West Seattle, Washington
19 Monday
NEED HAIR HELP? THE $ GOES TO COMMUNITY HELP! This Sunday is the annual “Have a Heart Day” at Illusions (WSB sponsor), and the folks there tell us they still have some appointments open during the event noon-5 pm. Here’s how it works: They’re donating their services, at reduced prices; the price you pay goes to help Southwest Youth & Family Services and Pencil Me in for Kids. You can read about Pencil Me In and Have a Heart Day at this page on the Illusions site; read about SWYFS here. Call Illusions @ 938-3675 for an appointment.
DRINK, DINE, AND PAY TRIBUTE TO JOHN HARTLEY: Last spring, we posted about the sudden, much-too-soon death of John Hartley, a larger-than-life, popular local waiter. Now comes word of a project to honor John’s memory — raising $5,000 for a bench at Alki with a plaque bearing one of his favorite sayings, “Sit down and shut up!” Matthew Darling tells us that JaK’s Grill, one of the places where John worked, will be accepting donations during Happy Hour and the rest of the evening next Monday, Feb. 11, 4:30-10 pm (Matthew says the crew will donate part of their tips, too).
DOES YOUR GROUP NEED TO RAISE $? WSB sponsor Garlic Jim’s Pizza is offering a chance for local groups to make some $. Co-owner Ryan Reese says, “I have a really good fundraising opportunity for any local school, church group etc. I can guarantee a cash payment to whichever group chooses to help out a MINIMUM $750/week. This opportunity will be available for at least the next 5-6 weeks maybe even longer. That is a potential of $4,500 in six weeks. A group of 50 people can earn the $750 in under two hours. A group of 25 can earn the money in under four hours and so on.” To find out more, call Garlic Jim’s in The Junction at 937-JIMS (or drop by during business hours — east side of California Ave, midblock between Oregon and Edmunds).
SATURDAY’S NOT JUST CAUCUS DAY: There’s a boatload of events happening around West Seattle on Saturday. Before you caucus – how about helping clean? There are Adopt-a-Street Cleanup campaigns Saturday morning both in The Junction (check the JuNO website for more on how to help – they’re looking for volunteers right now) and the Admiral District (see this Admiral Neighborhood Association group page to get details).
GOT A FRUIT TREE THAT NEEDS PRUNING? Experts will show you how! Check out this announcement:
Do you have one of those apple trees that hasn’t been pruned in years? Or maybe you have a young pear tree that you’d like keep in good “shape”? Now’s the time for pruning those trees. The Community Harvest of West Seattle, in conjunction with Solid Ground, will be offering 2 pruning workshops in West Seattle. These basic workshops will be taught by a certified arborist, and will include lecture, demonstration, and the possibility of some hands-on experience. The workshops are free, but are limited to 18 participants, so please RSVP if you are interested. We are looking for a plum tree or 2 for the demo. We are hoping that attendees will share their new skills with their neighbors.
Dates: Saturday – February 23rd, 10 AM-1 PM – Apple and Pear Trees – Duwamish Cohousing
Saturday – March 8, 10 AM – 1 PM – Plum Trees – Site to be decidedRSVP to Aviva with your contact info – 200-2107 or info@gleanit.org
This just in from Michael:
I *just* witnessed a robbery at Freshy’s coffee on California. Three
young African-American men came in and asked the barista how often
some bus came by. She answered, then they milled around for a minute
acting like they were debating if they were going to wait. Then one
guy grabbed the open laptop of a woman who was sitting near the door
and bolted, along with another one of the guys. The woman screamed and
chased after them. The third fellow stood around saying “What’s going
on?”, but it was clear that he was in on the scam — either trying to
block other people from chasing the perps, or to grab something else
while people were distracted.The woman came back to the coffee shop a few minutes later saying that
one of the guys had knocked her to the ground very forcefully when she
chased them; she ended up with a big welt on the back of her head.
Meanwhile another patron chased the guys as well and saw them leave in
a red car parked near the high school. The barista called the police
and they’re on the way. The victim said she’s from out of town, making
it that much worse.This was such a deliberate, organized crime that I’m sure they’re
going to try pull this again. Please tell everyone to be on the
lookout, to protect their laptops and other valuables when they’re
out, and to keep an eye out for people running this kind of scam.
If you haven’t been to Freshy’s and can’t place the location — west side of California, south of the Admiral District, across from Hiawatha.
