West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
(WSB photos/video)
A first tonight for the West Seattle Big Band – a concert at High Point Commons Park. This was the return of the annual summer Concert in the Park for the first time since 2019, but the traditional venue – Hiawatha Community Center‘s east lawn – isn’t available this year, so that called for a new venue. WSBB director Jim Edwards admitted he didn’t know what to expect, or who, but by our informal count, at least 100 people showed up to enjoy the evening and the music. You can see the spectators as well as the band in our recording of the concert:
For an hour and a half, the Big Band enthralled the crowd with classics like “In the Mood,” “All of Me,” and “Fever” – some instrumental, some featuring vocalists Jenaige Lane and Jeff Carter:
The WSBB musicians spanned a wide age range tonight – including Henry, who’s also drum major for the West Seattle High School Band:
The brass included director Edwards trading in his baton for his trombone:
The Big Band also plays gigs for hire and donates the proceeds to help student musicians. So, as Edwards told the crowd, if you need a band for an event, contact them!
(SDOT camera image, eastbound Spokane St. Viaduct lanes at left)
You might recall that SDOT has closed the eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct -that’s the continuation of the West Seattle Bridge east of Highway 99 – a few times this year for pothole repair. Before the first closure, we reported on SDOT’s big-picture plans, pursuing grant funding for more-extensive repair. Today, the city announced that grant has been secured – one of three city bridges to each get at least $4.5 million “from the Federal Highway Administration Bridge Improvement Program, which is funded in part by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and then passed to WSDOT‘s Local Bridge Program,” and on down to the city from there. The announcement said only that the Spokane Street Viaduct’s $5 million grant would be used for “repairs to the existing deck,” so we asked SDOT for a few more details about what would be done and when. Spokesperson Mariam Ali‘s reply:
The federal funding is to support the replacement of the overlay for the south half of the bridge that carries the eastbound lanes of traffic. The existing concrete deck overlay exhibits significant signs of “alligator skin” cracking and damage. The project will replace the existing overlay and fix any concrete deck distress. We are currently in the design phase for this project and have not yet determined the construction timeline, which would likely occur in the next few years.
The eastbound (south) side of the SSV is its older section – the westbound (north) side includes what was built a decade ago. The other two city bridges getting federal grants announced today are the Jose Rizal Bridge to Beacon Hill ($5 million for paint) and the 15th/Leary bridge in Ballard ($4.5 million for earthquake safety).
(Sunday photo sent by Eddie, “ghost bike” memorial at collision site)
6:32 PM: Still no word of an arrest in Friday night’s hit-run death of a man riding a bicycle, but we now know more about the victim: The King County Medical Examiner’s Office identified him today as 63-year-old Robert Mason. A reader tells us they were notified today of Mr. Mason’s death because he was their massage therapist, who commuted to West Seattle by bicycle from another area of the city. The texter said, “He was kind and funny with a great ‘bedside’ manner. Kept doing the work after he could have retired because he helped so many people.” So far, police have not made any additional information public beyond what was released the night of the crash, that he was hit by the “driver of a white or silver sedan” that had been going eastbound on SW Spokane Street east of the low bridge, and fled that way. If you have any information, the SPD tip line is 206-233-5000.
Meantime, another reader reported seeing an SDOT crew at/near the site early this morning. So far SDOT’s media office has been unable to tell us what that crew was doing or whether it was related to the crash, but spokesperson Ethan Bergerson notes, “It is our standard practice to send a traffic engineer out to the site of every fatal crash to investigate the site from an engineering perspective and determine if there are any short or long-term safety improvements that can be made. My understanding is that this evaluation will be occurring at this location soon.”
10:09 PM: Two notes – first, we’ve just heard from someone via email and Twitter saying Seattle Critical Mass will ride to the scene on Friday, July 29th, at 7 pm, for a memorial. Second, city traffic engineer Venu Nemani is among the guests for Wednesday night’s online Morgan Community Association meeting; he’s scheduled to talk about the California/Findlay improvements announced after the collision that killed a pedestrian there, but may also be asked about the Spokane Street collision.
Police were just dispatched to the Jefferson Square Safeway to investigate what’s described as a shoplift-turned-robbery. Dispatch told officers the shoplifter took about $90 in merchandise and, when confronted, pulled a gun – that’s what turned it into an armed robbery. Initial description is a Hispanic man in his 20s, wearing a gray T-shirt with a Seahawks logo, tattooed arms, who left in a dark-blue Subaru hatchback, last seen eastbound on SW Edmunds. No injuries reported.
