West Seattle, Washington
26 Friday
Ready for the mask mandate? On the eve of the order taking effect, here’s our nightly roundup:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary dashboard, the cumulative totals:
*9,612 people have tested positive, up 110 from yesterday
*585 people have died, up 2 from yesterday
*1,561 people have been hospitalized, up 6 from yesterday
*153,505 people have been tested, up 3.409 from yesterday
One week ago, those totals were 8,987/582/1,537/135,003.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page,.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: See them, nation by nation, here.
MASK UP STARTING TOMORROW: That’s when the state order takes effect. The basics are here.
COVID CASE CLOSES COFFEE SHOP: Admiral Starbucks is temporarily closed after an employee tested positive.
WEST SEATTLE TESTING TOMORROW: Friday is the weekly drive-up testing day in the north lot at South Seattle College (6000 16th SW; WSB sponsor), 10 am-3 pm.
TELL YOUR STORY: From the Seattle Public Library:
The Seattle Public Library is a repository of Seattle’s history – help us document local history by contributing your story to our new COVID-19 Community Collection.
The Library would like to see and hear how the events of the past few months have affected you. We are looking for stories, photographs, signs, artwork, short videos and other materials that will help future generations learn what life was like in Seattle during this unique period in history. Here are some prompts to get you started:
· What has your daily life been like?
· What are ways you are staying connected with friends and family?
· What will you remember the most 10 years from now?
You can submit stories and materials through our online portal; they will be made available through the Special Collections Online website. The Library also welcomes donations of physical materials, which can be mailed to our Special Collections Department. To learn more about how you can contribute to the project, please visit our website!
NEED FOOD? OR, GOT FOOD TO DONATE? Check out West Seattle’s newest Little Free Pantry.
PHOTOS? TIPS? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302 – thank you!
(Natalia, Helena, and Lara Frazier, after filling the new Little Free Pantry for the first time)
The announcement and photo are from Jeana Frazier:
New Little Free Pantry at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church
Please spread the word about one of the newest “little free pantries” in the West Seattle area! Located outside the office at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, 3050 California Ave. SW (next to the West Seattle High School parking lot), this pantry is available for all members of the neighborhood to “take what you need or give what you can.” Church attendees will be stocking the pantry on a regular basis, but members of the public are encouraged to donate non-perishable food, personal-care items, paper goods, and so on.
Little free pantries are a no-barrier access point for food. They aren’t intended to replace food banks, but rather to work alongside them, getting food to neighbors who may be skipping a meal. It is our hope that the neighborhood will embrace the little free pantry at St. John’s Church and help to reduce food insecurity (made worse by Covid-19 and the recent economic downturn).
Want to put up a LFP? See this WSB story from last month.
The video and report are from Kacie at West Seattle Autoworks (WSB sponsor):
Just wanted to share that we were broken into around 3:20 this morning. They broke in through the front door, smashing the glass and stole a refurbished Samsung tablet and loose change. We consider ourselves very lucky that we only have to replace the front door and clean up glass.
SPD incident # is 2020-196715.
The Sound Transit board won’t decide on potentially delaying projects until July 2021.
That follows discussions at recent committee meetings, during which some board members had voiced alarm that “realignment” decisions with decades-long ramifications might be made too soon, too hastily.
At the board’s monthly meeting this afternoon, they agreed to a timeline (see it here) that would keep all planning of Sound Transit 3 (and remaining ST2) projects moving forward for now. As she had done at an Executive Committee meeting, CFO Tracy Butler reminded the board that current financial projections have ST coffers falling as much as $12 billion short through the life of Sound Transit 3’s plan (which has some projects in the 2040s, with West Seattle light rail currently scheduled to open in 2030).
The board also was reminded that if they chose, for example, to add a 5-year delay to all in-planning projects, that would be “affordable” within current reduced-revenue estimates. But planning director Don Billen also reiterated that a one-size-fits-all approach like that might not be wise, so the agency will embark on a more-nuanced process, including “public engagement” early next year, before finalizing a realigned plan next summer. (You can see the criteria they’ll use in the slide deck from the meeting.)
