West Seattle, Washington
14 Sunday
Thursday night, bring your bike to the next DIY Bikes workshop -5-8 pm at the West Seattle Tool Library. From Stu Hennessey:
Memo from the hardest-working part on your bike. OVERHAUL ME! Bicycle-wheel hubs are the hardest working part of your bicycle. They support your loads, turn the fastest and are closer to the elements such as street grime, dirt and water. Leaving them unattended results in bearing-surface wear that can make your hubs unusable. Our hub-overhaul workshop will focus on front and rear standard ball bearing hubs. DIY Bikes will provide the tools, cleaning products, replacement bearings, grease, and procedure to get your hubs running smoothly again.
The West Seattle Tool Library is on the east side of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW.
We promised we’d start signups for this year’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day on March 31st – and with a few hours to go, the signup form is ready to go. Here it is! The basics:
*Sale day is Saturday, May 10, 2014.
*Official sale hours: 9 am-3 pm, but if you want to start yours earlier/end it later, that’s up to you (no late starts/early ends, though; thanks!).
*Registration gets you on the map, published on WSB and on the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day website, as well as promoted/advertised regionally and in all our social-media channels, with online and printable versions. The map is ready a week in advance and assigns each sale a number, which you can use for cross-reference, your own promotion (“come see us, we’re sale #99!”), etc.
*Same registration fees/process as years past – all online.
P.S. If you’re reading this on a phone, there’s a mobile version of the signup form here.
P.P.S. See scenes from last year, here.
SDOT says it’s just started another round of tree-planting in West Seattle – almost 300 trees in Gatewood and near Fairmount Park, with the work to be done by May 1st. Its announcement says the trees “are all grown in Northwest nurseries.” They’ll be maintained by SDOT’s Urban Forestry division, with watering bags in place for the first two to three growing seasons. Some street-tree planting was done recently in The Junction; in addition to West Seattle, SDOT says its springtime planting is also focused on Rainier Beach, which is getting 150 new trees.
5:31 PM: Fire/police response at 42nd/Alaska in The Junction – Christopher Boffoli is there for WSB and says a vehicle and scooter collided (see his photo above). Thanks also to Mike and NLB for alerts via Twitter.
5:37 PM UPDATE: Christopher reports: “Victim appeared to be a man in his 30’s. He was transported via AMR with non-life threatening injuries. SFD has left the scene now. SPD is still mopping up. Traffic westbound on Alaska is not really affected.”
Almost every local community council got a visit in recent months from Aly Pennucci of the city Department of Planning and Development regarding potential changes in “pedestrian zoning” for business districts As part of the city’s comment-gathering, an online survey was made available. Community leaders just got word that the survey has been extended for another month – so if you haven’t taken it yet, go here. It’ll ask you first about a specific “region” – West Seattle is in the south region, so start there; next screen will ask you about specific zones. Our first coverage of this issue during a local community-council meeting was at the Morgan Community Association‘s meeting in January.
In a month – as announced here – it’ll be time for the second annual West Seattle Bee Festival. But first, the centerpiece of the celebration, the WS Bee Garden, needs you:
Looking to participate in a Community P-Patch?
The West Seattle Bee Garden, located in the Commons Park P-Patch, could use your help!
We are seeking gardeners to help with weeding, watering, planting and general maintenance of the grounds. Come be part of the pollination-garden team!
To become a Pollination Gardener, please contact Lauren Englund at lcenglund@yahoo.com, or 616-502-3182
Also, everyone is invited to join us at our work party Saturday April 12th from 10 am-2 pm.
Sign up here.More information about the garden here: westseattlebeegarden.com
The pollinators, plants and fellow gardeners thank you!
12:41 PM: Quick update for those following our coverage of the King County Superior Court trial of Lovett “Cid” Chambers, charged with second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Travis Hood by Morgan Junction Park in January 2012: Proceedings did indeed resume today, after an extra day off because of ailing attorneys; the last previous session was Wednesday (here’s our report, which includes links to all our previous coverage).
Today, the defendant’s wife Sara Chambers is testifying for the defense, which has concluded its primary questioning of her. She testified that she was at home watching a movie when he came in after the shooting and that he said nothing about it before pouring a glass of wine and sitting down in the living room with her; police showed up within an hour. We’ll have a full report on today’s proceedings late tonight; the defense might rest its case before the week is out. The trial started in early January, with six weeks of motion hearings before the jury was seated to hear testimony starting February 19th; WSB is the only news organization in court to cover it.
2:16 PM: Now the defendant is on the stand. He acknowledges he fired the fatal shots the night of January 21, 2012, and says he did it “to save my life.”
TUESDAY MORNING NOTE: Monday’s full report is here.
