West Seattle, Washington
09 Thursday
As with other community groups, the return of in-person events was a topic threaded through the Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s March meeting, held Tuesday night.
ANA is now having hybrid meetings – at Admiral Church but also accessible via Zoom/phone, which is how we attended. Here are the highlighted:
CONCERT SERIES: ANA would like to bring back its popular Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series this year, but there’s one big speed bump – concert coordinator Stephanie Jordan has been told that Hiawatha Community Center and its east lawn, the location going back to the series’ start more than a decade ago, might not be available, due to ongoing work that has closed the center. Seattle Parks won’t know for sure for a few months, which would be last-minute for the series, not conducive to the amount of planning and work that’s required in advance. So possible alternative locations were discussed – maybe Hamilton Viewpoint Park, maybe Lafayette Elementary‘s grounds, maybe a closed street (like Lander south of Lafayette)? None of these have been formally proposed or vetted; this was just brainstorming.
NANTES PARK PARTY: The roadside park honoring Seattle’s sister-city relationship with Nantes, France, will host an overdue 40th-anniversary party next month. (That’s the 40th anniversary of the relationship, not the park, and 2020 was the actual 40th-anniversary year, but of course an in-person celebration wasn’t possible then.) Susan Kegel of the Seattle-Nantes Sister City Association said a “sizable delegation” from Nantes would be visiting in March, so they’re planning a party in the park at 4 pm April 10th. City leaders are expected to attend too, and there’ll be music and refreshments. The pathway in the park isn’t likely to be finished because of the concrete-drivers strike, but art tiles will be set an the park should be in better shape after a March 26th work party to weed it.
SPEAKING OF WORK PARTIES: The ANA is bringing back its quarterly Adopt-A-Street cleanups, details to come.
WEST SEATTLE ART WALK: Reminder that ANA is one of the neighborhood groups sponsoring/hosting segments of the monthly West Seattle Art Walk, which is happening tomorrow night (Thursday, March 10th). ANA’s Joanie Jacobs, who runs West Seattle Grounds (2141 California SW), noted that WSG will be hosting artist Naomi Cox. You can see all this month’s Art Walk venues – and preview many of the artists – via this page on the WSAW website.
SPEAKING OF WEBSITES – you’ll find ANA info, Admiral events, and more, on the group’s new site, connecttoadmiral.org – that’s also where to watch for word of the next meeting.
No big presentations or special guests at this month’s online meeting of the District 1 Community Network, a coalition of advocates from all around West Seattle and South Park. Instead, attendees shared a variety of quick updates and announcements.
WEST SEATTLE BEE FESTIVAL: It will return this year, in May, reported Cindi Barker of the Emergency Communication Hubs, who will be participating with preparedness info, as in the past. May 21st is the date. She also said a preparedness event is in the works for South Park’s Marra Farm in the next few months.
HIGHLAND PARK: Donna Burns reported that the HP Improvement Club is planning an event for June 25th, which will mark one year since the fire that closed the HPIC building – details to come. This month’s meeting of HPAC, meantime, will feature SDOT – that’s set for Wednesday, March 23rd, online.
FAUNTLEROY: Bruce Butterfield from the Fauntleroy Community Association said FCA will bring back its Food Fest annual membership meeting this year, in May.
TALKING WITH THE MAYOR: D1CN administrator Larry Wymer is point person for getting Mayor Bruce Harrell and at-large City Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda (a West Seattle resident) and Sara Nelson as future guests. Nothing’s finalized. yet.
LANDMARK NOMINATION: Deb Barker, who represents the Morgan Community Association on D1CN but is also a historic-preservation advocate, said the city’s Landmarks Board had voted earlier in the day to nominate the South Park Neighborhood Center as a potential city landmark.
(King County Assessor’s Office photo)
The building at 8201 10th Avenue South is officially known as Former Fire Station 26. Here’s the nomination document. The board will decide at a future meeting whether to designate it as a landmark.
The District 1 Community Network meets on first Wednesdays, 7 pm, online until further notice; next meeting is April 6th.
The Admiral Neighborhood Association isn’t just for Admiral residents – it’s also for business owners, workers, students, shoppers, diners, anyone with an interest in the neighborhood. And ANA would love to connect with you at its next meeting, set for Tuesday night (March 8th), 7 pm. You can participate either in person (Admiral Church, 4320 SW Hill) or online (link’s in our calendar listing). ANA also is reminding you that it’s launched a new website – connecttoadmiral.org.