A two-in-one announcement from the new owners of Youngstown Coffee:
Married couple Autumn Lovewell and Monica Colgan are the new owners of Youngstown Coffee on 6032 California Ave SW in Morgan Junction, which was previously owned by Zoe Kritzer. The Delridge location is now permanently closed. Zoe is off to new adventures and everyone is going to miss seeing her at Youngstown, but now you will see her around town!
Monica Colgan owns HeartBeet Organic Superfoods Cafe, which shares the same building as Youngstown (where Harry’s Chicken Joint used to be). HeartBeet has another location in Queen Anne and has been in business for 12 years. The West Seattle location was opened during COVID and due to the To-Go nature of the business has been able to keep staff employed.
Monica and Autumn have been West Seattle residents for 5 years and have 3 kids, 2 who are at Louisa Boren STEM. Now they live in White Center. The whole family is active in the community working to protect Trans and LGBTQ youth.
Youngstown Coffee will be a platform for social-justice issues which is their passion. It’s an opportunity to have ongoing dialogue with the community and highlight local Black, POC, and LGBTQ organizations that are making an impact in West Seattle and White Center.
Youngstown Coffee is hosting West Seattle Pride – a social distance mini-march in Morgan Junction on Sunday, June 28 at 2 pm to bring attention to Black Trans Lives Matter and to honor the creators of the first Pride, which was a protest not a parade. This event is by and for West Seattle’s LGBTQ community. Details below:
West Seattle Pride – Socially distanced march for LGBTQ community
SAFETY FIRST! WEAR YOUR MASKS AND KEEP A SAFE DISTANCE! Free disposable masks will be available to those who arrive without one. Hand sanitizer will be available throughout the march.
Organized by and for local LGBTQ families and friends. Benefiting Ingersoll Gender Center of Seattle.
Mini-March in the Morgan Junction area for our LGBTQ community in West Seattle! We will be honoring and remembering Black and Indigenous Trans/Queer Lives, the creators of Pride. Every year we must remember that the first PRIDE was a protest, not a parade. This year, let’s do both because there is so much work to do while we celebrate who we are.
ROUTE: Meet at Morgan Junction Park (next to Beveridge Place). Around 2:15 pm we will walk north on California Ave to SW Findlay St, use the crosswalk, and come back down California to end back at Morgan Junction Park. It’s a small walk designed with little legs and families in mind.
After the walk, please support your local LGBTQ and Black-owned businesses in West Seattle. Mention them in the comments.
Ingersoll Gender Center provides Seattle’s Transgender and Gender diverse community with mental health services, support groups, legal help, financial services, and job sourcing. Donations directly to Ingersoll via their mobile site are greatly appreciated! ingersollgendercenter.org
Multiple readers emailed today to ask why the recently remodeled Admiral Starbucks store had abruptly closed without explanation. We inquired with the corporate media team, and here’s the response from a spokesperson:
(W)we recently learned one of our partners at the store received a positive diagnosis for COVID-19 and is self-isolating at home for a period of time. Further to that, as soon as we learned of the diagnosis (on the same day), we quickly activated our protocols and closed the store to initiate a deep cleaning following all recommended guidelines from public health authorities.
It’s important for me to add that Starbucks takes seriously our responsibility to keep our partners and customers safe, and all partners who were deemed to have worked in close contact with this partner will be paid for the time they will miss during the recommended 14 days of self-isolation (from date of exposure). As far as re-opening, I don’t have an exact date but the store will resume operations next week.
(Reader photo from April, when low-bridge enforcement began)
As first reported here Wednesday afternoon, SDOT told the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force that it recommended opening low-bridge access to all 9 pm-5 am and to school buses any time. Nobody on the CTF objected, so, SDOT says today, those changes are now in effect. Also mentioned briefly during the meeting: Future camera enforcement on the low bridge. There was not much elaboration on that during the meeting, but SDOT has more information today:
…SDOT is exploring the use of automated enforcement of Low Bridge restrictions and if feasible, could serve as a key milestone for equitably increasing access.
During (the) Task Force discussion, it became clear that most policy proposals to increase Low Bridge access in a way that is equitable and does not detrimentally impact public safety depend on the ability to enforce them.
A permanent SPD presence is not a preferred, scalable, or affordable approach and, thus, SDOT has begun to explore the potential use of automated enforcement mechanisms. This could mean that cameras are added to an existing contract managed by SPD, similar to red light enforcement cameras and school zone cameras.
