Hours after last week’s update, Public Health Seattle-King County announced we’re now at “medium” COVID level. Authorities stressed that’s not a cause for worry, just for cautiousness. Checking countywide and West Seattle stats as we do at the end of each weekend, here are the trends: Cases are up for a sixth week, hospitalizations are up (countywide but not locally), and deaths continue going down. As we noted last week, all three categories remain far lower than the winter peaks, as shown on the graphs featured on the Public Health – Seattle/King County dashboard:

*22 percent more cases countywide in the past week than the week before
*Currently averaging 796 new daily cases countywide (up from 644 when we checked a week ago)

*46 percent more hospitalizations countywide in the past week than the week before
*Currently averaging 10 new hospitalizations daily (up from 5 a week ago)

*27 percent fewer deaths countywide in the past two weeks than the two weeks before (the dashboard doesn’t offer a one-week increment)
*Currently averaging 1 death daily (same as the two-week average last week)

For West Seattle, we have two-week comparisons (these are the combined totals from two “health reporting areas,” labeled West Seattle and Delridge):
*553 cases between 4/11 and 4/25, up from 331 between 3/27 and 4/10
*5 hospitalizations between 4/11 and 4/25, same as between 3/27 and 4/10
*No deaths between 4/11 and 4/25, same as between 3/27 and 4/10

And checking vaccination rates:
*80.9 percent of all King County residents have completed the initial series (up .1% from a week ago)
*85.6 percent of all King County residents ages 5 and up have completed the initial series (up .1% from a week ago)
*48.6 percent of all King County residents have had the initial series plus a booster (up .1% from a week ago)

*In West Seattle, here are the zip-code vaccination rates for ages 5 and up (reminder, 98106 and 98146 are not entirely within WS):
98106 – 87.9% completed initial series (up .1% from a week earlier), 52.8% have had a booster
98116 – 92.7% completed initial series (up .1% from a week earlier), 64.5% have had a booster
98126 – 83.4% completed initial series (same as a week earlier), 54.5% have had a booster
98136 – 93.6% completed initial series (up .2% from a week earlier), 67.6% have had a booster
98146 – 83% completed initial series (up .1% from a week earlier), 47.6% have had a booster

VACCINATION AND TESTING, UPDATED HOURS: No pop-up clinics on the near-future schedule, so you can look for vaccination locations via this statewide lookup. If you want to get tested and don’t have a kit at home, public testing sites include the city-supported site at Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex (2801 SW Thistle, 9 am-5:30 pm Mondays-Saturdays), the Curative kiosk at Don Armeni Boat Ramp (1220 Harbor SW, 9 am-3 pm Monday-Friday), and the Curative van at Summit Atlas (35th/Roxbury, 8 am-noon Tuesday-Friday). … If you need to report self-test results, that’s explained on this page.

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Now that it’s May, get ready to dive into peak Seattle Parks swim season

May 1, 2022 8:20 pm

| 6 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

May is here and peak swim season for Seattle Parks is approaching. We asked Parks about this year’s plans – here are key points:

-Spray parks (including the one in Highland Park, 1100 SW Cloverdale) are expected to open Saturday, May 28th.

-Wading pools don’t have an official start date yet, likely “closer to when school lets out,” Parks tells us, adding, “We’re hopeful that we can staff all the sites as we did in pre-COVID years.”

-West Seattle’s only city-run outdoor pool, Colman Pool on the Lincoln Park shore, is scheduled to open the weekend of June 18-19, going 7 days a week starting June 25th.

-Swimming lessons will be offered this summer at both Colman Pool and Southwest Pool (the indoor pool at 2801 SW Thistle), though Parks warns that some other offerings at Southwest might have to be reduced so they can staff Colman. Maybe you know someone who can help with the swim-staff shortage? Here’s the Parks pitch:

Pools, wading pools, and outdoor pools require staff and we continue to struggle to fill aquatics and lifeguard positions. (Here’s) how folks can apply for these jobs (we reimburse for lifeguard certification training!). For more information or to apply, click here.

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CAN YOU HELP? Fauntleroy Fall Festival seeking ‘fresh energy and ideas’

May 1, 2022 6:35 pm

| Comments Off on CAN YOU HELP? Fauntleroy Fall Festival seeking ‘fresh energy and ideas’

| How to help | West Seattle festivals | West Seattle news

(WSB file photo)

Some of West Seattle’s annual events are making a comeback from pandemic hiatus. For others, though, it’s not so easy. the Fauntleroy Fall Festival is hoping you can help it return. Reid Haggerty asked us to share this:

In September 2001, the United States went through one of its most challenging times. When I woke up that morning to the news that an airplane had flown into a building in New York, I hit “Snooze.”

By the time my clock radio came on again, another plane had flown into another building. I rushed downstairs to watch on TV as one of the biggest tragedies in American history unfolded. Kids at school, our teachers, our parents – everyone knew our lives had changed.

