day : 18/07/2008 12 results

Thanks to Gina Terrana for sending those undated photos of West Seattle Grand Parade scenes in years gone by, taken by her grandmother, Alice Webb. Unless you’re very new to West Seattle, it’s fairly easy to tell where they were taken (though the signage certainly has changed):

Gina explains that her grandmother was active with Eastern Star, so most of the photos involved Masonic parade entries:

Gina tells us a little bit more about her grandmother, who died in 1986:

Alice Webb was also the wife of Arthur J. Webb. and the mother of Arthur C. Webb; both owned construction companies that did quite a bit of building in West Seattle. A.C. was the builder behind Fauntlee Hills. A.J. built the brick duplex next to the P.C.C., that was his basic construction style. Both styles of construction look the same to me, but my mother was always able to tell, “my father built that. my brother built this.” Grandma Webb thought that they had built everything, everywhere by the time I knew her.

Now go make your own history and check out the parade tomorrow – watch it from anywhere along the route (map in this post last night) OR if you’ve got some volunteering in your past/present (who doesn’t?) you can join the fun little group that West Seattle community volunteer/organizer extraordinaire Cindi Barker is rounding up, with support from WSB (your editor here will walk with the group, and Junior Member of the Team will be handing out candy on the sidelines – no throwing candy, we’ve been warned, but handing it out is OK). We’re scheduled to be about a third of the way down the lineup of 70-plus entries. The Rotary Club of West Seattle presents the Kiddies’ Parade (all participants welcome) at 10:30 am (sign in @ California/Genesee starting at 9:45 am), American Legion Post 160 presents the Grand Parade immediately afterward, starting at California/Lander.

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West Seattle Grand Parade countdown: Traffic alerts

July 18, 2008 8:14 pm

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| Transportation | West Seattle Grand Parade | West Seattle news

Though the West Seattle Grand Parade (and the Kiddies’ Parade preceding it) follows a straight line down California (see the map in this post from last night), other streets are affected, as you may have discovered if you came home to signs tonight (if not sooner). We asked one of the lead parade organizers, Jim Edwards – who along with others put in ENDLESS volunteer hours to make this happen – for a general outline of what you need to know tomorrow, from early morning through mid-afternoon – note this is an anecdotal sort of description but hopefully helpful:

Edmunds is open across California, I believe, but Southbound California is still closed to Dawson St East approach.

Northbound California (from south of The Junction) is open to Edmunds, but limited to the curb lane.

Oregon and Alaska will have emergency vehicle access. a soft enforcement of the crosswalks essentially.

44th Ave will be cleared to allow a north south detour between the Junction and Stevens, then it is diverted down to 45th through to Admiral Way

Assembly will close:

44th from Stevens to Lander

Lander from 45th to 41st

42nd from Admiral to Lander will be local access only (Safeway)

41st will be cleared to permit a Metro bypass between Admiral and Kander

Stevens from 44th to California will be local access only (PCC/McDonald’s)

The three blocks between Admiral and Hanford on California are closed first thing in the morning.

If you try to drive through you put in danger the many volunteers who bring this parade to you each year.

and dozens, ….. DOZENS of cars do this every year.

If you must get to Safeway to do your morning shopping…. Follow the detours down to Admiral Way starting at Hanford, (44th and 45th) then up Admiral to 42nd to get to Safeway.

It is well posted. but every year people drive by all these signs, claiming they have to get to Safeway.

We designed this assembly area to keep Admiral Way open throughout the parade, and to keep access to the major businesses open throughout the parade.

Jim also believes Metro will start diverting around 7 am, based on what they’ve done in years gone by. More parade countdown coverage a bit later tonight – including some photos from the past – fun to see what the businesses looked like, as well as parade spectators/participants. And note that everything will be open again by tomorrow night, when Saturday night Movies on the Wall begin in the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) – bring a nonperishable food donation for West Seattle Food Bank – come enjoy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” starting around dusk (stake out your spot sooner); concessions are offered by West Seattle Christian Church (WSB sponsor), with proceeds also benefiting WSFB.

