West Seattle, Washington
30 Tuesday
REMINDER THAT SUMMER WILL REALLY BE HERE EVENTUALLY: The Big Blog says two Blue Angels will “buzz” the city between 3 and 4 pm today. (If you have been reading WSB at least 5 months, you know we have what one WSB’er charitably described as a “strange obsession” with the Angels.)
WEST SEATTLEITE GUEST-SLOGS STARTING TODAY: Jeff from Soundproof Suite 1850 (which is linked from our newly improved Other Blogs in WS page) has begun his week of Slogging, thanks to the right he procured in The Stranger‘s fundraising auction; we believe this is his first post.
VEDDER VIDEO: What’s described as the first solo music video done by West Seattle rock luminary Eddie Vedder premiered today on VH1 (tv and web; watch it here.)
3700 block of Beach Drive – the “no parking” signs and hay bales are an unmistakable sign of backhoe-en-route; update’s on Beach Drive Blog (including a link to the upcoming townhouse project). We’ve watched this one because our original West Seattle residence was next door, way back when a grungy convenience store was on the site across the street that is now known as Cormorant Cove Park (nothing like the beach’s next convenience store!).
Today we’re extending the traditional WSB welcome to our newest sponsor, Illusions Hair Design (on California between Alaska and Morgan Junctions). This year, Illusions is celebrating 30 years in business, and its achievements over the years — including a Mayor’s Small Business Award and repeat annual votes as “Best on the Westside.” Clicking on the new Illusions ad you see on the right sidebar of this page will take you to information about a special offer regarding one of their many specialties — color services — they do more than 4,000 every year, and provide their stylists with continuing education in haircutting and all chemical services. Illusions also supports the community with donations to more than 100 local organizations each year, including two major fundraisers that they started: “Have a Heart Day” in February, and “Pencil Me in for Kids” during the summer (read more about that here). You may have seen their distinctive VW Bug around town (we photographed it in our Hi-Yu Parade coverage last summer). Thanks to Illusions and all our sponsors for supporting WSB; if you are interested in finding out how to join them, check out our Advertise page (which also lists the current sponsor lineup and our newest opportunities).
-State ferries are now on their winter schedule, including fewer runs on Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth.
-You may have heard about Metro taking bike racks off some of its buses. Here’s the official Metro advisory; the specific routes affected are listed as “all bus trips on routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 12, 13, 14, 36, 49 and 70, and some trips on routes 7, 43 and 44.” Doesn’t appear to involve any of the routes directly serving West Seattle.
If you are anywhere near West Seattle HS, you know there’s a fire callout there right now. First it called out as an automatic fire alarm, now scanner traffic says a maintenance person thinks there MIGHT be a “small” fire in one room. So the fire department’s checking it out. 7:23 AM UPDATE: Now they’re talking about resetting a detector, so this doesn’t sound major. 7:29 AM UPDATE: The 911 log shows the call closed. Just in time for the first day of school post-break.
Much going on this week – all listed on the WSB Events page – but here’s a small sampling we want to highlight:
TODAY/TONIGHT — Back-to-school day for everyone who wasn’t already back by the end of last week. School open house/tour season is revving up too, with Seattle Lutheran High School having one @ 6:30 tonight (more open houses & tours on the aforementioned Events page, including the West Seattle-wide Middle School Information Night on Thursday, and please send us your open house/tour schedule if it’s not there already).
TOMORROW — Next meeting of Junction Neighborhood Organization (JuNO), 6:30 pm at Ginomai (SW corner 42nd/Genesee), with topics including RapidRide and Adopt-A-Street. Read more on the new JuNO site. (Are you connected to your neighborhood organization? We’ve got a list on the right sidebar of this page.)
