West Seattle, Washington
15 Sunday
Cheerleading isn’t just for sports – this routine was part of a mega-pep rally this afternoon at Seattle Lutheran High School on behalf of the Lutheran Elementary School Tournament participants from sister school Hope Lutheran. More than 60 students from Hope’s fifth- through eighth-grade classes have headed south to Concordia University in Portland for the 48th annual edition of the tournament, where more than 1,000 students from around the West are competing in academic and athletic events. According to Bil Hood, Hope students are participating in 10 events including swimming, music, math, drama, Knowledge Bowl, science, spelling, chess, basketball, plus cheerleading – the students in the top video – and drill team – the ones you see here:
Read more about LEST here; we’re expecting updates from Portland over the next few days.
Got a note this morning from Pete M, who wondered about a sign (photo added 5:57 pm) he had seen while heading north on Delridge near SW Alaska (map) – he thought it suggested a big closure ahead, and wondered if we’d heard anything. We in turn checked with SDOT, whose Marybeth Turner has been investigating. She reports back that there IS a closure ahead, but not what the sign apparently implied:
A contractor for a private developer installed a misleading sign on Delridge Way SW. He is taking it down, and will replace it with a more accurate sign that indicates that SW Oregon Street (which turns into 23rd Ave SW) [map] will be closed. The developer is extending a sewer line for new homes.
Traffic going to South Seattle Community College coming from the north will be detoured to Delridge Way SW. The closure will start at approximately 9 a.m. on Feb 22 and is expected to reopen by Apr 5 (six weeks).
At Delridge, SW Oregon Street (which turns into 23rd SW) will be closed to all traffic. At the other end, 22nd SW (which turns into 23rd SW) will be closed to through traffic where 22nd SW meets 21st SW. 23rd will be closed to all traffic (including local) where it meets 22nd SW (this would be SW Alaska if Alaska cut through at this location).
Hope that all makes sense to area residents. She also included a word of thanks for the heads-up on the sign – so we’ve passed that on to Pete.
Of course we already have INCREDIBLE events in West Seattle every spring/summer – but a few new ones are in the works, and in case you hadn’t heard about them yet:
STREET SCRAMBLE: Just got the word on this. March 20th, get ready for Alki Street Scramble, the first in a series of Street Scrambles around the area this spring/summer. As explained on the official website, the concept is: “Thirty locations are circled on a neighborhood map. On foot or bike, how many can you visit in 90 minutes? In 3 hours?” The locations haven’t been chosen yet, but keep an eye on streetscramble.com.
(“I Feel Like Funkin’ It Up,” from 2009 Honk Fest West)
HONK FEST WEST: This raucous three-day music event is planning to spend its third day in West Seattle. It’s been mentioned briefly at some recent neighborhood-council meetings but now it looks like plans are beginning to solidify. Mark April 11 on your calendar – either for revelry or for earplugs. Here’s the official website.
We’re adding more springiness (and summer fun) to the Events calendar as we get it – we can also suggest you save May 8 for the annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, coordinated by your friendly neighborhood news site (us) – you can fan WSCGSD on Facebook! – and June 5 is not only slated as Delridge Day, but Sustainable West Seattle president Brian Allen confirms that this year’s SWS Festival is being planned in conjunction with the DD event.
With some of the facilities he manages visible right out the window from the Salty’s on Alki meeting room, Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani gave an upbeat speech this afternoon to the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. It wasn’t all about finances – he touted the new Workplace Responsibility Officer whose hiring was announced yesterday, after alluding to the “dark path” the port faced amid various controversies not too long ago. As for the port’s business, he says the cargo business “turned the corner” about half a year ago, and is up more than 20 percent since then — “none of the other West Coast ports are experiencing that” — though it was down 7 percent for the entire year. His overall report card for the port’s 2009 financial picture: “We were off 4 1/2, 5 percent … about 450 million bucks.” Cuts are hard to make, he said, “because most of our expenses are relatively fixed” – but they made cuts that “amounted to 31 million dollars” and “came in with net operating income at 98% of budget.” As a result, Yoshitani said, the port’s bond rating is strong, and projects are proceeding, including the restarted construction of the $420 million rental-car facility.
