West Seattle, Washington
10 Friday
That’s a new store that Safeway is building in Los Gatos, California, close in size to its current store in West Seattle’s Admiral District. Could a similar plan — underground parking, outdoor patio — be appropriate for the Admiral project that Safeway’s about to launch? It was one of many suggestions given to five Safeway reps who were on hand last night at the Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s monthly meeting. They had no presentation of their own to make — stating simply and quickly that they don’t even have a design outline for the site yet, and just wanted to hear thoughts from those at the meeting — and, from you:Read More
On the 14th anniversary of the day when millions were shaken to learn Seattle grunge-rock megastar Kurt Cobain had ended years of substance abuse by committing suicide, an earnest group gathered tonight at South Seattle Community College in hopes of strategizing how to save today’s young people from getting anywhere near that kind of lethal low point. You probably heard about the anti-underage-drinking town-hall meeting ahead of time; organizer Renae Gaines from Madison Middle School worked hard to get the word out.Read More
Busy night around West Seattle; we covered three events – first, here are quick notes from the Fauntleroy Community Association monthly meeting, including what’s been going on with the campaign to save the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse in the two weeks since the community meeting about it (WSB coverage here):Read More
That photo is courtesy Bill Schrier, who witnessed a startling sight in Metropolitan Market tonight – he describes it as a man yelling and throwing merchandise – Bill says what you see in his photo are store employees who managed to get the man under control till help arrived. No more details at this point about what happened or whether everyone is OK; we will check with police tomorrow.
A month and a half after that open house at historic Fire Station 37 to show off plans for its replacement, the city’s filed for two more permits to facilitate the construction of the new station at 35th SW/Holden: a construction permit and a demolition permit (to tear down the dilapidated old house on the site). The old station, an official city landmark, will be sold after the new one’s up and running.
FIRST: That’s the Propel biodiesel station taking shape (first mentioned here last month), with the pump canopy now up, at 35th/Barton. According to the Propel website, it’ll sell B20 and B99 grades. SECOND: Not far away, we stopped by Bird on a Wire Espresso today and noticed they’ve switched to compostable disposable cups, for a surcharge (more info on the Bird website). THIRD: During the 34th District Democratic Caucus on Saturday, West Seattle’s King County Councilmember Dow Constantine mentioned something about “climate change work with Congress (this) week.” We asked his staff for details, and here’s what they sent:Read More
We reported March 20 about City Council President Richard Conlin telling the Delridge District Council that the council had commissioned a poll to find out if citizens support another Pro Parks Levy (most councilmembers do, the mayor doesn’t) since the original’s expiring. Poll results are out this afternoon and the council says it’s pro-levy, 2-to-1.
That’s David Robertson and Paul Binder of PB&J Textiles in front of their old location at 7349 35th SW (map; next door to Olympic Heights Laundry, which they operate) – the space where they have just announced they will open Coffee at the Heights, target date mid-June. They have been working on it for a while but kept it under wraps until they were close to the final stage of the permit process for converting the space. Once Coffee at the Heights is up and running, they plan to be open 5:30 am till 8 pm, maybe later; they will serve coffee, pastry, desserts, and sandwiches (the sandwich operation might not be up when they first open, depending on how the Health Department approval process goes). Meanwhile, their current retail/production location for PB&J Textiles is offering something timely:
That’s the display in the south windows of PB&J at 5962 Fauntleroy (map) – reusable bags, just in time for the proposed city tax on non-reusable shopping bags. (As the display notes, $4 will get you one of their bags or potentially 20 non-reusable bags, your choice!) You can buy them right there at the shop.
