West Seattle, Washington
15 Sunday
Speaking of art … From the WSB inbox: West Seattleite Mark Schlipper promoted a music festival with 11 x 17 posters on poles in a local business district – the art you see at left – and says they were gone within a day. He wonders if everyone is aware that posters like his have been legal for years.
I’m a curator of the Cumulus Music Festival. The festival, while not exclusive to it, does have a focus on Seattle and Northwest bands. As individuals and as an organization, we like to support our communities, and the artists in it. This is our second year, and as such I posted some fliers up around my neighborhood, specifically the Alaska Junction. A few local business offered their hand in support, the rest were up on utility poles.
And that’s where the issue lies.
People may not know this, but around 2002, the laws regarding postering changed, and made allowances for posting on utility poles (seattle.gov/transportation/posteringrules.htm). The responsibility for removal being placed on the poster themselves, or be fined. And yet, someone in our neighborhood felt compelled to pull down my posters within a day of putting them up. This didn’t strike me as the act of vandals, but as the act of someone who doesn’t understand the current laws regarding posting, and took it upon themselves to “fix” it.
Frankly I find it disheartening and insulting. Disheartening because we’re a community that celebrates its creative culture, often supports it, and at least seems to generally appreciate its presence in their lives, aren’t we? Because to me this is an attack on that very culture, on people who are trying to better their community with art, and on those artists themselves. Insulting because it’s defacing my legally posted work. Destroying my legally posted advertising, and essentially stealing money from me and my organization by doing so.
I commend people for taking some pride in their community, and would love to see this same enthusiasm in regard to filling the Whole Foods pit, or fining people that don’t clean up after their dogs. But this didn’t benefit anyone, just hurt someone trying to do some good.
We asked a few followup questions to try to figure out if the postering he says he did could have been so over-the-top that it was seen as a nuisance; he said, and added, “Only one poster per pole was posted. No other posters were covered. Staples were used on wood poles, tape on metal, fairly conservatively in both cases.” The issue of posters on poles was a hot one through the late ’90s and early ’00s; the onetime city ban was actually upheld in 2004, but by then city law had changed to permit them.
Every second Thursday, year-round, 6-9 pm, you can wander West Seattle, enjoying (and if you choose, often, buying) the work of great local artists, during the monthly West Seattle Art Walk. This Thursday is the big night for February, and Lora Lewis from Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor) tells us artist highlights are now up at wsartwalk.com – plus you can see, and print, the walking map (get it here). Something new this time around – Sterling Images Gallery is offering a shuttle from The Junction to “Art Walk South” stops, including their gallery at Lowman Beach, The Kenney, West Seattle Cellars, and Gail Ann Photography.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“Helloooo, Gatewood!”
That’s how West Seattle High School principal Bruce Bivins (photo left) greeted the Gatewood Elementary PTA last night as he and 1st-year Madison Middle School principal Henterson Carlisle (photo right) made a guest appearance to tout, and ask questions about, their schools. It was an introduction of sorts, because until the new Student Assignment Plan attendance-area maps were finalized, designating Gatewood as a feeder for Madison and WSHS, it had been more aligned with West Seattle’s other middle/high-school pair, Denny/Sealth.
Because of the way the feeder groups are set up, projections suggest Madison and WSHS could be under-enrolled within several years, while their south-end counterparts could be stuffed, so the principals are faced with the task of marketing their schools as well as running them – to make sure potential enrollment is maximized. (WSHS has its open house coming up this Thursday night, 6 pm, as Bivins mentioned more than once.) Their selling points – and Q/A – after the jump:Read More
By request – we’ve expanded the WSB Forums’ Freebies/Deals/Sales section to add Trade/Barter. And the first qualifying listing was already up as of very early this morning – see it here. (And a reminder – West Seattle-area businesses can list job openings FREE in the Jobs Offered section.)
ELECTION DAY: Gotta say it again: ***No more West Seattle/White Center dropboxes.** As the League of Women Voters reminds us, downtown (500 4th Ave.) is the closest one. You can drop yours there or Tukwila till 8 pm – otherwise get it in the mail, with a stamp. 2 Seattle Public Schools levies (info here) are on the ballots; they require a simple-majority “yes” vote to pass.