Other points of pride: Delta marketing Sea-Tac Airport as a “premier gateway to Asia,” with more news to come on that front in the next six months; Carnival running Alaska cruises from Seattle starting this year – the parent company to what Yoshitani estimates is at least two-thirds of the global cruise business – and some environmental programs, including compensating vessel operators for using low-sulfur fuel while in port instead of cheaper bunker fuel, plus the “Clean Trucks” offer to buy back old trucks for up to $5,000 each; Yoshitani says they’ve bought 59 in the two months since the program began, and a dozen more are in the works. In the Q/A period, Yoshitani was asked about his opposition – which he said was “personal” – to a proposed federal reform, F4A, that would allow local governments to regulate port trucks (which The Stranger‘s been covering). He said he took a “personal position” because he believes it would be problematic for “different states to have different laws” in this area, and says the Clean Trucks program is what the Port of Seattle implemented instead, with an expansion coming, he said, to encourage retrofitting of newer trucks.
Also from Q/A – he was asked about threats to the Port’s business as posed by Panama Canal expansion – allowing much-bigger ships to continue directly to the East Coast instead of docking in the West because the canal’s not big enough – and by other ports such as Prince Rupert, B.C. He says the West Coast (U.S.) ports are banding together to do their best, collaborating with the railroads, the Longshore Workers Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, to counter such threats. However – “How do we make our piece of the pie as large as possible? That’s the subject of another discussion,” he concluded.
The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce has monthly lunch meetings and other events. Next monthly lunch will be at the Southwest Precinct. The annual Awards Breakfast is coming up April 7, 7:30 am at Salty’s. Chamber membership info – we should disclose WSB is a member – and lots more is online at wschamber.com.
That’s Benjamin Kinlow, crime-prevention coordinator for the Southwest Precinct, with Admiral Neighborhood Association president Katy Walum at last night’s ANA meeting. He’s holding one of the flyers that he circulates in neighborhoods that have burglaries but no Block Watch groups. The one he’s holding is the “first burglary” alert; if there’s a second in the same neighborhood within 12 months, and still no Block Watch, there’s a pink flyer; a 3rd one, bright yellow; and he says he’s even circulated some “4th notices.” His point: Form a Block Watch. His page on the Southwest Precinct website explains how. Just last week, he told ANA, 40 people showed up for a Block Watch-organizing meeting he led. West Seattle has hundreds of Block Watch groups; almost 300 of them had block parties for Night Out last summer. He was asked how to tell if your block HAS a Block Watch; Kinlow’s reply, “If you don’t know if you have one, then you probably don’t have one” – in other words, a good Block Watch is an active one; communicating with neighbors can be a huge step toward fighting crime. ANA will work with him to invite area Block Watch captains to a future ANA meeting, date TBA. He offered a few more random crimefighting tips: If you have a ladder outside, put it away – they can be stolen (for either breaking in through upper windows, or for metal-theft money); he also suggested “No Solicitors” signs for entire blocks – so if someone is seen nearby, you KNOW they’re likely a caser. One other date he shared: Picnic at the Precinct will be 1-4 pm August 14 this year. More to come from last night’s Admiral meeting, non-crime topics, in a separate report; but first, we have a few Crime Watch reports to share – including someone who just got one of those “burglary but no Block Watch” flyers – read on:Read More
A reminder today from the family of Jade West Cafe proprietor Wah Wong (left), badly hurt along with son Jason Wong when a drunk driver hit them outside their Beacon Hill home two months ago: 5 pm today is the deadline to send a message supporting the toughest sentence possible when the driver, Rodney James, is sentenced Friday, two weeks after pleading guilty to vehicular assault. (Prosecutors are requesting a two-and-a-half-year sentence.) The request for e-mail support was first made by Wah Wong’s son Jimmy Wong, who spoke with us while visiting from California weekend before last. The family has sent three links for those interested in e-mailing their support: Guidelines for what to write, here; sample statement, here; archive of news stories (just for reference, no need to include in the letter), here. Their reminder e-mail adds:
– You can keep your message short (no need for a LONG essay – a paragraph or two is sufficient)
– You do NOT need to physically sign your letter (just name and date at the end will do)
– If you have any specific questions, feel free to call Diane Priest, our crime victims’ advocate (206-684-7702)
The future of the Jade West Cafe, which Wah Wong ran as mostly a one-man show, remains undetermined; he and Jason are now continuing their recovery at home in Beacon Hill. We plan to be in court to cover the sentencing on Friday.
