(First two photos courtesy Fairmount Ravine neighbors)

Back on Thursday, we previewed the 26th annual Fairmount Ravine cleanup, and neighbors’ plans to hold the city accountable for taking care of the publicly owned greenspace and right-of-way. Above are the volunteers who showed up to pitch in on Saturday, including Matt Algieri, who tells us how it went:

15 interested area residents each donated three hours of their time, cutting ivy from trees, cleaning Admiral Way Bridge sidewalks and removing garbage and debris from under the bridge.

There was a lot of garbage under the East side of the bridge, more than we anticipated. That generated most of the 40 bags of garbage collected and shown in the pictures.

Many ravine trees had ivy removed, ensuring their health and vitality, and both bridge sidewalks are now clean and clear. 15 people working three hours gets a lot of work done!

One note, Seattle Public Utilities sent a crew at 8:30 AM Saturday morning, the start time of Ravine cleanup, to paint over graffiti under the bridge. Yes, 8:30 am, the Saturday before Easter. John Lang asked a person, who we believe was the crew supervisor, about the crew’s work and timing of the work order for this work, and did not get a specific answer. In any case, we worked around the crew and experienced no problems.

Overall the event was a great success. The next step is obtaining Seattle City ownership removing garbage and debris under the bridge.

Here are links to our coverage from past years – 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.

Two big topics on the agenda for last night’s Alki Community Council meeting, and we have video of both. First – the week’s second discussion of Sub Pop Records‘ August 11th Alki Beach 30th-anniversary megaparty:

“We’re really excited,” declared Sub Pop CEO Megan Jasper as she led the briefing and discussion, as she had at the Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting two nights earlier. Most of the details were the same – as reported in WSB coverage that night – but we heard a few other details, as well as Alki residents’ questions:

Read More

As previewed last week, Sub Pop Records is visiting two community councils in West Seattle this week to talk about its big 30th anniversary party at Alki on August 11th (first announced here in January).

First up – tonight’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting, where Sound Transit light rail and a for-sale greenbelt were discussed too, but Sub Pop’s party was the big story. Lots of new information:

Megan Jasper, CEO of Sub Pop, led the briefing. “We live here,” she said, noting that – as mentioned in the original announcement – many Sub Pop employees and managers live in West Seattle and want to do their best to make this an event their own neighborhood can be proud of.

The band lineup is currently planned to be unveiled May 29th. Now that we have that question answered, about the crowd estimate:

Read More

Case of theft, or delivery to the wrong address? Amy posted in the WSB Forums that she is hoping the manila envelope USPS says was delivered to her residence really turned up somewhere else instead, so if you by some chance haven’t looked at your Saturday postal mail … take a look when you can, and if you got her envelope, the post includes her contact info (or – in this case or any other time you get someone else’s mail – you can drop it back in a mailbox with a note attached “wrong address”).

(WSB photo from Station 32’s open house last November)

This Saturday is Neighbor Day around the city – and one of the most popular aspects is the chance to visit local fire stations during Neighbor Day open houses. They’re not all open for the occasion but here are the ones on the list this time – 11 am-1 pm Saturday (February 10th) – in West Seattle:

-Fire Station 11 in Highland Park (16th/Holden)
-Fire Station 29 in North Admiral (2139 Ferry SW)
-Fire Station 32 in The Triangle (38th/Alaska)
-Fire Station 37 in Sunrise Heights (35th/Holden)

More about Neighbor Day as the week goes on!

P.S. Though the list on the city website does not include Station 32 right now, we doublechecked with SFD and they say the new station WILL have an open house too.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

When a meeting room at the Sisson Building/Senior Center filled to overflowing last night for the Junction Neighborhood Organization‘s quarterly meeting, the biggest news was already a couple hours old – SDOT‘s announcement that the Fauntleroy Boulevard project is on hold.

For those who hadn’t already heard, JuNO director Amanda Sawyer recapped it at the start of the meeting. (SDOT did not send reps to talk about it, as had been the original plan before the suspension was announced.) She and West Seattle Junction Association executive director Lora Swift both stressed that since SDOT is saying it will reallocate the project funds – last described as $15 million to $18 million – to other WS projects, feedback to Councilmember Lisa Herbold is important. (Send yours to lisa.herbold@seattle.gov.)

So that left the meeting devoted to two other big topics affecting The Junction – the HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability upzoning proposal that has just gone into City Council review, and Sound Transit planning for West Seattle light rail, which is just starting its formal community-outreach process.

