day : 09/06/2012 10 results

2 ways to give in The Junction on Sunday: Yoga & shoes

June 9, 2012 11:04 pm
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 |   How to help | West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

BENEFIT YOGA CLASS: 5 pm on Sunday, Bikram Yoga Seattle (WSB sponsor) invites you to a special class to benefit Run of Hope, fighting childhood brain tumors. (4747 California SW)

SHOE DRIVE: Sunday is day 1 of a week-long shoe drive at Clementine (4447 California SW). Bring in “gently used” women’s shoes to donate to Jubilee Women’s Center. Here’s the Facebook event page. Donors get a discount on new shoes if interested, as pointed out in this update on the Clementine website.

Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project: Touring the work zone

Photos and story by Patrick Sand and Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog co-publishers

Curving over 1st Avenue South, that’s the ramp West Seattleites have been waiting for since SDOT closed and demolished its predecessor two years ago, as part of the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project. The new combination on-and-off-ramp for the westbound SSV isn’t expected to be ready for you to use until summer’s end – one year longer than estimated back in 2010 – but it’s getting closer:

That’s the view we had from halfway up the ramp during a tour with the project team on Friday afternoon. We saw what’s happening now and talked about what’s happening next – including the reason why the westbound SSV is now (as of 6 pm Saturday 6/9) CLOSED for the remainder of the weekend. Read on for details, including 18 more photos from our tour:

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Happening now: Cooper Artist Housing open house in North Delridge

June 9, 2012 5:31 pm
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 |   Delridge | West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

Sister the cat is helping greet visitors at the Cooper Artist Housing loft of Liv Browning, during the open house that continues till 9 tonight. We met Sister and Liv during a quick mid-afternoon visit. The artists really are opening their homes, as well as showing their work. Liv and Sister are on the third floor, as is the stairwell where music and spoken-word performances are scheduled throughout the event:

You’ll see art in many media lining the old Cooper School’s hallways:

And you can visit the nonprofits on the ground floor (like Nature Consortium) or check out demonstrations in the Movement Studio. It’s all happening inside Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW.

West Seattle Crime Watch: Did you see a package thief?

Out of the WSB inbox, from Chris:

We had a delivered package containing some hard-to-replace valuables taken from our front porch on the corner of 27th and Holden at some point between 2 and 9 pm yesterday. Wrapping material (which I’m assuming is) from the package were strewn down the hill from our house.

He’s wondering if anyone saw someone in the area “carrying a big, 15-20 pound box during that time.”

Poggie Tavern reopens in West Seattle Junction, post-fire

Almost four weeks after an early-morning dumpster fire that spread to the exterior of Poggie Tavern in The Junction – here’s our coverage from May 14th – the Poggie is finally open again, as of about an hour ago. In our photograph, that’s bartender Amy, who explains that in addition to repairs required by smoke damage, they also took the opportunity to do some other work inside. (Thanks to Deborra for the tip!)

West Seattle weekend scenes: Cleaning streets; building ‘houses’

A productive morning around West Seattle so far – here’s just a few reasons why:

Thanks to Admiral Neighborhood Association vice president Karl de Jong for the photo of ANA president Katy Walum and children Olivia and Henry at this morning’s Adopt-A-Street cleanup (as previewed here). They were among the volunteers who spent three hours out cleaning up Admiral District streets – just one of ANA’s community-enhancing activities; if you live in the area, check out their next monthly meeting, this Tuesday, June 12, 7 pm, at Admiral Congregational Church (California/Hill).

Not far away, at Alki Bathhouse:

Thanks to Anita Lavine for sharing that photo from the Junior Carpenters’ Workshop presented by Niederberger Contracting this morning. Anita says the kids built birdhouses for chickadees to nest in! Anita explains, “The guys are doing it as a way to say ‘thank you’ to the supportive community here in the neighborhood, and provide all the materials and instruction free of charge.”

Red water reappears off West Seattle: Looks like non-toxic noctiluca again

Janel sent that photo early this morning from her neighborhood in The Arroyos, the southwesternmost area of West Seattle, wondering if the red water was a sign of an algae bloom. If it’s the same stuff that did the same thing in June of last year, it’s a “bloom,” but NOT algae – single-cell microorganisms known as “noctiluca.” Here’s one of our stories from last year. It is also NOT TOXIC, according to experts, and not uncommon, though the sight of it last year was enough to startle a sizable number of people. So far, we’ve only heard from The Arroyos – let us know if you see it anywhere else.

11:33 AM: Via a Twitter inquiry mediated by our friend Evonne from KING5.com, we hear this has shown up at Lincoln Park, too.

West Seattle Saturday: Traffic alerts; Cooper Artists’ open house; book signing; music; more

June 9, 2012 6:21 am
|    Comments Off on West Seattle Saturday: Traffic alerts; Cooper Artists’ open house; book signing; music; more
 |   West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(Photo by Paul Swortz, via the WSB Flickr group pool)
Happy weekend! Some sunshine predicted (per the WSB Weather page). Here are some highlights:

TRAFFIC REMINDERS: The westbound Spokane Street Viaduct closes at 6 pm tonight – meaning NO I-5/BEACON HILL ACCESS TO THE BRIDGE – and is scheduled to stay closed for ongoing construction/repairs till 5 am Monday … If you are going to be out and about this afternoon, remember that two major events are happening in SODO, as detailed in the weekly citywide weekend-alerts list.

