West Seattle, Washington
25 Sunday
With a nod to the original WSB story, Seattle Times columnist Nicole Brodeur tells the tale of Village Green Perennial Nursery owner Vera Johnson‘s bank battle to fight off foreclosure. (Note that when Brodeur contacted Bank of America, she got the same kind of conflicting answers Vera reported.) Our story from Tuesday is here; you can sign Vera’s online petition here.
(WSB photos and video by Patrick Sand)
During tonight’s West Seattle Art Walk, muralist Glenn Case started work on a mural, about murals, at Mural Apartments (WSB sponsor). He explains the project in this quick clip:
Some of the most vivid work we saw tonight was by Sheila Lengle, showing at Shoofly Pie Company:
Sheila’s art career is in resurgence – you might remember her as the owner of Critical Mass and ec’Collective art galleries. She says she’ll be the August artist at Brunette Mix (WSB sponsor), also in The Junction, and will have a September show at Alki Arts.
Our Junction adventure continued at Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor), which had a visit from the DRY Soda team, offering free samples:
Inside, artist Dawn Endean:
And then back up California at Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor), a little marimba music from NZIRA:
Hotwire, of course, is where you’ll find West Seattle Outdoor Movies for the next six Saturday nights, weather permitting, starting with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” at dusk this Saturday (free, bring your own chair/blanket, and a few dollars for concessions/raffles that benefit local nonprofits). West Seattle Art Walk, meantime, is always the second Thursday of the month, 6-9 pm, and you can watch for updates at the Art Walk website.
As usual, the city’s out with its weekend traffic advisory for big events – just so you’ll know what to expect. Not that you want to go TOO far – this weekend’s big events here include West Seattle Outdoor Movies‘ seasonal debut on Saturday (“Ferris Bueller” at dusk) and the West Seattle Garden Tour on Sunday (plus, next door in White Center, the Jubilee Days Street Fair all weekend) – but in case you have to leave, here’s what SDOT sent late today, after the jump:Read More
We’re welcoming the newest WSB sponsor – whose message for you includes an invitation: EuropaKids International Preschool is celebrating its 6th year in West Seattle and we are having a Fall Open House this Saturday – July 16th, 2011 – at 10:30 am to introduce our new Mandarin Chinese program to you and your family. The EuropaKids half-day program is a multilingual language PRESCHOOL dedicated to preparing your child(ren) for the upcoming elementary school years by using the gift of foreign language as our focus. Learning a second or third language during the preschool years is not only the easiest time to pick up a new language and culture, but current research has shown that multilingual children have many measurable advantages over monolingual children later on in the elementary years!
EuropaKids International Preschool currently offers THREE LANGUAGES for your little ones to decide upon as they embark upon their journey: SPANISH, GERMAN, and MANDARIN. For fall 2011, we are introducing a new tuition plan designed to make it easier for you to enroll your child for multiple days. Please have a look at our website at www.europakids.com for more details.
Given the choice between a traditional English preschool program or a multi-cultural language-focused preschool, the choice seems clear! Please RSVP for our Open House and call Nicole at (206) 708-5784, or e-mail us using the contact form on our website www.europakids.com. See you on July 16th!
We thank EuropaKids International Preschool for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.
Two reports of vandalism in West Seattle Crime Watch today, including one at a P-Patch that trashed not just gardeners’ hard work, but also crops destined to feed local food-bank clients. From Tiffany, who shared the photo:
I’m writing to let you know that the West Genesee P-Patch (SW Genesee & 42nd Ave SW) was vandalized last night. It happened sometime between 7pm last night and 9am this morning. The vandals overturned our picnic table, threw one of the benches in one of the plots, uprooted plants and tomato cages, and smashed plants. There wasn’t a single plot that escaped damage, though some suffered more than others. We all finally had nice gardens going after a slow start to summer, so needless to say, we’re pretty bummed out. Most disappointing though, is the damage they did to our food bank plot. The vandals completely destroyed all our squash plants, broccoli, and some of the kale and we won’t be able to save those. We will all be salvaging as much of the destroyed plants as we can however, from both our food bank plot and our own plots, and donating it to the food bank so it won’t go to waste.
The silver lining here is that the damage was confined to plants and we won’t have to replace any of the structures. Also, many of the uprooted plants will survive if we can all get them back into the ground soon. It just stinks because we all work hard on our gardens and are happy to be a part of a community garden that brightens up the neighborhood and helps provide fresh food for those in need (so many great comments from people walking by to the Summerfest this weekend!). It’s a blow to have someone come in and try to ruin that.
Anyway, I hope you can post this information on the blog and ask people in the area keep an eye out to help us prevent this from happening again. For now we’ll do our best to get our garden back in shape!
Another vandalism case not far away, after the jump:Read More
While remodeling an area of the old Fauntleroy Schoolhouse to serve as a Pilates studio, Pamela Phillips-Blevins discovered a bit of history, a blackboard that appears to have been frozen in time – in 1939.
