West Seattle, Washington
12 Thursday
(Photo by Patrick Sand)
Police were still talking to people at the scene, so we don’t have official information on how it happened, but a vehicle went up the embankment at Fauntleroy and Myrtle and took out one of the signs that the Gatewood Elementary PTA announced last February.
(Photo by Nick Adams)
No injuries reported.
(SATURDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Proprietor Miranda reports via FB that she has signed the lease.)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
She’s not sure yet whether it’s a total move or an expansion.
But Miranda Krone, proprietor of Meander’s Kitchen in north Morgan Junction, tells WSB she is signing the lease tomorrow for a space in White Center (the former Papa’s Pub, closed since February, at 9635 16th SW).
If you follow Meander’s on Facebook, you know she’s been talking for the past week-plus about a potential new location – first, maybe Delridge, then, maybe White Center. And now, the decision is in – like Zippy’s Giant Burgers before her, she’s heading south to WC.
Big buzz for a new festival – the West Seattle Junction Association‘s Harvest Festival on Sunday, October 28th (10 am-2 pm), an expanded, streets-closed version of the megapopular annual trick-or-treat event – combined with a one-time-only California SW version of the West Seattle Farmers’ Market. Here’s our report about the festival, as published when it was announced last weekend; now, the Junction Association is putting out the call for kids’ activities to be included in the festival. Excerpted from the announcement:
West Seattle schools, non-profits, and businesses are invited to provide a Harvest Activity for kids in the neighborhood. This will help make a fun and healthy event and give families an alternative to candy! The applicant will provide the materials and hopefully their own tent.
It is free to participate and the Harvest Committee will choose the projects best suited for the event. Your Harvest Activity must be a fun kids activity and meet ALL of the guidelines…
• Activity must be FREE and suited to children. No sales.
• Must try to have a Harvest connection and be an activity or project
• Activity should not be an advertisement or promotion of the
applicant. Of course have your banner and some materials, but the emphasis is on giving kids a fun activity and families an alternative to candy.
Got something in mind? You have just over two weeks to send in your proposal; applications will be reviewed October 1st. You can e-mail WSJA’s Susan Melrose at susan@wsjunction.org. (Postal-mail, fax options are on this PDF with the full announcement.)
In West Seattle Crime Watch this evening, Timothy reports his home was broken into this afternoon:
I wanted to alert the neighborhood (we live in North Admiral on 46th between Hill and Walker) of our house burglary today 9/14/12, around 12:30 pm. My wife, our two kids, and my visiting mother-in-law came home to a loud noise in the upstairs bedroom. A side ground level window was jimmied open, with a small hammer left on the ground which was used to pry the window up thus breaking the lock. My wife went upstairs to find a shoebox on the bed, where she keeps her meds, that had been rifled through. Her jewelry box was emptied, which fortunately mostly had costume jewelry in it. Her iPhone is missing too. The upstairs window was open with the blinds hanging on the outside.
It seems that this burglary was interrupted at the very beginning, and the thief exited the house onto the roof while my kids and wife and MIL entered the house. Fortunately, no one was injured and only a few things were stolen. … There were several neighbors around at this time, and only one finding was a “tall lanky white guy with light hair” was walking down the street, likely a coincidence.
If you have neighborhood crime concerns, note that the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council resumes its monthly meetings next Tuesday (September 18th), 7 pm at the Southwest Precinct (Delridge and Webster).
3:42 PM: One Genesee Hill area resident says she heard a “boom” – then the power went out. The outage wasn’t on the City Light map when we got that note, but it is now: 157 homes affected, with restoration expected by early evening. The cause is listed as “bird/animal.”
5:13 PM NOTE: Back on, according to commenters AND the City Light map. (The image above is a screengrab of the map, before the power was restored.)
After Mayor McGinn’s August 28th Town Hall meeting at Southwest Teen Life Center (WSB coverage here), we brought you followups on two of the issues citizens asked him about – computer access and a bike lane that was about to be built without neighborhood discussion. Now, a third – Alki Community Council president Tony Fragada called the mayor’s attention to the FAA’s public-comment process on the “Greener Skies” proposal, which would (among other things) bring the flight path a lot closer to Alki, Admiral, and the rest of north West Seattle. Today was scheduled to be the comment deadline – after public meetings last week, neither of which was in or near West Seattle (here’s our coverage of the closest one, which was in Ballard). We just got word from the mayor’s office that he has sent the FAA a letter asking for an extension, AND for a meeting on the south side of the city (Beacon Hill is concerned too). Read on for the full text of the letter:
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An update on another Delridge Way road project – this time, transit-related work including the rechannelization of the north end, from Oregon to Andover, to add a bus lane. We first reported on this project back in April (there have been some changes since then – which we’ve added to the end of this story). Metro has just sent word that this work is scheduled to start soon:
A new bus lane will soon be under construction on Delridge Way Southwest to improve bus speed and reliability for Route 120 – one of Metro Transit’s Top 10 busiest routes.
