(Photos courtesy Mark Ahlness – more on the AH Elementary Facebook page)
February is a most literary month at many West Seattle schools, with writing/reading events dotting many a calendar. Tonight, for the second consecutive night, we bring you a story about an author visiting a local school – this time, Northwest author Paul Owen Lewis at Arbor Heights Elementary. It’s the third time he’s visited AH, according to longtime teacher Mark Ahlness, who says Lewis’s first visit was in 1998 – that would have been before EVERY student currently enrolled at AH was born! He spoke to assemblies as well as to classes:
Mark says, “As always, he was dynamic, entertaining, and inspirational. A great day that the kids will remember!”
Summer will be here before you know it, and West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival volunteers/members have a lot to do. Notes from last night’s Hi-Yu membership meeting: This year’s Senior Court Queen Kayli Schulz was on hand in the West Seattle Hi-Yu sash, and is getting closer to receiving her crown. It was announced at the meeting that when she is coronated at the Hi-Yu Spring Tea and Auction on March 18 (2 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy, ticket info here), she will be crowned by the reigning Miss Seafair, Veronica Quintero.
Also shown at last night’s meeting – Diane Szender‘s winning design for the Hi-Yu trading pin – which you can look for at this year’s summer events, since it’s sold to the public as well as provided to royalty to trade with their counterparts from other festivals:
Diane explains that the goal was to incorporate the past pin design (which you can see on the Hi-Yu Facebook page) into the new one. Riley Fredericks also proposed a pin design (she’s behind this year’s float theme too).
Other discussions last night included fundraising logistics. Planning for the Tea is on track with donated auction items, and table captains, though they’d still love to have more donations. Other fundraising strategies are being brainstormed.
And the Hi-Yu Float is still in need of a storage site. Its undercarriage is in Everett at the moment; volunteers are going to help with locations to store supplies and build components, but Hi-Yu still would love to have a space donated where Seattle’s last remaining community-promoting float could be kept for easier access, maintenance, etc.
There’s one more week to go for public comment on the land-use-permit application for the DESC Delridge project (details here). And we just discovered tonight that the tentative date for the project’s next Design Review Board meeting has been moved up two weeks to March 8 (West Seattle Senior Center, 8 pm). But those are not the only opportunities you have for input on the proposed 66-unit homeless-housing project at 5444 Delridge Way SW. We’ve reported before on the community advisory group formed as part of the process – and tonight, its first public meeting has just been announced for February 21st. The official announcement was sent by Pete Spalding, who is co-chairing the group:Read More
Metro‘s route restructuring isn’t the only side effect of RapidRide coming to West Seattle this fall. As Metro and SDOT have been warning for many months, lots of road work is on the way too to facilitate it, and that work starts in a big way next week. Here’s the announcement just sent out:Read More
We talked with SDOT managers at the Muni Tower downtown this afternoon, following up on last week’s announcement at the Alaskan Way Viaduct South Portal Working Group meeting that the work on the east end of the West Seattle Bridge would require at least six weeks with one eastbound lane and two westbound lanes (reported here last Thursday).
Since then, SDOT says, they have figured out how to fit two lanes each way onto the new half of the SSV; they say they had been hoping all along to work that out, but it didn’t happen until after that briefing last week.
Right now, traffic in the project area between 99 and I-5 is flowing partly on new construction and partly on old:
In late March, when all traffic is shifted onto the new structure on the north side of the old one, the configuration will look like this:
SDOT also says they have NO daytime closures scheduled currently – neither weekend nor weekday – but reiterate that if any are necessary before the project’s completion in mid-summer, the notification and signage will follow the new guidelines spelled out in a report we brought you here last Friday. It resulted from a review of what happened Saturday, January 28th, with traffic backups much of the day because of what was supposed to be a weekend-long closure of the eastbound SSV, a surprise to many because there was no warning signage either ahead of time or during the shutdown.
We have more to add to this story – about the project’s overall status and some questions that have arisen along the way – but wanted to get this news out first; we’ll add the rest here shortly.
ADDED 6:30 PM: As promised, the rest of the story:Read More
Just four months after opening, the Corner Store and Deli in The Triangle is closed. The white and red posted flyers on the left side of the door are eviction notices and court documents that just turned up.
As some WSB’ers had pointed out in notes asking about the store’s status, it hadn’t been open much, if at all, lately; we don’t recall seeing its doors open for at least a week and a half. The space at 4415 Fauntleroy Way SW had previously long been known as Tervo’s Mini-Mart.
Earlier today we got a call from a woman who said she had tipped police off to burglars in her neighborhood, after seeing people running through her neighbors’ yard with what seemed to be loot – even dropping an XBOX game console at one point. We headed to the area, couldn’t find any police, but were pursuing a followup; SPD Blotter beat us to it by publishing the tale of how it unfolded:
On 2-7-12, at approximately 10:56 a.m., officers responded to the 1200 block of SW Myrtle St, to investigate a burglary in progress where the three suspects had fled from the house.