One big topic at this past week’s monthly HPAC meeting – the plan for another giant storage tank in West Seattle to contain combined-sewer overflows.
HPAC is the community coalition for Highland Park, Riverview, and South Delridge; co-chair Kay Kirkpatrick facilitated the online meeting on Wednesday night.
WEST DUWAMISH CSO CONTROL PROJECT: We mentioned this project three weeks ago, while commenting time was open for its environmental checklist. The King County Wastewater Treatment Division sent reps to the HPAC meeting to present a briefing on the plan. Project manager Maud De Bel led the presentation, calling the West Duwamish Combined Sewer Overflow Control Project‘s central feature “similar to the Murray (Wet Weather) Facility” across from Lowman Beach Park. She offered a quick refresher course on combined sewers – stormwater running off streets and roofs, going into the sewer system – “there’s a point where the sewer gets overwhelmed,” so to prevent floods and backups, the system overflows into bodies of water like Puget Sound or the Duwamish River. The county has controlled “most of those” but this project is meant to address two areas of eastern West Seattle where uncontrolled overflows go into the river several times each year.
We reported earlier this month on the 1.25-million-gallon storage tank planned in southeast West Seattle to reduce combined-sewer overflows into the Duwamish River. At its monthly meeting this Wednesday, HPAC – the neighborhood coalition for Highland Park, Riverview, and South Delridge – gets a briefing. Here’s the meeting preview, which includes other topics:
We will be hearing from representative of the King County Wastewater Treatment Division to learn more about the upcoming West Duwamish CSO Control project set to begin soon. If you are unfamiliar with these projects, have a look at the construction at 4th South and South Michigan Street, where they are almost done with a huge holding facility. The SW Michigan site will be much smaller, but serve a similar purpose, capturing and holding excess rain runoff from Highland Park, preventing contamination of the Duwamish River during big storms.
If you attended last month’s meeting, SPD mentioned their annual report on crime trends. They will be at our meeting too for any questions or concerns, Westwood Village area ranked 4th in volume citywide in community-generated 911 calls.
Also up in the HPAC business category:
-Planning for Spring Cleanup events – sites you think need to be addressed, dates, etc.
-Helping with a Flip Your Trip outreach event? – mask mandates are lifting and traffic will be ramping up, can we help try and get more folks out of their Single Occupancy Vehicles?
-A look back at our area’s five years of hosting Camp Second Chance – what’s working? Any outstanding concerns? Do we have any guidance or response to State Sen. Joe Nguyen’s bill now in the State Senate regarding lifting SEPA requirements for new camps?
-Inviting any interested parties to help out on eBoard positions – we are an all volunteer advocacy group and rely on community energy!
HPAC will meet online at 7 pm Wednesday (February 23rd) – connection info is here.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
More than three years ago, Admiral Church told community members that “big changes” were in its future.
Planning for those changes was subsequently shelved. But now it’s actively happening again, as the church has flatly declared that a “looming financial crisis” makes the status quo unsustainable.
So, church leaders told a community meeting this afternoon, they’re pursuing three potential paths for the future of the church (4320 SW Hill) and its 27,000-square-feet site:
The question of what to include on its new website led the Alki Community Council to a deeper discussion at its February meeting. We reported on the new website earlier in the week; among other features, it enables people to renew or initiate ACC membership, and ay the nominal annual dues. So why would people want to join – what’s in it for them? one attendee asked. There were no quick answers for that, aside from the fact that it’s a way to get involved in your community. The website, meantime, has infinite possibilities for being helpful, and many ideas were suggested – the volunteer who developed it, Debbie Girard, has already posted community event listings, for example, along with resource links, and is working on community spotlights. Should the website be more topical and newsy, with, for example, community safety/crime alerts? one person asked. That drew mixed reaction. The idea of promoting the Alki area drew more positive reaction. Whatever the direction, the point was made that it can’t all fall on the shoulders of one volunteer, so others will have to help. She’s working on a user manual to make that possible.
The ACC meeting (held in-person and online Thursday night) also got its usual SPD visit from the Southwest Precinct‘s night-shift Lt. David Terry. Attendees’ concerns were dominated by the perennial problems of reckless driving, even in the offseason, and Lt. Terry again explained that the department’s current staffing challenges rule out proactive patroling much of the time. They are “augmenting” – offering extra/overtime shifts to officers – just to be at minimum staffing many nights.
The Alki Community Council meets third Thursdays most months, 7 pm at Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds) and online. Watch alkicommunitycouncil.org for updates.
