West Seattle, Washington
23 Saturday
Seems fitting that hours before Night Out — when thousands of West Seattleites will be out with their neighbors celebrating community, crimefighting, and safety — we just got word of an honor that’s yours as much as ours – WSB is among the honorees for the annual Seattle Police Department Citizen Appreciation Awards on August 19. The information-sharing partnership that the Southwest Precinct has launched with WSB – and the time so many people in WSB-land take to send “reader reports” and other important information to be shared here with the community at large – is really a precedent-setter for the entire city; as fine folks in other neighborhoods launch news websites based on this model, several have opened discussions with their respective precincts, which wouldn’t be possible without the trail blazed by the foresightedness and openness of the Southwest Precinct — and the receptiveness of downtown leadership all the way up to Chief Gil Kerlikowske. So anyway, when we go to City Hall that night, whatever plaque or certificate or handshake we get is really yours too; thanks for so often taking the time to let us – and thereby everyone else in West Seattle – know what’s going on, and please continue to e-mail, call, “tweet,” etc., with information/photos/tips/concerns any time, 24/7.
We started seeing links about this yesterday but somehow neglected to mention it here till we got a nudge – one of West Seattle High School‘s better-known alums just told us it’s a big deal, so we’ll believe him: One of the first three University of Washington Huskies football-player commitments for the 2009 group of recruits is Aaron Grymes from WSHS. Here’s dawgman.com coverage via Scout; here’s his profile. In this blog post, he told the Times that playing for UW “has been my dream since I was little.”
Thanks to Bruce for that photo of what neighbors apparently know as the “local” coyote, which showed up last night in their back yard “just above the ravine in the North Admiral area on the 2100 block of 41st Ave. SW.” (map) His note landed in the WSB inbox right on the heels of a Delridge sighting — Dorothy lives at the sprawling West Ridge Park complex (map) and says she saw a coyote Saturday morning and again this morning. She added, “I’m concerned because many residents here have pets and small children” and wondered where to “report” it. As we’ve discussed here before, aside from this type of report, which we publish as part of the general WSB community info-sharing, there’s really no place to “report” coyotes under normal circumstances – they’re considered just part of the landscape – and just one of many reasons not to let small animals (cats etc.) roam alone (certainly there are many other threats to them) … local wildlife experts have a lot of advice about peaceful coexistence (don’t feed them, etc.) and you can find much of it, with handy links, in this WSB report from earlier this year.
Tonight, as previously mentioned, Night Out is the biggie, and we’ll be covering it all over West Seattle. From the WSB Events calendar, others to single out:
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Some local neighborhood councils/associations go on hiatus in August, but not the North Delridge Neighborhood Council, which meets at 6:30 pm, Delridge Library. In The Junction, it’s the next “Project Runway” viewing party to cheer barista Blayne (Ginomai, 42nd/Genesee, doors open 8 pm, show at 9 pm).
THURSDAY NIGHT: Another outdoor concert on Alki – this time, Blue 55 plays by the Bathhouse; at SSCC’s Brockey Center, a Town Hall meeting about a substance-abuse problem that too often goes unnoticed till it’s too late, medicine abuse, 5 pm.
FRIDAY: Volunteers of all ages are invited to join in the next Delridge-area grocery audit as part of the King County Food and Fitness Initiative, then enjoy a barbecue party – full scoop here; the Rotary Club of West Seattle fundraising berry sale starts blueberry pickups (today’s the order deadline, by the way); then it’s the summer’ second outdoor concert at Providence Mount St. Vincent (WSB sponsor), featuring Maia Santell; and fun will be sprouting more raucously than usual at West Seattle Nursery that night during the 34th District Democrats‘ biggest fundraiser of the year, the Garden Party (full details here, including catered Cajun dinner).
SATURDAY: The “Water and Spirit” fundraising bike ride will take participants from St. John the Baptist and other area churches on a 40-mile trek ending with a barbecue at Alki. That night, the next episode of West Seattle Movies on the Wall brings an animated fave, “Finding Nemo,” dusk in the courtyard by Hotwire.
One more note – West Seattle’s library branches have several special events this week (including raptors and games – libraries are about a lot more than books!) – check here.
This one’s too good to wait for it to show up on the More page‘s citywide-media digest: The Times profiles Cafe Rozella (which is in the city limits so it’s really West Seattle as well as White Center) and includes a mention of Full Tilt – both mentioned/discussed often here among the pixels of WSB; White Center’s evolution gets a nod too. (Cafe Rozella just announced its music slate for the rest of the summer, by the way; see it here.)
