day : 29/07/2012 10 results

This week’s road closures: 99/Viaduct, Spokane St. Viaduct, I-90/Blue Angels

July 29, 2012 11:25 pm
|    Comments Off on This week’s road closures: 99/Viaduct, Spokane St. Viaduct, I-90/Blue Angels
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

Road-closure advisories for the week ahead have come in from a variety of sources – so we’ve melding them into one list of what to expect, day by day. This includes Alaskan Way Viaduct, Spokane Street Viaduct (the West Seattle Bridge between 99 and I-5), and, for this week, I-90 Bridge/Blue Angels closures (since the exit’s close enough to the east end of the WS Bridge to affect it):

SUNDAY NIGHT, JULY 29 (tonight)
*Alaskan Way Viaduct is closed northbound AND southbound from and to the West Seattle Bridge until 5 am. The NB closure ends at Royal Brougham; the SB closure begins at the Battery Street Tunnel

MONDAY, JULY 30
*Alaskan Way Viaduct: Closed southbound 9 pm-5 am between Battery Street Tunnel and West Seattle Bridge
*Spokane St. Viaduct: Eastbound offramp to 1st Avenue S. closed 10 pm tonight to 5 am tomorrow

TUESDAY, JULY 31
*Alaskan Way Viaduct: Closed southbound 9 pm-5 am between Battery Street Tunnel and West Seattle Bridge
*Spokane St. Viaduct: Eastbound offramp to 1st Avenue S. closed 10 pm tonight to 5 am tomorrow

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1
*Alaskan Way Viaduct: Closed southbound 9 pm-5 am between Battery Street Tunnel and West Seattle Bridge
*Spokane St. Viaduct: Eastbound offramp to 1st Avenue S. closed 10 pm tonight to 5 am tomorrow

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2
*Alaskan Way Viaduct: Closed southbound 9 pm-5 am between Battery Street Tunnel and West Seattle Bridge
*Spokane St. Viaduct: Eastbound offramp to 1st Avenue S. closed 10 pm tonight to 5 am tomorrow
*I-90 Bridge closures for Blue Angels’ Seafair practices: 9:45 am-noon, 1:15 pm-2:30 pm

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3
*Spokane St. Viaduct: Eastbound lanes will be closed 10 pm tonight-5 am tomorrow; all eastbound traffic will have to exit at 1st Avenue South offramp (to get to I-5 or Columbian Way, you can then drive eastbound on surface Spokane St. and reconnect at 6th)
*I-90 Bridge closure for Blue Angels’ Seafair practice show: 12:45 pm-2:40 pm

SATURDAY, AUGUST 4
*I-90 Bridge closures for Blue Angels’ Seafair show: 12:45 pm-2:40 pm

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5
*Alaskan Way Viaduct: Closed southbound 9 pm-5 am between Battery Street Tunnel and West Seattle Bridge
*I-90 Bridge closures for Blue Angels’ Seafair show: 12:45 pm-2:40 pm

MONDAY, AUGUST 6
*Spokane St. Viaduct: Westbound lanes will be closed between I-5 and Highway 99, 10 pm-5 am, which means no access to West Seattle Bridge from I-5 or Beacon Hill

This will remain linked atop the BIG STORIES list on the WSB sidebar throughout the week, in case you’need to find it quickly!

Update: Terrarium fire in Arbor Heights home, quickly extinguished

8:49 PM: Seattle Fire Department crews are arriving at a home near 39th and 102nd and reporting “light smoke” visible. We’re on the way and will have updates as more information is available. It does not appear to be a major fire, though – all but three crews have been canceled.

8:57 PM UPDATE: Our crew is there and says it was a small fire contained to a terrarium where a turtle lives. The residents are checking on the turtle.

10:52 PM UPDATE: In case you haven’t seen this in the comments already – a neighbor says the turtle is OK, though a bit shell-scorched.

West Seattle High School’s Philip Nokeo wins national competition

We have news of a local gold medalist – but it’s got nothing to do with the Olympics! West Seattle High School student Philip Nokeo is home from the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America national conference in Florida with the gold medal for Applied Technology. He earned the trip to nationals by winning that same medal in statewide competition. Philip and teacher Sarah Orton (with him in the photo) traveled with 20 students and staff from elsewhere in the city. Teacher says they were among 7,000 students at the conference, and of course there was time for side trips to Disney World and Universal Studios parks, as well as numerous conference events on which Philip will brief his fellow students in the WSHS chapter next school year. Congratulations!

