West Seattle, Washington
28 Thursday
(MORE INFO ADDED Sunday night – scroll down)
Start of the swim. pic.twitter.com/pzM6pe6GkS
— Andrew Malinak (@AndrewSwims) June 6, 2015
That’s how Andrew Malinak began his almost-19-mile swim from Tacoma to West Seattle today – something only one other person was known to have done before – and late this afternoon, he confirmed via Twitter, he made it! Here’s the MarineTraffic.com track of his escort boat:
We previewed his “Return of Bert Thomas” swim here earlier this week; Thomas swam the route southbound in 1956. Malinak says he hopes to emulate Thomas in one other feat later this year, swimming the Strait of Juan de Fuca, something he tried two years ago.
P.S. After arriving at Lincoln Park, Malinak told us via Twitter, the first thing he did was go “down the water slide at Colman Pool”!
P.P.S. If you’re a geek about details, as we are, check out the 24-page plan for today’s swim.
ADDED SUNDAY NIGHT: Some followup info we’ve obtained from Malinak (who is 28, in case you were wondering): It took 8 hours and 42 minutes, 8:43 am to 5:25 pm. “The whole day went amazingly well: with an on-time departure (2 minutes early), an amazing crew, great weather with sun and lighter-than-forecast winds, a lack of curious orcas, and a route that matched perfectly with the predictions.” Before he tries swimming the Strait in mid-September, he plans to do something he says no one’s done yet – a solo swim around Bainbridge Island.
After 16 years, tomorrow (Sunday, June 7th) is the last West Seattle Farmers’ Market (WSB sponsor) in the 44th/Alaska parking lot. Starting one week later, on June 14th – as first announced three months ago – you’ll shop the WSFM out in the street, like many other neighborhood farmers’ markets. Starting on that date, the market’s new home will be on California SW between Alaska and Oregon, which will be closed to vehicles 7 am-4 pm on Sundays as a result. This means more vendors, more local nonprofits, more room to roam as you shop and enjoy The Junction on a Sunday, and if you’re wondering about parking, the market move opens up 45 spaces in the 44th/Alaska lot. If you have questions – stop by the market-management booth on the north side of the market lot 10 am-2 pm tomorrow. (P.S. Here’s some of what will be happening on the first day in the street.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Earlier this year, WSB reader Jerry sent us a postal-mail letter expressing concern about the future of White Center’s B & D Aquarium, the only aquarium-supplies store for miles around. He asked us to do a story. Took a while, but here it is – first published on our partner site White Center Now, republished here tonight.
Story and photos by Randall Hauk
Reporting for West Seattle Blog & White Center Now
“I’ve been hanging on so long, I’ll hang on as long as I can.”
Being a brick-and-mortar retailer these days can be a challenging prospect, even for businesses which have accumulated decades of expertise in their industry while serving their community.
Such is the case with White Center’s B & D Aquarium, regarded by many Puget Sound-area hobbyists as a valuable resource for serious hobbyists, who rave about the shop’s knowledgeable staff and the intense care paid to keep healthy stock available.
B & D’s owner, who prefers to be identified only as P.D. (“That’s what all my friends call me.”), started his business in 1972, at 35th SW & Roxbury. Listen to P.D. tell his story:
The current location at 10450 15th Ave SW (next to the White Center Eagles), with a large Clown Loach painted on the north-facing side, is the fourth iteration of the store.
Next Saturday, it’s two ways in one day to get involved with Seal Sitters and others who care about the local environment and wildlife. They’re separate events – you can participate in one or both – but since both are happening next Saturday, and requesting RSVPs, we’re telling you about them together:
(Photo by David Hutchinson)
SENTINELS OF THE SOUND BEACH CLEANUP (9 am-11:30 am)
Tying in with our theme of marine debris for Flipper Fest, we are having a beach cleanup at Alki on Saturday morning, June 13th, from 9-11:30 am. It will be a very low tide that day and we expect to find a lot of trash and most certainly at least 1,000 cigarette butts – of the estimated 360 billion that are discarded every year in the U.S. alone, all the while leaching toxic chemicals into the soil and waterways. Since most marine debris originates from land, we will be scouring the streets and sidewalks along the beach as well.
