West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Perhaps an auspicious sign for the Gatewood Elementary School “Operation Imagination” playground-project progress — we saw that rainbow over the school’s east end as we arrived to check out the start of tonight’s meeting (previewed here Monday).
Parent volunteers and others gathered in the cafeteria, where their meeting began with a presentation of the plan for the “big toy” that will be the centerpiece of the play area:Read More
That’s just one of a slew of photos JF sent us from a chaotic multiple-vehicle crash scene by his house at 40th and Andover (map) on Tuesday afternoon. He says it’s a spot where they’ve been trying to get city help for “traffic calming” to slow drivers down:
Read on for JF’s account of what happened, and more of his photos:Read More
It’s a WSB tradition to tell you about new sponsors when their ads start running, so we want to introduce you tonight to West Seattle-based garden coach Julie Hale, who’s offering her services just in time for the kickoff of spring gardening season. Julie’s career in horticulture has spanned more than twenty years. For much of that time, she owned a successful garden management and container-design business, with a clientele located primarily on the Eastside. In recent years, her focus has shifted to working one-on-one with clients in their own gardens. She offers a range of horticultural services, including general consulting, plant selection and placement advice, hands-on lessons in pruning techniques, formulation of seasonal maintenance plans, and container design and installation. She’s an active member of PlantAmnesty, a local educational nonprofit group dedicated to proper pruning and better gardening practices. She lives and gardens in West Seattle, and enjoys the opportunity to work locally with her neighbors and fellow West Seattleites! You can reach her by calling 206/351-8098 or e-mailing juliehale@q.com. We thank Julie for becoming a WSB sponsor; if you’re thinking about joining her and our other sponsors, here’s the place to start.
Habiba & Zahra Mohamed from West Seattle High School are back from the Chase Urban Debate National Championship in Chicago, where they took 11th place while representing the Seattle Urban Debate League. Here’s a great account, with pix.
Pulled over at Emma Schmitz Viewpoint on Beach Drive to snag a few seconds of video shortly after the lowest tide of the month (-2.4, just after 2 pm). Tomorrow afternoon’s low tide will be almost as low: -2.1, just before 3 pm.
The current principal is leaving – heading for Mercer Island, according to the farewell letter just posted by a WSB Forum member.
This afternoon we got the chance to spend a few minutes talking with the new leader of West Seattle’s police force (they handle South Park too), Southwest Precinct Capt. Joe Kessler. This was his first official day in the office at the precinct (which is just east of Home Depot). He says he’s thrilled to be working in West Seattle because of strong community involvement — and he considers community participation in info-sharing here at WSB to be part of that. When it was clear some of the department’s top leaders would be moving around this year (we first reported the moves in late February), Capt. Kessler says the Southwest Precinct was his top choice. He says he’s worked before with many people who are based at the SWP, so they’ve already got a good working relationship to start with. As he gets settled in, we’ll be talking with him more about his plans for leading the team that’s working — with your help — to keep West Seattle safe. (Capt. Kessler’s predecessor in the SWP’s top role, Capt. Mike Fann, is now running the Traffic Unit.)
Thanks to the people who just e-mailed and texted us to let us know that Beveridge Place Pub has sent out an e-mail update saying plans to reopen tomorrow in the new location next door, after closing the old location Sunday, are on hold because of inspection issues. We tried calling but got no answer; the e-mail forwarded to us goes on to say, “Unfortunately, we can’t provide an exact date for the new place right now, but we’re sure you understand we are trying to resolve things as fast as possible.”
West Seattle mom of three Anita Mitchell is not just fighting colon cancer, she’s fighting to help other people who are battling it. And that’s why she took time to talk with WSB about how she’s doing and about a celebrity-led event in Seattle this Saturday that’s a must-attend for not just patients, but also their family and friends — an event that wouldn’t be happening if she hadn’t pushed for it:Read More
That’s Tom Smith of Tom’s Automotive, honored at the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce‘s annual Awards Breakfast attended by 105 people at Salty’s on Alki this morning as “Business of the Year” — as he mentions in our video, in business 37 years! (Thanks to WSB readers for contributing nominations!) Also honored this morning, Warren Lawless with the Community Service Award; he has been a businessman and community leader in West Seattle for more than 65 years. The awards were presented by deputy mayor Tim Ceis; among those in attendance were other political leaders including West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, and countless West Seattle business/community leaders. ADDED 11:52 AM: Here’s a short clip from Warren Lawless’s acceptance speech. He had many great quips drawing audience laughter, but this brief quote seemed to get to the heart of what he was honored for:
Everyone who’s been to Westwood Village and/or neighboring Roxhill Park has seen this many times, and often in much greater numbers – the lineup of “for sale” cars along Barton. It’s long been a neighborhood sore spot, not to mention a safety hazard, among other things. This morning, after the latest Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting, president Steven Fischer sends word of major progress – on the parking issue and on crosswalk concerns in the nearby area where a woman was hit and killed in February:Read More
OK, so the job news in general can be a little glum. We’ve been through layoffs ourselves. However, people ARE hiring, and some are right here in West Seattle. So we’re now offering a section of the WSB Forums as a spot for any business physically based in West Seattle to post a WS job. You must include name, address, phone, e-mail in the post; no mystery, please. (We reserve the right to delete/reject any posting.) Seems worth a try, to help be part of the solution in uncertain times. Find the new WSB Forum Jobs section here.
That’s a new store that Safeway is building in Los Gatos, California, close in size to its current store in West Seattle’s Admiral District. Could a similar plan — underground parking, outdoor patio — be appropriate for the Admiral project that Safeway’s about to launch? It was one of many suggestions given to five Safeway reps who were on hand last night at the Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s monthly meeting. They had no presentation of their own to make — stating simply and quickly that they don’t even have a design outline for the site yet, and just wanted to hear thoughts from those at the meeting — and, from you:Read More
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