Jenny Simonds included that photo with the pix we posted with her account of last Saturday’s Friends of Lincoln Park work party; this wasn’t another scene from said party, but rather from her L-Park-area neighborhood. Probably a LOLcat-style caption in there somewhere.
By this time tomorrow night, dozens of neighborhoods all around West Seattle will be finishing up, or cleaning up after, their Night Out block parties – more than 200 registered for the right to block off their (non-arterial) streets, 
according to what we heard from Southwest Precinct crime-prevention coordinator Benjamin Kinlow a few days ago. (And thanks to everyone who e-mailed us when we asked to hear from block-party-throwers who wouldn’t mind WSB showing up for a photo or two – we hope to see many, hopefully all, of you tomorrow night!) But one other thing worth noting – while the main purpose of Night Out is to get people together to celebrate neighborhood solidarity and raise awareness about safety and crimefighting, more than half a dozen areas of West Seattle are also participating in a test of radio communications in case of a disaster or other major emergency – they’ll be doing a relay of sorts using simple walkie-talkie-type “family radios,” to see how well information could be relayed neighborhood to neighborhood across the peninsula if necessary. This is a spinoff from some of the emergency-preparedness events we told you about a few months back; we’ll let you know how the test goes – and we’ll be posting in-progress updates on Night Out tomorrow as we travel around West Seattle! (Just found out it’s the nationwide event’s 25th anniversary.)
NASA has chosen a West Seattle High School graduate to pilot the next space-shuttle mission: 54-year-old Gregory C. Johnson, a 1972 WSHS alum per his official online NASA bio. He’ll fly Atlantis to the Hubble Space Telescope this fall; the launch is scheduled for October 8, according to the news release issued today. You can track preparations for the mission on NASA’s website, which notes Johnson and his fellow mission-mates have had to take a training break as Johnson Space Center shut down in advance of Edouard.
Just added today to the city’s Design Review/Upcoming schedule: The September 11th meeting of the Southwest Design Review Board now includes the first “early design guidance” session for the proposal to redevelop the Admiral Safeway site. This has been under discussion for a while, as we first reported last February (then in April, this WSB post asked for your thoughts about the site); the city’s official project page includes this overview of what’s being proposed:
Design review, early design guidance meeting for two new buildings; a one story, 58,750 sq.ft. grocery store (Safeway) with a four story, 34-unit residential structure attached and a one story, 7,000 sq.ft. retail building. Parking for 227 vehicles to be located on the roof and at grade. Project will require alley vacations and contract rezone. Existing 32,000 sq.ft. grocery store to be demolished.
The architects on the project page are Seattle-based Fuller-Sears; you can see some of their work at their website. The design-review meeting is set for 8 pm Sept. 11 at a TBA location in West Seattle; we’d mentioned earlier that the Spring Hill mixed-use building south of The Junction (5020 California) was already on the agenda that night (6:30 pm). We’ve got a message out to Safeway to see if any renderings for this proposal are available yet.
The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has just called a “smog watch” for all of King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, because the air is stagnating and hotter weather’s on the way. It’s expected to last until at least Wednesday evening. Here’s what the agency suggests you can be doing to help lessen the severity:
-Driving your most fuel-efficient car, and combining errands into one trip.
-Skipping gasoline-powered yard work and gas-fueled recreation.
-Carpooling or riding the bus to work, events and outings.
-Refueling your car in the cooler evening hours
Full details on this PSCAA page. (And you can check the current air quality here!)
Today we’re welcoming the newest WSB sponsor, Fauntleroy Chiropractic Clinic, which has been in West Seattle for more than 25 years; 
Dr. Bryan Wiebe and Hillary Wiebe took over the practice a decade ago. Fauntleroy Chiropractic Clinic sees patients for injuries and treatment, as well as for wellness and preventive care. FCC offers therapeutic massage onsite. They are on most insurance plans, and offer affordable cash plans too. You’ll find Fauntleroy Chiropractic Clinic at 4520 Fauntleroy (map), online at www.fauntleroychiro.com, and by phone at 206/932-6605. We appreciate the support of Fauntleroy Chiropractic Clinic and all our sponsors, who are listed on the WSB Advertise page, where anyone interested in joining them can also find out how (the latest toplines on WSB traffic growth are on that page too). Welcome, Fauntleroy Chiropractic Clinic!
… because what we would have come up with last night, if we’d done the usually-weekly survey of all West Seattle stations, would have been way outdated by late morning today. See photo at left (California/Andover 76); while most WS gas stations were still in the four-dollar-and-teens vicinity over the weekend, so far today most of the ones we’ve driven by have dropped into the four-oh-somethings. Let us know if you see someone drop below $4 before we see it (posted price, that is; gas was available at $3.99 at Admiral Safeway this morning, for example, for those who qualified for the dime-a-gallon discount and applied it to the $4.09/gallon price there).
