West Seattle, Washington
24 Friday
Just announced by the Sanislo Elementary PTA:
Our Principal, Ernie Seevers, will be retiring at the end of this year, and the school community has begun a transition process for transitioning to new leadership. There are hiring committees meeting in the next few weeks to recommend a candidate to Superintendent Banda for hiring. Carmela Dellino, our West Seattle executive director for schools, has met with our staff to hear their ideas about the skills and strengths that they believe the new leader at Sanislo will need, and she would like to do the same with families. She has scheduled a meeting at Sanislo Tuesday (TOMORROW) at 3:40 to talk with you. Please make a point to come in and meet with other families and share in a conversation with Ms Dellino. Your thoughts are important and valuable in this process. Children are, of course very welcome to attend with you, and we’ll also have supervised play for the children that don’t like meetings.
For your traffic-alert radar (we’ll link this atop the BIG STORIES list in our sidebar, too, as we always do with major traffic/weather alerts) – WSDOT is reminding everyone this morning of northbound I-5 lane closures between South Spokane St. and Albro Place the next two weekends – at least two lanes closed at a time for expansion-joint work, which means you’ll want to avoid that stretch of the freeway if you can. Details are here.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
6:33 AM: Nothing out of the ordinary reported on the roads right now, but if you use Washington State Ferries out of Fauntleroy, some early-morning runs were canceled because of what WSF described via e-mail alerts as “staffing issues.” WSF says everything will be back on schedule – the spring schedule that took effect yesterday – as of the 6:40 am run.
6:59 AM: Paul reports a RapidRide bus stalled on northbound California just north of Fauntleroy, sharing the photo you see above (thanks!).
7:09 AM: Bus has moved along, per commenter SeaChanty51 (thanks for the update!).
(WSB video of Mudhoney at WS Summer Fest, July 2009)
Were you at Mudhoney‘s legendary West Seattle Summer Fest performance in 2009? The band is coming back to the West Seattle Junction for an in-store performance at Easy Street Records on April 1st, according to an announcement on the Easy Street website, dated Saturday and shared late last night by the Junction Association via Facebook. Almost looked like an April Fool’s joke if you check the ESR Twitter stream – but it’s also on the Mudhoney website, scheduled at 8 pm one week from tonight. (And the poster’s on Mudhoney’s Twitter feed.) We hope to find out more from ESR today.
8:28 AM UPDATE: Easy Street’s Rod Moody tells WSB it really is true – and they’ll have even more information on their social-media channels today (Facebook here, Twitter here).
SUNDAY NIGHT: Proud family, friends, and fans will have to wait one extra night to see national grocery-bagging champ Andrew Borracchini on “The Late Show with David Letterman” – there’s late word that the show schedule now has the Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) team member appearing Tuesday night (March 26th), *not* Monday as first announced. Still 11:35 pm, Channel 7.
MONDAY MORNING: The Metropolitan Market PR folks now say there’s word CBS made a mistake in that revised schedule and that Andrew will now be on TONIGHT, as previously announced.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
As the encampment that calls itself “Nickelsville” nears the second anniversary of its unauthorized yet unchallenged return to the southeastern West Seattle site where it began, its Central Committee says the camp is “overrun” with troublemakers.
This follows a bizarre situation that unfolded at the West Marginal Way/Highland Park Way Southwest site this weekend.
It was first detailed in the WSB Forums, where some members have long been encampment volunteers/donors (and one is a former resident), and then in an open letter signed by Nickelsville’s “Central Committee.”
The Forums post began with a report that the porta-potties at the encampment – their only toilet facilities, since the city has refused requests to hook up water or other utilities – had been removed on Friday, and that the order had come from the camp’s “staff person,” Scott Morrow, over an “internal management issue.”
