year : 2007 2355 results

West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/22/07

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| Holidays | West Seattle Christmas lights

Jumping it off the top page so the amazing car story stays high up:Read More

Fauntleroy car crash update: Photos, video

| West Seattle video | WS breaking news

From WSB contributing photographer Christopher Boffoli, three photos of tonight’s amazing car mishap on 47th south of Wildwood, between the ferry dock and the Fauntleroy business district:

The woman driving the car was taken to the hospital. ADDED 8:15 PM: Here’s WSB video of a tow crew pulling the car off the cable:.

Click To Play

No definitive word yet on exactly what happened here, except for neighbors’ speculation that the driver had trouble negotiating a nearby curve.

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Update: Fauntleroy car crash

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Big “heavy rescue” fire callout right now to 9260 47th SW, which is between the ferry dock and the Fauntleroy business district. Heard some scanner communication from just-arrived crews talking about the stability of a car – we’re en route to check it out. 6:36 PM UPDATE: Sounds like some streets might be closed off in the area (this is near Wildwood/47th) because of possible danger that might involve power lines. 6:41 PM UPDATE: First word from the scene — a car is at a 45-degree angle to a power pole — medic crews are working on at least one person. Pix and video to come. Definitely avoid that area – here’s a map of where it’s happening:

View Larger Map

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Probably not a West Seattle white Christmas …

December 22, 2007 6:25 pm

| 2 COMMENTS

| Seen at sea | West Seattle weather

… unless you count seaspray, such as that seen in the pictures above and below, taken by Jason Parker (thanks!) at Constellation Park. Forecast looks cool and showery. But you never know.

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Update on the new WSB Forums: Topics, fixes

December 22, 2007 5:32 pm

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| West Seattle online

First of all – “Cruiser” opened a potentially lively topic a little while ago – top holiday peeves. (His rant about Southcenter reminds us of what we saw passing through Westwood Village before sundown.) Check out the forum topic here. Also, if you haven’t checked into the comments below our original post announcing the forums, we’ve made some tweaks, most notably: Now if you register and sign in to the forums, until and unless you log out, that same log-in/screen name will show for any comments you want to leave in posts on the main WSB pages. (If you want to leave a comment without your forum screen name, just be sure to log out before you try that. But registration is NOT mandatory for reading the forums without posting/replying, or for reading/commenting on the rest of the site.) Besides letting us know how the forums are working, please also let us know if you are interested in adding more subforums – for now, we are starting simple, with Reader Recommendations and Open Discussion, but possibilities are limitless – so if there’s something you’d like to see that doesn’t fit under either of those areas, let us know and we’ll add it. Thanks!

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Christmas tree tip, and more holiday notes

December 22, 2007 12:58 pm

| 1 COMMENT

| Holidays | How to help

First, the tree tip, from Steve in Highland Park:

McLendon’s (at least the one in White Center) is selling ALL trees at $10. Charlie Brown ones are $5! Good news for procrastinators like us.

We had mentioned somewhere that when we checked out West Seattle Nursery a couple days ago, they had some Douglas Firs as low as $11. We’ll be out checking around WS a little later but please let us know what you are seeing and hearing, too.

CHRISTMAS EVE/DAY CHURCH SERVICES: Forgot to mention in the earlier post about supermarkets and coffee shops, we also have been building a list of Christmas Eve/Day services in West Seattle, also on the WSB Holidays page, under the Dec. 24-25 events-by-day listings. We haven’t yet called the churches we couldn’t find online, but will be working on that today.

CHRISTMAS EVE/DAY MOVIES: We asked Steve Garrett @ Admiral Theater about holiday showtimes – here’s what he has planned: Christmas Eve 2:00 & 4:00 showtimes (matinee only); Christmas Day 7 & 9 pm showtimes (evening only). (Find the theater website here.)

BUSINESSES IN THE GIVING SPIRIT: So many West Seattle businesses have found ways to give this holiday season — food drives, donations, volunteering, etc. And here’s another one, just out of the inbox from the folks at smallclothes (3236 California):

smallclothes is offering 2 ways to help WestSide Baby [their site here], a non-profit organization that collects previously owned items for children and babies and distributes them free of charge to families in need.

Please consider one or both of the following ways you can help out:

1* Choose an outfit or two for someone in need. Receive 10% off resale items and we will deliver your donation to WestSide Baby.

