West Seattle Sunday night scenes: Capped up; shut down
Seen from the ferry Sealth between Fauntleroy and Vashon just before sunset – Mount Rainier with a cloud cap. Meantime, a final shot from West Seattle Summer Fest as we departed – the start of an evening full of shutting down and packing up:
Junction streets were set to reopen late tonight; next scheduled closure, California SW next Saturday midday for the West Seattle Grand Parade, south of Admiral to south end of The Junction; our parade countdown starts in the morning.
High Point iguana update: Rescued, and in need of a home
Saturday night, we brought you a reader report from Ann, who saw someone drive up to the High Point pond area, release an iguana, and drive away. She got worried about it and tried to find it, and others jumped in to help. Finally – as he first posted in a comment on the original item – Sean spotted it:
I read (the original post) and was thinking of all the different ways he was going to meet him maker: dog, raccoon, car,weather, internal issues from lack of food….
I looked out the window to look at my tree and my neighbors and saw something odd. I went outside and what do you know, the Iguana was catching some rays in my neighbors’ tree. I have always handled reptiles so I knew what I was in for. As I sit here bloody and bruised I can say I have caught the scared little guy. Anyone interested in a pet?
So — interested in an iguana (or know someone who could give it a good home)? Click here to e-mail Sean. MONDAY MIDDAY UPDATE IF YOU DON’T READ COMMENTS: Sean is taking “Lucky” the iguana to the Animal Shelter. We’re there to cover the handoff. He posted that they believed they’d be able to find him a good home. “Lucky” sure picked the right tree to hang out in!
West Seattle Summer Fest, Day 3: Afternoon/evening updates
(adding frequent updates, including photos, at the bottom of this post – scroll down!)
(that whimsical chair’s on sale at the Art Dive tent, just north of Oregon, artist is Alicia Hopkins, mnahopkins (at) aol.com)
Our third and final day of frequent updates from the WSB Summer Fest HQ in the official Information Booth (come say hi, right in the Walk All Ways intersection at California/Alaska) starts shortly. Our team member who’s first on the scene reports things are getting busy already. The booths are scheduled to be open till 7 pm tonight (fixed typo from earlier – it is SEVEN, and the music continues till then too). More to come – you can find all the official info (including the music lineup) here. 11:58 AM UPDATE: Read More
After Ercolini, the next parks in the pipeline for West Seattle
As we got ready to add that video clip from yesterday’s Ercolini Park dedication to the original report we posted shortly after the event (that report is here), we realized it’s worth a breakout to call attention to the other new parks now in queue for West Seattle, all in various stages of development:
View Larger Map
Two are right in the heart of business districts, the as-yet-not-officially-named Morgan Junction park on the former Fauntleroy Auto Repair (and, briefly, monorail-station-earmarked) site north of the new Beveridge Place Pub, and Junction Plaza Park, at the northwest corner of Alaska/42nd. The Morgan Junction project just got $90K in additional city funding to make the preferred design happen (funding coverage here; design coverage here) – here’s the most recent rendering shown to the community:
Junction Plaza Park needs more $ for full development (next steps on that are being planned now) but in the meantime is getting some irrigation and grass seeding (recent WSB coverage here) – we took this photo while a Parks crew was working there earlier this month:
There’s also Dakota Place Park, proceeding somewhat slowly at the old substation site at California/Dakota (haven’t gotten a progress report on that lately), and the Myrtle Reservoir park, to be built next year at the 35th/Myrtle site where the city has just undergrounded a reservoir; our recent Myrtle updates are here and here, and this is the latest design (click it to see a larger version):
There are other park-related projects in the works around West Seattle – new playgrounds, playfield upgrades, etc. – but those are the four brand-new parks next to be added, after Ercolini. It’s worth nothing that all four of these parks are being created with money from the citywide Pro Parks Levy that is expiring this fall (you can explore the background on each site, and other area Pro Parks projects, through this city webpage); the City Council is close to deciding whether to recommend a new parks levy be placed on the ballot – we detailed here some of what it would include for West Seattle (we are currently checking the latest version to see if any significant changes were made to the final proposal). The city council’s Committee of the Whole considers it tomorrow; then the Parks Committee has one more public hearing on the proposal this Wednesday, 5:30 pm, City Council Chambers. (All city info on the proposed levy can be found here.)
Next to Summer Fest, it’s West Seattle Farmers’ Market day too
Though it’s Day 3 of West Seattle Summer Fest, you’ll find the West Seattle Farmers’ Market in its usual place at the usual time (44th/Alaska, 10 am-2 pm) too. Just remember, if you haven’t been down to The Junction yet this weekend, Alaska’s closed off between 42nd and 44th, California’s closed between Oregon and Edmunds (and most of the block north of Oregon, after a break for crosstraffic to get by on Oregon itself), and parking is a little crunchy. Here’s the link to today’s fresh sheet (for markets citywide so look for a few notations of items not available in West Seattle).
West Seattle Summer Fest: Last clip from Night 2; Day 3 preview
We didn’t make it back for a decent Street Dance photo-op after all, but that video shows about :30 of the Saturday Knights, Saturday night’s most-inquired-about act at the Info Booth. Live music today runs 12:45-7 pm; full list here – in our music-lineup preview last month, festival organizers recommended Capping Day and Green Pajamas as Sunday highlights (Carrie Akre‘s on the schedule too). Also today, we are going to have a ringside seat for Kids’ Karaoke (same place the Lion Dancers performed today, middle of California/Alaska intersection), 11:30 am-1 pm, 2:30-4 pm, hosted by Matthew Darling. And a vendor recommendation: WSB’er Diane Vincent recommends Frog Hollow Coffee, offering 10 flavors of iced coffee in the block between Alaska and Edmunds. West Seattle Summer Fest gets going for the day at 11 am – see you then!
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