West Seattle, Washington
03 Sunday
You probably don’t have to cook for a crowd the size of the one that Don is preparing for. We caught him with huge pots of gravy (etc.) in the kitchen at The Hall at Fauntleroy, where Tuxedos and Tennis Shoes Catering is again serving up the annual free Thanksgiving dinner, noon-3 pm (map). The tables are waiting, as sun dapples through the huge south-facing windows:
Those who come also will be able to take something home – donated clothing and other items are laid out:
Also offering a free Thanksgiving dinner in West Seattle today: Freedom Church (35th/Roxbury), 3-6 pm. Many people are spending part of their holiday volunteering to make these events possible – we are thankful to live in a community with so many who give so much.
Following up on our live updates from last night’s 4-hour-plus School Board session where school closures and changes were officially proposed, here are the toplines/bottom lines on West Seattle effects, and what happens next:
-Ex-Genesee Hill Elementary building (map; photo right) proposed for closure
–Pathfinder K-8 proposed to move out of Genesee Hill, into Arbor Heights Elementary building (map; photo above)
-Arbor Heights Elementary would cease to exist as a “program”
-Arbor Heights’ current “regular” students would be dispersed among other West Seattle South cluster elementary schools (list)
-Arbor Heights’ current “special-ed” students would stay and become part of the Pathfinder K-8 “program”
-West Seattle students in the Advanced Placement Program (APP) would be assigned to Hawthorne Elementary (map), tabbed as one of two new homes for APP elementary students, who till now have all been housed together at Lowell (that building is to close) – this affects more than 50 West Seattle students (thanks to Molly for forwarding district documents that show how many West Seattle students from each “reference area” attend schools outside their “area,” including Lowell – here’s the WS north version, here’s the WS south version)
DETAILED INFO
All the presentations from the Tuesday night meeting are linked from this page (look under the Nov. 25 meeting header); for supplementary info, here’s Genesee Hill building history and Arbor Heights building history; Arbor Heights has set up a Save Arbor Heights site; before last night’s meeting, we published some background on the last round of school closure proposals, meetings, protests., etc.
NEXT STEPS
HOW TO COMMENT ON THE PROPOSALS: Various options all detailed here (including an e-mail announcement list you can sign up for)
TODAY: West Seattle’s School Board rep Steve Sundquist invites one and all to his monthly coffee chat at Coffee to a Tea with Sugar this morning, 9 am, in The Junction (map).
NEXT WEEK: First School Board meeting post-announcements, 6 pm Wednesday @ district HQ
AFTER THAT: The timeline remains the same as the one the district outlined previously:
□ December 4 – Community Meeting, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., John Stanford Center, 2445 3rd Avenue South
□ December 6 – Community Meeting, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Filipino Community Center, 5740 Martin Luther King Way
□ December 15, 16, 18 –Public hearings at buildings proposed for closure
□ Tuesday, January 6 –Final recommendation announced by Superintendent
□ Wednesday, January 7 –Board meeting: Capacity management motion introduced
□ Wednesday, January 21 –Board meeting
□ Thursday, January 22 –Final public hearing
□ Thursday, January 29 –Special board meeting (final vote)
Note that the 12/15-12/18 hearings will be at the BUILDINGS proposed for closure – so Genesee Hill will get one, though Arbor Heights, as a PROGRAM proposed for closure, apparently will not. The dates for those hearings are not yet set – we will publish that information as soon as it’s available.
Looking ahead to the official announcement of the school-closure (and probably, consolidation, moving, etc.) plan at 6 pm tonight (district HQ in Sodo), some background: It’s been two years since the previous closure process hit its low point, an ugly ruckus during a board meeting in October 2006. Before that, the most controversial West Seattle aspect of the fall 2006 proposal was a plan for Pathfinder K-8 to move out of the ex-Genesee Hill Elementary and “merge” into the Cooper Elementary building in Pigeon Point; Roxhill Elementary was also proposed for closure; earlier in the process, there had been an even-more controversial proposal to move Pathfinder to Boren (where Chief Sealth is temporarily headquartered now). When all was said and done some weeks later, Pathfinder and Cooper kept their status quos — even though all agree the Genesee Hill building is in sorry shape — and ultimately, the Fairmount Park Elementary building was closed, with that school’s “program” merging into the underenrolled then-High Point Elementary, since renamed West Seattle Elementary. We’re heading out shortly to district HQ and will start up the “live” post once we’re settled in there. Another place to watch in addition to WSB is the always-excellent Seattle Public Schools Community blog (which started up during the 2006 closures process, at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com).
