day : 15/01/2021 9 results

46 weeks have now passed since the Friday night announcement of the first King County case of COVID-19. Here are tonight’s updates:

KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary page, cumulative totals:

*71,231 people have tested positive, 684 more than yesterday’s total

*1,180 people have died, 15 more than yesterday’s total

*4,566 people have been hospitalized, 71 more than yesterday’s total

*788,074 people have been tested, 5,123 more than yesterday’s total

And from the new COVID Vaccination Among King County Residents dashboard (updated weekdays):

*82,382 people have received one dose

*11,640 people have received both doses

*141,375 doses have been allocated to King County

One week ago, the first four totals were 67,068/1,138/4,375/767,530 – we’ll add vaccination numbers after tracking them for a week.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 93.8 million cases, 2 million deaths – see the nation-by-nation numbers here.

PHASE 1 FOR WEEK 2: The second “Roadmap to Recovery” report since the governor’s announcement of a new reopening plan is out. It shows every region in the state will continue in Phase 1 next week. The weekly reviews are on Fridays.

OPEN-AIR SERVICE: As part of the rules for Phase 1, some food/drink establishments are seating patrons in “open air” – sort of an indoor/outdoor hybrid.

ANOTHER NEW DASHBOARD: Besides the vaccine dashboard mentioned above, King County also has one with weekly updates on outbreaks – what type of settings they’re happening in, for ecample.

COUNTY HEALTH OFFICER’S BRIEFING: Dr. Jeff Duchin provided another video briefing, saying we’re on a “roller coaster” – see it here. He expressed concern about the more-contagious new variant (though it hasn’t been detected here yet) – “beware and prepare” to be ready, he said. “The virus has gotten smarter and faster.”

GOT INFO OR PHOTOS? westseattleblog@gmail.com or text/voice 206-293-6302 – thank you!

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STORM AFTERMATH: Park problems

January 15, 2021 9:47 pm

| 2 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle parks | West Seattle weather

If you go to local parks this weekend, you might encounter the aftermath of this past week’s storms. Above and below are photos Mike Munson took at Lincoln Park, where, he explains, he found the above sign “at the bottom of the trail from the cliff to back of the pool at Point Williams, on the old road grade.” He also saw this:

That, Mike said, was “a small slide developing along the beach trail north of the pool. Some brush has been pushed a little way into the trail, and fresh gray goo is visible behind, upslope. It’s probably done sliding, but maybe more to come?” Parks crews also have been busy with downed trees. Today, we saw that this one is still on its side in the big field at Roxhill Park:

No notable rain or wind in the forecast – though note that mention of a possible snowflake or two next Friday.

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BIZNOTE: More West Seattle establishments offering ‘open-air’ indoor-outdoor seating

January 15, 2021 7:22 pm

| 32 COMMENTS

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news | West Seattle restaurants

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Best of Hands Barrelhouse (@bestofhands)

In the first week of the new statewide “Healthy Washington” reopening roadmap, businesses are still exploring the fine print. For food and beverage businesses, though indoor dining is still banned in Phase 1, “open-air” service is allowed as well as outdoor seating. That means establishments such as Best of Hands Barrelhouse (Instagram photo above) that have walls with multiple windows can offer 25 percent capacity seating with those windows open. The Lodge in The Junction plans to start offering open-air seating tomorrow; the West Seattle Junction Association tells us Matador and JaK’s Grill have it too, and others are planning to follow. This is in addition to the numerous establishments that already have patio and/or “pod” outdoor seating, from Mission Cantina (WSB sponsor) and several Alki spots in the north, to places like The Bridge and The Westy in the south. You can read the new state guidelines here. Phase 1, by the way, will last at least one more week; the state is announcing every Friday what phase regions will be in as of the following Monday, and today’s news is that everyone stays in Phase 1 – although you can see on page 4 here that the Puget Sound region, including King County, was close.

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WEEKEND ROAD CLOSURE: Here’s what’s being done on Sylvan Way

January 15, 2021 5:13 pm

| 10 COMMENTS

| High Point | Utilities | West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

As noted in today’s morning traffic watch, one of West Seattle’s major east-west routes, Sylvan Way, will be closed much of this weekend, without major advance notice aside from sparse signage. Today SDOT was finally able to tell us this is a Seattle Public Utilities project, and we have obtained more information through SPU spokesperson Sabrina Register:

This is SPU drainage crew work. They are responding to some localized flooding issues that were reported by the community last year. SPU is installing one inlet and one catch basin and needs to trench across the street to connect to them to the drainage mainline.

This work will occur Saturday and Sunday, 8 am to 5 pm, and a detour will be in place. Outside of working hours, the crew will be able to reopen the roadway and allow traffic on Sylvan.

The work will be focused in the 6900 block of Sylvan Way [map]. It also means a reroute for Metro Route 128 – here are those details.

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WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Business burglary; school theft and vandalism; prowler; scam call; community meeting with police

January 15, 2021 3:20 pm

| 11 COMMENTS

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

In West Seattle Crime Watch:

BUSINESS BURGLARY: Coastal Surf Boutique posted online that the store at 3270 California SW was hit by “massive theft” night before last. The police report says it happened around 2:30 am Thursday and that the store’s owner was alerted by security video; police got there fast and detained a possible suspect but he turned out not to be the person seen in the video. We have inquiries out to see if any community assistance is in order. The SPD case # is 21-011014.

SCHOOL HIT BY THEFT, VANDALISM: From Sally at Hope Lutheran School:

We have experienced two tagging events just this week plus one tire of our bus was taken.

They left the jack, plus tagged the bus. This is so frustrating. Before the holiday we noticed that the bus’s catalytic converter was taken, too, which we found to be a “thing” in West Seattle.

