West Seattle, Washington
25 Tuesday
Thanks to John Hinkey for the Alki photo from today’s low tide, -2 feet just before noon. This weekend, the afternoon low tides will be even lower: -2.6 at 12:43 pm on Saturday, -2.7 at 1:29 pm on Sunday. (Tomorrow, of course, Lincoln Park is the place to be before, during, and after the low-low tide – beach naturalists are part of the second installment of the Fauntleroy Community Association-presented Celebrate Lincoln Park, 10:30 am-2:30 pm tomorrow, full schedule here.)
If you’ve been to Alki Community Center, you know its lobby is a bit snug. That situation is finally about to improve, reports Liesa Rose, president of the Alki Advisory Council:
I have exciting news to share. After a 3-year effort of ideas, design, bids, and negotiations, Alki Community Center’s lobby will be expanded slightly. Construction by a Seattle Parks Dept. crew started on Tuesday 4/23. This project was my idea and supported by the Alki Advisory Council, Associated Recreation Council and the Seattle Parks Dept.
The current exterior roof overhang space will be enclosed to add about 300 square feet. We hope the community will enjoy the new space to sit, read, play games, and chat with friends.
Attached is a picture of the start of construction and 2 PDFs of the designs showing the new exterior and new interior. The entry doors will be moved to the west. Construction will be funded by the Alki Advisory Council / ARC and the Seattle Parks and Recreation Dept.
We hope this project will be finished at the end of May.
Thanks to Jason for the photo from 16th and Thistle. The call first went out as “automobile rescue,” but Seattle Fire responders were canceled shortly thereafter, since apparently everyone got out OK. No major inuries reported.
(“Character” rendering of 4535 44th SW proposal, by Nicholson Kovalchick Architects)>
With two weeks till the first Southwest Design Review Board meeting about 4535 44th SW, the project’s “design packet” is now online, for anyone who wants a preview (see the 27-page PDF here). When we first reported on the proposal in mid-March, the early online documentation referred to it as “micros” – a hot-button word citywide right now – and then a later version used the term “studios.” Now, the project bears the name Lofts at the Junction, with some other changes – the plan now calls for a 4-story building with around 27 studio apartments (depending on the final approved configuration) and six live-work units – three along the 44th SW facade, three along the Glenn Way facade. No on-site parking; none required under city code, because it’s near what’s considered rapid transit (on SW Alaska). The review is scheduled for 6:30 pm Thursday 5/9 at the Senior Center of West Seattle (here’s the official notice, which explains how to comment in advance, whether or not you plan to be at the meeting).
P.S. If you’re interested in the Design Review process in general, the City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability Committee plans a public hearing at City Hall next Monday, 5:30 pm, on new guidelines regarding how it works and what it’s about – here’s the agenda.
Tonight, when Sanislo Elementary parents, staffers, and supporters gather for a benefit at Highland Park Improvement Club, they’ve got a new conversation topic – Superintendent José Banda has just announced their school’s new principal:
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Bruce J. Rhodes as your new principal, effective July 1, 2013
Mr. Rhodes comes to Sanislo from John Stanford International School where he was assistant principal. He is committed to increasing academic achievement, increasing professional development for staff working with English Language Learners, and increasing parent participation, and he will be a great fit for the Sanislo community.
After Seattle Parks announced last week that thieves had stolen almost a quarter-mile of copper wiring from the Delridge Playfield lighting system, they thought it might take two weeks to repair. Instead, the lights are already back on, after a fix that took just days. After a couple reader tips, we followed up with Parks, and spokesperson Joelle Hammerstad told WSB today that “After discovering an electrical contractor could not do the work (there), our Electric Shop team put together a plan and worked straight through the weekend to restore lights by Monday night, just one week after the problem was reported. On Tuesday night, normal activities resumed.” No arrests reported yet.
Two updates today from Firefly Café and Creperie (WSB sponsor) – first, proprietor Charell Estby announced today that an organic juice bar is in the works! She tells us she’s “hoping to have it operational by the end of May.” It’ll be incorporated into existing space – and, the reason for the photo above: Official outdoor seating is in the works, pending a city permit, too. (Charell also points out that she found a carpenter by posting a help-wanted ad in the WSB Forums‘ free-to-post “WS Jobs Offered” section.) Meantime, just yesterday, Charell drove a load of donations over to WestSide Baby …
She is continuing to accept car seats (in good shape) and diaper donations for WS Baby through the end of the month (Tuesday, April 30) – and she’s been matching each car-seat donation with a package of diapers herself! Haven’t been to Firefly yet? Northeast corner of California and Genesee on the north edge of The Junction.