BABY BOTTLE GIVEAWAY: WashPIRG, the Washington Toxics Coalition, and Neighborhood House are giving away baby bottles made without BPA (bisphenol A) as part of an awareness campaign. They’re encouraging people to bring their old plastic baby bottles to swap out. All welcome, 11:30 am-1 pm at Neighborhood Center in High Point.
GREENDRINKS: Hours later, HP Neighborhood Center will be the scene of a citywide gathering of local sustainability advocates and other greenminded folks, the monthly Seattle Greendrinks, 5:30-9 pm.
NORTH DELRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: NDNC hasn’t said yet if this is its permanent new time/day/place, but after the library-schedule change forced them out of their previous routine, this is what’s up for February: 6:30 pm tonight, Youngstown Arts Center.
ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: 7 pm, Admiral Church basement meeting room. The agenda was posted last night on the ANA Yahoo! group; you should be able to find it (along with last month’s minutes) by going here.
FAUNTLEROY NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: Monthly board meeting, all welcome, 7 pm at The Hall at Fauntleroy.
What else? Yes, there’s more – see the WSB Events calendar.
We’ve reported several student fundraisers but hadn’t heard about this one till this item appeared in Seattle Public Schools‘ newest School Beat e-newsletter:
Highland Park Elementary students raised $1,091.35 in four days to aide the earthquake victims in Haiti. More than 80 percent of the students at Highland Park receive free and reduced-price lunch. The school’s head secretary, Margaret Young, helped organize the fund-raiser by asking teachers to share information about the devastation in Haiti . After adding up the collections each morning, Principal Ann Gray and head teacher Rhonda Moore read the total contribution amounts to the students.
“We praised the compassion, understanding and generous nature of our students and parents to give to such a worthy cause. Our students continued to donate their coins, which consisted of mostly pennies. The students were excited and proud … and so were we, as a school,” Moore said.
Congratulations!
Toplines from Monday night’s Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council meeting: Though Andy Worline has stepped down after nine months as PPNC chair, new co-chairs have stepped up: Jim Sander and Theresa Ball. Former chair Pete Spalding ran tonight’s meeting, though. He’d invited David Dockendorf, principal of Pathfinder K-8, which as of this school year is housed in the Cooper School building where PPNC has long met. Dockendorf said about 470 students are now enrolled, with a kindergarten waiting list of about 20. In Q/A, he was asked about school-bus traffic, particularly why buses leave going different ways even though they all arrive along the same route; the principal promised to check. He says Pathfinder is continuing now-discontinued Cooper Elementary‘s tradition of working with the Nature Consortium in the adjacent West Duwamish Greenbelt. Speaking of parkland, PPNC also discussed the application that’s gone out for money to turn the old City Light substation at 21st and Andover (map) into a park, potentially with play equipment and benches.
No, not this morning’s robbery – no photos from that have been made available so far. These are from a holdup at the Harbor Avenue 7-11 early last Thursday. Seattle Police and CrimeStoppers have put these photos out with word of a $1,000 reward.
SPDBlotter says there were three robbers – one with a gun – and they punched the clerk in the face. They got away with cash and cigarettes. The three are described as follows:
Suspect #1 is possibly Samoan or black, 20’s, approximately 6″2″ tall, stocky build, black hair (tied up in the back), with a black jacket, jeans with a large red pattern on the back and black gloves.
Suspect #2 is possibly black, 18-20’s, approximately 5′8″ tall, medium build, dark hoody, jeans, white gloves and armed with a black handgun.
Suspect #3 is approximately 5′5″ tall, medium build, gloves, white and gray hoody with skull designs all over it and dark-colored shorts.
(added) Here’s a third photo, taken outside the store, from the SPDBlotter post:
Info? Call 911 or the Seattle Police Robbery Unit at (206) 684-5535. To be anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or send a text to CRIMES (274637) – with a message including TIP486 so it’s routed to the right case.
