West Seattle, Washington
09 Friday
The entire route is not publicly released, but from some sightings around WS tonight, you can put together the path the 3-Day walkers will be taking starting early tomorrow morning. Once they are bused from where they’re camping tonight, it looks like they’ll start at Lincoln Park, where we found this line of temporary relief stations in the south parking lot:
The route from there appears to go along Fauntleroy, then down to Beach Drive and around to Alki, where, as we’ve mentioned previously, an “official cheering station” will be set up in the 1700 block of Alki Ave from 7:40 till 10:15 am. The walkers then proceed toward downtown, where the 3Day ends with ceremonies at Seattle Center. We thought the route from Alki was probably the obvious path along the low bridge, but one e-mail tonight reports another line of Honey Buckets at the park at 26th/Genesee so sounds like there’s a detour along the way — drivers in the morning, please be extra cautious and watch out for this big event on our WS roads.
Thanks to the tipster who e-mailed us about a liquor-license application posting going up at 3405 Cali (formerly Leslie’s, next to Spiro’s Pizza & Pasta). We combed through the online files and found this one had appeared on the state liquor-ap listing site August 29th, for a restaurant & bar at that address to be called The Bohemian. Didn’t find any obvious background from web-searching the names on the application, but did find this website — registered to the same company name that’s on the liquor-license ap. We’ve e-mailed the contact listed on the website and we’ll let you know if we hear anything back.
You may have thought last March’s Viaduct Vote (advisory as it was) ended up “don’t replace.” But its south end is slated to be replaced with a surface highway no matter what, so the state Transportation Department is inviting us all to a WS meeting later this month (September 26th, Madison Middle School) to help pave the way for the project it says “would replace more than 40 percent of the viaduct.” As for what’s next for the other 60 percent … we’ll be up all night researching that one.
Any time now, that bright blue cover comes off for the final weekend of the 2007 season at West Seattle’s only public outdoor pool, Colman Pool on the shore at Lincoln Park. (Our favorite way to get there is to park near Lowman Beach and walk the south stretch of Beach Drive, plus the unpaved section of Lincoln Park shore trail.) Both days this weekend, Colman Pool is open for lap swim noon-1:30 pm and 5-7 pm, public swim 1:45-4:45 pm. After Sunday, unless you belong to one of the private organizations with pools (Allstar, YMCA), your swimming option will be Southwest Pool (on Thistle next to the SW Community Center, a few blocks east of 35th).
In one of the early stories about yesterday’s bicyclist death on Eastlake, a local bike advocate was quoted as saying the city usually averages one such death a year. Last year, there were two in West Seattle alone. In March 2006, on the eastern edge of WS, a teenage driver veered onto a bike path along Highland Park Way, killing 58-year-old Marvin Miller. His death didn’t get the sort of citywide attention that followed the September 2006 bike/van collision at 35th/Graham that killed 27-year-old Susanne Scaringi, just six weeks after she moved to WS. (Susanne’s family maintains a tribute page here.) As noteworthy and tragic as the deaths are – they are outnumbered almost 100 to 1 by the crashes that leave bicyclists injured. Interesting and important information here. For a refresher on Seattle traffic laws regarding bicyclists and driving other vehicles in their presence, look here.
Remember the saga of the pregnant woman not offered a seat on the bus? This morning, we have the tale of the baby-wearing dad who couldn’t get one either.Read More
… the second September weekend begins with a beautiful evening, as seen below from the shore at Lincoln Park:
Warning for Fairmount Playfield users: The city plans to use herbicide there next week to stamp out an infestation of Japanese knotweed. This is somewhat noteworthy because it’s a pesticide-free park; the city says there’s no way around having to poison the knotweed. Having seen the city’s photo (right), we believe these are the plants we only half-jokingly refer to each summer, upon sight of them in public places, as “the triffids.”
The fight against breast cancer will hit WS streets these next two Sundays. This Sunday morning, 7:40-10:15 am, an official cheering station is planned in the 1700 block of Alki Ave for the Breast Cancer 3Day Walk participants who started their journey this morning. (Among them is Courtney, whose site is featured on our Other Blogs in WS page.) The following Sunday (9/16), the Northwest Hope & Healing Half Marathon, plus new 5K run/walk, will take place in WS, starting at Lincoln Park and continuing along Alki (and other points for the half-marathoners). NW Hope & Healing helps newly diagnosed breast-cancer patients who need assistance with non-medical aspects of their life, such as child care and transportation. Find out more about the Half-Marathon & 5K, and get signup forms, here.
Huge thanks to WSB reader Angela for sending us this photo she grabbed about an hour ago as the recast Lady Liberty made a brief cameo appearance ahead of Tuesday night’s event.
