West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
Remember this future-townhouses site at 5232 California, across from West Seattle Nursery?
Exactly one month after we reported on its demolition permit, WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham was there today to document firefighters putting it to good use:
More info from Matt: “SFD Recruits drilled in rooftop ventilation techniques; they also practiced ‘search and rescue’ scenarios inside a smoke-filled, two-story house. Firefighters charged the home with nontoxic smoke to simulate the rigors of operating in low visibility. Good luck to SFD recruits during your rigorous and stressful year. Their first year is inundated with hands-on training and classes and high expectations.” (Matt knows; in addition to being a photojournalist, he’s also a professional firefighter. Prints of his WSB photos and his other work are available through his site, MattDurhamPhotography.com.)
The second quarterly West Seattle Community Recognition Awards will be announced in three weeks, and you’ve got about one week to nominate people who are working to make this a better place! The first-ever awards — brainchild of Divina‘s Julie Mireille Anderson — were announced at a January get-together at Capers; we then profiled the recipients here on WSB — Cindi Barker from Morgan Junction, Larry Carpenter from Alki, and Paul Sureddin from Fairmount Springs. So who’s next? Up to you! Forms are available at Divina (California/Genesee) and other participating businesses, or you can download it here (it’s a Word doc so you can use “replace” and type the info “inline”), and e-mail the completed form to us at westseattleblog@yahoo.com; explanatory info is here. Then mark your calendar for the informal gathering April 18 at which we’ll announce the winners!
While away from the keyboard for a few hours tonight, we received two notes (thank you!) that Lafayette Elementary fifth-grade teacher Catherine Bloom was honored today as the STAR 101.5 “Teacher of the Week”; checking their website, it appears to be a new program they just started this month. (Disclosure: As we mention on our “about” page, Mrs. Bloom is one of the fabulous people who taught and helped the Junior Member of the WSB Team in his Lafayette days.) This is her last year, so what a great time for a well-deserved honor — congratulations, Mrs. Bloom!
There you see neighborhood activists Nancy Folsom from North Delridge and Miranda Taylor from High Point, gearing up outside Skylark about an hour ago for a southbound bike ride during the Delridge commute. Their goal was small and simple, yet big in its own way – be a presence on the road to remind vehicle drivers that city streets aren’t high-speed expressways. They’re thinking this could grow into a bigger group activity; we’ll let you know about their future plans once we hear how this one went.
We have sent a message to try to find out more. Meantime, figured you’d want to know about it if you hadn’t seen it already: CL ad even better than the one we linked in the WS Weekend Lineup post below — West Seattle bomb shelter for rent; the photo at left is one of four accompanying the CL posting. (Thanks to Diane for the tip!) P.S. Ever since seeing the ad, we haven’t been able to get this song out of our head, since the video came immediately to mind:
6:41 PM P.S. The bomb shelter’s owner e-mailed us back. We speculated in our first e-mail to them that they’d probably be inundated with conventional-media requests too, and in fact, the owner says channel 5’s coming by tonight. We’d try to doubleteam it but we’re headed for the Dyan Cannon lookalike winner announcement before “Deathtrap” at Youngstown Arts Center.
First – the “found it elsewhere” event listing of the week: see it here. (Added it to our calendar here too, of course.) Just one of 33 West Seattle events from this afternoon through Sunday night; the list starts here:Read More
When we first told you 2 months ago about Basic Green Box moving out of its California SW storefront (right next to this project), Charlotte at BGB didn’t know yet where they would land. Now she’s just sent WSB the official announcement – they’re leaving WS:
After 3 years in our lovely West Seattle community, we are moving to a more accessible location with more parking (you talked, we listened!).
We are so thrilled to join forces with our friends at Year of the Monkey at 2915 1st Ave S (SODO) integrating our accessories with their impressive selection of antique and reproduction furniture.
Last days: We are only open Friday-Sunday for two more weekends (March 28, 29, 30) and April 4, 5, 6 (12 pm-5 pm each day). Hurry in for up to 50% off everything (we won’t move it all!) Our accessories will still be available at www.basicgreenbox.com and we hope to see you in our new location in May. Thank you for your continued support!
