West Seattle, Washington
08 Saturday
From the city’s traffic-alert list for the SODO area (you can sign up for the list from the bottom of this page):
Repaving 4th Ave S between S Royal Brougham Way and Airport Way S begins tonight, Monday, June 29, and will continue through the end of July. In order to minimize traffic interruptions, most work will occur during the evening hours between 6 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
This isn’t on the list of citywide road-closing events – and it’s not in West Seattle – but Admiral resident Dennis Ross suggested more of West Seattle’s 50+ residents might want to know about it, so here’s info he shared about a half-marathon walk around Lake Union this Sunday, part of Seattle Parks’ Sound Steps program, the Northwest Senior Games and Seafair:
Sunday, June 28th — 7:00 am arrival and registration, — 7:30 am walk
Event information: — 13.1 mile walk looping twice around Lake Union. Event includes water/snack stations, live music along the way, prizes and special athletic T-shirts (while supplies last). Invite your family and friends to walk with you or to cheer you on.
Contact Mari Becker — (206)-684-4554 or e-mail sound.steps@seattle.gov
Location: Start/Finish Gas Works Park on the north side of Lake Union, 2101 N. Northlake Way (map)
Sound Steps is a Seattle Parks and Recreation walking program for adults age 50+. The Sound Steps program includes ongoing weekly walking groups and special events for active older adults.
Northwest Senior Games represents five cities in King County that specialize in recreation and community services for adults 50+.
Just last night, we mentioned that West Seattle writer Georgie Bright Kunkel is planning another presentation involving her group of local “Rosie the Riveters.” Tonight – Georgie just sent something she wrote after the news of Michael Jackson‘s death (which hasn’t been WSB main-page fodder till now, but is being discussed in the WSB Forums and on the WSB Facebook page along with millions of other places on- and offline). Read on for Georgie’s unique remembrance (which explains the photo above):Read More
We know some folks off Alki noticed the search aircraft and vessels – so we wanted to note that we just got word from the U.S. Coast Guard, they’ve suspended the search for someone who may have disappeared from a Seattle-Bainbridge state ferry. The search started after the ferry arrived at Colman Dock with one car left on board, unclaimed, registered to a woman from Sequim; that was just after 4 this afternoon, and the search – with multiple agencies involved – was suspended about an hour ago.
That’s how Capitol Hill Seattle headlines its story about one of the demonstrations today in which a small hate group from out of town has been outnumbered in a big way by counterprotesters; see it here. “The forces of hate and anti-hate” is the description at Central District News; you can see CDN’s report here. The out-of-towners had promised multiple stops and you can check back with those two sites (main URLs hotlinked to their respective names) for continuing coverage through the day.
If you have an iPhone (or Android), the county Health Department has come up with an app(lication) you can add to it to have handy in case of emergency – apparently it’s been out for a while so you may have it already, but if not, read on for the newly issued reminder:Read More
An alert today from Sea-Tac Airport: Starting tomorrow, the “cell-phone lot” — the lot where you can wait for someone to call you when they’re ready to be picked up — is closing for a month. During that time, it’ll move to a new location, slightly north of the current one, with double the room. What to do in the meantime? Parking-options info is linked from this Port of Seattle news release about the change.
MargL noticed signs yesterday for a closure at Ambaum/120th (map) starting 6/15 and suggested we check it out, since it’s of potential interest to everyone who uses Ambaum between West Seattle/White Center and Burien (whether it’s for Trader Joe’s or something else). We now have details from King County, published on partner site White Center Now. (And while KCDOT suggests a detour, of course you can use Highway 509 to get to Burien too.)
(photo by Kurt Ricketts, added 12:15 am)
… it’s a publicity stunt for the new Microsoft search engine Bing. The Space Needle‘s supposedly lit up orange right now, along with the Pacific Science Center arches – but what you can see from almost anywhere, looking north (we just saw it while out on a walk here in Upper Fauntleroy), is a beam of light straight up into the sky alongside the Needle. Check out this webcam to see for yourself. 1:24 AM NOTE: Adding a second photo taken from West Seattle, this one courtesy of David Rosen from SlickPix Photography:
After spending most of the day at the Delridge Day festival, we haven’t been off the peninsula today, so we didn’t cover it in person, but Team Soapbox – a PR firm – sent the above photo of the health-care-reform march from Pratt Park to downtown earlier today. We know some West Seattleites were planning to take part; we previewed it in our coverage of the documentary screening and discussion at Fauntleroy Church (WSB sponsor) earlier this week. (West Seattle participants whom we’ve seen mention it on Facebook – where you can friend us as WS Blog – included King County Council Chair Dow Constantine and Brian Allen of Sustainable West Seattle.) More on the march’s purpose, and participants, at its official website, may30thmarch.org.
Girl Scouts of Western Washington asked if we could help spread the word on this, even though it’s not West Seattle-specific, since the camps start running next month. Scholarships of any kind are always big news, so check this out:
Girl Scouts of Western Washington is offering a scholarship to girls in grades K-12 who are daughters of disabled military personnel. This applies to girls with one parent who is disabled in some way and was or is currently serving in the military. This scholarship covers any of our camps – one or two week programs, day or resident camps. Girls needn’t be a Girl Scout to apply. You can find more details on our website: girlscoutsww.org/news/DisabledMilitaryScholarship
If you know someone who might be interested, please forward – remember that you can use the “Share This” link below any WSB post or page to forward a link in many ways, including e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and more.
