West Seattle, Washington
18 Monday
Just in from the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce – the official announcement of its Business of the Year and Community Service award winners: Business of the Year goes to Tom Smith for Tom’s Automotive; Community Service goes to Warren Lawless. Both have worked in the West Seattle community for decades; according to the Chamber announcement, Tom’s has been in business for more than 37 years and — quoting the announcement regarding Warren Lawless — “Since 1938 he has been a constant force and a very active participant in numerous West Seattle organizations.” You can be on hand to honor them both when the WS C of C presents the awards during a breakfast event at Salty’s on Alki, 7:30 am April 9. The reservation deadline is next Thursday; go to the West Seattle Chamber website for more on that.
JoB sent that pastoral photo (thank you!) as snow flurries flitted through parts of West Seattle this afternoon (as discussed in this WSB Forum thread), hours after their cameo last night. More may be on the way. The forecast has the entire metro area under a “Snow Advisory” for 3 am-noon. If you want the technical-jargon version, here’s the “forecast discussion.” This wouldn’t be anywhere near the latest Seattle snowfall, though, according to this “Ask Steve (Pool)” page — which says April 17, 1972, holds that record. (Must have been weird weather times; that same month, a major tornado hit Vancouver, WA.)
This city news release today announced middle-school students from around the city chosen for the Mayor’s Scholar Awards; they had to write essays about how they contribute to their communities, and about what they would do with the $500 prize — here are the winners from West Seattle schools:
Mia Kaiser-Nielsen, Pathfinder K-8, 6th grade
Princess-Nyosha McWilliams, Pathfinder K-8, 8th grade
Adriana Tabile, Madison Middle School, 6th grade
Miranda Taylor, Denny Middle School, 8th grade
Amleset Tesfamariam, Madison Middle School, 8th grade
They and the other winners from around the city will be honored with a reception May 29. Meantime, reminder – if you’re ever looking for a comprehensive list of West Seattle schools, public and private, we have one with weblinks, addresses, and maplinks, on this page; we also have a section of the WSB Forums set aside for school-related discussion.
As we first showed you yesterday, that’s the banner inspired by the efforts of WSB Forum members who quickly and intensively launched a campaign to help Puget Sound Key and Lock rebuild from last Friday’s arson – and tonight, less than a week after the still-unsolved fire, following hours of collaboration and brainstorming plus lots of community help, they’ve set the date and place for a fundraising event: Saturday, April 19, Admiral Pub. Mark your calendar; more details to come. They’re also still soliciting auction items; please check out this forum thread if you can help with that. (Also, as the banner says, you can donate to the Puget Sound Key and Lock account at any Wells Fargo branch.)
We brought you news about sign-up season for West Seattle Little League and other area sports leagues some weeks back. Now – it’s game time! WSLL is celebrating its 50th anniversary, having started in 1958. And it’s got two major events in the next few days – here’s the official announcement:
TONIGHT: West Seattle Little League will hold our annual Parent Meeting this evening at 7pm at West Seattle High School Commons. The meeting will cover information and events for the upcoming season, including updates on plans for the $100,000 grant received this summer from Boeing and the Mariners. All families that are currently registered are encouraged to attend. Uniforms will be distributed to players. This is a great opportunity to meet your teammates and we will also hold a raffle for fun prizes!
SATURDAY: Please join West Seattle Little League’s season kickoff at our annual Jamboree! The event is held at Bar-S Field ( 6464 SW Admiral Way). Players are to arrive at 10 am. At 10:30 am, teams will be introduced with a ceremony following at 11 am. Exhibition games will begin at 11:30 am. To see the full schedule of games, tee ball through majors, go to www.westseattlelittleleague.com/jamboree.html. This event is open to the public. Our Snack Shack will offer full service throughout the day.
Sponsors are still needed for the 2008 Season. If you are interested in sponsoring a team, please contact us through our new and improved website: westseattlelittleleague.com.
PIZZA UPDATE: Further confirmation of the news we broke here two weeks ago — Olympia Pizza and Pasta is coming to the short-lived Pacino’s Coffee location at 5605 Delridge (map) — we drove by minutes ago and saw new yellow banners draped outside saying OLYMPIA PIZZA AND PASTA COMING SOON (didn’t have a camera along).