To check out the situation, we went by Nickelsville Saturday morning and noted the porta-potties back, with the Honey Bucket truck still there; we took this cameraphone photo:
Participants in the Forums discussion who had ties to the camp confirmed the return. We weren’t sure it was a story until we were pointed to this open letter, posted Saturday on the open “official Nickelsville Facebook group” Nickelsville Works and also shared with us by a source who had received it via e-mail:
Yesterday afternoon, per the instruction of We, the Nickelsville Central Committee of 3/20/13, Porta Pottie Service was withdrawn at Nickelsville. IT WILL RETURN THIS AFTERNOON.
The reason for this decision was our inability at Nickelsville in preventing the overrun of our community by meth dealers and barred, violent former campers. Progress was made yesterday, but the situation is still teetering on the brink.
The basis for this problem with barred campers returning and raising havoc is the failure of the Seattle Police Department to treat our community like ANY of the other organized shelters and encampments in Seattle.
(The open letter continues after the jump, along with information we have researched about police/encampment interaction, including a report we have found about one recent specific incident.)
Read More
Big competition at the Denny/Sealth campus today, in an academic/cultural area in which both schools take great pride. Denny principal Jeff Clark shares the photos and this report:
Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School were proud to host today the 4th annual Chinese Exploration Scholastic Competition 2013 华盛顿州中文学艺竞赛.
This event, which was sponsored by the Confucius Institute of the State of Washington, was a venue for students from around the region to come together to share their knowledge of Chinese language. More than 110 schools with students in grades K-12 were represented today, competing in multiple events. Randy Dorn, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, congratulated all the student participants and thanked the 93 volunteers who helped to organize it all:
I would like to extend a special thank you and congratulations to Denny and Sealth Chinese teachers Ms. Lin, Ms. Wang, and Ms. Li, and the 83 scholars from Denny and Sealth who participated today!
This page on the Confucius Institute website shows the categories in which the students competed.
WSB reader Marcia sent us the link to that poem video recently, with no explanation other than saying poet Austin Mansell‘s parents are friends of hers from West Seattle and she thought it was a “wonderful poem” worth sharing with WSB-land. After watching it, we knew she was right. There’s a twist, so we’re not including “spoilers”; after watching it, if you are interested in finding out more about the author/reader and why he wrote it, click here to read what he told us when we contacted him to find out more. (Turns out he too is a West Seattle native.)
Three West Seattle Crime Watch reports this afternoon, starting with an early-morning crash that left a trail of damage, reports a resident who didn’t want to be identified. It happened around 3 am in the 3800 block of California:
Police responded last night. 5 parked cars damaged, here [photo above] is the worst. … I am told by resident the perp could not drive away and was arrested.
Blocks to the north, from someone else who did not want to be identified (though they have reported this to police):
Just wanted to let you know that last night two young adults, possibly teenagers, were going through cars and stealing items last night around 10 pm on the 3000 block of 45th Ave SW. They were wearing black with hooded sweatshirts and backpacks. They escaped on foot and police searched the neighborhood. They were not able to find them.
We had a few items taken from our car. This morning I also noticed items from other cars on 45th in the street. This is the second time this month we have had our car ransacked.
