West Seattle, Washington
27 Saturday
That video is from a moment of sticking the Flip out the window while at the Fauntleroy/Alaska stoplight as this evening’s downpour began. Meteorologist-to-the-stars Cliff Mass talks about its cause in his latest online update. Tomorrow, by the way, looks quieter. Meantime, Bruce in Westwood sent this photo from the sunbreak just before things got wild – while we caught some rays here in southern West Seattle, dark clouds gathered ominously in the north:
Story and photos by Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The coffee chat at High Point Community Center tonight with Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson was fast-paced, and a little short on information for some.
The chat, mostly in a question-answer format, was cut off at exactly 8 p.m., after barely an hour. The meeting was the last in a series of chats Goodloe-Johnson has held throughout the city this month.
The main focus of the gathering was on the student assigned-attendance-area plan that was approved by the school district board in June. The plan goes into effect next September. Maps outlining school attendance areas will be unveiled on Tuesday.
One year ago, we published a feature story about Family Promise of Seattle, a small organization with the very specific goal of helping homeless families stay together while they get back on their feet. It’s based in the building you see above — an old fourplex leased from adjacent West Side Presbyterian Church — but that’s just its day center; local churches help house the families it helps. Recently, board member Laura Bermes e-mailed to share an update on the group – and with all the conversation triggered by “Nickelsville” and the SHARE sleepout protest, this seems like a relevant time:
Have you ever struggled to pay the rent, or wondered what would happen if you lost your job, or what might happen if you were to fall ill without adequate insurance? It doesn’t take a lot of bad luck to become homeless in Seattle. The cost of living keeps increasing, opportunity for employment keeps decreasing, incomes are falling and families are finding themselves homeless. In the Seattle School District last year, more than 900 students were identified as being “homeless”. It happens – and, yes, it happens right here in our sweet West Seattle. Fortunately, West Seattle offers a meager, but effective sheltering program for families where volunteers provide meals and a safe place to sleep at night through the generous support of area churches, and families find social service support at a Day Center.
Family Promise, West Seattle’s only sheltering program for homeless families, has served over 13 families since opening its doors in July of 2008. Single moms and their babies, toddlers, elementary, middle and high school students, and a couple of dads. The program has seen success, and has allowed hundreds of volunteers the opportunity to learn more about homelessness and to reap the benefit of caring for strangers. This is the kind of program that fits perfectly in this caring community that we all appreciate. Right now, Family Promise needs your help.
The Family Promise Board has set three ambitious goals for the continuation of this unique program: 1. to raise 90,000 in operating income by November 1st; 2. to increase Board Membership by recruiting interested business people in the community; and 3. to increase the number partner congregations / synagogues. In order to meet these goals, the Board is planning a Public Relations Campaign that will reach out to the West Seattle Community for support. We need your help to keep this family shelter in operation.
Here are Two Ways YOU can MAKE A DIFFERENCE: You can help by volunteering your time at a partner congregation, in the Day Center or by serving on the Board. You can help by donating money, or by becoming a member of “Club 206,” a group of individual donors (living in the 206 area code) that agree to give $206 a year. Visit the Family Promise website for more information or give a call to the Day Center at 937-2703.
Got word from Edgar of a hit-and-run crash at California/Dakota (map) around 5 o’clock tonight. He says
Witnessed a nasty hit and run on California and Dakota. White Ford pickup rear-ended a newer Honda and then went East on Dakota and South on 42nd SW (wrong way on one-way). Car had stopped for cross walk. Really lame. I reported it to police, not sure if they caught the creep or not.
Edgar says the people in the Honda seemed to be OK, though “the car was a mess”; the truck that left the scene had what he described as “extensive front-end damage.” 9:31 PM UPDATE: Got a followup note from Edgar – police called him to say “they caught the guy!”
(Photos added 6:16 pm – top one by Tim Bosworth, next one by Tony Bradley)
Tony Bradley is at the scene. He says it’s a vacant house, and that 30th is closed between Roxbury and 102nd. No word yet on how it started; official info is scarce so far, but no indication at this point of any injuries. 7:08 PM UPDATE: More info from Tony:
According to fire officials the house appeared to be vacant (as reported to him via dispatch). The official also said the house appeared to be undergoing renovation. At this time there is no cause but the county fire investigator was en route (there was no indication it was weather related). Several units from South King County (Sea Tac, Burien/Normandy Park as well as North Highline) as well as Seattle (Engine 11, 37, Ladder 11, and Battalion Chief 7) were dispatched and working on the scene. The fire was quickly brought under control quickly once the first-in companies arrived. 30th is closed between Roxbury and 102nd and will remain closed until fire crews can clear the street. Traffic on Roxbury was not affected.
