West Seattle, Washington
10 Sunday
One calendar highlight for tonight – the Southwest District Council IS having a July meeting. The agenda includes a summary of the two recent city “conversation” meetings – Councilmember Mike O’Brien on June 4th (WSB report here) and “West Seattle: Let’s Talk” last Saturday (WSB report here) and a report on the district’s proposed Neighborhood Park and Street Fund projects, as well as an update on progress toward creation of a West Seattle Land Use Committee. All are welcome – 6:30 pm, Senior Center of West Seattle (upstairs at Oregon/California). To see what else is on the calendar today, go here.
It’s been almost ten months since SDOT announced it was shelving and redesigning a plan to widen the bike lane and buffer on the Admiral Way hill north of the West Seattle Bridge – here’s the last thing we published, back in September. The city said residents had voiced concerns about loss of parking spaces and time restrictions on what remained. At the time, they said a new version would be out “early” this year. It’s just arrived today:
As you know, SDOT has been studying how to make the uphill bicycle lane on SW Admiral Way safer and more inviting by widening the bike lane and buffer from SW City View Street to 80 feet south of 3508 SW Admiral Way. We originally proposed to restrict on-street parking on the east side of SW Admiral Way within this section to allow for the improvement. After receiving concerns about the impacts, we delayed implementation of the project to work on an alternative that would preserve some on-street parking.
The attached revised design preserves on-street parking in front of the residences, while restricting parking in the green belt area. Time restrictions will not be installed. The work is expected to be completed this summer.
Here’s a closer look at each of the color-coded configurations:
See all of the above in one PDF with the configurations next to the map here. And if you want to compare it to what SDOT originally proposed in May 2013, you can see that map here.
P.S. Speaking of SDOT, Mayor Murray is set to announce at 11 am today who he’s chosen to be the department’s next director.
(WS high/low bridges and Highway 99 views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
We’re off to a late start this morning but it’s been quiet – perhaps the pre-holiday slowdown already. No road work this weekend, WSDOT reminds us; holiday transit changes for Friday are listed on the WSB 4th of July page.
(Photo by Don Brubeck)
What’s the police plan for Alki this 4th of July? We’ve been talking to Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Steve Wilske, who says that for starters, they’ve had additional patrols daily this week to “set the tone” for the 4th and also to guard against anything stemming from last Wednesday’s fight/stabbing. The precinct commander added that there are regular-duty officers specifically assigned to the beach, especially on third watch (evening and early am), and SPD continues “to use officers to close the beach at (11 pm), as well as requesting the assistance of the traffic unit and the parking enforcement unit when they are available to deal with some of the traffic congestion issues.” On the 4th of July itself, he says, “We will have a significant presence of both bike and foot officers starting about 4:00 pm on Friday. We are not planning to close down streets, particularly Alki, unless we have to for some reason such as clearing a path for the Seattle Fire Department. We will be continuing the emphasis on Saturday the 5th, and have it scheduled for every Friday and Saturday through the summer.”
(Photo by Rob Castillo)
July is not only the month for All-Stars to shine in the Major League Baseball world, it’s also time for youth baseball All-Stars too – and we have news of a West Seattle Baseball team on the way to the Pinto World Series. Leah shared the announcement:
Heat Advisory Warning – The West Seattle Baseball 8U All-Stars are on fire!
Congratulations to the West Seattle Super 8’s All Star team for winning the 8U PONY Regional Tournament at the Pee Wee Fields over the weekend. The championship results in the chance for these kids to go show their stuff at the Pinto World Series in San Jose on July 17-20. This is the third 8U Regional Championship that West Seattle has won since the tournament started in 2009, but the first time it has been sanctioned by PONY and resulted in a trip to the World Series.
The team will be doing a fundraiser to help cover some of their travel expenses. Look for more information to come on that. Congratulations, boys!
WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Here’s the GoFundMe site where you can chip in to help.
7:07 PM: Thanks to the texter who just sent word that the “low bridge” has been closed to traffic for about 40 minutes. Checking SDOT via Twitter, they report it’s “closed due to some gate issues” and that it should be fixed soon. Updates as we get them.
10:25 PM: No official SDOT updates since then; we’ve been watching this traffic camera and haven’t seen a vehicle cross.
Remember the car stolen from Queen Anne, found upside down in the water off Emma Schmitz Overlook?
(Photo republished with permission of Beach Drive Blog)
That’s the photo from Beach Drive Blog‘s original report early Sunday morning, June 22nd. We followed up with Seattle Police and Parks the next day and published this story. Right after the crarsh, Parks didn’t find noticeable seawall damage, but on second look, that assessment has changed. Update today from Parks spokesperson Joelle Hammerstad:
The crews who maintain the parks couldn’t tell if there was damage, but when our engineers went out there, they definitely found some. Please see attached pictures.
