West Seattle, Washington
05 Wednesday
The goal is the same — momentum toward a breast-cancer cure — but the Race for the Cure and the 3-Day Walk are very different, even to watch. The former is an intense, relatively brief crowd event; the latter, we learned along Lincoln Park and Beach Drive and Alki Ave this morning, is no giant throng with the hundreds of walkers passing at once, but instead a steady stream, sometimes one by one:
Emotions run high — watching the 3-Dayers while shadowing them for a few miles from the other side of the street brought us to tears at times, perhaps intensified by the fact we both lost our moms to cancer — but that includes joyful emotions; the 3-Day clearly is boisterous and celebratory, as were the people who could be found all along the route this morning, cheering the walkers from the sidewalk (or honking from the street):
Along Alki Ave’s Condo Row, signs and pink ribbons cropped up on balconies:
And all along the shore, the walkers streamed on by:
By 10 am, while the fastest/earliest walkers were out of West Seattle and headed for this afternoon’s ceremonies at Seattle Center, the last group members were still walking along Beach Drive, just past the whimsically decorated rest stop set up at Me-Kwa-Mooks:
Before a few final pictures … a reminder why this matters.
The breast-cancer-fighting 3-Day Walk participants continue streaming northbound alongside Lincoln Park and down Lincoln Park Way toward Beach Drive. First photo below shows an unofficial “cheering station” at Fauntleroy/LP Way, across from the 76 station, with two women greeting the walkers (one seated, left, the other standing in bright blue shirt; they had a music player blasting the inspirational theme from “Rocky”!)
The entire route is not publicly released, but from some sightings around WS tonight, you can put together the path the 3-Day walkers will be taking starting early tomorrow morning. Once they are bused from where they’re camping tonight, it looks like they’ll start at Lincoln Park, where we found this line of temporary relief stations in the south parking lot:
The route from there appears to go along Fauntleroy, then down to Beach Drive and around to Alki, where, as we’ve mentioned previously, an “official cheering station” will be set up in the 1700 block of Alki Ave from 7:40 till 10:15 am. The walkers then proceed toward downtown, where the 3Day ends with ceremonies at Seattle Center. We thought the route from Alki was probably the obvious path along the low bridge, but one e-mail tonight reports another line of Honey Buckets at the park at 26th/Genesee so sounds like there’s a detour along the way — drivers in the morning, please be extra cautious and watch out for this big event on our WS roads.
The north side of the big parking lot at the future site of Fauntleroy Place has turned into a pay lot. We asked Blue Star Management, which is developing FP, what’s up. Company rep Eric Radovich wrote back, “Having Diamond Parking manage the north side of the big parking lot greatly reduces our liability on the site. This also cleared out the Gee Motors vehicles that had been parking on the site without permission. The fee to park in the Diamond lot in the evening is just $2. There is still plenty of free parking for patrons of Schuck’s Auto Supply and Hancock Fabrics on the south end of the lot.” We also asked Eric about the FP retail status, given that we are frequently pinged about rumors of changes in megaprojects including that one; he says NO CHANGE – it’s still on for a 47,000-sf Whole Foods store and a 14,000-sf Hancock Fabrics store, and it now looks like demolition/groundbreaking should start next March/April.
After a couple days’ closure without signage or explanation, the sign shown below is now on the door @ Tervo’s Mini-Mart (4415 Fauntleroy). Several people e-mailed us after seeing police, fire, and medical examiner vehicles there on Labor Day afternoon, worried there had been a crime of some sort. Today we found out what happened: Police say a 48-year-old man died in the store, apparently suicide. Our condolences to that man’s family; it’s always important to mention that the Seattle Crisis Clinic has a 24-hour suicide-prevention line at 461-3222.
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From Admiral Junction to Morgan Junction on foot, much to be seen. Including:
-Dangerous driving at Cali/Genesee and Cali/Fauntleroy. At the former, a car turning right/north onto Cali (by Divina) almost took out a bicyclist that the driver would have seen with a good look south before the turn. The bicyclist shouted indignantly for a while, the driver paused, then both finally continued on. At the latter — a car almost took us out, turning right/west onto Fauntleroy (by the Corner Inn) as we stepped into the crosswalk. We’re not much for shouting so we just glowered.