ADDED 7:20 PM: Two more photos from Tony:
Thanks again to everyone who sent word of the fire – we got Tony’s call first, but several other people e-mailed and tweeted – just so happened we were in a downpour in traffic when it broke out – we answer the WSB hotline 206-293-6302 around the clock, wherever we are, so make sure it’s in your contacts list just in case you see/hear news!
(Google Street View of Wingdome Greenwood location)
Thanks to Dave for the tip: We’ve just spoken with Consolidated Restaurants president Jim Rowe to confirm that the company is close to signing a lease to open a Wingdome restaurant in the Junction storefront left empty when CAPERS downsized its space. Rowe says they’re confident they’ll finalize the deal within the next few months, at which time they’ll have a better idea of when they’ll open. Right now Wingdome has restaurants in Greenwood, Kirkland and Kent; you can see its menus here. Rowe told us, “We think (West Seattle is) a great market … The demographics are good, and it should fit well there.” Consolidated Restaurants also runs the Metropolitan Grill downtown as well as Elliott’s Oyster House, and took over Wingdome three years ago; Rowe says they’re hoping to add additional locations after West Seattle joins the fold.
Among other things, he’s the top technologist for the City of Seattle (which has made a lot of consumer-geared strides lately too with features like citylink.seattle.gov), he’s webmaster for the 34th District Democrats (who keep a very-well-updated site at 34dems.org), and he lives here in West Seattle – now Bill Schrier can add something else to his list of accomplishments: He’s been elected president of a nationwide organization of large cities/counties’ chief information officers/technology executives. Just got the announcement this afternoon – read on for the full text:Read More
(Photo by Kevin McClintic, taken during the “Nickelsville” open house on Saturday)
ORIGINAL 1:24 PM REPORT: We have a call out to a Port of Seattle spokesperson to try to confirm the reported park closure as well as the estimated time of police arrival, but in the meantime, we’ve just received this news release from a spokesperson for the encampment:
PARK CLOSES TODAY – NICKELSVILLE DETERMINED TO STAY – POLICE ARRIVE TOMORROW, 9/30/09, AT 12 NOON
* T-107 Port Park closes today at noon
* Nickelsville will stand through arrival of Port of Seattle and Valley Police tomorrow, Wednesday, at noon
* Candidates for Seattle City Council, David Bloom and Sally Bagshaw, will stand with Nickelsville tomorrow
* Nickelodeons who plan to stay and peacefully stand-up to removal by police will ultimately risk arrestChief of Police Colleen Wilson says “We’re going to take back our port.” However, Nickelsville plans to stay as they at the current portion of the park where they reside, as they have no other place to go. Residents, friends, citywide Nickelsville supporters and more will stand with Nickelsville when Port and Valley police (i.e. Renton) arrive to remove the encampment. City Council candidates David Bloom and Sally Bagshaw will be present to stand with Nickelsville.
The only City of Seattle Police used tomorrow will be animal control officers to collect unaccompanied pets.
T-107 Park, located at 4700 W Marginal Way SW (map), closes today at Noon. Cars will be impounded 24 hrs later. Nickelsville will stand as a community until it is forceably removed by police.
1:35 PM UPDATE: Just spoke with Charla Skaggs from the port, who tells us that the park is indeed closed – to everyone – they had to do this to give 24 hours’ notice that vehicles would be towed and that anyone in the park would be trespassing. She also says that the park is likely to stay closed a while AFTER the encampment is gone because “we will have to do some repair and maintenance.” She says that Port officials including the police chief met with encampment reps last night to tell them about the closure and reiterate the deadline as well as explaining what would happen to their property and their pets if the camp was swept, and to stress again that they hoped that “they will leave voluntarily.” Says Skaggs, “We don’t want this to become an arrest situation but they’ve been given a deadline – they will have been on our property for 69 days.” She says the port believes there are area churches who are willing to host the encampment but its organizers “have to reach out to them.” She would not confirm that noon is the expected arrival for police but did mention the noon closure today was something of a 24-hour warning.
Last week, the Highland Park Action Committee hosted the fall’s first major candidate forum in West Seattle (WSB coverage, with video, here). Coming up in two weeks, what’s likely to be the biggest West Seattle candidates’ forum of all, co-sponsored by the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council and the Southwest District Council, whose members include reps from all major community groups and organizations around the area. Pete Spalding from DNDC has just sent this update on the plan for the October 15th forum:
West Seattle Candidates Forum
The Delridge Neighborhoods and Southwest District Councils will be hosting the candidates for the Seattle City Council and Mayoral races.
