West Seattle Saturday: Traffic reminder, and 16 reasons you don’t want to leave the peninsula anyway

Busy Saturday, off to a foggy start, and we’re again including a traffic reminder:

Same as last Saturday, WSDOT is closing multiple lanes (the number might fluctuate) on northbound I-5, not too far past the entrance from the West Seattle Bridge – note the red X’s in the “live” image above. Until the work is done – 10 am Sunday – 99 is recommended as your northbound alternative! Or – don’t leave the peninsula at all, since all this and more is happening:

WOODPECKER WALK IN LINCOLN PARK: 9 am, meet in the north parking lot, details here. Free!

SUPER STRING SATURDAY: Be there! 10 am-1 pm at Chief Sealth International High School, the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra-presented celebration of music and mentorship – and more – see our preview here. Free; the whole family’s welcome. (2600 SW Thistle)

BREAD BAKING: 10 am class at Delridge Community Center. (Too-short notice? Browse our calendar in advance for highlights – or the community centers’ brochure listing what’s going on this quarter.)

DUWAMISH LONGHOUSE’S FIFTH ANNIVERSARY: Big day as the Duwamish Tribe celebrates the fifth anniversary of its West Seattle longhouse. Open house 10 am-5 pm, reception noon-1 pm, storyteller Roger Fernandes‘s concert 2-3 pm, full details in our calendar listing. (4705 W. Marginal Way)

PUGET RIDGE WINTER CLEANUP: Neighbors are invited to join forces and get some cleanup work done on Puget Ridge, 10 am-noon today. Location/map in our calendar listing.

GAY FOR GOOD FOOD DRIVE @ 2 STORES: The food drive planned by Gay for Good to benefit the West Seattle Food Bank has expanded to two stores – PCC Natural Markets (WSB sponsor) at California/Stevens, and QFC in The Junction (42nd/Alaska). 10 am-2 pm, donate nonperishable food.

PRE-CONSTRUCTION MEETING FOR ROADSIDE RAINGARDENS: 10-11:30 am at Neighborhood House’s High Point Center, it’s your second of two chances to talk with King County Wastewater Treatment reps about the roadside raingardens (aka bioswales) about to be built in sections of Sunrise Heights and Westwood to reduce combined-sewer overflows. Details in our preview. (6400 Sylvan Way SW)

STORY TIME BENEFITING WESTSIDE BABY: 10 am at Umpqua Bank in The Admiral District, Sue Winter is reading and selling Usborne Books to benefit WestSide Baby, along with collecting diaper donations. Details here. (2620 California SW)

2 PRESCHOOL OPEN HOUSES: Cometa Playschool invites you to its West Seattle open house 11 am-1 pm – details in our calendar listing. (3212 California SW)

Also, the Bright Beginnings preschool program at Hiawatha Community Center welcomes you to its open house today, 1-3 pm:

We strive to offer a program that helps children learn and grow, by focusing on the child’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills. We provide a safe, happy healthy, learning environment for preschool children. Bright Beginnings Preschool is very hands on; activities include: Art, Blocks, Dramatic Play, Library, Cooking, Science, Music and Movement and Outdoor/Gym Play.

(2700 California SW)

VIETNAMESE STORYTIME: Every Saturday morning at 11:30 am at Delridge Branch Library – details in our calendar listing. (5423 Delridge Way SW)

WEST SEATTLE MONTESSORI OPEN HOUSE: 1-3 pm. visit West Seattle Montessori (WSB sponsor) to find out about its preschool-middle school programs. (11215 15th SW)

WHAT WOULD YOU WANT SEATTLE PARKS TO ASK VOTERS FOR? 1 pm at High Point Community Center, your chance to speak up as Seattle Parks gets ready for a potential ballot measure to help with future financing. Details in our preview. (6920 34th SW)

SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT HUMAN TRAFFICKING – IN YOUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD: As previewed here Friday, the West Seattle Democratic Women will spend this year getting the word out that human trafficking isn’t something happening somewhere else to somebody else – you might even have seen it and not recognized it, so awareness is vital. Today is their kickoff event, 1-3:30 pm at Southwest Branch Library, all welcome to drop in for eye-opening information. (35th/Henderson)

GIFTS FROM THE EARTH: The annual South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) gala is sold out, but just in case you wonder what’s up on campus tonight – or in case you have tickets and needed a reminder! – silent auction, celebrity chefs, inspiring stories, more, 5 pm @ Brockey Center. (6000 16th SW)

CHILI COOK-OFF: Love chili? Go see what Fauntleroy competitors have cooked up – and vote for your favorites – for only $6; details in our calendar listing. Fauntleroy Church, 6 pm. (9140 California SW)

DOORS TRIBUTE: Alive She Cried @ Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor), 9 pm. (6451 California SW)

And as always … MORE EVENTS on the calendar than we could mention here, so go there!

Mark January 25, 2014 (9:26 am)

Well, I rarely leave the peninsula these days as I live and work here. The world gets smaller and smaller…

miws January 25, 2014 (9:56 am)

Love the headline! :-)

Mike

John January 25, 2014 (10:53 am)

What’s the time estimate for reopening the I-5 lanes?

WSB January 25, 2014 (11:14 am)

Sorry! I meant to include the link to more info about the work. 10 am Sunday. (And as always, if we get word they’re done sooner, we’ll update … )

JanS January 25, 2014 (11:35 am)

Mark, good plan. I, too, live and work here…have for 20 years. I have the best commute :D

John January 25, 2014 (12:11 pm)

Thank you!

