West Seattle, Washington
10 Saturday
West Seattle/South Park has eight new cases reported in this week’s update of the COVID-19 dashboard for Seattle Public Schools. That’s out of 67 new cases districtwide – students and staff – since last week’s update. Here’s the local school-by-school breakout (as always, the total is cumulative since the start of the school year):
Denny International Middle School – 24, unchanged
Chief Sealth International High School – 20, unchanged
Roxhill Elementary – 15, unchanged
Genesee Hill Elementary – 14, up 3
Arbor Heights Elementary – 14, up 1
Highland Park Elementary – 13, unchanged
Madison Middle School – 11, unchanged
Louisa Boren STEM K-8 – 10, unchanged
Lafayette Elementary – 10, unchanged
Concord International (Elementary) – 9, up 1
West Seattle Elementary – 9, up 1
Gatewood Elementary – 9, unchanged
Pathfinder K-8 – 6, up 1
West Seattle High School – 6, unchanged
Fairmount Park Elementary – 5, unchanged
Alki Elementary – 5, unchanged
Sanislo Elementary – 4, unchanged
BRIDGES @ Roxhill – 1, unchanged
From SPD‘s short summaries for today:
On 12-13-2021 at 0848 hours, a teacher at the Summit (Atlas) School located at the 9600 block of 35th Avenue SW, reported receiving a voicemail message on her cell phone last night at 2046 hours. The voicemail called her a name and the caller said he was going to blow up the school. The suspect called back last night two minutes later, left a second voicemail that said he was just kidding. The number was unidentified.
No other details, so we don’t know what action the school took or how this was communicated to families, but we’ll be following up.
Tonight’s photos are from Lacey, at 9643 18th SW {map}. who says, “We have lots of lights up this year! We are located just off Roxbury on 18th Ave SW, so it is an easy detour for those heading out of West Seattle. We have Santa waving from the chimney, and an elf who crashed his sled into our fence. It is very bright and full of lights, at my son’s request. I have lots of fun doing it, and hope others enjoy it as well!”
Thanks again to everyone who’s sent tips and photos so far! Every place we’ve shown is archived here and listed in our West Seattle Holiday Guide. If you have a suggestion, with or without photo(s), please email westseattleblog@gmail.com – we’ll keep showing nights lightly through New Year’s Eve – thank you
South Delridge continues to be West Seattle’s redevelopment hotspot. The newest project of note is a 12-townhouse plan for the 9400 block of 18th SW. Technically it’s listed as two projects – 9440 18th SW and 9444 18th SW [map] – but they’re next to each other, and the same project team is involved. 9440 18th SW is proposed with seven townhouses in one structure; 9444 18th SW is proposed with five townhouses in two structures. They’ll replace this century-old house:
(King County Assessor’s Office photo)
The architect for the townhouses is Scale Design NW. The project is in the Early Outreach for Design Review phase, so look for community comment opportunities to come.
With three weeks to go until Bruce Harrell is inaugurated as mayor January 4th, he’s announced his first major appointments. Only one is a department head – an interim budget director – but the others include deputy mayors (including one focused on housing/homelessness), a chief equity officer, and a director of strategic initiatives. The appointees include past and present city officials as well as people from non-city backgrounds. See the full announcement here. (Photo from seattle.gov)
Updates on two stretches of “Stay Healthy Streets” in West Seattle:
PUGET RIDGE/HIGHLAND PARK: SDOT announced today that they’re removing some sections and continuing to evaluate the SW Trenton section that’s drawn the loudest community clamor for change:
… We are using the (recent) community outreach to develop the permanent route of the Stay Healthy Street. We expect to share the permanent route map in early 2022. The earliest the permanent features (like the updated street closed signs) would be built is summer 2022.
(Before then) We will be removing the below sections of the Stay Healthy Street near Sanislo Elementary. The sections are also shown in the map (above).
21st Ave SW from Croft Pl SW to SW Myrtle St
SW Myrtle St from 21st Ave SW to 18th Ave SW
18th Ave SW from SW Myrtle St to SW Webster St
SW Webster St from 18th Ave SW to 16th Ave SWThese sections were proposed for removal in our recent outreach. … We also heard from people living near these sections and from parents driving or walking students to school that they were not supportive of keeping the sections near Sanislo Elementary. Community members said the streets are already narrow in this area, making it more difficult to safely navigate around the signs and people using the Stay Healthy Street. Student pick-up and drop-off near the elementary school had also become more difficult because of the additional street closed signs on already narrow streets.
Collecting traffic and speed data on SW Trenton St: In our recent outreach, we proposed keeping the Stay Healthy Street section on SW Trenton St from 11th Ave SW to 17th Ave SW. This is because our initial data collection showed fewer people driving on the SW Trenton St section and slower speeds of people who are driving on the street. Additionally, we heard community support for a connection and extra space for walking and biking to destinations in the Highland Park neighborhood.
