West Seattle, Washington
11 Wednesday
Two tales of heroism on board local waterborne transit this weekend.
FAUNTLEROY FERRY CREW SAVES MAN: Just before 3:30 pm Sunday, a medical call brought emergency vehicles to the Fauntleroy ferry dock. Tonight, the Kitsap Sun, while telling the story of a variety of ferry-schedule interruptions, explains what it was about: An 84-year-old Vashon Island man was found unconscious in his car aboard the M/V Cathlamet after it docked at the island. Two deckhands started CPR and used a defibrillator. An ambulance was called to the boat, which continued on to Fauntleroy, where the man was rushed to a hospital.
WATER TAXI CREW RESCUES KAYAKER: Shared by King County Executive Dow Constantine via Twitter, a report from Paul Brodeur, director of the KC Department of Transportation’s Marine Division, about an incident Saturday evening: “We pulled a borderline hypothermic kayaker out of the water at Seacrest, brought him on board to warm up, called 911, fire department came, assessed him, took him into their care. We left on the 1800 run ten minutes late but made up the time. Kudos to G.W. and Scott for quick thinking and providing good care to the young man.”
(WSB photo, 2014 Harvest Festival)
It’s on! Fall’s biggest festival returns to The Junction in just six weeks. And it’s time now to jump in if you’re interested in providing an activity – and/or sponsorship – for this year’s Harvest Festival:
The Junction’s Harvest Festival will be Sunday, October 25 from 10 am till 2 pm. You’ll find the West Seattle Farmers Market in its new permanent location on California Ave, community groups and businesses offering kids’ projects, the costume parade at 11:30, and trick-or-treating starting at noon.
If your organization or business would like to help create a wonderful day for West Seattle families by offering a “Harvest Activity,” please visit the event’s announcement page for an application.
You also can support this beloved community event through sponsorship! Find it on the same page.
If you’d like to volunteer at the event, please email Junction Association Director Susan Melrose at susan@wsjunction.org
New here? Check out our coverage from last year – the 3rd annual Harvest Festival – or the year before.
You might have missed this if you don’t read the daily road-work alerts in the traffic/transit coverage we publish each weekday morning: SDOT crews are due back out on Roxbury and 35th tonight, as marking, restriping, and “hydroblasting” removal of the old striping continues in both projects. We saw this crew on 35th north of Thistle less than an hour ago:
As we showed in this morning’s traffic/transit notes, the Roxbury rechannelizing north of White Center was mostly finished overnight. That’s far from the entirety of the Roxbury project, which is detailed in this presentation first shown at the April meeting of the Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights Community Council, and has been in the works for more than a year and a half:
Jim Curtin, managing both projects for SDOT, says, “Our crews will be out on Roxbury again tonight since there’s still some work left,” as well as working on 35th (plan below, as announced two months ago):
If it does rain Wednesday, that could delay some work, Curtin adds: “We can remove paint in the rain but re-painting is impossible.”
(SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES including district briefing, union updates, events Tuesday)
2 PM: Day 4 of the Seattle Education Association strike against Seattle Public Schools. The newest developments:
MARCHING TO SODO: Dozens of strikers left the Chief Sealth/Denny vicinity around 12:30 pm, marching to school district headquarters at the John Stanford Center in SODO.
(Mouse over that image to bring up “play” button for the Instagram video clip.) We caught up with them early on, as they headed northbound on Delridge from Thistle toward the bridge. (added) A moment after we published this, we heard scanner traffic indicating police are tracking the march, which has just crossed the “low bridge.”
@westseattleblog WS Schools march to SPS headquarters crosses Spokane St. Bridge #SPSstrike #SeattleEA #PicketPix pic.twitter.com/OzEocAXCIZ
— Laurence Graham (@la_graham) September 14, 2015
We had seen one car in the early blocks – near the Southwest Precinct at Delridge/Webster.
OTHER PICKETING: We took a quick look around after covering the start of the march.
Another group of picketers from multiple West Seattle schools is spread out among multiple corners at 35th and Thistle (above), a few blocks west of Sealth/Denny.
In The Admiral District, there are two groups – outside West Seattle High School (above), and outside Lafayette Elementary. (While all schools had picketers this morning, some consolidated for the afternoon events.)