(Photo in this story is from 2008, courtesy Paul Sureddin)
Seattle Parks (which just joined Twitter – @seattleparks) is out with a heads-up notice about what will be closed this Friday because of budget-related furloughs. Among the closures – Southwest Pool. The list also includes the reminder of closures for next Monday’s holiday. See the full list here. P.S. Parks’ Joelle Hammerstad tells us the Friday furlough/Monday holiday situation, akin to what happened in mid-January, should NOT result in a rerun of this – she says their new security vendor “didn’t get our message to leave the parking lots unlocked last time. That shouldn’t happen again.”
As mentioned on the Delridge Grassroots Leadership site on Tuesday and in 
a Youngstown Cultural Arts Center e-mail update sent out this morning, a group of local teenagers is in Washington, D.C., right now, “representing Seattle and creative young people across the country at the historic concert ‘A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement‘,” as the Youngstown bulletin describes it, going on to say, “This opportunity was granted by the Grammy Foundation through Kathleen Allen, community arts liaison with Seattle Public Schools, when she was moved by the students’ performance for the opening of their exhibit at the Frye Art Gallery.” They’re the founding youth of Youngstown Records, which recently launched. The exhibit, created in collaboration with Youngstown-based ArtsCorps, is titled “I Wish I Knew Who I Was Before I Was Me,” is at The Frye Museum – free to see – through the end of May. The DC concert they attended, hosted by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, is scheduled to air on PBS tomorrow night (read more about it here). Youngstown Arts Center, in North Delridge, is a hotbed of artistic exploration and talent – keep up with its classes and goings-on here. (Photo by, and used with permission of, Laura O’Quin) ADDED 6:26 PM: ArtsCorps just shared this update from the youth in DC:
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Thanks to Rob for the call. May not be a big crash – no medic-unit callout – but he says it’s blocking part of the road at SW Holly (the 911 site lists it as Delridge/Willow) [map], so since it’s commute time, we’re sounding the alert. 9:09 AM UPDATE: In comments, LovingWS says the scene is clear. Thanks again to everybody who shares traffic-trouble updates as well as other types of breaking/nonbreaking news – here are all the ways to contact us (phone is the quickest/surest when it’s urgent – please consider putting our 24-hour line 206-293-6302 into your mobile ‘contacts’).
FORECAST: Doesn’t look like we’ll see an encore of the sunshine in Chas Redmond’s Tuesday afternoon photo of Gatewood blossoms: Cloudy with intermittent rain.
SOUTH PARK BRIDGE ALERT: Today’s the first of four consecutive days during which the bridge is scheduled to be closed 7 am-7 pm for testing related to potential future replacement.
PORT CEO TALKS TO CHAMBER: Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani is the speaker at today’s monthly West Seattle Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting, 11:30 am at Salty’s on Alki.
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER TALKS TO KIWANIS: Seattle Public Schools director Harium Martin-Morris speaks at the lunch meeting of the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle at Be’s Restaurant in The Junction.
HOPE LUTHERAN SCHOOL SENDOFF: More than 60 Hope Lutheran School fifth- through eighth-graders head to Portland this afternoon for the annual Lutheran Elementary School Tournament, a five-state competition including academic and athletic events. They’ll be cheered on at a 1:30 pm pep rally.
SCHOOL OPEN HOUSES: Two tonight — West Seattle Montessori/West Seattle Academy, (WSB sponsor), which is preschool-8th grade, 6-8 pm; Alki Elementary, 6:30-8:30 pm. (The full lists of Seattle Public Schools open houses/tours are linked here.)
ANIMALS FIRST FOUNDATION: Join AFF at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor), 6:30 pm, to find out about animal-advocacy issues and to have fun playing Bunco – more details in this WSB Forums post.
