Utility players
If you have gas service from Puget Sound Energy, don’t faint, it’s cutting rates. 
However, this is reminiscent of the price of the “other” gas going up, then down a bit, then up; exactly one year ago today, in fact, PSE announced a gas rate increase of almost 9%, which means this new cut only takes us down to 4% over where prices were a year ago. We are quite dependent on PSE here at WSB HQ; when we bought our gas-heated house last decade, natural gas was relatively cheap, so we had the line extended to our kitchen. As the chart accompanying today’s Times story shows, prices have more than doubled since then.
35th closure
Huge thanks to several WSB readers who e-mailed us at this late hour to tell us about 35th being blocked off near the High Point Library. According to LyndaB, the problem apparently has something to do with a dangerously leaning power pole she had noticed earlier in the day; City Light’s on scene as well as police.
Storm recovery, eight months later
South WS drivers beware: Seattle city crews have stepped up the drainage work at the south end of the Cali straightaway (Cali/Thistle) and, a block downhill, next to the Thistle/Northrop sinkhole that opened in the deluge before last December’s windstorm. Heavy equipment tore up more pavement today at Cali/Thistle (photo below) and the Thistle/Northrop bend is squeezed to one lane.
The view from atop Admiral blacktop
Went to Belvedere Viewpoint to see how the Admiral paving turned out, among other things. The whole stretch that was closed for nighttime work toward the end of last week (Admiral between Olga and 41st) looks good; here’s a small section shining during a sunbreak:
Looking out toward downtown from the same viewpoint, we enjoyed a great view of everybody out fishing on Elliott Bay:
47 hours till Freeway Fright, 20 hours till Admiral Agony
The latest on the major road projects that are rolling our way like a semi-truck with burned-out brakes:
FREEWAY FRIGHT ’07, aka the I-5 northbound lane closures: We know it’s going to be crunchy but gosh, the handwringing we’ve heard on tv lately … you would think our peninsula is going to be scooped up and flung into the middle of the Pacific, with all this hue and cry over People In West Seattle Won’t Be Able To Go Anywhere. Oh well, maybe it means a few more square feet of sand on Alki for the locals if the weather ever gets nice again. Back to the traffic: WSDOT has launched this very handy new page with specifics about What Exactly Is Happening Right This Minute, schedule changes if any, relevant cameras, and current traffic troubles. We’ll have it linked prominently here on our site every morning along with specifics on what us WSers need to know before heading out (more on that tomorrow).
ADMIRAL AGONY ’07, as in, the paving that will close Admiral Way for two nights between Olga and 41st starting tomorrow night, 7 pm-6 am. This city press release has the bare-bones basics about detours and so forth; the city e-mail update we posted back on Monday has even more information, including the warning for neighbors about possible vibrations from construction equipment.
The other shoe, er, trashcan, has dropped
Ten days ago, we were all talking about the city plan intended to lead us all further into the world of recycling, while, by the way, reaching further into our wallets, to pay for upgrading city refuse/recycling facilities. Tonight we know how MUCH more West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician wants us to pay for trash service, for starters: A buck a month for the “average” house (?), $15 more per month for the average commercial Dumpster, among other things. City press release here; Times story here. Not final till the City Council says yes.
Recycling, the final frontier
We’ve confessed before that food-waste recycling is the one type of recycling we just haven’t quite gotten on board with yet. Looks like we’re going to have to; reports this morning (Times here, Weekly here) say we’re all going to be paying for pickup in less than 2 years. We hate paying for something we’re not using. Like the basic cable channels we don’t watch. Wish tv channels could be purchased a la carte. But we digress. So, we’ll get with the program. Maybe Sustainable West Seattle has advice! (More on the city’s “zero waste strategy” here.)
Outage explained
For anyone still wondering about the power problems in south West Seattle last weekend — Scott Thomsen from City Light told us what caused the biggest outage Saturday morning: an underground cable failed and had to be replaced. Apparently this happens from time to time; cables’ insulation can go brittle because of “heat and other environmental conditions.”
Unplugged, the summer edition
Some pockets of power trouble here on the south end of West Seattle in the past 18 hours or so, including here at WSB HQ (so says the early-rising team member, who noted it was out at least as far as 35th and Trenton, for at least an hour until about 6 am). Another outage happened in neighborhoods near Morgan Junction last night; one reader tells us it was out at her house for at least 5 hours. No word yet on what’s going on here (the City Light Outage Hotline only makes mention of something going on right now in Sodo) but it might have something to do with the Morgan substation just north of Thriftway, where several City Light crews blocked off that last stub of Morgan for a while last night (photo below), though our ERTM says they weren’t there this am.
About that sinkhole …
Six months after the deluge preceding the December windstorm created the Thistle/Northrop sinkhole (at the end of the 52-y-o hillside staircase) in Upper Fauntleroy, Seattle Public Utilities is finally about to do something substantial in the area. Before we elaborate: Two photos, one looking west into the sinkhole a few days after the storm (before the temporary bridge was built); the next, a recent look east at and below the segment of “suspended” sidewalk that’s been literally hanging there (blocked off from public access) ever since:
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Now, the apparent plan: Flyers available at the Thistle/Northrop corner say SPU will start work next weekend on “drainage catch basins and inlets” both at that corner and a block east at Thistle/Cali. They describe the “new drainage structures” as “improved grates with curb openings to help facilitate storm water drainage when debris covers them.” As for the sinkhole itself, which now seems to be dubbed a “gully,” SPU writes on the flyer:
We are continuing to work with FEMA and private property owners to repair the gully that was eroded during the 2006 winter storms. We anticipate that this work, which will include rebuilding the sidewalks to provide access to the SW Thistle St stairs, will be completed later this summer. Thank you for your continued patience.
For walkers/joggers who are wondering (like us), we just sent a note to SPU to ask if the upcoming work will block off the stairs again … we’ll let you know what we hear.
Unmasked, at last
One month after putting it up, city crews finally pulled the covers off the left-turn light at 35th/Thistle this morning, and it’s up ‘n’ running:
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