With registration closed and map-making under way, looks like the 9th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day might set a record – pending a few last-minute doublechecks, we have about 280 sales! 9 am-3 pm Saturday, May 11th, is when the peninsula will transform into a maelstrom of selling, buying, and browsing, with sales of all sizes, all over West Seattle. As usual, we will have two versions of the map – a clickable online version you can explore in a variety of ways, and a printable multiple-page PDF including map sections and the sales’ individual listings. They’ll be available via the official WSCGSD website, and here too. We also invite sellers, especially in the final week – once we have numbers locked down so they can refer to “sale #xx” – to share additional information on the WSCGSD Facebook page, if they’re interested. Maps will be available May 4th; sale day is May 11th.
Here’s what the “No Parking” signs along Fauntleroy between Brandon and Graham are for – Seattle City Light will be out tomorrow, 7 am-8 pm, working on overhead lines along four blocks. It’s part of a system upgrade for an area that’s been operating on an old, low-capacity system, according to SCL – full details on the work and upgrades, here.
Just in from West Seattle pilot/photographer Long Bach Nguyen – that beautiful aerial of our wonderful peninsula – which is awash in cool happenings today/tonight. Full list is on our calendar; here are 10 highlights from that list:
FREE SOUP-AND-SANDWICH LUNCH: Seaview United Methodist Church invites you to this free monthly community lunch, 11:30 am. (4620 SW Graham)
WYATT’S JEWELERS ANNIVERSARY: 5-7 pm tonight, enjoy refreshments, raffle, and Mother’s Day shopping at longtime WSB sponsor Wyatt’s Jewelers. (Westwood Village)
RAINBOW BINGO: Doors open at 6, bingo at 7, with a Las Vegas theme this month – call the Senior Center of West Seattle pronto to make sure you have a reservation! (California/Oregon)
MADISON MS BENEFIT: 6-9 pm, dance with not only Madison Middle School musicians but also the West Seattle Big Band! Details in our preview. (45th/Spokane)
SANISLO ELEMENTARY BENEFIT: 21+ event – community invited! – tonight at Highland Park Improvement Club, with raffles, a mini-auction, and dessert dash. (12th/Holden)
‘THE MAMA-LOGUES’: “Comedy about motherhood,” benefiting nonprofits including WestSide Baby, tonight and tomorrow at 7 at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. Ticket info and more in our preview. (4408 Delridge Way SW)
OPEN PAINTING, WITH MUSIC: Young at Art invites you to Open Studio Painting tonight with live music by Wes Sp8 and live painting by Dave Bloomfield, 7:30-9 pm – details here. (Fauntleroy/Raymond)
‘YOU ARE LOVED, A BIG GAY CABARET’: 21+ event at Meander’s in White Center, 7:30 pm – details on the Brown Paper Tickets page – this is the event replacing the canceled Michelle Shocked concert. (9635 16th SW)
MUSICA SACRA CHAMBER CHORALE: “A Taste of (Benjamin) Britten,” 7:30 pm at Holy Rosary – details in our calendar listing. (42nd/Oregon)
MEMPHIS RADIO KINGS @ FEEDBACK: Third night of the Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) 4-night anniversary party – their reunion performance is at 9 pm. (6451 California SW)
If you’ve been looking to catch up with where the plans to build a new elementary school on the former Genesee Hill Elementary campus stands, here’s your next chance. The district has announced a community meeting for 6:30 pm Wednesday, May 8th, at Schmitz Park Elementary (5000 SW Spokane). District spokesperson Tom Redman says, “The meeting will include discussion of the progress of the project’s schematic design and an update of the work of the School Design Advisory Team. The SDAT team will meet before the community meeting at 4:30 p.m., also at Schmitz Park.” He also notes – if you hadn’t seen this on the timeline – the new school will NOT be opening for the start of the 2015-2016 school year, but instead is expected to be open after that year’s winter break – January 2016.