34TH DISTRICT DEMOCRATS: 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy; the agenda’s here.
Even more West Seattle events for today/tonight are listed here.
An update on one of the most recent “West Seattle Help for Haiti” projects mentioned here – Victoria Shaw of The Mural Project asked for art-supply donations (see the original request here). She now sends word that KeyBank in The Junction (California/Alaska) “has graciously volunteered to be the dropoff point for anyone wishing to donate new or used art supplies for the school in Haiti. There will be a box in the lobby through the end of February.” Meantime, we have news of an art project involving a local school, related to a natural disaster within our own borders:
From Madison Middle School art teacher Lisa Baker:
Students in 7th Grade Art at Madison Middle School in partnership with Eckstein Middle School designed Fundred Dollar Bills to help raise awareness about lead-contaminated soil in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina . The art project focused on contemporary artist Mel Chin who uses his artwork for environmental and social issues. The students learned about certain plants that can absorb chemicals from the soil to return it to safe levels. The bills will be collected in an armored truck from Eckstein Middle School on February 11th, 2010, and delivered to Congress to help raise the necessary $300,000,000 for clean-up of the soil in New Orleans.
Story and photos by Mary Sheely
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Applications for the 2010 Neighborhood Projects Funds (NPF) should be turned in to the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council by March 3, and plans for Delridge Day and the next phase for the Delridge Produce Cooperative are both under way. All were discussed at tonight’s meeting of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council in the boardroom at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.
Ron Angeles, Delridge District Coordinator for the Department of Neighborhoods, filled the group in on the first two items. Most pressing is the deadline for applications for the NPF, which Angeles and Dave Ellinger, co-secretary of the North Delridge council and a member of the District Council, urge applicants to complete by March 3.
The NPF awards money for neighborhood-proposed improvements such as sidewalk repair, traffic calming, or playground updates. The District Council will review all proposals and then select three for evaluation by the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Parks and Recreation. Learn more at the NPF website.
Any resident can fill out an application, and Jessie Summa-Kusiak, owner of Skylark Café and Club (WSB sponsor), had hers turned in by the meeting’s end.
Just heard the news about the death of Captain Phil Harris from “Deadliest Catch.” Went to the WSB archives and hauled out that photo of his West Seattle Thriftway coffee-selling appearance in September 2008. Big crowd lined up that day to meet him, as you can see in our coverage (which included video).
The “heavy rescue” call is for 1st Ave S/S Cloverdale, which is on the easternmost edge of West Seattle, east of White Center, around the entrance to 509 (here’s a map). On our way to check. 9:15 PM UPDATE: The fire response “closed” on the 911 log fairly quickly, and most of the fire responders were turning around and leaving as we arrived. We can see a car in the ditch on the western side – alongside the westbound lanes – of the hill, and that lane’s blocked off, but traffic is getting through, and there’s no place to pull off to find out more about what happened – but with the fire/medic units canceling, it appears so far no serious injuries.
King County Elections has published first-night results – and both Seattle Public Schools levies are winning in a big way. They only require a simple majority, but each so far has at least 71% yes votes. See the results here. Of note for those who live in (currently) unincorporated King County areas, such as White Center, the King County Library System levy is passing narrowly, with 50.5% yes. (Results from elsewhere in King County are here; the next round of numbers will be released around 4:30 tomorrow.) 9:56 PM UPDATE: Seattle Public Schools’ communications team has sent out a “thank you” news release on the district’s behalf – read on:Read More
While coyotes aren’t necessarily rare in Seattle, the occasional coyote report we receive always manages to serve as a reminder to SOMEONE that they should be mindful of pets’ safety, not leaving food out, etc. From Jen:
We woke up last night around 2:30 am to the sound of some kind of animal making a howling/yelling noise (something I hadn’t ever heard before). It sounded like it was coming from the field behind the school at Fauntleroy and Findlay. I looked out the window and saw what looked like a coyote – although it was large for a coyote – for a brief moment as it ran across my neighbor’s lawn at 37th & Findlay [map]. Anyone else see it?
