West Seattle, Washington
27 Tuesday
While most of the CenturyLink outage reports we covered here recently involved fiber internet access, some involved TV – and that caught the attention of a city division you might not have heard of: The Office of Cable Communications, part of the Information Technology department. We heard today from Jim Loter, a spokesperson for that division, which he explains “is responsible for regulating the cable television providers that offer services in Seattle.” He had seen the WSB reports and wanted to make sure you know about “customer rights during cable TV outages,” and pointed us to a new item on the city website Tech Talk which details those rights, including a pointer to the webpage for the Cable Customer Bill of Rights. Again, this is just for TV, not internet, but if you’ve had trouble with an unresponsive provider – it might help.
Three notes about outdoor music ahead this week:
DUKE EVERS @ HIAWATHA: Thursday night brings this year’s second-to-last Summer Concerts at Hiawatha show on the east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center (Walnut/Lander). This week’s performer is the Duke Evers Band (video above). Show’s at 6:30, free; bring your own chair/blanket, and you’re welcome to bring a picnic dinner or other refreshments if you feel like it (or walk over to nearby Metropolitan Market, PCC Natural Markets-West Seattle [WSB sponsors] or Safeway, all of which have delis with hot and cold food). The series is presented by the Admiral Neighborhood Association, with local business sponsors including WSB.
85TH STREET BIG BAND @ THE MOUNT: Friday night, swing to the classics with the 85th Street Big Band for the second-to-last summer concert of the year on the south side of the Providence Mount St. Vincent campus (4831 35th SW). The music starts at 6, and it’s free; dinner and drinks are available for purchase starting at 5:30 pm (see our calendar listing for this week’s menu).
MUSIC @ ARTS IN NATURE FESTIVAL: Saturday and Sunday, music is a big part of the Nature Consortium (WSB sponsor)-presented Arts in Nature Festival at Camp Long (5200 SW Dawson). See the full performance schedule here, including the 7 pm Saturday (August 20th) performance by headliner Big World Breaks:
Ticket info is here (you can buy yours online too, including a full-weekend pass); festival hours are 11 am-9 pm Saturday, 11 am-6 pm Sunday.
With a recent wave of restaurant openings in West Seattle, there’s a new WSB inbox leader for the question “when will it open?” – The Lodge Sports Grille in The Junction. More than 14 months have passed since we first reported in June 2015 that The Lodge would open a location in the east building of Junction 47; the space seemed idle for so long, some wondered if the plan had been scrapped. Our questions went unanswered for a while but recently, an unmistakable sign of life appeared: The liquor-license application. Then today we reached proprietor Shawn Roten by phone, and he told us yes, The Lodge is very much still on the way to West Seattle and probably “five to six weeks” away from opening. He also invited us to stop in and check out the interior work – so we did, for the photos you see above and below:
So what’s taken so long? The city permitting process, Roten said, ruefully – it’s added four and a half months to the buildout. But now things are at full speed ahead, with all the work being done on-site, to the point where, as he explained, “it looks like a wood shop”:
As the original announcement last year explained, Roten is “a former home-builder who custom designs and builds all his restaurants to complement the neighborhood, (and) builds bar tops that range from 50 feet to 70 feet in length.” The Lodge is described as serving American-style food and craft beers, in a family-friendly atmosphere with HD TVs showing sports events. Roten says he expects to be up and running in time for most of the Seahawks season.
Another stolen vehicle to watch for – this one, reported today by Ron:
Sorry to have to report my [blue] ’99 Honda CR-V (WA plate 009-YQY) was stolen late Sunday/early Monday morning from my condo’s parking lot. This is the Town Square Condominium complex right across from Westwood Village. Surveillance cameras show the car driving out of the lot at 2:38 AM with the lights off. If seen, please contact Seattle PD and refer to Incident #16-294962.
At least in our reader reports, CR-Vs seem to be “popular” with West Seattle-area car thieves lately.
(West Seattle sunset view from last Saturday night – photo by Cameron Oliva)
ORIGINAL TUESDAY REPORT: You’ve heard that hot weather’s on the way – now the National Weather Service has announced an “Excessive Heat Watch” alert for Thursday-Saturday. The NWS warns that the high temperatures those days are expected to be in the upper 80s to mid-90s, and that could be a health risk for some. Read the full text of the alert here. (The official highest temperature at Sea-Tac so far this year is 93 degrees back on June 5th.)
WEDNESDAY MORNING NOTE: We checked – the alert’s still in effect, same time/temp frame.
We’ve discovered that both of the former West Seattle City Light substations put up for sale on the open market five months ago, with “major price reductions” less than two months ago, now have sales pending and early-stage development proposals.