WEDNESDAY — Biggest event today involves the rest of the city as well: The Seattle Police Department will begin implementing geographic changes as laid out in the new Neighborhood Policing Plan. You can read it here; we are working on a standalone report about this, but among other things, it means the Southwest Precinct here in West Seattle no longer will handle Georgetown; its remaining turf remains split into two “sectors” but the layout of “beats” within those sectors will change (see page 15-16). Also Wednesday — At 4 pm, before their regular semiweekly meeting, Seattle School Board members hold a “work session” for updates on the controversial Chief Sealth High School/Denny Middle School shared-campus plan. (Recent WSB coverage: 12/19 school board meeting; 12/12 Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting.) Then at 7:30 pm, people interested in the environmental permits required for the Nucor steel mill’s crane-expansion project are invited to a public hearing at Alki Community Center.
THURSDAY — The Southwest Design Review Board is back in action, this time looking at the mixed-use “Spring Hill” project south of The Junction. (Latest WSB reports on that project: Neighbor concern here; meeting announcement here.)
FRIDAY — The West Seattle Kiwanis Club presents a free community concert by the Seattle Symphony, 8 pm @ West Seattle High School.
Again, those are just a few of this week’s events – listed here along with dozens of other West Seattle events planned all the way through October at this point — if yours isn’t there, e-mail us (or go here for our postal-mail address if you prefer to send announcements that way).
Orcas off Fauntleroy, spotted by JumboJim:
Wanted to report that we saw approx. 10-12 orcas off of Lincoln Park and Fauntleroy dock around 10:00-10:30 this A.M. There was at least one male (tall dorsal fin) in the group, maybe two. They were passing to the south. A first time sighting for us from our house. Considering we’re one mile from the water, near the crest of the hill, we were pretty amazed to see them. We had been looking for birds with our spotting scope when we spotted them. I checked an orca hotline and it seems they may have been K pod.”
Smaller marine mammals off Harbor Ave, reported by Paul Cozens:
Around 20 California Sea Lions have been cavorting in the waters between Salty’s and Jack Block Park. There does not appear to be a skinny one in the bunch, indicating they are successfully feeding on something. A Harbor Seal was spotted lounging on the beach this morning, also.
And two luscious West Seattle Farmers’ Market photos from this morning by Lois Grammon-Simpson — heart-y treats from Flying Apron Bakery, followed by those gorgeous tulips (first spotted last week) from Alm Hill Gardens.
Go here to set up an appointment online to donate blood through the Puget Sound Blood Center. We got a note from WSB reader Mark wanting everyone to know that PSBC supplies are at emergency (low) levels – confirmed by the red bar across the PSBC home page. Mark is a regular blood donor, and when we e-mailed PSBC for more info, they sent this update asking that more people make that part of their lives:Read More
As the January 15th deadline for Seattle (Alki) Statue of Liberty Plaza Project fundraising draws near, organizers Paul and Libby Carr have issued another financial update this weekend regarding what they’ve raised and what they’re still trying to bring in:Read More
Look closely just past the white sheeting in this photo – you’ll see the rootball of a toppled tree that we noticed is drawing some doubletakes as it rests precariously on the slope where California Way meets Harbor near Seacrest (map).
This just in as a comment below our original report, posted there by Reasa Shuck, who says the diver was her fiance’, and included details on the underwater proposal that WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli learned about at the scene. Reasa identifies her fiance as Joshua Magee. (Update: Less than an hour after we first published this report, authorities confirmed the diver’s death, though without officially releasing his name.):
I am the diver’s fiancee who had a accident at Alki Yesterday afternoon. He wasn’t able to be revived. He surfaced to tell me he was okay and went back under a little while later he surfaced I waved to show him where I was on shore. He went back down and then came up a bit later and screamed help me. I was calling him telling him I was on my way. I got other divers’ attention to where he was and to try to get to him. I tried swimming to him but the water was too cold. Meanwhile other people on the shore called 911. When they pulled him from the water the diver was not breathing and they started rescue breaths. The emergency crews were there to take over after that. He was taken to the hospital and they were still trying to revive him but were not able to. The diver’s name was Joshua Magee and he was a great person and my fiance. Here is the story that Josh wrote about our engagement.