2* Purchase a hand-made blanket from us, and both the profit and the blanket will be donated. smallclothes owner Ruth has made many fleece blankets in festive colors for $15 (toddler size) or $10 (crib size).

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Two holiday notes: Gumbo today, groceries next week

December 22, 2007 10:49 am

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| Fun stuff to do | Holidays | West Seattle businesses

GUMBO: Just heard from Lakema Bell @ Delridge Community Center, who advises there’s still room to join in one of today’s West Seattle holiday events — the Santa Sleigh Ride and Holiday Gumbo Feast at DCC, noon-3 pm today, $5/bowl for gumbo ($3 refills).

GROCERIES: Finished our survey of grocery stores’ Christmas plans — the full list is on the WSB Holidays page — all three Safeways (Admiral, Jefferson, Roxbury) plan to be open 9 am-3 pm on Christmas Day; some West Seattle supermarkets are closing at 7 pm Christmas Eve, some at 6. We are still surveying coffee shops for their Christmas Day plans; that in-progress list is on the Holidays page too. And if you know of any West Seattle restaurants open on Christmas, you can help answer a question posted in the new WSB Forums (explained here).

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December 3 Deluge: New help for flood victims

December 22, 2007 10:16 am

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| December 2007 flooding | Delridge | West Seattle news

(Dec. 3 photo along Longfellow Creek was taken by Tim, originally featured here.)
For those of us who made it through the December 3 Deluge without much if any damage, it’s just a soggy memory (albeit one reopened easily by new rounds of rain like the one we’re having right now). But some people in areas including right here in West Seattle are still working to clean up and fix up, like Gary in North Delridge, who e-mailed WSB to ask us to share with you that individual property owners in King County are now able to apply for federal assistance (governor’s press release is here — instructions on how to apply are here).

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West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/21/07

December 21, 2007 11:54 pm

| 3 COMMENTS

| Holidays | West Seattle Christmas lights

Thanks to daPuffin for tipping us off to the Santa hat, on Roxbury at 36th. It’s now on the West Seattle Christmas lights map that you’ll find on the WSB Holidays page, and it’s in the light-display archive here.

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Coyote alert: Lincoln Park

December 21, 2007 9:04 pm

| 10 COMMENTS

| Coyotes | West Seattle parks | Wildlife

Ted sent this to WSB last weekend and we missed the chance to post it then, but he advises us he’s still hearing the howls, so it’s not too late to issue the alert. Not to evoke anti-coyote hysteria – just a reminder to be careful:

Just wanted to let you know – saw a brazen Coyote in Lincoln Park during the day on Sat. We had our dog on a leash but another couple that was approx 100 ft away from us did not. No sooner did we pass the couple but we saw what appeared to be a very alert and scoping Coyote. I am thinking he may have been checking out the little lap dog the couple had off-leash. We were on an interior trail – near the chin-up bars. Please keep the parks (and coyotes) safe – keep your dogs on a leash !!

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Buy an ornament, help a family

December 21, 2007 6:43 pm

| 7 COMMENTS

| How to help

Adding this to the Holidays and Events pages as well as the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, but also wanted to make note of it here: Tomorrow at the new Tillicum Village Gift Gallery on Avalon, Northwest Coastal carver Alissa Bellah-Pierson will be handcarving ornaments to sell to raise money for the medical expenses of her 9-month-old baby Mimi’s liver transplant — the baby (shown with Alissa in photo at left from TV website) had to be rushed from Alaska to Seattle last month, and got a new liver two days before Thanksgiving. You can read more about them on this webpage (scroll down to “Help for a Family in Need”). Mimi’s mom will be carving at the Tillicum Village Gift Gallery 10 am-4 pm tomorrow.

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Testing 2 new WSB features; need your feedback!

December 21, 2007 4:33 pm

| 21 COMMENTS

| Crime | Safety | West Seattle online | West Seattle police

As of right now, we’re testing two new features – both in hopes of better fulfilling the WSB mission of serving you with West Seattle news, information, and discussion, 24/7/365.

