West Seattle, Washington
07 Saturday
Since the Christmas-lights touring is over, we’ll be featuring follow-ups in the WSB late-night spotlight when there’s no breaking news. Tonight: As the photo above shows, the site is scraped clean and no more debris remain at the site of the burned-out ex-Schuck’s at California/Charlestown, two weeks after the building teardown began (our report with video, here). Next up, construction of the two-story commercial building planned for the site.
You can post one whenever you want – and join in any time to help your fellow West Seattleites find what you’re looking for — now that the Reader Recommendation Requests are living in the new WSB Forums. Some of the discussions under way right now include plumber recommendations, a search for a storage garage, and a search for TV repair help. Anyone can browse the forums; you have to register to post a topic or a reply, but it’s a quick ‘n’ easy process and your info’s safe with us.
The National Weather Service has a Snow Advisory up for the whole metro area; the latest “forecast discussion” (which will be updated in a few hours) suggests the snow’s likely to arrive in our area between 7 and 9 am, but shouldn’t get really intense till afternoon.
We personally would like to encourage everyone to savor the season. However, in all practicality, we know some thoughts are turning to the yearly task of Tossing The Tree. Here is the official “how to put it out with your yard waste” press release, which includes this all-important info:
Seattle residents who subscribe to curbside yard and food waste collection can put their trees and greens out on their regular collection day at no extra charge from December 26, 2007 to January 13, 2008. Trees should be cut into sections of six feet long or shorter, with branches trimmed to less than four feet to fit into the collection trucks. Sections should be bundled with string or twine.
Trees that are flocked and/or have tinsel or ornaments will be collected as extra garbage. Customers will need to cut the tree into three-foot pieces and each piece will be charged as extra garbage. Each unit of extra garbage costs $5.60. Plastic trees are also not recyclable.
Seattle residents can also drop off their holiday trees and greens for free at Seattle Public Utilities’ North and South Recycling and Disposal stations between December 26, 2007 and January 13, 2008.
The tree sections must be cut to eight feet or less in length and the trunk must be four inches or smaller in diameter. The limit is three trees per vehicle. Only trees without flocking or decoration may be disposed of free of charge.
If you want to do less tree-cutting and so would prefer to drop off your tree, the South Recycling Station in South Park is the closest one to West Seattle; the city has a map here but it doesn’t address getting there from WS, so here’s a map you can use for starters (choose the “driving directions” option). Now, if you still don’t want to go to all that trouble, CL is awash in listings from people you can pay to take your tree away; if you know of any local volunteer or nonprofit groups doing that in West Seattle this year, please e-mail us so we can feature them on WSB.
Metro just announced the bus tunnel will reopen tomorrow morning.
It’s a WSB tradition to let you know when a new sponsor comes aboard: Joining us today is J.F. Henry in The Junction, advertising to let you know about the store’s after-Christmas 50%-60% off sale (see the ad in the right sidebar on this page for more details). J.F. Henry has been in business more than 20 years, and is located on the booming north end of The Junction, where there’s a lot going on lately (Shadow Land, Craze, Spring Hill, etc.) — you can find out more about J.F. Henry’s kitchen and tableware offerings at its website, which also features details about the store’s unique decor (including fixtures from downtown’s old Frederick & Nelson store!). And if you would like to find out about becoming a WSB sponsor, check out our Advertise page (which also lists the current sponsor lineup) – we’ve got new opportunities coming up in the new year!
West Seattle’s sole tea-only shop is shutting down – 2 months after opening a downtown location, T(ea) Gallery proprietor Tracy Shafer is going to focus on that store. Here’s the announcement she just sent out:
To my friends, neighbors, supporters…
I want to let you know the T(ea) Gallery’s Admiral location will be closing as of the end of January, 2008. The past 2 years have been wonderful. I’ve gotten to know so many of my neighbors and have made some wonderful friends. The location has always been “challenged” for this type of business, but it was truly a labor of love for me and a wonderful learning experience. I hope to re-open a West Seattle shop sometime in the not too distant future, but there are some circumstances that warrant closure at this time.
I plan to offer delivery service to my West Seattle customers and I’m in the middle of working out the logistics on that. Please keep an eye on my website for details …
The T(ea) Gallery’s downtown location (at 5th & Columbia) is doing well due in large part to all of you!!! Spring will bring some wonderful events and I hope you can visit soon.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all of your support.
The website Tracy mentions is here, and includes a blog page where she talks more about the shutdown decision here.
Here’s the latest on Fauntleroy Place, the mixed-use megaproject with the future Whole Foods Market that’s been in the works almost 2 years for Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th. Eric Radovich with BlueStar Management, the FP developer, tells WSB today that they’re still hoping for groundbreaking by April, as reported in our last update in September. But first – the project has to get through one more key public meeting, for which the date has just been set — the Southwest Design Review Board “recommendations” meeting for Fauntleroy Place has is now on the city schedule for February 14. As noted on the BlueStar site, the architect on the project has changed to CollinsWoerman, but Radovich says the rendering above from the previous architect is still fairly true to the plan — 5 stories, Whole Foods and a new Hancock Fabrics store at ground level, more than 150 apartments above, parking garage with room for more than 500 vehicles (city project page here). We also asked about BlueStar’s more-recently revealed West Seattle mixed-use project, Spring Hill (no relation to the future restaurant) at 5020 California just south of The Junction (as reported by WSB here and here) — the first Design Review Board meeting for that is listed on the city site as January 10th, but Radovich says that might be changed to later in the month. He also says there’s no publicly available rendering for Spring Hill just yet.
This Tacoma News-Tribune article reminds us that West Seattle’s Department of Licensing office will soon be one of only 11 in the state (full list here) where you can get the new “enhanced” driver licenses and ID cards that can get you into and out of Canada by land or sea. They’re supposed to be available starting January 22nd, and you’ll have to make an appointment if you want to get one. The state DOL website has a sheaf of info about how these new licenses/cards work.
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