Wednesday notes: Missing mural; Alki Ave closure; barbecue bye

MISSING MURAL: Notice what’s not in that photo? Ken Beres sent it and wondered why the “Press Day” mural had disappeared from the side of 4727 44th SW. We called the nearest office – Terry Gangon‘s insurance agency – and were told the building’s being painted, so the mural (closer look at it here) was removed but will be restored. (Working to find out more specifics bout this.)

ROAD CLOSURE ALERT: Writing about this Friday’s registration party for the Alki Beach 5K Walk/Run to benefit Northwest Hope and Healing, we noticed something new – confirmed by NWHH’s Shari Sewell – this year, Alki Avenue will close for the run, instead of having more than 1,000 people to run on the sidewalk/bike path. She says, “It’s the same route as the WSHS 5k back in May. The closure runs from Alki at 63rd (near the old Pegasus Pizza) to Don Armeni boat launch, from 8 am until 11 am (will re-open earlier if all participants are off the course). Our 5k route turns around at Anchor Park but the police will be directing folks up California Ave off Harbor if they live along the route. There will be one northbound access lane along Alki open for folks who need it.” Again, that’s a three-hour closure the morning of August 29th.

BARBECUE BASH BAGS ALKI: While working ahead on the WSB West Seattle Events calendar, we discovered that the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association is NOT bringing its Evergreen State BBQ Championship to Alki this fall, though it’s been a fixture for years (here’s our coverage from last year). We e-mailed PNBA president Anthony James to ask why they’re changing the location to Duvall – jump ahead for his reply:

Putting on the event at Alki was quite expensive, with park permits, fire permits, health permits, and all of the equipment that the organization had to rent. The Duvall folks are able to take care of a number of those things, and we don’t have to rent the parking lot where it will be.

Also, this is an event that for several years my wife and I specifically ran, as West Seattle is her childhood neighborhood. This year, with me as organization president and her on the board, we just didn’t have the time.

Finally, the Duvall event will help support a local charity, which is something we try to do as much as possible.

We’re hoping we can have an event back on the beach there in the upcoming seasons, as it is very popular with our cooks.

6 Replies to "Wednesday notes: Missing mural; Alki Ave closure; barbecue bye"

  • Baba August 4, 2010 (9:44 pm)

    I still remember the time, when I could just stroll through Alki sampling those generous BBQed portions…
    I can’t wait for november…

  • Mookie August 4, 2010 (10:14 pm)

    Road trip to Duvall—Who’s with me?!!

  • EyeOnNW August 4, 2010 (10:52 pm)

    I was concerned to see one of my favorite murals painted over — disturbingly symbolic, given the decline of print newspapers. Please keep an eye on this to ensure that this mural is indeed restored. Just curious: Did the owner need permits to deface the mural in this way?

    • WSB August 4, 2010 (11:06 pm)

      EyeOn – Don’t have a lot of details yet – but since Ken B brought it up, we wanted to at least note that we’d made an initial check on this. We hope to be able to find out much more, for a followup – TR

  • 22blades August 4, 2010 (11:35 pm)

    Isn’t (or wasn’t) this public art w/ support if not funding from the public? And how do you “restore” a mural like that?! Thanks for staying on this…

  • bsmomma August 5, 2010 (10:35 am)

    The extent of restoring the mural is that each piece of the back was primered (sorry if that’s not the correct terminology) to preserve the material and the murals surface was cleaned. It was removed to do this and put in a safe place so there’s no damage to the mural while the building is getting a much needed paint job. My husband’s the one painting the building and just told me that the mural should be back up in the next couple days. And I want to stress that the mural was not defaced or painted over. It was removed from the wall.

Sorry, comment time is over.