West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Our goal for April is a bite-size chunk of Disaster Preparedness Month information every night (all archived here) – and this time, it’s all about dates: A few to remember, for this month. First and foremost, 
if you’d like some hands-on instruction in emergency preparedness, the Fauntleroy Community Association, Fauntleroy Church and Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor) are co-sponsoring a workshop next Monday night (April 12), 7 pm at the church Fellowship Hall (9140 Fauntleroy SW). Here’s the event listing on Facebook. Next official opportunity after that is at Delridge Library on June 8, 6:30 pm, when SNAP (Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepare) will present a preparedness class. The city also has an Earthquake Retrofitting workshop in West Seattle in June – 11 am June 1 at the West Seattle (Admiral) Library. And – jumping back to this month – one more date for your calendar: April 21, 9:45 am, it’s a statewide earthquake-preparedness drill. Whether you’ll be at home, work or school at that moment, this state webpage has info on what to do to be part of the drill. Got those dates? Great! Also remember the “3 To Get Ready” campaign, which we introduced last night, and join the West Seattle Be Prepared group on Facebook.
Published late tonight at seattlepi.com: A woman is charged with attempting to promote commercial sexual abuse of a minor, after she was found in a Gatewood apartment where prosecutors say four teenage girls also were living – three of them runaways. The seattlepi.com report says police were tipped by one runaway’s mom, who discovered that the phone number from which her daughter had called her was linked to what the article describes as “a prostitution-oriented Web site.” Police found the 21-year-old suspect, Kendra M. Williams, with two girls in an apartment in the 7100 block of California SW (map), and say she told officers she was setting up an “escort service.” The King County Jail Register shows that Williams has been in jail since March 29, with bail set at $25,000; we’ll check the court documents after the online system reopens in the morning. ADDED WEDNESDAY MORNING: It has since been pointed out to us that this story originally appeared at SeattleCrime.com yesterday afternoon – with more details – you can see their story here.
Four weeks ago, we covered two community meetings about the impending South Park Bridge closure. During both, local business owners hoped their stories could be told, before the bridge closure endangered their enterprises’ survival. We assigned this story to a student journalist in hopes of continuing to tell those stories.
Story and photos by Briana Watts
University of Washington News Lab
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
“No Cierren El Puente” signs fill the windows of restaurants and businesses along 14th Avenue South. They sit along the street corners and occupy reader boards. The signs read “Do not close the bridge” because the revenue of these family-owned businesses is dependent on the traffic that moves across the South Park Bridge, slated to be closed June 30.
“There’s no way we can survive this,” says Gurdev Singh, co-owner of the South Park 76 gas station and the connected Subway shop on 14th Avenue South.
With the South Park community on one side of the Duwamish River and Boeing Field on the other, the SP Bridge is one of two connectors. Diverting traffic to the other, the First Avenue Bridge, could add 20 minutes to the commutes of South Park Bridge users, which include West Seattle and White Center residents.
“The First Avenue Bridge will be a parking lot,” predicted Bill Owens, owner of Seattle Canine Outfitters.
Another unique event is on the slate at West Seattle’s historic Admiral Theater. The Admiral will team with Women In Film/Seattle on April 19th for a tribute to film pioneer Nell Shipman. That night, The Admiral will show two of Shipman’s silent films – accompanied live by organist Dennis James, and with part of the proceeds benefiting animal charities, including a drive for donated items:
On April 19th, 2010, Women in Film/Seattle, and West Seattle’s Historic Admiral Theater partner to pay homage to two films by Northwest bred cinema pioneer, Nell Shipman. The “Kathryn Bigelow of her time,” Shipman is one of the first women who wrote, produced, and starred in many of her own productions. She became one of the first female directors in 1914, and by the ’20s, she had set up her own production company where she specialized in outdoor adventure films involving an assortment of wild animals including skunks, raccoons, wolves, and bears. Her films featured the outdoors; on-location shooting that would later become her trademark as a filmmaker. Shipman played a role that would occur throughout her film career: a strong, resourceful female who came through to save the day.
The announcement continues after the jump:Read More
Thanks to Rhonda from The Mortgage Porter (WSB sponsor) for the original tip on this – a three-car crash in the 3800 block of Beach Drive earlier this evening, but just one driver involved. According to police at the scene and witnesses, the driver hit two parked cars. (9:15 pm update: a witness in comments says the car that hit the pole is NOT the one that had the driver.)
The driver was taken to the hospital “for observation.” We drove by the scene again a little while ago, and the pole was still angled, but the wrecked cars were gone. (P.S. A few others have shared scene photos on our Facebook wall.)
Every quarter, there’s a new lineup for the West Seattle Art Walk – some venues come, a few go. And so now that it’s spring, there’s a brand-new roster: 41 venues in all, from Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) and Alki Bathhouse in the north, to Gail Ann Photography and Bird on a Wire Espresso in the south. (In addition to Click! other participating WSB sponsors include Hotwire Online Coffeehouse, Brunette Mix, Feedback Lounge and Mural Apartments.) You can visit any or all of the 41 stops this Thursday night, 6-9 pm. For details on the artists, check out the official Art Walk website – among the listings so far, “bacon people” at The Body Bar – and watch for highlights on the WSAW Facebook fan page.