Way over on the right side of the blackboard, a few names for a “list” (gotta wonder what “list” that was):
Pamela says they found this blackboard under a newer one. Hers is one of several new businesses in the old schoolhouse, now nonprofit-owned (after a deal was completed last year). Fauntleroy Schoolhouse is 93 years old, according to this thumbnail history from Seattle Public Schools, which closed it in 1981.
If you had somehow missed our previous reports that Les Schwab Tires was moving into the former Huling/Gee used-cars site at 38th/Alaska in The Triangle, it’ll be hard to miss now – the big sign’s going up today. We first reported in January that Les Schwab was remodeling the site; last month, the company told us they’re expecting to open in September.
By Megan Sheppard
On the WSBeat, for West Seattle Blog
From reports on cases handled recently by Southwest Precinct officers:
*An alert citizen called 911 early Tuesday to report a suspicious male with a flashlight peering into car windows near the 4000 block of 34th SW. Officers arrived and encountered one of the community’s more prolific thieves. He was carrying a backpack that held two GPS devices, and his jacket pocket contained a large amount of change. The 18-year-old Delridge-area resident was booked into King County Jail.
*Just after midnight Saturday, a taxi driver picked up a fare downtown and drove her to the 6700 block of Delridge. She started to leave without paying. He threatened to call 911. Her response? “Then I’ll shoot you.” The driver called her bluff (and 911) and continued driving until he saw patrol cars approaching in the 6900 block of Delridge. Officers questioned the woman, asking if she had a gun. She opened her purse, which contained a loaded five-shot Smith and Wesson. She was booked into King County jail for investigation of assault.
After the jump, four more summaries, including one with more information on a story covered as breaking news earlier this week:Read More
She has led efforts that have raised tens of thousands of dollars for breast-cancer research – our photo at left, in fact, is from her appearance as a model during the Northwest Hope and Healing benefit fashion show two months ago, and her 3-Day Walk “Team Tracy” efforts are legendary. Now a group of friends insists that it’s time West Seattleite Tracy Dart accept a little help for herself, in her three-time fight against the disease. They’ve just announced the event “We Heart Tracy Dart,” set for 7-10 pm August 7th at The Bridge (4439 35th SW). The bands Explone and In Cahoots are already lined up. Find out more on this Facebook page. On her own website, Tracy mentions it in her newest post – right after talking about her latest chemo treatment, making it clear this isn’t something she has asked for, but her friends “REALLY want to do it.” Donations will be taken at the door during the benefit, and you’ll be able to buy raffle tickets; organizers note, “100% of donations go into a trust account that will be used to pay living and medical expenses while Tracy recovers from treatment. Stuff like prescriptions, insurance premiums, utilities, rent and transportation costs.”
It’s Art Walk night! The monthly West Seattle Art Walk tops our highlights from the WSB West Seattle (and beyond) Events calendar for tonight:
JULY ART WALK! Dozens of venues all around West Seattle – many previewed at wsartwalk.com – take a few minutes to browse through and plan your stops. Meet artists, enjoy their work, and at many spots, refreshments too, 6-9 tonight. Here’s the map of Art Walk locations.
SHOP LATE IN THE JUNCTION: In The Junction, which has the biggest concentration of Art Walk venues, it’s another edition of Shop Late Thursdays, till 9 pm – see the list of participating merchants here.
‘ASK AN EXPERT’ AT THE TOOL LIBRARY: During West Seattle Art Walk nights, you can also “Ask An Expert” at the West Seattle Tool Library, which is at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW). Open in conjunction with Art Walk (there are several artists who live/work at the Center), the Ask the Expert hours are 6:30-8:30 pm in the Community Workshop at Youngstown (southeast side of the building).
TONIGHT’S JUBILEE DAYS EVENT: White Center Jubilee Days Rock & Bowl, 7 pm to 10 pm at Magic Lanes (10612 15th SW). More info at JubileeDays.org
Politics can have its moments of levity. Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen and West Seattle political activist Chris Porter had one Wednesday night during the candidates’ reception/mixer at The Hall at Fauntleroy co-sponsored by the Greater Seattle Business Association and West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. It’s the first of two pre-election events with which the Chamber is involved this month – the next one is the tunnel-related Referendum 1 forum that it’s presenting a week from tonight (6 pm July 21st, West Seattle High School, two reps from each side, with your editor here as moderator). More photos after the jump:Read More
Good thing most of Wednesday’s big events were scheduled for evening – that’s when the sun shone the brightest, which was good news for the ribbon-cutting at Avalon Place, the new apartment building for Transitional Resources. They are headquartered in the 2900 block of SW Avalon Way, south of the Luna Park business district, and that’s where they have long provided housing, help, and hope for people dealing with mental illness; Avalon Place also reaches out to chronically homeless people, who are the targeted clients for the new building. Read on for more photos from, and information about, Wednesday night’s event:Read More
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