West Seattle, Washington
06 Sunday
Be on the lookout for his van full of work tools, stolen from the Westwood Village area. It’s a white 1995 Econoline utility van, no back or side windows, two ladder racks that – at least at the time of the theft – carried two yellow ladders. License plates are Washington B88338H; there’s no signage on the van, the owner says, but there’s a “crease in the back passenger side corner panel.” It was taken sometime between 10 pm Monday and 6 am Tuesday near 24th and Barton (map), and has been reported to Seattle Police, so if you see it or have information about it, call 911 (as SPD advises in its tweets about this and all stolen vehicles).
Thanks to the Fauntleroy Community Association for allowing us to republish that photo from the FCA Facebook page – FCA past president Bruce Butterfield took it after finding old West Seattle street signs at Seattle Antique Market on the downtown waterfront. P.S. The city still sells old signs direct to the public, too – info’s here (and if you follow the “inventory” link, you’ll see it was updated just a week ago). Now, on to the future in our belated daily roundup – six events you might want to know about for tonight:
HEALTHY FAMILIES CELEBRATION: Fun, food, more this evening at Neighborhood House‘s High Point Center, 5-8 pm – details in our calendar listing. (6400 Sylvan Way SW)
PUB RUN: West Seattle Runner (WSB sponsor) is the launch point for a pub run sponsored by Adidas tonight; meet at the shop (California/Charlestown) at 6:30 pm, try on Adidas shoes if you’re interested, head out on a 3-mile run, meeting at Spiro’s Pizza and Pasta (California/Hinds) afterward, where, WSR says, Adidas buys the first round of beer and provides free pint glasses to all, as well as prizes for highest scorers in “trivia games about running, adidas and West Seattle Runner.”
SUBSTATIONS MEETING: If you’re near one of the former substation properties whose future will be determined soon by Seattle City Light, you might want to come to tonight’s meeting, 6:30 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center – see our preview from last night to find out about the locations – some are on tonight’s agenda, while some will be discussed at a different meeting next week. (4408 Delridge Way SW)
NATURE WALK: Explore Lincoln Park with naturalist Stewart Wechsler – looking and listening for owls and more. 7 pm; details in our listing.
‘UNPLUGGED!’: The Seattle Classic Guitar Society‘s open-microphone event is 7-9 pm tonight at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) – details in our calendar listing. (5612 California SW)
CYRCUS NIGHT: 9-11 pm Wednesdays at Shadowland in The Junction, it’s a free aerial-arts and circus show – details here. (California/Oregon)
(WSB photo taken Tuesday afternoon)
The next phase of pre-construction work is under way this week across the street from Lowman Beach Park – the county has begun demolition of the six residential buildings vacated more than a year ago on the inland side of Beach Drive, where an underground storage tank will be built to reduce combined-sewer overflows from the Murray Pump Station across the street. The county began “deconstruction” and salvage work weeks ago (with a requirement that “at least 25 percent of the materials from the site” be salvaged, and now has brought in the heavy equipment to tear down what remains of the former residences. As announced by King County at last month’s Morgan Community Association meeting, “After the buildings are down, the contractor will fill in the foundations with soil to ensure the site remains stable and safe until facility construction begins later this year.”
A memorial is planned Saturday (August 24th) to remember Don Lenning, a lifelong West Seattle resident who died this week at age 66. Here’s a remembrance shared by his family:
Donald Gene Lenning
December 4, 1946 – August 19, 2013
Don graduated from West Seattle High School in 1965 and remained a lifelong resident of West Seattle. He was a University of Washington Graduate and served his country honorably in the Vietnam War.
Don is survived by his wife Kris and daughter Alexa. He is also survived by three sisters, Audrey Anderson, Margaret Norberg, and Loretta Kirby, along with numerous nieces and nephews.
Don fought a long and courageous battle against cancer; he recently led his Sundancers team at the West Seattle Relay for Life event.
The family extends their heartfelt gratitude to his caregivers including Dr. Milder and the Swedish Medical Center staff. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the American Cancer Society
There will be a Celebration of Life Saturday, August 24, 2013 at 2:00 pm at the West Seattle Golf Course. Don was an avid golfer.