We are going to truss up the wall with structural steel as a temporary measure as we await a full replacement. We have been working with the Army Corps of Engineers for some time on a replacement project, and we expect that the replacement will happen sometime within the next two to three years.
BDB reported on the replacement plans back in April.
Demolition-for-redevelopment notes today:
4745 40TH SW TEARDOWN UNDERWAY: Thanks to Maris for the heads-up on Monday that backhoes had taken up position at the 40th/Edmunds project site. They hadn’t started work by day’s end but this afternoon, they’re taking down the office building on site, former home to businesses including what might be West Seattle’s biggest tech firm, Tango Card. (You’ll recall our story last August about its search for a new WS location, which it found not far away, in Jefferson Square.) 4745 40th SW won final Design Review approval in December (WSB coverage here), and applied for the demolition permit in March. is slated for 150 units and 115 parking spaces, with some live-work units and a relatively small commercial space on the ground floor, adjacent to the future city-park site to its north. (That site in turn will soon be the temporary home of Fire Station 32 while that station is rebuilt on its site in The Triangle at 37th/38th/Alaska.)
THREE DEMOLITION-PERMIT NOTES: From the city files today, all in single-family-house projects:
*1 DOWN, 2 UP AT 4316 SW THISTLE: A demolition-permit application is in for the site of this 106-year-old Gatewood house across from the top of the fabled Thistle stairway, as well as early word of two houses to replace it, pending a lot-boundary adjustment which has a case number but no documents on file so far; county data for the 7,500-sf site does show two lot numbers.
*1 DOWN, 1 UP AT 3426 38TH SW: The permit has just been granted for demolition of this 106-year-old bungalow, with a new house slated to replace it.
1 DOWN, 1 UP AT 4707 14TH SW: A demolition permit is sought for this 85-year-old house on 15,000 sf of land, where records show one new house is planned.
(Click image to see full-size PDF)
After two Early Design Guidance meetings ended with the Southwest Design Review Board basically saying “try again,” the developer of the former Charlestown Café site at 3824 California SW has hired a new architect going into its third round of EDG (scheduled for 8 pm July 10th, as previously noted). A spokesperson for developer Intracorp tell WSB that Johnston Architects is the firm now on the project, replacing Caron Architecture: “Their designs are quintessentially Northwest with an organic nature and human scale that Intracorp is seeking to capture for the 3824 California Ave. community. Intracorp has also added a new landscape architect, Karen Kiest, to the team. This team brings an immense amount of experience and creativity to the process of creating great places.” The proposal is now for 28 townhouse and live/work units instead of 30, and the list ahead was provided as a summary of major changes:
(Photo by Danny McMillin, at South Alki on Sunday – click image for larger view)
As the holiday nears, the calendar thins out a bit – but we have a few things of note for the hours ahead:
WADING POOLS & SPRAYPARK HOURS TODAY: Warm day in progress – so here are ways to stay cool! City wading pools open today are Lincoln Park (11 am-8 pm), Delridge (12-6:45 pm), South Park (12-7 pm). Highland Park Spraypark is open 11 am-8 pm.
WEST SEATTLE BIKE CONNECTIONS: Lots on the agenda for tonight’s monthly meeting, 6:30-8 pm, at HomeStreet Bank (WSB sponsor) in The Junction – details on the WSBC website. (41st/Alaska)
CHORAL CONCERT: 7:30 pm at Fauntleroy UCC Church, “Vashon Suite: No Bridges,” composed by Bronwyn Edwards, performed by the Vashon Island Chorale. Details on the church website. (9130 California SW)
LOTS OF NIGHTLIFE! Live music, trivia, bingo, more – see the individual listings on the calendar page.
Seattle Parks is again planning to keep the lights on at synthetic-turf fields to discourage fireworks, and says security will monitor for extended hours, too. This time, it’s planned for both Thursday and Friday (July 3-4). Three West Seattle fields are on the list for security monitoring 9 pm-4 am and lights 8:45-11 pm: Delridge, Hiawatha, and Walt Hundley, all of which have been renovated in recent years. We’re adding this to the WSB West Seattle 4th of July page, still open for other holiday info if you have something to share – editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!
Reminder from King County Elections – time’s running out to get in on the August 5th election, which is more than a primary – it’s also when Seattle voters will decide whether to approve creation of a Park District with permanent taxing authority to raise money for Seattle Parks:
On the day he was due to answer the most-recent “unlawful detainer” complaint from the owner of the North Delridge property that holds West Seattle Athletic Club, its owner Sam Adams advised King County Superior Court that he filed for bankruptcy over the weekend. 
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