Update: Southbound I-5 lanes now open again after shooting, crash; bullet hits West Seattleite’s car

(8:23 PM UPDATE: Police say West Seattleite driving on I-5 caught in crossfire)

(“Live” image of I-5 at Boeing Access Road – refresh page for newest view)
5:04 PM: An incident on southbound I-5 in the Boeing Field area has backed up traffic all the way to the West Seattle Bridge – with northbound slowdowns reported too – and since a stretch of northbound 99 is currently closed just north of here, that means bridge backups. According to KING 5, this is a crash that was preceded by “an exchange of gunfire between the occupants of two cars.” More to come.

5:36 PM: Update from WSDOT:

Seattle Police also have updates, via Twitter, saying that one person was shot, and is expected to survive. They say that one of the vehicles involved in the dispute hit one that was not, and that caused the rollover crash.

5:55 PM: WSDOT says all lanes are open again.

6:36 PM: SFD has an update on the people injured – two in the flipped car, one shooting victim in a different vehicle.

8:23 PM: The SPD Blotter version of all this has just been published, and it includes this new information: Police say a “stray bullet” hit a West Seattleite’s car. From their report:

Another innocent motorist who was driving southbound on I-5 got his windows shot out by a stray bullet fired by the suspects. That driver (who was the only one on board his vehicle) drove home to the West Seattle area and called 911. An officer responded and took a report on that incident and documented the property damage. The driver was not injured.

8:39 PM: Police also have added this clarification – the original incident was not an “exchange of gunfire” – only one car, which has not yet been found, had someone in it who was shooting; the car in which someone got shot, and which hit the vehicle that overturned, did NOT have anyone firing a gun, and was not even found to contain anyone with a gun. The SPD report now includes this:

There is no indication at this time that the shooting victim ever shot back at the suspects or suspect vehicle and no firearm was located on the shooting victim.

West Seattle Crime Watch: Holdup attempt leads to arrest

A man arrested in West Seattle early today is a suspect in two street robberies – one here, one in Capitol Hill – according to police, who are still seeking a second suspect. From the report published on SPD Blotter this afternoon by Det. Jeff Kappel:

At approximately 1:00 a.m. this morning the two female victims, 26 and 27 years of age, were walking in the area of Delridge and Genesee when they were confronted by two black male suspects. One asked for a cigarette which the victims didn’t have. Both victims continued walking. A couple seconds later they were approached from behind by one of the suspects. This time he was armed with a handgun and demanded their purses.

At the same time a witness was leaving his house to walk his dog and interrupted the robbery, causing the suspect to run off. The witness and the victims chased the suspect and observed him enter a waiting vehicle driven by a second suspect at 25th and Genesee.

Read More

Waste Management strike: Company brings in ‘substitute drivers’

(Substitute-driven WM truck photographed outside Delridge restaurant Saturday morning)
An update on the Waste Management walkout, just in from the company:

Teamsters Local 117 recycle and yard waste drivers remain on strike. Teamsters 174 garbage drivers continue to honor the picket lines.

Over the weekend, experienced WM substitute drivers made solid progress on critical stops in cities across the Puget Sound. Per our contingency plan, our second wave of experienced WM substitute drivers arrived on Saturday and Sunday. They will be deployed on Monday, July 30. Additional substitute drivers are on the way and we are beginning to hire replacement drivers identified during our job fair last month.

MONDAY COLLECTION SERVICE

Monday collection service will focus on commercial collection routes, including restaurants.
Renton will receive residential garbage collection service due to their unique every other week (EOW) collection frequency.

Please continue to check our WM website for daily collection information at www.wmnorthwest.com.

The city’s most recent update, from Friday, suggests Monday pickup customers put out their cans as usual.

The strike began at midday Wednesday; drivers had been working without a contract since late May, and took a strike-authorization vote in early June.

Alki Art Fair, day 2: Busy day at the beach

Even bigger crowd at the Alki Art Fair during the early afternoon today, by our comparison – good reason to try the shuttle from WSHS if you’re driving. It runs till 6, which is how long the vendors are supposed to be open, but music continues till about 8 (six more acts to go, including at 5:45 pm, “Elvis rock/punk review” Graceland Five). The main stage was briefly idle during our visit, but the small “acoustic stage” toward the west end of the fair wasn’t:

That’s Choro Tocando, often seen and heard around West Seattle. If you’ve never been to the fair and are still pondering whether to go before day’s end, note that it features art that’s wearable and otherwise functional, not just great paintings and prints and photos for decorating your home. We even found checkbook covers:

The cat and dog images are creations of Phoenix Chiu. And if you take along your real-life pet, the Seal Sitters booth has water that’s “under guard”:

(We checked in with Seal Sitters volunteers, who say no pup has turned up since “Georgie” earlier in the week – here’s their Art Fair report! If you see a seal on the shore, call them at 206-905-SEAL.)