Followup on this item from this morning: Just got the scoop from Lt. Steve Paulsen at the Southwest Precinct — although this was a county investigation, he notes (so we will check with King County Sheriff’s Office to see if there’s a news release with more info) — as part of a multiple-location drug raid, a “high-risk entry” had to be made, involving the SWAT team and devices known as “flashbangs” designed to make noise catching the suspects/targets by surprise. Again, SPD doesn’t have full details since they weren’t the lead agency, but apparently all went well. 4:54 PM UPDATE: Just heard back from Sgt. John Urquhart, who handles media for KCSO. He says:
… there were two drug search warrants served simultaneously this morning shortly after 5:00 AM. One was a house in the 23800 block of 140th Ave SE, Kent. The other was in the 7000 block of 16th Ave SW. There were arrests made … SPD SWAT helped on the 16th SW house, and our SWAT helped with the house in Kent. Occupants of both houses were expected to be “armed and dangerous”, but no shots were fired and no one was injured.
As reported here over the weekend, West Seattle’s only city-run indoor swimming pool, Southwest Pool — currently closed for extensive renovations and maintenance — has just changed its planned reopening date to November 1st, a month later than first expected. Project manager Garrett Farrell called us this morning to explain what happened, and how things are going overall. Bottom line: The Parks Department had to publicly bid the project; the original low bidder turned out to not have the proper qualifications, and re-evaluating, then awarding the work to the second-lowest bidder, cost three weeks. Why wasn’t the bidding done sooner, we asked? Because, as reported in our preview story about the project, the scope of the work had to change — and a quarter-million dollars extra had to be found — when it was discovered relatively late in the game that a big electrical vault hidden in a planter in front of the community center was complicating matters – here’s a Parks photo (this is where the raised planter was, on the northeast side of the building):
The old vault had to be taken out, a new, larger one installed, and that’s upgraded electrical service to the building; Farrell says the project is now on target to wrap up in late October; Parks has set November 1st as the new reopening time in hopes that gives a little bit of wiggle room – progress so far includes not only completion of the electrical work but also other demolition work and some water piping to adjacent Southwest Community Center. Farrell adds, “The roof has been removed from the boiler room and we are waiting on the delivery of two large mechanical units. The first will go in the basement, and then we can put the building back together. Roofing work will start in early August and continue for six to eight weeks.” (You can see the inner workings, pre-project, in the video we included in our preview story.) He says the construction company, TCM, is doing “a fantastic job” and also has kudos for the SWCC staff being “superflexible as we tear up their house and put it back together.” Note that the community center IS OPEN – you just have to enter through the back (south) side while the pool work has the front entrance blocked off.
For everyone watching RapidRide, the new Metro service scheduled to start in West Seattle in 2011 – its “schematic design” is scheduled to go before the Seattle Design Commission this Thursday (3 pm, City Hall downtown). Though it’s a county project, as a Metro service, the city is closely involved, as we mentioned a week and a half ago when a city delegation including Councilmembers Jan Drago and Tom Rasmussen van-toured the route.
We’ve received a couple notes about a very loud noise waking folks up early this morning in the Puget Ridge area. Nothing obvious on the 911 log and we’re checking other sources, but sometimes the best source of information is to just throw it out to WSBers, so if you know anything, please post a comment or e-mail us; thanks!
A followup in the controversy over the city’s search for the best place to build a misdemeanor-offender jail (with two West Seattle sites in the “final four”): The Highland Park Action Committee says it’s doing its own analysis of the city’s just-released report on whether a high-rise jail makes more sense than a low-rise jail, and will release its own report in 2 weeks. HPAC chair Dorsol Plants says, “HPAC’s members as well as its consultants in both the legal and civic field will be reviewing specifically the mathematical figures to insure they are both accurate and consistent.” WSB coverage of the jail-sites issue is archived (newest to oldest) here.
We spotted that person fishing just offshore at Lincoln Park at sunset tonight – sparkling end to a beautiful day. On West Seattle’s “other” big beach, low-tide-walking and volleyball started the day (both shown in this clip):
The Alki Volleyball Association had qualifying going on all weekend for next month’s US Open in Huntington Beach, California; another big volleyball event on Alki is just two weeks away – the EVP Pro Volleyball Tour is visiting in two weeks (here’s our coverage of last year’s stop). Also at Alki today, the Festival of Indian Culture (back at the beach after a detour to the Eastside last year) – these photos are courtesy David Hutchinson:
And in the early afternoon, we caught some of the first people to use the Delridge wading pool on its first Sunday of the season – added after community concerns were called to the Parks Department‘s attention (WSB coverage here and here):
Later in the day, we’re told, the pool drew quite a crowd. Meantime, now that all the really big festivals are past – it’s time to just relax and enjoy simple pleasures like wading pools, Colman Pool, beaches, parks, forested trails … we’ll be spotlighting some of those options this week.