Mike January 25, 2014 (12:53 pm)

agreed with miws, that headline is spot on. We’ve said similar statements in the past “do we really want to cross the bridge…nah”

WSB January 25, 2014 (1:26 pm)

I’ve been up I-5 and back in the past two hours … outbound at 11:40, northbound wasn’t too bad, but bad enough … looked worse while I was heading back southbound from the U-District (laptop repair), and then southbound I got stuck in the backup from a crash under the Convention Center lid that was finally clearing once I got past. And THAT of course could have happened any day…

not-so-oldtimer January 25, 2014 (1:36 pm)

Am I the only person born and raised in West Seattle that is bothered by the way the blog/others? are now referring to West Seattle as “the Peninsula”? Huh? It’s bad enough that people who live on Mercer Island refer to everything they do as “on the island” or “off the island” – as though that’s the only island in the area. My reaction is that the blog is trying too hard to promote this. And why? How can you describe WS as a peninsula in the first place? At least people in Mercer Island actually live on an island.

WSB January 25, 2014 (1:52 pm)

NSO, we’re not “promoting” any term, and we didn’t invent this one. Peninsula has been in use since before we started WSB eight years ago. And yes, this is a peninsula – Puget Sound west, Elliott Bay north, Duwamish River east. HistoryLink.org, 2001: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=3428 among other references. Just Google “West Seattle peninsula” (boolean search, in quotes) for others .. TR

old timer January 25, 2014 (3:07 pm)

@ not-so-old-timer
I’d like to know just how and why the term ‘peninsula’ is bothersome.
It certainly comes in handy when dealing with transportation issues and connectivity – it more clearly defines who we are and how we relate geographically to the rest of the city.
What are your issues with the term?
As WSB has stated, the term is geographically correct in it’s usage.
Maybe as a truly long term West Seattle dweller, your personal definition of West Seattle is a narrow and specific area that does not map with reality.
Just because you never had a different perspective does not automatically make yours correct nor others incorrect.

dsa January 25, 2014 (3:43 pm)

Hmmm…not-so-old-timer, do you remember the names “Olympic Heights” (now Sunset Heights) and Boeing Hill, (now Highland Park Way)? Names do change.

howdy January 25, 2014 (3:51 pm)

@notso- I’m a lifelong West Seattleite myself. I heard it called way worse things than “peninsula”- mostly by those ‘mainlanders’

not-so-oldtimer January 25, 2014 (4:10 pm)

I’m not so old or narrow in my thinking to have a problem with names changing. When I was a kid in West Seattle, West Seattle included everything west of 35th and north of Thistle. Rival schools like Denny and Sealth were not in WS proper. That has certainly changed. No sweat about that. I guess my bother is really about the message it seems to send when referring to ourselves as “the peninsula” – why is it necessary, what value does it provide and does it make us seem special? And when the story mentions not leaving the peninsula does it consider driving south? People who live in south WS and work or play south of the city can’t feel like they live on a peninsula. (I live in the Alki area, btw, so not referring to me.) Just threw the question about there to see what others thought. It bugs me. I’ll get over it :)

not-so-oldtimer January 25, 2014 (4:13 pm)

Haha, and yes, I can see that we are technically a peninsula – if you consider the mighty Duwamish!

WSB January 25, 2014 (4:40 pm)

The perception that West Seattle did not always cover the entire peninsula to the east and south is incorrect. The city of West Seattle, before annexation to Seattle in 1907 – before, I would venture to say, anyone reading this was born (but if we have a 106-year-old reader, I would love to hear from her/him!) – included the entire peninsula except for Arbor Heights and a bit of east Admiral. Yes, all the way to the Duwamish. See maps here.
.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/05/31/seattle-history-when-west-seattle-was-a-seperate-city
.
We live in “south West Seattle” (south of Thistle) btw, after 2 years in “north West Seattle” (on Beach Drive) when we first arrived in ’91.

Genesee Hill January 25, 2014 (7:56 pm)

I have only lived in West Seattle for 23 years.

I was fortunate to grow up in the elite Kirkland/Bellevue area.

We Eastsiders referred to West Seattle as “the dump” when we would drive through to visit our friends’ estates on Vashon Island.

All of my friends would fill their cars with gasoline in Bellevue. We sure didn’t want to stop in “the dump” (West Seattle) for anything….

Peninsula??? West Seattle was always known as “the dump” next to Rat City.

Of course, that was back in the 60s.

Not so old timer January 25, 2014 (10:52 pm)

Thanks for the education WSB! I loved the maps and photos included on that PI blog you linked. I’ll never confuse the boundaries again or our geographic description. Who knows. Maybe now that I understand it better maybe I’ll start referring to WS as the peninsula myself. At least I’ll never call it the dump.

dsa January 25, 2014 (11:13 pm)

It appears the history link dubs WS a peninsula alright, but it also appears to have been written in 2001. I think the original point made by “not-so-old-timer” was that the term is relatively new in West Seattle’s history.

NW January 26, 2014 (8:57 am)

Read the book The Real West Marginal Way by White Center resident/poet and graduate of WSHS Richard Hugo on his take of west seattle there is even a short video of him driving around the area somewhere shows scenes of Alki. First chapter in the book covers a lot of it

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