West Seattle Friday: Bridge reminder; Trader Joe’s opens; Fleurt reopens; ‘Love Letters’…

BRIDGE REMINDER: Thanks to pilot/photographer Long B. Nguyen for the view of the West Seattle Bridge during Day 1 of the traffic switchover – today is Day 2, with all 4 lanes of Spokane Street Viaduct traffic (2 east, 2 west) squeezed onto the new north side of the structure (right side of the photo). We’ll be talking with SDOT around noontime today to see what they have to say after a day and a half of commutes in this configuration. Also this morning:

WEST SEATTLE TRADER JOE’S OPENS: The years of rumors, dashed hopes, endless comment discussions, and finally, remodeling at 4545 Fauntleroy Way SW are over and as the banner behind Timothy and friends (thanks for sending the photo!) says, the store opens at 8 am today. (Trivia point: The original developers of “The Hole” to its west were at one point going to develop this site too, as a mixed-use project; we covered the announcement in May 2008. They did not buy it, though, just had an option, and it expired when everything fell apart.) P.S. As of 7 am, there is one person in line (photo coming up in separate story).

Meantime, TJ’s isn’t the only opening today:

Fleurt (WSB sponsor) will open in its new, bigger Junction location, not far from its old one, at 10:30 this morning (here’s our original report), 4536 California SW. We’ll take a look inside once it’s open!

Also today:

GOOD LUCK IN THE GLOBAL READING CHALLENGE FINALS! Today’s the day that the team George’s Magicians Treasures from Alki Elementary, one of the two co-winners in the citywide finals (WSB coverage here), goes downtown for the finals-via-video against Canadian students, 10 am at Seattle Public Schools HQ in SODO.

WEST SEATTLE LIONS’ PLANT SALE: Today and tomorrow, the West Seattle Lions’ Club has its annual plant sale at the Senior Center of WS (California/Oregon in The Junction); the first session is 5-8 pm tonight.

WEST SEATTLE YACHT CLUB OPEN HOUSE: From mingling to dancing, lots happening, and you’re invited, 6:30-10 pm at the Alki Masonic Lodge (40th/Edmunds) – full details on the Facebook event page.

MR. IRRESISTIBLE: This West Seattle High School fundraising tradition is tonight at 7.

‘LOVE LETTERS’ OPENING NIGHT: 7:30 pm, the first of five performances, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, presented by Twelfth Night Productions, whose website has full details.

More on the WSB West Seattle Events calendar!

Mary T April 13, 2012 (7:22 am)

What did Fleurt do with the original door that was on that space? Because the original door was amazing looking.

sam-c April 13, 2012 (7:27 am)

seems like just yesterday our real estate agent was driving us around west seattle, telling us the long-standing joke/ question: “when is trader joe’s going to come to west seattle ?” how time flies!

MB April 13, 2012 (8:11 am)

Clearly I missed something this morning, but I tried to come up onto the bridge from Spokane Street (right before 99, which I do every morning) and was forced on to 99 rather than being able to merge onto the actual bridge to continue to my destination of Beacon Hill. I had a lovely detour through downtown and added quite a bit of time to my commute. Yay ;(
In order to avoid this in the future, does anyone know how long this change will be in place? (it wasn’t like that for my commute yesterday)

WSB April 13, 2012 (8:57 am)

MB – is that different from the ramp change mentioned in SDOT’s pre-Thursday reminder?
.
http://onthemove.seattle.gov/2012/04/11/traffic-shift-for-eastbound-traffic-on-spokane-street-viaduct-tomorrow/
.
We’ll be talking with project team members at noontime today and will take along questions – watch for the followup – TR

Cindertang April 13, 2012 (8:21 am)

Trader Joe’s has really great inexpensive products finally a place I can afford to shop at in west Seattle

Robert2715 April 13, 2012 (8:52 am)

The Port needs to get the word out to the port truct drivers about the eastbound ramp changes east of the low bridge. I had a port truck both in front of me and behind me at the Seneca exit and I am sure they didn’t mean to be in downtown.