HELP CLEAN UP THE ADMIRAL DISTRICT: Be at Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) at 9 am – just to the south of the front door – to meet up with the Admiral Neighborhood Association for one of its periodic Adopt-A-Street cleanups. There will be free breakfast treats (and usually sack lunches afterward), and you’ll be provided with what you need to get out and clean up. Just a few hours will make a big difference.

27TH ANNIVERSARY SALE: All weekend, at CAPERS in The Junction.

TECHSTART EXPO: Come see what the elementary and middle-school students involved with this STEM program are up to – 10 am-2 pm at Brockey Center, South Seattle Community College, 6000 16th SW.

(added) TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE FOR MORNING GLORY DRAG BRUNCH: As of just before 11 am, Skylark Café and Club reported via Facebook that today’s Morning Glory Drag Brunch at noon still has room – so we’re adding it here.

SPRING WINE RELEASE EVENTS CONTINUE … at Northwest Wine Academy on the SSCC campus, 12-5 pm, including a food/wine pairing event 3-5 pm.

(added) AND MORE WINE: West Seattle Wine Cellars is pouring Walla Walla wines 3-5 pm today.

ANNETTE COTTRELL AT VILLAGE GREEN: The author of “The Urban Farm Handbook” will be at Village Green Perennial Nursery (WSB sponsor) to sign books today, 1 pm. Here’s the Facebook event page.

COOPER ARTIST HOUSING OPEN HOUSE: Demonstrations of movement, music, dance, and more are on the schedule for this event at the artist housing atop Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW), 3-9 pm.

(added) SALSA ON ALKI: Debuting for the season tonight, according to a tip via Twitter that included this Facebook event link – 6 pm.

LIVE MUSIC: Willow and The Embers (along with Nicole Hardy‘s poetry) headline “Angels on the Radio: An Evening of Wine, Wit and Song” at Mind Unwind (2206 California SW), 5:30-11 pm … Gary Benson at C & P Coffee Company (5612 California SW; WSB sponsor), 6-8 pm … Ever, Little Red Long, Fey Moth at Skylark Café and Club (3803 Delridge Way SW), 8 pm… The Fuzz at Feedback Lounge (6451 California SW; WSB sponsor), 8:30 pm … (Anybody else? Send us a quick note sooner rather than later, so we can help get the word out!)

WEST SEATTLE GARDEN TOUR TICKETS: With five weeks to go till the July 15th tour, the ticket books are on sale starting this weekend – locations listed here.

Even MORE for today/tonight – and beyond – on the calendar!

Update: West Seattle power outage blamed on ‘pole fire’

(Screen grab of what City Light showed at the peak of this morning’s outage)
2:16 AM, FIRST REPORT: After seeing a “wires down” call on 31st SW turn up on the 911 log, we started checking the Seattle City Light system-status map to see if anyone was out of power. Nothing has ever shown on the map, but we’ve received a few scattered reports of power having been out for an indeterminate amount of time – California/Juneau, High Point, Fairmount. If you happened to notice yours go out, let us know where and for how long – thanks!

2:26 AM UPDATE: We have a Beach Drive outage report via Twitter. Our power has not gone out, not even a flicker, here in Upper Fauntleroy, for what it’s worth. (One minute later) It’s now on the map – City Light says 1,340+ customers (homes/businesses) affected but that may be an underestimate, since their map isn’t showing areas in Alki where we’re hearing from people.

2:38 AM UPDATE: Now we’re getting reports it’s back on, at least for some. Thanks to everybody for the comments, texts (206-293-6302 any time, which is also our 24/7 voice line), tweets, Facebook posts, etc. – since the SCL map lagged on this one, your alerts are how we got the word AND that in turn helped inform everyone else out there that it wasn’t just them. Whenever we find out what caused this, we’ll add the info – not sure if that info will be available over the weekend, but we’ll try.

3:10 AM UPDATE: High Point and vicinity reports being back on. City Light map, meantime, is definitely lagging, because now it shows what must have been the peak of the outage – more than 4,700 homes/businesses out – a bit earlier. We’re taking a screengrab and will add it atop this story, for posterity’s sake.

3:20 AM UPDATE: City Light news release confirms the peak tally of 4,700+ and indeed blames it on the “wires down” incident, now described as a “pole fire” near SW Findlay/30th SW.

Video: Congratulations, Seattle Lutheran High School Class of 2012

Excitement and maybe a few nerves were evident – as you’d expect! – as the Seattle Lutheran High School Class of 2012 entered the school’s Menashe Family Gymnasium for their graduation ceremony last night. The 43 seniors comprise the school’s 32nd graduating class; Keegan White was this year’s valedictorian; Valerie Reid, the salutatorian. 15 of this year’s graduates qualified for the National Honor Society; this night also represented a milestone for their NHS advisor (among her many other roles), Shirley Vradenburgh, photographed pre-ceremony with SLHS principal Mark Henderson:

She is retiring after 32 years during which, as the school newsletter noted, she has “worked with every student who has graduated from SLHS.” A celebration is planned next week, but on this night, the spotlight was on the students moving to the next phase of their lives. Congratulations to them all!