West Seattle, Washington
10 Wednesday
Photos/video by Patrick Sand
Story by Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog co-publishers
“All businesses need a voice,” said West Seattle Chamber of Commerce board chair Nancy Woodland, toward the start of this morning’s Westside Awards breakfast at Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor). “We get so much more done, coming together, and that is the value of your Chamber of Commerce … where your voice can join other voices and be heard throughout the city.”
One proof of the citywide audience – the keynote speaker was Mayor Ed Murray, who lived in West Seattle in childhood:
Later in this story, you’ll see our video of what he had to say, and how he answered questions from those in attendance – but this story is about the Westside Award winners, first announced one week ago.
Being part of the Chamber means visibility, Woodland added, and that’s certainly one benefit of the annual Westside Awards. The video atop this story features the entirety of today’s presentations, so you can hear for yourself what they said. We took photos, too:
Westside Business of the Year, for General Biodiesel, was accepted by founder Yale Wong:
He and team members posed out on the Salty’s deck afterward:
Wong said GB now recycles oil from 3,000 restaurants around the Northwest.
Westside Emerging Business of the Year, for Second Gear Sports, a consignment shop for sports, exercise, and fitness gear, was accepted by proprietor Mark Bremen:
Bremen said that in just 7 months of operation, they’ve already had 400 consigners and thousands of items.
Westside Non-Profit of the Year, the West Seattle Food Bank – here’s their team picture:
The Food Bank helped more than 37,000 families last year alone.
And the Westsider of the Year, Josh Sutton of the West Seattle and Fauntleroy Y (WSB sponsor) and Rotary Club of West Seattle, with wife Susan and son Guthrie, who introduced him:
This was the first awards breakfast since Lynn Dennis became CEO.
Now, to the keynoter: Mayor Murray touched on several of the topics we discussed with him in our recent interview – especially transportation. This morning, he declared that West Seattle’s mobility issue was the city’s top transportation problem. Hear for yourself in our video of his remarks; he was introduced by the Chamber’s past chair, Dave Montoure:
He touted this Saturday’s Neighborhood Summit, 9 am-1 pm at Seattle Center, as an opportunity “to decide how we want to reinvent our city’s relationships with our neighborhoods.” He mentioned 500 people had RSVP’d as of this morning, and given the Northwest proclivity for procrastination, “we expect that number to grow.”
Regarding transportation, and the infrastructure needed to support growth, Murray got in a plug for Proposition 1, the buses-and-roads ballot measure, saying, “First of all, we have to preserve the transit we have … it’s incredibly important.” If Prop 1 doesn’t pass on April 22nd, he declared, “not only will people suffer in this city, people will suffer in the county.” He also promoted his outreach for opinions on the search for a new city transportation director and what people “are looking for from SDOT.” That’s when he said the “tough decisions going forward” included “how are we going to fund a rapid transit system from West Seattle into the rest of the city? While Sound Transit has plans, they are decades away. I don’t believe we can wait decades. It might be a grade-separated bus route that eventually (becomes) a light rail route. We need to look at how we manage the West Seattle (Bridge).”
And after declaring this the city’s #1 transportation problem, he mentioned the Highway 99 tunnel trouble, saying he thinks it’ll take at least nine months to get going: “While I wish this hadn’t happened, I’m glad it happened earlier on.”
He went through other issues – Seattle Police, which, he mentioned has “the most diverse police command staff in the history of the city” right now.
Taking a few questions from those in attendance, he was asked about density without much parking – also an issue we discussed in our recent interview – and, as he said to us, he said the comprehensive-plan review (Seattle 2035) is one way to look for a balance, though, he said, “I absolutely believe we should have fewer parking spaces.”
In a non-WS question, he was asked about people openly smoking marijuana in Pioneer Square. He said openly smoking pot or drinking alcohol are both illegal and they are working on being able to arrest those who do it.
NEXT CHAMBER EVENT: Even if you are not a Chamber member, you are welcome at their events – next up, a briefing by King County Metro during the monthly lunch, 11:30 am next Thursday, April 10th, at The Kenney (WSB sponsor) – register here.
