West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Ready to act on that call to action? Get involved with your nearest neighborhood council/association (we have a list in the right sidebar, for those that have webpages). First chance, 6:30 tonight, Delridge Library: Monthly meeting of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council. (And this Saturday, they could use your help too – it’s the periodic Adopt-A-Street cleanup for North Delridge; meet at Delridge Community Center, 10 am.) Next chance – 6:30 pm tomorrow night, the Fairmount Community Association (their turf is just south of the Triangle area, to around Providence Mount St. Vincent — aka “The Mount” — and vicinity), meeting at The Mount’s chapel with Triangle development updates on the agenda (reps from Harbor Properties and BlueStar are expected) and more. ADDED 4:09 PM: Another group with a meeting tomorrow is hoping you’ll come join in – this is out of the WSB inbox:
“We would like to remind the community of our meeting tomorrow 6-8 pm at Hiawatha
Community Center. Please come and share your ideas and explore the possibilities to make California Place Park a space for all to enjoy! Families are welcome! We will have a table with activities for the kids and light snacks as well. Hope to see you there!”
Ann Limbaugh and Manuela Slye
Project co-chairs
Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral
More on that meeting in this WSB report.
(WSB photos added 8:50/9:13 am; #1 by Patrick Sand, #2 by Christopher Boffoli)
Thanks to Manuel for the tip that the 54X bus had broken down (headed for downtown). We’re at the scene – it’s at Edmunds, blocking a lane so traffic is diverting around it. According to Manuel, a wheel fell off; we’re working to verify exactly what went wrong. 8:32 AM UPDATE: Metro supervisor at the scene confirms a wheel did come off, but the bus had a veteran driver who got it safely to the side of the road. Nobody hurt; everybody transferred to another bus relatively quickly; the bus will be towed shortly, but till then, it’s still slower going heading northbound on Fauntleroy. 9:20 AM UPDATE: Keri, who was on the bus when it happened, e-mailed this:
The bus seemed to shudder and skid a bit, as if it was trying to stop on wet pavement and couldn’t. It came to a halt and felt tilted. One woman suddenly said “tire!” (I thought she said “fire!” yikes.) She then said, “our tire just rolled by us!”
As we were getting off the bus, the driver said we actually lost two. We were all extremely grateful that this didn’t happen while we were on the viaduct.
WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli captioned that recent photo from the Fauntleroy Place worksite as, “They put the ‘hole’ in ‘Whole Foods’.” The developers behind that project and two others are part of an all-star slate lined up by the Fairmount Community Association for a meeting to which you’re invited: Reps from BlueStar and Harbor Properties (six Triangle/Junction projects between the two) will be there; the association plans to ask them to speak specifically about the projects closest to its neighborhoods, the ones planned along SW Alaska. Also expected to attend, City Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen and Sally Clark. The Fairmount Community Association meeting is at 6:30 pm November 6th in the chapel at The Mount. Those six projects are all in various stages — for BlueStar, Fauntleroy Place is well under way, Spring Hill has finished Design Review, Gateway Center hasn’t gotten to DR yet; for Harbor, Mural is in its final months of construction, Link has finished Design Review, the motel site hasn’t gotten there yet — and this will be an excellent chance to hear what’s new, as well as the latest on new development rules (like the multifamily code proposal — aka townhouse design — Councilmember Clark helped unveil three months ago).
(April 2008 WSB photo of “Fauntle-rut Way” pothole repairs)
We’re at the Morgan Community Association‘s quarterly meeting at The Kenney, and Liz Ellis from SDOT revealed HUGE news that’s buried in the mayor’s 2009 budget proposal: Money is proposed for repaving Fauntleroy Way next year between Alaska and California — the stretch we once dubbed (and we probably weren’t the first) “Fauntle-rut Way.” It’s the only West Seattle project proposed for the Arterial Asphalt and Concrete Program. You can find it on page 11 of this PDF.