The victim called 911 when she observed the three suspects flee out the back door of her residence. Officers quickly arrived in the area and began a search. One suspect was located within minutes, a few blocks from the scene. The other two suspects were quickly located and positively identified by the witness.
All three suspects are male and 18-years-old. The trio was processed and booked into King County Jail for Investigation of Auto Theft and Burglary.
The suspects drove a stolen Honda to the scene. The Honda was recovered and held for processing by detectives.
Another reason why police make the request over and over again – if you see something suspicious, please call 911!
Since the Seattle School Board‘s vote last month to create a new “option” elementary focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), to open this fall in a temporary home at the former Boren Junior High(left), many have asked – when will the district provide specifics about the plan for this school?
This afternoon, we have new information after following up with district spokesperson Lesley Rogers. She tells WSB, “A letter will go out to families in West Seattle this week announcing plans for the school, as well as a state for an open house” to be held before “open enrollment” starts February 27th. (We’ll add a copy of that letter when we receive it from the district communications team.) Rogers also says the district is creating a website for the new school, “hoping to get that up and running soon.”
The new school is also bound to be a topic tomorrow, when West Seattle’s school-board rep Marty McLaren holds her next community-conversation meeting, 11:15 am-1:15 pm at High Point Library (34th/Raymond).
As spring nears, more people will be visiting local city-run community centers, possibly for the first time since major operational changes took effect. At Hiawatha Community Center this past Sunday, we talked with Parks’ Lakema Bell, who wants to remind you the changes come with a regional management structure change – she is one of two senior employees running this regional group, and they request “patience” while everything shakes out. Center hours are listed here. One BIG change will be noticed by hundreds of families this spring – no more individual community-center egg hunts like this one:
(Hiawatha 2010 egg-hunt photo by Jason Grotelueschen for WSB)
Lakema tells us that the former Southwest Community Center, which is now a Teen Life Center and future Neighborhood Service Center (we reported last month on the timetable for the NSC to move in), will play host to one major egg-hunt-and-more event this spring that will replace multiple smaller events. It’ll be a regional event on April 7th at the Southwest site, with staggered egg hunts for various age groups – on the athletic fields around the complex if the weather’s OK, indoors if not. They’re planning to make a festival of it by including a 1K fun run and a musical performance by West Seattle-based kindie-rock superstar Caspar Babypants. Full details are still being finalized – right now it looks like 11:30 am-3 pm with $5/person admission – but since it’s just two months away, you might want to mark that calendar now.
One was already on the calendar – one, we just found out about. The Admiral Neighborhood Association and Fauntleroy Community Association both usually meet the second Tuesday of the month, but since this year, that falls on Valentine’s Day, both have moved their meetings. ANA will meet at 7 pm Wednesday, February 15th (same place as usual, basement meeting room at Admiral Congregational Church); FCA will meet at 7 pm tonight (same place as usual, Fauntleroy Schoolhouse). The public’s always welcome at both.
LIBRARY STORY TIMES: Three this morning at libraries in West Seattle (babies/toddlers/preschoolers), and one “family story time” tonight – all listed on the Seattle Public Library Calendar of Events.
WEST SEATTLE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRAS : Tuesday night is rehearsal night, all detailed here, for returning AND new WSCO musicians; rehearsals at Chief Sealth International High School (2600 SW Thistle).
CHIEF SEALTH IHS PTSA: Tonight’s a general meeting at 7 pm in the school library. The agenda includes updates from the principal and regional director of schools, as well as what the meeting notice describes as: “a facilitated hour-long workshop on communicating with your teen … (with) an interactive experience for all participants.” Tickets also will be on sale for the third annual Seahawk Spirit Dinner and Auction on March 3rd.
WEST SEATTLE HS PTSA: Also meeting tonight, 7 pm, with meeting highlights including updates from the school administration plus the latest on events including Senior Night and the West Seattle 5K.
NIGHTLIFE:Skylark Café and Club acoustic open mic night, starts 7 pm … Rock music/pop culture trivia at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor), 8 pm … “Geeks Who Drink” pub quiz at The Wing Dome in The Junction, 8 pm … Trivia at The Bridge, $2 registration beginning at 8 pm and play starting at 8:30 pm. … Free pool at Beveridge Place Pub, plus discounts on bottled Belgian beer … Starlight songwriter showcase at Shadowland, 9 pm.
For the first time (that we have seen in public listings, anyway) since the recent Triangle-and-vicinity upzoning/rezoning was finalized by the City Council, one of the upzoned lots has been put up for sale. It’s a 11,500-square-foot site on the east edge of The Junction at 4731 40th SW (map), south of Bank of America. County records say it is owned by the Andresen family; the listing says it is offered for $1.6 million. Here’s the flyer; it notes that the property was rezoned to NC3-85 (the latter is the maximum height) in December, 20 feet higher than previously allowed, and the listing says, “New zoning will allow density of plus or minus 70 units with views from upper floors.”
