West Seattle, Washington
08 Friday
Tomorrow’s the day – the return of Healthy Kids Day at the West Seattle YMCA (3622 SW Snoqualmie; WSB sponsor) in The Triangle! The Y welcomes families to help them celebrate “30 years of healthy kids … to celebrate kids being kids and to set them up for a summer of success!” It’s happening 10 am-1 pm Saturday, all free, membership not required. Don’t worry if the weather’s iffy – Healthy Kids Day includes indoor options too. Our calendar listing includes some of the activities you’ll be able to check out during HKD.
Another annual event coming back for 2022 after a pandemic hiatus: Healthy Kids Day at the West Seattle YMCA (WSB sponsor). The Y has announced that it’s set for 10 am-1 pm Saturday, April 30th, at its main local branch, 3622 SW Snoqualmie in The Triangle. It’s a free event with activities for all ages, and membership is NOT required – it’s open to everyone. Here’s more info on what activities they’re planning – we expect more details as the event gets closer.
Real-estate firm Metropolist has added a West Seattle office, and celebrated today with a donation presented in honor of their “office-warming.” The SODO-based firm has moved into the West Seattle Triangle space at 3518 SW Genesee. Above are Metropolist brokers Domenica Lovaglia and Chad Zinda at left and right, with Chloe Gale and Tavia Rhodes from Evergreen Treatment Services at center. Evergreen serves thousands of people dealing with opioid-use disorder, and also is known for its REACH work helping people experiencing homelessness. Metropolist’s $27,607 donation today was from a pledge to donate 25 percent of their 2021 profits to the organization. The presentation happened while they celebrated the new space with friends and family.
Metropolist’s new space was formerly home to Budget Blinds; that longtime WSB sponsor is now at 2403 Harbor Avenue SW.
(West Seattle Veteran Center photo)
Winter’s not over yet, and colder weather is ahead. Keith Hughes of the West Seattle Veteran Center and American Legion Post 160 says he plans to reopen the overnight shelter there at 5 pm tomorrow (Saturday, March 5th). He plans to keep it open through at least next Wednesday, adding, “I will be staffing it myself and with volunteers from 5 pm until 10 am each day.” He says the King County Regional Homelessness Authority still is not funding the shelter, which is the only one in West Seattle – if they would , he says, “we could increase our staffing and increase our capacity to help the homeless community in the Southwest corridor.” Meantime, we asked if they need any particular donations right now, volunteers or food/clothing or money. His reply: “The community response over the past two cold spells has been wonderful and very generous, so I really don’t have any pressing needs for supplies or clothing this time around. I have also been able to build up my list of willing volunteers, so I am able to get at least one break per day for a run of 5 or 6 days of cold. I just want to keep up the awareness that winter is not over and there are still people out there without food and shelter. When you see them, help them. If you can’t help them directly, point them to the West Seattle Veteran Center Shelter.” It’s at 3618 SW Alaska.
(Shelter/center lobby, WSB photo from December)
Below-freezing nights are in the forecast all week, so West Seattle’s only emergency shelter has reopened its doors. It’s in the Veterans Center/American Legion Post 160 building in The Triangle, operated with volunteer help and donations, so center manager Keith Hughes emailed us with some requests for anyone who can help:
The Warm-Up Center and Cold Weather Overnight Shelter will be open this week and possibly into next week. We could really use the community’s support again, with men’s-size socks, gloves, stocking caps, T-shirts, and underwear. We have plenty of cots and blankets now, and we thank you all for those.
In the food department, our needs are: Coffee, creamer, pancake mix, instant oatmeal, instant hot-chocolate mix, granola bars, and grocery-store gift cards so we can get milk, eggs, and other fresh items. Thank you so much for your kind and generous support.
The center/shelter is at 3618 SW Alaska, 206-932-9696.
The nighttime temperature is back into the 30s, so West Seattle’s only emergency shelter, at the Veterans’ Center in The Triangle, has reopened. From its operator Keith Hughes:
The overnight shelter is open, and will be each night this week, as well as the morning Warm-up Center. Warm-up hours are 7:30 – 11 am. Shelter opens at 5 pm, with hot meal at 6:30 pm. Check in for overnight closes at 10 pm.
The Shelter is located at the American Legion Hall at 3618 SW Alaska St in West Seattle.
Volunteers and financial support remain needed and appreciated, as noted here.