(WSB publishes obituaries by request, free of charge. Please e-mail the text, and a photo if available, to editor@westseattleblog.com)
While many schools start up two weeks from today (!) the Seattle Public Library wants to make sure kids and their families are aware its Summer Reading Program isn’t over yet. And they can get credit for reading they’ve already done:
If you know a child who has or will read 10 books this summer, bring them to your local library branch to fill out their Reading Certificate. Each finisher receives PRIZES! They will receive a free book of their very own, a family pass to go to the Burke Museum for FREE and their name on our Wall of Champions. If they haven’t read 10 books, that’s okay. They can receive a cool window cling for reading 5 books!
Our area has four SPL branches – find the one nearest you by going here. The Summer Reading Program officially ends on August 31st, but that’s still ten days away.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; other cameras are on the WSB Traffic page)
The Dumar/Orchard closure continues today; that’s it for scheduled road work requiring detours. Looking ahead to the weekend again, the northbound I-5 exit to West Seattle Bridge will be closed Friday night-Monday morning; the Alki Beach 5K route on Alki Avenue will be closed Sunday morning.
Two robbers and two victims in a holdup late Tuesday night: We heard fragments of this via the scanner, 
and now we’ve heard directly from one victim, whose name we’ll abbreviate to “M.” He wrote, “My friend and I were robbed by two armed men at gunpoint; they asked for our phones. It took place on California and Ferry [map] at around 10:45 pm; be careful and be on the lookout.” He says the robbers approached from behind, “displayed their weapon and said ‘this is a stickup,” then walked us down the hill far enough to be in the shadow, and took our things.” He described one as Hispanic, 5’8″, in a gray hoodie, the other African-American, 5’10”, in a “purple Husky hoodie,” both male, both wearing shorts. Last we heard on the scanner, poilce hadn’t found the robbers, but we’ll doublecheck later this morning.
4:54 AM: Commenter Eric asked about a recap of other recent armed street robberies. Checking our files and the SPD map (which only has a “robberies” category, so note that not all incidents showing with that icon are holdups like this):
–Monday night (August 18th), 5800 block of SW Lander (no details online, will check with SPD)
–Thursday morning (August 15th), 2600 block of SW Thistle, knifepoint holdup, phone stolen, arrest made when phone tracked by GPS (23-year-old suspect Tyler Lambert has been charged and is still in jail)
–August 3rd, 30th and Myrtle (this case and the next one were both covered in this story)
–August 1st, 5200 block 16th SW
ADDED: We procured the Monday night Alki robbery report from SPD, as noted in comments. The report says it happened at Whale Tail Park just before 6 pm Monday; the victim was listening to music on his iPhone when he was approached by three people (no descriptions are included in the section of the report we received, except that one was female). One of them asked the victim if they could use his phone to make a phone call. The victim handed over his phone, and the robber/thief said “it’s mine now.” While he did not display a gun or say he had one, the report says the victim said he had reason to believe he did. The three then ran southbound from the park; the victim went to a friend’s home nearby and called his mom, who called 911 an unspecified time later, after she and her son drove around looking for the robbers. No injuries reported.
That map, first shown here last month after a presentation to the Admiral Neighborhood Association, spotlights nine Seattle City Light-owned properties from West Seattle to Burien to Seatac that the utility doesn’t need any more. Now the city has to decide what to do with them – sell them? transfer them to another city department? or? – and here’s where you come in: Two community meetings are planned in the next week for questions and comments.
First: To see the addresses, go to this page; click on any or all of the addresses on the left side of the page, and you’ll see photos/info come up on the right.
Second: If the Andover, Delridge, Dumar, and/or White Center (which is actually located in Highland Park) sites interest you, you’ll want to be at the meeting tomorrow night (Wednesday, August 21st) at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW), 7-9 pm. If you’re interested in the Dakota, Fauntleroy, Ambaum, and/or Glendale sites, they’ll be the focus of a meeting one week from tonight (Tuesday, August 27th) at High Point Community Center (6920 34th SW), 7-9 pm. The city also promises a more-formal hearing in October in West Seattle, before the decisionmaking moves to another phase.
Following up on our Monday report about the attack on a WSDOT worker posting notices in the 9500 block of Myers Way (map): 36-year-old Matthew Hadley is now charged with second-degree assault. The court documents include the same narrative we reported here yesterday (follow the “Monday report” link above) – with one additional detail: The suspect’s weapon was a folding knife with a three-and-a-half-inch blade. So far, the jail register indicates Hadley’s bail on the assault charge remains at $10,000, but he is also being held on a no-bail federal warrant dated this past May, issued for an unspecified weapons offense. Court documents say that’s the only criminal history prosecutors have found for Hadley, so far.