2100 SW ANDOVER: This 8,000-square-foot corner site in Pigeon Point was appraised at $350,000 and originally listed at $400,000, then cut in late June to $200,000 asking price. It now has a proposal for 5 rowhouse units, and the Commercial MLS website shows a sale “pending.” The city page for the site lists the “owner” as Greenstream Investments in Bothell. So does the site plan in city files, which shows three units would face onto 21st, one would be on the corner of 21st and Andover, and one west of that would face onto Andover only. The plan shows three units with “garage parking,” two as “no parking.”
8822 9TH AVENUE SW: This 13,000-square-foot site also is shown on the Commercial MLS site as having a “pending” sale.
It was originally offered to King County for its appraised value, $355,000, as a stormwater-retention site, but as explained in our March report, the county decided against it. It then went on the market for $500,000, until a “major price reduction” to $200,000 in June, concurrent with the one for the Pigeon Point site. This site’s city webpage notes a new proposal for 11 townhouses, though it’s filed under a revised address of 8822 9th SW instead of 8820. There is nothing in the files yet showing how the 11 units would be configured; the city files show the “owner” as 9th Avenue Townhomes LLC, whose owners in turn have a Puyallup address.
BACKSTORY: These are two of six ex-substations for which the City Council authorized disposition last fall; three of the other four have potential community-group purchases/projects in various stages.
You can now get food from Mioposto Pizzeria in Admiral (WSB sponsor) delivered! Mioposto has just partnered with ChowNow, and that means you can order via the Mioposto website – choose ORDER ONLINE from the navigation bar. You can also download Mioposto’s app, through the Apple Store, Google Play, or by texting MIOPOSTO to 33733 (it’ll text you back with the download link). Note that ChowNow has a 2-mile delivery radius, $25 delivery minimum, and a flat-rate $5 delivery fee. Mioposto is at 2139 California SW, open 4 pm-10 pm Mondays-Thursdays, 4 pm-11 pm Fridays, 10 am-11 pm Saturdays, 10 am-10 pm Sundays.
Six days after it began, demolition of the former commercial building on the Morgan Junction Park expansion site is almost complete. Our photos from this morning shows the crew clearing the rubble, though the former Short Stop Market sign is still standing.
As discussed in our coverage last week, this was originally purchased by Seattle Parks for $1.9 million as a “landbanked” site – to hold until money was found to design and develop actual park features. That money, as we also reported, will come from the Park District levy that voters passed in 2014. So the remaining question is: When?
We tried reaching some of the directly involved Parks staffers last week, without success, so today we asked the communications team to help us find the answer. Spokesperson Dewey Potter replied, “The planning and design processes for landbanked sites will take place in the order in which they were acquired, and we’re starting the processes for them as Seattle Park District funding becomes available. All will have begun planning and design by 2018. The Morgan Junction site is scheduled to begin planning and design in 2018.” The original Morgan Junction Park to the south opened in 2009, so it’ll be a decade old before the expansion is fully developed.
P.S. While landbanked sites are NOT on the agenda, the Park District oversight committee is having a meeting tonight, 6:30 pm at Parks HQ downtown (100 Dexter Ave. N.), with a public hearing on “major projects challenge” proposals.
(Hummingbird on dogwood, photographed by Tom Slattery)
The sun’s due to emerge from the fog before day’s end. In the meantime, a clear view of highlights from our calendar:
BABY STORY TIME: 10:30 am at Southwest Library, geared toward wee ones up to 12 months old. (35th SW/SW Henderson)
LUNCH AT THE LIBRARY: The free summer-meal program continues with lunch available for kids/tweens/teens at Delridge Library, Tuesdays-Thursdays, 12:30-1:30 pm. (5423 Delridge Way SW)
JUSTIN KAUSAL-HAYES: Performing live at Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor), 5-8 pm. (1936 Harbor SW)
FREE TAI CHI: Second week for the added session of free Tai Chi on Alki with Lao-Shi Caylen Storm, 6 pm. (60th SW/Alki SW)
SOUTH SOUND TUG AND BARGE: The band “wraps up its summer residency” at Parliament Tavern, 9 pm tonight, no cover. (4210 SW Admiral Way)
BABY KETTEN KARAOKE: Not your everyday (or every-night) karaoke, 9 pm at The Skylark. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
LOOK FURTHER INTO THE FUTURE … with West Seattle’s only comprehensive event calendar, here.
(SDOT MAP with travel times/video links; is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE)
(Click any view for a close-up; more cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
7:02 AM: It’s a foggy Tuesday morning. No incidents of note on major outbound routes. Reminders:
BUS STOP CLOSURES: Through mid-November, the northbound South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) bus stop is closed because of construction; here’s the official notice. … And if you catch the bus downtown to get back to West Seattle, remember that the C-Line, 21E, 55, 56, 57, 120, 125 stop on westbound Columbia at 2nd is closed until mid-October. Here’s that official notice.
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