ROAD REPAIRS: The city Transportation Department says its crews are working on the shoulder of Delridge, 8100-8600 blocks, through Saturday afternoon, doing “utility repair work.”
Thanks to Matt for sending this alert circulated on a Gatewood list:
“We received two emails from folks around Heights Place SW & 41st Ave SW (2 blocks east of California; area shown on map at left) and both had cars broken into last night. One just rummaged through glove box but the other had a checkbook stolen. One also reported their neighbor had his SUV stolen last week.”
The results of last weekend’s inspection are out a day early. Here’s the full text of the news release from the state Department of Transportation – which says The Viaduct’s still sinking, good thing they’re shoring up columns (as featured in WSB video last month):Read More
Thanks to Sue for sending the link to the Seattle Condo Tour, with a “Downtown Seattle Tour” coming up April 5-6, and featuring … Sylvan Ridge Townhomes (High Point) and West Water (Morgan Junction) … and even Burien Town Square. Participants will shuttle from Fisher Plaza downtown.
The teardowns-to-townhouses complex going up in the 3400 block of California now has a name: Madison Heights, per the new sign shown above (which promises “luxury living”). This is what used to be there:
It’s one of the sites discussed in this “micropermitting” post that got citywide attention. P.S. Slightly north of this site, in case you were wondering, no decision yet in the Hinds-to-Hanford “upzoning” proposal.
They’re not ready to ask for your money yet – but they’re asking for ideas, and optimism. Board members of the Fauntleroy Community Services Agency convened a community meeting last night to lay out where things stand with Seattle Public Schools‘ decision to sell Fauntleroy Schoolhouse (one of five former schools now declared “surplus”) and FCSA’s hope of buying it — and it’s going to be a challenge, to say the least:Read More
First, a photo – this one from Mac, who asked this Seattle Police traffic officer for permission to take his picture – he obliged, then wished Mac a “good day” before zooming off to write a ticket. Not too much else happening in police-land according to our most recent review of reports at the Southwest Precinct:Read More
We told you March 10 about another round of city Parks Department public meetings heading this way to gather thoughts on the new Strategic Action Plan, developed after the first round of meetings (WSB coverage here) late last year. The draft plan is online (here), and that’s not all:Read More
With BlueStar‘s announcement today of Gateway Center (earlier WSB coverage here), seemed like a good excuse to put together a clickable map of what’s been announced in the area so far. Each spot on the map will click to a brief description of what’s happening there plus a link to our most recent report about it, if applicable. We added some of the real estate that’s up for sale in the area. Certainly more parcels than this are in play (lots more ex-Huling/Gee land, for example), but this is a start. We’ll add to it as it goes and find it a home of its own soon, but here’s version 1.0.
We broke the news here 2 1/2 weeks ago about the Homestead being up for sale (the business, not the building). Today while researching West Seattle development/real estate for an upcoming update on this morning’s Gateway Center announcement, we happened onto this: The Duke’s on Alki building, described as “10-year lease to Duke’s Chowder House on the main two floors plus unique penthouse,” listed at $3,950,000. Just left a message at Duke’s HQ to see if we can find out more. THURSDAY EVENING UPDATE: Got a message back from Duke Moscrip himself; he stresses, THE RESTAURANT IS NOT FOR SALE – just the building. Duke’s, he says, is expanding its “concept” to more locations elsewhere (and in fact, a liquor-license application has just been filed for the Southcenter location he mentioned) but is not selling the actual Alki restaurant, just the building.
“West Seattle 101” author Lori Hinton just saw one running down her Upper Fauntleroy street. “Right past a ‘Coyote Warning’ sign,” she adds. (By the way, we will add two more pages tomorrow to our new “West Seattle 101” section featuring selections from Lori’s book – including a spotlight on one of WSB readers’ favorite restaurants – look for the official announcement in the morning.)
As reported here Monday night, Puget Sound Key and Lock owner Michael Dein said at the fundraiser organizing meeting that he would affirm his rebuilding promise by putting up this banner – and today, we got the photographic proof. (If the text isn’t entirely clear on your browser, it says “Thank you, West Seattle, for your love and support/WE ARE REBUILDING/Donations can be made at Wells Fargo Bank to Puget Sound Key and Lock Fund.” That, of course, is the donation account set up by the WSB Forum members who are planning the fundraiser – date and place still being worked out – if you want to get involved, check out this forum thread – organizers also are looking for auction items. Meantime, still no word from police on arrests or big breaks in last Friday morning’s arson, but it’s a priority for the Arson and Bomb unit; if you have any information, call 911 or the arson hotline (800-55-ARSON).