We heard in our recent outreach that people like to drive on SW Trenton St instead of driving on adjacent arterial streets, like SW Henderson St which is designed to handle more vehicle traffic. Specifically, people driving like to use SW Trenton St from 16th Ave SW to 17th Ave SW to drive to Delridge Way SW and other locations west, like the West Seattle Junction area. We also heard that we needed to better understand the traffic volumes and speeds of people driving on this section of SW Trenton St, in particular between 16th Ave SW and 17th Ave SW.
Before making a decision on keeping or removing the SW Trenton St section, we are collecting and evaluating data along the street, as well as considering the additional community input we’ve received this fall.
There’s more on the SDOT website.
ALKI POINT ‘KEEP MOVING’ STREET SURVEY: SDOT is still asking for input on “permanent design” options for the stretch around Alki Point. This survey will close on December 21st (one week from tomorrow); you can also email your thoughts to AlkiKeepMovingStreet@seattle.gov. (We reported on the proposed options in September.)
From Eric at Pegasus Book Exchange in The Junction:
I noticed (Saturday) that sports cards I have been keeping at Pegasus Books have been stolen. There are about 400 very valuable Seattle-centered cards; many Griffey, Kemp, Payton, among others like Jordan and Pippen, some hockey cards as well. I have contacted local sports-card stores and pawn shops but if you hear anything, please let me know. I was going to auction them away for charity but they must’ve been stolen sometime Thursday morning from the back room of Pegasus.
Eric has also put the word out to a wide network of sports-memorabilia dealers, but appreciates more eyes/ears – contact info is on the store website.
(Low clouds and south Blake Island, seen from Upper Fauntleroy)
A few highlights for the hours ahead:
FREE YOGA: Delridge Community Center (4501 Delridge Way SW) launches a free series of Monday evening women’s-empowerment yoga classes starting tonight, 5 pm, for all levels. Pre-registration required – go here or call 206-684-7423.
OPEN D&D: Meeples Games (3727 California SW, upstairs) hosts a drop-in D&D group on Mondays, 6:30-10 pm.
TRIVIA X 3: Here are Monday nights’ three options – 7 pm at Best of Hands (35th/Webster), 7 pm at The Good Society (California/Lander), 7:30 pm at The Skylark (3803 Delridge Way SW)
Something for our calendar/holiday guide? westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
10:09 AM: Resident orcas are in Puget Sound headed southbound, passing through the Bremerton-Seattle ferry lane at last report, Kersti Muul tells us. Let us know if you see them!
10:47 AM: Thanks for all the updates, including what Kersti’s posted in comments below, and a text we just got from Donna Sandstrom of The Whale Trail reporting they’re now “heading south … near Vashon ferry dock.”
2:40 PM: Note – if you haven’t been checking the comments – that Kersti reports they’re headed back northbound.
7:50 AM: Thanks for the tips. 100 customers in the Seola Beach area lost power about half an hour ago.
10:25 AM: 104 homes still out after three hours. Checking with Seattle City Light to see if they have info on the cause.
11:09 AM: In comments, Sara says the Seola problem is a tree. Also in comments, CBOB points out there’s also an outage in the White Center/South Delridge area, affecting 48 customers:
SCL attributes this one to “equipment failure.”
2:40 PM: Neither outage is over yet. SCL now officially attributes the Seola problem to a tree.
6:21 PM: SCL spokesperson Jenn Strang tells us that “Crews are working to restore power to those affected in the Seola Beach outage where a large tree branch came down across the wires. Repair work is estimated to be completed (by approximately 7 pm).” Sarah sent this pic of the problem:
9:08 PM: As noted in comments, the Seola outage is over after 14 hours. The map shows the White Center/South Delridge outage is resolved too, though we don’t know what time that one ended.
6:03 AM Good morning!
WEATHER
Showery, breezy, chilly are today’s weather words.
ROAD NOTE
Beware the Sylvan Way mega-pothole – we don’t know if it’s been fixed yet.
BUSES, WATER TAXI, FERRIES
Metro is on its regular weekday schedule. Watch @kcmetrobus for word of trip cancellations.
Ferries and Water Taxi: WSF is still running a two-boat schedule on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run. Check here for alerts/updates. The Water Taxi is on its regular schedule.
BRIDGES AND DETOUR ROUTES
630th morning without the West Seattle Bridge. Here are views of other bridges and routes:
Low Bridge: Automated enforcement cameras remain in use; restrictions are in effect 5 am-9 pm daily – except weekends; the bridge is open to all until 8 am Saturday and Sunday mornings. (Access applications are available here for some categories of drivers.)
The 1st Avenue South Bridge (map):
South Park Bridge:
West Marginal Way at Highland Park Way:
Highland Park Way/Holden:
The 5-way intersection (Spokane/West Marginal/Delridge/Chelan):
Are movable bridges opening for vessels? The @SDOTBridges Twitter feed can tell you; 1st Ave. S. Bridge openings are also tweeted on @wsdot_traffic.
See all local traffic cams here (its icon problem has been fixed again); locally relevant cameras are also on this WSB page.
Trouble on the streets/paths/bridges/water? Please let us know – text (but not if you’re driving!) 206-293-6302.
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