West Seattle, Washington
15 Sunday
(The early killdeer gets the worm? Photo by Mark Wangerin)
So much happening on this late-winter Wednesday! Here, from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar, is just part of it:
OPEN HOUSE @ TINY HOUSE: Until 3 pm, you are invited to stop by the Block Project/Facing Homelessness demonstration “tiny house” outside American Legion Post 160 to get a closer look. (3618 SW Alaska)
CIRCUITS CHALLENGE: 2:30-4 pm, kids/teens 8-16 are invited to drop in at the West Seattle (Admiral) Library for this fun STEM craft activity. (2306 42nd SW)
WRITING CIRCLE: 6-7:30 pm at West Seattle (Admiral) Library with author Jeanine Walker, it’s a free drop-in event for writers. (2306 42nd SW)
SUSTAINABLE WEST SEATTLE: 6:30 pm, free pizza, Diver Laura‘s “Virtual Salish Sea,” the Green New Deal, and more if you come hang out with SWS at Beveridge Place Pub, as previewed here. (6413 California SW)
HOW WILL THE FEPP LEVY WORK? City reps are traveling around town to explain how the newly passed Families, Education, Preschool, Promise Levy will work. You’re invited to the West Seattle gathering tonight at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 6:30 pm dinner, 7 pm presentation, child care provided. (4408 Delridge Way SW)
POETRYBRIDGE: 7 pm at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor). This month’s featured readers are Jazno Francoeur and Shin Yu Pai. (5612 California SW)
PRIMARY OR CAUCUS: How should Democrats in our state be counted as the party chooses a 2020 presidential nominee? That’s the big topic at tonight’s 34th District Democrats meeting, 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy. The agenda’s in this month’s newsletter. (9131 California SW)
SKYLARK OPEN MIC: Signups for The Skylark‘s renowned open-mic night start at 7:30, music at 8, all ages until 10! (3803 Delridge Way SW)
TRIVIA FOR A CAUSE: Play tonight at Talarico’s, starting at 8:30 pm, and your entry fee plus raffle proceeds benefit the West Seattle and Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor), as explained in our calendar listing. (4718 California SW)
YADDA YADDA BLUES BAND: Get bluesy at Parliament Tavern starting at 9 pm. No cover. 21+. (4210 SW Admiral Way)
MORE TODAY AND TONIGHT … see it all on our complete calendar.
If Chief Sealth was – or is – your high school, here’s an invitation for you for midsummer – 5-9 pm July 26th at Lincoln Park:
Save the date for the 4th Annual Chief Sealth All-Class Reunion!!
This event is open to all Chief Sealth alumni and their families. Come and reunite with old classmates and make connections with those you haven’t met before. Please pass the invitation along to any alumni you know – the more the merrier!
More details to come.
*David Katt and Tom Huling have assisted in organizing this event for the past three years and are looking for some eager new volunteers to assist this year! If you are interested in helping, please contact:
David Katt
(206) 650-0863
djkatt (at) comcast (dot) netOR
Tom Huling
(206) 947-1900
tdhulingiii (at) comcast (dot) net
(SDOT MAP with travel times/ Is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE/ West Seattle-relevant traffic cams HERE)
6:59 AM: Good morning! No incidents to report in/from our area, but a transit alert just arrived: Metro says the 7:16 am Route 56 won’t run today.
7:06 AM: Another alert from Metro – the 7:34 am Route 113 won’t run.
(WSB photo, last month)
Almost two weeks ago, when contacted by WSB to ask about reports the restaurant had been sold, Mashiko founder Hajime Sato confirmed it. The restaurant subsequently was closed for several days; we never heard from the new owners, but a longtime employee said in a comment that they expected to reopen last week, and that appeared to have happened, at least when we passed by one night to look. Then tonight, via the same messaging channel we used to contact Sato, we received this message:
Due to issues beyond my control, the sale of Mashiko that I announced last week did not occur. I am still the owner of Mashiko. The restaurant is still for sale, and I hope to have happier news to share about that soon. In the meantime, I am back to working most nights. Mariah and Brandon are still here too, so be sure to stop in for the same amazing sustainable sushi you have come to expect from us!
My family is still planning to move as soon as possible, although things have now been very delayed by these circumstances.
Please accept my thanks to the community for the kind words and support during this extremely difficult time.
From Friends of Lincoln Park:
Friends of Lincoln Park (FliP) are asking that our community participate in a short survey on the use and existence of social trails in public, forested areas. Social trails are pathways of erosion caused by people and cyclists going ‘off-trail,’ typically serving as a shortcut through parks or forests.