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New West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival Junior Court just crowned

July 18, 2008 3:11 pm

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| West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival | West Seattle news | West Seattle people

At Hiawatha this afternoon, proud parents and other onlookers cheered as Hi-Yu junior royalty past and present coronated the 2008-2009 court: Left to right, the girls NOT wearing Hi-Yu red and white (yet!) are new junior princesses Elyse Mitchell and Anna Fuller, and new junior queen Zoe Mahn. Here’s video of her running up after the big announcement, and then receiving her crown from 2007-2008 Hi-Yu Junior Queen Danica Tongol:

Click To Play

Congratulations to all. The “senior” court coronation is 7 pm Monday at Grace Church; before then, of course, you’ll see Hi-Yu royalty (and the Luna Park float!) in tomorrow’s West Seattle Grand Parade (route and other info here), and everyone’s invited to the Hi-Yu Community Brunch, 9 am-noon Sunday, at American Legion Post 160 in The Junction.

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Another ferry on the Fauntleroy run goes to biodiesel

July 18, 2008 2:58 pm

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| Environment | Transportation | West Seattle news

Washington State Ferries says Klahowya will start using a five-percent-biodiesel fuel tomorrow; the largest-capacity ferry on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run, Issaquah, is already using that mix. WSF says the biodiesel comes from tallow (beef fat), not vegetable oil. Side note: You can find out where Issaquah, Klahowya, and other WSF boats are, at any given time, by using the ferry system’s online Vessel Watch feature.

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Water Taxi: More romantic than a Venice gondola?

July 18, 2008 2:37 pm

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| Elliott Bay Water Taxi | West Seattle news | West Seattle people

That’s Irene Stewart, West Seattle’s former Seattle School Board rep, and Fauntleroy Community Association president Bruce Butterfield. They got engaged recently on the Elliott Bay Water Taxi. We heard the story at the last FCA meeting but thought it was off the record … till the photo above, and a King County news release about it, just landed in the WSB inbox!

On a boat normally frequented by commuters and Mariners fans, West Seattle residents Irene Stewart and Bruce Butterfield found an entirely different use for the Elliott Bay Water Taxi: They got engaged.

On June 25, Stewart and Butterfield were celebrating their tenth anniversary of dating. Ten years earlier, they had taken the Water Taxi downtown for their first date, and they decided this year to do the same in celebration.

“We took the Water Taxi to make it easy on ourselves – nothing fancy, just a fun ride to a restaurant downtown,” said Stewart, who as an aide to then King County Councilmember Greg Nickels was instrumental in getting the service started.

Stewart said everything seemed normal until the vessel approached Pier 55 on the downtown waterfront. All of a sudden, the captain veered to the left and turned the boat around so it faced West Seattle. Everyone onboard was quite confused.

Almost everyone, that is.

For Butterfield, this was all part of the plan. Earlier in the day, he made several trips to Seacrest Park to speak with the captain and crew, and enlist their support.

With the city skyline in the background (hence the turning of the ship) and two crewmembers filming, a packed deck watched with surprise as Butterfield knelt down on one knee and asked Stewart to marry him.

Everyone cheered. But Butterfield shushed them. “She hasn’t said ‘yes’ yet,” he said, but Stewart quickly agreed. There was more cheering downtown as the Water Taxi docked and the newly engaged couple continued on their journey – in more ways than one.

Stewart is currently director of the Seattle Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens, and was a member of the Seattle School Board from 2003 to 2007. Butterfield is a Realtor with Prudential Northwest Realty at Jefferson Square and president of the Fauntleroy Community Association. No date has been set, but the two anticipate a summer 2009 wedding.

