Holiday help
THANKSGIVING #1: Bless everyone who has to work on holidays. We know it’s no picnic. Again this year, we are compiling a list of who’s open on The Big Holidays in two categories: coffee shops and grocery stores. We have started our Thanksgiving list already but we are asking for your help, if you own or work at a West Seattle business in one of those categories — let us know whether you’re closed or open on Thanksgiving, and if open, what hours. Post a comment here or e-mail WSB directly. Thank you!
THANKSGIVING #2: We’ve talked here before about the free community Thanksgiving feast that will be hosted noon-3 pm Thursday by Tuxedos & Tennis Shoes on their home turf at The Hall @ Fauntleroy. According to the West Seattle Helpline website, while there are enough volunteers to serve the dinner, they need some things you could drop off at The Hall (map) before 11 am Thanksgiving morning: a pie, new socks, winter hats, or gloves.
CHRISTMAS ETC.: Once you get those outdoor decorations up (the weekend forecast doesn’t look too conducive) keep WSB in mind if you have an extra-festive display — let us know where you’re at so we can come by for pix/video, or send us your own pix/video for posting, so we can all share the season’s sights; a special Holidays page is one of two new features we’re adding to WSB this weekend.
New neon in The Junction
The latest touch on the much-watched sign for Shadowland in The Junction is neon — as photographed today by WSB contributing photographer Christopher Boffoli. He went by shortly after we sent a note to Shadowland co-proprietor Joe to ask a question we’ve heard from a couple people — what’s going in the circular space in the middle of the sign? Joe says, “A moon. The face is being painted now. Still a mystery on how we will get it up there but we have a team of engineers working on it :) …” Joe says they’re expecting to open the week of the 25th, depending on how city inspections go next week. No detailed menu scoop yet but we’ve had hints here and here. (Joe added in a later note that it’s exciting to finally get so close to opening after all this time – and the birth of a business can take a long time indeed — we looked back into the WSB archives and found our first mention of this project was more than a year and a half ago.)
Reader report: Gables condo conversion slowing?
That was the scene outside the West Ridge Park apartment complex on Delridge in mid-summer, as the complex advertised cheerily for “month-to-month” and “short-term” renters while proceeding with plans to convert to condos and rename the complex “Gables,” under the umbrella of Mosaic Homes, which recently turned the Graham Street Apartments into “Strata.” We had been wondering why we hadn’t seen any stirrings of marketing yet for Gables, though the city permit files show work aplenty; this note from a reader may give us a clue:
Thought you might be interested to find out that the West Ridge Park Apartments are no longer going to be converted to condos anytime in the near future. I am a resident there and recently inquired to find out when I would receive my 90-day notice to vacate. The front office worker told me that I wouldn’t be receiving a notice because the real estate market had turned and the remaining buildings were no longer going to be converted (at least for a while). They have begun the conversion of four of the buildings, which are almost finished, but according to the worker, the owners haven’t decided what to do with them once they are finished. She thought they may either keep them vacant for purchase at a later date or eventually lease them out.
We have a message out to Mosaic asking for comment; will let you know if they respond.
Three ways to be greener
Three things of environmental note:
FREE E-CYCLING: This isn’t happening in West Seattle but it’s not far, and it’s free: 9 am-3 pm tomorrow, Safeco Field parking structure at Occidental & Edgar Martinez (map), you can bring certain electronic items for free recycling: specifically “any make or model of computers and related equipment, including monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mice, laptops, gaming consoles, and mobile entertainment devices.”
GREEN PAINT: The folks who run Authentic Home, the bright blue interior-design shop (AH-provided photo at left) that relocated to The Junction 2 months back, have a new line of environmentally smarter paint, described thusly: “Our new paint is Zero VOC and solvent-free and environmentally responsible. All 60 of our colors can be made with Authentic Home COLOR Paint GREEN and remain true to the colors and vibrancy in our original low VOC paint.” We’ll confess, we had to look up “VOC” (here’s the explanation).
SUSTAINABLE WEST SEATTLE: Want to get an early start on a New Year’s resolution for all of West Seattle? Be at the Camp Long lodge tomorrow, 9 am-2 pm, for the Sustainable West Seattle Open Space Forum addressing “How do we make West Seattle more sustainable in 2008?” Free breakfast and beverages (bring your own mug and utensils, in the sustainability spirit). Read more here.
| Comments Off on Another upzone update: The public meeting