(Equity and Wolff projects in The Junction, photographed recently by Long B. Nguyen)
The discussion – sometimes contentious, sometimes thoughtful – goes on. How much development is too much development – or is there no such thing as “too much development”? Do “growth targets” set in the past mean anything – considering, for example, the greater West Seattle Junction area is reported to be already past a future target, with major projects in progress and more on the way? When we talked one-on-one recently with Mayor Murray, he said one way to revisit that will be through the Seattle 2035 process that’s just launched. A West Seattle meeting is scheduled, one week from Wednesday. But before we get to those details – here’s the mayor’s 1-minute response to our question of whether growth should be allowed to expand seemingly infinitely even if so-called targets are passed:
Now, details of the meeting, one of five open houses citywide:
April 9th, 6-8 pm, at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW). From the city announcement:
DPD is hoping to reach out to different neighborhoods and gather comments on the Planning Alternatives that are currently under discussion. Comments can be submitted through April 21, 2014.
DPD is scoping an environmental impact statement (EIS) that will evaluate the City’s Comprehensive Plan update. The EIS will examine the possible impacts under three different growth scenarios.
Consistent with regional growth projections, all three scenarios assume the city will grow by 70,000 households and 115,000 jobs over the next 20 years. All the scenarios follow the Comprehensive Plan’s urban growth strategy that aims to concentrate most of the growth in the city’s designated urban centers and urban villages. The alternatives differ in how the projected growth would be distributed:
Alternative 1 would evaluate most of the growth in the six urban centers, in keeping with the regional plan of concentrating development in centers.
Alternative 2 would still project a lot of growth in the centers, but would shift some growth to the urban villages in order to strengthen those neighborhood business districts.
Alternative 3 would evaluate more growth in the urban villages that contain existing or planned light rail stations.
The Comprehensive Plan the City ultimately adopts could combine aspects of each of these alternatives.
DPD is taking comments on these alternatives and the topics to be covered in the EIS until April 21.
Even more information about the alternatives is here, as well as how to comment on them now (in addition to commenting in person at the April 9th meeting).
Two incredible views of a male Anna’s Hummingbird this morning, courtesy of Alki photographer David Hutchinson – the other one is below today’s calendar highlights:
TODDLER GYM: 10 am-1 pm at Hiawatha Community Center, Mondays & Thursdays – details here. (2700 California SW)
SPS SUPERINTENDENT’S TOWN HALL: Want to hear about the road ahead for Seattle Public Schools? And/or say something about it? Superintendent José Banda will be at Roxhill Elementary 6:30-8:30 pm tonight for the last of five “town hall” meetings about the district’s Strategic Plan. (30th/Roxbury)
WS4OSO BENEFIT NIA CLASS: At The Center for Movement & Healing, there’s a Dance and Donate Nia class tonight at 6:30 pm to benefit mudslide relief as part of WS4OSO; the center is located above the offices of WSB sponsor Swedish Automotive. (7901 35th SW)
And now, as promised, David Hutchinson’s other view of that resplendent hummingbird:
By the way, you can see what else is on the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar by going here.
The last day of the rainiest March in Seattle history has dawned *without* rain, but not without traffic. Above, the eastbound West Seattle Bridge; below, northbound 99 at the elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct’s south end:
You’ll find more cameras, and other info, on the WSB Traffic page.
ALKI TRAIL WORK REMINDER: Reminder that the city plans to work on curb ramps at two Alki Trail crosswalks on Harbor Avenue SW starting this week. One is at Harbor/California Way, where Seattle Public Utilities was doing work all weekend. The other is by Don Armeni. We published the advance announcement last week.
7:24 AM NOTE: If you park outside – you might have some frost-scraping to do – we did!
10:44 AM NOTE: If you usually drive through SODO – note the special event at Safeco Field tonight – this advisory’s just in from SDOT:
Motorists in downtown Seattle and the SODO District may encounter more traffic than usual during this afternoon’s commute as an expected 20,000 Mariners fans flock to Safeco Field to view the team’s road opening game against the Los Angeles Angels. The game is being broadcast live on MarinersVision HD and will be watched on the field’s large screens. There’ll be free T-shirts at the gate, music, food and beer specials. The $1 adult admission fee will go to benefit Northwest Harvest while children under 14 will get in free, but must have tickets for admission. The first pitch of the game is set for 7 p.m. with the doors opening at 5:30 p.m. For more details, please (go here).
Here’s one of the more-unusual student fundraisers we’ve heard of lately: The Chief Sealth International High School Flag Squad is doing yard work on Sundays. They tackled the weeds in Leslie‘s yard on Sunday (she shared the photo): “Delightful young people, worked HARD! Great attitudes!” Janelle from the Flag Squad says, “We are offering yard work for $30-35 an hour (depending on the lawn size), and are available on Sundays from 10 am-5 pm, from April 13th-May 18th. There would be around 7-10 flaggers working each time.” They’re raising money for travel on future band trips – Portland this year, Ireland next year. You can inquire via e-mail at csiflagsquad@gmail.com.
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