Just out of the WSB inbox, one more look at the orcas – transients, according to The Whale Trail‘s Donna Sandstrom – that visited our area: Rick Rasmussen, who provided the photos you can see in this Sunday report, just sent the link to that video he also recorded when his sailing trip turned into an unexpected round of whale-watching.
Also visiting West Seattle on Sunday, a young seal promptly dubbed Flipper:
Alki photographer and Seal Sitters volunteer David Hutchinson shares the photo, and this update:
Even though the calendar says February, Seal Sitters is busy responding to young harbor seals on West Seattle beaches. Yesterday a weaned pup, nicknamed Flipper, spent 5 hours ashore on the steps along the promenade at Alki Beach. A large number of people were out taking advantage of our sunny weather, and volunteers had an opportunity to answer their many questions.
It is important, if you come across seals or other marine mammals on the beaches of West Seattle, to call our hotline at 206-905-SEAL (7325). Please ask others to keep a respectful distance and all dogs should be on a leash. The goal, as always, is to give these young animals an opportunity to rest safely while ashore. A pup has recently been hauling out on the beaches at Lincoln Park, so if you spot him, please give our hotline a call.
For more details about Flipper and the other recent visitors to West Seattle beaches, please visit our Blubberblog.
Seal Sitters will soon be announcing the first training session of 2012 in preparation for the upcoming pupping season. For more information please visit Volunteer Now on our website.
(From left, Katherine Schlick-Noe and students Katherine “Kit” Hall, Taylor Chapman, Andres Acevedo)
On any given day, you never know who you will see at a local school. Special-education teacher Paula Tortorice‘s Language Arts class at West Seattle High School hosted a local author today. Dr. Katherine Schlick Noe is the author of “Something to Hold,” which does a turnabout on the topic of discrimination. Tortorice explains that the book is written from the perspective of “Kitty,” a white girl who with her family moves to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in central Oregon, and that the book also explores topics including bullying. She says Dr. Schlick Noe showed a PowerPoint presentation featuring many of the places in the story, answered students’ questions, and listened to their opinions about “Something to Hold.” During their study of the book, they wrote about it and drew posters depicting “what they thought their favorite scenes in the book might look like,” Tortorice says. (In addition to being a writer, Dr. Schlick Noe is a professor at Seattle University.)
Five years after the “sexpresso” trend was the talk of the town, people don’t seem to get steamed up any more over the concept of espresso stands with baristas in lingerie. Nonetheless, it’s noteworthy that one of these stands has turned up here, first one we recall hearing about: At 9435 Delridge Way SW in the South Delridge Triangle, the former Java Joint drive-up stand has just been repainted pink and given the new name Brewlesque Espresso. Noticing this while in the area today, we stopped for a photo; the barista told us the stand has new ownership as of just a few days ago, and that’s who made the change. (As was noted in coverage five years ago, as long as the baristas keep their naughty bits covered up, it’s all perfectly legal.)
If you look up Metro Transit info online, Metro wants to know what you think about a new homepage they’ve put up for a test drive. They say it highlights the most popular features – route schedules, announcements, trip planning – and works better on mobile devices than the current site. Check it out here, and then answer a survey that you’ll see at the very top of the page. This is just for the home page; they plan to roll out other changes later this year.
Longtime West Seattle businessman Jim Sweeney, who has operated Alki Lumber in The Triangle for more than half a century, has died. (This was reported in the WSB Forums last night, and both the family and the business have now confirmed it.) Our photo is from September 2010, when the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle honored Mr. Sweeney as an “Everyday Hero” for donating materials to a club service project at Westcrest Park. He had told club members that day that, while Seattle had more than 130 lumber yards when he took over Alki Lumber in 1959, only a handful remained by the turn of the millennium. Mr. Sweeney was 73 years old; his memorial service is planned for 2 pm Sunday at Our Lady of Guadalupe. We’re expecting additional information from his family later, and will add it then.
ADDED 3:32 PM: From the Sweeney family:
James Brandon Sweeney, 73, of West Seattle died peacefully with his family by his side on Sunday, February 5, 2012 at Swedish Hospital. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. Jim was born in Seattle on December 30, 1938 and grew up in West Seattle. He graduated from West Seattle High School in 1957. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Judy, and their two daughters, Lisa (John Guthrie) and Lynn (Matt Pedersen), five grandchildren, his sister Karin (Don Boos) and many loving nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and a long list of friends. Jim owned and operated Alki Lumber for over 50 years. The business was founded by his grandfather in 1921. He was an avid, expert skier and enjoyed traveling the world with Judy by his side. Among his greatest gifts, above all, were his generosity, patience and incredible wisdom that touched many lives.
