Dig in
Even as we prepare to step into fall, one of the most beautiful events of every WS summer needs you – and asked us to share this one more time:Read More
City help for Harbor Ave truck trouble
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This morning, the Budget rental trucks on Harbor Ave, which on occasion cause a bottleneck we first mentioned last December, were behind their fence and in their lot (photo above). Perhaps the business got the message conveyed at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting — much of the problems reported by area residents involve activity that, if true, would be against the law, according to the city Transportation Department reps at the meeting — they say citations would be warranted for such things as parking with wheels up on the sidewalk and detaching trailers. They said they had messages out to the business owners responsible for the rental-truck business and that they also planned to alert their “commercial compliance” squad, as well as Seattle Police parking enforcement. So keep your eyes out and if you don’t think things are getting better — let the city know.
New information: La Rustica closed at least one night
We just called to check; the person who answered the phone at La Rustica said they’re closed tonight for sure and not sure how many more nights beyond that, because of today’s fire. More pictures, courtesy of reader David Schneider (thank you!!!).
Fire at La Rustica
Big fire/rescue callout so we rolled down to check. Fire crews are still there; heavy smell of smoke in the air, no external damage visible. No details yet about what happened; will be checking later how this affects business for tonight — let us know if you hear sooner.
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Making the connection: Alki Point sidewalk proposal
Not far past the spot shown above (west end of the public Alki waterfront), the sidewalk on the north side of Alki Avenue mostly stops, and to keep walking west to Alki Point, you have to cross the street and stay on that side till you get south of Alki Point. But for the first time in years, there’s hope that might change, according to what we heard at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting. After years of trying, Alki community leaders have gotten the sidewalk proposal onto the list of potential Neighborhood Street Fund projects, and the more “votes” it gets, the better its chances of happening. The sidewalk project is one of the Bridging the Gap projects shown at the WS meeting this past Wednesday night, but if you didn’t attend the meeting to “vote” in person, you can do it online: Go to this site, choose South Sector, then rank projects on the list (which includes other WS proposals). This project is sixth from the bottom of the list. Deadline to “vote” in this survey: Next Thursday (September 27).
Closing the books on The Good Book
More news from the east edge of The Junction: In a little brown house kitty-corner from the 42nd/Oregon development plan we posted about yesterday, The Good Book is closing after five years in business. Co-owner Shirley Geller sent us the photo at left and asked us to let you all know this:
West Seattle’s only Christian store is going out of business. Everything is on sale – including the fixtures. We need to sell everything by October 15th. Our hours are 10 to 4 everyday except Sundays. Telephone 206-935-1722. Address: corner of 42nd SW and SW Oregon St.
Shirley says a chiropractor moving from another WS location will be taking over the space.
On the next episode of “Maury” …
… watch for Alki residents vs. city land-use planners. But seriously — we have attended two Alki Community Council meetings now, and they (the officers and the members/attendees) — are a genteel bunch, as well as lively, involved, engaged. All the things you would want a community group to be. ACC vice president Randie Stone ran tonight’s meeting and she was even passing around a basket of treats during a break in the action. But before visiting DPD planner Mark Troxel was finished with his guest appearance, the room was in a lather over teardowns and soulless redevelopment. Especially considering, as calm and polite as he tried to be, his answers about why there are no rules governing some preservation of neighborhood character in redevelopment, boiled down to nothing more than (we’re paraphrasing) “well, that would cost too much, and we really have to be concerned with housing affordability.” 
The spark for tonight’s briefly fiery discussion was the impending teardown-to-townhome project we have mentioned before at the site of the Shoremont Apartments (photo right) at 57th & Alki (on the corner east of Alki Auto Repair). “Those townhomes aren’t going to be affordable,” one attendee pointed out, laying waste to the “things might look nicer if it didn’t cost so darn much” defense. Another audience member chided the city, in the person of stalwart Mr. Troxel, for “lack of courage.” He was actually there to talk about amendments on the drawing board for a city planning document, but that discussion got derailed. After a cathartic burst of outrage about cookie-cutter townhouses, which the city rep said he isn’t thrilled about either (because they fail to maximize density potential, as well as because of their aesthetics), all ended fairly civilly, but we were a little worried there for a moment. Randie noted that the topic is enough for a meeting unto itself, and perhaps the group can invite Mr. Troxel, or another city planner, to return. Meanwhile — we’ll have several other ACC meeting items to report tomorrow, including what the city says can be done about those rental trucks that have long been bottlenecking Harbor Ave by ActivSpace. P.S. If you live in the Alki area and you’re not an ACC member yet, you can join online.
Thursday evening tidbits
-Almost fainted (but that would have caused a crash) while driving toward Fauntleroy on The Bridge this evening — the sign was still up.
-This (and many more events) will be in tomorrow morning’s WS Weekend Lineup, of course, but did want to call special attention to the fact that the fabulous folks of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council are inviting you to an Adopt-A-Street Cleanup this Saturday. Meet in the Delridge Community Center parking lot at 10 am to pick up city-provided supplies and get going. Every little bit helps.