Two of your West Seattle neighbors have e-mailed to let you know what happened when burglars targeted them – one in Arbor Heights, one on Genesee Hill. Sometimes, the Crime Watch reader reports we get are simple and emotionless, but not these two:Read More
FIRST UPDATE: We promised to check on the cause of the outage that left an estimated 4,000-plus south West Seattle homes and businesses without power for more than an hour, right about this time yesterday. Just heard back from Scott Thomsen at Seattle City Light; he says it’s listed as an underground cable failure – those happen from time to time for a variety of reasons, anything from age to damage caused by weather conditions in earlier months and years. SECOND UPDATE: We checked on the Arbor Heights/Fauntleroy Comcast outage reported by Hopey this morning in comments on this post; Comcast’s Shauna Causey tells WSB that two technicians are in the area right now and if it’s not fixed yet, it should be shortly.
Highlights from the WSB West Seattle Events calendar (besides this of course being the night of Presidential Debate #2):
PEDESTRIAN-SAFETY RALLY: As first mentioned in this report, everyone concerned about safety on West Seattle streets is invited to join a rally 3-4 pm today at 35th/Juneau in High Point (map) – that’s the intersection where a 15-year-old girl was hit last month.
SCOUTING: Another local Cub Scout pack is signing up new members tonight – the sign-up meeting for Cub Scout Pack 799 is at 7 pm tonight, Arbor Heights Elementary lunchroom. Boys 1st-5th grade are invited.
DENNY/SEALTH PROJECT DEPARTURE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: As mentioned in our report from last night, this group is reviewing the request for zoning “departures” required by the Denny/Sealth combined-campus proposal – less parking, more height. The public’s invited to tonight’s meeting, 7 pm at the Denny cafeteria (more info here).
Seriously breezy but not catastrophically windy; no major problems reported overnight or currently. The National Weather Service‘s morning “forecast discussion” says this system is moving through “as advertised” and things should quiet down later this morning, with the next notable development some colder air on Thursday with daytime highs as low as the upper 40s. 7:43 AM UPDATE: In comments, Hopey notes a Fauntleroy/Arbor Heights Comcast service outage. We’ll update if we can find out more about its status.
Working on details – more shortly.
City Light says about 4000 customers are without power as of 1:15 this afternoon. The boundaries are listed as Webster SW on the north down to 113th Place SW, 30th SW on the east to Puget Sound on the west. Crews have been dispatched and as of 1:45 no time was given for when power would be restored.
Update 2 pm: According to Mike it’s affecting some traffic signals near Lincoln Park.
Update 2 pm: The Webster and Cloverdale signals are out (Webster shown in photo above, taken just before 2 pm), as are the ferry dock toll booths.
Update 2 pm: Fauntleroy power just came back on. Still waiting to hear back from City Light about the cause. Thanks to everyone who sent e-mail/text tips about the outage!
ARBOR HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY TECH PIONEER NOTED NATIONALLY: The Wall Street Journal‘s “Blog Watch” gives a shoutout this week to Arbor Heights’ Mark Ahlness, who in 1994 created the website that made AH Elementary one of the first grade schools in the U.S. with an online presence. You can follow his blog here (and he’s on Twitter too!).
SAY HI TO SEATTLE’S MOST FAMOUS NEWSPAPER BLOGGER: Monica Guzman from the P-I’s Big Blog is bringing her weekly BB meetup to West Seattle today, 5:30 pm at Uptown in The Junction. All welcome. We’ve met Monica several times and there are many things we could say about her – all positive! – but we’ll summarize with “she’s just plain good people,” so if you’re in the vicinity, drop by; we plan to.
THE NEXT TIME WE’RE LIKELY TO SEE MONICA, AND YOU’RE INVITED TO THIS TOO: Monica and your editor here are among the speakers set for the whimsically named BigFoot Blogging Conference (along with, among others, Goldy from HorsesAss.org, one of the political blogs covered on the new WSB Election page). 10 am-4 pm October 11th at Kane Hall on the UW campus; admission free, but space is limited.
LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST – THANKS FOR ANOTHER RECORD MONTH!!!! We try to follow a philosophy from our TV days – though you get ratings daily, don’t stress about the ups and downs, look at the monthly trends. When you run a website, you get “ratings” minute by minute, but the trends are what matter. And thanks to you, the trends continue to be amazing – September was the fourth consecutive month with more than half a million WSB pageviews, setting a new record at 564,283 (40K more than last month, even though September has one less day). That’s not just because of all the people who read WSB – most importantly, it’s because of everyone who shares information with the rest of West Seattle via this site, whether it’s a Forum post or e-mailing/calling us with a tip (like the half-dozen people who e-mailed this morning to ask about the film crew in Lincoln Park – thanks to those tips, our in-person and online followups brought full details within about half an hour). This site is viewed as one of the most successful experiments so far in community-centered independent online-only news (our media coverage links are halfway down the “About” page), and we are thankful to have you as a collaborator. We also want to know how this site could better serve your needs — call, e-mail, text, or tweet any time.