“Ok: If you got this, then it means that I give a rats booty about you. What, you think I keep friends around just for the hell of it? No. I’m done with that game. And I want you to know of a very significant development in my life. As you know, I have been dating the amazing Reasa, for a little over a year now. And she has become an incredible, and irreplaceable part of my life. I truly could not imagine my life without her by my side, nor do I ever want to. With that said, you can probably guess what my next step would be: go on a badass scuba dive, right? What, you didn’t see that coming? Ok, I’ll explain: On Oct. 15th (our 1 year anniversary), I got her SCUBA lessons. “Babe, that’s really cool, but not very romantic,” she said.
“Despite her disappointment, she was a great sport. She took her nightly classes, and passed all of her deep dives with flying colors. Once she was certified, my plan began to unfold. Oh yes, I had a badass plan to go with the badass love I had for this unknowing damsel.
“So, Nov. 24th, I took my soon to be bride to the San Juan Islands, to the beautiful Keystone Jetty, and took our very first dive together. Her trust in me to keep her safe made me feel incredible. I tried to protect her from all the huge sea life there, but I have to admit that a face-to-face encounter with a Giant Pacific Octopus scared the poop out of me, and I franticly swam away without my precious dive buddy. Sorry babe. Anyway, once I gained my composure, I called my love to me. I signaled that I was getting low on air, and it was time to search for a seashell memento of our first dive together, and head for the surface.
“As she began searching, I pulled out the clamshell that I had put together. It was a beautiful shell with purple and white lines. I epoxied the two halves together with an operational hinge, and a rubber-coated clip to hold her ring. No, not the REAL ring, are you crazy?! It was a cheap-o for the dive.
“Now as you have already realized I’m sure, I put a lot of work into this clamshell. So I didn’t want it to get broken before I could pop my big question. So I put it in a Tupperware container to protect it. But one small detail that I did not consider, (anyone that is a diver knows where this going) is that under the pressure of the water, I could not open the Tupperware to save my life! It suctioned closed so tightly that I was truly terrified! I clawed at it, and slammed it against a rock, trying to get it open. I even tried to use my teeth to get it open – sorry mom. But even that didn’t work. Finally I thought to pry it open with my dive knife. Mind you all this, without her seeing my struggle!
“Once I got the shell free, I called her over, and pointed out the great shell sitting in the sand. She expressed her excitement, and reached for the colorful shell. Of course I beat her to it, and scooped it up. I opened the clamshell to reveal a gorgeous ring, and the words on the inside that read ‘Marry me?’.
“Once she realized what I was doing and read the inscription, she eagerly shook her head yes! Was my job done? Oh hell no! If you know me at all, you know better than to think I would let her off that easily.
“As I took the ring out of the shell, and handed it to her, I intentionally dropped it! It sank into the seafloor silt, and was gone forever. I wrote on our underwater slate that I dropped it, and did she see where it fell? She realized the huge problem at hand, and began to frantically search for the ring in the seabed.
“I let her panic for a minute or so, and even pretended to look for the lost ring, and then I wrote on the slate that the real ring was waiting in the truck.
“Yeah, she will probably kill me at some point for this one. Give it your best-shot babe, I don’t sweat you!”
(After sharing that story, Reasa continues in her comment posting): Thank you to the dive community for all of your help and support.
Josh Magee also shared the story of his engagement to Reasa on a MySpace page we found, where his profile quote was a book passage from Stephen Harrigan‘s “Water and Light: A Diver’s Journey,” including “Scuba diving, from the beginning, had an air of dangerous allure. Every landlocked schoolboy knew of its intriguing hazards … and rapture of the deep, which took away his reason, filled his heart with false contentment, and drew him down into the ocean gloom.”
The last diving death at Seacrest was five months ago; 43-year-old Wayne Hernandez died July 31st. One month before that, a diver died near Alki Point on July 1st.
If not today, perhaps tonight, says the National Weather Service‘s latest “forecast discussion.” (When they talk about the 500-plus-foot hills, note that only one area of the city really cracks that level, and it’s right here in West Seattle (as listed on the city’s “highest elevations” page, which also lists the streets with the steepest grades.)