MORE DISCUSSION: We have finally launched “forums” — another HUGE thanks to the fabulous STUART MAXWELL for making this happen (same guy who got WSB onto a better server earlier this morth) — but before we build them out with a slew of categories and other enhancements, we would like you to try them and then let us know how you would want to use them. You will find them by clicking the FORUM tab at the right side of the row of navigation tabs under the sunset header (or click here). We’ve started with two general areas — we’d like to see if forums are the best, well, forum for Reader Recommendation Requests — start a new topic when you have one, and see what happens — this means RRRs won’t have to wait for us to get to them amid all the other West Seattle news of the day. Also, there’s an OPEN DISCUSSION area where you can post a topic you’d like to talk about. Sometimes the main page is the right place for that — like the “walk all ways” opinion sent to us that resulted in this well-discussed post — but again, maybe there’s something you just want to say NOW – go to the forums and say it. One note, you will have to register to post in the forums (but anyone can read them). And right now, since we’re considering this a “beta” test before possibly tying it into more of the site, that registration does NOT link to the comment feature on WSB posts, so you will still have to enter your name and e-mail address separately if you want to comment on those. Try out the forums, let us know what you think, with comments on this post OR by e-mailing WSB. Thanks!

MORE NEWS/INFORMATION: With the help of the fine folks at the Southwest Precinct, we are now able to bring you lots more information about West Seattle crime reports, safety concerns, and crime-prevention advice. Starting right now – with police-report highlights from the past several days:Read More

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Alki Urban Market sign sighting

December 21, 2007 1:59 pm

| 17 COMMENTS

| Seen around town | West Seattle businesses

Just up on the future store’s door in the past 24 hours or so. The fine print is an e-mail address at the domain “seattleurbanmarket.com.” The website at that address doesn’t mention the Alki location right now but lists 9 others around the area and describes the parent company as “a company dedicated to the development of ‘high end’ delicatessen stores in the Seattle & Eastside Metropolitan Areas to serve the particular neighborhood they are located in with high quality products and services. Utilizing well known quality products such as Boar Head meats and cheeses, Appasionato Coffees, quality groceries, health foods and fine Washington Wines.”

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Commute alert: Bus tunnel update

December 21, 2007 1:49 pm

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| Transportation

Now closed until at least Wednesday, says an rpin.org e-mail bulletin (not online yet).

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West Seattle Weekend Lineup: Winter Solstice edition

December 21, 2007 12:24 pm

| 5 COMMENTS

| Fun stuff to do | Holidays | WS Weekend Lineup

10:08 pm tonight, in case you were wondering. Meantime, we have 28 listings of West Seattle events, happening now through Sunday, that you might want to check out as we celebrate the promise of more daylight to come (among other things):Read More

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Ornamental “what ever happened to …” question

December 21, 2007 11:28 am

| 1 COMMENT

| Holidays

Since we’re decorating our tree bit by bit between waves of typing, this note from MargeC (with the photos shown above, ’01 ornament left, ’03 right) resonated:

Just finished decorating our tree and was wondering what happened to the annual “Junction Holiday Ornament”s? We moved here in Nov 2001 and that was the first one of what was-to-be a series – it was a fund raiser for decorating the Junction with the summer flower baskets. We purchased ours at the Town Hall on California Ave. AFAIK there wasn’t one in 2002, but there was one for 2003. Does anyone know if there ever was a 2002, or any post-2003? Wish they had continued – they’re beautifully made, unique collectibles.

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Memorial service today for Mars Hill pastor’s wife

December 21, 2007 10:15 am

| 3 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle people | West Seattle religion

We recently mentioned that Jeanne Clem, wife of Bill Clem – a Mars Hill-West Seattle pastor after leading Doxa, the church that had the space previously – was losing her fight with cancer. Now there’s word she died this week, and a memorial service is set for 3 pm today (more on the Mars Hill website, which says the church will be running shuttles from the Chief Sealth HS parking lot for attendees).

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In honor of the last day before “winter break”

December 21, 2007 9:11 am

| 16 COMMENTS

| Safety | West Seattle police | West Seattle schools

While we were at the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct this week meeting with Lt. Steve Paulsen, he showed us this photo and we asked for a copy to share with you. It’s from Arbor Heights, during one of the many school-zone safety patrols that SW Precinct officers routinely handle; the trunk-mounted display is another variant on those unmanned mobile signs you see from time to time (like the longrunning one on Fauntleroy by Lincoln Park). After “early dismissal” today, school is out for the next two weeks, so you won’t see a scene like this, but many school zones are in residential areas where you’re going to want to keep the pedal a little lighter on the metal anyway.