Thanks to OP for that photo of one of the flyers (weatherbeaten as they can get) that’s up alerting people about the poison concerns at two local parks. As previously mentioned, the locally based animal-advocacy group Pasado’s Safe Haven (whose post-Katrina rescue had included Mo, the West Seattle dog that got sick last week) is offering a $5,000 reward, and there are now details on its website, including a flyer you can download to print and post. (P.S. A pet-helping side note: This Saturday and Sunday, 20 cats and 40 kittens will be available for adoption at Kitty Harbor next to ActivSpace on Harbor Ave, 11 am-7 pm both days. KH has found new homes for more than 500 felines in its first four months in West Seattle! 11 am-7 pm both days; call 935-1919 or go here to find out more.)
Through 9 pm, says the National Weather Service. Gusts could hit 50 mph.
5 pm. Cafe Rozella info here. Any other West Seattle Super Tuesday parties? Post ’em!
Per the P-I, city councilmembers officially voted this morning to spend money on studying six possible streetcar lines to follow the SLU…etc., including one that potentially would head out our way. (Interesting history culled from a websearch: The county looked into studying a WS streetcar more than two years ago, says this link; and of course The Junction takes its name from the fact two streetcar lines crossed there.)
(Photo courtesy Scott Kratz) We just checked with Helen Fitzpatrick of the Seattle Fire Department re: the cause of the Charlestown Cafe fire; “fire in the deep-fat fryer,” she confirms. As we reported last night, cafe owner Larry Mellum told WSB a few hours after the fire that they’d need “days” to get the restaurant back in shape – we’ll keep checking on how things are going. (Original coverage from last night is here and here, with JetCityOrange‘s fire video here. Just last week, we’d reported promising news about CC’s future.)
Luminaria like those grace the field at West Seattle Stadium one night every summer as part of the Relay for Life, an overnight event that brings together local people whose lives have been touched by cancer. Tonight, organizers are inviting you to the Relay for Life of West Seattle kickoff party, 6:30-8 pm at Fauntleroy Children’s Center; map here. (The actual Relay for Life happens 6 pm Friday, June 27, through noon Saturday, June 28.) To get more information – even if you can’t make the party tonight – call Karee Boone at 206/674-4105, Melissa Bazala at 206/281-3738, or Diane Redenbaugh at 206/937-2291.
(Fauntleroy ferry photo by Matt Durham)
Just announced by WSDOT: David Moseley, a former Federal Way city manager and current executive at the Institute for Community Change, will run Washington State Ferries. (Its previous boss, Mike Anderson, left the job late last year.) Here’s the news release:Read More
Click for a few seconds of video panning across the full 150-plus crowd at the Chief Sealth High School cafeteria last night for the last district-presented meeting in West Seattle before the School Board makes its decision on the intensely debated Denny/Sealth construction project’s future.
That’s a photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham, showing parent Gail McElligott at the meeting. What was seen – lots of PowerPoint slides – and what wasn’t heard – answers to audience questions – dominated the night. See most of the slides for yourself (since the district didn’t promise they’d be up online any time soon), and more, ahead:Read More
Wanted to get this info out before finishing the Sealth/Denny meeting report — we were 
gathering this at the Southwest Precinct when the Charlestown Cafe fire broke out, and from there, it was right off to the school meeting. Anyway, from the latest police reports — we start with a robbery involving teens: A local middle-schooler was at the bus stop by KeyBank at California/Alaska this morning, playing with his GameBoy, when another teen sat down next to him, said “Hey, that’s a cool game, I used to play that on Nintendo G4,” edged closer, then suddenly grabbed the boy’s game and ran. The victim chased him for a while; then the robber turned on him and pushed him into a fence before getting away. The victim wasn’t badly hurt; he continued on to school, where he told administrators, who called police. Next — the gas-pump hit & run:Read More
Much longer report to come. But here are the bullet points from the meeting in the CSHS cafeteria:
–Meeting lasted 2 1/2 hours.
–Big turnout; at least 150 people. School Board president Cheryl Chow and superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson were there for a while at the start; West Seattle’s School Board rep Steve Sundquist, of course, stayed for the duration.
–District Power Point presentation featured lots of sales points for Options 1 and 2 (current version, current version plus $10 million extra Sealth work) and the barest of bones for Option 3 (rebuilding Denny on its current site, doing the bare minimum of required safety improvements for Sealth).
–Lots of audience questions, zero answers. Audience was broken into 4 groups to ask questions for half an hour; the questions were written down by facilitators; audience was reconvened so that each group’s questions could be read to the entire audience. The answers? The district will try its best to get them posted online before the Westwood Neighborhood Council’s Denny/Sealth meeting on Feb. 12, one day before the district’s recommended option is “introduced” to the school board. Much more to come, including the presentation details, some of the audience questions, video, photos.
Went back to the scene a little while ago, and we caught up with Charlestown Cafe owner Larry Mellum. He told WSB that work will start tomorrow to get the cafe up and running again following today’s fire (above photo by Christopher Boffoli; see more coverage below; direct links here and here, video link here) — workers are already in there tonight evaluating things — he says it will be closed for “days” but it’s too soon to say how many days.
