West Seattle, Washington
26 Tuesday
Tonight’s pandemic toplines:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Seattle-King County Public Health daily-summary dashboard, the cumulative totals:
*72,924 people have tested positive, 324 more than yesterday’s total
*1,198 people have died, 13 more than yesterday’s total
*4,643 people have been hospitalized, 26 more than yesterday’s total
*801,482 people have been tested (*data adjustment – this is 69 fewer than yesterday’s total)
One week ago, the four totals we track were 70,094/1,151/4,494/782,443.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page,.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: See them, nation by nation, here.
NEW TESTING SITE? We discovered a not-yet-active Curative kiosk at Don Armeni Boat Ramp tonight and hope to find out tomorrow when it’ll be activated.
2 BRIEFINGS TOMORROW: The state health leaders’ weekly briefing was abruptly postponed from today to tomorrow, 9 am, same livestream link … Gov. Inslee also plans a media briefing tomorrow, 2;30 pm, to be streamed here.
NEED FOOD? The Greater Seattle Filipino-American SDA Church has another food distribution planned, 2:30 pm Saturday (January 23rd), 2620 SW Kenyon, first-come first-served.
GOT INFO? Email us at westseattleblog@gmail.com or phone us, text or voice, at 206-293-6302 – thank you!
As announced earlier this week, the West Seattle low bridge (Spokane Street Swing Bridge) will close 8 am-1 pm this Saturday (January 23rd) to all but emergency traffic. SDOT says the shutdown is necessary for an inspection. Commenters wondered about plans for rerouting buses during the closure; we inquired with Metro, and tonight the official reroute plans – all of which use the 1st Avenue South Bridge – are available:
ORIGINAL REPORT, 5:59 PM WEDNESDAY: Just spotted this at Don Armeni Boat Ramp while out on pre-dusk rounds. Curative has been partnering with the city to open walk-up COVID-testing kiosks like these, starting with two in Northgate and the Central District in early December, then adding three more in late December – but no West Seattle locations until now. These kiosks offer self-administered mouth-swab tests, with a Curative employee there to observe and receive; you get the results electronically within 48 hours, the city says. West Seattle isn’t yet on the map, so we have messages out to see how soon this is expected to open. (In the meantime, the city’s test site at Southwest Athletic Complex continues operating six days a week.)
ADDED 8:50 AM THURSDAY: Curative tells us this is opening today. And in fact, overnight it’s been added to their map, so you can use their website to book an appointment. Looks like the available appointments start at noon.
Three West Seattle Crime Watch reports:
SIGN STOLEN AGAIN: The photo and report are from Julie:
I wrote back in June to let you know the upsetting and disappointing news that a Black Lives Matter sign (see photo) our PTA placed on the Myrtle St. fence at Gatewood Elementary School was removed and stolen. It has been replaced three other times since then, the most recent time being January 7th — all of these signs have been placed with the full permission & support of our school administration. Then unfortunately last night, it was taken again for the fourth time. Someone is trying very hard to block this message of solidarity and support for people of color in our community, and we ask that people be on the lookout. We are planning to have members of our community add their own signs supporting the movement to this fence during Black Lives Matter at School Week, February 1st-5th.
PROWLER: Dom says this security-video screengrab shows a prowler spotted in Sylvan Ridge Townhomes between 4:30 and 5:30 this morning.
Neighbors have reported various items missing, and Dom notes that video shows the prowler “trying to steal things from our patio and/or appears to then spend significant time trying to see if the sliding door is unlocked. She then seems to look underneath items on our neighbors’ stairs, perhaps to see if there’s a spare key beneath.”
PHARMACY ROBBERY, ASSAULT: This summary is from the SPD Significant Incident Report file, which says it happened around 8:11 pm Monday night at the 15th/Roxbury Walgreens:
Three suspects entered the Walgreens pharmacy by jumping over the counter. They demanded Oxycodone and Promethazine. They did not want to wait the 5 mins for the medicine cabinet timer, so they took about $300 from the register. As they were leaving the store, a female was entering. The suspects punched her several times in the face before taking her purse, which contained about $600. The suspects broke the front door off of the frame to exit Walgreens.
Peter sent the photo (thank you!), reporting that the “aluminum fencing is finally coming down today” at the Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook seawall-replacement project site, near Beach Drive/Jaoobsen Road. We reported four weeks ago that contractor Redside Construction was almost done with the 465-foot seawall and pedestrian/landscaping features atop it. The work has taken about half a year, as had been estimated.
Here’s another tqsty way to help local students. Received from the Genesee Hill Elementary PTA:
January Dine Out for Genesee Hill – Mission Cantina
The Genesee Hill Elementary Restaurant of the Month is Mission Cantina! This is a two-day fundraising event taking place on January 24 and 25 (next Sunday and Monday)! Mission Cantina will generously donate 20% of ALL sales that the restaurant makes on those days. This includes all food, alcohol, gift cards, and Mission Cantina’s “Whole Enchilada” take-and-bake kit. To order regular menu items, please call Mission directly at 206-937-8220. The restaurant will begin to take phone orders starting at 11 am both days. Please note, we are trying to encourage families to work with the restaurant directly rather than use 3rd-party apps such as GrubHub and Ubereats to help the staff get more of the funds from tips and orders.