The survey was created by FLiP’s intern Liz Watt (UW Capstone student) and she will be conducting helpful research that includes an assessment of social trails throughout our urban forest landscape and the development of methods to mitigate the effects of this common issue. In addition to the survey, Liz is bringing over 1,000 square feet of Lincoln Park’s forest into restoration (removing invasive plant and tree species and replacing with natives). FLiP is extremely lucky to have Liz on our team!
The survey should take 5 minutes or less to complete – thanks for participating!
Survey link: catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/lizwatt/368852
Family and friends will gather March 30th to remember Eleanor Lawry. This is the remembrance they’re sharing with the community now:
Eleanor Loraine Johnson Justice Lawry was born February 28, 1925, died March 5, 2019.
She celebrated her 94th birthday at The Kenney in West Seattle, where she had lived since 2012. She was born to Arthur Johnson & LaRue (Mowre) Johnson and lived most of her life in West Seattle, and graduated from West Seattle High School in 1942. Eleanor married Keith Justice in Seattle on August 1943. After 26 years of marriage, he died in 1969. On June 1971, she married William F Lawry, Jr. They celebrated their 28th anniversary before he died in 1999.
Eleanor worked at the N&N Variety store in the Admiral Junction for several years before moving to JC Penney, where she worked for 23 years. She would probably still be working at Penney’s into her nineties if the store was still in the Junction. She was an avid bowler, square dancer, Pinochle player, Girl Scout leader and youth group leader at Tibbetts Methodist. Eleanor loved the outdoors and her garden.
She is survived by her three children: LaVonne (Justice) Gould, (Phil); Virginia Justice, AKA jim justice, (Dave McConnell); Verne Justice, (CeCe Kelly), and five grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. She is also survived by her stepchildren Anne (Lawry) Sheets, Joan Lawry, Barb Lawry, Mary (Lawry) Schultz, Bill Lawry and their families.
She is also survived by the Kolbe family and friends in Iowa, where Keith and Eleanor lived after he returned from serving in the Philippines in WWII to work his uncle’s farm. They returned to Seattle in 1952.
She was preceded in death by her brother Charles.
Special thanks to the caring staff at The Kenney. Celebration of her life at The Kenney on Sat., March 30th, from 1-3 PM.
Comments can be left at www.emmickfunerals.com/notices/Eleanor-Lawry
(WSB publishes West Seattle obituaries by request, free of charge. Please e-mail the text, and a photo if available, to editor@westseattleblog.com)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
When West Seattle light-rail construction begins, “we’re going to be the first area in West Seattle impacted,” explained Pete Spalding as he opened last night’s Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council meeting, with Sound Transit guests in the spotlight, nine months after ST’s last PPNC appearance.
The Q&A that followed shone some light on topics of major interest, including cost, and why a much-cited number is nonetheless “not a number to get stuck on.” But first:
In West Seattle Crime Watch today:
BURGLARY INVESTIGATION: Police were out in the 9200 block of 12th SW this morning, looking for a burglar whose loot included a handgun. SPD tells us the burglary was detected by an alarm trip; the resident showed up just as the burglar was running out the door.
MAILBOXES BROKEN INTO: Reader report, received today from Carolyn:
Last night or early this morning, several if not all mailboxes were broke into on 8th Ave SW, between Elmgrove and Thistle. Probably a lot more than just that, but that is all I could confirm on my way out this morning. Also a neighbor in the same vicinity had their car window smashed in. Since 2009, this is the hardest-hit this street has been. I have cameras I will be checking this evening. I want to do my part to get the word out to neighbors, as we have to look out for ourselves.
Carolyn says at least one neighbor has filed a police report; we’ll add the number if/when we get it.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
We get – and appreciate! – reader tips about new businesses now and then.
Seldom, however, do they include as much excitement and enthusiasm as the tips we received about Ridwell expanding into West Seattle.
One person who identified herself as a happy customer in another neighborhood wrote, “This awesome new local company has a great story and an even better mission and they are coming to West Seattle next!”
Indeed they are – officially starting next Monday. If you haven’t heard of Ridwell, maybe you heard of its previous incarnation as Owen’s List, which began as a father-and-son adventure in recycling reusables, making a match between items no longer needed by some but much-needed by others.
We mentioned Owen’s List one year ago during its citywide diaper collection for WestSide Baby.