In addition to Valentine’s Day shopping at West Seattle businesses … Valentine’s weekend dining at West Seattle restaurants (here’s our updated guide) … here’s one other uniquely local suggestion just out of the inbox:
There’s less than a week to go to Valentine’s Day! Why not give a Valentine that will endure through the coming years? The Alki Community Council still has engraved bricks for sale. You might want to include an appropriate symbol on your Valentine Brick. Symbols depicting a single heart or a pair of interlocking hearts are available. You can download an order form at www.sealady.org or from the ACC’s AlkiNews.com site at alkinews.wordpress.com.
All orders placed before the end of February will be installed this spring in the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza by Seattle Parks & Recreation. Orders placed after that date will be installed in the fall. Please visit the listed websites for additional information. Funds raised through this sale will be turned over to Seattle Parks & Recreation and used to maintain the statue and plaza.
David Hutchinson
ACC Brick Sales
libertyplaza@msn.com
(P.S. We asked; the brick in the pic features the date David and wife Eilene Hutchinson wed.)
Thanks to Madison Middle School PTA president Kim Early for sharing word of two days of special events at the school, tomorrow and Wednesday, because of Take Your Family to School Week … everything from cooking demonstrations, to class observations, to learning something you might not know about the art of raising a middle-schooler (for example, “breaking the code” of texting — do you know what KPC stands for?) .. Read on!Read More
The city has just added a few new facets to the search for the next Seattle Police chief – including three public forums (none in West Seattle), a new website (here), and the chance for you to answer four key questions from the mayor, online or by phone if you can’t make the forums – read on for the official announcement:Read More
Police have finally published an SPDBlotter report on this morning’s West Seattle Jack in the Box holdup, with many more details than were available this morning (here’s our previous report):
Two adult male suspects entered the open back door of a restaurant located in the 4200 block of SW Admiral Way. Both suspects were wearing face masks and gloves and one of them was armed with a large silver revolver. The suspects ordered everyone to get down on the floor.
The suspects then took one female employee to a back room containing a safe and ordered the employee to open it. When she didn’t open it fast enough for them, the armed suspect struck her on the head with his gun. The victim employee opened the safe and the suspects fled the scene on foot with cash taken from the safe. The suspects remain at large.
Both suspects are described as adult black males, 5′8″ to 6′0″, with medium complexions. Both suspects were wearing hooded sweatshirts. One suspect was wearing all black clothing and the other all gray clothing.
The employee who was pistol whipped is a female in her 20’s. She was treated at the scene by Seattle Fire Department Medics and transported to an area hospital by ambulance for non-life-threatening head and facial injuries.
As promised when we dropped by for a sneak peek two weeks ago, Tony’s Produce at 35th/Barton (map) has opened for the season as of today. 8 am till 7 pm. When we talked to Tony last month, he mentioned stocking more organics; today’s specials include organic blueberries. They were still stocking the stand when we dropped by around noontime, so you’ll have to see for yourself what else they’ve set out. Just a few blocks east of Tony’s, Becky snapped and shared this:
That’s Justice the police horse, seen at Westwood Village. (If you didn’t know this already – SPD’s Mounted Patrol has its headquarters in Highland Park, adjacent to Westcrest Park.) Now, we head north, for a West Seattleite’s view of today’s high-flying milestone – Scott C shared this photo of the aviation milestone everyone’s watching today, the 747-8’s first flight:
Speaking of the sky, the skyline shot you’ve seen a thousand times nonetheless had a nice touch when we stopped by Seacrest early this afternoon, with the drifting clouds:
Tomorrow looks even better.
Today we welcome one of our newest WSB sponsors, META Architects LLC, located in West Seattle’s North Admiral neighborhood. 
META offers a full range of professional architectural services for residential and small commercial projects. Recent residential work has included remodels, additions and detached garages. Pamela Allen, META‘s owner, is a licensed architect with more than 20 years of experience. Her current practice has been active for four years, and much of her work has been located in West Seattle. Pam is also a LEED Accredited Professional and encourages sustainable design practices with an eye toward cost-efficiency. Pam encourages those considering a construction project to take advantage of the current slump in building material prices and contractor labor costs. For a limited time, META Architects is offering a complimentary 1-hour consultation to discuss your potential building project. Find META Architects online at www.metaarchitects.com, or contact by phone at 206/854-0452.