P.S. This is the second year the Alki Art Fair has been an all-volunteer production, since city budget cuts took away the staff support it used to get from Alki Community Center.

West Seattle Crime Watch: More hit-run damage; car prowls

Four West Seattle Crime Watch reports so far this weekend, starting with a hit-run that left the above-shown damage on Kami and Martin‘s car:

Someone hit our car early (Saturday) morning and drove off. The sound of the crash woke me, but by the time I looked out the window they were gone. It happened about 2:15 am. Our car is parked in High Point at 29th & Raymond. Their car must be pretty damaged, as we cannot even drive ours. They left some blue paint on our car and mirror and glass on the road. Their car (probably a blue color) would have damage to the driver’s side from the headlight down the side, damaged side mirror and headlight and probably some black paint on it from our car. It is just disturbing that someone leaves the scene like this and costs a family a $1,000 deductible, rental car and towing expense.

Ahead, three notes including two cases of car prowling, both spotted in progress overnight:

Read More

West Seattle Sunday: Alki Art Fair continues; all-ages open mike debuts @ Skylark; more

A few more notes before we get too far into our sun-is-trying-to-break-through Sunday:

OVERLAPPING 99 CLOSURES: Northbound Highway 99 between the West Seattle Bridge and Royal Brougham Way remains closed till 5 am tomorrow. And that will overlap with a southbound closure between the Battery Street Tunnel and WS Bridge from 9 pm tonight till 5 am tomorrow. (Our melded day-by-day version of the closure list for the week ahead, with info for both 99 and the Spokane Street Viaduct, will be published later today.)

TODAY’S YARD/RUMMAGE SALES: Check the listings (free to post!) in the WSB ForumsFreebies/Deals/Sales section – some of this weekend’s sales are on for today, too, including the Community School of West Seattle yard/bake sale (till 4 pm)

ALKI ART FAIR, DAY 2: Here are our reports from Day 1, and from Night 1. Hours are 10 am-6 pm today along the boardwalk, and that’s when you can catch the shuttle from the West Seattle High School parking lot (3000 California SW); music runs 10 am-8 pm (here’s the schedule).

WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm at 44th/Alaska as always – peak time for some summer produce!

WING-EATING CONTEST: At West Seattle’s Wing Dome today – but it’s not an “everybody sit down and compete all at once” event – it’s ongoing from 11 am to 9 pm; info here.

PRESCHOOL OPEN HOUSE: 1-4 pm today at Little Rascals Preschool of West Seattle (WSB sponsor); map here.

FIRST ALL-AGES OPEN MIKE AT SKYLARK: Sign up at 3 pm, three songs each between 4 and 7 pm, at Skylark Café and Club (3803 Delridge Way SW). We have it on good word that musician India Spence (recently seen at Summer Fest) will be among the performers. Note that the bar IS open for those with 21+ up ID.

WEST SEATTLE COOKING CLUB: They usually meet on Mondays, but this is one of those special weekend gatherings just for those who are busy weekdays. 3 pm at Beveridge Place Pubthe theme is “Southwestern.”

MORE SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: Today Greenstage presents “Taming of the Shrew” at 3 pm in Lincoln Park, free.

SUNDAY NIGHT SINGING: At The Bridge with Karaoke Kelli, 9 pm.

More on the calendar!

Alki Art Fair: Day 2 today; plus, Saturday night scenes

July 29, 2012 8:55 am
|    Comments Off on Alki Art Fair: Day 2 today; plus, Saturday night scenes
 |   West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

The Alki Art Fair continues today – 10 am to 6 pm for vendors, same as Saturday, with the shuttle from West Seattle High School‘s parking lot running those hours too; music continues till about 8 pm. Our 1st Saturday report is here, but there’s more…

Yet another beautiful sunset last night as people gathered for Saturday’s final musical act, Matt the Hoopla:

MTH is a West Seattle band specializing in ’70s-rock covers, with a focus on “glam rock.” The song on the clip is “One of the Boys,” by the band that inspired their name, Mott the Hoople. We met one of the band’s members, Don Bazemore (screen left), while he was volunteering at the West Seattle Summer Fest Info Booth (our festival HQ), and resolved to check out their AAF performance. Today’s full music lineup, from MoZo at 10 am to Burley Mountain at 7 pm, is here.