(Friday night photo by Kersti Muul)
As discussed in comments following coverage of last Friday’s hit-run that killed a bicyclist, another West Seattle hit-run at almost the same time Friday night sent a pedestrian to the hospital – a woman pregnant with twins. Today we heard from the victim’s brother-in-law, Matt, who was there when it happened at 34th/Myrtle:
On Friday evening, between 7:15 and 7:30, myself, my wife, our baby, and my sister-in-law were going for a walk. My sister-in-law is 30 weeks pregnant with twins. We were walking up 34th Ave by Hundley park and were crossing the intersection of 34th and Myrtle street, where there is a roundabout. While we were in the crosswalk, we heard a car come speeding up 34th. The car cut the roundabout and made an illegal left. The car was going at least 50 mph or more would be my guess. My sister in law was just behind us as we were walking. My wife ran forward with our baby to avoid being hit, but the car ended up hitting my sister in law and she flipped over the hood and landed on the ground. Some of the passengers got out but then jumped back in and the car sped off. The ended up stealing her phone that had fallen on the ground. Emergency services quickly got there and took my sister-in-law to the hospital. She has sustained injuries. The twin babies seem to be okay for now.
It was a black car, smaller sedan … The windows were tinted extremely dark, so you could not see inside at all. The men that got out were all Black, late teens or early 20s. The license plate of the car is CDM3—. The police were given all the details, but I’m still waiting for a detective to be assigned to the case. The incident number is 2022-183326.
Matt says his sister-in-law is still in the hospital, transferred to OB care after initial trauma care at Harborview.
SDOT says the West Seattle Bridge remains on track to reopen the week of September 12th, as announced almost six weeks ago. If you’re on the SDOT mailing list for the bridge and/or City Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s newsletter list, you’ve probably seen the Friday updates on what’s been happening with bridge work. The last paragraph of last Friday’s SDOT update caught our attention:
… As we move through these final phases of repairs, we continuously inspect the bridge and check our work. Earlier this month during a routine crack inspection, we discovered a spall area that was about 2 by 9 feet. Spalling is when a part of the concrete surface naturally weathers, chips or breaks away. After looking into the spall, it’s clear that it is not related to the issues that are currently being repaired and it does not indicate any structural or systemic issues. We will be able to repair this spall with no impact to the bridge reopening schedule.
We asked for more information about that and photos if available. Here’s what we received:
(The spall) is the area on the exterior surface of the bridge that looks like flaking or separating concrete. To fix it, we will remove the unsound concrete, and then place forms and fill the void with grout. Once the grout has cured we will apply carbon-fiber wrapping, similar to other locations on the bridge.
As for what’s happening with the overall repairs, SDOT says crews have “finished installing the nearly 250,000 feet of steel cable needed for the new post-tensioning system inside the bridge (and) started the process of tightening the post-tensioning system by pulling on the cables with hydraulic equipment.” An additional note about current work comes from Councilmember Herbold’s Friday update, and it relates to this photo we recently received from a reader:
Herbold’s update explains:
The first two of six deck overlay pours are scheduled this week for the Fauntleroy Expressway leading up to the bridge. The first 10 of the 60 concrete panels being replaced are being poured this week as well.
The Fauntleroy Expressway is the southwest end of the bridge – and technically a separate structure.
Despite its name, the Senior Center of West Seattle is about far more than serving seniors. It’s also a public gathering and event space, a community service provider, and it has ground-floor business space, too. Now the center is at the crossroads of envisioning its future, and would like your thoughts on both what it’s doing now and what it should do in the future, via a strategic-planning process. Explains center executive director Amy Lee Derenthal, “Our board and staff are thinking big and long-term as we imagine the future of our organization and the community as a whole.” We previewed the survey, and it has open-ended questions, not just checkboxes; when you have a few moments, consider participating – the survey starts here.
(Lincoln Park photo by Susan Romanenghi)
Here’s what’s happening for the rest of your West Seattle Tuesday:
WADING POOLS & SPRAYPARK OPEN: Sunny, warm day means the city will open wading pools. That means EC Hughes (2805 SW Holden) and Lincoln Park (8011 Fauntleroy Way SW); both will be open noon-7 pm. Also, Highland Park Spraypark (1100 SW Cloverdale) is open 11 am-8 pm.
COLMAN POOL: The outdoor pool at Lincoln Park will be open to the public today as its 7-days-a-week schedule continues, noon-7 pm.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING: Hybrid meeting (online and in-person at City Hall) at 2 pm; here’s the agenda. Watch live here.
DEMONSTRATION FOR BLACK LIVES: Longstanding weekly 4:30-6 pm sign-waving demonstration at 16th/Holden. Signs available if you don’t have your own.
PLAY-ALONG IN THE PARK: The West Seattle Community Orchestras welcome musicians of all skill levels to play with them at Lincoln Park (8011 Fauntleroy Way SW) tonight, 6-8 pm – details in our calendar listing.
SCRABBLE NIGHT: 6-10 pm, you are invited to come play Scrabble at The Missing Piece (9456 35th SW).
FAMILY GAME NIGHT: Meeples Games (3727 California SW) welcomes families 6-8 pm to this weekly hosted game-playing night.