If you live, work, study, and/or play in the Alki area, and are interested in community involvement, the Alki Community Council is back on the web, at alkicommunitycouncil.org. The newly launched website is its first one at that address and it’s the work of a new infusion of volunteer involvement. It’s meant to be a central location for information including ACC meetings, which are most months on third Thursdays, so the next one is this week – Thursday, February 17th, at 7 pm. ACC has moved to “hybrid” meetings, so you can attend in person (at Alki UCC, 6115 SW Hinds) or online. On the new ACC site, you’ll also find links including Alki history, area resources, social media, and membership signup.
We “arrived” late because the Sound Transit Community Advisory Group meeting ran long, but here are three toplines from three-quarters of the Fauntleroy Community Association‘s February meeting on Tuesday night:
TRAFFIC CALMING: They’re still working with SDOT on trouble spots (many of which were spotlighted at last October’s special community meeting). Today, in fact, they got the news that the Seattle Fire Department has signed off on three speed cushions on 45th SW between SW Trenton and SW Director (plus others in other neighborhoods, as reported here).
EGG HUNT: Again this year, the FCA plans to hide non-perishable eggs around the community. This is set for the week of April 11th. Bins will be set up for later dropoff of the eggs so they can be reused/recycled. Other details are still in the works – watch here and fauntleroy.net for the official announcement.
ANNUAL MEETING: FCA is hoping that its annual membership meeting can be held in person this year. March – the usual month pre-pandemic – was deemed too soon, but they’re tentatively looking at setting a date in May.
The Fauntleroy Community Association board meets second Tuesdays, 7 pm, online, always open to community members – info here.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
When you hear about “public-safety alternatives,” what does that really mean?
The spotlight topic at this month’s District 1 Community Network meeting, online Wednesday night, sought to answer that question.
Guests included both providers of those alternatives and a proponent of them, West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee again this year.
Herbold opened by acknowledging that crime in the city rose in 2021 crime, including categories such as gunfire and aggravated assaults, though homicides were down from 2020. Police Chief Adrian Diaz has said there’s no single cause; it has to be addressed with a public-health response, she said. The council has fully funded SPD’s hiring plan, she said, noting that SPD’s budget is down but $41 million of the cuts are because functions that used to be part of SPD are no longer part of the department – the 911 center, parking enforcement, emergency management. “The council has not made any cuts that have resulted in layoffs, but the staff is down because 350 officers have left.” Also, Herbold said, 170+ officers are on disability or extended leave in SPD, an “unusually large number” – many of them because of the vaccine mandate, many who may be “on their way out of the department.” 12 new officers were hired by year’s end but attrition is higher – in that same period, 13 more left. She supports a hiring incentive program but contends the city needs to continue developing alternatives to traditional policing.
Toward that, here’s the presentation into which she segued:
With February almost here, a new round of community meetings is about to begin. On Wednesday night (February 2nd), neighborhood advocates and organization reps from West Seattle and South Park gather online at 7 pm for the February meeting of the District 1 Community Network. The agenda is still being finalized but one centerpiece topic is public safety – particularly the status of alternative programs. All are welcome to attend; video and call-in info is in our calendar listing. (Here’s our report on last month’s D1CN meeting.)
Here are highlights of what happened at HPAC‘s January meeting online last night, led by co-chairs Kay Kirkpatrick and Craig Rankin:
PUBLIC SAFETY: First, from the Southwest Precinct, acting Lt. David Terry was there along with one of the officers who work east West Seattle, Officer Macaully Lakin. Terry showed screens from two public SPD data dashboards – crime reports and dispatches. (You can use the dashboards to check stats from various neighborhoods by choosing the MCPP option.)
Staffing shortages at two city-government agencies were part of what the Alki Community Council heard about at its January meeting, held in-person and online this past Thursday night:
TENDING TO PARKS: The ACC has had a longstanding collaboration with Seattle Parks, including stewardship of Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza, which was a community-created/-funded project in the 00s. This area’s longtime crew chief Carol Baker recently retired, and the acting crew chief was a guest Thursday night.
For the first time in three months, HPAC – the community coalition for Highland Park, Riverview, and South Delridge – will gather (virtually) this Wednesday. The agenda includes two topics of perennial concern for every neighborhood – crime and traffic. SPD will be there for trends and Q&A about the former; SDOT will be there to talk about Flip Your Trip, which the department says is now up to 5,000 signups from people trying commute alternatives. All are welcome to the online meeting at 7 pm Wednesday (January 26th) – connection/call-in information is on the HPAC website. (Here’s our coverage of the previous HPAC meeting back in October.)