(keep scrolling down for updates and pix added to this post)
Big fluffy flakes now. Steady but still not cold enough out there to stick, even on cars. (37) 12:33 PM UPDATE: Kevin writes from Arbor Heights, 375-foot elevation, the snow’s “struggling to stick.” We’re around the same elevation here in Upper Fauntleroy and it’s finally starting to stick … walking out the door for a pic. Send yours if you get one. 12:44 PM UPDATE: OK, here’s our first one.
ADDED 12:54 PM: Thanks to JoB for this pic:
1:03 PM: Definitely sticking on the WSBmobile. May be enough for some snowball fights when school gets out this afternoon. (Spring break – ha! – is finishing for some of the private-school kids; Seattle Public Schools and some other private schools are out next week.)
1:10 PM: Some kids are out having fun already. Thanks to Karen for sending this next photo from Westwood. (P.S. We’ll let you know of any traffic troubles reported on the WS-bound commute this afternoon, of course; check cams any time here).
1:18 PM: Thanks to Sage K for these next 2 pics, from Delridge and Juneau, where it’s starting to stick. If you’re wondering about the forecast, seems this may not settle down till tomorrow.
1:33 PM: Thanks to “k” for sending this from Morgan Junction:
1:44 PM: From 51st/Hudson (map) comes this classic scene of spring vs. snow, thanks to Eileen:
2:04 PM: Snow’s lightened up in a big way, at least up here. Meantime, JenV sends this photo (thank you!) of frosty flowers, taken outside Buddha Ruksa (did you see the West Seattle 101 on WSB feature yet?) at lunch:
2:08 PM: Just in from Belvidere (or is it Belvedere? even the city has it both ways):
2:13 PM: Thanks to Trick in Arbor Heights for a new twist on the term “snow globe”:
2:18 PM: Snow’s stopped and the big melt has begun here – we can hear it through the rain gutters, and there’s serious drip action from the shrubbery. Some other West Seattle news has been stacking up in queue so we’ll get that going here shortly.
If you’ve driven by that new block wall along Harbor Avenue east of Salty’s and suspected it had something to do with the restaurant – it doesn’t. After a couple of reader e-mails asking about it, we doublechecked with Salty’s, which said no, it’s an unrelated industrial project. That sent us looking into the property records, which are a little convoluted for this parcel (#7666705250, owned by Anmarco), with multiple addresses, but finally we traced it to 2130 Harbor, which carries notes of a city DPD investigation: According to this page on the DPD website, the work was proceeding without permits, and the city posted a “stop-work order” — here’s the exact language:
Constructing a 400’+ long approx. 8′ tall retaining wall and grading in a designated shoreline environment requires permits. STOP WORK ORDER posted 3/5/08 by building inspector.
The DPD website shows two case numbers open for this investigation, here and here. Anmarco’s land in the area has quite a bit of history; this article goes back 11 years.
Just in from the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce – the official announcement of its Business of the Year and Community Service award winners: Business of the Year goes to Tom Smith for Tom’s Automotive; Community Service goes to Warren Lawless. Both have worked in the West Seattle community for decades; according to the Chamber announcement, Tom’s has been in business for more than 37 years and — quoting the announcement regarding Warren Lawless — “Since 1938 he has been a constant force and a very active participant in numerous West Seattle organizations.” You can be on hand to honor them both when the WS C of C presents the awards during a breakfast event at Salty’s on Alki, 7:30 am April 9. The reservation deadline is next Thursday; go to the West Seattle Chamber website for more on that.
Not here in Upper Fauntleroy, but Vickie reported flakes @ 4:30 am @ California & Charlestown (in comments here). The “snow advisory” is now extended to 5 pm. 6:45 AM UPDATE: OK, we have a few flakes now. Just a few. 9:13 AM UPDATE: A fairly serious snow shower here now. As our saying goes, “send pix if it sticks.” 9:50 AM UPDATE: Shot a few seconds of the snowfall (still not sticking enough here for stills) just in case anyone is trapped in a windowless room:
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