-If you glossed past our item earlier this week about the West Seattle HS schedule-change controversy, the comments (scroll down) are worth another look — a lively debate has developed, especially once “5766324” joined the fray.
Call it a trade-off … they’ll keep helping, if you help too
Often, readers tell us WSB has helped them learn something they didn’t know about our community, what’s happening around WS, or the services available. We have to say, it’s been educational for us too. Only after 15 years in WS are we beginning to learn about the full scope of what’s out there. The West Seattle Community Safety Partnership is one of many groups that just weren’t on our radar, for whatever reason. But it should have been on ours, and allow us to be so bold as to say it should be on yours. Long ago, the WSCSP was known as the “anti-crime council” — but its scope goes beyond crime. 
As demonstrated at Tuesday night’s meeting, the group is there to gather and share information about how to pro-actively protect yourself and your family and improve your neighborhood. Its officers are volunteers, but the group is assisted by a regular allotment of time provided by the Seattle Neighborhood Group for one of its staffers, Lois Grammon-Simpson (SNGi photo of Lois at right), who lives in WS. The room all but gasped Tuesday night when Lois revealed that SNG might stop providing the group with her services, as has already happened for a similar group in Southeast Seattle. But it’s not too late to change the course …Read More
Coyotes closure
No further details, but we have verified the reader tip (thank you!!!!) that a note on the door of Coyotes on Alki says “closed till further notice,” bearing yesterday’s date. Some may wonder if the 17-month-old restaurant has fallen victim to the curse of everything that’s been in there since The Point Grill (which we personally still miss), but it might just be closed because of the side-sewer work for which a permit was granted today.
While we were at Alki to get a visual on the Coyotes note … stopped for this gratuitous shot of the 4th-to-last sunset of Summer 2007:
Inanimate endangered species
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No wonder the traffic was nuts getting through the last leg of the Fauntleroy “exit” from The Bridge. Somebody has a sign on the overpass for the first time in weeks. Given what anti-banner watchdogs have done in recent weeks (see comments on this post), we expect it to have lasted approximately 3 minutes after our driveby. So we snapped a quick pic in case “Torie” doubts somebody really tried to wish her (?) a “happy b-day.” Yes, yes, we know, banners are illegal and a traffic hazard and all that, but we have to say, without them, West Seattle feels like a slightly lonelier place.
Reader recommendation request: Remodeling help
Just out of the inbox (reminder, our RRRs have their own category for your referencing pleasure):
We need a recommendation for a general contractor. We’ve been in
West Seattle for a year and moved here from out of state, so we don’t
know where to begin. The plan is to convert an area of our basement,
the garage and washroom into two bedrooms and a bathroom. We’re
looking for all the obvious; someone reliable, reasonable and good.
Thank you in advance for any recommendations.
New West Seattle trees, with Nobel cachet
The WSB photo/video crew is just back from the tree planting at Pelly Place held today in connection with Earth Summit II at Chief Sealth HS. First photo shows Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai assisting students with the tree planting:
The photo below shows Gatewood Elementary students who read a poem at the event. Others in attendance included King County Councilmember Dow Constantine; no mayor sightings — he is in Eastern Washington today. We will post video from the Pelly Place event later.
News from the streets
From our first visit to a West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting last night: First thing on the agenda, an update from WS-based Seattle Police officers, with inside info about what’s happening on our streets. Overall, crime-wise, they say things are relatively “quiet” right now — certainly doesn’t mean no crime at all (as evident here), but no huge problems. One new trouble spot mentioned by Southwest Precinct Community Police Team Officer Adonis Topacio: Reports of transients camping in Lincoln Park; if you encounter this, he said, send him e-mail with the specific location (his contact info is on this page). Also mentioned last night: Despite scattered problems, the police verdict on the just-ended summer season on Alki is “it was a great year”; recent speeding crackdowns deploying the Chargers in areas such as Highland Park Way and the 1st Avenue South Bridge have netted dozens of violators, including drivers going past 60 mph in 30 mph zones. Still lots more to tell you from last night’s meeting, including how to fight blight (such as drug houses and trashy properties) in your neighborhood, and how to keep the WSCSP group from losing a vital resource — check back this afternoon.
A way to show your WS pride
Every so often, somebody asks where to find an I (HEART) WEST SEATTLE bumper sticker. 
We kept thinking maybe we’d get into the bumper-sticker business, but other priorities kept getting in the way. Luckily, WSB reader Tom just posted last night (the 9:48 pm comment below this post) that he’s set some up through the online store CafePress.com. Here’s the link to the sticker Tom is selling. Design shown at right (image grab from CafePress.com); just says I (HEART) WEST SEATTLE, no other logo or business name, $2.99 plus 75 cents shipping/handling. We don’t know Tom personally and aren’t affiliated with this but nonetheless we say bravo.
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