The use of automated enforcement for Low Bridge access policies would have to be approved by City Council. If it were, SDOT anticipates this technology could be in place later this summer or early fall.
We look forward to sharing more about this potential solution in the coming weeks. …
Currently, as SDOT’s post notes, the city only uses camera enforcement for school-zone speeding and red-light running. Some other uses are now allowed after the Legislature passed a bill sponsored by local State House Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (who is part of the CTF along with other local elected officials.)
Great day for a walk! That’s what Lou Cutler (with support team Denise and Juli) is doing right now – 11.5 miles around the peninsula, to celebrate his 69th birthday and raise money for Make-A-Wish!
As noted in our preview – not to mention annual coveerage! – Lou usually celebrates his birthday a few weeks early by returning to Pathfinder K-8, where he taught PE before retiring five years ago, and running one lap around the field for every year of his new age, with students and staff joining him throughout the day. This year, the campus was closed, so he’s walking one big “lap” around West Seattle. We caught up with him at Lowman Beach.
You can support Make-A-Wish – which brings hope and joy to seriously ill children – via Lou’s page, here.
Sorry for the short notice – our fault. But if you see this before the event starts:
On Thursday, June 25th, West Seattle Democratic Women will begin its first of a series of three on racism. It’s a midday meeting and begins at 11:00 am with the Discussion Group topic of “The Effect of C-19 on me!”. The membership meeting will follow at 11:30 am and the Program itself will begin at 12:00 pm. Via video, local author Ijeoma Oluo will be introducing her book “So You Want to Talk About Race.” We feel it’s a particularly interesting program during a time when we all have such a lot to learn! If you wish to register for the Zoom meeting and have a need for the appropriate Zoom codes or have questions, please email wsdwomen@yahoo.com or call Karen 206.920.2231.
6:12 AM: Good morning – the 94th morning without the high-rise West Seattle Bridge.
ROAD WORK
*Demolition is under way on the Delridge Way repaving-and-more project – here’s what’s happening this week – we drove the area last night and noticed the lane-narrowing in several spots.
TRAFFIC
Heading off-peninsula? First, the cameras for the 5-way intersection, and the restricted-access low bridge just east of it:
The main detour route across the Duwamish River is the 1st Avenue South Bridge (map) – which has up to 14 overnight closures planned next month. Meanwhile, here’s that camera:
The other major bridge across the river is the South Park Bridge (map) – this camera shows the SP-side approach:
Check the @SDOTBridges Twitter feed for info about any of those bridges opening for marine traffic.
You can see all local traffic cams here; locally relevant cameras are also shown on this WSB page.
TRANSIT
Metro – Some service has been added back – details here.
Water Taxi – This also has some service restored, plus the 773 and 775 shuttles – see the schedule here.
Trouble on the roads/paths/water? Let us know – text (but not if you’re driving!) 206-293-6302.
Though major Pride festivities were called off for coronavirus this year, two local establishments are offering you the chance to celebrate West Seattle Pride this weekend. Their announcement:
The Lumber Yard Bar and Admiral Pub have teamed up to bring you West Seattle Pride this weekend, June 27th-28th. Space is limited so please reserve a table for any of the events you plan to attend. We are also taking social distancing seriously, so masks are required for all events and please keep reservations to 5 or less people.
June 27th – The Lumber Yard
3 pm-6 pm
White Center Pride Fundraiser.
Grill party on the patio with raffle tickets and jello shots8 pm – 12 am
Join us for a special one-night event to celebrate Pride with Dolly and the DJ. Limited seating available for this event in the Loading Dock. Reserve a table for you and three friends (due to social distancing). Full bar and menu available. Champagne toast to celebrate pride included.June 28th – Admiral Pub
11 am
Pride Brunch and the movie The Birdcage
Reserve a Table for Brunch1:30 pm
Pride Brunch and the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar
Reserve a Table for Brunch4 pm
Pride Bingo
Free to play with some fun prizes6 pm to 11 pm
DJ Andy will be spinning all your favorite music videos
The Lumber Yard Bar is at 9619 16th SW; Admiral Pub is at 2306 California SW.
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