October 15th from 7 – 9 pm at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW (map)
Agenda
7:00 pm Opening remarks
7:05 pm Position #4 Candidates
7:25 pm Position #6 Candidates
7:45 pm Position #8 Candidates
8:05 pm Position #2 Candidates
8:20 pm Mayoral CandidatesCome find out how your candidates view West Seattle specific issues.
In ongoing coverage of the Spokane Street Viaduct widening project (plus the new “ramp to Costco“), it’s been mentioned before that westbound lower Spokane Street would close – now a date is set – read on to see the city’s announcement:Read More
Meet Allison and “Skip” Rich (with 2-year-old son Zayne), new owners of Angelina’s in the Admiral District (map). When they took it over and shut it down for remodeling a month ago (previous coverage here and here), they said they hoped to reopen in early October, so we checked back – and found out it’s going to take a few extra weeks – they’re now targeting October 19th. We stopped by yesterday afternoon for a peek at some of what they’ve done to the space so far, with a lot of work left to do:
That short clip shows the 30-foot-long bar that dominates the northern half of the restaurant (right side, where the main entrance was); that side will be 21-up. But Skip says, “Our whole plan is NOT to be a 2 o’clock bar – we’re not going to kick people out, but if nobody’s here … We’re not here to be some crazy raucous sports bar.” See and hear about the rest of the renovations, ahead:Read More
Just in from Washington State Ferries, a reminder that a fare increase will take effect at the same time as a decrease a week from Sunday – read on:Read More
This just came in as a comment following last night’s report on the SHARE sleep-out protest in Mayor Nickels‘ neighborhood. The commenter offers insight and proposals that we thought you might want to read, even if you don’t usually look at story comments. It was signed “D Kramer”:
I am formally of tent city 4 and I refused to do this protest because I didn’t agree with it from what was conveyed to me about the city wanting some kind of guarantee if it gave money.
It is invasive to crash out at the mayors home.
I find it a violation as well of one’s privacy when the media is pre-invited in mass to ensure lots of press. One had to choose to either participate in this protest or depart for the duration of the protest. It wasn’t painted out as something you can do or not do. They are getting so desperate to try to get the needed bus fare that civil rights even among their own kind seem marginal.
But you guys need to know – Many of the people at the tent city 4 had or even have some kind of job. Some were barely hanging on before a cut back or lay off or injury or personal crisis. Some point blank can’t work due to disability. Some work for pathetic wages – Low wages that ensure that the local companies maintain their hefty profits.
Sure some – a few –don’t want to work or do much in life- but by far I assure you most of the people at least at TC 4 are trying to get back up on their own feet in their own way. Some are trying to live on about $700 a month disability – some on less than $350 a month GAU. Some have nothing.
I have personally helped several people who were job hunting find interview outfits from the donations, I will always remember the day just two weeks ago when I helped a woman get a pair of woman’s black pants – black shoes and men’s white cotton shirt so she could go to her very first day of work at the old peoples home. It really touched my heart. I wish who ever the kind people were who donated these clothes could have been there to see what a difference their gifts made in a homeless woman’s life just one day later! No middle man – just a person giving a gift that directly helped a homeless person go to work ~~Wow – amazing – thank you wonderful eastside people~!
There is a real need for the bus passes and for additional monies for the budget. While the means are kind of objectionable –the need is actually very very real. Maybe trying to go the normal route for so long the Share people felt was useless. They have a few extremists I do admit.
I suggest the following off the wall solution:
Metro – King county and Share come together for a creative win -win solution to the bus ticket crisis.Right now Share is violating the potential freedom of religion of its members by its forced church attendance at the churches of its ( Share’s) choice with credit only given to 2-3 person each week for each selected church. The community credit period is every 2 weeks. It is an unneeded stress on the share members and seems a mere power play the way it is implemented.
Not to mention that – Attendance of religious based services should not be required of any organization that is receiving any kind of state funding –of any kind. It is a violation of the seperation of church and state.
Why not let faith and God be a personal choice as God and America intended and use community credit perdiod to really make a difference in the community!
Everyone who rides the buses sees clearly they seem to be hardly cleaning the inside of the buses for quite some time now. This creates a poor image of Seattle – can spread illness ( esp during Flu season) and encourages a feeling of depression on the buses.
What if Metro – City County and Share all got together on board for a project to help make a difference in this! What if Share provided a certain number of volunteers 1-2 times a week that Metro could use to help really clean the inside those buses for a few hours each week? Sure they might take a lot longer than regular workers – but shit they can’t do any worse than the dirty buses we all ride in now!
What if Metro in exchange agreed to give deep discount to Share for volunteer work given and the city picked up the little bill left and they gave a majority of the Share residents in the system over 2 weeks an Orcas bus pass instead of just 2 bus tickets a day. And the city could give 1 month worth of bus ticket money asap with understanding the volunteer thing has to be running in a month.. I think such a notion might go over very well with a foundation such as the Bill and Melinda gates foundation as well if the city refuses to help out with costs associated with setting such a thing up.