Two road notes tonight: First, Ian (who has an excellent Internet-marketing blog here, also included on the WSB Blogs page), sent us the link to that photo of a sign he spotted earlier today and wondered, “What genius put up this detour sign at the intersection of 35th and Fauntleroy, on the north side? 1. It sends you over the West Seattle Bridge. 2. It blocks people trying to get to Dakota, which IS open. 3. There’s a proper detour sign right after Dakota. If they don’t take it down soon I’m going to move it myself …” Meantime, today’s round of sharrow-and-stripe-painting is over on part of Alki/Harbor Aves; more is ahead for tomorrow (make sure you read those no-parking signs carefully – some were marked for 5 am-3 pm today, some for 5 am-3 pm tomorrow), so if you’re driving to Alki elsewhere, best to seek side-street parking during those hours.
It’s usually not as easy to get information on major real-estate sales when they’re complete as it is to get information when the listings go up. Today, though, we have closure on one major listing we told you about — in May, we reported that Garden Terrace, a 32-unit building on Fauntleroy just south of the “Triangle” area (map), was up for sale for $4,650,000; this short article says it’s been purchased for close to the listing price by MorGro Investments LLC, which – according to a quick online search – also owns Harvard Market. 3:41 PM UPDATE: A tenant tells WSB the new owners have announced the sale to the tenants and told them that there are no CURRENT plans to turn the units into condos.
Look closely and you’ll see the broken window glass around the edges of that photo, e-mailed to WSB by Paul, who wanted to warn people in the area about what happened to him:
My vehicle was broken into at the corner of Fauntleroy Way SW and 35th Ave. The thieves broke my front passenger window and stole a portable GPS that was installed in the car.
10:06 PM ADDITION: Shortly after we posted this, we got a separate short note about a different wave of car-window attacks: “9/28 around 3 am, 4 vehicles had windshields broken on 13th Ave between Holden & Kenyon.” TUESDAY MORNING ADDITION: And one more report, this one from Melody: “On Sat, 9/27 between the hours of 12 am-3 am my neighbors on 13th Ave SW (between Holden and Barton) had a brick thrown at the back of their car. It dented the exterior (they missed the windows).”
If you’ve driven the westbound Fauntleroy Way end of The Bridge in daylight since Saturday, you’ve probably noticed the difference more than 200 people made with long hours of work under the blazing sun that day: Months in the making, the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup cleared tons of overgrowth, trash, and other materials from the stretch between Walking on Logs and 35th/Fauntleroy, which is where, at one point, we passed this solo worker:
No doubt, getting out there and slogging through the mess last Saturday was a chore. So was organizing the whole thing – with a lot of hard work done by the woman whose name you saw on updates posted here in the weeks and months leading up to it:
Nancy Driver took the podium for a moment before the cleanup started on Saturday morning, just for final logistics and marching orders. After it was all said, done, bagged, picked up, cleared away, hours later, we asked her to put together a final wrapup when she had a chance. And we wanted to share that with you tonight, interspersed with more photos:Read More
As the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup wrapped up around 3:30 this afternoon, that was the scene in the neighborhood immediately west of the cleanup zone (near the ramp to the walkover bridge) – we heard one organizer saying they had collected a HALF-TON OF TRASH. We’re hoping for official wrapup info at some point later after organizers recover (they did a heroic job pulling this all together, and thanks to everyone in WSB’land who stepped forward to donate time, treats, etc.). When we get that info, we’ll post it separately with a few more scenes from today’s big event (earlier coverage was here and here). Meantime, here’s video of the four-legged cleanup crew now on duty along 34th north of Myrtle (map), on the east edge of Our Lady of Guadalupe‘s northern lot:
As mentioned here, the goats — from Rent-A-Ruminant — are expected to be on site through Tuesday. (Just note that it’s not too safe to get up close and personal to where they’re working – no sidewalk on that side of the street – but you can admire them from across the street, along High Point Playfield.) Meantime, we couldn’t resist going back to Alki to check in on the Evergreen State Barbecue Championship competitors’ progress. As usual, some of the booths show flashes of humor (note the sign AND the yellow tape here):
And there’s a little timely solemnity too:
We noted earlier that two booths across from 62nd SW are selling food (that was a big question last year, when we happened onto the barbecue event without advance warning). Pricewise for the main courses – the salmon sandwiches at the Tom Douglas booth are $7; offerings at the other booth (whose name we forgot to write down) range from $5 “German sausage on bun” to $25 dinner with a full rack of ribs. The main competition is tomorrow, but a little bit of judging was going on late today — an appetizer contest when we sauntered by around 5 pm. (The judges were sequestered mysteriously behind four walls of tent tarp.) The whole promenade smells amazing so you might just want to go be an olfactory spectator; the competitors will be camped out all night, some in tents by their massive grilling/smoking setups, some in RVs along Alki SW.