As of 8 am there’s still no word from the Seattle Fire Department about the cause of the fire early this morning in the 10000 block of the alley between 40th and 41st SW. Though the fire was centered in one garage, there is damage to another, and an adjacent house appears to have some heat damage as well. As soon as there’s an update we’ll have it for you. Here’s some pictures of the damage taken at 7:45 this morning. Click here for our breaking news coverage from earlier. 10:12 AM UPDATE: SFD has updated its media info on the fire; spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen says investigators “have ruled the cause (as) undetermined.” Dollar estimate on the damage: $80,000.
(video added 1:42 am – this is looking toward the alley through bushes from 40th SW, close as we could get, you can see the flames’ glow and hear sirens and also hear, then see, a chainsaw crews were using)
ORIGINAL POST: First engine arriving in 10000 block of 40th SW to a “garage fire” call reported via radio a “fully involved” garage – so we’re headed that way to check it out. Two garages and one vehicle burning, according to a subsequent scanner broadcast. 1:29 AM UPDATE: Just back from the scene. At least one garage burned along the alley between 40th and 41st in the 10000 block (map). Huge flames when we arrived – even bigger before we got there, according to neighbors on two sides of that block – who told us they heard explosion-type noises shortly after the fire started (not uncommon). Here’s what else one neighbor about a block west told us:
No official info just yet so everything we report will be from what we saw at the scene and learned from witnesses. No injuries so far as we could tell – a medic unit was there and left empty. Uploading video momentarily – we couldn’t get too close to a burning garage on a narrow alley, obviously, but the flames were clearly visible between houses from a vantage point on 40th. Also note, 100th and 102nd were still blocked off from 40th to 41st when we left a few minutes ago. 1:48 AM UPDATE: The SFD media hotline confirms “two garages about 10 feet apart” burned, no injuries. Scanner traffic is still very active, so fire crews clearly will be there for quite some time. 2:18 AM UPDATE: Still monitoring the scanner; seems at least one other media crew just got there a short time ago, so you might see something on at least one of the early morning newscasts. Here’s a photo from nearby resident Kevin McClintic that shows how thick the smoke was in the air, even more than a block away:
One more clip from our video, more notable for the sound than the picture … as one engine backs up to switch locations, you can hear lots more in the distance – many more arrived even after we got to the scene:
We will update whenever there’s more official info on the damage and any possible cause.
We met Jan Seidel (left) and Loretta Kimball on Saturday, when we stopped by Saturday’s Arbor Heights Block Party to find out more about a new “community playground proposal” mentioned on the party-promoting flyer. They are the force behind a proposal to create a playground on a plot of Arbor Heights Community Church land just west of the church (map). It’s not just a church project; they’re pursuing a community partnership – read on for more of what we found out:Read More
New information today on the missing pugs we told you about yesterday, gone from their Arbor Heights home after a burglary — Southwest Precinct Sgt. Jeff Durden just called to say a witness who read about it on WSB has told police the dogs were definitely stolen – they were seen being loaded into a vehicle. Police are still working to see what kind of description of that vehicle they will be able to publicly release without jeopardizing the investigation. We’ll let you know when more information is available. 1:10 PM UPDATE: And here it is — Sgt. Durden says neighbors saw a dark blue SUV stopped near the house Monday afternoon around 2 pm, with a male driver and male passenger. They saw one of them come out of the home’s front yard, pick up the pugs, put them in the SUV, and drive off. They didn’t realize at the time that anything was wrong, so they didn’t call police until they read here about the burglary and missing dogs. They didn’t get a license plate, and not very much detail on the people in the SUV, except that one appeared to be in his late teens/early 20s, “dark complexion,” possibly Asian or Hispanic, close-cropped hair or shaven head. The police non-emergency number is 206/625-5011, or you can call 911 if you have a tip that needs immediate action.
We haven’t closely followed the Amanda Knox case, though she’s from West Seattle and her mom still lives here, because there’s a preponderance of places where you CAN find every last little detail; our last mention was back in January. However, Cami from Alki just tipped us that Knox’s family, including her mom Edda Mellas from Arbor Heights, did a rare interview this morning, on the Today Show, and sent the link (click the picture on the right side of the page to launch the clip, which starts with an update on the case before the video of the on-set interview). No stunning revelations so far as we could tell from watching.