During our recent run of snowy/freezing weather, we reported multiple times on the only emergency cold-weather shelter in West Seattle, not operated by the city, not operated by a homelessness nonprofit, but instead operated by Keith Hughes, commander of American Legion Post 160 and manager of the co-housed West Seattle Veterans Center. The shelter is closed for now, as reported here, but winter has two more months to go and it’ll likely need to open again. So what can you do to be sure it’s ready? Here’s a new webpage set up by supporter Tomasz Biernacki with the backstory and two ways to help, as follows;
Now in his 4th winter of giving care to those struggling in the cold, Keith needs our help. He’s in his 70s and is exhausted. In addition to the folks he is serving, he’s been remodeling the building to meet code requirements for the kitchen and bathrooms, often dipping into his own 401K. To meet the growing need, he needs us now. He needs volunteers and funds.
If you can help with either or both, please do. Keith is a doer, but he can only do so much.
If you want to get involved, please email pecharalala@gmail.com. There is lots to do so please let us know time availability and what you would like to offer in terms of labor and services. Tomasz will get back to each person to pre-screen them for Keith.
If you would like to donate funds, you can do so here – https://gofund.me/1daf9797. We are hoping to raise $6,000 to help cover utility bills. Contributions are tax-deductible, as the West Seattle Veterans Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
The city committed to cover what it would otherwise charge the center for December’s bills, but that’s just a fraction of the building’s costs.
The snow has melted and the temperature has risen into the 50s. West Seattle’s only emergency cold-weather shelter has closed its doors, for now. Its operator wants to share these words of thanks:
To all the true Neighbors of the West Seattle Community – thank you so much for your rapid and generous support to the call for help for the American Legion Post 160 and West Seattle Veteran Center Cold Weather Shelter. With your donations and help, we were able to stay open throughout the cold weather event to serve more than 50 individuals in their time of need. This is a grass-roots all-volunteer operation, only possible through your generosity.
The shelter has now suspended operation with the temperatures in the 40s and 50s. We will be prepared to re-open when the need arises. Winter is not yet over. Thank you.
Keith Hughes, Commander
West Seattle American Legion Post 160
President, West Seattle Veteran Center
As mentioned here in our coverage last month, the only city help for the shelter was a promise to cover the utility bills. Community members donated everything from cots to food to socks, plus volunteer hours.
“The phone will not quit ringing.”
That’s what Keith Hughes told us – between phone calls – when we stopped by American Legion Post 160 (3618 SW Alaska) this afternoon to see what he needs to keep running West Seattle’s only cold-weather shelter.
12 people slept there last night, and he was expecting more tonight. So he needs more cots, and blankets for the people who will sleep on them. Socks and gloves, too – those go fast, dozens of pairs so far.
And of course, he still needs more volunteers to help keep the doors open, as a daytime warming center – some people drop in for a cup of coffee, maybe a pair of socks, and then go back out – and overnight shelter.
He is serving two meals a day, as the whiteboard outside says:
But he says they have plenty of food – including six 5-pound pans of frozen lasagna – so they don’t need more food right now. And please don’t bring clothing – that takes more volunteers to sort and wash, and that’s more than he can handle. Socks and gloves, he can just keep on a table by the door to Pershing Hall, the event room that’s doubling as a shelter.
Running the shelter is more than a matter of just keeping the doors open. Hughes has also been kept busy handling logistics for the people who show up, or who are brought there; some of the phone calls he took while we were there had to do with someone dropped off there who really needed to be in a hospital instead.
Since the last time we talked with him, the city has started including Post 160 on its resource list of emergency shelters. And the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority has someone calling twice a day to check in. But the only government help he’s getting, says Hughes, is a city promise to cover the utility bills for December – running two furnaces, doing laundry, and providing showers adds up.
If you have questions, or are interested in volunteering, call Post 160 any time between 8 am and 6 pm at 206-932-9696, or call Hughes directly at 206-941-6654.
WEDNESDAY NOTE: Please see the comment discussion below for updates. In short – volunteers still needed, everything else is good for now, thanks to some fast-acting generous people!
You would think this snowy weather would make it a memorable week for Mountain to Sound Outfitters, a West Seattle business that specializes in part in snow gear. But instead, for proprietor Greg Whittaker, it’s memorable in a bad way.
His shop at 3602 SW Alaska was broken into early today for the third time in a week. We heard about it from a reader who was passing by early this morning and saw SFD on the scene cleaning up broken glass. We then obtained the police report and followed up with Whittaker. The police-report narrative says officers arrived to find what the photo above shows, as well as a “large amount of ski equipment lying on the ground outside of the business along with several display hangers.” An audible alarm was sounding. The burglar(s) were gone; SFD was called for help “to secure the damaged door.”
When we contacted Whittaker by email, he said this was the third burglary this week at the shop, and added: “This is completely disheartening. We buy the gear to help West Seattle enjoy the winter and now key items are gone from our store. Keep an eye out for kids’ jackets, skateboards, sunglasses, gloves, goggles. I’d like to ask the community to keep watch in our block, as it seems like they are getting bolder.” If you have any information, the SPD incident number is 21-340896.
