West Seattle scenes: 3 more weekend pix

| Pets | Seen around town | West Seattle beaches

Congratulations to the Westcresters team (click that pic for a full-size version so you can see everyone better!) for their achievement in this weekend’s PAWSWalk – they raised more than $4500! (Some of it, from a doggie-treat bake sale at Westcrest last weekend, and we hear some WSB’ers stopped by.) Next, a different view of Sunday’s Car-Free Day on Alki (our full coverage is here):

Babs sent that after returning from what she termed a “glorious bike ride.” And speaking of glorious, we got this next shot while at the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza for the Saturday sunset concert (coverage here):

Don’t mean to jinx anything, but there are indications next weekend might be nice too. Lots going on – including the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup and the Evergreen State Barbecue Championship on Alki; we’ll be previewing the big events in the next day or two.

GC September 8, 2008 (2:13 am)

Manager of Duke’s comments on sending workers home, not calling in others in later city wide newspaper article. http://tinyurl.com/5hqk2r

Rick September 8, 2008 (5:03 am)

Yeah, we really should turn Alki into a private park for residents. I mean, geeze, these people paid a lot for their places!

WSB September 8, 2008 (7:44 am)

GC, as I wrote in coverage yesterday (which included a photo of Duke’s), things seemed a little slower than usual (as the Tully’s employees were commenting while I was there in the early afternoon, though their place got more crowded in the subsequent hour) but not exactly a ghost town. So far I have seen two citywide-media stories with one person each saying business was down, the Times quote from a Duke’s person, a Spud person in a KING story. Neither of those reporters mentioned the places I saw such as Cactus and Alki Cafe where people were waiting outside etc. It may be that business was down for a few places and not for others, in which case quotes from both types, given that the stories were told with one quote each rather than observations, would have been nice. Here’s the P-I article, which focuses on the traffic aspect and not the “were there fewer people than the usual sunny Sunday”
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/378151_carfree08.html

BA September 8, 2008 (1:50 pm)

WOW, What a farce. As unsuspecting motorists flooded into Alki during one of the nicest days of the summer they met with FEWER available parking spaces and burned more gas (and stomach lining), causing MORE pollution whilst searching for a place to park. Tax paying businesses struggled for customer count whilst a calvary-sized group of Seattle Police kept order and worked on their tans. I don’t think that this was a successful event for all constituencies unless you happened to be a 12 year-old skate boarder.

JanS September 8, 2008 (1:55 pm)

BA…would you say the same about the West Seattle Street Festival? The Hi-Yu Parade? is there a difference? Perspective…

BA September 9, 2008 (9:52 am)

JanS,
No I would NOT say the same for the WSSF & HYP events because there is MUCH MORE available alternative parking for these events. Also, the police staffing/expenditures appears to be significantly less for these events as well. Furthermore, the WSSF takes place over an extended period of time reducing crowding. The HYP is brief and then dissipates. Blocking off the main artery to Alki beach on a nice summer day in rainy Seattle is akin to putting 10 lbs. of sand in a 5 lb. can. It just will NOT work.

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