That’s a group shot taken just before the first group of volunteers in the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup left the staging area (ex-Huling Buick lot, future Gateway Center) about half an hour ago and headed off to start tackling the task. Kimberlee Archie from the city Department of Neighborhoods had just noted that this not only is the 89th cleanup under the umbrella of the Clean and Green Program, she thinks the 200-plus volunteers represent the biggest group EVER in a C&G cleanup. Archie also read a proclamation from the mayor (who’s visiting the cleanup crews later this morning) declaring today to be Earl Cruzen Day, and Earl himself was on hand to accept the honor:
(ADDED SATURDAY AFTERNOON – here’s video of the proclamation being read)
You probably see the results of Earl’s work every day. He’s the guy who hatched the idea for the West Seattle Murals, for one; the story of how that happened, and who else helped, is told nicely on this page of the Fauntleroy Church website; you can also read about it in this West Seattle 101 chapter. Cruzen and the murals group then went on to come up with Walking on Logs – the starting point for today’s cleanup. Those two lines barely scratch the surface of what he’s given to the West Seattle community (and continues to give, well into his 80s), but we’ve got to get back out to see how the cleanup’s going; volunteers will be at work from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy until about 3:30 this afternoon, and that means a westbound lane closure on the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, so if you’re going to be driving that way, PLEASE be careful – hundreds of your neighbors are giving up part of their Saturday to make that stretch less of an eyesore, so help them stay safe. More updates later, on this and other big events happening around West Seattle today.
After months of organizing, the big cleanup along the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy (where Department of Corrections crews have just done some pre-clearing, as per photo above) is finally here. From organizer Nancy Driver:
It’s looking like we are going to have a really beautiful day for a cleanup. Thanks to the terrific response from the community, we will have well over 200 volunteers at the cleanup tomorrow. I’m really excited to see what it will look like after we’ve finished. Here’s what you need to know for tomorrow:
Where to check in: 4545 Fauntleroy Ave SW – in the parking lot of the former Huling showroom at the corner of Fauntleroy and 38th SW. There will be some parking available here but please consider arriving by foot, bicycle, bus or carpool.
What time: Welcoming ceremony starts at 9:00 a.m. and hopefully shouldn’t run more than 20 minutes. There will be a special declaration read tomorrow morning but we’ll let it be a surprise. Shifts run 9:30 – 11:30; 11:30 – 1:30; 1:30 – 3:30. All volunteers should check in at least 20 minutes before their shift so they can sign and be issued a safety vest. Everyone will be required to wear a safety vest at the clean up site. Right now we have an overabundance of volunteers for the 9:30 shift so if you haven’t already signed up as a volunteer and want to help out, please arrive for either the 11:30 or 1:30 shifts.
What to wear: I recommend long pants and shoes that will protect your feet. I know it’s going to be warm tomorrow but you’ll want to protect your feet and legs from getting scratched up from blackberries and other scratchy debris on site. We’ll have gloves available except for children – unfortunately, we will not be able to provide gloves for small hands. Just adult sizes small, medium and large. If you have your own favorite gloves – feel free to bring them but just be sure to hang onto them.
We’ll have water and other beverages as well as light refreshments available in the staging area. Water will also be available at the clean up site. We’ll also have a port-a-potty at both the clean up site and the staging area.
The City is providing all tools necessary so no need to bring tools.
The Mayor will be showing up around 10:30 at the clean up site and will be handing out reusable grocery bags to volunteers after they finish their shift.
Thanks again to everyone who has volunteered to help with this project.
