West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
Lots of West Seattle folks with long-planned events today proved themselves adaptable, like the people of Pigeon Point, whose community celebration this afternoon-evening went on as scheduled – with just a few changes, like moving the bouncy house inside Cooper Elementary (map). Next West Seattle neighborhood celebration on the calendar: the Fauntleroy Community Association‘s Fauntleroy Fall Festival, October 19.
One more reminder tonight – our next update will be some early-morning pix as the cars get set up (some spaces are left for same-day registration – “load-in” is at 6:30 am, from the east side of the Edmunds/California intersection). Tomorrow, 8 am-4 pm, it’s the first-ever West Seattle Junction Car Show (with WSB among the co-sponsors), featuring more than 200 pre-1975 cars along California SW, which will be closed in Edmunds-Alaska, Alaska-Oregon, and Oregon-post office sections (the west-east streets remain open to traffic). There’s a raffle, T-shirt sales (design at left), and several special options for breakfast, including Puerto Vallarta opening at 7 am, West Seattle Eagles offering breakfast starting at 7 am, and Elliott Bay Brewery opening at 10 am. And don’t forget to wander over to the West Seattle Farmers’ Market at 44th/Alaska for the zucchini races (here’s our coverage, with video, from last year). The forecast looks a little better than today.
Just in case you hadn’t heard, it’s the first debate in this fall’s Chris Gregoire vs. Dino Rossi rematch. 9 pm, channel 4, or live online. If you want to discuss it afterward, there’s a governor’s-race topic in the WSB Forums’ 2008 Election section (or start a new topic!).
In the Alki area and saw some police/fire activity a little while ago? WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli checked it out, and sent the photos that accompany this post. At first, a “water rescue” call went out on 911, with the typically large response; then all but one engine was canceled. Witnesses who were having a party under tents at the beach (photo below) told him a fully clothed man had gone into the water and looked to be in danger/trouble, so someone called 911, and when fire/police started to arrive, he ran out of the water, soaking wet, and took off into the residential neighborhood to the east. When a new emergency response showed up a few minutes later, Christopher investigated that, and discovered the man — still sopping — turned up near Alki Community Center, was checked out by paramedics from Engine 29 and turned out to be OK. Christopher adds, “He was quoted as saying the temperature of the water ‘surprised him.’ Police transported him home.”
Thanks to Diane for spotting this: Seattle Condo Blog reports that West Water, the Morgan Junction condo conversion chronicled here last year during its inescapable marketing blitz, has taken its remaining for-sale units off the market. Nothing to independently verify that but listings at both its addresses (6960 and 6970 California SW) that came up in G-searches are marked “unavailable.” We first reported last November that some of the units were up for rent,
Missed getting this one in this week’s West Seattle Weekend Lineup, sorry about that. But the results and details from today’s Sundodger Invitational cross-country track meet at Lincoln Park are already up on the UW Athletics website; certainly the weather conditions lived up to the race name today (here’s the course map if you’re interested).
Almost since their start 9 months ago, the WSB Forums — with more than 28,000 posts in nearly 2,000 topics, to date — have been a place for West Seattleites to help each other, as well as a place to discuss myriad topics (sometimes cheerily, sometimes crabbily, seldom boringly). 
Help comes in many forms, from the official sections such as Reader Recommendations (where’s the best place to … who’s the best person to …) and Jobs Offered (businesses can post “help wanted” listings FREE), to individual discussions/events such as the fundraiser that helped an arson-damaged business recover (our report here), and many other smaller efforts in which people have come together to lend a hand. So the current economic jitters have inspired a new section: Freebies, Deals, Sales. Fairly self-explanatory (sales includes yard/garage/rummage sales, but can also include major business sales, like “annual half off everything”) – rather than set too many guidelines at the start, we’re going to watch first to see how YOU choose to use it. We just put it up a few hours ago and already, two people have posted freebies. West Seattle/White Center vicinity only, please; and, when your freebie is gone, or your sale is over, come back to post that too, so we can keep the area current. We prefer that the posts come from those who are offering the freebie/deal/sale, but if you spot something good you want to share, it’s OK to post that too – we reserve the right to delete anything suspicious, though (so this kind of thing doesn’t happen). Anyway: The new section’s here.
