West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Tonight’s numbers start alarmingly, but note there’s a disclaimer:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary dashboard, the cumulative totals:
*28,948 people have tested positive, 559 more than yesterday’s total++++
*809 people have died, unchanged from yesterday’s total
*2,621 people have been hospitalized, 22 more than yesterday’s total
*550,631 people have been tested, 1,131 more than yesterday’s total
++++Here’s the explanation of today’s positive-test total, from the dashboard:
One week ago, the four totals we track were 26,817/803/2,561/530,067.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page,.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: See them, nation by nation, here.
SCHOOLS & COVID-19: State health authorities plan a briefing at 11:15 am tomorrow about “a new modeling report on potential outcomes of the impact in-school COVID-19 testing may have on the different approaches to in-person learning, depending on community rates of COVID-19.” You can watch the livestream here.
GOT INFO? Email us at westseattleblog@gmail.com or phone us, text or voice, at 206-293-6302 – thank you!
6:51 PM: Thanks for the tips. We’re hearing from multiple people in Gatewood, mostly along SW Holden, from California SW east, who say they lost power about 10 minutes ago. The City Light map initially only showed 1 customer affected but has just updated to 73. We’re checking on the cause; we’ve been hearing some scanner traffic tonight about wires downed in the wind.
7:15 PM: We just drove SW Holden, confirming that the outage goes east to 37th SW. No sign of City Light in the area, though (if you see them working anywhere, let us know).
7:43 PM: A caller tells us City Light now has a crew at 41st/Holden.
10:40 PM: Outage is in its fifth hour. No official update from SCL.
11:46 PM: The map now shows most of the outage resolved. We’ll follow up with SCL tomorrow regarding the cause.
ADDED THURSDAY EVENING: SCL spokesperson Julie Moore tells WSB the outage was caused by “equipment failure.”
All the post-election suspense is at the national level – but we’re going to present a quick local update anyway.
TURNOUT UPDATE: Will King County hit that 90 percent goal? It’s getting closer – as of tonight, just under 86 percent of ballots countywide had been received; looking just at the city of Seattle, it’s almost 88 percent. (For comparison, the final 2016 percentages were 80.85% countywide, 84.26% for Seattle.)
RESULTS UPDATE: Nothing we were watching at the local/state level was close, and today’s added returns haven’t changed anything. Seattle Transportation Benefit District Prop 1, sales tax to fund extra Metro service, has 8X percent approval, while King County Prop 1, property tax for improvements at Harborview Medical Center, has 77 percent approval. See the updated King County results here, and the updated state results here.
West Seattle author/illustrator Danitra Hunter wants more kids to meet, and be inspired by, a character she created who’s known as Purrdie Burrdie.
She created Purrdie Burrdie while working at the West Seattle/Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor) as a teacher in recent years – a job she says she can’t do right now because the pandemic has closed her classroom. But she is working on another way to reach kids – a children’s book starring Purrdie Burrdie.
Danitra explains, “She represents self-love, and many children in our community love and adore her. Purrdie Burrdie started out as a coloring page and over the years I’ve been working on her world and I currently have a live Kickstarter campaign to publish my first children’s book “Purrdie Burrdie: I Love Myself, Can You See?” This book was inspired by little Black girls at West Seattle Elementary being ashamed of being Black and Brown girls. A friend of mine who worked for an afterschool program told me this information and it truly broke my heart.” But Purrdie Burrdie is for everyone: “I want people of all ages and backgrounds to love themselves – that’s why I am in your world!”
Her Kickstarter campaign – already more than halfway to its goal – will enable her to self-publish the Purrdie Burrdie book, ideally in February 2021, in honor of Black History Month. (Even if you’re not interested in backing her project, you can see preview pages on her Kickstarter site.)
Thanks to WestSide Baby for the photo of that brand-new mural on the north-facing wall of the nonprofit’s White Center HQ. It’s by artist Angelina Villalobos, who painted it last weekend. The organization explains:
The mural is the end result of many conversations for many years, but was pushed forward by the organization’s desire to communicate their values of Humanity, Resilience, and Intention OUTSIDE of their huge warehouse walls in response to the murder of George Floyd in late May and the continued fight for justice in our community and beyond. The building has been tagged with graffiti a number of times over the last couple months, with messages of support for Black Lives and racial justice, and it was important for WestSide Baby to honor that sentiment.