We usually hear from Dina Johnson on Highland Park Action Committee issues but today she e-mailed WSB with a report of something entirely unrelated – a bizarre scene of apparent vandalism in Westwood. She writes:
I found this seemingly undisturbed scene at 10 this morning, across the street from Staples in Westwood Village. I hate to think this is someone’s idea of fun on a Saturday night, just a few blocks from my home.
It’s the north parking lot of 8826 25th Ave SW – the driver’s license office – next to a 8826, a 4-story multifamily building under construction.
If you can’t quite place the location, that’s a wide shot showing the building, and some of the smashed items below. Dina continues:
Looks like some idiots broke into the structure and hurled stuff off the upper floors to smash below: 2 microwave ovens, at least 6 computer monitors, and glass bottles. The parking lot is covered with a mess of broken glass and metal debris.
We’ll be watching for the report on this one. Meantime, Dina posted several more photos – including the booze and smokes packaging she found in the debris – on this webpage.
JayDee caught five of the six Blue Angels during a flyby at Costco on 4th Ave. S., a Blue Angels-viewing spot that’s been discussed here before. And shortly after we originally published this post, David Hutchinson sent photos from the north side of Boeing Field – here’s #5 coming in:
As for us, yes, the Museum of Flight one more time – for the up-close-and-semi-personal look before and after the airshow:
Fat Albert, the Blue Angels’ support plane, is a U.S. Marine Corps C-130, and it flies just before the Angels; as it taxis before and after that flight (which ends with a thrilling nosedive landing at Boeing Field), a crew member always spyhops from the top hatch to wave a flag and just plain wave. From the fence by the FA-18s’ parking spot, you can wave to the BA pilots themselves, too:
More scenes from today, and what’s next for the Blue Angels, ahead:Read More
Thanks to Jenny Simonds for sending us photos from Saturday’s monthly Friends of Lincoln Park work party. Second photo above shows Sharon Baker, the volunteer forest steward who always sends us advance word of these events – we include them in the WSB Events calendar, as well as in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup – every weekend there are anywhere from two to five opportunities around West Seattle for you to help protect and restore our beautiful greenspaces. If you’ve ever walked in Lincoln Park, you know how many invasive plants are in need of clearing; on Saturday, Jenny says, “We were pulling English ivy & holly from just south of the North ballparks.” Also at work in Lincoln Park this time around, Margey Thoresen:
And Jim Frazzine:
Jenny tells us there also were dozens of Friends of the Earth volunteers working elsewhere in the park. If you’d like to join in the next Friends of Lincoln Park work party, click here for Sharon Baker’s e-mail address. Besides watching the aforementioned WSB pages, you can also track upcoming work parties in parks/greenspaces around West Seattle and elsewhere at greenseattle.org.
For anyone who’s clutter-busting today, or sometime soon: Southwest Youth and Family Services (at 4555 Delridge; here’s a map) now has a Goodwill bin – and not only will your dropped-off donations help Goodwill, they’ll also help SWYFS, according to the announcement sent out this week:
Southwest Youth and Family Services is now hosting a donation bin to benefit our local Goodwill organization in exchange for vouchers to use as cash at Goodwill.
Donate your quality, reusable items to recycle at Goodwill. Your donations will be collected in the blue Goodwill donation bin located in the SWYFS’ parking lot.
Goodwill sells the donated items at their 16 regional stores. — SWYFS WILL RECEIVE VOUCHERS TO USE AT THE GOODWILL FOR EVERY NEW OR GENTLY USED ITEMS!
For more information on Goodwill and its programs, visit www.seattlegoodwill.org. Acceptable donations include clothing, linens, shoes, books, small toys and unbreakable house wares. Your donations are tax deductible.
SWYFS, by the way, also has its annual fundraising breakfast and silent auction coming up next month: Sept. 16, Salty’s on Alki, find out more here.
As reported here last Wednesday, eastern West Seattle now have a city-run wading pool to use on remaining sunny summer Sundays — almost a month after Delridge residents first pointed out that the only wading pools in the area open on Sundays were on the west side of the peninsula (original WSB report, with map, here), the city agreed to change the schedule for the pool north of Delridge Community Center (shown above). The hours are noon-6 pm, and this means that, weather permitting, the Delridge wading pool will be open 7 days a week through the end of the month. Here’s where to find info on all city-run wading pools.
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