That’s when you’re invited to join the WSB team and myriad fine folks for the announcement of the first quarterly West Seattle Community Recognition Award recipients, plus some general mingling. 
Location to be announced shortly. What are those awards we speak of, you’re wondering? Long story short, Julie Mireille Anderson from Divina wanted to find a way to celebrate some of the incredible people in WS, and hatched the idea, inviting WSB to help sponsor and coordinate. How could we resist? Good news is, there’s still time for you to nominate somebody. We originally explained it all here, and now there’s one update: You can get the nomination form in a Word doc (click here) so you can fill it out inline. (Explanatory info is in a Word doc too; get that here.) Nominate somebody right now, then join us on Jan. 18!
On ScubaBoard, one of the people who pulled the diver out of the water at Seacrest Saturday afternoon (see earlier WSB coverage) has posted his story. A thread on the Northwest Dive Club board suggests there’s a report circulating that the diver didn’t make it, but there are no updates at this moment on the Fire Department or Medical Examiner media hotlines, nor in the citywide media.
… including tomorrow’s West Seattle Farmers’ Market fresh sheet and 2 deals at upscale West Seattle restaurants; posting it all after a jump since we sense people are still catching up on today’s news, post-game, and don’t want to push all that too far down the main page:Read More
First: While out checking on the Seacrest diver rescue (see report below this one) and West Seattle bridge accident (second report below this one), we also drove along Alki and happened onto this amazing scene: Dozens of people crossing over to the beach at Pepperdock (first photo) around 2 pm, carrying red balloons, which after what looked like a moment of reflection (second photo), they released (third photo). Since we were in our car, we couldn’t ask who or what it was for – please post a comment if you know. 10:20 PM UPDATE: Finally found confirmation; a memorial gathering for a young woman who died.
Second: West Seattle’s Rainbow Girls braved the blusteriness at midday to collect Christmas trees outside the Masonic Hall in The Junction for the treecycling fundraiser we mentioned here on WSB. If you missed it, our other treecycling info is here.
ORIGINAL 1:42 PM REPORT: The fire department’s sending out a big response in that direction – a diver apparently got into trouble – report of CPR under way now – diver’s companions all out of the water and accounted for. 2:35 PM UPDATE: Scene was cleared by the time we got to Seacrest. Appears the diver was rushed to the hospital. 2:40 PM UPDATE: Information gathered at the scene by WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli, who took the photo above (more to come):
The injured man was recently engaged. He and his fiancee are avid divers. In fact, I learned that when he recently proposed to his girlfriend they were on a dive together. He put a ring in a shell and sank it in advance of the dive. When they found it he opened the shell and had an underwater sign to ask if she’d marry him. Today there were a handful of divers out there. This man was off diving on his own in 25 feet of water. The fiancee was not diving with him today but was on the scene and was visibly shaken. Another diver told me that when the diver did not come up his friends alerted the other divers who went over to where he was diving and executed a search.
2:55 PM UPDATE: According to the fire department’s media-hotline update, the diver is in his 40s and was indeed diving solo, and as Christopher learned, found unconscious underwater. The fire department did not have an update on his condition – we will check on that again later. More of Christopher’s photos:
2:35 PM UPDATE: Everything’s open again now.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Breaking news from WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli: A crash has closed the bridge heading toward downtown, around Fauntleroy. 911 website shows 2 fire/medic units on the scene. Sounds like they are diverting cars from Fauntleroy to Avalon. Right now you can see that on this city traffic cam showing the blocked-off Fauntleroy entrance to the bridge; here’s the latest image … 3 PM NOTE, live traffic cams now removed from this post because they’re no longer relevant BUT here’s an earlier photo of the 35th roadblock, thanks to Eric for sending it:
For the first time in a while, a “lost pet” e-mail landed in the WSB inbox this morning, reminding us we had been meaning to add a West Seattle Pets section. As with everything else, this page is starting small, with room to grow (room for pet fun and pet info as well as lost/found). Please go there to see “Nico” the lost kitty in case he turns up at your house. 11 PM UPDATE: “Nico” is back home safe; we’re continuing to add features to the pet page, including a link to the WSB Pet Photos group on Flickr that we just set up in case you want to upload pet pix for potential showcasing (we started with a pic of our 2 cats).