The Morgan Community Association‘s quarterly meetings are always information-packed. Last night, MoCA’s online meeting spanned an especially wide range of topics:
(King County Assessor’s Office photo)
NEW BUILDING OWNER: MoCA invited Tim Overland, new owner of the Ivy Court mixed-use building (6525 California SW), to appear. He said his company owns and operates other buildings in the Northwest too. They bought Ivy Court in November (property records show it sold for $12.3 million). It was built 30 years ago by the family that once operated a drugstore where Starbucks is, about a block north at California/Fauntleroy. They plan to renovate Ivy Court – redo the roof, repaint the building, add a brick facade, remodel the apartments as tenants move. The vacant commercial space in the building has been leased to (updated) a fitness studio, moving up from Harbor Avenue. The building likely will be renamed.
EARTHQUAKE READINESS: For the next three meetings, this will be a spotlight topic for MoCA.
Here’s what happened at this week’s online meeting of the Fauntleroy Community Association:
TRAFFIC SAFETY: This has been an ongoing focus for FCA, as they continue pressing for progress on issues raised at a special community meeting in October. Two issues they emphasized: Getting enforcement for ferry-line jumpers and people making U-turns near the dock. One challenge – Those are different agencies’ jurisdictions – the State Patrol and Seattle Police. FCA president Mike Dey suggested a separate conversation with SPD and WSP might be in order to talk about a unified response. SDOT has promised signage and an “education campaign” about line-cutting; FCA doesn’t feel that’s enough.
FERRIES: FCA’s point person on Washington State Ferries matters, Frank Immel, recapped recent community meetings and said WSF’s environmental survey of the Fauntleroy dock will likely start in the next few months. He reiterated that it’s too early in the planning process for any decisions on the replacement dock/terminal.
CRIME: The Southwest Precinct was represented by Sgt. Lance Gilmore. Again this month, he said, Fauntleroy has had fewer calls than any other part of West Seattle. He also mentioned another new emphasis program is planned for Westwood Village, starting soon once the plan – and the overtime it would require – gets final approval. (The shopping center was a topic at the previous FCA meeting in November.)
FAUNTLEROY FALL FESTIVAL: David Haggerty said the festival’s future is clouded by rising costs and a need for volunteers. The cost could double this year, if some of last year’s price hikes on items such as pumpkins and canopies are a preview of what’s to come. Fundraisers are planned as usual but finding volunteer help can be difficult. Festival organizers are working on some questions to take to the community soon as they look ahead.
EASTER EGG HUNT: FCA is tentatively planning on one for April 16th, the day before Easter – details to come. (Last year, FCA hid hundreds of eggs around the community.)
WHAT’S NEXT: FCA’s board meetings, open to the community, are held online at 7 pm the second Tuesday of most months, so the next one is February 8th. Watch fauntleroy.net for updates.
Thanks to Mike Munson for that photo from the north end of Lowman Beach Park, where the seawall removal/shoreline restoration project continues. A short project update is one of the items on the agenda for the Morgan Community Association‘s next quarterly meeting, this Wednesday (January 19th), online at 7 pm. MoCA will also talk about the Morgan Junction Park expansion site and forming a committee to talk about what can be done with the site between (upcoming) contamination cleanup and (future) park development. Also on the agenda, the new owner of one of Morgan Junction’s major mixed-use buildings, Ivy Court. See the full agenda here or below:
Information for attending the meeting by video or phone is in the agenda and also in our calendar listing.
(Photo from HPIC town-hall presentation, building’s south side along SW Holden)
Almost seven months after the fire that severely damaged the Highland Park Improvement Club building (12th/Holden), major decisions remain about its future – how much of it to rebuild, and what purpose the new building could serve. Those have been topics of two online “town halls” so far (WSB coverage here and here), and now it’s time for the third, Wednesday (January 19th) at 7 pm. As announced by HPIC, “Architect Matt Wittman and Landscape Architect Jody Estes of Wittman Estes will facilitate the meeting again. We will be discussing the results of the Community Priority Questionnaire and how this input relates to the building, with diagrams and sketches to help visualize.” Even if you haven’t participated in the process so far, you’re welcome to jump in now. Connection information for the meeting is on the HPIC website.
In his first speech, Mayor Bruce Harrell spoke of “listening to communities and to neighborhoods.”
District 1 Community Network, a coalition of West Seattle/South Park advocates, plans to invite him to do exactly that at their March meeting.