But amid all the uncertainty, something wonderful happened – and we need your help to keep it going. Over the next several months, this neighborhood came together to create the Fauntleroy Fall Festival. People enjoyed a Sunday afternoon of free activities and the kind of connecting that strengthens the ties that bind us in community.

Then nearly two decades later, along came the seemingly unrelenting isolation of a global pandemic. Two years into it, we’re still trying to figure out what the new normal will be.

Just as in 2001, community is what we most need now. If public-health restrictions can continue to ease, we hope to gather again on a fall afternoon to see friends and neighbors at the festival.

Over the years, many local partners have kept the festival free and a truly community event. To name a few: FCA, Fauntleroy Church, Tuxedos and Tennis Shoes Catering/The Hall at Fauntleroy, the Fauntleroy Children’s Center, Endolyne Joe’s, Gail Ann Photography, the Fauntleroy Watershed Council.

As the festival has evolved, costs have risen and our pool of volunteers to serve on the planning committee and help the day of has gotten smaller. If this free event is to continue, we need to replenish that pool with fresh energy and ideas.

Email fauntleroyfallfestival@gmail.com if you might be able to help plan, coordinate, and/or execute our 2022 fall festival or a spring fundraiser to benefit the festival. We would love to have you!

The last full-scale FFF was in 2019; last year, there was a drive-through version.

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SEEN OFF WEST SEATTLE : Tall ship Lady Washington, southbound

May 1, 2022 5:02 pm

| 3 COMMENTS

| Seen at sea | West Seattle news

Thanks to Michael Ostrogorsky for the photo of tall ship Lady Washington as it passed Alki Point, southbound, this afternoon. It’s headed to Tacoma for tours and sailing excursions next weekend. The 1989-built tall ship is a replica of a brig that sailed the seas two centuries earlier. It was built, and is homeported in, the Grays Harbor County city of Aberdeen. Its onscreen appearances include the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie (2003) and Macklemore‘s “Can’t Hold Us” music video (2011).

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FOLLOWUP: Paul Randall’s Celebration of Life date set

May 1, 2022 4:35 pm

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| Obituaries | West Seattle news

When we published this remembrance of Paul Randall (1973-2022) two weeks ago, his family promised an update when the date was set for his Celebration of Life. Now we have the date and place: Sunday, June 19th, 1-4 pm, at Sleight of Hand Cellars in SODO, 3861 1st Avenue South.

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From the dumped-maybe-stolen file: Magic kit found

May 1, 2022 4:00 pm

| 3 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

Abra-cadabra, perhaps this notice will conjure up the owner of this magic kit that Heather found during today’s Junction-to-Junction Cleanup Challenge: “We found this magic kit during the cleanup at Morgan Junction this morning. It’s brand new and we were able to recover most of the parts from the alley where it was ditched.” If it’s yours, email us and we’ll connect you.

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Vietnamese-American community commemorates somber anniversary, shows support for Ukrainians’ freedom-fighting

May 1, 2022 12:03 pm

| 3 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

What the people of Ukraine are fighting is achingly familiar to the people who were in South Vietnam almost half a century ago.

That’s why Saturday’s Vietnamese Cultural Center ceremony commemorating the fall of Saigon ended with a spirited show of support for the Ukrainians.

It was 47 years ago Saturday – April 30, 1975 – that the capital of South Vietnam was captured, at the end of a war that took hundreds of thousands of lives, both Vietnamese people and those who fought for them, including Americans. They were remembered and honored with a wreath-laying during Saturday’s ceremony.

Seattle Deputy Mayor Kendee Yamaguchi joined in the wreath-laying with Dr. Dat P. Giap, who spoke of those “who gave their lives for our freedom” – mentioning more than 48,000 Americans as well as people from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Korea, and the more than 600,000 Vietnamese people who died fighting, as well as the hundreds of thousands more who “perished on their journey to freedom.”

For those who made it, he said, “The U.S. is a paradise … not because of its economic power, but because of its compassion for immigrants and refugees.” He urged those present not take freedom for granted, and to pray for those fighting for freedom in Ukraine. “May God bless America, our America,” he concluded.

Those in attendance included many South Vietnam military veterans, wearing the uniforms in which they fought. Toward the ceremony’s start, they saluted as the South Vietnam flag was raised, after the U.S. flag:

Dignitaries in attendance included two who have made history – our state’s first Vietnamese-American state senator, Joe Nguyen of West Seattle, the son of refugees:

Sen. Nguyen, in our photo with Vietnamese Cultural Center director Lee Bui, called April 30th “a day that has seared itself into our memories.” It’s also part of a banner for the center’s founding:

Other dignitaries included Washington’s first Vietnamese-American State House member, Rep. My-Linh Thai:

Rep. Thai (photographed above with City Councilmember Sara Nelson) came to the U.S. as a refugee at age 15. Another refugee among the dignitaries, Hamdi Mohamed, director of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs for the city and an elected Seattle Port Commissioner who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia at age 3. She told those gathered she shared their “commitment to freedom.”