We thank META Architects LLC for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative 24/7 neighborhood news on WSB. Find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.
We have a followup from Kristina Surface today re: Alki Elementary School‘s Friday night events to benefit Haiti earthquake relief:
The two Alki Elementary fundraisers for Haiti (penny drive and movie night) raised a grand total of $2717.17! We are incredibly grateful to PCC and Safeway for donating snacks and drinks to sell at our movie night, as this enabled us to donate 100% of the proceeds to The American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund. It’s amazing what we can do when we work as a community.
Kristina shared the photos, too – above, the cafeteria full of families awaiting the movie (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”); below, from left, Alki parent Jill Rose and principal Clover Codd. Kristina adds, “Without Jill’s leadership and Clover’s support, we couldn’t have done it. We are so proud of our Alki families for coming together as a community and helping the people of Haiti.”
Speaking of Alki and Haiti – beach resident Angela Williams has announced more details of her Valentine’s Day event (we talked with her for a WSB story last week) – you can now get the full scoop here.
(Photos added at 1:58 pm)
Your help is requested in the search for a stolen car. WSB’ers have spotted some others recently, so perhaps the track record will continue here. From Clare and Dave:
Our black 1993 Honda Accord (license # 084–H) was stolen from its spot at the back of our apartment building on 42nd Ave SW and Admiral Way (between Admiral and Lander) last night. We filed a police report this morning. If anyone sees it, would you please dial 911 to report it? Thank you for your help.
(Editor’s note – we omit some digits from license plates in cases like this; otherwise, crime victims’ personal data may be publicly accessible, using that information.) With this morning’s restaurant robbery nearby as context, we asked them if they had any idea of the theft time frame – they last saw the car 11 am Sunday and noticed it missing 9 am today.
(Video shot as we arrived at Admiral Safeway while crews were checking out Sunday’s small fire)
With questions raised in discussion of the pre-Super Bowl Admiral Safeway deli fire, we wanted to follow up with Seattle Fire Department sooner rather than later, regarding what firefighting equipment was on hand and whether the store should have been evacuated. SFD spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen has talked with the crew that was on scene, and here’s what she just told us: The range at the store has an in-hood system that “did what it was supposed to do” – it’s got built-in chemicals that dropped down onto the grease fire and put it out, while also shutting off power. “The fire was out when firefighters got there,” she said, adding that they “checked for extension” – whether it had spread (that’s why you see firefighters on the roof in our video clip) – and it hadn’t. Regarding whether the store should have been evacuated, Vander Houwen said some smoke “vented” but the “smell of burning food” was the biggest consequence of the grease fire and it “wasn’t a life-safety concern.” (1:50 PM P.S. – The deli’s back open today.)
(P.S. Only related because it’s the same site, but we’re always looking for excuses to publish reminders – the next Design Review meeting for the Admiral Safeway redevelopment project is this Thursday, 6:30 pm, Youngstown Arts Center.)
From this morning’s Land Use Information Bulletin, just sent by the city: First, key land-use approvals have been granted for 5020 California SW, a 91-residential-unit/4,000-sf-retail project south of The Junction, once being developed as “Spring Hill” (rendering at right) by BlueStar, the original Fauntleroy Place (Whole Foods etc.) developers, then foreclosed on last year, as reported here. The decisions are linked here; the contact listed for a project is a representative of Shoreline Bank, which owned the site (home to three vacant multifamily buildings) at last report, and put it up for sale last fall (reported here). – we have a message out to ask if they plan on proceeding, but in the meantime, the city documentation notes that anyone interested in appealing the new decisions has until February 22nd – how to do that is explained here. (P.S., before you ask, nothing major new on the Whole Foods site, just a continually growing sheaf of legal documents in the ongoing lawsuit – 269 separate documents; we check the file frequently.) 11:35 AM UPDATE: Just talked to Shoreline Bank’s contact re: 5020 California. He says they are pursuing the permits while continuing to offer the property for sale; the bank does NOT intend to develop the site itself.