“The Whole Enchilada” Take-and-Bake Kit
This delicious kit gives you all of the items below for ONLY $60 plus tax (gratuity not included). We are taking orders in advance for this awesome deal until January 21. Please click on the Signup Genius so that you can reserve your dinners for pick-up on one of the two days, with payment at pickup.
· Chips and salsa
· Child-sized black bean and cheese enchiladas
· Potato, carnitas, chicken, green chili enchiladas
· Red rice and Black beans
· Cheese and three different enchilada sauces
In addition to takeout/pickup, Mission Cantina (a WSB sponsor) also has outdoor dining.
Alki’s Statue of Liberty has been draped in a flag since the day the election was called for President Biden and Vice President Harris, back on November 7th. So Joel Wood sent us that photo as a suggestion for Inauguration Day. We realize your attention may be on what’s happening nationally, but we remain locally focused as ever, so here’s what we have for the hours ahead:
LIBRARY CURBSIDE SERVICE: Both the Southwest and High Point branches offer it today, noon-6 pm.
STATE HEALTH OFFICIALS’ BRIEFING: The weekly pandemic briefing from state health leaders is set for noon, viewable here. UPDATE: Since we published this, the briefing has been rescheduled to 9 am Thursday – same stream link.
CITY COUNCIL TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE: 2 pm meeting includes discussion of the city’s surveillance ordinance and a review of the license-plate-reading tech used for traffic comeras. Here’s the agenda, which includes viewing/commenting info.
MORGAN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: The quarterly meeting is online at 7 pm. See the agenda, and info on how to attend, in our preview.
(Photo courtesy Southwest Seattle Historical Society)
Tomorrow night, you are invited to set sail into another chapter of local history. Here’s the announcement:
The Southwest Seattle Historical Society is delighted to host Michaela Kraft for a live Zoom presentation on Thursday, January 21 at 6:00 PM. Kraft will deliver a presentation and cooking demonstration titled, “Fish For Thought: Fishing Derbies Strengthen Community on Alki and Beyond.” Registration is required.
During the 1940s, fishing competitions had proliferated so quickly that nearly every town along the Sound, as well as numerous businesses and organizations, sponsored one. Though they were widespread, Seattle became the hub for these derbies. We’ll explore a brief history of fishing and these fishing derbies in the Pacific Northwest, and then zoom in on the Alki Fishing Derby and how this tradition brought people together and built a rock-solid sense of community on Alki.
Following the presentation, Kraft will be offering a cooking demonstration of a popular Alki dish that reflects recipes that were likely used around the time of the Derbies.
Michaela Kraft is from Wisconsin, and is a Museology graduate student at the University of Washington. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Drama and Arts Management from the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point, and has been fortunate to work at a number of historical societies and historic sites throughout the Midwest. She is passionate about interpretation, and has used her background in the theater to bring the past to life.
For more details and to register, please visit our website at loghousemuseum.org, or contact Maggie Kase, the Programs & Interpretation Coordinator at programs@loghousemuseum.org.
6:07 AM: It’s Wednesday, January 20th, Inauguration Day and the 303rd morning without the West Seattle Bridge.
ROAD (ETC.) WORK
Low bridge closure – SDOT says the low bridge will be closed 8 am-1 pm Saturday to all but emergency vehicles, so it can be inspected.
Delridge project – The SW Thistle closure continues between Delridge and 20th. Here’s what else is expected this week.
California and Myrtle – The sewer-repair project continues – if driving/riding on California, watch out for the bumps.
Sylvan Way work – Also be aware of the bumps left after last weekend’s drainage work.
Arbor Heights project – Gas-line replacement work on SW 104th is scheduled to continue.
CHECK TRAFFIC BEFORE YOU GO
Low Bridge: Second week for automated enforcement cameras, while restrictions are in effect 5 am-9 pm daily.
West Marginal Way at Highland Park Way:
Highland Park Way/Holden:
The 5-way intersection (Spokane/West Marginal/Delridge/Chelan):
The main detour route across the Duwamish River, the 1st Avenue South Bridge (map) . Here are two cameras:
The other major bridge across the river – the South Park Bridge (map). Here’s the nearest camera:
Going through South Park? Don’t speed. (Same goes for all the other detour-route neighborhoods, both the arterials and neighborhood streets!)
To check for bridges’ marine-traffic openings, see the @SDOTBridges Twitter feed.
You can view all local traffic cams here; locally relevant cameras are also shown on this WSB page.
TRANSIT
Metro – On regular weekday schedule – if you’re not subscribed to alerts, you can watch @kcmetrobus on Twitter for them
Water Taxi – On its regular schedule
Trouble on the roads/paths/water? Let us know – text (but not if you’re driving!) 206-293-6302.
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