Thumbs up for what’s down below
The city decision is in for the 53rd Avenue wastewater pump station upgrade @ Alki. We’ll confess to not knowing enough about the project to be able to say how many more steps remain before the work will start … but we’ll be looking to find out. According to this handout from last summer’s public meeting, once the work starts, it’ll last (gulp) more than a year and a half.
Safe from the saws
Maybe the city is a little bit serious about saving trees after all. Walking down a section of Cali Ave between junctions last night, we noticed two trees in the parking strip by a teardown-to-townhome project at Cali & Spokane — each with a plywood fence around its trunk, each with its trunk marked by a big bright green flyer with this admonition — PROTECT TREE! (I’d like to get a sheaf of those flyers and run around tacking them on just about every tree in sight.)
I think that I shall never see, a dichotomy as lovely as a …
(Apologies to Joyce Kilmer.) As someone absolutely passionate about being a truly green greenie — as mentioned before, if you looked at our house from Google Earth, you would barely see its roof amid all the trees and shrubs we’ve allowed to grow around and over it — I’m skeptical about Hizzoner‘s new “WE (HEART) TREES” campaign, lovingly (and mostly uncritically) previewed in the P-I and Times this morning. One even more fabulous way to slow tree loss would be to apply tougher standards to the rampant infill that’s under way in areas like ours. On the slopes over Lincoln Park, in the past few years, we’ve seen acres of greenery fall to developers’ backhoes (here’s just one example), replaced by oversized houses (do 2 or 3 people really need 3.5K sf?). How about we save a little more greenspace than just what’s left in our parks? Dare to look at an “undeveloped” lot and consider that maybe its highest and best use is to stay “undeveloped.” There’s more to “environmentally critical” than streams and wetlands.
All together now …
… let’s shout it together so it can be heard all the way across the water, from Vashon to Bainbridge to Magnolia … WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO? (Did you notice how early it’s getting dark? Sigh …)
Here are three things you might want to add to your to-do list, since within a few weeks you won’t be able to do them again till sometime next spring:
-Ride the Elliott Bay Water Taxi. It goes on hiatus at the end of this month.
-Go swimming (or sunbathing) at Colman Pool. A week from Sunday is its last day of operation this year. There are few sights sadder for us Lincoln Park walkers than the fall/winter plywood up over the CP plexiglass.
-Enjoy a demonstration at the West Seattle Farmers Market. The market itself is supposed to stay open every Sunday through mid-December, but the demos on its calendar only run through September (this Sunday, fresh tomatoes! yum!).
The sidewalk less taken
For all the times you’ve driven over The Bridge, have you ever taken a good look at the waterway it spans?
Over the weekend, we did. On a whim, after leaving the house with the intention of walking straight to Summer Fest, we redirected ourselves all the way to what’s most commonly called the “Low Bridge,” which has a well-protected sidewalk/bike path along its south side. Walking that path provides a fine view of the waterway and everything on it, including the Harbor Island Marina, where I would love to be able to keep a boat someday … From the Low Bridge, you also get a better appreciation of the sleek structure of the “high bridge” (which, according to this HistoryLink.org page, just passed its 22nd anniversary, a day before our walk!).
If you want to try this adventure, you don’t have to do what we did (trudge all the way from home) — there are places to park not too far from the access path.
Smooth as … not quite silk
Old news perhaps to those of you who spend a lot of time on Alki … we walked on the beach for a while at midday today while waiting for a table at Duke’s, and were shocked to see it groomed … flat, grooved, even. I’ve never seen the sand at Alki that way. Maybe some post-Fourth of July sprucing up?
It’s not ALL set to be paved over …
Got an e-mail from someone wondering what’s up with the empty lot at the northwest corner of 42nd and Alaska. I remembered something about the city acquiring that lot as parkland, so I checked around and indeed, a park is still in the works for that site, known as “Junction Plaza” — timely question since, according to this city news release, city leaders want your ideas on exactly what to do with it; they’ll be at the Summer Fest in two weeks with a booth featuring the latest scoop.
Go paddle yourself
Surprise — the sun’s out. Forecast still insists it won’t be for long, but I have faith I can at least get out and pull weeds for a while. If you’d rather do something else environmentally friendly that also happens to get you out on the water, Cami from ever-trusty AlkiNews.com tells us Alki Kayak Tours over at Seacrest Boathouse is offering demos on Eddyline Kayaks till 3 pm today. (I personally think West Seattle needs a few more businesses with “Tours” in their name — why not show off our beauty? — so I don’t mind the occasional plug!)