Since then, Owen’s dad Ryan Metzger joined with business partners to morph it into Ridwell: “Because Owen’s List was so popular, people would say, ‘can I pay you for what you’re doing?’.” Ridwell is based on Queen Anne, with some storage facilities in Ballard, and now, with the addition of West Seattle, serving pretty much the entire city. ”
Ryan was in West Seattle the other day as part of the expansion, so we sat down for a chat over coffee. He explained how Ridwell works: Subscribers get a porch bin and cloth bags for the types of material they currently collect – plastic film, styrofoam, “threads” (clothing etc.), light bulbs, batteries. They have a fifth “rotating” category that is generally the type of pickup that Owen’s List inaugurated – something to donate to an organization that needs it. (One collection that’s coming up will be kitchenware for refugee families.)
Ridwell finds the market for the material – plastic film and styrofoam, for example, are taken to Kent; the film eventually becomes the decking material Trex; the foam is compressed into a material that, Ryan says, is used in products such as picture frames.
You pay a monthly subscription fee – lower if you commit to a longer period (starting at $10/month currently) – for a pickup every two weeks. West Seattle will be Mondays, for starters. And while the accessibility issue means they are starting as a service mostly for single-family homes, Ryan says they want to serve more multi-family buildings and are interested in hearing from anyone who wants to be part of a pilot project.
The company is small now, still using cars rather than trucks to make most pickups – “we can fit 30, 40, 50 people’s (recycling) in a car!” – but expecting to grow beyond the Seattle city limits: “The response has been great!” enthuses Ryan.
And toward the goal of efficiency/sustainability – subscribers opt in for pickups via email or website – so if you don’t need one, they won’t stop by. You can find out more at getridwell.com.
11:50 AM: From Washington State Ferries:
The M/V Sealth is out of service due to unscheduled maintenance until further notice. The Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route will operate under the normal 3-boat schedule without the #2 vessel departures and arrivals. Real-time departures and arrivals of the M/V Cathlamet and M/V Chelan can be viewed on www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/vesselwatch.
It was just yesterday that the route returned to 3-boat service after a week with two.
1:30 PM: The problem was brief and the run’s back to three-boat service.
Two and a half years after fire destroyed a building at the Seattle Housing Authority‘s Lam Bow Apartments (6935 Delridge Way SW), the process of replacing it has taken a turn. SHA has a new design for the replacement building – which will also replace the building that wasn’t involved in the fire. This is a big change from the plan that went before the Southwest Design Review Board in May of last yar. The changes are in part enabled by expected HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability upzoning, which will allow this to go up to four floors, with 80 units in the new building (up from the 51 total in the original complex – 21 in the fire-gutted building, 30 in the remaining building). SHA’s Ryan Moore tells WSB that they expect this process to go faster because the project is “using the administrative design review process this time, since the rules for design review changed last year and now allow this option for affordable housing. Our hope is that this translates into a faster approval, allowing us to get started with construction sooner.”
Cost of the project is estimated at around $35 million; Moore explains, “The existing building will cost at least as much to rehabilitate as a new building and likely more. We were planning on saving it until we conducted all the necessary analysis to determine how much rehab was needed.” Another change along with the increased number of apartments: “Due to costs, we won’t be building the underground parking as we had originally planned, but we will be providing one parking space for each unit on a surface parking lot” – 80 spaces for 80 apartments. Most of the new units, Moore says, will be 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, and they’re already working with current tenants regarding pre-demolition relocation. The full early-design proposal should be on the city website soon (here’s a flyer in the meantime); the change in process means no Design Review Board meeting, but public comments will be sought and accepted.
(Bald eagle pair post-mating at Lincoln Park, photographed by Mark MacDonald)
Second Tuesday means a busy night for community involvement. So that’s a big part of the highlight list from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
TODDLER STORY TIME: 10:30 am at West Seattle (Admiral) Library. (2306 42nd SW)
DELRIDGE STATION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP: Second of this week’s two meetings involving planning for West Seattle light rail – 6:30 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, a workshop specifically focused on community input regarding the Delridge station, easternmost of the three stations proposed for the West Seattle line. Here’s the official flyer from Sound Transit. (4408 Delridge Way SW)
ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: 6:30 pm at The Sanctuary at Admiral. Agenda highlights are in our calendar listing, including a look ahead to this summer’s ANA-presented (and WSB-co-sponsored) Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series. (2656 42nd SW)
SOUTH DELRIDGE COMMUNITY GROUP: First general meeting of the year! 7 pm at 2 Fingers Social. (9211 Delridge Way SW)
FAUNTLEROY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: Final plans for the March 19th general membership meeting and Food Fest are on the agenda for tonight’s Fauntleroy Community Association business meeting, as is a briefing on the Fauntleroy Creek culverts replacement plan, as previewed here. 7 pm at the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse conference room – community members always welcome. (9131 California SW)
WEST SEATTLE BOOSTER CLUB: The student-support group meets at 7 pm in the West Seattle High School library. (3000 California SW)
WAX AND OIL: DJs and live painting, starting at 8 pm at Parliament Tavern. 21+. (4210 SW Admiral Way)
SEE THE FUTURE … by browsing our complete calendar!