That’s the cover image for the “packet” put together by Nicholson Kovalchick Architects for their Junction Flats project at 4433 42nd SW (map), across from Hope Lutheran School/Church in The Junction. The city uploaded it today, in advance of the project’s next Southwest Design Review Board session, which (as first reported here last month) is set for 6:30 pm Thursday, August 29th, at the Senior Center of West Seattle. The project is currently described as four stories, 78 apartments, 2 live-work units, and 52 parking spaces, set for a site that currently holds three single-family homes. You can see the full packet for yourself by going here. The project’s previous SWDRB meeting, for Early Design Guidance, was in January; here’s the final city report.
Finally an answer to a question we’re asked relatively frequently – what’s going into the former Blockbuster space in Admiral? You’ll recall it closed a year and a half ago, and then the parking lot became a pay lot three months later, suggesting a new tenant/owner wasn’t expected any time soon. But finally, someone IS getting ready to move in: Anytime Fitness is relocating from Charlestown Center.
We got the tip from WSB’er JayDee, and the move was confirmed today by Jacob Saldana, who bought Anytime Fitness along with his brothers in December of last year. He tells WSB they are starting demolition at the new location this week. “The space will be about double our current size and will give us about 6,500 square feet.” He says they’ve been working on expanding the club since they bought it: “It has always been our intention to provide a more functional, community gym that would fulfill all of the needs of our members and in order to do so we felt that we had to find a new location. We can’t wait for the opportunity to bring some of our programs that we have created at our Capitol Hill location to West Seattle. The new space will have enough room to accommodate showers, group exercise, and a more open free weight area. However, the gym will still be a manageable size that will allow us to provide excellent customer service and build relationships with our members rather than leaving them feeling as if they’re just another number.” They’re hoping to move into the new location (2222 California) by the end of the year
Just in from Seattle Parks:
The Highland Park Spraypark will be closed on Wednesday for the contractor (Vortex) to replace faulty filter valves and install a new control electrical board. The park will reopen on Thursday at 11:00 am.
P.S. If you want to go to a wading pool instead, please note that Lincoln Park is the only one open for the remaining almost-two-weeks of summer (here’s the citywide schedule).
A text about 45 minutes ago asked if there had been an earthquake; we checked the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network‘s site, and at the time, nothing was showing – subsequently, though, PNSN has posted information on a 3.6 earthquake that did happen right about then, but nowhere nearby. We’re mentioning it because we’ve since received a few more inquiries. See it on the map here; the epicenter was equidistant from Bremerton and Tacoma, according to the earthquake’s “event page.” P.S. Are you prepared, in case something big hits? Check out the West Seattle Be Prepared website and find your nearest hub, for starters.
12:40 PM NOTE: Eric reminds us via Facebook that geologists would appreciate getting an official report from everyone who did feel it – the link is here.
(Photo by Robin Lindsey)
Two updates from Seal Sitters today. Robin Lindsey says that in addition to two newborn pups in recent weeks, two newly weaned pups have shown up on West Seattle beaches in the past few days. Above is the pup nicknamed “Perky” (also shown in a reader-contributed photo on the WSB Facebook page); Robin says, “Another pup spent yesterday afternoon and night at Emma Schmitz viewpoint. The thin pup just returned to the Sound about an hour ago. We’d like everyone to be on the alert and make sure you call our hotline @ 206-905-7325 (SEAL) if you come across a pup on the beach. … As always, we need to ask people to respect the tape perimeters. It is crucial that pups are able to rest undisturbed in order to survive this challenging time!” Read more on Seal Sitters’ “Blubberblog” website.
KIDS’ CONTEST – ONE MORE CALL FOR ENTRIES! Young artists/writers in kindergarten through 5th grade have until this Sunday (August 25th) to enter the Seal Sitters’ contest for creations to be displayed during the Harbor Seal Day event at Alki Bathhouse on September 8th – great project for these waning days of summer! Read all about it, including how to enter, by going here.
Very busy Saturday ahead in the courtyard next to Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor), with two events on tap, and you’re invited to be part of both!
