West Seattle snow aftermath: Plows on power trucks?
Just back from City Hall, where we tried our best to represent Seattle’s growing online-neighborhood-news industry on a City Council panel discussion (not archived on SeattleChannel.org yet but should be soon), and there’s more post-storm council action to relay: Tomorrow at 2 pm, the Energy and Technology Committee will focus on this aspect of snowstorm response past and future:
Winter Storm Response — Discussion of City Light’s participation in the winter storm response and purchase of snowplow equipment for mounting on existing Seattle City Light trucks. It is in the interest of public safety to improve the City’s ability to clear city streets of snow so that City Light vehicles, fire apparatus, emergency medical units, police cars, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles are able to navigate city streets.
Here’s the full agenda; some interesting technology items too, led by the city’s tech boss Bill Schrier (a West Seattleite). Meantime, Seattle Channel sends an alert that three councilmembers can be seen criticizing the city’s response to last month’s Snowmare during a show that’s available online now or premiering on Cable Channel 21 tonight at 7.
Seattle school-closure-vote countdown: “Amendments” revealed
As first reported during the School Board meeting a week ago, board president Michael DeBell asked his fellow members this: If you’re going to propose any changes to the “final recommendation” for school closure/changes, get them in by yesterday, so they can be made public today (and voted on during the special board meeting tomorrow night). Caveat, board members still COULD propose amendments during tomorrow morning’s meeting, but for now, here are the ones just revealed. They include a proposal to take Genesee Hill off the recommendations, keeping Pathfinder K-8 there, and leaving Cooper Elementary as is; that proposal, included in this document, comes from board member Harium Martin-Morris. West Seattle board member Steve Sundquist has an amendment on the agenda too; it would continue with the move-Pathfinder-to-Cooper plan in the original “final recommendations,” but would set conditions on where the majority of current Cooper students would be reassigned – he proposes splitting them among Gatewood, Highland Park, and Arbor Heights. Of interest to APP families citywide, board member Mary Bass proposes keeping the elementary-level program at Lowell, instead of splitting half (including West Seattle APP elementary students) to another school. The amendments will all be voted on during tomorrow night’s special board meeting, 6 pm, district HQ in Sodo. (In addition to discussion here, there’ll be citywide comment ongoing at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com.)
A name for The Bridge? Proposal to honor Jeanette Williams
Three months ago, former City Councilmember Jeanette Williams 
(seen at left in a city archives photo from 1973) was remembered for accomplishments including fighting to secure federal money to building the high-rise West Seattle Bridge. Now, there’s a campaign to name the bridge in her honor as the Jeanette Williams Memorial Bridge; a resolution supporting the proposal was adopted unanimously at last week’s Seattle Community Council Federation meeting and is circulating among other councils in the city as well (here’s the wording as also recently endorsed in View Ridge, according to SCCF chair Jeannie Hale). City Council approval would be required; no word yet of a timetable for a formal proposal coming before the council, but we asked Councilmember Tom Rasmussen – who got his political start working with Ms. Williams – and he told WSB he’s all for it. We’ll keep you posted. (Maybe it’ll happen in time for the bridge’s 25th anniversary this summer?)
West Seattle Crime Watch: Window followup; another car gone
We showed you that photo Monday, while reporting that West Seattle firefighters helped clean up and secure the area around a big broken window on the west side of a former Huling/Gee storefront on SW Alaska east of Fauntleroy Way. We subsequently checked to see if it was a case of burglary or “just” vandalism; this morning, we have followup information from Southwest Precinct Sgt. Mike Teeter, who summarizes that “a large rock was thrown through the window, but no entry was made.”
Meantime, a new Crime Watch report this morning, from Amy in Gatewood:
My car was stolen from my driveway yesterday sometime between 10 pm Monday evening and 6 am Tuesday morning. I live on the corner of SW Myrtle street and 36th Ave SW [map]. I filed a police report and thankfully my car was found yesterday around 5 pm by the King County Sheriff’s (Office). It was recovered in the South Park area and towed to a Burien lot. They said they had just recovered a similar Honda Accord like mine stolen from the same area. This is the second time my car has been targeted in my neighborhood. Two years ago my stereo was stolen. I think it’s a group of punk kids going for a joy ride. They didn’t take any car parts, just valuables that were in the car, punched out the ignition, stole my stereo again (luckily I carry the face plate with me so it’s useless to them now), and trashed the inside of the car. Just thought people should know about this in case there is anyone else out there who has had the same thing happen around the area.