(SDOT MAP with travel times/ Is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE/ West Seattle-relevant traffic cams HERE)
6:59 AM: Good morning! No incidents or transit alerts in our area so far.
LIGHT TROUBLE: Michele reports that – at least as of about half an hour ago – the 16th-Holden signal is malfunctioning. Remember, a broken signal means all-ways stop!
7:29 AM: As noted in comments, there was subsequently a crash report at the same intersection. SFD has already closed out the call but we’re on our way to check on that as well as the signal status.
7:47 AM: Three cars involved in the 16th/Holden collision, but no major injuries – firefighters at Station 11 (which is right by the crash scene) tell us no one had to be taken to the hospital.
The signal is still out and police tell us they’ve called it in. Traffic is getting by but we’d advise avoiding the area for a while.
8:02 AM: Our crew, returning from the crash, warns that side-street diversion – already a regular problem in Highland Park – is rampant.
8:20 AM: Per scanner, 16th/Holden trouble continues, and we heard a report of a problem at 16th/Graham, further north.
8:29 AM: Trouble on NB I-5 if you’re headed north from the West Seattle Bridge – SFD responding to a crah reported near the I-90 exit.
9:20 AM: Reported in comments – “Just shy of 9 am there was a disabled vehicle in the right turn lane from Highland Park to Holden uphill.”
If you love literature, we bet you look forward to the third Wednesday of the month, when WordsWest Literary Series takes over C & P Coffee (5612 California SW; WSB sponsor) for the night. Next edition is March 20th – still more than a week away but we want to give you extra heads-up, as WordsWest has announced this will be its final season of regular monthly presentations. Here are the details on who you’ll see and hear this month:
WordsWest Literary Series Presents “Questions of Time Travel, Time Zones, Time’s Upâ€
with poet Catherine Barnett and fiction writer Renee Simms (L-R in top photo)
Favorite Poem by Open Books: A Poem EmporiumWe let it rule our lives, we say it passes too slow and then too quickly. What is time and how does it affect us? Poet Catherine Barnett and fiction writer Renee Simms will share 90 minutes with us and read from their new books — both looking at time in a multitude of ways.
WordsWest Literary Series is grateful for funding from Poets & Writers, Inc. that allows us to pay our writers for their time and talent.
Catherine Barnett is the author of three poetry collections, Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced (2004),The Game of Boxes (2012), winner of the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets, and Human Hours, just published by Graywolf Press. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Whiting Award, she is a member of the core faculty of New York University’s Creative Writing Program, a Distinguished Lecturer at Hunter College, and an independent editor. She lives in New York City.
Renee Simms‘ writing appears in Callaloo, Oxford American, Ecotone, Literary Hub, Southwest Review, North American Review, The Rumpus, Salon and elsewhere. She’s received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bread Loaf, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Kimbilio, PEN Center, and Cave Canem. She’s been a featured artist at Elliott Bay Book Company, Tempe Center for the Arts, Midnight Special Bookstore, and on the Portland book podcast, Between the Covers. She lives with one-and-a half children (her eldest is away at college) and a black and white kitty named Barack. Renee’s debut story collection is Meet Behind Mars. She is currently working on a collection of essays and a novel.
WordsWest is curated by West Seattle writers Katy E. Ellis, Susan Rich, and Harold Taw.
The series launched in 2014. Susan says that various life changes have led to the co-curators deciding that Year 5 will be the last, but, “we are probably going to return for special events.”
(WSB file photo)
After a week and a half, the West Seattle Junction Association is about to close its community survey, with topics including but not limited to parking – so if you hadn’t gotten around to replying, hurry! Lots of people have already replied – 1,500 just in the first several days, according to WSJA executive director Lora Radford. Make sure your opinions count too – just go here; tomorrow’s the deadline.
One of the first big events of spring is now exactly two months away: The 15th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, presented by WSB, is on Saturday, May 11th. You could consider one big person-to-person recycling day; many participants tell us it also becomes one big “meet your neighbors” day – sales of all sizes, all over the peninsula. We’ll open registration in early April as always – we keep it open for 3+ weeks so word circulates, and then it closes in time for us to complete the map and listings so they’re available online one full week in advance of the big day. New here? You can see our as-it-happened coverage from last year’s WSCGSD – here and here.