The artist elaborated on her work:
I centered a circle and honed in on shapes growing out, emulating pages of an open book. From the open book I filled it with words of justice, love, and equity, and more words brainstormed by WestSide Baby staff, including their values of Humanity, Resilience, and Intentionality. This design color and type was pulled from 1960s-styled protest posters, reminding us of the fight for civil rights and love during that time, and now in 2020.
WestSide Baby has distributed more than 1.6 million diapers to local families so far this year, and says that’s more than during any other full year in the organization’s 20 years of work. You can support them in two ways: Donate dollars or diapers. For online donation info, go here; for in-person donating, they’re accepting boxes or packages of all sizes of diapers and pullups, plus wipes and other hygiene items, 10 am-2 pm Wednesdays at the White Center HQ (10002 14th SW).
Thanks for the tips. King County Transit Police (part of the Sheriff’s Office) are investigating after a person was found dead at the northbound bus stop near Delridge/Myrtle this morning. KCSO spokesperson Sgt. Tim Meyer tells WSB that they got a call around 6:30 am. Someone tried to do CPR on the person, believed to be a woman in her mid-60s, but it was too late. He says there is no suspicion of foul play at this point, though the King County Medical Examiner’s Office will make the final determination of the cause of death.
(WSB photo, DGC volunteers asssembling boxes in September)
2020 won’t just be remembered for the pandemic and other problems. This year has had its memorable milestones, too, big and small. For Delridge Grocery Co-op, it’s the year that weekly box delivery launched. So what’s next? Be the first to know by attending the DGC’s annual meeting online this Saturday! In case you haven’t seen it in our calendar yet. here’s the announcement:
The Delridge Grocery Co-op annual meeting is going virtual this year on Saturday, November 7 at 3 pm.
Please consider spending some time with us on Saturday as we’ve got a lot of news to share and will be voting on up to two additional board positions (voted on by owner-members with a full $100 ownership share).
We’ll be covering what we’ve done with our DGC Essentials Box program, providing a virtual tour of the retail store, going over current financials, describing the next steps needed for opening our retail site, and listing out some areas where we need help from our owners and community.
Reserve your meeting spot today at our SignUp Genius page (we will have a limited number of virtual seats available). We’ll provide the full agenda and Zoom conference details closer to Saturday.
(Photo by Christopher Boffoli
Two events of interest today and tonight:
ORCA-DOCUMENTARY DISCUSSION: 12:30 pm-1:30 pm today, an online performance and panel discussion/Q&A kick off the distribution of a new documentary, “Sentinels of Silence? Whale Watching, Noise, and the Orca“ (trailer below):
Panel members include West Seattleite Donna Sandstrom of The Whale Trail, who served on Gov. Inslee‘s task force about the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales. Register here ASAP to get the link for viewing today’s online event.
DISTRICT 1 COMMUNITY NETWORK: 7 pm online, this coalition of community advocates from West Seattle and South Park has its monthly meeting. All welcome. Agenda topics include a recap of recent tenant-rights bootcamps, updates on public-safety issues, and current COVID-19 community impacts. To attend, use this link or call 669-900-6833. (Meeting ID: 222 985 415 – Password: 625318)
7:46 AM: Thanks to Kersti Muul of Salish Wildlife Watch for the tip: Orcas are passing West Seattle, southbound off Blake Island.
10:39 AM: Kersti reports in a comment below that the whales (Southern Residents from J-Pod) have turned back northbound.
6:16 AM: Welcome to Wednesday, the 226th morning without the West Seattle Bridge.
ROAD WORK, ETC.
Delridge project: 23rd SW is closed at Delridge this week. The week’s other major work, is detailed here.
CHECK TRAFFIC BEFORE YOU GO
West Marginal Way/Highland Park Way:
Highland Park Way/Holden:
Here’s the 5-way intersection camera (Spokane/West Marginal/Delridge/Chelan):
Here’s the restricted-daytime-access (open to all 9 pm-5 am) low bridge:
The main detour route across the Duwamish River is the 1st Avenue South Bridge (map) . Here are two cameras:
The other major bridge across the river is the South Park Bridge (map). Here’s the nearest camera:
Going through South Park? Don’t speed. (Same goes for the other detour-route neighborhoods, like Highland Park, Riverview, and South Delridge.)
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.
BUSES
Metro – Fare collection has resumed.
WATER TAXI
The West Seattle run remains on its weekdays-only schedule. .
Trouble on the roads/paths/water? Let us know – text (but not if you’re driving!) 206-293-6302.
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