(South residential, street level)
The 134-unit, 152-parking-space, ~450-foot-long building at 3210 California SW was presented to the Southwest Design Review Board tonight for the fifth time – and this time, the board voted to recommend approval. Here’s how it unfolded:
PROJECT TEAM PRESENTATION: Boyd Pickrell from Nicholson Kovalchick Architects said he wanted to “laser in” on the points that were brought up at the fourth meeting, and the architects’ response. He showed off, first, the massing changes – height/bulk/scale. “The big move here is that we have eliminated the top floor of the north building,” he said. That “creates stairstepping of roof lines along California,” he added.
This Sunday, April 6th, 10 am – 2 pm at Northwest Center‘s Big Blue Truck in The Junction, there’s an extra incentive to donate on what they’re calling Big Blue Sunday – free coffee, a gift-card drawing, even free “Little Blue Bin” coin banks. It’s the local kickoff to a month-long clothing drive, so clothing donations are especially welcome, along with accessories, shoes, and small household items.
Though it’s a state project, Mayor Ed Murray brought up the Highway 99 tunnel trouble during his keynote speech at the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce awards breakfast today (full story, with video, in the works). “Bertha is broken,” he noted, and said that if he had to make a guess, he’d say the tunneling won’t resume for at least 9 months. Later in the day, WSDOT published an update on the preparations for tunneling-machine repairs, including:
Drivers on SR 99 in Seattle will soon see a noise-blocking wall rise out of the ground near the spot where crews will dig a pit to reach and repair Bertha, the SR 99 tunneling machine. The double-plywood wall, which will be as tall as the lower deck of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, is designed to shield neighbors from construction noise associated with the repairs. It will stretch along the west side of the viaduct between South Jackson and South Main streets. Construction of the wall should take about two weeks.
WSDOT also published some conceptual renderings of what’s in the works; see them here. The tunnel contractor, says the state, is still finalizing the repair plan.
Just in from SDOT:
Starting Tuesday, SW Charlestown will be closed to traffic between 46th Avenue SW and 47th Avenue SW in both directions for one week. The Seattle Department of Transportation will close the street from 8 a.m. Tuesday, April 8 through 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 15. During the closure, department crews will replace the street’s concrete panels. Local access will be allowed via SW Spokane Street; all other traffic will follow a detour via SW Genesee Street between 55th Avenue SW and California Avenue SW. The work is weather-dependent.
The jury in the trial of Lovett “Cid” Chambers, the Gatewood man charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing Travis Hood by Morgan Junction Park in January 2012, has just begun its deliberations. Closing arguments ended at 3:45; we will have a full report on that part of this day later tonight or early tomorrow. Testimony lasted more than six weeks; the lawyers and Judge Theresa B. Doyle had spent about six weeks in motion hearings before that, working on details to shape what could be presented to the jury and what could not.
What’s on the log as a “fire in building” is a dumpster fire, reports WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli. SFD canceled most units fairly quickly.
This year’s West Seattle Summer Fest is set for July 11-13. We’ve already published the call for vendor/music applications – and now, it’s application time for the GreenLife area!
Sustainable West Seattle and the West Seattle Junction Association are pleased to announce that the application for the 2014 GreenLife section of West Seattle Summer Fest is now available online:
The mission of GreenLife is to to raise awareness and equip our community with tools, knowledge and capabilities to create a more sustainable West Seattle. We are looking for local businesses to showcase merchandise, products and services related to these goals.
Organizations, including many local non-profits, contributing to this Expo will provide information, demonstrations and products in these areas:
*Home gardens – grow your own food, capture your rain water
*Composting – how to do it in your kitchen or yard
*Permaculture – what is it and how your garden can be sustainable
*Bee keeping and honey – how to raise a hive and harvest the honey
*Backyard chickens – learn how to raise and keep them
*Community fruit harvesting – learn how you can help the Food Banks
*Puget Sound and local streams – learn how you can help clean them upThe application requires a $20 application fee. The tabling cost is $250
for commercial vendors and $75 for non-profit vendors. The application
deadline is April 15th, but we usually fill up prior to this date so get
your application in early.Please contact Christina Hahs at christina.hahs@gmail.com or 360-269-0332
with questions.