-Banner up for a new business in the mixed-use building at 5446 Cali: “On the Way Maternity.” According to its city business-license classification, it’ll sell clothing. Doesn’t look too close to opening; various renovations are under way inside.
-In The Junction, the former Hollywood Video etc./future megaproject site along Alaska now has a “coming soon/Office Depot” banner on the fence. (Why not “coming soon/QFC” too?)
Sunset photo #1 hot out of the inbox, courtesy of WSB reader “K” (thank you!!!!):
Sunset photo #2 is one we shot from Golden Gardens tonight (heresy! we left WS! attempt at relevant linkage, below the pic):
Driving through Ballard on the way to GG, we mused that Ballard and WS really should be “sister neighborhoods” — lots in common, from condoization, to maritime history/ongoing industry, to the status as home to the city’s two most popular public beaches, and much more. As if to put an exclamation point on that thought, a sign caught our eye in a Ballard business window, triggering a not-so-long-ago WS memory: Ben & Jerry’s on Market has just closed. While we’re not sure about that (ex-)shop’s current ownership, we do know the former B&J’s in The Junction was owned by the people who (at least at the time) owned the one in Ballard. One other interesting sighting during our brief invasion of the north end tonight: This lovely charter yacht ($70K/week!) moored at Shilshole.
WSB reader Val sent the two photos below from 35th & Holden, where the end seems near for a nondescript little house that’s on part of the land where the city will build the new Fire Station 37 to replace the historic building 4 blocks north (the substation next door is on the other part of the land and is going away too).
From Val’s e-mail:
This house was remodeled a few years ago after being vacant for a while (before the remodel, it inexplicably had two front doors) and obviously wasn’t anything special, but I hate to see a loss of housing anywhere. I believe there is a new fire station going in to these two lots, and unlike in Queen Anne, there was no public outcry about the loss of historic housing in the neighborhood. I suppose it is too much to ask to hope that the house is being moved somewhere instead of being trashed … Plus, I’d like to see the old fire station become a local (British for nearby bar). There’s really nothing along 35th, and the E-9 in Tacoma has been doing great business for years.
From the past few hours … first, a mysterious morning beach fire on Alki:
Next, the intrepid early-morning fishing denizens along Seacrest:
And from The Junction … the sun-dappled breakfast crowd @ Easy Street Cafe (tomorrow by the way, we plan a post asking everyone for their WS food favorites … we love ES and a few other spots but recently discovered Skylark brunch and want to dish about that too … ES and Skylark are among the places where you can even order lunch for b’fast!):
2:05 am, blurry but you get the idea. Very easy to see if you look high in the SW sky:
ADDED PHOTOS, 2:40 AM: Views of the moon, pre-eclipse, taken last night by Shelby Stenson from the Kingston-Edmonds ferry, forwarded by WSB reader Jan:
One is a sound, one involves wildlife, both were sent in by WSB readers wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar, or better yet, has relevant info.Read More
Two beautiful sights, both from Lowman Beach: Most recently, that’s where we happened to be when we spotted fireworks across the Sound, over Bainbridge (visible no doubt to anyone with a north- or west-facing West Seattle water view). Turns out the fireworks were part of the Town & Country Market 50th anniversary party. Earlier, here’s tonight’s sunset scene from Lowman, in a photo sent by Maria Esztergalyos (thank you!):
(PHOTOS ADDED BELOW @ 7:45 PM) WSB reader Venkat sends along the story of someone whose erratic drive up and down the Gatewood Hill stretch of Cali apparently didn’t go too well:
We were having coffee at Ladro when we saw a car with a flat tire driving along. Didn’t think anything of it, and about 2 minutes later saw sirens going the opposite direction. About 10 minutes later, after finishing up coffee, we saw police cars towards the Thriftway, when we took a look, sure enough it was the flat tire car, with the driver in the back of the police car (i.e., in custody).
When we were headed back home, up California (towards Thistle) we saw a sign had been knocked down. I thought I saw a wheel mark on the lawn of the sidewalk. We talked to some of the neighbors and someone drove their car around 70 mph, up the sidewalk, knocked over a street sign, crashed into a generator, and drove off down to Ladro (where we saw the car).
I think no injuries were sustained (except for the transformer, and someone’s railing and front yard) but it was an odd incident.