We hope to have a big turnout of passionate people who want to help keep wildlife safe. For more details, you can visit our website events page. There you will find info on West Seattle seal pup Sandy and the Arroyos gray whale, in whose honor we hold these annual beach cleanups.
We’re requesting that folks RSVP on the link included on the events page so that we can ensure we have enough buckets and other materials on hand. NOAA’s Peggy Foreman will give a short talk about the human trash found in the Arroyos whale before we disperse. PAWS Wildlife will have a representative there to discuss seal pup rehab. We’ll assemble at the Statue of Liberty plaza.
And then a bit later …
(Photo by Robin Lindsey)
SEAL SITTERS NEW VOLUNTEER TRAINING: JUNE 2015 SESSION
When: Saturday, June 13, 2015
Time: 1 – 3:30 pm
Training starts promptly at 1 (doors open at 12:30)
RSVP required (see below)Help protect wildlife! Volunteer with Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network. On Saturday afternoon, June 13th, we will be holding a special training for those wanting to protect marine mammals along the shoreline of West Seattle and the Duwamish River. Unlike most marine mammal stranding networks, we encourage children to participate in Seal Sitters – supervised at all times, of course, by a parent or guardian. We are so proud of our amazing and dedicated volunteers who are on duty rain or shine – we hope you will join us!
A multi-media presentation will illustrate Seal Sitters MMSN’s educational work in the community and the unique challenges of protecting seals and other marine mammals in an urban environment. Included in the training is an overview of NOAA’s Western Region Marine Mammal Stranding Network and biology and behavior of seals and other pinnipeds (due to time frame, supplementary sessions will include more marine mammals of Puget Sound).
FOR MORE DETAILS AND RSVP, visit Seal Sitters’ event page . RSVP is required to assure seating.
Have a vehicle that needs to be washed? First benefit car wash of the (almost) summer season – that we’ve heard of, anyway. It’s for the Seattle Lutheran High School cheer squad and they’re washing vehicles at the West Seattle Eagles parking lot in The Junction (4426 California SW) until 3:30 today, $10 donation.
9:54 AM: We’re in the gym at Southwest Teen Life Center, where the Delridge Projects Workshop is just getting under way – and if you’re not here yet, it’s not at all too late. Until about 10 am, people are wandering around checking out info-easels on the three “projects” in question – involving transportation, neighborhood planning, and “natural drainage” (raingardens and more). Then the agenda says about 15 minutes of introductions will follow, and then people who are here will get to spend 30 minutes finding out and talking about each of the “projects” – whenever you get here, just drop in on one of the sessions, which are scattered around the gym. It’s slated to wrap up at 11:45 am with entertainment – a performance by local youth. We’re checking out the transportation project first and will add some notes as this goes along.
10:09 AM: “The fact that you’re here shows that Delridge is on the move,” said Willard Brown of Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, co-emceeing the introduction, including acknowledging members of a community advisory team that’s been working on all this. This gathering itself is another in the city’s series of experiments with different formats of “community engagement” – city officials have been heard to acknowledge that it’s hard to draw people to a standard-format community meeting, so they’re trying a variety of formats (and a lot of surveys!) to see what works. We talked with one rep here who said that they’ve reached out by sending someone door-to-door to personally talk with residents, and in another area of the city, attendees at a meeting like this almost invariably said they’d heard about it from the person who showed up at their doors.