Just arrived in the inbox (thanks again to Councilmember Tom Rasmussen’s team): The official press release about Tuesday night (an event first mentioned here four weeks ago). Full text ahead. Read More
The paint store & interior-design folks of Authentic Home have finished their move from Morgan Junction to The (Alaska) Junction. We like the bright blue they painted their new location (formerly home to Emerald City Locksmith), so we’re happy they sent us this photo of owner Kathy Banak standing out front:
In the new location at 4151 Cali, Authentic Home plans to be open 9:30-5:30 M-F, 9:30-4 Saturdays.
Jim Edwards from the West Seattle Big Band says the WSBB has been asked to play at the Alki Statue of Liberty homecoming event Tuesday night. We last saw (and heard) them here in WS two months ago at the Hi-Yu Concert in the Park, where they shared a bill with Hizzoner, as will be the case on 9/11 at Alki. Jim says the band will start playing @ 5:30; the rest of the event kicks off @ 6.
To help you find the Weekend Lineup more easily, we’ve given it a category of its own — you will always find the latest one by clicking WS Weekend Lineup in the categories list at right (or bookmark the link). As for this weekend, 28 possibilities so far:
Six months after moving into the ex-Doxa church building, Mars Hill-WS will expand to two Sunday services on October 7th: 9 and 11:15 am. One other MH-WS note; the church will have a large group at Alki one week from tonight for a mass baptism.
Just steps south of the apartments-turned-condos at SeventyOne and the Housing Authority-purchased apartments at Riviera West — and a few short blocks from the conversion-in-progress at the Watermarke (which our tipster just blogged about at Seattlest) — another building has hit the market. 7130 California Ave. SW is billed as a “prime candidate for conversion.” In case the listing verbiage changes, here’s a grab:
7130 Cali and its condo candidacy can be all yours for $2.6 million.
Happening tonight: The Fall Fashion Affair in The Junction, 7-10 pm at Sweetie, Edie’s, Clementine, and Carmilia’s.
The north side of the big parking lot at the future site of Fauntleroy Place has turned into a pay lot. We asked Blue Star Management, which is developing FP, what’s up. Company rep Eric Radovich wrote back, “Having Diamond Parking manage the north side of the big parking lot greatly reduces our liability on the site. This also cleared out the Gee Motors vehicles that had been parking on the site without permission. The fee to park in the Diamond lot in the evening is just $2. There is still plenty of free parking for patrons of Schuck’s Auto Supply and Hancock Fabrics on the south end of the lot.” We also asked Eric about the FP retail status, given that we are frequently pinged about rumors of changes in megaprojects including that one; he says NO CHANGE – it’s still on for a 47,000-sf Whole Foods store and a 14,000-sf Hancock Fabrics store, and it now looks like demolition/groundbreaking should start next March/April.
Besides the Alki Statue of Liberty unveiling, 9/11 (Tuesday) also will bring an event @ the Providence Mt. St. Vincent Chapel, an Interfaith Prayer for Peace in the World @ 1 pm … and: A sizable anti-war, anti-global-warming ad will run, according to WashBLOG (this link includes what the WashBLOG writer says it will look like), in the WS Herald and its sister papers.
After a couple days’ closure without signage or explanation, the sign shown below is now on the door @ Tervo’s Mini-Mart (4415 Fauntleroy). Several people e-mailed us after seeing police, fire, and medical examiner vehicles there on Labor Day afternoon, worried there had been a crime of some sort. Today we found out what happened: Police say a 48-year-old man died in the store, apparently suicide. Our condolences to that man’s family; it’s always important to mention that the Seattle Crisis Clinic has a 24-hour suicide-prevention line at 461-3222.
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Also speaking of schools – the primary election results have just been certified, and the Final Two for West Seattle’s school board seat are now official: Steve Sundquist (photo left) got 53.4% of the primary vote (5,624 votes), while Maria Ramirez (photo right) got 23.4% (2,467 votes). Although school board members represent certain districts, in the general election the entire city votes on all seats, so Sundquist and Ramirez (as well as the candidates in the other districts) will have to campaign citywide. Election Day: November 6th.
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As the new school year starts its second day, our inbox is full of implorings from concerned WS folks who want to remind everyone to SLOW DOWN IN SCHOOL ZONES. Don’t wait for this to become reality; do the right thing. Also, make sure you know the law — Eric Baer from the Pathfinder K-8 PTSA (their school fronts a busy straightaway on Genesee Hill) pulled up the fine print, including some things that might surprise you:Read More
As we reported last night, the recast Alki Statue of Liberty will debut at the beach next Tuesday night, and city leaders say they’re bringing word of more $ for a new plaza to surround the statue — but the Alki couple that surfaced the latest plaza plan this summer, Paul and Libby Carr, say their group is in what we might describe as Liberty limbo.
In the comment thread following last night’s post, we wondered aloud why the Carr group hadn’t even updated its relatively new sealady.org website with developments such as the 9/11 event announcement. Paul Carr e-mailed us late today to explain:Read More
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