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Design Review Board on 2 projects: 1 OK, 1 needs work

December 20, 2007 11:58 pm

| 9 COMMENTS

| Development | West Seattle housing | West Seattle news

2 sizable projects in the south half of West Seattle got a second look from the Southwest Design Review Board tonight. One will be the new home of Swedish Auto Repair, at 7901 35th, currently home to the ex-Adventist church building and a Mars Hill bus pen; concerns from board members and neighbors have sent it back to the drawing board for one more round of revisions, particularly regarding the need for its 30-plus-foot-high L-shaped building fronting 35th and Kenyon to be more streetfront-friendly. However, city planner Holly Godard did laud the project for its voluntary “green” features such as solar panels and rainwater-collecting barrels. So that one will be back for one more SWDRB meeting. This next project, though, got the green light:

That’s what you’re going to see in a year or two at California/Graham, kitty corner from the almost-condos of Strata, north of the ex-Chuck and Sally’s. We knew this would be “live/work units” as well as townhouses, but now we have even more details:Read More

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West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/20/07

December 20, 2007 11:01 pm

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| Holidays | West Seattle Christmas lights

Thanks to Elisabeth for sending this photo of the carefully crafted light display at 39th & Dakota; she warns it doesn’t do the lights justice, but the way we look at it, the pix are generally just to give you a hint there’s something cool at such-and-such an address, get out and see it if you’re holiday-lights fans like we are. Every display we’ve featured, going back to the very first one of the year — Salty’s, featured here on November 12 — is on our clickable, printable West Seattle Christmas lights map (find it on the WSB Holidays page) and in this archive.

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“Walk All Ways” — love it or hate it?

December 20, 2007 7:42 pm

| 119 COMMENTS

| Transportation

As you probably know, the “Walk All Ways” intersection at California/Alaska was purposely preserved during the recent California repaving. But some still wonder if its time has come and gone, such as Robert Hull, who sent this letter-to-the-editor-style writeup to WSB for discussion:

Time To Rethink the Junction â€œAll Way Walkâ€

I think it is time to reconsider the â€œAll Way Walkâ€ at the West Seattle Alaska Junction. It was fine for a while, but with the increasing traffic in the area, I believe that it should be returned to a â€œnormalâ€ traffic light, which would include free right turns, and a walk button for pedestrians wishing to cross the street. This would potentially reduce the amount of high volume traffic on our residential streets, since more people would use the Junction intersection rather than residential areas.

For several years I have avoided the Alaska Junction intersection due to the amount of time needed to get through the area. Instead, I have been using the residential side streets to get around this congestion. Now, we are finding that many other people are using our residential street as a major arterial. The amount of traffic on our once-quite street has increased about 200% in the last six months and most cars are traveling between 25 and 35 MPH, with some cars coming through at about 40MPH (speed limit is 20MPH on residential streets).

With all of the new condos being built in the area, and additional units coming on-line in the next few years (QFC and Whole Foods developments), the traffic problem will only get much worse. As a pedestrian, I liked the idea of the â€œAll Way Walk,â€ since it was rather unique and made for some interest in our neighborhood. But the â€œAll Way Walkâ€ is no longer practical due to the large amount of traffic. It is also a safety issue, since it is only a matter of time before a pedestrian gets injured or killed with cars traveling 40MPH on residential streets.

Discuss!

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Denny/Sealth consolidation controversy: Next steps

December 20, 2007 6:19 pm

| 4 COMMENTS

| Denny-Sealth | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

The main questions left for us after the Denny/Sealth discussion at last night’s Seattle School Board meeting (which we covered with in-progress reports here and here) were, what now, and when? We got some new info today from West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist. But first – we wanted to let you know, if you want to watch the meeting, particularly the testimony on this project during the public-comment period near the start, the video is now available online at the Seattle Channel site. (Regardless of where you stand on the project, you have to agree it’s particularly heartening to see students show up and speak to the board.) Back to “what’s next” — Sundquist says the Denny/Sealth “work session” at 4 pm January 9th will be open to the public; he tells WSB its format and participants are not all set yet, but he’s expecting there to be “some element of presentation” as part of it. He thinks it’ll last an hour to an hour and a half, since it’s before the board’s regular meeting at 6 pm that same night. As for any sort of a deadline to decide whether the Denny/Sealth project will proceed, change, or be scrapped altogether, Sundquist acknowledges that West Seattle families’ enrollment decisions make this time-sensitive as well as the oft-cited construction-cost factor, so he hopes it will be settled “within the first couple months of the year.”

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