Nancy / Fairmount Community Association
That’s an aerial view of the Fauntleroy Triangle, centering on Fauntleroy/Alaska, as shared by Harbor Properties during the Design Review Board meeting for two Junction projects — including theirs at 38th/Alaska — last month (WSB coverage here). Tomorrow night, a representative from HP will be among the participants as Sustainable West Seattle‘s monthly meeting focuses on “sustainable development” possibilities in the area. Here’s how SWS president Bill Reiswig describes what’s planned for the meeting:
Marshal Foster, local West Seattle citizen and urban planner, will share some models of sustainable development and describe the opportunity at Fountleroy/Alaska. Following this we will have a panel discussion that includes: Sean Sykes, Sustainability Officer, Harbor Properties; Jim Burton and Justin Fogle, NW Ecobuilding Guild; Derek Birnie, Executive Director, Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, and Dave Montoure, president of the West Seattle Junction Association and proprietor of West 5. Topics addressed will include: What is your vision of positive uses of this space for West Seattle? What are the challenges to realizing a sustainable vision? What are the key benefits for the neighborhood and city? What are the most sustainable elements that we should advocate for?
Sustainable West Seattle – the group behind the hugely successful SWS Festival in The Junction two weeks ago – meets tomorrow night at Camp Long, potluck snacks and beverages at 7 pm followed by the meeting at 7:30. (To review what’s currently planned, and up for sale, in the Triangle/Junction area, check our clickable map.)
And another major scheduled event from Tuesday night: The JuNO meeting with updates from two major Junction-area developers who had some new info to share:Read More
We’ve talked here before about pothole problems and rutted roads around West Seattle. This week, we heard from a High Point resident named Casey Crowell who has an unusual take on it: He is concerned about the same potholes being fixed over and over, making things worse, rather than getting a longer-lasting fix in the first place. Here’s the letter he just wrote to the mayor about it, with specifics all the way down to the pothole Casey has nicknamed “Bruno”:Read More
Here’s the latest on Fauntleroy Place, the mixed-use megaproject with the future Whole Foods Market that’s been in the works almost 2 years for Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th. Eric Radovich with BlueStar Management, the FP developer, tells WSB today that they’re still hoping for groundbreaking by April, as reported in our last update in September. But first – the project has to get through one more key public meeting, for which the date has just been set — the Southwest Design Review Board “recommendations” meeting for Fauntleroy Place has is now on the city schedule for February 14. As noted on the BlueStar site, the architect on the project has changed to CollinsWoerman, but Radovich says the rendering above from the previous architect is still fairly true to the plan — 5 stories, Whole Foods and a new Hancock Fabrics store at ground level, more than 150 apartments above, parking garage with room for more than 500 vehicles (city project page here). We also asked about BlueStar’s more-recently revealed West Seattle mixed-use project, Spring Hill (no relation to the future restaurant) at 5020 California just south of The Junction (as reported by WSB here and here) — the first Design Review Board meeting for that is listed on the city site as January 10th, but Radovich says that might be changed to later in the month. He also says there’s no publicly available rendering for Spring Hill just yet.
Even before the destiny of the ex-Gee/ex-Huling dealership parcels becomes clear … even before Fauntleroy Place breaks ground … another chunk of Fauntleroy Way business land east of The Junction is now on the market: 4415-4425 Fauntleroy (map), perhaps best known as home to Tervo’s Mini-Mart (whose proprietor died this past Labor Day), listed for sale for $2,900,000. Here’s the listing; the flyer describes it as “commercial, retail, or mixed use; potential for 79 units, plus 5 commercial units; 108 parking spaces.” Here’s a screen grab of the flyer:Read More
We’re into the second week of idleness for the ex-GEE/ex-Huling dealerships along Fauntleroy. Since the Gees had till today to answer the eviction lawsuit filed by the Hulings, we checked with the Hulings’ lawyer to see what was going on. 
Randall Beighle of Lane Powell tells WSB that instead of an official hearing, he met informally this afternoon with Ryan Gee, and that they are in the process of coming up with an agreement for when the Gees will vacate the dealerships. Beighle says this would mean they’ll avoid a court fight over when the Gees will depart, though he also reiterates these talks have no bearing on the other lawsuit, filed by the Gees against the Hulings. He says the Gees hope to keep possession of the lots till the end of next month. As for another question many have asked — what’s the Huling family’s plan for the dealership sites? — Beighle says the Hulings are not currently marketing the properties and are still deciding what to do next.