Thanks to Jill for that photo of the lightning early this morning – she’s in Arbor Heights (which also had one of the best views of the lightning a few nights ago too), and you can see a few more pix on her Flickr page. Meanwhile, with tomorrow’s holiday, we’re all watching the forecast – today looks soggy but tomorrow and Saturday may be better — lots to do all three days, including the Seafair Pirates Landing at Alki on Saturday and the Alki Bathhouse art show/reception tonight (5-8 pm), with a chance to browse creations like this (thanks to Jana):
More on the Events calendar page (and for tomorrow’s plans – with helpful holiday info as well as activities – on our 4th of July page).
(thanks to Brian Pickart for that photo taken from west of The Junction; next one is from MargL)
… it’s lightning/thunder off to the south/southeast. The forecast mentioned there was a chance; if you have a view in that direction, you should get a pretty good show in the hours to come. We were just driving home from downtown (six thumbs up for “Wall-E”) and saw it quite clearly. 10:31 PM UPDATE: Added photographic proof – thanks so much to MargL in Arbor Heights for the pic! P.S. Here’s a pic of clouds moving in earlier tonight, before they got to lightning territory … thanks to Dan E for the sunset shot:
12:11 AM UPDATE: Looks like this has moved out of range … we were just out driving around for the weekly gas price survey and didn’t see any more flashes. Did get some more photos, though; will add them to this post shortly.
New listing — $1.5 million, with the notation: “Please drive by, seeing is believing.”
The STAR 101.5 “Teacher of the Week” promotion had another West Seattle winner today — congrats to Arbor Heights Elementary second-grade teacher Sally Shavey. This comes six weeks after Lafayette Elementary fifth-grade teacher Catherine Bloom won the same honor.
Not to harp too long on a theme, but this one just hit the inbox and seemed sharable:
There seems to be a theme going around with suspicious door-to-door sales people but just wanted to make another mention of Icon Security. At about 7:30 or so we had a young woman come to the door saying that she was from Icon. My husband answered the door and she asked it he was the “man of the house.” He said that he was and she then looked him over and said “you’re looking really good, I hope that your wife isn’t here.” He was rather taken aback especially considering he was wearing flannel pants and ratty old T-shirt. She then started asking about our security system and if it was wireless saying that they could offer us a better deal. He told her we were happy with our service and started closing the door and she left. I remembered that Icon has been mentioned on the blog before so I just thought I would say that they were out again. If these people are legitimate they really need to work on their sales pitch, they seem really sleazy. We called the police and reported this. We live in Arbor Heights.
That photo, and report #1, from Arbor Heights Elementary teacher Mark Ahlness:
It’s finally happening! The sidewalk on the south side of SW 104th next to Arbor Heights Elementary School is almost finished. Many thanks to the Arbor Heights PTSA, who have worked for several years with the city to make this happen!
The Arbor Heights sidewalk project was first mentioned here last November.
Report #2: As Manuel noted in his e-mail, the issue he is following isn’t technically in West Seattle, but certainly affects a lot of WS drivers “who use South Spokane Street to go to Costco or work.” He continued:
I wrote SDOT inquiring about the poor condition of the concrete panels at the railroad crossings down there. Over time they sunk several inches, and drivers had to slow way down. They have since fixed the eastbound panels, but the westbound panels are currently pretty bad. Anyway, just passing along a well-thought-out response from our city.
Read on for the full text of the response that Manuel received and forwarded:Read More
From “Trick” in Arbor Heights, who thought his pix might suit the lighter side of Crime Watch, once he survived the two-on-one staredown!
Thanks to Arbor Heights Elementary School teacher Mark Ahlness for these photos from last night’s Art Fair and Auction (silent-auction participants shown below) — he says it was an “incredible success”! More fundraisers are on our Events page (including tomorrow night’s Chief Sealth Tamale Dinner for music $).
Not only is it school-choice season (Seattle Public Schools‘ deadline is Friday), it’s school-auction season. The photo above is from the Our Lady of Guadalupe GAIN auction last night at SSCC, courtesy of a mysterious correspondent calling himself “Rock Steele, Man About Town.” Before showing you a few other pix he sent, we want to note that at least five other local schools have auctions in the next month: Schmitz Park Elementary at the Hilton downtown on March 1 (flyer here), Arbor Heights Co-op Preschool at Youngstown Arts Center on March 8, West Seattle High School PTSA dinner/auction at SSCC on March 14, Gatewood Elementary (kicking off a centennial celebration) at The Hall @ Fauntleroy (also on March 14), Pathfinder K-8 at SSCC on March 15, Madison Middle School PTSA at The Hall on March 22. Again, that’s just the next month; others are on the WSB Events Page, and if yours is missing, please let us know so we can add it. Now, those other photos from last night’s OLG event:Read More
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