West Seattle, Washington
18 Thursday
NEW PAGE LISTING ALL WEST SEATTLE SCHOOLS: Thanks to the WSBers who suggested, in e-mail and forums, one comprehensive list of all West Seattle schools would be helpful during this intense choosing-a-school time of year. Here’s version 1.0 (and you can find it any time from the “schools” tab atop WSB pages). Despite our best efforts, we suspect there’s a likelihood we missed someone; if so, please let us know! We’ll meld the school-tour/open house info onto this page over the weekend, too (for now it’s on the Events page).
UPDATES ON CRIME WATCH AND PETS PAGES: On the Crime Watch page, you’ll find a reader report with an Admiral-area alert, as well as the latest Southwest Precinct Public Safety Newsletter. On the Pets page, we have added a “found pet” you might want to know about.
LAST CALL FOR NOMINATIONS, AND A REMINDER TO JOIN US NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT: Tomorrow’s the deadline to suggest someone for the first-ever quarterly West Seattle Community Recognition Awards (read more here); winners will be celebrated at an informal gathering to which you’re invited, 7 pm Friday 1/18 at Capers in The Junction – come by and say hi!
Have you ever been to Pigeon Point Park? The trail we walked in the video clip above is just a small part of this hidden treasure next to Cooper Elementary School in northeast West Seattle. Tomorrow, it’s one of the places on the WS “east side” that will get special attention during Green Delridge Day — plenty of time for you to participate before settling in for the Seahawks game. The Pigeon Point Park event is the first-ever work party there for the Nature Consortium, whose restoration-project staffers Mark Tomkiewicz and Elizabeth McDonald gave us a mini-tour (much of which we videotaped):Read More
So declares Seattle Public Schools parent/activist Melissa Westbrook in a brand-new update on the saveseattleschools.blogspot.com blog, following up beyond the School Board’s Denny/Sealth work session two days ago (WSB coverage here). Westbrook posted a thorough account of that meeting (find it here) and then attended a meeting today of the BEX III (the bond measure that included the Denny/Sealth money) Oversight Committee. That committee meeting is detailed in her new post (and e-mailed to School Board members and district leadership), including what she says were discrepancies between the Denny/Sealth presentation made to that committee today and the one made to school-board members on Wednesday, and what she describes as a bottom-line revelation that under current district plans, Sealth will eventually be the “only non-renovated high school in the district.” Anyway, her update seems like a must-read for those closely following the Denny/Sealth project controversy. Until more meeting dates are set, the major “next step” here is letting the school board know what you think should happen; their contact info is here.
Here’s the latest from the state ferry system – a 2-boat schedule for weekdays on Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth, for at least a month, 
starting Monday. This is because of repair needs discovered during the ongoing ferry inspections. In this followup from the Kitsap Sun, one commuter from that side of the Sound calls it a “horrible schedule.” This could affect even those who don’t use ferries, since it’s likely to mean longer lines along Fauntleroy in service gaps during the evening commute. ADDED 9:25 PM: Metro says this situation may affect some West Seattle bus routes too.
Remember last year’s crosswalk cancellations, such as the one in Luna Park and the one at 35th and Kenyon? Seems a new one, with signal, is on the way to Fauntleroy Way (which also lost one last year, at Rose) – the new one will be at Dawson (map above) From Kevin (thank you!):
After hearing about the city deciding to remove a number of crosswalks in West Seattle over the past year or so, I thought you might want to hear about one actually being put in.
Along with a number of neighbors at the bus stop, who have been calling and writing Seattle Department of Transportation, my wife and I seem to have convinced the powers that be that crossing Fauntleroy Way between SW Edmunds St and SW Findlay St really is like playing a giant game of Frogger.
We’ve been talking with various people at SDOT for the past six months or so and just before Christmas got some good news. SDOT conducted a new traffic study and found that the intersection at Fauntleroy Way SW and SW Dawson St not only warrants a marked crosswalk but a signalized one as well. From our conversations it seems it will be similar to the signalized crosswalk next to Fairmount Elementary School.
I think it will be a wonderful thing for the neighborhood. It might even slow drivers down a little on the “Fauntleroy Freeway”.
The text of SDOT’s email is below.
Dear Mr. ____,
I have some good news for you and your wife. We did a new traffic study and a pedestrian signal is warranted. It is at our 2008 new signal list and we will start design soon. Thank you again for your time to write us, and you have a wonderful holiday season.You have a nice day!
Valerie Lee
Senior Civil Engineer
Seattle Department of Transportation
Signal Operation Division
Five beautiful photos from WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli, capturing the rare sighting of the sun. First – driftwood and surf along Beach Drive:
A freighter heads north, with the snowy Olympics peeking through the clouds in the distance:
Heathers in bloom on Beach Drive:
A cormorant keeping watch atop a piling:
And the troubled (but lovely, we think) steel-electric ferry Quinault, one of the 80-year-old ferries that the state is ready to scrap because of their hull problems:
Forecast suggests this may be the last we see of the sun till sometime Sunday.
That’s Therese Diekhans and John Wray in “The Retreat from Moscow,” in its first weekend at ArtsWest (photo courtesy Rachel Jackson); other weekend highlights include tonight’s free Seattle Symphony concert at West Seattle High School, The Translucents playing their first West Seattle gig in more than a year (Easy Street After Hours tonight), Green Delridge Day tomorrow including your chance to join in the start of a new restoration project at Pigeon Point — in all, 27 events ahead:Read More
Something went awry at WSB server HQ, and the site was inaccessible to the world (along with a bunch of other sites) for most of the past hour. Still waiting for official word from the hosting company on what the problem was and whether they’re sure it’s been fixed, but do know, we would never deliberately take it down in the middle of the day – maintenance and experimentation are what the “wee hours” are for! Anyway, our apologies. Now back to the news, info, discussion, etc.
This just out of the inbox, from Teresa (thank you!):
Was at the Westwood Starbucks this morning and there apparently is a man that is approaching women and actually trying to touch them inappropriately. One of the employees of Starbucks was calling the police as I was leaving. He apparently approached a grounds worker while I was getting my coffee. PERV!
No word so far if anyone was caught.
Just a reminder that the memorial service for Angelia Paulsen, the owner of Red Cup Espresso in The Junction who was killed in an I-5 crash earlier this week, is this morning: 11 am, St. Stephen the Martyr Church in Renton (church website here), and friends plan a candlelight vigil outside the shop (on the west side of California, north of Oregon) tomorrow night at 7. ADDED FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Dan Jacobs from West Seattle Christian Church and Ginomai arts center says vigil attendees are welcome to park in the Ginomai lot, on the west side of 42nd just south of Genesee.
The Kitsap Sun says Washington State Ferries‘ first major onboard advertiser, JanSport, will be on various ferry runs today, including Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth in “late morning,” giving backpacks away.
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