By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Neighborhood meetings are often a prime example of how to catch up with your community for a relatively short time investment. Last night, the Admiral Neighborhood Association packed a lot into less than two hours, facilitated by president Joanie Jacobs, stressing “think of this as your living room.”

CRIME REPORTS DOWN: It’s seemed quieter lately; stats presented last night suggest that’s not an erroneous perception on our part. Southwest Precinct Community Liaison Officer German Barreto brought the area’s latest stats. “Everything’s been going down” in West Seattle, except for thefts. For Admiral, everything except robbery has decreased in the past month, compared to a year earlier – Admiral has had 4 robbery reports in a month (which can include “shoplifting turned violent,” Barreto noted), compared to 2 in the same month last year. A notable decline was in motor-vehicle thefts – four in the past month, compared to 10 a year earlier. Also noted, the Southwest Precinct has a new liaison from the City Attorney’s Office (we followed up today with the CAO, which tells us that Rachel Wang is now in that role for both the Southwest and South Precincts). Later in the meeting, ANA’s communications lead Dan Jacobs mentioned that he’s the Admiral neighborhood rep to the newly revived Southwest Precinct Advisory Council, which is meeting – all welcome – next Tuesday (March 18), 6;30 pm at the precinct, featuring the new SPD Chief Shon Barnes.

OVERVIEW OF SUMMER EVENTS: Not too soon to think summer! President Jacobs said they’ll have a summer volunteer meeting in June. The West Seattle 4th of July Kids’ Parade has new coordinators. They’re starting to plan for the various components like food trucks and sack races. They might have a marching band lead the parade. Meeting-goers stressed that this is a BIG parade, four-digit participation, as our annual “here’s the entire parade” videos have shown, like the one below from last year!)

Admiral Music in the Parks is set for July 17, 24, 31, three different parks again this year, and there’ll be a “knitting circle” at each concert … For the late-summer Admiral Block Party (that’s the name it’ll go by this year), the first organizational meeting just happened, and it’ll be “very neighborhood focused,” on the fourth Saturday in August.

(WSB file photo)

HIAWATHA UPDATES; ANA’s communications person Dan Jacobs shared some info obtained from Seattle Parks, which is expecting to send a rep to the next general ANA meeting, May 13.

Jacobs stressed that they’re very aware of the frustration – which they share – about the long “stabilization” closure of the community center (nearly 5 years now) and playground, and seeming lack of progress. Most of the information he conveyed was regarding the playground, near the wading pool. Morteza Behrooz is the main point person now. From him:

The location of the play area has changed a little bit – it’s going to be on the south side of the wading pool. They’ve updated play equipment, landscaping, accessibility, and the restoration plan for the area where the play equipment is now – that’s going to be a nature play area. The work will take four to five months and should be complete in the fall.

Among the attendees was a citizen advocate who’s been watching the project since 2022 and is very frustrated. The Parks Department has repeatedly given dates “that they have never met.” Overall, she said, “it’s a big mess.” Another attendee said a lot of work was done for a while – “then it stalled.”

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION HUBS: Admiral needs a hub captain! To try to find a volunteer for this, West Seattle preparedness advocate Cindi Barker spoke about the hubs – if you do nothing else toward disaster preparedness, at least know where yours is! Hubs are places to get information, with community volunteers, after a major disaster that is likely to keep authorities from getting to everyone for days or even weeks. (Not, say, the usual windstorm or snowstorm, but something where “everything is down.”) Neighborhoods are going to be on their own for a while after something big, Barker said, and that’s why being ready to put a volunteer information-gathering/sharing effort into effect is so vital. (We’ve been writing about the Hubs going back to their inception in the ’00s.) It’s not a sophisticated organization, she stressed, but it’s functional, and it’s meant for neighbors to help each other before “help” arrives – info that’s being gathered (by ham-radio operators, for example) and who’s got what. Barker was there to pitch for a new “hub captain” for Admiral because the current one has served for a couple years and needs to retire from the role. There’s a whole team of volunteers signed up; they’re just waiting for someone to agree to serve as their leader. It’s the kind of thing you may never have to fulfill – but neighborhoods need to be ready. She hopes this person will be on board no later than June 1, in time for a summertime citywide drill. Interested? Email Barker at cindilbarker@gmail.com.

