West Seattle, Washington
14 Wednesday
It’s one of the hottest topics we’ve discussed here in the past few weeks, and it’s bringing the entire City Council here next Tuesday. While covering Council President Nick Licata‘s High Point visit last night (here’s our report, including video of Licata stopping a child from crossing 35th before the light changed), we heard council members were coming to Sanislo Elementary; now the official city announcement is out, and it explains that they will gather Tuesday morning at Delridge/Myrtle, along the walking route to Sanislo (a few blocks away), to “hold a press conference about their proposed Strategic Pedestrian Safety Initiative for the 2008 City Budget.” Notably, this will be happening just one day before the first anniversary of a West Seattle pedestrian death that shook the council as well as the rest of the city — the 47th/Admiral accident on 11/14/06 that killed Councilmember David Della‘s chief of staff, Tatsuo Nakata.
It’s one of many happenings on our West Seattle Weekend Lineup list and our longer-term (into 2008 already!) West Seattle Events page, but worth special note as it continues till 10 pm tonight: the combined leadership of West Seattle’s churches invite people to take part in a vigil that’s been going on since 7 this morning at Hope Lutheran (map), reflecting on and praying for “peace and trust” throughout the world.
From the inbox this afternoon, Deborah writes:
I picked up a very big, very sweet black lab last night at Waite and 50th in West Seattle. He had no collar so I brought him to the W Seattle Animal Hospital. They scanned him and he also had no chip. He was picked up by the Humane Society today, and if anyone is looking for him, they can call the Humane Society at 206-386-7387. He was the sweetest thing, so I hope that you can post this and try to reunite him with his family!
If you can’t quite place 50th/Waite, here’s a map.
And not weather-related that we know of: Our WSB Sales Guy just passed through and reports that there’s some kind of problem with a power line between Morgan Junction Thriftway and the Shell station/strip mall-let area along the east side of California Ave to the south, so it appears some of the businesses (we don’t know how many) may be experiencing power trouble. 3:12 PM UPDATE: The line is busted on the pole right over the BECU ATM between Thriftway and the Shell station; as the photo below shows, City Light crews are on it. The folks at Thriftway say they’ve been without power for more than an hour but with generator help you can still make purchases, and they’ve been told the power should be back on soon. 4:52 PM UPDATE: Power’s back on, all’s well.
-Two store openings in The Junction today: Craze Clothing in the ex-mortgage space @ the NW corner of California/Oregon (thanks to Keith for the sighting!); Starbucks in the ex-Infinity Espresso space at Jefferson Square.
-Congratulations to a Junction business on its 20th anniversary! Square 1 Books is celebrating with a 20th-anniversary sale through tomorrow.
-Orca fans, be on the lookout again today – We just signed up for the Orca Network e-mail notification list about local sightings (you can sign up here), and not only is there a new photo of the baby orca we mentioned this morning (not linked on the web yet but we’ll put the link here when it is), there’s also word of orca sightings today around Three Tree Point south of West Seattle, and off Maury Island.
-The pirate radio station we mentioned last night seems to be up and playing its promised “warmup music” prior to the FCC media ownership audiocast starting around 4 pm. We heard it (calling itself “Radio 33”) at 93.7 FM.
We say that, in honor of the Seattle International Comedy Competition happening tonight at Admiral Theater; also in that vein, you can go batty with “Bat Boy” at ArtsWest for its final performances this weekend — those are among 40 WS weekend events ahead:Read More
The full set of documents about what is being proposed for King County Ferry District operations, including service levels and a tax levy, is now available. Some discussion erupted overnight in the comments on our Thursday afternoon post, including a detailed response from Chris Arkills on KC Councilmember Dow Constantine‘s staff. Here is everything available that you can read about the new Ferry District plan now — the “briefing paper” is the biggie:
–Overview “transmittal letter” from King County Executive
–32-page briefing paper on the full scope of the county’s passenger-ferry proposals
–Proposed sailing schedule for next year’s Water Taxi (and Vashon-Seattle foot ferry)
The King County Ferry District board (KC Council) vote on this is now set for 9 am next Tuesday; if you have comments on the specifics, the online testimony link is still up.
We started the week by welcoming the first-ever WSB advertiser, Hotwire Coffee in The Junction (read our explanation of “why ads?”), and we’re concluding it by welcoming two more — Garlic Jim’s Pizza in The Junction and West Seattle-based Prudential NW Realtor Bill Barna. Like Hotwire’s proprietor Lora Vickrey, Garlic Jim’s proprietor Ryan Reese and Realtor Bill B are both very involved in the community — when we put out a call a few weeks ago for WSB-land to help the West Seattle Food Bank this holiday season, Ryan came up with a plan for delivery drivers to collect donations at customers’ doors.
Bill’s extensive community involvement includes Friends of Ercolini Park, which within months will finally be able to throw one heck of a bash on the corner of land that’s becoming a park west of The Junction thanks in no small part to his efforts and those of everybody else in FoEP, plus other community members who donated time and money. We thank these West Seattle businessfolks for their support of 24/7/365 West Seattle news, information, and discussion here at WSB, as well as the others with whom our WSB Sales Guy is working; info on how to reach him is on the WSB Advertising page. And as we like to say frequently, thanks to everyone who visits WSB — just knowing so many people are there, keeps us in high gear working on ways to serve you better.
Just a few simple words from the Arbor Heights family of Amanda Knox — but they had to put it out on a public relations press release service (PR Newswire), since the European media in particular is in a frenzy over this case. A judge in Italy ruled a few hours ago that Knox would remain in jail, along with the other suspects, while investigators continue to sort the case out. Interesting side note from this Times article on logistics assistance for Knox’s mother, who is now in Italy, to deal with what’s going on.
We talked earlier this week about orca sightings in West Seattle waters; one of the pods you are likely to see around here, J-Pod, just welcomed a new baby, known as J-43, this week. Photo (and other great orca pix) at the Orca Network site.
Seattle City Council President Nick Licata came to High Point last night to meet with the HP Neighborhood Association. His evening began with a walking tour led by neighborhood reps Denise Sharify and Miranda Taylor showing him what they consider the hot spots for pedestrian danger and explaining what they want the city to do. Our videographer recorded much of it — but nothing underscored the point as well as this bit of unexpected suspense, when a little boy on a bicycle showed up nearby, needing to get across 35th SW:
Earlier in the tour, the HPNA reps made their case to Licata, explaining why they feel the neighborhood concerns (as detailed in this WSB post) haven’t gotten enough traction:Read More
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