Highland Park jail-sites-strategy meeting: High-level help
That’s a video look at the crowd — about 100 people — from tonight’s Highland Park meeting, where neighbors gathered to further strategize opposition to two nearby sites on the city’s list of four potential locations for a new jail — the ones shown in these city aerials:
The crowd got support from King County Councilmember Dow Constantine and State Rep. Sharon Nelson, both of whom had said previously they’re opposing the sites. Constantine also unveiled a proposal that he thinks could render the city’s search a moot point — more on that, including clips from his energetic speech and Nelson’s remarks — ahead:Read More
What should be in a new parks levy? Alki crowd has its say
Tonight’s meeting at the Alki Community Center on behalf of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Citizens’ Advisory Committee was all about public input — no votes were taken, no decisions were made; those are up to the City Council (and Mayor) eventually, but first, recommendations come from the 28 committee members, including West Seattle’s Bruce Bentley, Sharonn Meeks, and Pete Spalding, all of whom were on hand tonight (along with several others). Here’s some of what those on hand wanted the committee to consider when deciding what might go into a new parks levy this fall:Read More
Cove Park update: Return of the raven
Less than two weeks after somebody knocked Cove Park‘s raven sculpture off its perch, Gary Dawson of the Fauntleroy Community Association sends word tonight that it’s back, writing: “The Raven at Cove Park returned to his perch today, looking not the worse for wear. But he certainly wishes that he will not have to suffer another assault like the last one. At Cove Park, the Raven, Native American Canoe replica, and the pebbled stream bed, like the Stream Echo overlooking the fish ladder at Fauntleroy Creek, are the products of a talented Northwest artist, Tom Jay. Tom was commissioned for both projects that was both publicly funded and by local donations as well. The art is on public property and any damage to either by vandals is subject to Seattle’s code of property damage. At this time there is no lead as to the person or persons responsible for damaging the Raven, but anyone with knowledge of such should contact any of the Board members of the Fauntleroy Community Association.” (Our original report about the vandalism is here.)
Tervo’s reopens – and the suspense is over
OK, maybe we were the only ones in suspense, but we had been watching the blacked-out nameboard at Tervo’s Mini-Mart on Fauntleroy and wondering if perhaps the store would change its name during its closure. Not likely given the new owners had applied for a liquor license with the store name (as noted here), but anything’s possible. Anyway, today the grand opening banner’s gone up, and the new sign is up too — same name. It had been closed for about a month, undergoing renovations as part of the ownership change (previous WSB coverage here); a development proposal for the site is still in progress too. (We reported the property for sale last year; the listing is now “expired” but county online property records don’t currently have any change in ownership listed)
Update: Fire callout in North Delridge
“Fire in single-family residence” callout in the 3800 block of Delridge (map) – right by The Bridge – WSB team member en route to check it out. 2:51 PM UPDATE: Small fire, “handled before (fire crews arrived),” according to firefighters on the scene, who are already packing up to pull out (they later told us it involved transients and smoking – the house is apparently vacant).
West Seattle low-tide-week scenes, day 1
As reported here a few hours ago, we’ve got very low tides at midday all week – bottoming out on Wednesday with the lowest tide of the summer. The field trips weren’t waiting for that – the photo above shows Eastside kids swarming Constellation Park (buses parked nearby bore the names Issaquah, Bellevue, and Newport). We stopped by Lowman Beach, too, where these birds perched on tide-exposed infrastructure for an eagle’s-eye, er, seagulls’-eye view:
Another business birthday: Illusions turns 30 today
We’ve mentioned several business anniversaries in the past few days – and today, we have another one — Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor) is celebrating its 30th anniversary today (photo at left shows a bright blue “thank you, West Seattle” banner out front in honor of the occasion; we unfortunately missed our chance to snap a photo of their anniversary cake first thing this morning). As do many businesses that celebrate milestones like this, they’re offering customers a gift — at Illusions, today it’s 30% off all retail items.
Tidewalker alert: Lowest tide of the summer this week
(WSB photo taken at Seacrest, May 2007)
If you can get out and get to the beach at midday, this week brings some excellent chances for low-tide walks. Here’s the chart; today the tide bottoms out at 10:19 am at -2.8; tomorrow, 11:04 am, it’s -3.8; then Wednesday, it’s the lowest tide of the summer, -4.1 at 11:51; Thursday is almost as good, -4.0 at 12:39 pm; and Friday it’s -3.4 at 1:38 pm. On Wednesday and Thursday, you’ll even have a chance to consult an expert, as the Seattle Aquarium will have its beach naturalists out at Lincoln Park and Constellation Park (south of Alki Point), 10:30 am-2:30 pm. (But almost any place on the West Seattle shore is a great place to see what is revealed at low tide — our other favorites include Cove Park just north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock and Seacrest, where the pilings beneath the pier host a nice array of starfish and other sea life, as shown in our photo above.)
West Seattle Gas Price Watch: The 1-week pump jump
Actually, it’s been a one-year pump jump – see that nostalgic photo at left? Admiral Chevron, exactly one dollar cheaper, exactly one year ago today (here’s the WSB report from 6/2/07). Anyway, back to the present: We were just getting used to $4/gallon regular, when suddenly $4.20-something/gallon regular began to appear … so we surveyed the West Seattle gas stations again late last night for the specifics on what’s happened in the past week, including not only the highest and lowest prices, but also which station went up the most in the past week and which went up the least:Read More
A spokesperson for the 
You’ve probably seen “under new mgmt” on its marquee – or a different look on its website – or you read 
The sun’s coming back someday. Maybe even this afternoon, 
is the all-things-West-Seattle book written by Lori Hinton, who’s been sharing selected chapters here on WSB for the past few months. Today, we add Lori’s stories about
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