(Southwest Seattle Historical Society file photo)

SOUTHWEST SEATTLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Elizabeth Rudrud – SWSHS’s only paid staffer – was a guest speaker, explaining the SWSHS is headquartered at the historic Log House Museum on Alki, once upon a time an outbuilding for Alki’s Fir Lodge (now known as Alki Homestead, which newcomers will know best as current home of the restaurant Il Nido). She said the nonprofit SWSHS is hoping to expand museum hours (currently it’s open noon-4 pm Fridays and Saturdays). She reminded everyone about the monthly online Words, Writers, Southwest Stories presentation, at 6 pm this Thursday (May 13), this time focusing on Black women in the Washington civil-rights movement.

Walking tours of Alki will resume in April, twice a month. The museum also is focusing on new items to add to the display collection. They already have “plenty of cool stuff” – from oral histories (a program that’s restarting this year) to Doc Maynard‘s letters to the original Alki Statue of Liberty replica. “Big initiatives” include the grant they received for “interpretive planning” to install a permanent inside/outside exhibit – “to root our storytelling experience in our visitors’ waterfront experiences.” Half their visitors are local, half are not, but their unique location – near the beach – will inspire them to provide “a very contemporary museum experience.” It likely will have a spring gala opening next year. They’ll “extend to offer natural history for the first time,” and “some community hotspots as well.” She said this all stems from strategic planning and a community survey a few years back. Also, board member Phil Frick added, the SWSHS has a treasure trove of videos on YouTube. You can also learn about their future plans at the upcoming “Story Tellers” spring gala, 6 pm Friday, April 11, at Salty’s on Alki (which will include a live auction and be preceded by an online auction) – register here to attend. (WSB is media sponsor for the gala.)

NEIGHBORHOOD CLEANUP: Community member Ryan is organizing one that’ll spread out in four directions from Admiral/California, to Hamilton Viewpoint, to Hiawatha, to Belvidere. They’ve got vests, garbage bags, “it’s a nice walk and a nice way to beautify the community.” Date/time/rendezvous place is still being finalized. They’re rounding up four volunteers, one for each direction. (History note: ANA used to do cleanups quarterly, many years and multiple leadership teams ago. So it’s another tradition being revived.)

MEMBERSHIP: “Our members are the ones who keep things going,” declared Dan Jacobs.. Joanie Jacobs noted that all of the annual events – not just summer, but also fall and winter holidays – cost money to produce. Household membership and business membership are both available – and if you weren’t at the meeting to sign up, you can do that online. Local businesses “are the heart of our neighborhood, the heart and soul,” they said, and talked about some of them that are lending support big time. (Among them, WSB sponsor West Seattle Realty, whose Kevin Broveleit talked about their 2715 California SW office’s event space status – the Madison Middle School poetry salon, which will be repeated at 2 pm this Sunday (March 16), was a hit. Need a meeting space? 8 people? 25? Contact them. At 6 pm next Wednesday night (March 19) they’re having a strategic homeselling workshop for prospective sellers.

What’s the difference between the Alaska Junction and Admiral Junction? the Jacobs were asked. The Junction Association is a formal BIA – “business improvement area” – while the Admiral Neighborhood Association is a community organization that’s volunteer-powered (WSJA uses a lot of volunteers too). One attendee asked about whether ANA’s ever done a membership/donation drive.

ART WALK: West Seattle Art Walk is this Thursday (March 13) and Admiral participants include West Seattle Grounds (which Joanie Jacobs manages), which has all-female artists participating for International Women’s Month (see wsartwalk.org).

NEXT MEETING: ANA’s next general gathering is Tuesday, May 13. Watch for updates in the meantime at connecttoadmiral.org.