We’ve received reports both official and unofficial of more than a few car thefts lately, including a “huge spike” in the unincorporated area south of WS, as described by King County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Hancock at last week’s White Center Crime Prevention Coalition meeting, but the Southwest Precinct says numbers on this side of the line are not currently higher than usual.
DPD: California Ave “upzone” recommendation finally almost done
When we reported last week on Prudential Northwest Realty moving out of its California SW location, merging with the same-ownership office at Jefferson Square, we got a new round of questions about the “upzoning” proposal for the area in which the now-empty office sits (which also was invoked in the real-estate listing for the Shamrock apartment building, as we reported days before the Prudential story). That proposal to change the zoning along California between Hanford and Hinds (and a bit further south on the west side of the street) to NC2-40 has been in the works for almost 15 months (we broke the story 11/8/07), and it’s been more than half a year since the city started telling us the recommendation was almost ready. And that’s what the city says now; planner Malli Anderson tells WSB, “I expect to complete a draft of the rezone recommendation this week.” Two of her supervisors then review it, including Bob McElhose, who told us, “When we have agreed with the decision and the final edits, it will go to the Hearing Examiner for the open record pre-decision hearing and recommendation, for which there will be notice. Depending on the review of the draft, the notice could go out as early as this Thursday or possibly next week.” (The city’s Land Use Information Bulletin is published Mondays and Thursdays; you can see the latest one here.) Anderson said the notice will “be sent to those who sent comment letters and e-mails or signed the sign-in sheet at the public meeting.” (That’s the public meeting we covered in late November 2007; a month after that meeting, longtime local businessmen Mike Gain and Roger Cayce talked with us about their vision for the area.) No explanation of why it’s taken so long, although planners told us at one point along the way that it’s not unusual for rezoning requests to take more than a year; since the decision here will trigger hearings and comment periods, it’ll be months before anything’s final.
Happening today/tonight: Appraisals; WSB on TV; Morgan meeting
APPRAISALS: Wondering what your treasures are worth? Merrill Gardens at Admiral Heights has an appraisal event today – just about everything but jewelry. 1-3 pm. Check to see if there’s still room to RSVP: (206) 938-3964.
WSB ON TV: Much discussion these days about the evolution of news media, in Seattle and elsewhere, particularly since the P-I’s plight came to light. Today, the topic is tackled by the City Council’s Culture, Civil Rights, Health and Personnel Committee, chaired by Councilmember Nick Licata (vice chair is West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen). Your editor here is on the panel, to discuss what local independent online neighborhood-news organizations like ours are bringing to the table. It’ll be live on Seattle Channel starting around 2:15-2:30 pm, after a few other agenda items when the committee meeting starts at 2 pm (cable channel 21 or online at seattlechannel.org). Read the latest version of the news release, with the full list of panelists, here. (If you can come to City Hall, a public-comment period is scheduled during the meeting, too.)
MORGAN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: Lots on the agenda for the quarterly meeting tonight – 7 pm, The Kenney; see the agenda items at the MoCA website.
West Seattle business news: Martial-arts studio moving back
Got a note from Restita DeJesus, head instructor at Seattle Wushu Center (formerly Yin Yang Arts Center), who wanted to share this news: “My Tai Chi / Kung Fu studio was located at the old Graham & California building that was torn down. After being there for close to 
8 years, (prior to that, on California and Juneau in the Nail Salon/Women’s fitness bldg for 6 years), it was very sad to leave West Seattle. Before teaching commercially, I taught at Southwest Community Center and Alki Community Center for a long time…..so after more than 20 years of being in West Seattle, I was crushed that I would have to leave …. However….I just want to notify readers of the West Seattle Blog that we will be moving back to West Seattle!! The owners of the Satellite Auto Glass building have agreed to lease the shop area to me. I was so overjoyed that I just wanted to … let everyone know we’re returning. Our plans are to move into the building the first week of February (cleaning, prepping, moving small items), and moving our big items in February 6th, 7th, and 8th. We’re looking forward to being back ‘home’ very soon!” (Her center’s new location is at 5659 California, which has been for sale for months.)
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