It was barely a footnote (see comments here) to last week’s coverage of the GEE vs. Huling lawsuit, but Huling has indeed sued GEE for “unlawful detainer” (eviction) centered on the alleged nonpayment of rent as of the start of September. Since we offered you the chance to read the GEE vs. Huling lawsuit in full, now that we have the paperwork for the Huling vs. GEE lawsuit, we’re posting a link to that one too: 39-page PDF, get it here. Most of this document consists of the GEE lease for the Huling properties, plus the 3-day notice dated September 27th to pay rent or get evicted. (If you’re just joining us, GEE had announced plans to close today, but instead shut down Friday.) Our notes from the first readthrough:Read More
Shortly after we posted the pix in the post below, a PR person for GEE wrote back to confirm we weren’t seeing things:
Yes, Gee Automotive has to close its door at the end of business today, as they do not have enough staff available to keep it open until October 7. It is no surprise that many of their employees have found positions with other dealerships in the area, as they are great people.
We have sent the GEE (all capital letters is their official branding, so we will go with that from here on out) Automotive PR team a note asking if the Sunday closing is still on, or if there’s any progress toward a buyer. We’ll let you know what we hear back. Meantime, a few notes: As promised, we did check court records for the names of the four additional former Huling employees whose names were mentioned in the GEE lawsuit, separate from the three who are facing trial; records do not show charges filed at this point against those other four. Meantime, since we drive through Fauntleroy/Alaska at least four times a day, it’s easy to notice when things change, and three things caught our eye at the Gee lots this afternoon. First, some of the cars are no longer pulled all the way up to the sidewalk:
Second, a U-Haul truck happened to be out by one of the service bays (yes, we know, could be absolutely coincidental, could even be there for some service work).
Third, the “conventional media” is circling (again):
As the date for the threatened shutdown at Gee West Seattle approaches, we just heard again from the Huling family. Sharon Huling is the wife of Steve Huling, who ran the business before the sale to Gee. She e-mailed WSB to say, “Below is a statement that I would like to make on behalf of our family to the community. … It would be greatly appreciated if you would post it as there has been additional press about the Gee’s accusations printed today in the West Seattle Herald.” (The Herald article she refers to is here; the Times article mentioned below is here.) Her statement, unedited:
To our fellow community members,
It is upsetting to see our family’s reputation attacked in the newspapers. But I remain confident that the truth will come out – it always does – and thus our reputation will be restored. The Seattle Times article was pretty brutal to us, 19 quotes from the Gees, 5 or 6 from Steve, and select few facts. If you do the math, that’s about a 3:1 ratio (Gees:Hulings). There are also several statements in the West Seattle that warrant correcting if only in the pursuit of honesty and neighborly obligation:
First; the Gees made a promise to us not to disclose the sale price of the dealership, which they have now done (though inaccurately) and in the paper. By doing so they have broken their promise.
Second; last winter our family did not give $100,000 to the victim. What happened is this; Steve, on behalf of Huling Bros. and immediately upon learning about the questionable sale of the truck to the victim, unwound the truck sale and refunded the money to the customer. This occurred over a year ago at the time of sale. Then in January, immediately upon learning from the police that 3 former employees would be charged with a crime, our family chose to act with integrity and make restitution to the gentleman for the $70,000 our employees were accused of stealing though we were not obligated to do this. But to be perfectly clear, Huling Bros. and Steve were never accused of doing anything wrong.
Third; my husband did call Ryan Gee and Cline Davis immediately (I was present) upon learning from the police that former employees would be charged with a crime and it is they who chose not to return his phone calls thus missing out on the opportunity to secure some goodwill and stand with our family together against injustice.
Ryan Gee appears to being trying to fix the blame on my husband Steve and try him in the media. The Gees have clearly stated that they have a self-serving motive; suing us. It is very sad to read because of the vehemence of their attack and its inaccuracies. Just because Mr. Gee says something doesn’t make it so. In our great country we still honor the belief that people are innocent until proven guilty. My husband is an honorable man and I encourage the media to investigate the accuracy of Ryan’s statements, their reputation and track record in business east of the mountains and especially here with the people who worked for both of us. There you will find a story of the true tragedy; the people who will soon find themselves without a job.