The most impassioned words were those of another Vietnamese-American who arrived as a refugee, Michelle Le from the Vietnamese Community of Seattle.

“We must learn from history – we can’t forget or erase it,” she implored. “Forgetting the past is not the answer.” And she too mentioned Russia’s war on Ukraine as “a reminder of what we went through … Losing freedom is losing everything. … Always stand up for your country and your humanity.”

The Vietnamese Cultural Center is at 2236 SW Orchard and is open to the public noon-3 pm Saturdays.

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WEST SEATTLE WEEKEND SCENE: ‘Color In and Out of the Garden’ at Click! Design That Fits

May 1, 2022 10:36 am

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| Gardening | West Seattle books | West Seattle news

(Photo courtesy Click!)

It’s the time of year when gardens are just starting to show their color, from spring blossoms to foliage. Observing, celebrating, and being artistically inspired by what’s growing around us is the subject of West Seattle writer/artist/gardener Lorene Edwards Forkner‘s new book “Color In and Out of the Garden.” You can talk with her about it right now at Click! Design That Fits (4540 California SW; WSB sponsor). She’s there until 2 pm today, signing books and answering questions. (Click! asked her a few for this preview.) Do some Mother’s Day shopping while you’re there!

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WEST SEATTLE SUNDAY: Here’s how May begins

May 1, 2022 6:34 am

| 2 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(Blooming madrone we photographed recently at Lincoln Park)

Here’s what’s happening on this first day of May, mostly from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:

ROAD-WORK ALERTS: Here’s what SDOT has planned for today:

Between 7 AM to 5 PM, we’re updating curb ramps at 16th Ave SW and SW Barton St in Highland Park. We will be working from the parking lanes, but people driving in the area can expect minor delays.

Additionally, between 7 AM to 5 PM, we’ll be installing traffic signs on southbound SR 99 between S Atlantic S and S Spokane St. During this work, we’ll need to reduce the two travel lanes to a single lane. People driving southbound on SR 99 may experience delays.

Between 7 AM to 3:30 PM, we’ll be installing speed bump markings at 12th Avenue SW and SW Kenyon St. We expect minimal traffic impacts and people driving will be able to continue around the work zone in both directions.

In South Park, the intersection of S Chicago St and 5th Ave S will be closed from 6 AM to 4 PM for upgrading the main water line under the street. This work is part of the South Park Drainage and Roadway Partnership, which is a project we are working together on with Seattle Public Utilities to improve chronic flooding and drainage issues in South Park.

DONATION-ONLY YOGA CLASS: 9 am at Jet City Labs (4546 California SW) – details in our calendar listing.

CHURCHES WITH ONLINE SERVICES: We’re still listing these – see today’s list here.

JUNCTION-TO-JUNCTION CLEANUP CHALLENGE: Which of the three Junctions will see the most volunteers show up to clean up? Be part of it, 10 am-1 pm today – here’s the info.

BOOK LAUNCH: Click! Design That Fits (4540 California; WSB sponsor) hosts the book launch for Lorene Edwards Forkner‘s “Color In and Out of the Garden,” 10 am-2 pm.

WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm, find fresh food – produce, meat, fish, cheese, beverages, baked goods, and prepared food – at the weekly WSFM. (California SW between SW Oregon and SW Alaska)

GRAND OPENING: Beauty Therapy Collective at 4208 SW Oregon invites you to stop by for a look, noon-2 pm. Spaces for more small businesspeople to join the collective, too!

‘TWELFTH NIGHT’: Madison Middle School online production of Shakespeare‘s classic will be performed at 1 pm and 7 pm today – here’s how to watch.

‘THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SNOOPY’: Seattle Lutheran High School‘s musical will be performed one last time at 2:30 pm in the SLHS Gym (4100 SW Genesee) – our calendar listing has ticket info.

‘THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE’: Second weekend concludes for Twelfth Night Productions‘ musical, 3 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW). Get tickets here.

MARIACHI AND TACOS: Celebrate the season at Highland Park Corner Store (7789 Highland Park Way SW), 4-7 pm.

NEED FOOD? White Center Community Dinner Church serves a free meal (take-away available) at 5 pm Sundays at the Salvation Army Center in South Delridge (9050 16th SW).

KUNDALINI YOGA & MEDITATION: 7 pm at Inner Alchemy Studio (7356 35th SW) – details here.

SUNDAY NIGHT JAZZ: Triangular Jazztet at The Alley (4509 California SW), 8 pm and 9 pm sets.

SUNDAY NIGHT KARAOKE: 9 pm to 1:30 am at Admiral Pub (2306 California SW).

Have an event to list on our calendar? We’re adding more daily – email westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!

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