GROUP GARAGE/CRAFT SALE – WITH SPACES STILL AVAILABLE: 9 am-3 pm Saturday (August 24), Hotwire is hosting a group garage & craft sale; proprietor Lora Swift says, “We still have some spaces left, so if people would like to join in they can e-mail me, lora@hotwirecoffee.com. The spaces are FREE 10×10 spots and all are welcome. We are taking garage sales, craft booths, artists, just about anything you would like to sell.” Load-in will be at 8 am.
‘SPINAL TAP’ CLOSES OUTDOOR-MOVIE SEASON: Then on Saturday night, also in the courtyard (4410 California SW), the comedy/rock classic “This Is Spinal Tap” (trailer here) wraps up this year’s West Seattle Outdoor Movies series. Doors open at 6:30 so you can stake out your spot (BYO chair/blanket); movie’s at dusk, 8:30ish. Free, but concessions and raffles raise money for local nonprofits, so bring a few $ if you can!
(Bushtit photographed by Mark Wangerin in Fauntleroy Park – read about this bird here)
Happy Tuesday! Here are a half-dozen highlights from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
BABY STORY TIME: 4- to 12-month-olds (and their grownup chaperones) are invited to Southwest Branch Library at 11:30 am for story time – including rhymes and songs. (35th/Henderson)
CUTIE-LICIOUS FELT CREATURES: “The world’s cutest felt creatures” will be featured/created at Delridge Branch Library this afternoon, in an event for tweens and teens (12-18) – all materials supplied! 2-4 pm. (Delridge/Brandon)
BRAIN INJURY SUPPORT GROUP: 3-5 pm, Hope Lutheran Church. There are other local meetings too – read about them in our calendar listing. (42nd/Oregon)
WEST SEATTLE TOOL LIBRARY: One full month left in summer – don’t put off your project(s) any longer; the WS Tool Library has Tuesday night hours, 5-8 pm, on the northeast side of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. (4408 Delridge Way SW)
JUNCTION NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZATION: This relaunched community council is for everyone who works and/or lives and/or is otherwise interested in the Junction/Triangle area – backstory’s in our calendar listing. Tonight’s discussion will include the 4722 Fauntleroy Way drugstore proposal first reported here three weeks ago. Tonight’s JuNO meeting starts at 6:30 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle. (California/Oregon)
BELLYDANCING AT SKYLARK: Shimmy over to Skylark Café and Club, where the monthly Alauda bellydancing showcase – free, all ages – starts at 7:30 pm. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
Food banks aren’t just for food, as this request reminds us:
The West Seattle Food Bank distributes books of all kinds to their clients. Children’s picture books and toddler board books are especially needed right now. If you have books in good condition, please consider donating them to the Food Bank. You can drop them off Monday through Friday 9 am to 3 pm, or Wednesday until 7 pm (Monday and Wednesday are the best drop-off times) The Food Bank is on the corner of 35th Avenue SW and SW Morgan St. (enter through the garage on Morgan). YOUR DONATIONS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
(Live view of the 1st Ave. S. Bridge, looking south at northbound lanes)
That’s a state-run camera again this morning, as we wait for the city traffic cameras to stabilize. Meanwhile, the pre-scheduled traffic alerts:
*Dumar/Orchard between Delridge and (almost) 16th still closed
Looking ahead:
*Northbound I-5 exit to West Seattle Bridge closed Friday night-Monday morning
*Alki Beach 5K route closed Sunday morning
TUESDAY AFTERNOON P.S. The city cams are back – see them on the WSB Traffic page.
That photo is from tonight’s Sustainable West Seattle community picnic at Lincoln Park, where SWS (whose president Kimberly Leeper is second from right) honored West Seattle Bike Connections (4 reps at left) as Sustainability Champions and “Diver Laura” James (at right) as Volunteer of the Year. Here’s our video of the back-to-back presentations – and speeches:
As members explained in the clip, WSBC is a relatively new group – its early organizational outreach last year, in fact, involved the WSB Forums. WSBC has since gotten deeply involved in advocacy for safety, for a louder West Seattle voice in transportation planning, and much more. You can find WSBC online here.
“Diver Laura,” meantime, at first gained attention for her amazing underwater video and cleanup work – and then got increasingly involved in organized environmental advocacy, taking over the Tox-Ick Monster runoff-reducing campaign and most recently joining up with Puget Soundkeeper Alliance.