One more report ahead, with a photo – a car whose driver is reported to have followed a young woman for blocks on Friday:
(First 3 photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
This past Friday was World Water Day, all around the planet. And at Chief Sealth International High School, it wasn’t just WWD, but also the finale of the third annual World Water Week “ideas festival,” a weeklong focus on water issues global and local. One of many workshops presented to, and with, students on Friday is the subject of our first three photos. West Seattleite Tiffany Silver-Brace had e-mailed to let us know that her company, Seattle BioMed, would be making presentations to students about “aquatic insects (mainly mosquitoes) and the diseases that they carry. We will be focusing on the malaria burden worldwide and how to keep mosquito breeding sites (i.e. stagnant water) under control.” They brought mosquito specimens as well as microscopes to show the students “real malaria parasites.” Tiffany is at right in the photo below, with Jen Hume, who led the Sealth presentations:
Tiffany also told us that Seattle BioMed’s BioQuest program “hosts local high schools and conducts lab tours, global education and hands-on science…including mosquito dissections! It’s an amazing program run by amazing people for a great cause: global health and getting high school-ers excited about science.” At Sealth, they brought along free insect-swatters:
Before the day full of special events on Friday, Wednesday and Thursday included sanitation education for Sealth’s 1300-plus students, both local and global:
That’s Casey Plank from King County Wastewater Treatment Division, which basically is responsible for what happens after you flush; social-studies teacher Noah Zeichner, WWW organizer, shared the photo. And these are just the tip of the (frozen water) iceberg of what happened at the school all week long, and in preparation. They have a donation campaign going too, to help ensure ongoing education of the issues that affect billions of people worldwide – you can chip in here. Some of the other Sealth WWW coverage included:
*WSB report on keynote speaker Jack Sim from the World Toilet Organization, who spoke at the school Tuesday
*Seattle Globalist‘s report about World Water Week @ Sealth
*WSB coverage of Sealth students’ challenge to actor and water-issues advocate Matt Damon
Thanks to Paul Hamaker for sharing the photo; after seeing this mention of the 11-year-old girls’ all-Hiawatha citywide basketball championship game, he sent a note to report “that the boys 11-year-old team from Delridge also won their championship game yesterday, beating Jefferson 28-25 at Rainier CC.” Congratulations to them too!
(P.S. – Thank you to EVERYONE who shares youth-sports photos/reports/tips [as well as the many other types of news reported on WSB] – there’s so much going on in youth sports, that updates from parents and coaches are the best way to let us know what’s up so we can share the news with tens of thousands of your neighbors! E-mail editor@westseattleblog.com any time.)
(Spring = animal babies! WSB photo from Saturday’s Merrill Gardens-Admiral Heights [sponsor] pop-up petting zoo)
Quick highlight roundup before the morning gets too much farther along (but please remember that the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar is there for you 24/7 source any time you want to browse what’s up for the current day or days/weeks/months ahead):
AIKIDO ANNIVERSARY: Aikido of West Seattle celebrates its 25th anniversary today with refreshments and musical performances, 12:30-4 pm. Details and map here.
‘SHIFT CHANGE’: Free showing of the new locally produced documentary, 2:30 pm at the West Seattle (Admiral) Library (2306 42nd SW) – more info in this WSB Forums post.
NEW DAY/TIME FOR WEST SEATTLE COOKING CLUB: The club for people who love preparing and sharing recipes – with a theme for each meeting – has moved to Sunday afternoons, twice monthly, as we reported earlier this week. At 3 pm today, you can join them at Beveridge Place Pub, with a recipe featuring breakfast cereal.
ARTISTS’ TRUNK SHOW: Edie’s Shoes in The Junction is hosting two artists, handmade toddler apparel and jewelry, 5-8 pm, with refreshments – details here.
CLASSICAL ENSEMBLE AT KENYON HALL: Trio Pardalote performs tonight at 7:30 pm – details here.
Remember the eastbound bridge’s ramps to northbound I-5 and Beacon Hill are still closed. Have a great Sunday!
As of today, weekends will include three-boat service for eight hours each day on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route of Washington State Ferries. That’s part of the spring schedule that has just taken effect as of this morning. Here’s the overview of changes on other routes; find the spring-schedule links here.
Thanks to Mike Jensen for sharing that photo and the story behind it:
It was all West Seattle (Saturday) afternoon in the Seattle Parks & Recreation U11 Girls basketball championship game. Hiawatha (green) won a close game over Hiawatha (white). Great season by all the girls!
The Parks/Rec Citywide Athletics programs span a variety of sports/age groups – find out more here.
West Seattle High School‘s varsity baseball team spent sunny Saturday afternoon at The Safe, in the opening weekend of the High School Baseball Classic. Team parent Greg Slader shares the photo and this report:
Perfect day for a game at Safeco Field. The West Seattle baseball team got to enjoy fantastic weather and playing on their Field of Dreams. Unfortunately, the mighty Kentridge 4A proved to be too much, as West Seattle lost 5-11.
