West Seattle, Washington
11 Wednesday
Here’s our first local pandemic roundup in two weeks – last week, Sunday night’s data was short because of the holiday, so we skipped a week..
KING COUNTY CUMULATIVE NUMBERS (through Friday, since they’re not updated on weekends):
*174,548 cases – 3,541 more than two weeks ago (6,170 total in West Seattle, up 128)
*8,828 hospitalizations – 129 more than two weeks ago (260 total from West Seattle, up 3)
*2,100 people have died – 34 more than two weeks ago (75 total in West Seattle, up 1)
VACCINATION RATE
As of two weeks ago, King County started making stats available for ages 5+, so we switched to that stat:
78.2% of King County residents 5+ have completed their vaccine series – up 1.2% from two weeks ago
By West Seattle zip code – note that these numbers are still NOT available as 5+, so they reflect 12+:
98106 – 86.7%
98116 – 90%
98126 – 82.1%
98136 – 91.5%
98146 – 82.2%
(Find more COVID-related King County stats here)
THE WEEK’S PANDEMIC HEADLINES
Variant – King County’s first case with the Omicron variant was announced on Saturday, one of three confirmed in the state. But health officials see no reason to panic, so far.
1st month of younger kids’ vaccinations – The state says 129,000+ kids 5-11 got vaccinated in the first month of eligibility.
City’s West Seattle clinic changes providers – As reported here Friday, the city is using SFD vaccinators at its West Seattle clinic after failing to reach a formal agreement with Pliable, the West Seattle-based service with which it launched the clinic less than a month and a half ago.
NEED TO GET TESTED IN WEST SEATTLE?
The UW Medicine testing service in the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex parking lot (2801 SW Thistle) continues to operate; you can make an appointment here. Meantime, the Curative testing kiosk at Don Armeni Boat Ramp (1222 Harbor SW) is also still operating, as is a Curative location at Summit Atlas (35th/Roxbury). In addition, both West Seattle Walgreens stores are offering drive-up testing (35th/Morgan and 16th/Roxbury) – more info here.
Tonight is the final night of Hanukkah. The evening began with the lighting of eight candles on menorahs all over the world, including the one West Seattle synagogue Kol HaNeshamah brought to Junction Plaza Park for this year’s “Pop-Up Hanukkah..” The celebration included a “Dreidel Song” singalong, led by Orin Reynolds – our video shows the crowd, too:
Though this was the lone community event, the synagogue’s been busy with a variety of activities throughout the holiday, culminating in a geocaching “Dreidel Dash” that its youth group is sponsoring next weekend as a charity benefit – find out more here.
Tonight’s celebration in The Junction also included the donuts that are a traditional Hanukkah treat.
Every night, we’re featuring another West Seattle holiday display, thanks to your tips/photo. Tonight, we thank Nicholas for sending the photos and report:
Building on last year’s impressive showing, Kim Alexander and Gabe Valdez’s house focuses on vintage blow molds and collections of Christmas classics with lights and music. And they love people taking pictures.
Address: 6017 42nd Ave SW.
According to our info from last year, this is only their third year of doing this! Got someplace to suggest? Email us (with or without photos) at westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you! (Past spotlights are archived here and listed in our West Seattle Holiday Guide.)
Thanks to WSB readers, we have enough bird photos for another “gameday gallery” – postgame, this time. First – two flashes of color – above, a Downy Woodpecker photographed by Michelle Green Arnson; below, an Anna’s Hummingbird, by Jerry Simmons:
Robin Sinner photographed this Bushtit:
Trileigh Tucker‘s photo shows Peregrine Falcons in Lincoln Park:
Dana Brown spotted a leucistic Crow along Beach Drive:
And we have three shorebirds – a Common Loon, from Rick Rasmussen:
Sharon Wada zoomed in on a Cormorant, dining:
And Matthew Olson photographed this Black Turnstone at Alki:
Thanks again to everyone who sent photos! And we’ll also remind you, there’s still time to sign up to participate in the Seattle Audubon Christmas Bird Count December 19th – even if you’re a casual bird-watcher and can only tally who shows up in your yard/at your feeder – can sign up here.
3:20 PM: CenturyLink service is down for us here in Upper Fauntleroy, and we’ve heard from other areas too, as far north as North Admiral. Private utility outages are harder to quantify – officially – than public utilities, so no official word of its boundaries so far. Let us know if you’re out too.
3:33 PM: See the comments – fairly widespread, outside West Seattle too. We’ve also heard in other channels from Sunrise Heights and Fairmount Park.
3:48 PM: A texter from Gatewood reached CenturyLink customer service online and got both confirmation of the outage and that they’re working on it, with an estimated restoration time of 7:17 pm (caveat, we don’t know if their restoration times are fact-based).