Fourth; I am confused about Ryan Gee saying that their partnership “ran out of money” in his press release because one of their business partners – Wolff family members (Wolff Enterprises, LLC associated with Wolff Cos, etc.) from Spokane and Arizona – are worth hundreds of millions, possibly even a billion dollars. The Wolff”s are huge developers on a national level. One can only speculate that as such they could have made other choices like staying open until they are able to sell the dealerships thus not leaving 160 employees out on the street to fend for themselves. Our hearts go out to them and their families. Again, that is the real tragedy of this story. Still I am glad to see that our old Puget Sound competitors have been calling and making offers to many of our former employees whom they obviously value.
Fifth; I think that it is disingenuous to think that you can sell 3 dealerships in 2 weeks time, especially in this down market, this is the intent the Gees expressed to their employees last week when they announced their immediate plans to sell or close the business by Oct. 7th. It took us over a year to select a broker and find a buyer.
Sixth; besides breaking their promise of confidentiality, the Gees, as my husband stated in the WSH, broke other promises like changing the closing date for the sale at the last minute, more than once, and now they have broken their lease agreement. There have been other broken promises like saying they would meet to discuss differences, then not showing up or canceling at the last minute. Ryan has stated that they chose not to use the Huling name when in reality they did not buy the rights to use the Huling Bros. name, we purchased our name back during negotiations. What happened, happened to us, to Huling Bros. – the Gee’s are not us – a message they failed miserably at communicating to the public, a responsibility that lies with them.
Despite all of the negative press initiated by Ryan and his team, our family is doing well. There is nothing that I have written here that isn’t common knowledge, but I would like to add some additional perspective; in June the Gees – through their lawyer – wrote to Steve and his brother Tom saying that if they did not sell to them the properties the dealerships stand on “for less than market value” then they would sue us. My husband still has this letter. Ryan’s recent actions, with his threat to sue us in the Gee’s recent press release, lend credence to this statement.
We are thankful for and we welcome the positive reinforcement from our friends, former employees and former satisfied customers whom we cultivated through our good standing in the Seattle business community for over 60 years. Under Steve’s leadership our dealership sold thousands of cars a year over the course of many years. Huling Bros. consistently earned the highest ratings for customer service in the industry from the manufacturers and the public. Steve was also was awarded the Time Magazine Dealer Quality Award for the state of Washington and belonged to many civic and business organizations. We will continue to support and be active members of the community. We are deeply saddened that 3 men, who only worked for Huling Bros. a few short months, have caused so much heartache, for the victim and for everyone involved. We are people of integrity and we will continue to hold our heads high.
Most sincerely,
Sharon Huling
We are e-mailing Gee Automotive with a link to this post and offering them the opportunity to publish an unedited statement here too, if they so choose. Meantime, the clock ticks to this Sunday, when we will see if one of West Seattle’s biggest businesses does indeed close, costing more than 100 people their jobs.
We have an informal policy that if anyone involved in or close to a situation surfaces in comments on a post about it, we will single out that comment to be sure you see it, rather than just leave it there to be discovered, or not. So, if you missed it below this post, the following comment came in very early this morning, signed Sharon Huling. (The residence-related remarks relate to a discussion in that original comment thread.)
My family and I are deeply saddened for our friends and former employees who will be losing their jobs when Gee West Seattle closes its doors. Our hearts go out to them.
I have lived in West Seattle for 27 years. My husband and kids were all raised here. We are listed in the phone book, though we have never lived on Sunset. We love WS and will continue to be a part of this community.
There have been many inaccurate and wrongful accusations recently in the news, in blogs and in the above quote from MD Johnson, Inc. With the Gee’s pointing the blame and threatening a lawsuit there really isn’t much that I can say except that the truth will come out in due time.
Fifteen days after the death of its owner on Labor Day, and just a few hours after we photographed the bouquet resting against the then-still-closed-doors with a note of sympathy (photo left), Tervo’s Mini-Mart on Fauntleroy is back in business — doors open and neon signs lit, as of when we drove by a short time ago.
| Comments Off on Yes you can … get involved with your neighborhood group