Starting tomorrow, for four days, the South Park Bridge (seen above during a Duwamish River tour last week) will be closed to vehicle traffic, and will not be opening for marine traffic, 7 am-7 pm daily. Here’s the official advisory; this is the round of closures postponed from a week and a half ago. The county says engineers will be doing testing to gather data that’ll be used when they finally have the money to build a replacement bridge.
First heard about this from Andrea Mercado of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society – aka the Log House Museum folks – at last week’s Southwest District Council meeting. She says the project could use some help. She’s putting together a book of West Seattle photo history, for Arcadia Publishing, along the lines of what you see at left (thanks to Arcadia for providing the image). Andrea says they have “fantastic images” – but they’re not sure who everybody in the photos happens to be – or, for example, what the photo was all about. “Who are these people, why are they all holding a red umbrella, that sort of thing,” she explained. Once the book is finished and published, profits will benefit the Historical Society, which is a small nonprofit with the big job of curating and honoring West Seattle (and vicinity) history. Besides the search for assistance in identifying who’s in the photos, she says they also still need editors, typists, people who can clean up photo scans, etc. Just contact her through the Log House Museum – the contact info’s all here. (Side note: The museum is hosting a special talk Thursday night, 7 pm – Lorraine McConaghy will discuss and sign her new book (available for purchase too), “Warship under Sail, The USS Decatur in the Pacific West,” taking another look at a pivotal event from Seattle’s earliest years in the mid-1850s.)
3:11 PM: There’s a medic response at California/Lander – by Admiral Safeway, Hiawatha, Lafayette Elementary – and reports say it’s a vehicle vs. pedestrian collision. One witness (@sylviarolle) says via Twitter that the person who was hit does NOT appear to be a young child, but appears to have been in the crosswalk by Admiral Junction mailing center (southwest corner). 3:23 PM UPDATE: The intersection is reopening – investigators are now gathered on the Safeway side. A private ambulance has just left. Police tell us the injury is NOT serious – the victim was female but we don’t know the age.
That’s the proposed California SW side of the new Admiral Safeway store – the final part of the project that the Southwest Design Review Board needs to sign off on. They’re scheduled to meet this Thursday, 6:30 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, to look at the project for the 5th time, but you can preview the newest plan right now – we just discovered it’s available at the city’s Design Review website (click here – 12MB PDF) – the California side is shown on page 6 of that new “packet.” Note the additions include an ATM. The Safeway project’s also a regular topic of discussion for the Admiral Neighborhood Association, which happens to meet tonight, 7 pm, basement meeting room at Admiral Church (California/Hill). P.S. For comparison’s sake, here’s how the California side looked for the last meeting – it should be noted the changes are interior as well as exterior, since board members’ questions included what would be visible from the sidewalk as people walk past:
Just in from your 34th District state legislators: State Sen. Joe McDermott and Reps. Eileen Cody and Sharon Nelson invite you to a Town Hall meeting on February 20, 11 am-1 pm, at High Point Community Center. That’s less than three weeks before the current session in Olympia is scheduled to end; their main focus is expected to be the economy, but the announcement promises they’ll also talk about schools, health care, public safety, transportation and the environment.
Admiral UCC has chosen its new pastor, after a yearlong search. The Rev. Dr. Donald Schmidt, who’s been working on the Eastside for two years. Read on for the church’s official announcement:Read More
No, the big inflatable baby bottle outside the High Point Neighborhood Center is not some sort of birth announcement (though the center itself is still in its infancy). It’s to promote the baby-bottle giveaway/swap that’s happening till about 1 pm. As previewed here this morning, local environmental-health groups and Neighborhood House are hoping to encourage people to stop using certain plastic bottles and sippy cups – so they’re giving away glass bottles, accepting turned-in items, and also asking for support for legislation to ban the plastic component Bisphenol A.
Also on hand to help hand out the bottles – from left – Blair Anundson from WashPIRG, Ray Li and Mark Okazaki from Neighborhood House:
WashPIRG is trying to get the Safe Baby Bottle Act – banning Bisphenol A in products for children/babies – passed this year in the Legislature, where it stalled last year.
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