CITY’S DROP-IN CHILD CARE: Thanks to helpful commenter MercyMoi, we have this link showing which programs still have room as of today – in this area, Delridge, High Point, and South Park. (We had asked Seattle Parks for updated info, too.)
NEGOTIATIONS RESUME; DISTRICT BRIEFING AT 3: In the late morning, the union announced that negotiations would resume this afternoon. The district, meantime, is having another 3 pm media briefing; we will be there and will update this report with as-it-happens toplines.
3:05 PM – FROM DISTRICT HQ BRIEFING: We’re at the 3 pm media briefing at district headquarters in SODO, which started a few minutes late while awaiting a crew that got stuck behind a train.
(Added: Unedited WSB video of briefing)
“Late last night, SEA presented a new idea to the district. The SPS bargaining team is studying this closely … and we expect a response back to SEA today.” NO SCHOOL TOMORROW, though. Because of the strike’s length, spokesperson Stacy Howard says, there’ll be some turnaround time whenever the strike finally ends (later, she elaborates that they don’t know how much time that would be, but “parents shouldn’t be surprised if we get word of a tentative agreement but we can’t restart just 12 hours later” – food service and other logistics are part of the reason for that). She is discussing a few other points such as special education – the topic of a demonstration here earlier in the day. As for “the strike impacts on the calendar” – the three snow days on the calendar will be used, for starters, one midyear, two at the end of the school year – “all additional makeup days” will be determined once the strike is over. Possible ideas: Saturdays, and/or part of the mid-winter break (which was scheduled for five days this year – alternating years have shorter breaks). Re: graduation days – Seniors are required to be in school 175 days before graduation, so graduation dates might have to change. SPORTS: As reported here yesterday, middle-school athletic events are postponed. High-school practices and games “continue to go on as usual – a lot of those employees are in different unions or not in unions at all,” says Howard. She says that by the time this news conference is over, the district expects to have a “timeline” posted online from negotiations to date. Asked how the strike is affecting other employees, she said, “Everybody’s in a holding pattern, and everyone’s being impacted …” district-wide. We asked exactly when negotiations had resumed today; Howard couldn’t say, only that the district team is “expect(ing) to respond to” the union’s offer. Meantime, apparently some union reps tried to attend press briefing and were told they couldn’t; the district has been saying for days that briefings required media credentials (which we have but have not to date been asked at door to show). Asked about this today, Howard cited reasons including security. (3:20 pm) Briefing is over; we’ll upload and add video, as usual, once back at HQ.
4:02 PM: Before leaving district HQ, we spoke briefly with union spokesperson Rich Wood outside, during what he said was the first picketing at John Stanford Center since the strike began:
Rich Wood of @seattleea tells us outside district HQ that the two sides ARE talking right now #spsstrike pic.twitter.com/gZdpeMeOJ1
— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) September 14, 2015
That’s about all he could confirm. (added) By the way, here’s video of the picketers as they arrived – the marchers from Denny/Sealth:
Meanwhile, the district’s timeline of when proposals/counterproposals were made, mentioned by Howard in the briefing, is now online here.
5:48 PM: Someone asked in earlier coverage what Mayor Murray was doing about the strike. His office just sent this news release:
Today, Mayor Ed Murray released the following statement after meeting with Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Larry Nyland and Seattle Education Association President Jonathan Knapp to get an update on the latest surrounding negotiations:
“At my request, both Superintendent Nyland and SEA President Knapp agreed to meet with me separately today. In these conversations I reiterated my offer to help in any way possible. I urged all parties to continue negotiations in good faith to reach a fair agreement ending the strike and allowing the school year to begin as soon as possible.
“As I’ve said since the strike began, I stand ready to assist should my help be requested. I also asked that, should the strike continue, they again meet with me at the end of the week. In the meantime, the City remains committed to doing what it can to support families impacted by the strike.”
The mayor’s news release ended with a reiteration of the community-center drop-in programs, which we updated earlier in this report. Earlier in the day, the City Council passed a resolution designating this as Seattle Educators’ Week; it addresses both the strike and the state education-funding crisis.