Two Northwest premieres, one West Coast premiere, and one Seattle premiere are on the lineup just announced by ArtsWest for next season, September through May. Read on for the plays and the summaries in the official announcement:
It’s been a busy morning so no “West Seattle Thursday” preview today (see the full calendar here), but here’s a reminder about tonight’s Southwest Design Review Board meeting at the Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon), involving two sizable projects:
(Rendering courtesy Nicholson-Kovalchick Architects)
6:30 PM – 3210 CALIFORNIA SW (map)
This is the fifth meeting for the block-long 134-unit, 152-parking-space, ~450-foot-long mixed-use project in the south Admiral area. Two weeks ago, we published an update with news of changes made in the project since the last meeting, including a one-story (and 10-apartment) reduction on the north end of the building plan. The full design packet is here; our report on the last Design Review meeting is here.
8 PM – 1307 HARBOR SW (map)
This is the first Design Review meeting for this mixed-use project on 7 parcels including the former site of the Alki Tavern. Here’s the design packet, as linked in our report one week ago when it, and new project details, became available online, including these listed “development objectives”:
– 100,000 square foot mixed-use structure containing approximately:
– 21 residential apartments, totaling about 25,400 square feet
– 11,800 square feet of commercial office space
– 7,500 square feet of light manufacturing
– 6,700 square feet of ground floor retail
– 4,200 square feet of restaurant
– 41 parking spaces below grade, totaling approximately 14,400 square feet
Both meetings will include time for public comment, as always.
P.S. A new member joins the board tonight – as mentioned in our coverage of the most-recent meeting last month, term limits (two 2-year terms maximum) forced Myer Harrell to leave the board; Matt Zinski should be on hand for his first meeting tonight.
Today is the third full day of signups for the 10th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, coming up on Saturday, May 10th. We have 40 sales signed up already! Haven’t registered yours yet – individual, block, business/organization? Here’s the form! Again, the basics:
*Official sale hours on May 10th: 9 am-3 pm; if you want to start earlier/end it later, that’s up to you (no late starts/early ends; thanks!).
*Registration puts 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 #77!”), 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.
No major problems so far this morning. The “live” view above is the eastbound West Seattle Bridge; below, northbound 99 at the south end of the remaining elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct:
Any time of day/night, you can find more cameras, and other info, on the WSB Traffic page.
WATER TAXI SCHEDULE CHANGE AHEAD: Reminder that this weekend is the last one of the Water Taxi’s fall/winter schedule; starting Monday, the West Seattle Water Taxi not only goes seven days a week, but also resumes its midday runs. You can preview the spring/summer schedule from the bottom of this page.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
They have heard their instructions. This morning, they will continue listening to closing arguments. And then, the jury in the trial of 69-year-old Lovett “Cid” Chambers, who shot and killed 35-year-old Travis Hood by Morgan Junction Park the night of January 21, 2012, will discuss and decide what they believe to be the truth – was it or was it not a crime?
Wednesday morning’s proceedings were devoted entirely to the lawyers on both sides – defenders Ben Goldsmith and Lauren McLane, prosecutors Maggie Nave and Mari Isaacson – finalizing the instructions that King County Superior Court Judge Theresa B. Doyle read to the jury in the afternoon.
The gallery in Judge Doyle’s courtroom on the eighth floor of the courthouse was close to capacity – around 30 people, including family/friends from both sides.
(Larry Jensen throws a strike; photo by Greg Slader)
In the first of two consecutive games vs. Rainier Beach, West Seattle High School came away with a shutout win on Wednesday, 19-0. Greg Slader shares a photo and the summary (thank you!):
Senior pitcher Larry Jensen got his first varsity start on the mound as he delivered four shutout innings and the win as West Seattle Wildcats climb to a 2-1 league record. His fastball mixed with a crazy knuckleball was enough to keep the Viking hitters off balance.
The game was at RB, which visits Hiawatha to face the Wildcats again on Friday, 3:30 pm.
| 11 COMMENTS