Next game is Monday 3:30 at Steve Cox Field in White Center, against Seattle Prep.
(With the mayor at 47th/Admiral, Alki Mail’s Don Wahl at left, Karl de Jong at center)
From transportation to development to education, Mayor McGinn‘s one-hour-plus visit to Admiral today, organized by the Admiral Neighborhood Association, touched on most of the hottest topics in town. No big promises, but during the finale of the visit, a sitdown conversation with attendees who had followed him to Alki Mail and Dispatch, he promised to take another look at the status of the longstanding request for a signal light right outside, at the 47th/Admiral intersection where Tatsuo Nakata was killed more than six years ago. Jerry Whiting from Jet City Orange video’d the group crossing the road:
The tour started on the California SW side of Admiral Safeway, with initial remarks by both the mayor and ANA president David Whiting as well as development discussions – including concerns about the proposed 400-foot-long apartment building at 3210 California SW, which goes to Design Review next month:
Next stop, the Lafayette Elementary playground, where Sean Reynolds explained the proposal for Phase 3 of playground (and vicinity) improvements that have been years in the making:
As you can hear Reynolds explaining to the mayor, the project has not made the draft cut for the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund; the mayor suggested the next Parks Levy (being readied for 2014, according to what City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw told the Delridge District Council this week) might be worth aiming for.
The tour proceeded westbound through residential neighborhoods and made two stops – first, to talk about bikeability in the area, with ANA president Whiting yielding the floor to Don Brubeck of West Seattle Bike Connections formed after, as ANA’s Whiting prefaced, it was noted that West Seattleites hadn’t been providing much input for the revision of the city’s Bicycle Master Plan:
Not too far west of there, the group paused for another development topic – the changing face of neighborhoods, with old houses coming down, and big ones, sometimes more than one per lot, going up:
And then it was on to the 47th/Admiral intersection, where ANA has been trying to get a stoplight, but has been told both that it’s very low on the SDOT priority list – and that it should try for an SDOT grant. Toward the end of the subsequent roundtable discussion inside Alki Mail’s coffee-shop area, ANA past president Katy Walum (who helped lead a demonstration/tribute at the site in November 2011) eloquently made the case. You can hear her at 11:41 into this next clip, after other issues – starting with the recent cuts in bus service, and continuing with a question about West Seattle and light rail:
The conversation continued past the scheduled 2 pm cutoff, and as the mayor acknowledged, it could easily have run much longer, but he was past due at his second West Seattle stop of the afternoon, Southwest Pool (WSB coverage here).
Meantime, as the mayor (a former neighborhood-council leader) said more than once during the tour, getting involved with your neighborhood council is the best way to have a say in what’s happening and what’s being planned; if you live or work in the Admiral area, ANA meets the second Tuesday of each month, usually at 7 pm in the lower-level meeting room of Admiral Congregational Church (California/Hill).
7:53 PM: Just got last-minute word from expert skywatcher Alice Enevoldsen that the prospects look good for Comet PanSTARRS viewing again tonight, so she’ll be at south Lincoln Park beach around 8 pm. If any comet photos result, we’ll add them here later. Here’s WSB coverage from last night, with infolinks that might help even if you’re watching from elsewhere.
11:12 PM: Thanks to John Hinkey for the photos (above and below) of Comet PanSTARRS from tonight.
He says they watched from a northwest West Seattle home, but “Could not have found it without Alice Enevoldsen’s directions!” Meantime, as for the Lincoln Park watch, we got to Lincoln Park minutes too late for the comet – Alice says it vanished behind the cloud shelf over the Olympics around 9:10 pm. We arrived around 9:15; thanks to Alice and husband Jason for sticking around for a little guided stargazing with one of their telescopes – Jupiter and star cluster Pleiades, If there’s a chance of visibility again tomorrow, they’ll be back, but that might be the last time for a while, so if you’re interested, make (tentative) plans to be there!