7:57 PM: An e-mail update from the union to media a short time ago says negotiations are still under way: “It’s unknown how long negotiations will go tonight, but SEA bargainers are willing to work as long as it takes to get a tentative agreement.” We also have heard from a coalition of educators that they plan a “candlelight vigil” at West Seattle High School 7-9 pm tomorrow (Tuesday night) if this isn’t resolved by then. (added) We first mentioned this a few days ago – a message we received tonight says this support march downtown is still planned tomorrow morning, too.
TUESDAY, 7:10 AM: The union says talks went all night and are still going.
(Silkscreener Shino Mikami, right, was one of 15 West Seattle artists at last year’s Fauntleroy show)
The photo and final reminder are from Judy Pickens – please note, if you’re interested, that the deadline is TOMORROW:
September 15 is the deadline for West Seattle artists and creative crafters to apply for the eighth annual Fauntleroy Fine Art & Holiday Gift Show Nov. 6-8. Details and application form are at www.fauntleroyucc.org.
Any other shows/bazaars/etc. accepting vendor applications, please let us know so we can share your announcements too. We’re also already adding holiday-season events to the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar – follow that link to see not only listings but also guidelines for sending information about announcements year-round … bottom line is always, the sooner the better!
We’ve just received confirmation that the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council WILL resume its monthly meeting schedule as planned, starting tomorrow night (Tuesday, September 15th), 7 pm, at the Southwest Precinct‘s community meeting room. If you have a neighborhood concern to bring up with SPD, and/or want to hear local crime trends firsthand, this is the one open, public, monthly chance to do that. Each meeting usually also has a featured topic and/or guest; this time around, it’s self-defense, discussing with SPD and attendees, according to WSCPC president Richard Miller, “(the) relative advantages and disadvantages of various personal protection/self defense devices (stun guns, tasers, pepper spray, handguns, etc.).” The precinct is at Delridge and Webster; the community-room entrance is off the parking lot on Webster.
At least once a day, someone asks us about a sewer-ish stink in the Beach Drive vicinity or upslope. While busy with other stories this past week-plus, we’ve been replying by pointing them to Beach Drive Blog‘s explanation – but it’s time, while we have a moment, to mention it here for anyone else who wondered but hasn’t inquired. BDB says it’s the rotting sea lettuce that turns up every so often, more notoriously a ways further south at Fauntleroy Cove. This isn’t unique to West Seattle, nor even to Washington, nor even to the U.S. – a Google search for the term “rotting sea lettuce” turns up reports from other nations including Canada, China, and the UK.
(Four WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
No incidents in the area so far this morning. And still no school for Seattle Public Schools – this is the fourth weekday of the Seattle Education Association strike. (Non-public schools remain in session.) Road-work alerts:
SB 21ST BETWEEN ANDOVER & GENESEE: This section of 21st will be closed to through traffic for repair work as part of the Delridge-Highland Park Neighborhood Greenway project, as announced here.
ROXBURY/35TH RECHANNELIZATION: Nighttime work to restripe and remove the old stripes (via hydroblasting) is beginning – crews were seen out last night on Roxbury. Here’s the alert.
8:40 AM: Just checked out Roxbury. It is now officially rechannelized (one travel lane each way, center turn lane) from 35th to just west of 17th.
New configuration in place on SW Roxbury this morning. Old striping gone, 35th to 22nd. pic.twitter.com/fHCtZdiYAL
— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) September 14, 2015
The old lane lines are mostly gone west of 22nd; still some work to do east of there.
9:04 AM: We also went again to see if the SPU sewer work on 48th/49th has begun. While we still haven’t found anything in the Seaview area, we did find crews on 49th north of Hudson, which is closed to through traffic. (This also might affect you on west-east routes – we initially went west on Hudson and had to turn into the alley because it was closed at Hudson.) We’re checking with SPU to get an update.
10:36 AM: Nothing to add to that yet but – a crash reported in the 7100 block of W. Marginal Way, blocking southbound lanes right now, per scanner traffic. No injuries reported so far.
4:49 PM: Here’s what SPU says about the road projects:
The work on 49th Avenue SW was scheduled to begin the week of September 8. The contractor started light mobilization last week and began heavier construction this morning, as you saw. Work on the sewer repair will take approximately one week.
* The other sewer repair project you mention is on 48th Ave SW. The work on 48th Ave SW between SW Juneau and SW Raymond Street will begin this week, with mobilization as early as Wednesday, and will also take approximately one week to complete.
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