The announcements were part of an annual tradition for SWS, now in its seventh year (first mentioned here on WSB in the summer of 2007) – a celebratory summer picnic:
This past year, its meetings continued evolving into community forums, focusing on a particular sustainability topic for more than one month at a time – such as a popular series on gardening. Watch for upcoming events – not just sponsored by SWS, but related to sustainability, all over the peninsula – on the group’s frequently updated website.
Think politicians tend to live in fancy mansions? Some might. But for more than a quarter of a century, Greg Nickels, two-term mayor of Seattle, and wife Sharon Nickels have resided in a humble Craftsman bungalow in North Admiral, where they hosted a party on Sunday afternoon. The benefit for the Southwest Seattle Historical Society celebrated the 100-year history of the Nickels family’s home, as well as its restoration, and the concept of restoring and researching any not-so-new home. We were there for the early going, with dozens there to look, listen, and learn:
We also recorded video of the warm introduction by SWSHS executive director Clay Eals, and then Greg Nickels’ remarks, humorous and informative:
He had many memories to share, including dealing with the rust-colored shag carpet you might remember from this photo shown in some of the pre-event previews:
But as Eals said, the event wasn’t just a look back – it was also meant to create new memories, and new history at which attendees and others will look back, years down the road. Also featured was Greg Lange from the King County Archives; we weren’t able to stay to record what he had to say, but you can learn a lot about property research – current and past information – via the county website.
Watch the SWSHS website for more on Sunday’s event and other frequently updated content; you can even go there right now for details of SWSHS events coming up, including a West Seattle-centric 9/11 commemoration on Sunday, September 8th, at Alki Arts, displaying the bags from the luminarias that were displayed at the Alki Statue of Liberty starting the night after the attack 12 years ago – details here. (The day before that – September 7th – is the next informational session for potential volunteers; read about that here.)
(West Seattle’s last PARKing Day mini-park, 2010)
5:04 PM: PARK(ing) Day is coming 
up on Friday, September 20th, and applications to participate are now available. Started in San Francisco back in 2005, it’s now an annual worldwide event where on-street parking spots are turned into temporary mini-parks, just for one day, to promote sustainability and more-livable cities. West Seattle hasn’t had a mini-park since 2010, so if you’re interested in being the next to host a park, apply ASAP – you’ll need to get your application in by August 30th (one week from this Friday).
It’s free to apply; you will have to submit your proposal to the Seattle Department of Transportation to show that it meets safety guidelines. Go here for more info, including application criteria, frequently asked questions, and photos of past years’ parks around the city.
6:51 PM: Just found out at the Sustainable West Seattle community picnic (separate report to come) that at least one application is in for a West Seattle PARKing Day park – Kathy Dunn from West Seattle Bike Connections mentioned that she is working on one for an area in front of Mashiko and Husky Deli in The Junction.
(Photo tweeted by @mayormcginn account)
To the classic “no shirt, no shoes, no service,” you can add “no gun” for Seattle businesses who join a campaign launched today by Washington Ceasefire, with the support of Mayor McGinn. The campaign formally announced this morning on Capitol Hill (photo above) encourages any interested business, anywhere in the city limits, to declare itself a “Gun-Free Zone”; the voluntary sign-up form is here, along with links to download pre-produced signs such as this one:
The same link will take you to an FAQ explaining that it’s “generally” within business owners’ rights to set rules that could include banning particular items from their property, and if those rules exist, police could be called to deal with rule violators as trespassers. Washington Ceasefire director Ralph Fascitelli is quoted on his organization’s website as saying, “We know this won’t stop someone determined to cause violence, but we hope that standing together and giving businesses a tool to say no to guns will change the conversation around gun violence.”
So far, the only West Seattle-linked business on the list of participants (scroll down that same page) is Cupcake Royale; we walked by the Junction location around noon and didn’t see a sign up at the Junction location, but will be checking on the company’s plans. Any other local businesses planning to support this campaign? Or, for that matter, to actively oppose it? Let us know.
This will likely explain more no-parking signs you’ll see today and later this week – another round of Seattle Public Schools portable-classroom moves in West Seattle. The newest list includes two portable-moving operations headed OUT of this area:
Overnight tonight, by 6 am Tuesday – From Boren (5950 Delridge) to Schmitz Park Elementary (50th/Spokane)
Overnight Tuesday night, by 6 am Wednesday – From Boren to View Ridge Elementary
Overnight Thursday night, by 6 am Friday – From Genesee Hill (50th/Genesee) to Jane Addams
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