Just back from the scene (map). Victim is actually a 60-year-old woman, according to police, who also told WSB she was crossing against the light. Neighbors and officers were also helping the woman who hit her, who was sitting on the corner, sobbing inconsolably. Police say the woman who was hit should be OK – she was described as “stable” just as Medic 32 was about to pull away to take her to Harborview Medical Center to be checked out. The southbound lane was closed for a while but should be open again now as the scene clears. 11:59 AM ADDITION: We are choosing not to use the video we have that shows the driver, as police indicate it was not her fault. In this clip, as medics lift the victim onto a gurney to get her to M-32, you can somewhat hear the driver in the background (though we were standing as respectfully far away as we could) along with the voices of police/firefighters trying to comfort her. We think that’s an important part of the story; it was heartbreaking to hear. We are certainly going to think twice about jaywalking, even when it seems safe.
Thanks to Jeremy for the tip – since our last check of the King County website late last night, the Elliott Bay Water Taxi‘s full operating schedule has been posted online. Direct links to the schedule tables: Weekdays; weekends. (As first reported last month, the Water Taxi starts running April 27; the full schedule continues through Oct. 31.)
You saw it here first more than a month ago — word from Admiral Neighborhood Association president Mark Wainwright that Admiral Safeway was ready to “start the process of redeveloping the store.” Mark’s just sent out the reminder for tomorrow night’s ANA meeting with confirmation that the store site’s future is indeed on the agenda: “… some Safeway representatives and their design folks will join us to have a fairly informal discussion about the redevelopment of the Admiral store location. We won’t see any new design work at this point.The goal is to have a discussion about what people would like to see happen with the new development.” By the way, West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen will be a guest at the meeting, too. All are welcome, 7 pm tomorrow, Admiral Congregational church, California & Hill (map).
FAUNTLEROY SCHOOLHOUSE: Finally got word from Seattle Public Schools about the date/time of the official public hearing on the district’s plan to sell the schoolhouse, mentioned at the community meeting 2 weeks ago (WSB coverage here): It’s not on the district website yet, but SPS spokesperson David Tucker tells WSB the hearing is set for 6:30 pm April 29, at the schoolhouse.
RESIDENTIAL PARKING ZONES: As mentioned in our coverage of the impending Junction-area parking review (most recent update here), there’s a chance RPZ’s would be considered for the residential neighborhoods around the business district, which already report major parking crunches because of “park-n-hiders” and construction workers. The city is now officially reviewing RPZ policy and inviting you to fill out this online survey.
COUNTY CHANGES: Did you know there’s a hearing in West Seattle tomorrow night on more than a dozen amendments proposed to the King County Charter? Might sound dry but on the other hand, some of ’em might affect your life (see the list here). We somehow managed not to hear about the hearing till Julie Enevoldsen (thank you!) told us about it this afternoon. 6:30 pm tomorrow, Emerald Room at The Hall at Fauntleroy.
When the e-mail came in, our eyes insisted on reading “coop” as the word that’s short for cooperative. But no, it’s coop as in chicken coop. They’re legal in the city, and Seattle Tilth is now accepting chicken coops in West Seattle (as well as Georgetown and Beacon Hill) as candidates for their City Chickens Coop Tour. The tour’s on July 12 but the deadline to apply is May 1st; e-mail Seattle Tilth “city chickens coordinator” Angelina Shell, angelinashell@seattletilth.org, if you (and your chickens) are interested.
That’s how one parent volunteer describes the feeling now that construction of Gatewood Elementary‘s playground project is getting closer, after 3-plus years of hard work. What you see above was part of that hard work — the well-attended “Kids for Kids” event featuring ivy-munching goats (WSB video coverage here) last October. The next step in the work comes this Wednesday night — a community meeting at 6:30 pm in the Gatewood cafeteria. White says, “The purpose of this meeting is to make final decisions on the new play structure! We are now down to picking individual elements that will make up the toy, colors, extra features, etc. so that we can get our order placed and get this project done!” He also points out that not only has this resulted from endless hours of volunteer work but also from a $90,000 grant from the city Department of Neighborhoods and a $30,000 grant from the county Parks Department. So it’s truly a community project — even if you don’t have a child at Gatewood, the playground is a neighborhood resource/attraction, so you’re welcome to be there Wednesday night and have a say. (See the Gatewood site master plan here.)