7:45 PM UPDATE: Finally found the spot after our second drive-by along the hill. Note in the second photo, the offending vehicle left something telltale behind.
We noticed it while out walking in our Upper Fauntleroy hood a little while ago, and some readers wrote us that they saw it too: this mysterious white plane doing low circles over WS. We tried calling the FAA to find out what they knew; their 866-TELL-FAA hotline was amazingly unhelpful, and when we finally found a local number, they were closed, with a recording “leave a message.” Here’s hoping it’s nothing to worry about. We would speculate the dark object hanging off the side might be a camera, though we thought more aerial photography is done with helicopters than planes. Any enlightenment welcome. 9:45 PM SEMI-UPDATE: We think we at least know whose plane it was; an e-mail tip says a call to 911 yielded a mention that a State Patrol plane was in the area — this article about those planes mentions the camera mounted in a “black bubble” on the side.
From the Luna Park/Java Bean land of the former crosswalk (below left), we now have pedestrian flags (reader photo – thanks! – below right):
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… there’s a sign on Cali prominently advertising “adult” merchandise.
We noticed the new “adult DVDs” addition to the sign at the Short Stop market on the north edge of Morgan Junction several days ago and felt a little hinky about it, but then thought, nah, we’re just prudes. A day later, we got reader e-mail voicing concern, and we decided it’s worth raising the question here. The reader wrote, in part:
It’s lit up and elevated up on a big pole, which is unfortunate for the neighborhood. What’s next, strip clubs? Now when my family comes to visit, I’ll have to tell them “Take a right at the Adult DVD store.”ÂÂ
Now, in fairness, this sign is not exactly next to a school or day-care center. Chuck & Sally’s Tavern is the second building to the north, Beveridge Place Pub is the next one south. But it is next to the site of a future park, and smack in the middle of a neighborhood in transition — with a big condo conversion and future townhomes also steps away. So what do you think? “Unfortunate,” as the reader wrote? Or no big deal?
Within just a few minutes’ time — the view westward from Alki Avenue; the view south from Constellation Park:
Cool crowd, both hosts and visitors, at the police department’s annual Picnic at the Precinct this afternoon. As big and busy as WS is, it’s hard to believe we didn’t get our own police precinct till 2003. It’s a lovely building, but today (before the rain moved in) most of the fun was out in the street on the building’s south side; they shut down Webster for the occasion. Our first photo here is a great crowd shot sent in by WSB reader LyndaB:
(Thanks, LyndaB!) From here, photos are by the WSB team. Besides meeting-and-greeting, the police showed off some of their arsenal, including this robot:
Next — a closeup of the robot, Chief Kerlikowske in casual wear, one of the SPD vehicles you don’t see every day, and more:Read More
Photos below from tonight’s Alki community picnic @ the playfield — barbecue and bouncing, what more could you ask for on a nice night like this? Tomorrow afternoon, another picnic to which all of West Seattle is invited: It’s at the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct next to Home Depot, and besides picnicking with your protectors, you also will get a chance to tour the precinct — 1-4 pm tomorrow.
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The harbor-seal pup that’s been hanging out on Alki now has its own protection zone, with yellow (crime scene type) tape blocking off a section of beach by the Bathhouse. We caught a photo just before the seal went for a noontime swim, with the help of zoom – since as we all need to remember, it’s important to KEEP YOUR DISTANCE …
Updates on two sites we last mentioned two months ago, both with pix. First set, the doomed south Beach Drive trees. Left photo below is from June; right photo from this weekend, when we noticed the chopping had begun:
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Next set, Erskine & Dawson, the former “Thor’s Towing” property, soon a new home. Old structures seen in June at left; right photo is courtesy of WSB reader Luckie (in the week since she took it, construction has begun):
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We talked about it here and here. And as for West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician himself, looks like he’s keeping the promise — this just out of the WSB inbox:
Just spotted the mayor at Zatz Bagels. Guess he was serious about working from home.
We didn’t go to Westwood Village tonight in search of our semi-traditional Sunday sunset photo, much less infobits, but we found both …
The WV infobits: #1, West Seattle bestselling author Terry Brooks is coming back to the WV Barnes & Noble, August 28th @ 6:30 pm, almost a year after his last stop there; #2, the Pet Pros store in the old laundromat spot next to QFC is now open.
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