Also from the land-use bulletin: The city has officially received the street-vacation petition for 46th Place SW (Google Street View map), as part of The Kenney‘s redevelopment. That means it’s time for public comments. The petition, and comment process, are explained here, on the notice.
PIGEON POINT: Live in this hilly northeastern West Seattle neighborhood? Join your neighbors at tonight’s Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council meeting, 7 pm, Pathfinder @ Cooper School (1901 SW Genesee).
MADISON/WSHS PRINCIPALS @ GATEWOOD: The district’s new Student Assignment Plan has Gatewood Elementary feeding Madison Middle School and West Seattle High School, instead of Denny/Sealth. So the Gatewood PTA has both schools’ principals speaking at its meeting tonight, 6:30 pm @ Gatewood’s library (we’re now told it’s in the cafeteria; 4320 SW Myrtle).
LAST FULL DAY TO GET YOUR BALLOT IN THE MAIL: Tomorrow’s Election Day for two Seattle Public Schools levies. Remember, no more West Seattle/White Center dropboxes. So get your ballot out via postal mail today.
What else is up today/tonight? See the WSB Events calendar.
Police confirm the Jack in the Box on Admiral Way was robbed around 5:30 this morning – police are looking for two suspects described as black males wearing ski masks, one described as about 6 feet tall, 160 to 180 pounds, gray sweatshirt and black pants, armed with a gun; the other was described as about 6 feet tall and carrying a green backpack. There’s a report that someone was hurt during the robbery – hit by one of the robbers, according to SPD media unit Det. Mark Jamieson. A sergeant on the scene tells us the injury wasn’t serious. K-9 officers have been out trying to track the robbers, but they haven’t been able to find anyone so far. 7:47 AM: Police have now taken the tape down, though we haven’t yet confirmed whether the restaurant has reopened. 8:17 AM: Went back to check. There are signs on the door and drive-up saying it’s temporarily closed. (P.S. THANK YOU to everyone who called and e-mailed about this. Best way to alert us when you see a huge police presence is our 24-hour phone line, 206-293-6302, so please consider adding that to your mobile contacts! Thanks!) 1:18 PM NOTE: The restaurant was open again in time for lunch.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“Vibrant!” is the word Highland Park resident Kay Kirkpatrick offered to describe both the turnout and the discussion during Saturday’s second public design meeting for her neighborhood’s future park atop the under-construction West Seattle Reservoir lid.
Turnout for the first meeting at High Point Community Center two months ago was certainly good (here’s our story) – but this one was even better, despite the tantalizing sunshine outside. A long line stretched through the lower lobby at Southwest Community Center, even as the scheduled starting time came and went; the meeting didn’t start until about 10:20, when most finally were seated and signed in.
(All photos in this story courtesy Dina Johnson)
Parks Department project manager Susanne Friedman started by asking for a show of hands regarding attendees’ specific interests. One such show explained some of the turnout:
They took effect Saturday, so tomorrow’s the first weekday with Metro‘s latest round of “service revisions.” As of Friday, the new timetables were available online, so if you haven’t checked yours already, you can see it here. (Major West Seattle changes were listed here on January 29th.) Bike-loading policies have changed too – here are the details on that. The next round of service revisions is scheduled for June 12th, but too soon to say how, or if, those will affect West Seattle riders.
You might recall, Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor) was running an informal Super Bowl poll – offering two special drinks, either of which you could buy to cast a vote for one of the Super Bowl teams. We took the photo above while visiting Hotwire late this morning; proprietor Lora Lewis says the Saints kept the lead even before the game – so Hotwire customers called it! (Saints 31-Colts 17 was the final, in case you’re checking in from a football-free zone.) P.S. One other Super Bowl note if you haven’t seen this a zillion places already – you can find The Commercials in this special YouTube collection.
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