That ramp you used to take from central downtown onto SB Highway 99? Gone. The new time-lapse video above, from WSDOT, shows the demolition of the Columbia Street ramp. WSDOT made it public while announcing another demolition milestone: Its demolition contractor Kiewit is starting work on the double-decker Viaduct itself, as detailed here. This comes exactly two months after the Viaduct’s closure, and five weeks after the Highway 99 tunnel’s opening.
(Photo from last week, by Jim Spraker)
12 years after Sustainable West Seattle‘s founding, the word “sustainable” is more relevant than ever. It’s gone far beyond environmental applications. What does it mean to YOU? Bring your hopes and ideas to SWS’s next public gathering, 6:30 pm Wednesday (March 13th) at Beveridge Place Pub (6413 California SW) in Morgan Junction. Incentives include free pizza supplied by SWS and viewing of the Virtual Salish Sea courtesy of “Diver Laura” James. Topics include the “Green New Deal”
Today we’re welcoming the new West Seattle Mathnasium Learning Center as a WSB sponsor. Here’s what they would like you to know about what they do:
(Nida Ansari, West Seattle Mathnasium Learning Center director)
At Mathnasium Learning Centers, we make math make sense! Whether your child started out far behind or already ahead in math, Mathnasium will help them leap ahead because we know that any child can be successful in math — it’s a matter of teaching it in a way that makes sense to them.
Our experienced math tutors utilize our proprietary teaching materials and techniques, The Mathnasium Methodâ„¢, to deliver a customized learning plan designed to address each student’s needs. Our instructional approach goes beyond traditional math tutoring to develop understanding and build a love for math.
If math is a problem, Mathnasium can solve it. Students will grow more excited and confident about math—and their grades will reflect that.
For students who already excel in math, the sky’s the limit. They will work to expand their math skills and, with math learning made exciting, can see all the doors that being great at math can open.
For more than a decade, The Mathnasium Methodâ„¢ has transformed the way kids understand and appreciate math. The West Seattle Mathnasium Learning Center is in Jefferson Square (4734 42nd SW), 206-800-6284.
We thank Mathnasium for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.
That’s a Google Street View image of the restroom building at 57th SW and Alki Avenue SW. It’s set for replacement, per Seattle Parks, which invites you to stop by the site 10 am-noon March 30th to find out about the project, described on the Alki Beach Park website as follows:
This project will provide three new all-gender-restroom facilities, each with individual access and the structure will be designed to meet standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The project is already in the permit-application system, which says the building will be replaced. Permit files also indicate Parks has other restroom-accessibility improvement projects in the works, including one at Lincoln Park.
(Yellow-rumped Warbler, photographed by Mark Wangerin)
From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
FREE TAX HELP: 2-6:30 pm, drop-in tax help at Delridge Library. Details in our calendar listing. (5423 Delridge Way SW)
EVENING BOOK GROUP AT SOUTHWEST LIBRARY: 6:45 pm. This group‘s book this month is “A Thread of Grace” by Mary Doria Russell. (9010 35th SW)
EVENING BOOK GROUP AT WS (ADMIRAL) LIBRARY: Also at 6:45 pm. This group‘s book for this month is “Magpie Murders” by Anthony Horowitz. (2306 42nd SW)
LIGHT RAIL: It’s the spotlight topic tonight for the Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council, with Sound Transit reps. 7 pm at Pathfinder K-8 School. (1901 SW Genesee)
OPEN MIC: Parliament Tavern invites you to theirs, 8 pm. 21+. (4210 SW Admiral Way)
GOT SOMETHING TO LIST? Email is the best way to send us the info – westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best will be in the Southwest Precinct area later this morning, joining Mayor Jenny Durkan and City Councilmember Lorena González in South Park at the signing ceremony for the bill creating new hiring bonuses for experienced officers. And she’ll be back April 30th, it’s just been announced by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, as keynote speaker for the 2019 Westside Awards. The awards will be presented at a 7:30 am breakfast event at Salty’s on Alki (1936 Harbor SW; WSB sponsor). Tickets are on sale now via the Chamber website; nominations for the awards, meantime, remain open through Friday.
(SDOT MAP with travel times/ Is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE/ West Seattle-relevant traffic cams HERE)
6:59 AM: Good morning! Welcome to the first Daylight Time weekday morning of the year.
FERRIES: As announced Sunday, the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route is back to three boats.
BUSES: One Metro alert so far this morning – an after-the-fact alert that the 6:16 am Route 37 didn’t run.
8 AM; Metro has just sent another after-the-fact alert, this one saying the 7:20 am 57 didn’t run.
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