A vigil will be held at Our Lady of Guadalupe (OLG) Catholic Church, 7000 35th Avenue SW, on Saturday, February 11, at 7 pm, and funeral Mass at OLG on Sunday, February 12 at 2 pm. A reception celebrating Jim’s life and legacy will follow at The Hall at Fauntleroy. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to West Seattle Pee Wee Baseball or the Medic One Foundation.
Thanks to Eric and Kristen, who both sent word of what looked like a car-bicycle crash at 8th and Roxbury (map) earlier this morning – but was instead a case of a pedestrian hit by a car, according to King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Cindi West. (It’s their jurisdiction because it happened on the county side of the Highland Park/White Center line, though as you can see in the photo, which Eric sent, Seattle Police helped out.) Sgt. West says the driver was southbound on 8th, getting ready to turn left (eastbound) onto Roxbury, and was apparently “blinded by the sun” when she hit a 67-year-old woman who was walking northbound across the street. She was driving very slowly, Sgt. West says, so the pedestrian suffered only “very minor injuries.” The bicycle seen on the ground by passersby belonged to a witness who stopped to help, NOT to the victim, according to Sgt. West.
(Early Thursday morning, by Don Brubeck from the WSB Flickr group pool)
BRIDGE CLOSURES THIS WEEK: Again this week, TWO overnight closures of the West Seattle Bridge’s easternmost and westernmost sections are scheduled EACH weeknight, 9 pm-5 am – the eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct (for the SSV Widening Project), east of the 1st Avenue South exit, and the Fauntleroy Expressway (for its seismic-retrofit work), west of the Delridge Way exit. Details on both closures are here.
STAIRWAY WORK IN ALKI: As previewed here on Friday, SDOT plans to start work today on the project to add an upper stairway to the 60th/61st/Spokane connection.
VAN HALEN ALBUM PREVIEW PARTY 8 pm tonight at Feedback Lounge, with the folks from Easy Street Records on hand to sell it (details here).
MORE NIGHTLIFE: Trivia with Brian Calvert at Christo’s on Alki, 7 pm … Karaoke with Kelli at Skylark Café and Club, 9 pm … Also at 9 pm, the “Flat Earth Society” weekly vinyl DJ’ing at West 5 features DJ Backbacon (Matt Lukin – alumnus of the Melvins and Mudhoney) … Talarico’s has karaoke @ 9:30 pm.
The theme of our most widely circulated story this past week was – don’t miss an opportunity to tell people how much you love/appreciate them. We keep trying to find the right time to tell you exactly that, but there’s always one more story that needs to be written, one more e-mail to answer … but finally here in the middle of the post-Super Bowl night, we’re going to just stop and say: THANK YOU.
The occasion: January’s final numbers for WSB readership are in, and it was a record-setting month:
*First month ever with more than 1,100,000 pageviews (final total: 1,165,345 pageviews for January 2012)
*First month ever with more than half a million visits (final total: 500,844 visits for January 2012)
The previous WSB records were set last October, the first month ever with more than a million WSB pageviews, part of a big 2011 that we never just stopped down for a second to mention either:Read More
If you shop at Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) in Admiral, you’ve seen courtesy clerk Andrew Borracchini smiling at you from that banner outside the store, and signs inside, for a few months now, following his victory as Washington state’s Best Bagger (as reported here in October). And if he’s helped you with your groceries lately, you might have noticed his custom name badge:
This was Andrew’s last weekend of work before he and an entourage of supporters take off for Las Vegas, where he’ll compete in the national championship at the Mirage Hotel on February 13th, just eight days away.
We talked with Andrew on Saturday morning at the store, where he’s been working weekends for more than a year. In recent weeks, he’s been given an hour to practice during every shift he’s worked. There’s a lot at stake – a $10,000 prize (with cash prizes for 2nd-5th place too) – and he will have a bigtime cheering section: Not only are about 20 members of his family traveling with him for the big event – so are some high-profile supporters from Metropolitan Market, including store general manager Glen Hasstedt and MM ownership. On Saturday, the store allowed Andrew to show us his winning skills – while he explained the keys to good grocery-bagging:
Andrew, by the way, is a junior at O’Dea, and says his sister Angela, who preceded him in Metropolitan Market employment, is the one who taught him the ropes in the bagging world. Last year’s national champ was from the Northeast – will Andrew bring the Golden Grocery Bag Trophy home to the Northwest this year? We’ll find out a week from tomorrow.
Summer will be here before you know it, and 
focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), to open this fall in a temporary home at the former Boren Junior High (left), many have asked – when will the district provide specifics about the plan for this school? 
Five years after the “sexpresso” trend was 
Longtime West Seattle businessman Jim Sweeney, who has operated 
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