To be clear, the vote a short time ago in the City Council’s Regional Development and Sustainability Committee is NOT a commitment to a White Center (etc.) annexation vote in November 2011. But as committee chair and City Council President Richard Conlin summarized the 3-0 approval of this resolution, it puts the city “on the path” toward a vote. The next chapter in the rollercoaster/seesaw saga of “Who will annex White Center (and vicinity)?”: The full council must vote on the resolution, likely Monday. More details at partner site White Center Now.
(Photos courtesy Tilden School)
It’s all about partnerships. Our previous story included a public-private partnership to fix up a stretch of local sidewalk, and here we have what you might call a public-private partnership with local students adopting a park. In this case, Tilden School‘s fifth-grade class has been taking care of their closest park, and sent along this story:
Tilden School has officially adopted the beautiful Dakota Place Park, and we, the fifth grade class, are enjoying being park stewards! We will visit the park weekly to clean up trash, pull weeds, and remove invasive species. Before the end of the school year, we will teach the fourth graders how to care for the park so they can be the park stewards next year.
We would like to thank MARK SINDELL of GGLO for designing such a beautiful green space for the West Seattle community and for all of the many small mammals, birds, and insects that are native to the area. Mark gave us a tour of the park to explain its history, design, and plant life.
We would also like to thank all of the kind donors for giving us the tools we needed to begin our stewardship project. Thanks to JUNCTION TRUE VALUE, MCLENDON HARDWARE WHITE CENTER, and WEST SEATTLE NURSERY. Your generosity is truly appreciated!
Come visit the extraordinary Dakota Place Park, and bring all your friends and Fido on a leash!
Dakota Place Park is at California/Dakota (map) and itself, like many local park projects, involves community partnership, with community volunteers playing a huge role in making it a reality. Tilden is less than a block south of the park.
During the last Seattle Parks Board meeting, we reported Superintendent Tim Gallagher‘s announcement that a construction contract has been awarded 
for Junction Plaza Park. We’re still checking on how soon work will start on the park itself – but we have word from SDOT that work to replace the sidewalk in front of the park (which is at the northwest corner of 42nd/Alaska) is imminent. SDOT’s Peg Nielsen says it’ll start within the next two or three weeks and will be sequenced with the park work. The sidewalk wasn’t part of the original park plan but Nielsen says it’s a “cost-sharing” project, funded with money from the Bridging the Gap Sidewalk Safety Repair Program and the Neighborhood Street Fund. One other example of “cost-sharing” resulting in new sidewalks has just been completed in Morgan Junction – the new sidewalk in front of Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) – the subject of this newly posted SDOT online feature.
That’s one of the photos the FBI has just released of the woman who robbed the Junction KeyBank yesterday afternoon (here’s our original report). They’ve sent the “WANTED” flyer too – it contains two of the other (small) photos they’ve sent; here’s another one from the FBI e-mail to media:
And one that’s on the “poster”:
We’re asking to see if they have larger versions – we’ve blown these up a bit but that doesn’t help much. Meantime, the FBI adds:
This individual should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information about this individual is asked to contact the FBI by telephone at (206) 622-0460, or e-mail at seattle.fbi@ic.fbi.gov
(Double-crested cormorant male with breeding plumage, photographed at Don Armeni by David Hutchinson)
Not much on the calendar this Tuesday aside from the regular recurring events, though those are certainly worth noting – 8 pm rock ‘n’ roll trivia at Feedback Lounge (which celebrates its 1st anniversary later this month!) and 6 pm open turntables at Skylark Café and Club (both WSB sponsors), and in The Junction, Shadowland hosts its regular songwriters’ showcase. One item of note on the City Council calendar this afternoon: the Regional Development and Sustainability Committee will take up a resolution formalizing the city’s “potential” interest in a White Center (and vicinity) annexation vote in November 2011 – pushed back from Mayor McGinn‘s original pursuit of a vote this year, after a financial review last month suggested annexation could be too costly to pursue in the current budget crunch. The meeting’s at 2 pm and will be live on cable and online via Seattle Channel.
With spring break over, high-school baseball season gets into full swing. Chief Sealth High School plays at Cleveland today, hosts Ingraham tomorrow, and visits them Friday; West Seattle High School‘s schedule is featured in this update from assistant coach Scott Meaker, including an update on yesterday’s win:
The West Seattle Varsity faced cross -valley rival Cleveland HS at Hiawatha Sports Complex on Monday afternoon. West Seattle prevailed 16 – 2 in 5 innings. Senior Ryan Wernli earned the win, pitching 3 innings, allowing 1 hit and 2 runs on 4 strikeouts. He walked none. Sophomore Jeff Freeman went 2 -for-3 with 3 RBI, a double and a HR. Junior Issac Luton went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI, a double, and scored 2 runs. Junior Tim Tinkler went 3 -for-4 with 3 RBI and scored 3 runs. Senior Ryan Wiggins hit a 3-run HR. West Seattle plays Bainbridge Is. HS at Hiawatha on Tuesday at 3:30 and hosts Nathan Hale HS on Wednesday.
Sports and other updates always welcome from local schools – here’s how to share ’em.
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