ORIGINAL REPORT, 8:19 AM: No, it was NOT a fire that brought Seattle Fire Department‘s Ladder 11 to Alki’s Phoenecia restaurant early this morning. After questions via e-mail and in the WSB Forums, we went over to check it out. What was on the fire log as “water job/minor” turned out to be a broken water heater. That meant some mop-up was required, but luckily that wasn’t too difficult, since the restaurant has concrete floors. (We’ll check back later to make sure everything’s OK for tonight.)
10:11 AM UPDATE: A little more information from Phoenecia’s Nadia Khazaal: The problem was actually with a connecting pipe on the water heater; they are thankful to whomever it was who noticed the problem and called SFD. They’ve got crews there now working on getting the place dry and fixing the pipe; Nadia says, “We hope to get everything taken care of in time for service tonight.”
11:53 PM UPDATE: Unfortunately, Nadia now tells us, Phoenecia WILL “definitely be closed for business tonight.”
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; other cameras are on the WSB Traffic page)
Happy Friday! Two road work notes: California SW repaving between Dawson is scheduled to continue today, and the Delridge/Thistle intersection closure is scheduled to start at 7 pm, continuing until early Monday – details here.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
The owner of the Admiral Theater has a plan to ensure the historic landmark has a promising future as well as a storied past.
The first phase of that plan is already complete … creation of the plan itself.
“We have spent a lot of time and energy and money – what little that we have – to engage the services of an architect,” explained Jeff Brein, whose Far Away Entertainment owns the Admiral – the business, not the building itself, as well as seven other theaters in six towns around the region.
“We determined that in order to keep the theater going and to at least turn a profit, we need to make some changes in the basic business model. And that … takes the theater from its current two-auditorium, second-run format to a four-auditorium, first-run digital format.”
There’s really no choice, said Brein. The notion of a “second-run, dollar-house” theater is dying: “The studios are not providing us with the types of release schedules they used to. The window from theatrical first-run release to home video or cable TV or RedBox or whatever is becoming much more narrow.”
That’s not the only reason that a first-run moviehouse makes more sense for West Seattle: “It’s a great unserved market. If you want a first-run movie, you have to get in your car and travel well outside (West Seattle) – downtown, the airport, wherever people need to go.”
However, it’s not as easy as deciding to run new movies instead of not-so-new movies. First, Brein says, “you really need a minimum of three to four screens. And you need a facility that everybody is going to feel comfortable in.”
No matter how much you love the Admiral Theater, designated a city landmark 20 years ago – “comfortable” is not a word that comes to mind. “Overhaul” is.
Brein knows that. The Admiral’s devoted on-site general manager – his sister Dinah Brein – knows that.
So, they have a plan. They have an operating budget.
What they don’t have yet (and they stress they’re NOT asking for a handout or donations) is … the money.
(Photo by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
As we’ve been mentioning in our daily calendar-highlight roundups, Feedback Lounge (6451 California SW; WSB sponsor) is spreading its 4th-anniversary celebration over four nights – but tonight’s the actual anniversary; April 25, 2009, is when The Feedback opened the doors for, as the slogan atop its website goes, “people who like their cocktails to rock, their food to rock, and their rock to rock.” GM Bradi Jones is at center with the cake she created; other original Feedback team members in the photo include co-proprietor Jeff Gilbert at right; his co-conspirator Matt Johnson didn’t make it into the shot, too busy at the bar! The Feedback’s home page details what’s up the next two nights as the party continues – including the reunion tomorrow of the Memphis Radio Kings! (As for what will be in store when the Feedback turns five NEXT year, Jeff says it’s something unimaginably huge. You heard it here first.)
8:39 PM ‘HAPPENING NOW’ REPORT: It’s one of those nights when The Whale Trail turns inland – to C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) for the ongoing series of presentations about whales and other marine life. Thanks to “Diver Laura” James for sharing photos again – here’s tonight’s featured presenter, Uko Gorter, talking about “Orcas of the World“:
Big crowd again:
Watch The Whale Trail’s website for news of the next event!
ADDED FRIDAY MORNING: Thanks to Laura for also sharing video, if you couldn’t get there last night:
Another local outpouring of support for Boston as its people continue to recover from last week’s bombings: Anna Cronin from Providence Mount St. Vincent shares the photo and this update on what they’re doing:
Many residents, staff and children participated in The Mount’s “Marathon for Boston” to celebrate the resilient Boston Community and to remember the victims and those injured in the terrible events that took place at the Boston Marathon last week. Our goal was to show Boston that for every one person wishing to inflict harm, there are many, many more who wish to do good. We mapped out a route and together walked a combined 70+ miles! That is nearly three full marathons. Our hope is to eventually walk 3,048 miles (the distance from Seattle to Boston) in the following weeks to continue to show our support for, and solidarity with Boston.
