West Seattle, Washington
24 Saturday
That’s the crowd from one of at least two Breast Cancer 3Day fundraisers in West Seattle this weekend — left to right, the grownups in the photo are Kyle Minaglia, Jennifer Carlson, Amanda Armstrong, and Kristi Keithly. Kristi had e-mailed WSB to let us know about her fundraising barbecue at 62nd/Admiral tonight; she’s working to get to her fundraising goal. She’ll be in the 3Day (which reportedly will travel through West Seattle again this year; here’s our coverage from last year) in honor of a dear old friend, diagnosed with breast cancer and not even 40 yet. The story’s a lot like that of 33-year-old West Seattleite Tracy Dart, who is blogging here about her breast-cancer battle — and getting ready for the 3Day with a fundraiser outside West 5 this coming Sunday, 11 am-6 pm. Meantime, back in the Alki area, the Community Center‘s advisory council was barbecuing tonight too:
The council helps keep things humming at this community hub, and put on the event as a community thank-you (and an opportunity to get the word out about the ongoing need for volunteer help). Now we head south to The Mount, where tonight’s outdoor concert drew a sizable crowd to enjoy the always-fabulous West Seattle Big Band:
Providence Mount St. Vincent (WSB sponsor) has one more Friday night concert to go – next week it’s Steve Rice and Big Squeezy. To go with our video clip from tonight, here’s a photo just sent to us by Karen:
And one more photo from WSB-land — it wouldn’t be a REAL West Seattle summer night without a spectacular sunset:
Thanks to Relaena Sindelar for sharing that incredible view.
In the green top, that’s Alki resident Bri Murray, one of the winners at last summer’s first-ever EVP Pro Beach Volleyball tour stop on her home beach – and she (with teammate Wendy Stammer from Oregon) will try to do it again when the tour returns tomorrow. (Great timing, with beach volleyball in the spotlight at the Beijing Games!) WSB is a co-sponsor of the daylong event — and the finals are being recorded by Comcast again this year, so if you’re there by 3, you’re welcome to be in the official TV audience – the women’s finals are expected around 3, the men’s finals around 4:30 (last year’s winning men’s team also featured a local star, Alki resident Chris Hannemann, and he’ll be playing tomorrow too). Here’s the official news release with full details about tomorrow’s event, which starts bright and early:Read More
Got a note with this photo, saying a demolition crew took down 4103 SW Edmunds (kitty-corner from the southeast side of Jefferson Square) today. As we’d reported previously, townhouses are planned for the site.
In the past day and a half, we’ve received two notes alerting us to a major change in The Junction: Moses the cat is no longer in residence inside Next to Nature. Both notes expressed alarm and concern – is Moses OK? So the ace WSB investigative team stopped by N-to-N this afternoon to find out, and discovered what you see in the photo above – a picture and note that “Moses has left the building. No, he’s not dead. He’s just in retirement. Sightings of him have been reported in Mexico.” Actually, we uncovered the fact that he’s now home with his owners … he just wasn’t happy staying at the store any more. One of our tipsters is relieved to hear that but adds, “I’ll miss him (don’t have a pet of my own, plus he was like a local landmark).” We’ll miss him too; he was definitely a shop fixture, hanging out by the front door much of the time, high enough up that you could try giving his ears a skritch. Enjoy your retirement, Moses!
Cool crimefighting gizmos are just part of the draw at the annual Picnic at the Precinct, 1-4 pm tomorrow at the Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster; here’s a map). Tomorrow alone is jampacked – before you picnic with the police, you can help celebrate the High Point Neighborhood Center groundbreaking, at which we’re told you will be invited to share your hopes/dreams for the project’s success:
Event starts at 11 am – Massive Monkees hip-hop dance performance at 1:15! And then when the sun sets and tomorrow starts to cool a bit, you can stay out of your probably-not-air-conditioned house and enjoy a comedy classic:
“Ghostbusters” is tomorrow night’s feature at West Seattle Movies on the Wall. And tonight in The Junction, you can enjoy ArtsWest air conditioning with “Pippin”:
(photo by Nichole DeMent)
So what ELSE is going on from tonight through Sunday night, you ask? Well, for one, a pro volleyball tour appearance co-sponsored by WSB! That’s among the 51 events and attractions, listed ahead:Read More
Just saw this, regarding the power problem. We’ll start watching traffic early just in case. Seattle City Light is having a media briefing at 1:30 pm. Here’s the news release SCL sent literally a minute after we originally published this:Read More
As part of the same school district ballot measure (BEX III) that raised money for projects including the Denny/Sealth combined campus, the Southwest Athletic Complex across from Chief Sealth is getting new turf. Didn’t get to share this pic with you till now, but we spotted striping work being done on Thursday afternoon. On a related note regarding the athletic complex – as we reported earlier this week, there was a suggestion at Tuesday night’s Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting that the perpetual inaccessibility of the complex because of locked fencing – a hindrance in particular for people trying to walk between Thistle and Trenton, from the school zone to Westwood Village — might be changeable. West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist said he’d check into it. We e-mailed him to ask if he’d gotten anywhere with that, and he replied: “I have not yet had a chance to chase this one down. My guess is that the most productive conversations about the fencing will occur this fall as part of the larger site development planning effort.” (Read more about that in our report about the WNC meeting.)