Congratulations to Irene and Bruce! P.S. Speaking of the Water Taxi, WSB has just become a proud sponsor of West Seattle’s own foot ferry … we took a picture of our new banner yesterday while heading downtown:Read More

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West Seattle Weekend Lineup: Parade! Movie! Belly dancing! …

July 18, 2008 12:37 pm

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| Fun stuff to do | WS culture/arts | WS Weekend Lineup

HUGE West Seattle Weekend Lineup – with the West Seattle Grand Parade (2007 photo above shows members of the Seattle Chinese Community Girls’ Drill Team, which is in the lineup again this year) at midday tomorrow … then tomorrow night:

That wall next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) is converted to a movie screen as Movies on the Wall starts a six-Saturday-night run … Oh, and did we mention Mediterranean Fantasy Festival at Hiawatha all weekend? And the West Seattle Garden Tour on Sunday? 53 events ahead (and a new handy feature to click ahead to each day):Read More

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Mural restaurant revealed

July 18, 2008 11:55 am

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| Development | West Seattle news | West Seattle restaurants

The Weekly’s food blog Voracious says Mural, the Harbor Properties project in the ex-Petco parking lot, will include a restaurant called Fresh, involving folks from Herban Feast, which recently moved HQ from West Seattle to Sodo.

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Crime Watch: WSHS vandalism; North Admiral break-in attempt

July 18, 2008 10:39 am

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| Crime | West Seattle news

FIRST: The 911 log showed an “automatic fire alarm” call at West Seattle High School listed as open for several hours early this morning, which is unusual, so we called Seattle Fire Department to check. Public-information officer Sue Stangl says someone “threw a small chunk of concrete through a window” and followed it up by throwing a lit string of 100 or so firecrackers through the broken window — the smoke set off the fire alarm. The only notable damage was to the window, but the call stayed “open” on the log because of the ongoing investigation.

SECOND: A reader report about suspected “casing” and a subsequent burglary attempt that neighbors think might be linked:

Belvidere neighborhood last night near Olga and Belvidere . On Wednesday, police were called when two African-Americans, one heavyset boy, one girl, both around 16-18 yrs old, all dressed in white, were going door to door without ID. Last night there was an attempted break-in in the same area at a home where the owners had placed their garbage out early due to being out of town. Police again were notified but were directed to the wrong address. Suspect could only be identified as 6â€™1-6â€™2 and African-American with normal-fitting dark hoodie. White Cadillac with dark tinted windows seen in the neighborhood around the same time as both events.

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We apologize for the outage

July 18, 2008 10:36 am

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| West Seattle online

If you had trouble getting into WSB over the past hour or so, please accept our apologies. Our server and its backups all crashed. We have some technical upgrades in the works in the not-too-distant future that should improve reliability. Meantime, when this kind of thing happens, we send out notes and news via Twitter – so if you’re not on Twitter yet, you might consider getting an account (doesn’t mean you have to use it much) — twitter.com, sign up to “follow” westseattleblog. (This won’t help during those occasional site outages but FYI, our Twitter updates also appear in the aqua box halfway down the sidebar; sometimes you’ll see notes, observations, updates there that aren’t worth official posts/articles but briefly notable anyway.)

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Hi-Yu events today: Kids’ Fun Fest and Junior Court Coronation

July 18, 2008 9:23 am

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| Fun stuff to do | West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival

Both at Hiawatha Community Center – the Fun Festival is scheduled noon-3, Junior Court Coronation at 1 pm.

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Alki Community Council meeting: New “street end” park, and more

July 18, 2008 4:13 am

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| Neighborhoods | West Seattle beaches | West Seattle news

The intersection of Bronson and Harbor doesn’t show up on online maps – or else we’d have one above this sentence. But it’s a real place – on the water side, a city-owned “street end” – and the Seattle Department of Transportation is finally ready to turn it into a park. SDOT “shoreline street ends” program manager Patti Quirk, who’s a West Seattleite, came to last night’s Alki Community Council meeting to talk about the plan – something community leaders have long pushed for, but couldn’t quite get approved, till now. Read on to find out more, plus other toplines from the ACC meeting:Read More

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Sunset shots, from Alki to Seacrest

July 18, 2008 1:00 am

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| Seen at sea | West Seattle beaches

Thanks to David Hutchinson for the sunset silhouette of the Tribal Journeys canoes and onlookers at Alki (here’s our earlier report, with more info, photos, and links) – the canoes will be on the beach till Saturday morning, so there’s still time to go see them in person. Meantime, thanks to Austin for photographing this fireboat show near Seacrest: