morgan Junction, could stay empty, especially after seeing a little clearing work on it recently. Perhaps not much longer, given this listing offering it for $1,450,000 as “one of the last 10-unit sites zoned L2 on Fauntleroy … flat as a pancake … No hillside means no need for expensive development of the lot with bulkheads and heavy excavating that drive up lot costs.”
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