BIG BAND CONCERT IN THE PARK: Free concert at High Point Commons Park (3201 SW Graham, the park that’s north of Neighborhood House), 7 pm, with the West Seattle Big Band. Bring your own chairs/blankets and enjoy the music!
TRIVIA X 3: Three of the venues where you can play tonight – 7 pm at Ounces (3809 Delridge Way SW), 7 pm at Admiral Pub (2306 California SW), 7:30 and 8:30 pm at The Lodge (4209 SW Alaska).
BELLE OF THE BALLS BINGO: Play bingo with Cookie Couture at The Skylark (3803 Delridge Way SW), 8 pm. Free, all ages!
See more on our calendar – and if you have something to add for the future, please email info to westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
A first-time feature at last weekend’s West Seattle Summer Fest was The Whale Trail‘s scavenger hunt and presentations to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the rescue of Springer the orca. We asked Whale Trail executive director Donna Sandstrom how the weekend of “orca sightings in The Junction” went:
Celebrate Springer at Summer Fest was a big success! Kids loved looking for the orcas, and merchants loved hosting them. The West Seattle Junction Association handed out more than 500 maps. Kids had to work hard to find some of the orcas!
About 70 people attended the Springer presentations, where the prizes were handed out. Everyone who participated got a Springer card and a marine mammal sighting chart, that will help them spot whales in the wild. Six grand-prize winners also received a copy of Orca Rescue! and an orca plushie.
Big thanks to the West Seattle Junction Association, the Senior Center of West Seattle, Husky Deli, participating merchants, and especially our volunteers, who made it all possible.
She says this was a first for The Whale Trail and they’d like to try it again, “maybe when we Welcome the Orcas in the Fall. In the meantime we are heading up to British Columbia this weekend to celebrate Springer with her team. We are hoping the guest of honor makes an appearance too!” She adds that you can “watch northern resident orcas – sometimes including Springer and her calves – at explore.org/orcalab. You can eavesdrop as they swim through Blackfish Sound, or watch as they visit the rubbing beaches in Johnstone Strait. The A54 pod is at the rubbing beaches now!” She was joined at the Summer Fest presentations by “members of Springer’s team, including Mark Sears, the local researcher who first spotted her; Joe Olson, who took the first hydrophone recordings of her calls; Dr. Dave Bain, who recognized the calls that helped identify her; and Lynne Barre, NOAA’s Branch Chief, who came to the northwest originally to help with Springer and now leads recovery efforts for the endangered southern residents. The audience was especially excited to see one of Springer’s sticks! Mark brought one of the small logs that was used to bring her close to the boat for early monitoring and assessments.”
Last weekend, we mentioned the West Seattle Baseball 10U Red All-Stars were headed to the Battle of the Bats Tournament in Tacoma, 16 teams from around the state. They returned home as champions! Here’s the update:
The West Seattle Baseball 10U Red All-Stars went 5-0 over the weekend and brought home the championship. They had a cumulative score of 58 to 8 over those 5 games.
Back row L to R: Coaches Josh Menashe, Edgar Rodriguez, Michael Ninburg, Danny Sizemore
Middle row L to R: Players Mac Waskowitz, Bryant Rodriguez, Theo Ninburg, Beckham Sizemore, Cooper Beman, Liam McAuliffe, Isaiah Williams, Joseph Menashe, Sam Weymueller
Front Row kneeling: L to R: Malcolm Lindsey, Oliver Busey
P.S. Watch for West Seattle Baseball in the WS Grand Parade, 11 am Saturday (July 23rd) from California/Lander southbound to California/Edmunds.
9:25 AM: SFD and SPD are headed to what’s reported as a two-car crash blocking traffic on Highland Park Way hill near Othello.
==========
Earlier:
6:03 AM: Good morning; welcome to Tuesday, July 19th.
WEATHER
The forecast has sunshine all day, and temperatures could get into the 80s. (Monday’s high was 74, only four degrees below normal.)
BUSES, WATER TAXI, FERRIES
Metro buses are on their regular weekday schedules; watch @kcmetroalerts for word of reroutes/trip cancellations.
The West Seattle Water Taxi is on its regular schedule.
Ferries: WSF continues on the two-boat schedule for Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth – and WSF says that probably won’t change before next spring. Check here for alerts/updates.
BRIDGES AND DETOUR ROUTES
849th morning without the West Seattle Bridge.
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.)
1st Avenue South Bridge:
South Park Bridge:
West Marginal Way at Highland Park Way (one of four recently installed cameras):
Highland Park Way/Holden:
The 5-way intersection (Spokane/West Marginal/Delridge/Chelan):
Are movable city bridges opening for vessels? Check the @SDOTBridges Twitter feed; 1st Ave. S. Bridge openings are tweeted by @wsdot_traffic.
All city traffic cams can be seen here; West Seattle and vicinity-relevant cameras are also on this WSB page
Trouble on the roads/paths/water? Please text or call us (when you can do so safely) – 206-293-6302.
| 6 COMMENTS