(Click image for larger view)
As noted in our Friday coverage of the hearing in which U.S. District Court Judge Karen Overstreet approved the sale of West Seattle’s Allstar Fitness, the court-appointed trustee promised a notice would go up at the club ASAP with an update for members. Above is a photo of the resulting notice signed by trustee Richard Hooper, taken by a member and shared with us via e-mail. If for some reason you can’t read even the larger size of the photo, here is a key passage regarding the status of memberships:
If you are a member who signed and paid for a long-term, prepaid membership contract or prepaid personal training contract dated on or after August 27, 2012, that contract will be honored under its terms by the Buyer.
If you are a member who signed and paid for a long-term, prepaid membership contract or prepaid personal training contract dated before August 27, 2012, your contract will be rejected and terminated as of today. However, the Buyer is in the process of reviewing these contracts and is willing to discuss your continued membership with you. Please bring copies of your signed contract to the club for these discussions. You may have a claim in the bankruptcy proceeding and will receive notice of any deadlines related to the filing of claims.
If you are a member who signed and prepaid for a long-term, prepaid c membership contract dated before August 27, 2012, but the contract renewal date was not until after August 27, 2012, your contract will be rejected and terminated as of today. However, the Buyer is in the process of reviewing these contracts and is willing to discuss your continued membership with you. Please bring copies of your signed contract to the club for these discussions. You may have a claim in the bankruptcy proceeding and will receive notice of any deadlines related to the filing of same.
… West Seattle Athletic Club LLC has asked me to inform you that you are welcome to use the club, regardless of your status above until all of the contracts have been reviewed and it has had an opportunity to meet with you and discuss your individual situations.
West Seattle Athletic Club is what new owner Sam Adams told us, in a March 10th telephone interview, he would rename the club. He also spoke with WSB this past Thursday, and our report on that conversation is toward the end of this story. All of our coverage, dating back to our first report on the bankruptcy last fall, is archived here, in reverse chronological order.
SUNDAY MORNING NOTE: We received multiple messages this morning from people who said the club did not open at its usual 8 am Sunday time and that they waited for quite a while and finally left. We were about to start investigating this when commenter Kate posted just after 9 am that she called and the club IS open now. (Please let us know if at any point later in the day you find otherwise – we always welcome news tips by text or voice, regarding any West Seattle/White Center/South Park news, at 206-293-6302, 24/7, the fastest way to reach us.)
“A dream come true” is how a new Southwest Pool women-only swimming program was described at a special event this afternoon thanking Mayor McGinn for supporting it. It was his second stop in West Seattle, after an hour-plus walking tour and roundtable in The Admiral District (coverage of that, coming up). Above, the mayor received a thank-you photo from Denise Sharify of Neighborhood House, which has long supported women’s-only swims (including some held as private rentals), to support women whose culture prohibits mixed-gender swimming. A new program of women’s swims on Saturday afternoons, followed by women’s swimming lessons, starts next month. The staff will be all-female, and the pool windows are covered, as was in evidence today
The lesson component is an important addition – so that more people can learn how to swim, vital, as the mayor noted, in a city surrounded by water. (We’ll add video later with his comments and those of three of the women who advocated for the program.) Parks Superintendent Christopher Williams and other dignitaries including former 12-year State Rep. Velma Veloria were among those on hand for the celebration, which included refreshments.
Here’s a flyer with the schedule for the SW Pool programs as well as two other pools in the city that plan to have it on Saturdays, beginning April 6th. And yes, today’s visit was the reason for this sign outside the pool and neighboring SW Teen Life Center:
P.S. Neighborhood House issued a news release with more background on the event and its pioneering involvement with the swim programs:
Neighborhood House’s Be Active Together (BAT) program and swim participants would like to thank Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle Parks and Recreation officials for offering single-gender swim programs in 2013. In the spring of 2013, the City of Seattle will begin to offer single-gender swim programs at Southwest, Medgar Evers and Meadowbrook community pools, following BAT’s model of affordability and meeting community needs. A fourth single-gender swim program will begin at Rainier Beach Pool in the fall of 2013.