Imagine a world for the homeless person trying to get on their feet – where they didn’t have to juggle do they use their bus pass to go to a medical appt – to attend a share meeting or go to church or to take a shower at the wellness center or to look for a job – imagine a world where they could get it all done!
The more that homeless people can get done to rebuild their lives – to find jobs – to get their health in order – and to build social networks in their lives –the quicker they can be more able to fully participate in society.
And for those who have disabilities -I suggest the city or share step up to help these parties get set up for the handicapped passes and get them then set up with Orcas disabled pass pronto – the cost savings would be immense. Every disabled person you don’t have to give daily passes to saves Share money!
Share could also use similar notion maybe using volunteers in some kind of barter exchange for credit maybe toward printing, pest control, and other potentially needed services. Then maybe they could abolish their forced “donations” of an item with receipt valued at least at $25 each month or $30 gift card from each tent city resident during the summer months where they charge people to stay in their free shelters. They say they use these donations to fund their Fall Harvest.
I suspect if they let the community know of the need for items to go to Fall Harvest auction and if they let their amazing homeless artists actually make items and art to donate willingly – they could have the most amazing auction ever!! Some of the people at the tent cities have incredible artistics skills!
Tough times just mean getting more creative with one’s resources. Let’s all work together to get more done for everyone! The city is not the enemy – The homeless are not the enemy.
By the way, in addition to comments on stories and discussions in the WSB Forums section, we are always willing to consider what the print business calls “op-ed” pieces if you want to kick off a discussion about something – inquire at editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks! 12:16 PM P.S. In case you were wondering – the SHARE protesters will NOT be back at the mayor’s house tonight – they have announced plans for a sleep-out outside Councilmember Tim Burgess‘s home in Queen Anne.
Yesterday morning, thanks to WSB’er tips (see news? contact us 24/7), we brought you the story of 2 burglary suspects arrested on the West Seattle Bridge. This morning, SPDBlotter has just added a few details to the story – specifically, what else police found in the suspects’ SUV besides the shop saw stolen from the victim: “A bag of golf clubs, a large hard plastic tool chest, and a blue motorcycle.”
Busy day/night on the WSB Events calendar:
BACK TO SCHOOL: Today marks the start of fall-quarter classes at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor).
MEET THE SUPERINTENDENT: Concern or question about Seattle Public Schools? Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is on a “coffee hour” tour and tonight she’s at High Point Community Center, 6:50-8 pm.
SNAP: That stands for Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepare, and that’s the program to help you be ready in case of catastrophe. With the weather turning, it’s particularly timely for SNAP to offer its free class tonight, 6:30 pm, Southwest Library.
SOUTHWEST HEALTHY YOUTH PARTNERSHIP: Support efforts to keep local kids out of potentially deadly trouble, including drinking – join this volunteer group at 6 pm in the Madison Middle School library.
PARK-LEVY UPDATES: Want to know what’s being planned with the park-levy money voters approved last fall? The Parks and Green Spaces Levy Oversight Committee – which includes 3 West Seattleites – gets the latest reports when it meets tonight at Parks HQ downtown (Denny Park), 7 pm.
(WSB photo from February 2009)
Girl Scouts are about more than cookies (although that part is fun too)! Ilana Barnes from Girl Scouts of Western Washington sends word of two information nights in West Seattle tonight and tomorrow, not just for the girls, but for prospective leaders too:
* *Who*: All girls and adults interested in learning more about Girl Scouts!
*Attention all girls everywhere*…Do you want to share and explore new things with your friends? Sing and make s’mores around the campfire? Build a rocket? Go horseback riding? Ever wondered what it would be like to grow up and be a veterinarian, baker, scientist, banker, or artist – you can learn, try, and experience all these things in the Girl Scouts. If you can think it, you can do it! It’s all about what YOU like!
*Attention all parents, guardians and adults who believe the girl in their life is amazing*…You can help her reach her full potential. Help her explore her passions, find courage, and build character so she can make the world a better place. You can help by getting involved in Girl Scouts!
The Girl Scouts of Western Washington is 99% volunteer-led and we need caring adults like yourself to take an active role in giving girls the best possible Girl Scout experience. We are looking for enthusiastic adult volunteers who are interested in bringing Girl Scouts to their Seattle community. Each year Girl Scouts has many more girls interested in joining than we are able to place in troops. Come learn how you can help!
Tuesday, September 29
6:30 pm
High Point Library
3411 SW Raymond St.Wednesday, September 30
6:30 pm
Southwest Library
9010 35th Ave. SW
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