That’s Tai, and he’s one of more than 350 volunteers who are toiling — rain? what rain? — at Camp Long right now, for a huge work party organized by NAIOP (National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, a trade association for real-estate and development companies) as one of its “community enhancement projects.” We wandered the park at midmorning to see what was going on – first, the logistics center in the lodge:
Next, out into the park. NAIOP had a map to various work sites, labeled by area and by priority. One big priority, fixing up the fire ring toward the south end of the “Parade Grounds” meadow:
All along the trails, groups were restoring and rebuilding, including another huge priority – the big bridge down the trail leading north toward the golf course – lots of work alongside cabins and picnic shelters too:
And of course, the front entrance was getting some love too:
As we left after a while (we’re going back later to see how it all turned out), we ran into someone who spent LAST Saturday on a big cleanup/restoration project – Nancy Driver, co-organizer of the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup, walking by with pruning saw in hand. She explained that some NAIOP members such as Harbor Properties and Excel were major contributors (manpower as well as $power) to the work that went into the Gateway Cleanup, and she wanted to do something to reciprocate. You can lend a hand in West Seattle greenspaces just about any Saturday, by the way – the regular volunteer work parties are always in our West Seattle Weekend Lineups published every Friday, and they’re also listed at greenseattle.org.
One week from tomorrow, it’s your chance to multitask in the best of ways: Enjoy an invigorating 5K run/walk along Alki, while raising money for a West Seattle-based organization that helps women fighting breast cancer. The Northwest Hope and Healing Foundation sponsored its fundraiser run through Lincoln Park last year (see photo above), but this year it’s along Alki, from the Bathhouse to Anchor/Luna Park and back. When NWHH joined the WSB sponsor team earlier this month to provide a continuous reminder of the upcoming Alki Beach Run, we wrote here about all the work they do – it’s different from the organizations that are researching treatments and cures; Northwest Hope and Healing provides services to help patients cope with the immediate needs in their lives once they have been diagnosed … and sadly, there still are plenty of people who need that help (read more on this NWHH webpage). It all starts a week from tomorrow, 9 am Sunday 9/28; you can register online here, right now — or if you can’t do the run/walk but would like to contribute to Northwest Hope and Healing anyway, you can do that here.
(photos added 11:16 am)
The all-church sale happening today at Fauntleroy Church quite decidedly has “indoor” in its official name, so that’s one place you can go to stay dry till we get a break in the showers. The sale’s under way 9 am-3 pm today; the church is at 9140 California SW (map). Then, Wednesday night is your next chance to see the new Fauntleroy documentary on a big screen – here’s a preview from Judy Pickens:
The Fauntleroy neighborhood, past and present, will hit the silver screen on Wednesday, September 24, when The Fauntleroy Story: 100 Years of Community premieres at 7 p.m. in Fellowship Hall at Fauntleroy Church. The 35-minute documentary explores the neighborhood from its founding at the end of the streetcar line to present-day challenges of sustaining community.
The project originated as an idea for the church centennial and soon grew into a profile of the whole neighborhood. The steering committee has wide representation from the community and the Southwest Seattle Historical Society. Residents, businesses, and the church pitched in to help fund the $30,000 project and match a $15,000 grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.
The screening will include a Q&A with the production team. Take-home copies of the DVD will be available by donation.
If you miss the premiere, DVDs will be available starting Sept. 25 at The Original Bakery, church office, and Loghouse Museum gift shop. The next local screening will be during the Fauntleroy Fall Festival on Oct. 19.
We attended a preview of the semifinal cut back in July; here’s that report.
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