Just in case you work (or commute through) downtown and hadn’t heard about this already – or if you hadn’t heard and might want to attend – we’re the downtown bureau today as we’ve already covered two stories here with West Seattle ties and there’s one more to go (if you participate in this event, by the way, please consider sending photos – editor@westseattleblog.com):
Up to 2,000 protesters are expected to demonstrate this afternoon (May 26) in response to the California Supreme Court ruling on the Proposition 8 issue. The event is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Westlake Park. Streets adjacent to Westlake Park—Fourth Avenue and Pine Street—may be affected.
Here’s a Google News link to the latest stories from around the country regarding today’s ruling (upholding California’s anti-marriage-equality ballot measure) and reaction to it.
At 7 o’clock this morning, the first attempt will be made to land the space shuttle Atlantis, piloted by West Seattle High School Class of ’72 alum Gregory Johnson, 11 days after its launch. The weather might be dicey; the shuttle has two “landing windows” this morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and if things don’t look good for either one, it won’t get to try again till tomorrow. Get the latest here. 11:38 AM UPDATE: Neither of today’s landing opportunities worked out, so NASA decided to try again tomorrow – 6:16 am our time is the first window.
WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is back from covering this afternoon’s rally at Pier 66, outside the EPA’s public hearing on whether to designate climate change as a threat to human health. His first photo shows some of the youngest delegates from West Seattle’s CoolMom chapter to attend; the CoolMom kids spent some time up on stage, and other West Seattleites were there, including a delegation from Sustainable West Seattle. Here’s an overview of the rally:
Among the speakers, Mayor Nickels:
The hearing is scheduled to continue until at least 8 pm; here’s how to listen to live audio. ADDED 5:08 PM: From the mayor’s office, his “written testimony” submitted during the hearing:Read More
SIGN: Amy reports a sign sighting on the Fauntleroy “overpass,” which would be the first one in a long time, since extra DON’T YOU DARE DO THAT-type signs went up … Unfortunately, she says the sign bears an unfriendly message we won’t repeat. Off to check it out as soon as we hit “publish” on this item. (Added later – Nope, it was gone.)
LINK #1: Remember the Cat’s Eye Cafe’ on Fauntleroy north of Lincoln Park, closed after a car hit it three years ago, now the Four Aims Center? Its former owner Julie Malcolm is in the street-food business up north, according to this Edmonds article about Here and There. Sounds a little bit like the Snohomish County version of Skillet
LINK #2: Husky football players visit Roxhill Elementary, and gohuskies.com tells the tale.
(January 2009 photo by C. Simmons)
You just might be hearing from West Seattleite Megan Lingafelter tomorrow — she’s starting a quest for donations to enhance a benefit auction to help a local music producer recover from a devastating loss during that huge fire alongside the Spokane Street Viaduct 4 months ago. (The photo above shows part of the burned wreckage, which was centered at Pacific Sheet Metal.) Read on to see the letter Megan is circulating:Read More
The photos are courtesy of WestSide Baby’s Nancy Woodland, who’s at IKEA in Renton right now for the car-seat safety event that her group is co-sponsoring till 1 pm – first photo, the cars lined up as it began an hour ago, photo below, the car seats that had been brought in for recycling. If you can make it to Renton and are interested, full details are in our original preview on partner site White Center Now.
VASHON PLAN: The link was sent around by the Regional Public Information Network tonight (you can subscribe to its as-needed updates at rpin.org), but since Vashon’s just a ferry ride away, we thought you’d be interested: Here’s the story of how the island’s fire department and volunteer preparedness group are joining forces.
COUNCIL BRIEFING TOMORROW: The Seattle City Council Environment, Emergency Management and Utilities Committee will get a swine-flu update from county health officials (among others) during a special meeting at 1:30 pm tomorrow. You’ll be able to watch live via Seattle Channel, cable 21 or online here.
Only one place in the area that we can find: USPS’s Riverton Station, 15250 32nd Ave. So., a few blocks east of the northeast end of Sea-Tac Airport (Google Street View above; map here).
A regional roundup from WSDOT, including I-5 slowdowns in the city as well as possible challenges elsewhere – if you’re hitting the road this weekend, read on:Read More
From Peg Nielsen at SDOT:
No details except that there is a report of a water main break at 6th Ave S and S Spokane St. Seattle Police are on the scene directing traffic. Avoid the area to avoid delay.
Any later updates, we’ll add to this item.
3:20 PM UPDATE: Just in from SDOT and SPU:
A watermain break in the vicinity of Sixth Avenue South and South Spokane Street this morning prevented traffic that was exiting from I-5 from turning right at Sixth Avenue South. The emergency work will pause by 3 p.m. today and all traffic movements will be restored during the peak period. Crews from Seattle Public Utilities plan to resume work at 10 p.m. this evening and work through the night. They plan to keep all lanes open to traffic tonight, if possible.
WSB’er Joe just e-mailed to ask if we would put up a photo of, and info about, a missing Lake Stevens woman who happens to be the mom of one of his co-workers. No known West Seattle tie but since Joe asked, absolutely. You may already have heard about this from citywide media – the website set up to help the search mentions stories done by TV stations and newspapers. Joe says maybe someone from here happened to be up at Stevens Pass last weekend and might have seen her. Connie Marie Koch is 62 years old and hasn’t been seen since Thursday.
From SDOT, shared in the interest of the many West Seattleites who drive through SODO:
Royal Brougham Way is now closed east and westbound between 4th Ave S and Occidental (map). The closure will continue through to late Saturday, April 4. A signed detour will guide motorists. Pedestrian access will be provided on S Royal Brougham Way. The closure is necessary so crews can relocate utilities and prepare for bridge pier construction for the SR 519 project
| 15 COMMENTS