Neighborhood House’s Be Active Together (BAT) program explored single-gender swim programs at local pools beginning in February of 2010 to help expand exercise opportunities for women who cannot swim in a co-ed environment because of cultural, religious or personal reasons. BAT’s Women of the World Swim has provided access to swimming to over 400 women ages 12 to 70 and who come from diverse cultural backgrounds. The program has greatly contributed to water safety, as a majority of participants didn’t know how to swim when they joined. Some have also registered their children for swim lessons for the first time. BAT’s funding ends in 2013 and this popular program was at risk of being canceled. In response to the need to continue to offer this important program for Seattle’s women, Mayor McGinn decided to adopt it at four of the city’s pools.
No arrests reported so far in a reported burglary attempt at the closed Genesee Hill School today. Police and Seattle Public Schools security responded around noontime to a report of a possible break-in; police told us at the scene that it appeared to be an attempt. Scanner traffic later indicated that witnesses saw two suspects, both female, but no other description, heading northbound on 51st SW.
West Seattle’s own Officer Lumpy from the Seafair Clowns was among the familiar faces – well, OK, familiar costumes – making an appearance at West Seattle Bowl this morning for the annual Seafair Commodores Bowl-A-Thon. Even with Seafair season a few months away, it’s never too soon to raise money for the Seafair Scholarship Program for Women – one of its many beneficiaries, 2012 Miss Seafair Veronica Asence, posed with the Commodores’ Commandant Paul Davis and Chief of Staff Kathryn Bohot:
It’s only three months till the official Seafair kickoff on June 21st; the Seafair Pirates‘ landing on Alki is just about two weeks after that, July 6th; you can see this year’s full Seafair schedule here.
One more option for tonight besides all the cool things we already previewed in our “West Seattle Saturday” roundup – the World Dance Party, held periodically around the area, is in nearby South Park, and WSB, along with our partner site The South Park News, is co-sponsoring. Here are the details:
The party of parties, the World Dance Party (WDP), is happening tonight! The WDP is a FREE multigenerational and multicultural potluck and dance party. I truly hope you can join us. Here is some more information:
World Dance Party is a fun, FREE event designed to get neighbors to interact and to celebrate each other’s culture and diversity. Everyone from all backgrounds and ages is welcome. It’s a potluck! Several multicultural dances are taught by volunteer instructors in 20-minute mini-lessons, then everyone dances. That’s it. There’s no other agenda. No fundraising. No lectures. Just food and dancing and community.
WHERE: South Park Community Center: 8319 8th Ave. South, Seattle,
WHEN: Saturday, March 23rd, 2013; 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm
WHO: Dance Instructor lineup at the World Dance Party 8 includes:
• West African Dance
• Hula Dancing
• Senior Sliders Line Dancing
• Harlem Shake
• Laotian Dancing
• Jarabe Tapatio/La Raspa
• Salsa Dancing
• And more
12:05 PM: Till 1 pm, you can drop by Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way) and enjoy a light lunch while joining in on preparations for West Seattle’s new Delridge Grocery. You knew the organizers originally as Delridge Produce Cooperative – now, meet them under the new name as they get ready to open a grocery store in the under-construction DESC Supportive Housing building (5400 block of Delridge) next year. You can talk with DG board members, check out their business plan, enjoy fresh local food, and sign up to start your membership – look for the table in the corner of the room, where we found Casey and Ariana:
If you’re out and about with kids today, bring them too – there’s an arts-and-crafts table. To connect with Delridge Grocery online, here’s their Facebook page. No online signups yet for membership, but DG tells us that’s part of the plan. P.S. While you won’t have to be a member to shop there, membership will have its benefits – as well as being an investment in the neighborhood – organizers say.
ADDED 12:48 PM: DG has shared a drawing of the grocery store’s floor plan (click the image for a larger view):
Also, you can read the “executive summary” of their business plan here (PDF).
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