Once again, American Legion Post 160 in The Triangle is opening a winter-weather overnight shelter – but we just learned this afternoon that volunteers are urgently needed. Post commander Keith Hughes says they are required to have two people on site at all times while open as a shelter, and they need help filling those slots. Ideally a volunteer could be there either 6 pm-midnight or midnight-6 am, but if you can only give a few hours, they’ll take the help they can get. If you have questions, or are ready to volunteer, call Post 160 any time between 8 am and 6 pm at 206-932-9696, or call Keith directly at 206-941-6654.
(Historic photo courtesy Lynn Sweeney)
Finally an answer to the question of where Alki Lumber will move when its West Seattle Triangle site is redeveloped: South Park. The Sweeney family, which has owned the lumberyard for a century, has sold the business to South Park-based Marine Lumber. We talked late today with Lynn Sweeney, after learning via a tip that Alki Lumber was notifying customers about the change. The Sweeneys have been looking for a new site for the lumberyard for two years, after deciding to redevelop its current site and some of their other properties; the two-building megaproject has just finished going through Design Review (as covered here and here). She says they were focusing on South Park as a likely new home when, independent of their search, Marine Lumber reached out to them. After discussions, Sweeney said, “we just decided to combine” – something, she said, has been happening a lot in their industry. The deal closed this week.
Here’s what it means in the near future: Alki Lumber will continue operating at its current West Seattle location, with the same staff, under the same name, until it’s time to clear out (which is not imminent, given the time required for permits and other preparations). We’ll be following up with Marine Lumber about their future plans – this news came too late in the day to do that immediately. Sweeney says all this is “exciting” but also, for her family, “bittersweet.” Alki Lumber was founded by her great-grandfather James A. Sweeney in 1921. The family maintains ownership of the land, so for now, they’ll remain the lumberyard’s “landlord,” as Sweeney put it. It’s been almost three years since the Sweeneys announced they were studying “alternatives” for their property’s future.)
More than a year after Chaco Canyon Organic Café closed at 3770 SW Alaska in The Triangle, there’s word of a new tenant for the space. While looking through city permit files, we found a renovation application in the name of West of Chicago Pizza Company, the pizzeria that’s been operating out of the KBM Seattle Commissary Kitchen in Delridge. The specialty: Deep-dish Chicago-style pizza. West of Chicago proprietor Shawn Millard tells WSB he’s not ready to disclose details of the plan for the Triangle space, but he’s looking forward to starting work on the overhaul, with the hope of being open in February.
That’s a new rendering of the concept for 4406 36th SW and 4440 Fauntleroy Way SW, the properties that the Sweeney family is planning to redevelop on and near the site of their legacy business Alki Lumber. Family spokesperson Lynn Sweeney sent the rendering today, as architects Ankrom Moisan sent the city the full design “packet” for 4406 36th SW, which will go back to the Southwest Design Review Board on November 4th (as reported here previously) The building is proposed for 8 stories, 284 apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail space, and 162 offstreet-parking spaces. Here’s the packet:
You’ll also find it on the city website. ]Sweeney says regarding the 2-building plan, “Our design team has been hard at work responding to the Design Review Board guidance and collaborating with the city to develop an outstanding project for the West Seattle Triangle Neighborhood. The focus of this project is to create a unique and engaging streetscape experience for the community while providing housing for more than 500 new residents. The project is well positioned with proximity to the proposed Avalon light rail station. We are excited to go before the board on November 4th (East Block) and November 18th (West Block).” Both are 5 pm online meetings; viewing/listening/comment info for the November 4th meeting is here. The Sweeneys have said they’ll look for a new location for their lumberyard; Sweeney told us today there’s no update on that yet, nor do they have a target date for groundbreaking.
From skis to toys, camping gear to housewares, the Boy Scout Troop 284 megasale at West Seattle American Legion Post 160 (3618 SW Alaska) still has “lots of great stuff left,” reports Karen, with three hours to go. Even a cedar chest:
And for the final two hours, at 2 pm, you can “fill a grocery sack for $5!” As noted in our daily preview, the sale is to raise money for the troop’s activities. The Scouts are active in community service, too, as we’ve reported in the past (examples here and here).
A second round of job fairs is planned by the West Seattle and Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor) and 11 other regional Y’s. This time you’re invited to drop in between 4 and 7 pm Tuesday (August 24th). You’ll find, the Y tells us, “on-the-spot interviews, prizes, food, and fun” as well as the opportunity to “take advantage of our limited-time sign-on incentives of up to $600!” The Y says the work offers your chance to “be a changemaker.” Job openings at regional Y’s range from fitness instructors to managers; the West Seattle HQ is at 36th and Snoqualmie [map]. If you can’t go to the hiring fair, you can also browse the listings and apply right now at seattleymca.org/jobs.