7:40 PM: Thanks for the updates in comments. Our service has returned in Upper Fauntleroy (not sure exactly when, as we switched to Comcast when it went out – have to have redundancy for the business). We’ll follow up with CL on Monday.
2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, 26.2 miles of running, in under 17 hours: – A little over two months ago, we reported on 17-year-old Herman Meyer‘s accomplishment, and now his friend, filmmaker Riley Nachtrieb, has released her nine-minute film about it. Here’s the announcement and video:
Back in September, West Seattle High School senior Herman Meyer completed a solo Ironman-length triathlon, going back and forth along Alki Beach.
You can now watch his Ironman journey with the film ‘Tri-ing To Solo’, by WSHS alumni and award-winning filmmaker Riley Nachtrieb, available on YouTube.
Thank you to the West Seattle community for supporting Herman on that Saturday from 8am to 1am. So many people came out and offered so much. Some include: Ryan Connolly, Wes & KT Meyer, Grant Howard, Brendan & Jodi Connolly, Lily & Jac Howard, Mykenna Ikehara, and Rose Feliciano.
Herman had never done a triathlon before his “solo Ironman.”
SUNDAY: You can be a holiday helper in The Junction! Until 2 pm today, you can help keep somebody warm this winter by bringing “gently used coats, hats, scarves and gloves” to the south end of the West Seattle Farmers’ Market (California/Alaska), where the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle is serving up hot cocoa as a reward. ( The cocoa was donated by Husky Deli!) Everything collected goes to the West Seattle Food Bank‘s Clothesline. So far, five bins have been filled!
MONDAY: Grand total, 335 donated items – half of them coats!
11:16 AM: Reader reports a crash at this intersection and no emergency response yet. Avoid the area for a while.
12:26 PM: SFD was not dispatched, so apparently no injuries. Current intersection image suggests it’s been cleared.
From the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide and year-round Event Calendar:
VACCINATIONS: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, either by appointment or walk-up, you can get a COVID vaccine (booster or otherwise) at Neighborhood House High Point (6400 Sylvan Way SW), as announced here.
CHURCHES: Most are both streaming and holding in-person services (one church, West Side Unitarian Universalist, is resuming those starting today). Here are this week’s links for 20+ West Seattle churches’ services.
WINTER WANDER SCAVENGER HUNT: Alice Kuder‘s “free, live, 10-day” holiday adventure around West Seattle continues, and you can still join in. Go to her website to see how to play!
COAT DRIVE, WITH COCOA: From the West Seattle Food Bank, “We will be partnering with Kiwanis Sunday, December 5th, from 10 am -2 pm at their tent at West Seattle Farmers Market in The Junction. We will collect coats, hats, and gloves to be donated to the West Seattle Food Bank’s Clothesline to help families stay warm this winter.” Hot cocoa for donors! This is part of West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays; look for the tent on the south end of the market, near California/Alaska.
RAT CITY STUDIOS: Holiday Open Studio and Sale continuing today, 10 akm-4 pm – details in our calendar listing. (2410 SW 106th)
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: Along with food – Christmas trees!. Shop 10 am-2 pm on California between Oregon and Alaska. Scroll down the page at this link to find the vendor list and map for this week. (The market is a WSB sponsor.)
HANDS-ON HANUKKAH: Look for the booth at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market, 10 am-2 pm.
EAT PIZZA, HELP STUDENTS: Order from MOD Pizza/Westwood Village 10:30 am-10 pm today, use the code here, and part of the proceeds will benefit the Pathfinder K-8 PTSA.
SANTA AT OUNCES Meet St. Nick at Ounces, 1-4 pm. Free DIY photos. (3809 Delridge Way SW) – UPDATE: This will start late (no sooner than 2 pm) due to an outage in the area from planned City Light work,
‘WE’VE BATTLED MONSTERS BEFORE’: Today is the second matinee performance of the world-premiere two-person musical at ArtsWest (4711 California SW; WSB sponsor), 3 pm, get tickets here.
WHITE CENTER TREE LIGHTING: Join the celebration for the White Center Tree Lighting outside Mac’s Triangle Pub, 4:20 pm (Delridge/16th/Roxbury).
POP-UP HANUKKAH: Candlelighting is part of the Kol HaNeshamah “Pop-Up Hanukkah” celebration at Junction Plaza Park:
Love. Light. Donuts!
Kol HaNeshamah, the progressive Jewish congregation in West Seattle, is back this year with Pop-Up Hanukkah at The Junction. Join your West Seattle Neighbors at Junction Plaza Park on Sunday, December 5th at 5 pm for song, candlelighting and donuts-to-go. Everyone’s welcome!
(42nd/Alaska)
Got something for our Holiday Guide and/or year-round Event Calendar? westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
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