10:25 AM: We’re sitting in on the “Delridge Multi-Modal Corridor” presentation first with SDOT’s Sara Zora, who reminds everyone that the speed limit on Delridge will change to 30 mph this year. A table in this corner is making the presentation simultaneously in Vietnamese (as seen in part of our Instagram clip above). Timeline for this project: “Conceptual designs and evaluation of alternatives” August-December, another phase of “public engagement” starting in January, and design stretching over most of 2016. Then it’s on to small-table discussions; here, one group is offering suggestions as well as critiques of current conditions along and just off Delridge.
10:42 AM UPDATE: The format might not be allowing as much time as these discussions need – it seems this table is just getting going, barely 10 minutes of talking, when bells are ringing and announcements are declaring everyone needs to wrap it up and move to another “station.” Acoustics in here are a challenge. We’re moving over to the “Natural Drainage Systems” station – raingardens, bioswales, Combined Sewer Overflow-reduction projects have been talked about a lot in West Seattle in the past five-plus years, and here the specific focus is to reduce pollution (much of which comes from rainwater runoff) in Longfellow Creek. … Update: The map here has marked streets that might be good candidates for “natural drainage” but the city reps are hoping participants will help them identify the best candidates – maybe synergizing with other priority projects, for example. People have asked about other projects – the CSO work at Delridge/Orchard, the RainWise offerings in the county’s project areas – and the city reps have explained those too.
11:11 AM: A lot of what the “natural drainage” team is hearing so far has to do with concerns about lack of sidewalks and other pedestrian facilities in the area – one woman is telling them it’s “unconscionable” for the city to be spending money on raingardens instead of installing sidewalks in areas where they’re missing. On the positive side, side conversations are starting between neighbors who might not have met before – one involved community gardening, for example. Now it’s on to the third “station,” which for us is the North Delridge Action Plan.
11:51 AM: The Action Plan station consisted entirely of small conversations – two, three people – near the easels about specific “nodes” in North Delridge (the Brandon Node business district-let, the Campus Node in the Delridge Community Center/Youngstown Cultural Arts Center area, the Sylvan/Orchard Node area, etc.). Now the event is wrapping with the preview of the Rec-Tech program youth-media-program-produced video about Delridge; the full version will be shown during the Delridge Day festival in August.
(Seattle Chinese Garden from the air, by Long Bach Nguyen. Open today, 11:30 am-5 pm!)
We start today’s preview with a transportation reminder:
METRO TRANSIT SCHEDULE CHANGES TODAY: That includes service addition/restoration from what you’re paying via voter-approved Prop. 1. Our West Seattle breakdown is here.
Now, the highlights of what else is happening, from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
WEST SEATTLE LIONS PANCAKE BREAKFAST: 8 am-11 am at the Senior Center of West Seattle, $6/person at the door, no advance tickets required; details here.
TLC FOR LINCOLN PARK: 9 am, meet Friends of Lincoln Park in the main lot; wear long sleeves/pants and sturdy shoes/boots. (Fauntleroy & Rose)
DELRIDGE PROJECTS WORKSHOP: 3-in-1 way to talk about how you’d like to see eastern West Seattle improve, explained here. 9:30-noon at Southwest Teen Life Center. (2801 SW Thistle)
CAR WASH: 9:30 am-3:30 pm at the West Seattle Eagles lot in The Junction, $10 car washes to benefit the Seattle Lutheran High School cheer squad. (4426 California SW)
CHILDREN’S CLOTHING GIVEAWAY: 10 am-2 pm at Neighborhood House’s High Point Center; details in our calendar listing. (6400 Sylvan Way)
BE A SOUTHWEST SEATTLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOLUNTEER: 11 am-1 pm, be at the Log House Museum to find out why you can help without having to be a history expert. Lots of ways to help the volunteer-powered Southwest Seattle Historical Society. (61st/Stevens)
BARBECUE COOKOFF BENEFIT FOR FOOD BANKS: 11:30 am-2:30 pm at Daystar Retirement Village, come have a barbecue lunch and help the West Seattle and White Center Food Banks. Everybody welcome! Info here. (2615 SW Barton)
KITTY HARBOR’S FIRST WEEKEND: West Seattle’s nonprofit cat/kitten adoption center is officially open for the season, noon-5 pm; details here. (3422 Harbor SW)
COLMAN POOL: Another pre-season weekend starts today at the outdoor pool on the shore of Lincoln Park – noon-7 pm; see the schedule here.