The West Seattle and Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor) is one of six regional Y’s with hiring fairs this Saturday. You’ll find, the Y tells us, “on-the-spot interviews, prizes, food, and fun” as well as the opportunity to “take advantage of our limited-time sign-on incentives of up to $600!” The Y says working with them is your chance to “be a changemaker.” The local hiring fair is at the main West Seattle branch in The Triangle, 36th SW and SW Snoqualmie, 10 am-1 pm this Saturday (August 14th). Job openings in the region include Day Camp Counselors, Resident Camp Counselors, Lifeguards, Swim Instructors, Early Education Teachers, more. If you can’t go to the hiring fair, you can also apply right now at seattleymca.org/jobs.
Two road-work updates:
36TH/OREGON: Repairing this heat-damaged stretch of street was expected to take up to two weeks, but instead, it was done in one. The closure continues tonight while the new concrete finishes drying, but SDOT plans to reopen the street “as soon as crews have verified that the concrete has finished hardening, which will likely be tomorrow morning.”
SW GENESEE CLOSURE: Reminder – this closure west of Delridge Way (previewed here) starts at 7 am tomorrow. SDOT sent a new detour map today:
The street is expected to remain closed until early Monday, the first of two consecutive weekend closures, for “street upgrades” related to the RapidRide H Line preparation project. SDOT says that during the closure, “For people wishing to travel between Delridge Way SW and SW Avalon Way, we encourage them to detour to SW Orchard St during this closure. The streets marked in black will be open to local traffic only.”
From the “eat local” department: A year and a half after we brought you first word that Rebellyous Foods had moved to the West Seattle Triangle, it’s just announced a big new deal that will make its plant-based nuggets, tenders, and patties available in hundreds more stores, including three more in West Seattle. Rebellyous says its products will be available starting this week in 200 Safeway stores in the Northwest. In West Seattle, you can already buy Rebellyous products at West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) in Morgan Junction and Wildwood Market in Fauntleroy. Rebellyous also notes that its nuggets are now award-winning, honored last month with the New Product Award in the Plant-Based Protein category as part of the Specialty Food Association’s 2021 sofi™ Awards. The company – which also focuses on food-manufacturing technology development – notes that the plant-based food industry is now a $7 billion-per-year retail market, with 27 percent growth in just the past year.
Thinking about getting out on the water? And/or – got gear to sell? Mountain to Sound Outfitters in The Triangle is presenting the 4th annual West Seattle Boat Swap this Saturday (May 1st). This is for “human-powered watercraft” such as kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, and related gear. You are welcome to drop off your watercraft and gear 9 am-11 am that morning; shopping hours are 10 am-4 pm; pickup of unsold items is immediately afterward, 4 pm-5 pm. Along with whatever community members bring in, M2SO adds, “We will have used kayaks and SUPs from Alki Kayak Tours‘ rental operation, as well as scratched and dented SUPs and kayaks from Mountain to Sound for sale at amazing summer steal prices!” To register to sell, go here. It’s happening at Mountain to Sound, 3602 SW Alaska.
(SDOT image from Community Task Force meeting slide decK)
In addition to the big news about low-bridge access changes (WSB coverage here), Thursday’s West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force meeting also yielded a few other announcements we’re reporting today. First: Repaving is ahead for part of SW Alaska. You might recall that the SW Avalon project also included one block of SW Alaska, west of 35th. Now SDOT plans to repave the westbound curb lane between 36th SW and 38th SW. This will be done in three phases, starting with “asphalt-base repair” on the weekends of April 17th and 24th, continuing with some curb-ramp work and concrete repair in May/June, and grinding/resurfacing this summer.
(Photo courtesy West Seattle Veteran Center)
Tonight and every night for the rest of this week, temperatures are expected to drop into the 30s. If you know someone – or see someone – who needs a place to get in out of the cold, the West Seattle Veteran Center has opened its doors. From Keith Hughes:
The West Seattle Veteran Center Cold Weather Shelter opened this evening and will remain open at least through Friday night. The Center is open to all that need a warm place to sleep, veteran or not. It is beautiful with the newly painted walls and newly refinished maple hardwood floors.
The center is in The Triangle at 3618 SW Alaska (here’s a map).
West Seattle has seen three confirmed gunfire incidents in the past four days. The first one, early Saturday in The Triangle, didn’t leave anyone with gunshot wounds, but did raise other issues, and we followed up.
First – the police report, with more details on what officers were told happened.
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