I’m pretty sure it is:
Left ramp goes to Northbound 99 only.
Middle ramp goes to low Spokane street
Right ramp goes to southbound 99 only.

sw April 13, 2012 (9:10 am)

Lots of confused/angry/bewildered/oblivious Port truck drivers on the bridge this morning, not being able to get on the main structure. While as a lot they are never ones to follow rules or maintain any sort of decorum during the commute, the Port does need to get word to them that they need to find an alternate route.

ad April 13, 2012 (9:54 am)

Woohoo Sam @ Fleurt!

MB April 13, 2012 (10:18 am)

It does explain the change at the bottom of your link, but I had never read that or heard it anywhere before all of a sudden i was stuck with no option but 99 this morning. I was shocked when I came up from Spokane St. and couldn’t merge. It WAS NOT like that on Thursday. Oh well, guess I will need to change my route for a while. Ugh. I can’t wait for this madness to end!!!!!!

WSB April 13, 2012 (10:23 am)

We honestly didn’t realize it was a big deal for people or would have put it in the headline “bridge traffic switch and ramp change” … besides the closure of the 4th ramp. SDOT also acknowledged in correspondence with a WSB’er that it was NOT in the postal-mail flyer they sent out (I still have my copy nearby and can confirm that). Here’s hoping that they discover the old bridge deck is in better shape than they thought and needs less rehab work and the whole thing can be done sooner than “late summer” … TR

Anne April 13, 2012 (11:26 am)

As a 3rd generation West Seattle-ite I love keeping my $$ in West Seattle & seeing it prosper! In the last month I’ve had lunch at Bakery Noveau, bought flowers at Fleurt, jeans at Zamboanga, scarfs at Wild Roses, toys at Curious Kidstuff, cards & art supplies at NW Art & Frame,
plants at Home Depot & West Seattle Nursery & groceries at my favorite grocery store-WS Thriftway. Today I’m buying tickets at Arts West to see their newest play
Welcome to Trader Joes-it gives me another option
for fun delicious items & has THE BEST prices on orchid plants on a consistant basis-start at $7.99 & last for months! Can you tell..I Love WS!

sam-c April 13, 2012 (12:52 pm)

MB- I thought that change had been in place yesterday, except (as many people commented yesterday) all of the port truckers blew through the barriers and moved them so they could get to i-5 in the way you mention.

i don’t know though from personal experience, seeing as I haven’t left west seattle since Tuesday. ( need to get out more i guess- that’s what happens when you work in west Seattle )

RedHeadsRule April 13, 2012 (1:02 pm)

Yay!
So happy to have an affordable option.
Both QFCs and Safeways between here and Roxbury are so unreasonably priced, on top of PCC’s unrealistic price demands for organics also found for very cheap at the Sunday Market, we really have to limit our food choices some months.

I’ve never paid more than twenty-seven bucks per bag at Joe’s in the ten+ years I’ve shopped there. If we had a Madison Market Co-op here (best prices for organics), we’d rarely shop for food off the Rock again :)

MB April 13, 2012 (1:27 pm)

@sam-c, you could be right…I have no idea, but when I left WS yesterday morning at 7am I was able to merge there with no cones blocking anything. Maybe they had been knocked down before i got there, but as far as I could tell there weren’t any lying around. I had one of those completely confused moments today…I knew where I was being forced to go, but it didn’t make much sense as to why…and then the realization that I couldn’t get off until Seneca…grrr. Made for a strange commute! Found a new way to Beacon Hill though, so that’s cool. Regardless, I think I’ll be taking the 1st Ave South bridge and exiting on Michigan to get to Beacon Hill for a while. I can’t imagine workers could work on that small portion while cars are driving right next to it, with only cones separating them…so why is it now closed off anyway? It seemed to be working fine with the 1st ave exit closed, but still allowing cars and trucks to come up from underneath and merge. The idea of all the truckers having to get on right there at the Chelan Cafe and having to cross the entire bridge to be able to get on I5 seems kind of insane to me. I think the WS Bridge will just be dead to me for a bit ;) And Sam, I’m finding it less and less necessary to leave WS myself!

Jim April 13, 2012 (1:32 pm)

sam-c is correct. At 5:30 yesterday morning, there were still a few of those plastic poles they were using as a temporary “barrier” in place. I witnessed two port semi’s taking out a little more of the barrier. It sure didn’t last long.

Sorry, comment time is over.