ALKI POINT LIGHTHOUSE TOURS: First free tour at 1, last at 3:40, with U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteers. (3201 Alki SW)
WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOL ALL-SCHOOL REUNION: 2 pm, sign in at WSHS; 3-5:30 pm, gather with your fellow WSHS alums, as detailed in our calendar listing. (3000 California SW)
LEUKEMIA CUP REGATTA: If you notice the sailboats in the bay this afternoon – the fundraising Leukemia Cup Regatta starts from Magnolia at 2 pm.
FOR WINE LOVERS: 3-8 pm at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor), last of three days for the Northwest Wine Academy‘s spring-release event. North end of campus. (6000 16th SW)
MEET AUTHOR ARLEEN WILLIAMS: 3-6 pm, she’ll be at Beveridge Place Pub, as previewed in our Friday look at upcoming author events. (6413 California SW)
FUNDRAISER FOR CSWS: The Community School of West Seattle‘s scholarship fund is the beneficiary of a night of fun at Emerald City Trapeze Arts, starting at 6 pm – details here. (2702 6th Ave. S.)
WEST SEATTLE MEANINGFUL MOVIES: Doors at 6:30 pm for “Do the Math,” movie at 7 followed by discussion and community announcements; details in our calendar listing. Neighborhood House’s High Point Center. (6400 Sylvan Way)
BON-FULTON @ C & P: 7-9 pm, C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) hosts live music, no cover. (5612 California SW)
AND OF COURSE THERE’S EVEN MORE … if you check our calendar.
One last set of scenes from Friday night before we move on to Saturday – lanterns and lights in a variety of forms, on the shore and the bay.
This was from the “illuminated flotilla” procession marking World Environment Day, following a concert presented by the Vashon-based Backbone Campaign on the protest barge “Solar Pioneer” off Don Armeni. We counted about 30 kayaks as well as the sailboat above.
Seattle Police Harbor Patrol was in evidence throughout (and we saw the Coast Guard’s smaller vessels in the early going)
On shore, lights included giant tulips as well as these salmon:
The kayaks eventually paddled past Seacrest, toward Jack Block, then turned around.
For those who’ve been asking about the concerts and events on the barge, which apparently have been audible all the way up the hill into Admiral, the ShellNo website lists a “jazz band” for tonight, no further details.
When we previewed the four-month “Duwamish Revealed” art project last weekend, our introduction happened to be signs that were turning heads at Jack Block Park. But what’s “revealed” in this exploration is so much more, as shown off during opening night Friday, not in West Seattle but right across the water at T-108 Park – a triple-digit crowd came to see the cargo-container sculpture called Estuary, by Christian French.
We stopped by for a quick look just before sunset, as showgoers were getting ready for live performances at the site (which will be home to many – next one in two weeks). This is just one of the installations you can check out, at sites from West Seattle to Tukwila – explore the official website to consider where to go and what to see in the megaproject coordinated by artistic directors Nicole Kistler and Sarah Kavage.
Such a busy Friday night, we didn’t get to stop by the West Seattle Tool Library for this visit of a past and potentially future presidential candidate – but thanks to Chas Redmond for sharing the photo of Dr. Jill Stein. He says about 25 people were there to hear from and talk with her in the North Delridge evening sunshine. Dr. Stein was the Green Party‘s candidate in 2012 and with 456,169 votes became “the most successful female presidential candidate in U.S. history.” She formed an exploratory committee earlier this year to consider seeking the Green Party nomination again for 2016.
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