On the night the Seattle School Board votes on a new “surplus property” policy, the Fauntleroy Community Association invites everyone interested in the future of one of those properties, the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, to gather there tonight, 6:30-8 pm, The Hall @ Fauntleroy.
This just in from BlueStar (which also provided the rendering shown above – we’re heading out for a different angle on the existing building so you can better compare the before/after):
BlueStar Management, Inc., of Shoreline, Washington announced today plans for “Gateway Center,” a mixed-use project to be developed on a one-acre site at the northeast corner of Fauntleroy Way and SW Alaska St. (adjacent to 39th Avenue SW).
The site is directly across the street (39th Ave. SW) from Fauntleroy Place, another BlueStar Management, Inc. project set to break ground in May, 2008. Fauntleroy Place will feature Whole Foods Market, Hancock Fabrics and 170 apartment homes.
BlueStar is also the developer of Spring Hill, a mixed-use development at the 5000 block of California Ave. S.W. in West Seattle, which is currently in the permitting phase.
Preliminary plans for Gateway Center include more than 100 residential units along with 47,000 square feet of commercial space on two floors. Marketing for the commercial space is underway.
Gateway Center Fast Facts*:
-6-Story building (four floors of living space above two levels of commercial)
-3 floors of underground parking (250 individual stalls)
-100+ residential units
-47,000 sq. ft. of total retail
-Construction is anticipated to begin in late 2009
-Completion expected in early 2011
-Commercial leasing is available now!
-Contact for leasing – Robert Mitchell, Associate Broker, 206-455-1165*(subject to change)
ADDED 10:20 AM: The logo on the rendering is for Collins Woerman, which is also the current architect on Fauntleroy Place (here’s BlueStar’s page for that project). If you haven’t read before about Spring Hill, which is also mentioned in BlueStar’s press release above, here’s our most recent coverage. We’re now working on a “roundup of announced West Seattle megaprojects” to post later today, since it’s now getting to be almost difficult even for us to keep up with, and we track ’em (among other news) for a living!
Thanks to Greg for pointing out the Pearl Jam message board thread on this. Not like we travel in rock ‘n’ roll circles or anything, so it’s news to us and maybe to you too: West Seattle’s Most Famous Musician, Eddie Vedder, played Kenyon Hall (35th just south of Kenyon) the last two nights. The fans are particularly abuzz about the limited-edition poster (you can see it here; also, somebody’s already selling one on eBay).
First, The Boss – it’s been mentioned here before but time’s almost up: Bid on two tickets to see Bruce Springsteen Saturday and get into the E Street Lounge – proceeds benefit the West Seattle Food Bank. Bidding ends 6 pm tomorrow (Wednesday); place your bid here. Second, the other food bank that serves WS, the White Center Food Bank, has a sudden need for a nutritionist – WCFB boss Rick Jump e-mailed WSB looking for one who can volunteer Wednesday mornings:
I have just learned that our current nutritionists are unable to continue the cooking classes at the WCFB. … Cooking demos are held Wednesday mornings from spproximately 10 am to 11 am. Volunteers take product from the food bank, develop a nutritious recipe & type it out, demonstrate how to prepare it and then offer clients a sample to taste. This program has been extremely popular with our clients. A current food-handlers permit is required. Volunteers may volunteer one or more days per month. Interested persons should contact Rick Jump at 206.762.2848 or by e-mail at rjump_wcfb (at) yahoo.com.
When we interviewed Jump for this video feature on WCFB, he told a great success story about those recipe demonstrations — how the nutritionists managed to take an unpopular donation of figs and turn it into a smash hit by creating a granola recipe. You can be the next creative chef to follow in their food-steps.
Spent the lunch hour today at a gathering in The Junction where reps from Conner Homes — developers of the upcoming buildings @ California/Alaska/42nd (city map above) — met local leaders, to start keeping their promise of making the rounds to talk about the megaproject, and to listen:Read More
We first told you one month ago about the West Seattle Walking Trails project, as the map was made public for comment — now, Chas Redmond e-mails to say it’s time for the next step, development of wayfinding kiosks — and today, there’s a call for artists. Read on:Read More
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