PROWLER: Jake sent this security video from Alki: “The guy in this video is creeping around on 61st Ave SW near SW Stevens going through people’s packages.” The video shows the person looking through package boxes, and then photographing them.

(added) SCAM CALL: Thanks to Hiro for the alert:

I received a call from a number identified as Seattle Emergency Management warning that my power would be shut off shortly due to my bill not being paid. I’m on auto pay so I knew it was suspicious right away and logged into their site to confirm but others that may be struggling to pay bills right now may think it’s real, as the recording on the call sounded official.

Here’s what to do if you suspect a scam like this.

CRIME PREVENTION MEETING: Hear from and talk with local police at the first West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting of the year, 6 pm next Tuesday (January 19th). Here’s the link.

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BIZNOTE: Top Pot Doughnuts closing Alki café

January 15, 2021 12:25 pm

| 62 COMMENTS

| West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

Thanks for the tips. After almost six years at the beach, Top Pot Doughnuts confirms its Alki café is closing. A company spokesperson answered our inquiry:

We’re saddened to announce the permanent closure of our Alki café following notice from our Landlord ending our tenancy. We are grateful to our friends and customers who have supported our business during these most tenuous of times and are saddened to be leaving this wonderful community. Our guests have made coming to the beach every day a pleasure and we look forward to serving you on Alki until late January and seeing you in the brighter days, months and years to come at all of our other Top Pot cafes.

Top Pot is a locally based chain, founded on Capitol Hill almost 20 years ago. The other space in the building at 2758 Alki SW has gone through a variety of tenants in recent years, from sandwiches to sushi to gelato, but now has a construction sign in the window; the decade-old building has had a permit in the works for two years for, as described in city files, “a second-story, 2-unit apartment addition above an existing commercial building(; p)roject includes a portion of the existing building to be converted into a 1-car garage and 2-car garage addition.”

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KING DAY: What you can do in West Seattle

January 15, 2021 11:21 am

| 1 COMMENT

| Holidays | How to help | West Seattle news

Today is the 92nd anniversary of the birth of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Monday is the federal holiday in his honor. From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar, here are two things you can do in West Seattle (please let us know if there are others we can add to this list):

HIGHLAND PARK: Co-sponsored by Highland Park Improvement Club and HP Action Committee:

We have some opportunities to work on demo of the HPIC ceiling, plus trash grabbers and bags for folks to do socially distanced neighborhood cleanup at large. And if you have your own tools and projects at home, join us in spirit!

Tools available at 10 am at Highland Park Improvement Club, 1116 SW Holden. Return pickup tools and collected trash by 3 pm.

Free SDOT traffic mitigation signs available day of event or email HPACtraffic@gmail.com to request alternate pickup.

‘UPROOTING RACISM’: Monday brings the first session in Admiral Church‘s two-track year-long study of “Uprooting Racism” by Paul Kivel. The first track is for “individual introspection,” with monthly meetings, while the second is for organizations, meeting every three months starting in March. For details about timing, course content, book ordering, and registration, go to admiralchurch.org/uprootingracism.

We’ll add anything more we hear about for Monday!

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WEST SEATTLE WEATHER: Weekend preview

January 15, 2021 9:54 am

| 6 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle weather

So far today, the clouds are a little more ordinary than the formations Jerry Simmons photographed (above) on Thursday. But the good news, unless you’re a major fan of rain, is that things are drying out, at least for a day or so – the forecast suggests Saturday will be mostly dry, until a chance of rain returns Saturday night and lingers through Sunday until a partly sunny King Day on Monday. As of early this morning, the official rain total (at Sea-Tac) was almost three times normal for this time of year, 7.58 inches (the National Weather Service says the seasonal norm is 2.64). More good news for fans of light:

While there’s no telling yet whether tonight’s sunset will be as photogenic as the Thursday sunset photographed by Dan Ciske (above) and others (thank you, everyone!), the 4:45 pm official sunset time is almost half an hour earlier than the earliest sunset of winter.

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ROAD WORK, TRAFFIC, TRANSIT: Friday 1/15 watch, including weekend Sylvan Way closure

January 15, 2021 6:07 am

| 12 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

6:07 AM: It’s Friday, January 15th, the 298th morning without the West Seattle Bridge.

LOW-BRIDGE CAMERA ENFORCEMENT: One more reminder on this fifth day of enforcement cameras on the low bridge – they’re photographing vehicles so that $75 tickets can be sent to owners of unauthorized vehicles crossing between 5 am and 9 pm. Who’s authorized and who’s not? See our story.

ROAD (ETC.) WORK

Delridge project – SW Thistle is now closed between Delridge and 20th. Here’s what else is happening this week.

California and Myrtle – The sewer-repair project continues – if driving/riding on California, watch out for the bumps; we noticed this new sign last night after a bicyclist was hurt and went to the hospital Monday:

Arbor Heights project – Gas-line replacement work on SW 104th is scheduled to continue.

Sylvan Way weekend closure? – This single sign has been up all week at 35th/Morgan, saying Sylvan will be closed 7:30 am to 4:30 pm both days this weekend:

We’ve been trying to find out what kind of work will be done and exactly where. but SDOT communications says they can’t find anyone in the department who knows about it. As of Thursday afternoon, there was no other signage along the length of Morgan/Sylvan/Orchard, and no Metro alerts about reroutes. So we’ll just have to see what happens Saturday.

9:36 AM: SDOT has finally tracked down some information, telling us it’s a Seattle Public Utilities project in the 6900 block of Sylvan. We are in turn contacting SPU now.

10:11 AM: And finally just now, Metro has sent a reroute alert. (Here are the details.)

CHECK TRAFFIC BEFORE YOU GO

West Marginal Way at Highland Park Way: