West Seattle, Washington
05 Sunday
Just so you can’t say we didn’t give you the heads-up (more than a dozen of them, actually, going all the way back to first word six weeks ago): Tomorrow’s the day that the third of the city’s three “Car-Free Days” this summer will shut down Alki SW (and a bit of Harbor) to most traffic from Harbor/California Way to Alki/63rd (see map above, and click it to see the doorhanger from which it was taken), noon-6 pm. No-parking signs have been up since Thursday; 10 am tomorrow, two hours before the actual road closures, the no-parking rules take effect, from Maryland (map) to 63rd. We will be posting updates – with photos as well as info – from the area by then, watching to see whether anyone gets towed; then, as noon gets closer (as we did on the 4th of July) reporting on the street closures; and once noon arrives, we’ll post updates on the activities that are under way (here’s our preview) and how many people are actually down on Alki to participate (will it be the “ghost town” some predicted? in less than 15 hours, we’ll find out). More questions? Here’s our post from yesterday with the final official city advisory; here’s the city’s own information page about the event. Once things start kicking in around 10 am, if you have anything to report, please e-mail us, or text or tweet (see the Contact page for all the different options). P.S. We walked the Alki business district this afternoon looking for any evidence any businesses are closing tomorrow because they think it’ll be quiet (as had been hinted when this was first announced); found NO evidence – let us know, though, if you’ve heard of any, otherwise we’ll be checking on that again tomorrow too.
Sometimes when development issues come up, and a controversial change is described as “according to what’s in the neighborhood plan,” people say “Who made that plan, when, and why?” The plans (all linked here) were drawn up about a decade ago, in an intensive community-involved process. You can’t go back in time and change what was written into them then – BUT you can get involved now with the process that will lead to neighborhood-plan updates – next opportunity has just been announced, a public hearing before the City Council at City Hall next Monday night, 5:30 pm. Agenda here.
The bulk of tonight’s joint meeting of the Delridge and Southwest District Councils was devoted to an intensive briefing on where the Alaskan Way Viaduct projects stand now; we’ll be writing that up in the morning, but there are a couple quick notes to pass along tonight: First, the councils’ members voted unanimously to ask the Parks Department to make an exception to its park-naming policy so that a future West Seattle park can be named in honor of the late West Seattle Herald reporter Tim St. Clair — possibly the new park in Morgan Junction, where Mr. St. Clair lived prior to his untimely death six months ago. (Official Parks policy currently says that can’t be done till someone’s been gone three years.) Second, Nancy Driver from Fairmount Community Association provided another update at meeting’s end on the West Seattle Gateway cleanup coming up a week from Saturday: Volunteer power is stacking up nicely (thanks to all the WSB’ers who have signed up); what’s most needed now is $ donation to help pay for some tree work. DNDA is serving as the “fiscal agent” for the cleanup effort (which will beautify the “gateway” area along the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy. To find out more about how to donate, e-mail Nancy at ndriver@quidnunc.net.
We’re now 11 days away from West Seattle’s biggest community cleanup in a long time, after months of planning, and if you’re not already signed up, it’s not too late. If you’re just hearing about this now – the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup on Saturday 9/13 is targeting the “gateway” area at the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy — since the date was set in early June; today, we have another update from organizer Nancy Driver of the Fairmount Community Association, who says the cleanup now will extend to 3:30 pm:
The day of the event all volunteers should meet at the parking lot at the former Huling showroom at 4545 Fauntleroy (the location of the future Gateway Center). BlueStar Management has graciously allowed us to use the lot as our staging area. One section will be reserved for parking, however, we are strongly encouraging participants to arrive by foot, bus, bike or to carpool with other volunteers – remember this is a “green” event. We will have tents set up in another area with tables for checking in volunteers, handing out safety vests, dispensing water, coffee and light snacks. The mayor will be speaking under one of the tents.
Another important piece of information is that we have extended the project by a half hour to accommodate the mayor’s schedule. He is due to arrive at 9:00 and we understand he will speak for about 10 minutes around 9:30. Tom Rasmussen, City Councilmember, will also be on hand and may want to say a few words. We will actually start moving the volunteers in the first crew down to the site just before 9:30 – people in the 9:30 crew still need to arrive at least by 9:10 to get checked in. Volunteers in the second crew should arrive by 11:10 so we can be down at the site by 11:30; third crew should arrive at 1:10 in order to get to the cleanup site by 1:30. Volunteers must check in at the staging area first and get a safety vest. Volunteers who appear down at the site without a safety vest will not be allowed on to the cleanup site.
More updates to come! If you have questions or haven’t signed up yet to help but want to, e-mail Nancy at ndriver@quidnunc.net.
The new stoplight at Lanham/Morgan is still in test (blinking) mode, but there’s an update since we reported on the start of testing last week – when we passed by a short time ago, we noticed the barricades are gone and, for the first time in years, Lanham is open for drivers to get onto/off Morgan in High Point, at the intersection with Commons Park and the new Bridge Park retirement complex. (The photo was taken on Lanham, looking south across Morgan.) By the way, as posted at highpointneighborhood.org, the High Point Neighborhood Association‘s quarterly meeting is set for Commons Park a week from Thursday, 6 pm on September 11th.)
Two months after the sign went up, the doors are ready to open for the first of two years Chief Sealth High School will spend at the former Boren Junior High on Delridge – and now there’s word that Sealth is inviting the community to a tour and barbecue next Saturday, 11 am-2 pm. Address: 5950 Delridge; here’s a map.
Just posted on the High Point Neighborhood Association website – a call from the HP Green Living Committee for High Point residents who work downtown to commute together via the Elliott Bay Water Taxi next Wednesday, and maybe weekly after that if it works out. (The EBWT season continues through 10/31.) To get in on this, start here.
We’ll be posting a few updates from tonight’s South Delridge/White Center Community Safety meeting, both here and at partner site White Center Now; because of the area covered by that meeting, law enforcers from both the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct and the King County Sheriff’s Office attend. One major update tonight came from SW Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen: He says the Community Police Team officers (meet them here) will be back to normal duties “next week.” You may recall, the precinct’s been dealing with personnel challenges mostly caused by officer injuries, and Lt. Paulsen announced in late July that the CPT officers would have to move to patrol duty, though they would continue to work in their usual areas; he said at the time that this situation was likely to last “a month to a month and a half,” and it’ll be right in that time frame when they return to normal duties next week.
Just back from the Highland Park Action Committee meeting, which for the first time in months spent less time on the jail-sites fight than on other matters – not because they’re letting up, but because, as HPAC chair Dorsol Plants noted, the city’s part of the process is in a sort of lull: Now that the city is exploring a partnership with north-/east-side cities to find a site for a regional jail (as first reported here in early July), instead of simply pursuing its own site, Seattle has to wait for those cities to “catch up” and propose potential misdemeanor-jail sites to add to the list (if you’re just catching up with this, in early May Seattle identified
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
The Highland Park Action Committee, leading the fight against two potential city-jail sites in West Seattle, has its next meeting tonight, 7 pm, at 1116 SW Holden (map).
West Seattle’s biggest community cleanup in a long time is exactly three weeks from today, and if you’re not already signed up, there’s still room for you to prepare to pitch in. We’ve been telling you about this — targeting the “gateway” area at the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy — since the date was set in early June; today, we have the latest information from organizer Nancy Driver of the Fairmount Community Association:
First of all, thanks to the many volunteers who e-mailed since the last update and signed up for the cleanup – the community response has been great so far. Mars Hill Church (West Seattle campus) has joined us as a co-sponsor – they will be recruiting more volunteers, distributing flyers and assisting with other organizational tasks – we are glad to have their help. Dixie Dokken, a former Executive Director of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, is now helping us with fundraising, as are Catherine Barker (also recruiting volunteers) and Sharonn Meeks (Fairmount Community Association). We are very glad to have their help because we have a long way to go to pull together all the money to cover the tree work that needs to be done.
We’ve been asked about who will make the decisions on the tree work and who decides which shrubbery might be removed. The cleanup area is a public right-of-way and SDOT (Urban Forestry) has the say so on whether any trees or shrubs are removed. SDOT requires that the tree company be a licensed, certified arborist and will supervise the company that does the tree work.
We are looking for four to five groups and/or businesses that are willing to “adopt†a portion of the clean up area so that it can be maintained in the future. It would be similar to commitment under the “Adopt-A-Street†program. If you are a member of a group or work for a business that might be interested in making this commitment to the community, please contact me at ndriver@quidnunc.net or Stan Lock at Stan.Lock@Seattle.gov
We’ll have another update for everyone next Saturday with all the details about where to meet for the cleanup and details on when and how to check in. Thanks again to everyone in the community who is supporting this effort.
Nancy/Fairmount Community Association
To see the latest version of the official flyer for the September 13th cleanup, click here.
FANNA, the group proposing a “play area” and/or expanded “beautification” in the area of California Place, the Admiral District mini-park shown above, just got word of city grant approval – here’s how it was announced on the official mailing list:
We’ve just received word from the Department of Neighborhoods that our application for funds to plan improvements at California Place Park has been approved! We’ve been awarded $15K to hire a landscape architect to help take us through the planning process. Along with our letter was a personally written note from Mayor Greg Nickels who said, “As a neighbor, I’m looking forward to seeing your project!”
Next steps are to align with our Project Manager at the Dept of Neighborhoods and our representative at the Parks Department to define scope and refine our work plan.
That’s the second West Seattle park/play project in less than 15 hours to get word of a $15K grant — we told you last night about the approval for the Cottage Grove Park “tot lot.”
Tension last night as the Admiral residents proposing a “play area” for the California Place mini-park faced vocal opponents who live nearby. Project organizers, meantime, stress that it’s extremely early in the process, while revealing a new possibility has emerged — “beautification” beyond the park. More on that, and last night’s meeting, just ahead:Read More
Got a tip that the tree-trimming had finally commenced at the Alki “Flower Houses” (original coverage here). Got there just moments after the trimmers left. Owner Randie Stone was there but declined to comment, citing legal advice. Photo momentarily. 1:25 PM UPDATE: Here’s one of the angles we shot today – we don’t have an exact comparison in the “before” photos:
Here’s another photo from today, followed by one of the two we received at the time of the original report. On getting a report of tree-trimming in action, we rushed out so fast there wasn’t time to revisit the original story so that we’d be sure to shoot the EXACT same angle, but we’re hoping to be back out that way a little later today.
(that’s another WSB photo taken today)
(that’s a July photo from Alma Taylor-Smyth, who lives in one of the “flower houses”)
Sometime in the next few hours, it’s more than likely someone in Pigeon Point — atop the ridge that represents northeasternmost West Seattle — will wake up to the blast of a train horn, or more than one, from activity along that stretch of track, roughly Harbor Island to Harbor Ave. Tonight, more than 20 concerned neighbors joined government reps in a cozy City Hall meeting room — more people than you see sometimes in meetings about West Seattle issues that are held IN West Seattle — to try to figure out where to start on a complicated journey toward relief. When we first told you about their effort last week, many comments of disbelief came in, but if you had been in that meeting tonight, and listened to the desperation in some of those voices, you’d know the problem is very real, and some of them are at wit’s end — funny what sleep deprivation can do to you. Ahead, what they said, what they heard, and what happens next:Read More
Reminders about two events we’ve previewed here in recent days, both happening today/tonight: Supporters of the city’s upcoming disposable-bag fee plan to show their support for it by gathering at Thriftway in Morgan Junction between 3-5 pm (read previous coverage here); West Seattle residents concerned about train noise from Harbor Island and vicinity will meet with city and port officials at City Hall downtown, 5:30 pm (previous coverage here). Organizers of both events told us anyone interested in those issues is welcome to join in.
That’s the $13 million High Point Neighborhood Center that should be up and running by fall of next year; an unconventional “groundbreaking” ceremony and community celebration on Saturday moved the project to its next stage, even as fundraising continues (leaders from the parent agency, Neighborhood House, revealed that $10.6 million of that money already is in hand). One speaker had a slip of the tongue and almost called the event a “groundbaking,” appropriate enough given the sizzling midday heat at the Commons Park Amphitheater, where ceremony attendees were summoned with the rhythms of African group Naby Camara:
(video no longer available because of blip.tv shutdown)
The actual groundbreaking itself didn’t involve the traditional dignitaries with shovels; instead, it involved stones, handed out to attendees beforehand, with pens, for them to inscribe the stones with their hope/dream for Neighborhood Center. See how that worked – and hear short highlights from many of the speakers — just ahead:Read More
That’s the overgrown and undermaintained “Gateway to West Seattle,” along the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge. Just a month is left now till the September 13th event that pretty much needs to be the volunteer effort of the century to get this cleaned up — all the way from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy — and all you have to do is commit two hours to be part of it – but organizers REALLY need to hear from you NOW. Here’s the latest from Nancy Driver, who’s not only coordinating volunteer help but also the massive preparation work that’s going into maximizing what those volunteers will be able to do that day (with free coffee! snacks! warm feeling of having accomplished something!) as well as soliciting sponsors for some of the costs the city doesn’t cover (like blackberry-munching goats!):
Stan Lock and I met this morning with the City of Seattle’s Clean & Green Interdepartmental team and did a reconnaissance of the cleanup area. The plan is that the City (SDOT) will be trimming up the bottoms of the trees so that Wa. Dept of Corrections can get in and clear out underbrush under the trees. The City will also be blocking off the lane of traffic adjacent to the clean up site for the 6 hours of the cleanup. Additionally, the City is providing three trucks to haul off green debris and bagged litter, as well as providing rakes and garbage bags.
The City is firmly behind the project and has made a substantial commitment to the project but it’s a huge area to clean up and they can’t provide all the resources to do everything that needs to be done to do a complete cleanup. The community needs to show its support, not only through volunteering the day of the project but by donating funding to get the additional needed work done. There’s probably a half acre or more of blackberries to contend with so we hope to raise money to get in a herd of goats for two to three days to clean out the blackberries. This will cost $825 per day. We are also hoping to raise money to have a tree company come in and finish trimming up the trees and take out any trees that need to be removed. There is substantial tree work that needs to be done and based on the estimates received, this will cost around $10,000 to $12,000. We hope that West Seattle merchants and companies developing properties in West Seattle will step forward to cover the costs for this work. Of course, we would welcome donations from individuals too.
Beyond the actual cleanup, we also need local groups and businesses to step up and “adopt” a portion of the gateway area. The City wants to know that once we get this area cleaned up, it will be maintained. Adopting a portion of the area would mean a commitment similar to one you’d have with the “Adopt a Street” program.
We need to pull together 200 or more volunteers for the cleanup day to donate 2 hours of their time. We will need groups of volunteers of 60 to 70 at two-hour intervals starting at 9 am. Volunteers will be asked to do some hand weeding, rake up green debris and pick up and bag litter. Tools and safety vests will be provided by the City, and gloves have been donated by the West Seattle Garden Tour Committee. Diva Espresso is providing coffee and we are talking to other merchants to chip in with some light snacks.
Some of the groups that have committed to pulling together teams of volunteers are: Mars Hill Church, Karen Lavalle/Windermere Realty, West Seattle Garden Tour, Democrats Work, and Harbor Properties.