That’s part of what was discussed at D1CN’s first meeting of the year last night, online.
INVITING THE MAYOR: Discussion about this focused on hoping to talk with Mayor Harrell about how the city can improve its engagement with neighborhoods. D1CN members are looking for more clarity on what role he envisions for the Department of Neighborhoods. They’re also hoping to offer ideas for how city departments might better coordinate with each other when interacting with neighborhoods.
Other topics:
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Another Northwest earthquake swarm – this time off the Oregon coast – is the latest reminder that we live in a seismically active area.
You hear a lot about preparedness, but it should go beyond the “have some food and water stashed away” stage, the District 1 Community Network heard at this month’s meeting, which featured two other topics – “street sinks” and the local Salvation Army Center.
First – the spotlight presentation was from Cindi Barker, an Upper Morgan Junction resident long active with the Emergency Communication Hubs, a volunteer organization that works to ensure neighborhoods have gathering places in case of catastrophe (find your nearest one here) and to raise awareness of other preparedness issues.
With just weeks remaining until she leaves office, Mayor Jenny Durkan has launched a farewell tour, and tonight it stopped in the West Seattle Junction, with an ice-cream party at Husky Deli.
This also happened to be the one-year anniversary of her announcement that the cracked West Seattle Bridge would be repaired rather than replaced, ending months of suspense. Also at Husky Deli tonight, in fact, was Seattle Department of Transportation director Sam Zimbabwe (a West Seattle resident). At some point one of the businesspeople and community advocates there for her visit asked the mayor about the bridge – she turned and called out loudly across the room, “Sam Zimbabwe assures me it’s on time and on budget!” He affirmed that:
We asked him if there’s any update on the about-to-start repairs beyond what we published last night. Not yet, he said, but he said we can “expect some good news right after Thanksgiving.” The estimate for completion of repairs remains the same as what they said the day of that big announcement one year ago – “mid-2022.” In other topics, the mayor got a warm sendoff from Lora Radford, who herself just left a high-profile job, running the West Seattle Junction Association.
As the video shows, Radford also presented the mayor with a gift reminiscent of her past visits to The Junction, Bakery Nouveau macaronns, which the mayor had bought for one of her sons during a walking tour in February 2018. She had a parting request for West Seattleites tonight: “Let’s give the new mayor every chance to succeed.”
One more community-council meeting to recap after a week of many, before a new week begins. Here are our toplines from the Fauntleroy Community Association‘s November board meeting, held online:
CRIME UPDATE: From the Southwest Precinct, night-shift Lt. David Terry spoke briefly. October saw what he called a “little uptick” in crime in the precinct’s coverage area (West Seattle and South Park); Fauntleroy is still the safest area in the precinct’s jurisdiction. He was asked whether things are any better at Westwood Village (not in FCA’s coverage area, but not far east of it).
This past week was a busy one for community meetings. Here are the toplines from another one we covered, the Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s first “hybrid” meeting – in-person and streamed – on Tuesday night.
NEW PRECINCT COMMANDER: Capt. Martin Rivera, the new commander of the Southwest Precinct (which serves West Seattle and South Park), is continuing a series of get-acquainted stops. He was mostly there to listen, so no presentation, but a rep from Brookdale Admiral Heights voiced concerns about suspicious activity near its entrances, and Capt. Rivera said he’d talk with Crime Prevention Coordinator Jennifer Danner abut working on a plan for the building.
OPERATION NIGHTWATCH: Members of Admiral Church – where the ANA meeting was held – summarized the church’s plan to partner with Operation Nightwatch to provide 10 men with a place to sleep. (Nothing new beyond what we’ve been reporting – here’s our most-recent story.) During discussion, Capt. Rivera mentioned that he had interacted with Nightwatch and described the organization as responsible and well-organized.
HERON’S NEST: As we reported separately, ANA heard from Amanda Lee of The Heron’s Nest, who announced they’d won a $900,000 city grant toward purchasing the West Duwamish Greenbelt site they plan to use for environmental education and repatriate to the Duwamish Tribe.
ELECTIONS: ANA elected next year’s officers at this meeting, including: Drew Sowa will continue as president; Larry Wymer will continue as vice president; Tina Bendermacher is the new secretary; (added) Bridgett Markillie is treasurer; Stephanie Jordan will continue on as concerts coordinator, in hopes ANA’s popular summer series at Hiawatha can return next summer.
QUESTIONS FOR ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION? Email admiralneighborhood@gmail.com. Next eeeting is in January, date TBA.
| 3 COMMENTS