The King County Council–Seattle City Council joint meeting on The Viaduct just concluded a moment ago, lasting a little more than 2 hours. As was hinted at the Seattle Council briefing on The Viaduct that we covered downtown one month ago (read our story here), the information presented today was more about related elements such as the Urban Mobility Plan — ways that we will get around either without, or despite, The Viaduct. And it did provide some glimpses into West Seattle’s possible transportation future — near-future (another Viaduct meeting in WS was just announced for next month) and far-future:Read More
This factoid didn’t make it into our original caucus report (see it, and its dozens of followup comments, here) — it was mentioned to us briefly on Saturday that Terry McAuliffe, national Clinton campaign chair, had dropped by the West Seattle High School gathering between 9 and 10 am, before the meeting officially started. We didn’t arrive till just after 10, so missed him. But eagle-eyed Cami MacNamara (editor of the Alki News Beacon) spotted photographic proof in, of all places, this Baltimore Sun political blog post (which focuses on the fact McAuliffe was photographed posing with Obama fans). P.S. Additional caucus photos are also up at the 34th District Democrats’ site; much of the discussion about Saturday’s process has centered on the ability to affect it by getting involved with the group – its next meeting is 7 pm this Wednesday, The Hall at Fauntleroy.
This new P-I story is a good – if scary – preview of the anti-youth-drinking town-hall event tomorrow night at South Seattle Community College, coordinated by Madison Middle School‘s Renae Gaines, who says the event is an “opportunity to come together to learn more about the new research on underage drinking and its impact on both individuals and the community, and to discuss how our community can implement the recommendations in The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to prevent underage alcohol use.” That’s 6 pm tomorrow @ SSCC. (More helpful info here at the Start Talking Before They Start Drinking site.)
Hiawatha Community Center coordinator Ryan Nakanishi asked us to help get out the word that HCC is closed tomorrow through next Sunday for floor-refinishing work. It’ll reopen Monday 4/14. (P.S. While doublechecking on this, we discovered there’s an extended closure for Southwest Pool later this year, June 16-Sept. 29, for “major capital improvements.”)
Out of the inbox this afternoon from M:
Our house just got egged while we were playing a board game near 15th Ave SW & Thistle. We ran outside but didn’t see anyone. I haven’t heard about this kind of thing happening around here recently.
Here’s a map for that location.
If you missed the news earlier this year, WSB is the new sponsor of West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day. The big day is Saturday 5/10; we’re opening registration this Thursday, 4/10. Check our WSCGSD website for full updates including the list of where you’ll be able to pick up mail-in forms if you don’t want to sign up online.
Thanks to Tammi for the tip – Beveridge Place Pub is closed for a few days while moving next door; according to the BPP website, it will reopen in the new spot 3 pm Thursday.
This is somewhat old news but we missed it somehow till two people pointed it out last night, so we’re posting it in case you missed it too. Just a few months after selling his Admiral store, which is now the Atomic Boys retro-stuff store, Alan Hart — longtime owner of Hart’s Cards and Gifts — has died at age 67. The obituary published at nwsource.com a few days ago notes he “thoroughly enjoyed his 2 months of retirement.” Here’s the online guest book mentioned in the obituary.
Out of the inbox, from Rey:
I park my car in a lot below Bartell in the Admiral District. (Friday) a patrol car came into the lot with their lights flashing. I was actually fixing a rear window of my car and someone reported that someone (me) was breaking into the car. The officer told me they were having problems with thief in this lot. Ironically (the previous Saturday) I went to take my car out and left my truck in its place. When I came back my truck was broken into and my stereo and many of my tools were missing. I thought I would let you know to get out the warning.
We’ve reported a couple incidents in this lot in previous West Seattle Crime Watch reports in recent months.
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