West Seattle snow aftermath: Scenes from the outside world

(view from aboard the carousel at Westlake Park downtown, which is operating through Wednesday)
Just back from the outside world (as in, outside West Seattle) for the first time in who knows how many days. A few notes:

–Just saw a UPS truck in front of the apartment block on California in Morgan Junction south of McDonald’s et al, 8:41 pm. It was pointed north. There may be hope for others tonight.

–While downtown, we saw a trash truck emptying sidewalk containers at 5th/Denny. After missing two weeks of pickups, we are suddenly impressed by the sight of a trash truck. Impressed enough to pull out the camera:

–Also while downtown, we walked into Pacific Place just after 6 pm, when fake snow falls night from the atrium, accompanied by snow-idolizing holiday music, in what’s meant to be a show of “holiday magic” inspiring joy, but was met tonight mostly by weary glowers.

–Downtown, the streets are clear, with massive mountains of dirty snow on all sides. Colorado native co-publisher Patrick says this is what it looks like in Snow Country from January through March, and cautions that those piles will be self-sustaining for days if not weeks.

–Heading back into West Seattle, we did see a few signs of clogged drains – a couple puddles along Fauntleroy Way, for starters. Checking comments that have come in recently, we see someone has relayed a great idea for finding your storm drain IF you are on a major street — check Google Street View. To do that, start at maps.google.com and put your address in; if you were surveyed for Google Street View, you will see a “street view” button inside the little info balloon that points to the address, as well as a thumbnail photo; click the “street view” link and it will bring up a larger version of the image. Once that image is up, you can use your mouse or touchpad to drag it around and look at the scene from anywhere in the 360 view. (Wondering when they traveled through West Seattle? Click here to see a scene that reveals EXACTLY when they went through California/Edmunds in The Junction.)

11 Replies to "West Seattle snow aftermath: Scenes from the outside world"

  • grr December 26, 2008 (10:43 pm)

    GRRRR…UPS…GRRRR..Got 3 packages waiting to be delivered (ONE I paid for 2nd day air)…the website still shows them ‘out for delivery’ for today.

    no show.

  • Mollsworth December 26, 2008 (11:09 pm)

    Saw the UPS truck park in front of our house, became excited! Waiting for 5 packages.
    Saw UPS truck drive away without knocking on our door. Became sad. Still waiting for 5 packages.

  • Jeanine December 27, 2008 (10:07 am)

    re:”mountains of dirty snow”.
    A relative in rural MN calls dirty snow “snirt”
    uff da!

  • Eric December 27, 2008 (10:15 am)

    Trash pick will be over the weekend or delayed until next week:

    http://www.komonews.com/news/36748164.html

    And how does that scene reveal exactly when the google street view pics were taken?

  • WSB December 27, 2008 (10:29 am)

    Yes, we have been reporting on the trash situation multiple times daily with info directly from SPU. Most recently,
    https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=13123
    The mention here was just a semi-humorous aside. Re: the street view pic, it was during West Seattle Summer Fest (note the tents and the road barricade) last July. Funny they would even use imagery taken during a time when you can’t get a clear view of everything because a special event is going on, but I imagine they were so tightly scheduled they couldn’t say “Ooops, we better come back.”

  • Diane December 27, 2008 (10:30 am)

    funny to hear about Pacific Place “snow”; during the heaviest snow fall, their “come enjoy the snow” commercials kept running; couldn’t believe they would still pay to run a commercial that would just annoy everyone; how does tv advertising work? were they locked into that commercial? did they not have anything else that might entice folks to come down there; like the schedule of live music was great

  • Keith December 27, 2008 (11:37 am)

    Was Pacific Place a total madhouse?

  • WSB December 27, 2008 (11:40 am)

    Not last night – between approximately 6 and 7:30, we were there for a bit, Westlake Center for a bit, and of course the carousel ride, and while it wasn’t “ghost town”-like, it certainly wasn’t crazy-busy. Walked around the top level and a couple of the restaurants had people waiting outside, though.

  • WSB December 27, 2008 (11:43 am)

    Diane – I would bet they were stuck with those commercials because Pacific Place didn’t have anything ready to substitute. Otherwise, SOP in broadcasting was always to pull anything that became OBVIOUSLY dissonant – such as, if a major plane crash happened, news management always needed to alert sales management so they could get people going through the logs pulling out the airline commercials.

  • Diane December 27, 2008 (12:33 pm)

    thanks for the scoop TR
    ~
    when I got stuck downtown week ago Fri, after waiting 3 hrs for bus to work in Wallingford that never came, I cruised Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Pac Place; lots of shoppers, but most stores very short-staffed because ee’s couldn’t get there; Ann Taylor store was even closed; no one could get there? what a loss that must have been

  • Simon December 27, 2008 (3:47 pm)

    UPS… grrr… FedEx and USPS have been to my house numerous times in the last week, but UPS still has my 2nd day air packages from 10 days ago! Merry Christmas UPS. Hope your families got their presents.

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