Warming up to Al
About a month before Al Gore was elected Vice President in 1992, West Seattle Blogger Spouse and I shoehorned ourselves into an outdoor crowd at the UW to watch him speak. This was supposed to be some sort of appeal to Them Young Voters; what passed for local music royalty pre-grunge, the Wilson sisters, opened for him, as I recall.
I remember the sunshine and the energy. I don’t remember being terribly impressed by him. But Al Gore ’06 is a different guy. See for yourself in “An Inconvenient Truth,” aka “the Al Gore movie” or “the global-warming movie.” We just got back from shoehorning ourselves into an indoor crowd downtown to see it.
Cool thing is, it’s not what you’d expect. It’s not a huge scarefest full of “Day After Tomorrow” disaster-rama-style effects — it’s heartbreaking pictures, and impressive charts, and a whole different side of the ex-Vice President. Best thing, it ends with zillions of bits of advice on how you can do something about the problem. Chances are, here in our blue peninsula amid a blue city, you might be doing something good already. (Here at WSB World HQ, we’ve “planted trees. Lots of trees” and we “recycle” — abundantly — so now we just need to give City Light a call as per the credit-sequence exhortation and ask if they use “green energy.”)
Also advised, “tell everyone you know to see (the) movie.” So that’s what I’m doing here, with a link to Saturday showtimes, and a link to the tie-in site. If you’ve got an environmentalist bone in your body, it’s a lot more satisfying than, oh, say, “Over the Hedge.”
What Humpty Dumpty and Lincoln Park don’t have in common
All the contractor’s backhoes, and all the contractor’s men, DID manage to put Lincoln Park back together again.
Just back from a tour to verify that for ourselves, since Colman Pool is about to open for the season and that means fairly frequent walks along the Lincoln Park paths. We were amazed to see just how close to “normal” the park looks, despite the major pipeline project — for most of the major (south half) part of the waterfront path, the only clues are asphalt patching and new pea gravel atop the filled-in area where the pipeline went.
Things are a bit more ragged beyond Colman Pool, to the north — the big grassy meadow by the pool buildings is nothing but dirt, and a few pieces of construction equipment are still around. Otherwise, nothing really disturbed the eye — except a huge infestation of ivy all along the north path — and I don’t think we can blame the pipeline project for that.
Even the wildlife is returning; toward the Beach Drive end of the path, we paused to watch a frolicking otter and jumping fish.
The south parking lot, by the way, has reopened too; looks like the north lot is close — some construction vehicles were still staged there when we passed by in early evening.
A plea to one of our resident rock stars
Interesting story in the P-I over the weekend.
My .02, I wouldn’t bet on Mr. Vedder getting involved in this particular issue. One of the recently paved-over greenbelt stretches on this side of WS is close to his digs, and that didn’t seem to stop the bulldozers. (If I were a rich person, I’d have pocketed those parcels for preservation’s sake; I’m not, so the best I can do is urban wildlife habitat in my own backyard. And front yard. And side yards …)
Get the dirt …
… on the stability of the dirt beneath your dwelling: New UW map link is getting a lot of publicity today.
But beware, it’s tough to decipher. Or at least, I’m having trouble here in the wee hours. All I know is, I’m in the blue zone. Hmm.
Spring cleaning on a grand scale
If you’re on the south side of WS, you can’t miss the flyers posted about this Saturday’s big cleanup. Hizzoner’s even coming, all the way from the north side of WS. Bummer the forecast doesn’t look so good right now — but as long as it’s not pouring, it’ll probably be a fine day for trash-picking, ivy-pulling, and what have you …
Trying to save a tree
Maybe you heard the saga of the older lady who spent some time today sitting in a tree near Alki, trying to protect it from further hacking. I don’t know if this particular tree is such a cause worth fighting for, but I certainly sympathize with the escalating loss of our urban forest. Personally, if I had been Cindi Laws, I would have held a sit-in in that splendid garden she had, now a long-forgotten ghost on yet another spot claimed by condos.
(Wed. morning update: here’s a link to the tree lady’s story.)
If Alki gets too crowded
The first impulse, if those record-high temperatures really do materialize late this afternoon, will be to flee for the beach. Alki will likely be a madhouse. So here are a few alternatives you might consider:
–Lowman Beach. Cozy, quiet, beautiful. Not much parking, though, so walk/bike/bus if you can.
-The beach just west of Seacrest Boathouse. Steep and rocky but the boathouse area in general, with the pier and its downtown vista, is a nice place to hang out, and there’s good bubble tea across the street.
-Or drive a bit south to Burien and check out Seahurst. Also a bit parking-challenged, but there’s an overflow lot up the hill a short way.
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