Madison Middle School‘s Music Boosters are raising money tomorrow night with a big-band swing dance for the whole family – 6-9 pm, featuring the West Seattle Big Band as well as Madison’s own student musicians. Swing-dance lessons too! Suggested donation is $10 adults at the door, students/other kids free – go here to RSVP. Concessions will be sold, from Vietnamese sandwiches to snow cones.
Update tonight in the tale of a dog that Seattle Police rescued from a car at Westwood Village, reported Wednesday on SPD Blotter: Today’s Blotter followup says Zipper the puggle is being kept at the Seattle Animal Shelter while an animal-cruelty investigation is under way. Witnesses told police the car in which Zipper was found had been parked at the center for six days, though it hasn’t been determined if Zipper was inside the whole time. Zipper apparently was supposedly under a dog-sitter’s watch, while his owner was out of town.
We start with a followup: Last night’s West Seattle Crime Watch roundup included 
a reader report from Ignacio, whose bicycle had been stolen from his Admiral District apartment building’s garage. Shortly after we published the report, he obtained the surveillance video, published it to YouTube, and we added it to the story. Today, we got a message from a Seattle Parks staffer that Ignacio’s bike had turned up at Lincoln Park and was awaiting him in a safe storage place there, and he’s making plans to get it back.
Second, an arrest: Our first word of this bike-theft story came in a tweet from Cheryl, who rides the West Seattle Water Taxi, asking about a big police presence near Seacrest yesterday. Nothing hit our radar at the time; when the call turned up on the police map later, it was labeled as “bicycle theft.” Wondering how that turned into a big response, we sought out the full report today, and here’s what we found out:
Two restaurant notes today:
MORE ROOM AT PROLETARIAT PIZZA: In case you didn’t catch the story on our partner site White Center Now, published late last night – Proletariat Pizza in White Center is taking over space next door (formerly Dzul Tattoo) to make more room. Still a work in progress when we stopped by Wednesday afternoon; you’ll see even more progress if you stop by tonight, when PP is taking part in Dining Out For Life. Full story here.
CASSIS UPDATE: More than four months have elapsed since word that Jef Fike, the proprietor of Cassis, a French restaurant that gained fame during a run on Capitol Hill, planned to bring it back – on Alki. Fike called recently to say it’s still in the works. The still-not-officially-announced location will soon undergo renovation, he said, and he’s hoping to be open by July 4th.
Spring cleaning? In addition to the events we’ve already mentioned for this weekend – shredding, recycling, drug take-back events all detailed here – we have word of yet another way you can do something useful this weekend with items you no longer use. Hope Lutheran Church is having a donation drive 10 am-2 pm Saturday (April 27) for newly arrived refugees – including furniture as well as other items that help make a house a home:
We are collecting donations of:
*kitchen tables and chairs
*couches
*twin- and full-sized beds
*nice blankets/sheets/towels
*kitchenware/pots and pans/utensils
*microwaves
*TVs/dvd players
*computers with all parts/laptops***All must be in good, usable condition (no major tears or stains, please)
***Will NOT accept clothes or other furniture pieces not on listSee you there! Put on by Hope Lutheran Church and Lutheran Community Services NW Refugee Resettlement Program.
The church is at 4456 42nd SW, northeast corner of 42nd and Oregon.
Another West Seattle school has announced a new principal. From Our Lady of Guadalupe School:
Our Lady of Guadalupe School is delighted to announce that Ms, Donna Ramos has been hired as principal for the upcoming school year. She brings with her more than 20 years as a Catholic school educator, she has taught every grade from Kindergarten through 6th grade and worked on projects with middle-school students, as well as elementary-school Spanish. Her experience reflects her love of social justice, environmental stewardship and the arts, and faithful engagement with the world.
Ms. Ramos is currently the principal of Immaculate Conception & Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a Pre-K-8 School in Everett.
According to the announcement in the OLG church bulletin, she also worked as an assistant principal at a school on Capitol Hill. OLG’s current principal Kristin Dixon is leaving after almost 14 years; she started at the school in fall 1999.
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