Read More

Toplines from last night’s Alki Community Council meeting:

(WSB photo, December 2017)

59TH/ADMIRAL: The ACC discussed the intersection as a followup to recent changes made by SDOT as part of the ongoing Admiral Way Safety Project, as well as advocacy by the Traffic Safety Task Force set up by parents at nearby Alki Elementary. A key point of discussion was getting a full traffic signal – which the parents want – versus keeping the pedestrian-activated light on Admiral and stop signs on 59th. ACC president Tony Fragada will ask that the SDOT project manager come to their next meeting; he’s also hoping to talk with West Seattle-residing at-large City Councilmember Lorena González, who chairs the committee that oversees safety.

NOISE ENFORCEMENT: Jesse Robbins, who initiated the project that eventually led to Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s survey showing a high level of vehicle-noise concerns in the area, was back to visit (backstory is in our coverage of November’s ACC meeting). As previously reported, he and colleagues are working on a potential technology solution to the challenges that police say get in the way of enforcing noise laws (needing to hear/record/prove the violation, for example). He said they’ll be testing at an Eastside park twice in the next two weeks. Meantime, as previously reported, SPD is under orders to report to the City Council in March about enforcement-related issues; Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Ron Smith said those contributing to the report include the City Attorney’s Office, regarding the state of noise laws and how they could be amended, and financially focused personnel to look at how the issue might be addressed in the SPD budget. Robbins says they would like to run a test at Alki this summer, but that depends on how the SPD report turns out.

CRIME TRENDS: Nothing of note to report so far since the start of the year, Lt. Smith said, but 2017 did bring a bigger reduction in crime in the Southwest Precinct than other precincts in the city, he said. (You can crunch crime numbers from neighborhood level to citywide level any time by going here.)

MORE ALKI SIGNAGE? This was a community-member-led discussion on whether Alki might benefit from more signs, whether to remind people about the laws prohibiting dogs on the beach or to educate people about birds in the area (similar to The Whale Trail and Seal Sitters signage about marine mammals). Department of Neighborhoods rep Yun Pitre suggested this could be proposed for funding via the Your Voice, Your Choice process that’s under way now. The ACC will look into having a Seattle Parks rep come to a future meeting to discuss not only signage but also chronic issues with trash pickup at the beach.

The Alki Community Council meets on the third Thursday most months, 7 pm at Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds).

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The lower-level meeting room at The Kenney was full for tonight’s Morgan Community Association meeting, and everybody there had the chance to vote on some big decisions – including spending thousands of dollars:

MORGAN NEIGHBORHOOD FUND: MoCA has no dues but does have this fund that resulted from the settlement of the neighborhood appeal of the project that became the Viridian Apartments. In settling the appeal, its developers agreed to donate $25,000 to MoCA, though the organization was not a party to the appeal. MoCA has never done anything with the money, but now has two applications for a share of it.

Vice president Phil Tavel presented the applications – one for restoring and protecting the mural behind the California/Fauntleroy Starbucks/Peel & Press/etc. building.

(WSB file photo)
P&P (WSB sponsor) proprietor Dan Austin has been exploring the project for 2+ years; the family that owns the building has committed some money, and told Austin they have no plans to sell the building. The family says it’ll contribute $3,000; the total cost, Austin says, would be about $10,000 – $8,500 with a discount the artist has offered – and he’s applied for $5,000 from the fund.

The other proposal to spend some of the money was for contributing to the HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability Final Environmental Impact Statement citywide-coalition appeal, which MoCA and dozens of other community groups around the city are supporting. The coalition has raised about $15,000 so far; MoCA is proposing contributing $5,000 from the fund.

Read More

City Councilmember Lisa Herbold is the latest addition to the agenda for the Morgan Community Association‘s quarterly meeting Wednesday night (January 17th). She’s scheduled for a briefing on District 1 (West Seattle/South Park) issues close to the start of the 7 pm meeting. MoCA also plans a discussion of HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability upzoning – it’s one of 30+ groups citywide appealing the Final Environmental Impact Statement – and potential changes to the city Comprehensive Plan addressing how it conflicts with the longstanding Morgan neighborhood plan. Plus, Seattle Parks is scheduled to update the Lowman Beach Park seawall situation, seven months after a public meeting about the options for replacing it (or not), and one month after releasing this feasibility study:

Wednesday’s meeting is at The Kenney (7125 Fauntleroy Way SW). The full updated agenda is in our calendar listing.