Because this is such a big undertaking, we have to be well organized on the day of the cleanup to get everything done. This means we need to line up as many volunteers as possible prior to the cleanup (the earlier the better) so that we can have more or less equal numbers of volunteers showing up for the 9 am group, the 11 am group and the 1 pm group.
Anyone interested in volunteering, helping pull together volunteers, or helping with fundraising should contact me at ndriver@quidnunc.net.
Thanks to all who have already volunteered.
Nancy Driver/Fairmount Community Association
From Admiral to Pigeon Point, some West Seattle residents say train noise is getting worse, and – as first discussed in this WSB Forums thread – they are ready to figure out how to put some limits on it. 
Not to stop the trains — as Liz Hardy explains, “Many people are affected by this noise because we have found that the bulk of the train traffic is at night and early morning. While we all understand that this is an industrial area and we do not expect (or want) the train traffic to stop, this is also a residential area and something needs to be done to mitigate the effect that the train noise is having on the surrounding neighborhoods.” As the West Seattle Train Noise Action Committee, they are now working to establish a federal “quiet zone” (explained here) in the area around the Port and Harbor Island. They’re hoping you can come to their first meeting, even though it’s downtown – they’ve booked West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, plus SDOT and Port of Seattle reps too – is Monday, at City Hall downtown for various reasons, and they are hoping for a big turnout – if you are concerned about train noise, be there: 5:30 pm Monday 8/18, Sam Smith Conference Room on the 2nd floor at City Hall (600 4th Ave.; here’s a map).
The second Tuesday of every month is usually a very busy night, with up to four major neighborhood associations/councils in West Seattle holding their monthly meetings. This month, all but one are on hiatus — the one that WILL meet tomorrow night is the Westwood Neighborhood Council. They are expecting two high-profile guests: city parks superintendent Tim Gallagher and West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist. WNC has been focused on the Denny/Sealth school project for quite some time and now is laser-focused on what will happen with Denny’s current site, once the school moves to its new spot on the Sealth campus. Here’s the Westwood vision for that site’s possible future; as we mentioned the other day, citizen involvement is being solicited now for both the school district’s “design team” for the site and for a committee that will hold hearings on code “departures” for the Denny/Sealth project. The WNC invites you to join its meeting at 7 pm tomorrow night, Southwest Precinct meeting room (Delridge/Webster).
The Highland Park Improvement Club (NOT the same as the HP Action Committee, though HPAC meets at the HPIC’ historic facility) is having its big annual rummage sale right now, 12th/Holden, under way till 3 pm. (If you live in the area, you can also join in its potluck starting at 1 pm, but everyone’s welcome to come browse/shop!) HPIC, by the way, is the oldest community club in Seattle – founded in 1919, which is why its web address is hpic1919.org. We stopped by the sale site a little while ago to get some pix and found one that already had a story behind it, two hours into the sale:
Becca told us a man asked her how much she’d sell the bear hat for. She said, three bucks. He said, here’s five – gave her the money – and said “Just keep wearing the hat.” So who knows what you might find there; tere’s a map to the sale’s location.
Thanks to Kate for e-mailing to share news of a project that’s about to begin in the area on the map above:
I have received a “Bridging the Gap” door flyer from SDOT announcing that it will start construction this Monday, August 11, of a paved walkway on the north side of SW Forest Street from Walnut (Hiawatha Park) to Fairmount (top of Fairmount Ravine) to 39th SW. Here is the flyer’s text …:
– Location of work: SW Forest Street between Walnut Ave. SW and 39th Ave. SW
– Beginning on August 11, 2008, our crews will be working to install a new walkway with a concrete curb in your neighborhood.
– We will be placing temporary no parking signs in various areas.
– This project should be completed within 2 weeks, weather permitting.
– If you have any questions or concerns please call the asphalt paving crew chief at 206-233-2512.
– Thank you for your patience and understanding during our construction phase.
Kate also sent along the attached specs for what’s being built; click here to see them. It’s a $70,000 project, according to this city document (page 14).
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