During construction and restriping work, crews will maintain two open lanes of traffic by shifting lanes on Delridge Way Southwest. When weather-dependent construction starts later this month, work is planned during daytime hours outside of commute times, Tuesday through Saturday.
When complete, the half-mile-long northbound bus lane along a key stretch of Delridge Way Southwest will improve travel times approaching the West Seattle Bridge during the morning commute.
Wherever you are, the smoke that’s drifted over from fires to our east is hard to miss – for the reduced visibility and for the breathing difficulty it’s causing for some. Cliff Mass showed satellite views on his website Thursday, and that’s also when West Seattle pilot/photographer Long Bach Nguyen took the photo you see above. No rain in the forecast any time soon, by the way.
12:41 PM: If you’ve driven along Fauntleroy Way SW in recent days, you likely have noticed the missing fencing across the front of Fairmount Playfield. (One person even wondered if it might have been stolen.) It’s intentional – a replacement project is under way, says Seattle Parks spokesperson Karen O’Connor: “Seattle Parks and Recreation will be replacing the fence at Fairmount Playfield next week. To complete the project Parks will mark about 250′ of parking on the east side of Fauntleroy Way SW, south of Brandon Street, with ‘No Parking’ signs.” Find out more about the project here.
9 PM UPDATE: In case you’re wondering why the fenceposts have been there for some days with no work appearing to be done – Linda Hubert, Parks’ major-maintenance manager, explains what happened: “When the contractor removed the fence, he found an asphalt mow strip that we did not realize was there. Apparently, it had been covered over with turf for some years. The bid had been for replacement of fencing in the ground, and did not include paving. Our budget did not include paving. So, the contractor had to regroup, change his technique, order new materials, and will begin work again on Monday, September 17th. We are so sorry for the inconvenience to users. Fortunately, no games are scheduled until September 21st. The project should be complete by then.”
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“Love The ‘Hood,” read the sticker worn by many of the three-dozen-plus neighbors who made Thursday night’s Southwest Design Review Board meeting the most-attended one in months.
Some even stood in the back of the room to listen, and to speak, as the board took up the 108-unit apartment project proposed for 3078 SW Avalon Way.
If you wonder, “what’s the big deal about another apartment building on Avalon?”, note that the neighbors, from 32nd SW behind the site and a few from adjacent sites on Avalon, were not there to protest or rage or weep. They said they had met four times since first word of the project exactly one month ago, and they came with clearly articulated requests and recommendations (as previewed here).
In the end, the project passed Early Design Guidance, and the architects went away with a list of recommendations to work on before the second, and possibly final, meeting.
(Photos by Nick Adams for WSB)
Dozens of businesses opened their doors again last night for the September edition of the West Seattle Art Walk, and we have a mini-photo tour of several stops this morning, from WSB contributing photojournalist Nick Adams. Twilight Artist Collective in The Junction opened its new “Cryogenic Nude America” exhibition – top photo is “The Last Cookout,” and it’s by The Collagemonauts, who are in the next photo – from left, Craig van den Bosch, Marty Gordon, and Tim Manthey:
Nick also visited Admiral and Alki venues – with sights including this:
Nine more Art Walk scenes ahead – and remember, most installations up through the month, so you still have a chance to see them even if you weren’t out last night!
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(Photo by David Hutchinson, from low tide yesterday. Check tides on the WSB Weather page!)
For today’s preview, we point you to the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar, which includes the start of Holy Rosary School‘s WestFest (6-10 pm tonight), Rainbow Bingo at the Senior Center of West Seattle (doors open at 6 pm); high-school football (WSHS is at home, Sealth on the road, both games at 7); and the weekend-long closure of northbound 99 between the West Seattle Bridge and Royal Brougham, starting at 11 tonight. See EVERYTHING here – click on the right side of any line to expand the preview, then click “read more” for full details (including maps).
A major function of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce is to bring local businesses together so they know about and can potentially work with each other. Toward that end, the Chamber sponsors a monthly “After Hours” event, held at a different local business every time. Thursday night, Swedish Automotive (WSB sponsor) in Gatewood hosted visiting Chamber members; in our photo, that’s Chamber board chair Dave Montoure of West 5 at left, with Chamber staffer Terry Ahern and Swedish proprietor Dave Winters. Next week will mark two years since Swedish Automotive moved into its spacious, sustainability-focused location at 35th and Kenyon.
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