Jerry from JetCityOrange just happened to be driving by. See his video, flames and all, here. (Warning, link may be erratic, YouTube glitch, keep trying.)
Recap and update from what’s in the post below: Fire reported at Charlestown Cafe just after 5 pm. No word yet on cause or extent of damage; the restaurant is needless to say closed TFN – City Light crews had to shut off its power. From what we could see at the scene, the building’s exterior is relatively unscathed, but neighbors told WSB at the scene that at one point, “huge flames” were coming from the roof, which firefighters had to cut into. No injuries reported so far. Thanks to everyone who texted and e-mailed us about this — especially WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli, who sent first word from the scene – he took the photo above and the ones below, more to come:
En route to Charlestown Cafe on California Ave to check out fire call – details to follow.
UPDATE 5:30 pm: Fire is out – exterior looks relatively undamaged. Firefighters had to ventilate the roof to let smoke out.
UPDATE 5:45 pm: California Avenue has reopened. Neighbors say big flames were shooting from the roof for a while.
Photos from Evan Baumgardner.
Last reminder: tonight is the last official Seattle Public Schools-sponsored meeting expected in West Seattle before school board members vote on whether to go ahead with the Denny/Sealth project as is, or change it to one of two other options — “Option 2” with extra money for more Chief Sealth High School renovation work, “Option 3” with a new Denny Middle School being built on its current site instead of next to Sealth. All three options are to be shown and explained tonight — a “gallery walk” with one-on-one viewing starting at 6:30 pm, presentation @ 7, Q/A expected to start @ 7:30, Chief Sealth HS Library. Also this afternoon, we have additional information about who’s on the panel for the Westwood Neighborhood Council-sponsored meeting Feb. 12, one day before a project “recommendation” is introduced to the school board. Here’s the full text of the WNC’s new announcement:Read More
For those keeping track (we will crunch the sightings onto a map sometime soon): Debra reports two coyotes seen running across the 5200 block of Jacobsen (just uphill from Beach Drive) today; Mary Ellen reported one Sunday morning at Juneau/46th.
Last week, we brought you a followup on the landmark-consideration status of these apartments at 3811 California (just south of Charlestown), proposed for demolition as part of a mixed-use project, which we have been tracking since last April. When we checked in a week ago, the city Landmarks Board told WSB that the required application for landmark-status review still was not complete. Now, this site has landed on the radar of the advocacy group Historic Seattle; preservation advocate Christine Palmer just sent a bulletin saying that 3811 is tentatively scheduled for Landmarks Board consideration on Feb. 20 (although the site is not on the “current nominations” webpage as of this writing), and advising everyone concerned about its fate to send the board a message expressing “concern about protecting this beautiful building and guarding against insensitive infill construction if it is demolished.” She suggests that messages be sent to Beth Chave, Landmarks Board coordinator, at beth.chave@seattle.gov.
First, from Harbor Avenue – this just out of the inbox from Jeff @ Skyline Secure Park:
We just wanted to let everyone know that the dangerous semi trucks that used to roar up and down Harbor Ave. between 7-11 and the West Seattle bridge are officially gone. The company who owned them has moved to a more appropriate home! I know a lot of people will be happy about this because there were hundreds of trucks crossing the bike/walk path every day, creating a safety issue.
And from Alki Avenue – Babs says she’s tired of risking life and limb:
I’m wondering if you can post a reminder that the Alki beach bike path is for bikes. Yes I understand other walkers/runners use it but maybe a reminder that large groups of people should not stand there and have “hi 5” meetings or discussions. I can survive a jogger here and there, a dog walker or two… but large groups blocking the path pose serious risk to all parties. I almost had to ride off the bike path [Saturday] because of a large group of rude woman joggers (who saw me coming) but continued their meeting which took over the entire path. I was rude in voice to them but it’s SCARY when people do not yield.
Happy 50th birthday, Mike, whoever you are; one of the few people to brave the “banner police” in the past few months has put up this banner on the Fauntleroy walkover bridge in honor of your birthday. (Caveat, yes, as has been discussed here many a time, these signs are illegal, and a sign by the overpass entrance says so.)
It hasn’t appeared in the city’s Land Use Information Bulletin yet – the next one is due out later today – but according to this webpage, February 28 is the date set for the revised version of Spring Hill (the mixed-use project at 5020 California, south of The Junction) to go before the Southwest Design Review Board. DRB members asked for significant revisions at the first meeting on the project last month, which drew dozens of concerned neighbors. (WSB coverage is here; project materials submitted to the city before that meeting are here.)
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