From the WSB Events page and Weekend Lineup list: It’s not happening in West Seattle, but it features a well-known West Seattleite: Georgie Bright Kunkel (photo left) speaks at Elliott Bay Books at 2 pm today about the book she and husband Norman Kunkel co-authored to tell the story of his experiences during World War II and beyond, WWII Liberator’s Life: AFS Ambulance Driver Chooses Peace. (Among so many other writings, Georgie contributed her Christmas story “The Red Plush Coat” to WSB last month.)
First pic, Cub Scout Pack 793 in West Seattle; second pic, 598th Maintenance Company in Iraq. During what Pack 793 advisers describe as “their most successful popcorn-selling season ever” — more than $12,000 sold, beating last year’s record $9,000-plus — they collected community donations so they could send popcorn to the soldiers for Christmas — and that effort resulted in $710 worth of caramel corn, chocolate caramel crunch, and microwave popcorn going overseas. Why the 598th, you ask? One of its soldiers is uncle to one of the Scouts. (Read more on the Pack 793 website.)
Toward our goal of continuously improving and expanding WSB, we’ve just added more new stuff and wanted to officially let you know:
“OTHER BLOGS IN WEST SEATTLE” HEADLINES: We’ve wanted for some time to make this page more than a static list of links, and finally found a service that will pull a frequently updated list of those sites’ newest entries (via RSS). Check the page out and see what you think. Per blog tradition, of course, the newest stuff is on top. Under the list of the latest entries, you’ll find the original list of static links for the 100-plus blogs that we have found West Seattleites producing so far (please let us know if we’re missing someone!).
WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH PAGE: Now that we are visiting the Southwest Precinct at least three times a week to scour police reports for cases you should know about, we have created the West Seattle Crime Watch page so you can easily find the latest information and other resources to help you keep your home and family safe. This page and its contents will be an ever-evolving work in progress but we’ve got enough of the basics on it now to launch it today (you can find it any time from the Crime Watch tab at the top of each WSB page).
“2008 ELECTIONS” FORUM: Today marks the start of the third week for the new WSB Forums, and so far it looks like they’re working for their initial purposes — to give you a place to post a Reader Recommendation Request (forum here) as soon as you have one, rather than waiting for us to find a home for it on the main WSB page, and to give you a place to launch an Open Discussion (forum here) about whatever’s on your mind, whenever you feel like it. We’ve also just added a 2008 Elections section (forum here) in case you want to talk politics — presidential, city, county, state, etc. — when there’s no related current news item on the main WSB page. One forum usage reminder: Anyone can read the posts, but to reply or start a topic, you have to register, and sign in. For as long as you remain signed in, the same user name you choose will also show as your user name for any comment you post elsewhere on WSB. If you don’t want that name to show on a comment, log out before you leave the forum area, or click the “log out” link you’ll see toward the bottom of the right sidebar on any page.
Top-of-the-hour weather conditions from the National Weather Service include gusts up to 38 mph at Alki Point (K91S, in this roundup). (ADDED 10:30 PM: Here’s the Beach Drive weather station page, thanks to BDB.) The latest “forecast discussion” also mentions snow levels potentially as low as 500 feet on Saturday night, which means a big temp drop at some point, considering it’s upper-40s out there now. ADDED 11:07 PM: Top-of-the-hour gust at Alki Point now listed at 50 mph. No power outages right now but if anything major happens, here’s the City Light page that will list them. ADDED 12:27 AM: First “flickering” here in Upper Fauntleroy – the wind’s just intensified, too. ADDED 2:07 AM: 51 mph for the Alki Point top-of-the-hour gust, this time.
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