The concerns about the two major mixed-use (part residential, part commercial) projects on the Southwest Design Review Board‘s agenda last night were similar – particularly, how the projects will affect pedestrian flow once they’re built. But the results were quite different; one project is finally at the end of the process, while the other is just beginning what could be a long journey. Our full report, ahead:Read More
Thanks to everyone who has checked out White Center Now, the blog about White Center, since its launch was announced here earlier this week. The site’s already abuzz with robust discussions about topics including potential annexation — check out the comments (28 so far). Recent posts also include a teen-authored article about White Center students becoming park stewards (read it here), a White Center Now review of Big Al‘s beer, and In Search of the Great Burrito. Lots more to come (including original coverage of a couple events happening later today).
We first told you two weeks ago about some Junction businesses’ petition campaign against Conner Homes‘ request for the city to “vacate” that stretch of the alley between 42nd and California, south of Alaska, so that land under the alley can be included in the underground parking garage for its two-building development. (Read our original report here; read developer Charlie Conner‘s next-day “letter to the community” here.) Opponents including Elliott Bay Brewery and Liberty Bell Printing have continued to gather petition signatures, and the Junction Neighborhood Organization has posted the petition as well; now there’s word that the city’s deadline for comments on the request has now been extended to September 15. That of course means comments in support of it as well as against it; you can comment directly to Moira Gray at SDOT, which is reviewing the request, at moira.gray@seattle.gov. The project itself, meantime, is still in the design-review process. Here’s our coverage of the most recent meeting, in late May; the city has not yet posted a date for the next one.
That’s video of the West Seattle Big Band playing in last month’s Hi-Yu Concert in the Park – and tonight, they’re outdoors again, for the same admission price (FREE!), as Providence Mount St. Vincent‘s (WSB sponsor) outdoor concert series continues. Jim Edwards with WSBB tells us that Elizabeth Hott from the Kings of Swing will be the guest singer with them at The Mount tonight. As we showed you last week (here) and the week before (here), these concerts are drawing fun all-ages crowds; dinner and beer/wine are offered for sale starting at 5 pm, music starts at 6. Lots of other fun tonight too, with more music — including Alma Villegas at Cafe Rozella — and then just wait till we start talking about Saturday, with Picnic at the Precinct, “Ghostbusters” at Movies on the Wall … anyway, all that will be in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, here before noon.
These events aren’t happening IN West Seattle, but they involve West Seattleites who have lent WSB a major helping hand at times when we needed it – plus, they’re interesting events in their own right – so we’re helping spread the word:
PHOTOGRAPHERS’ CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: West Seattle lawyer Venkat Balasubramani is on a panel tackling this topic; WSB has been blessed with so many great photography contributions, we thought a few of you might be interested. Here’s more info including how to RSVP for the event.
GNOMEDEX 8.0: West Seattleite Stuart Maxwell, who provided us with technical consulting last year (including installation of software for the WSB Forums, the busiest neighborhood-news-site forums in the city), is helping coordinate Gnomedex, a tech conference next week at Bell Harbor on the downtown waterfront (a short distance away). Among the online-world luminaries who’ll be speaking, the guy behind the insanely popular ICanHasCheezburger.com. Check out the conference slate and registration information here.
Michele at West Seattle Thriftway sends word that their “Dog Days of Summer” promotion is under way – and as part of it, CityDog Magazine – founded by West Seattleite Brandi Ahlgren – will have a professional photographer at the store 11 am-2 pm Sunday to take pix for the magazine’s Cover Dog Search. (Read more about the search here.) Also this weekend: a barbecue 11 am-4 pm Saturday ($7 for burgers/chips/soda) to benefit the Seattle Humane Society and Doney Clinic, and the SHS MaxMobile returns 11 am-3 pm Sunday with adoptable pets. (Photo above: A pooch we spotted on the beach south of Alki Point Thursday.)
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