West Seattle, Washington
26 Sunday
In February 2011, much concern was expressed when KUOW reported on the Beloved Mexico food truck that has been a fixture next to West Seattle Produce, saying its owner Christian Guerrero had lost his day job, and the truck was struggling. Reporter Deborah Wang e-mailed us to let us know she followed up, and the story is airing on their station today – but you can listen to/read it here now. Things, she reports, are looking up.
(Click for larger image; photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
Congratulations to Holy Rosary School‘s fifty-six 2012 8th graders, who posed just before their graduation tonight. Thanks to David for the tip – we’ll admit we haven’t historically tracked middle-school ceremonies as consistently as high schools, and spot-checking school calendars, we see we’ve already missed a few (plus, not all middle schools have ceremonies). But we DO have all the high-school (and beyond) dates:
SEATTLE LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL: Friday (June 8), 7:30 pm, school gym
CHIEF SEALTH INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL: June 16, 1 pm, Memorial Stadium
WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOL: June 16, 5 pm, Memorial Stadium
MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL: June 18, 7 pm, Brockey Center at South Seattle Community College
Speaking of which, that’s West Seattle’s lone post-secondary school:
SOUTH SEATTLE COMMUNITY COLLEGE: June 19, 2:30 pm, Benaroya Hall
Thanks to Suzanne Krom for catching the photo of George Capestany (right) and son Brannden Nokes, as they walked through her neighborhood with goats Bama (with Brannden) and JJ. She learned, “George keeps them as pets and they earn their keep by eating blackberry vines and other invasive vegetation. It turns out that George uses them instead of using pesticides. He’s considering renting them out to others for this purpose. The goats are super-friendly and easy to walk. Very dog-like.”
Back on Sunday afternoon, we showed you the signs (photo left) that had just gone up after news of an hour-long overflow from the Barton Pump Station north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock. Tonight, King County Wastewater Treatment Division says health agencies have given the all-clear for the closed beaches to reopen. King County’s announcement late today adds: “The volume of overflow into Puget Sound was estimated at 46,000 gallons. Tidal conditions and water pressure contained a substantial amount of wastewater inside the outfall pipe, which enabled crews to use submersible pumps to capture and return a significant amount of wastewater back to the pump station so it could be conveyed to the West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle.” A two-year upgrade project that’s about to get under way at the pump station includes an emergency generator; recent preparation work had involved the power system in the area, but the county hasn’t yet said whether the Sunday failure – blamed on a “failure of the main breaker,” according to spokesperson Annie Kolb-Nelson – was related to that at all.
Just received from the White Center Food Bank, which serves part of West Seattle too:
Volunteers Needed ASAP!
We are currently in need of volunteers that are available for daytime distribution hours including Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 am until 1 pm. Duties include: set-up of the distribution line and assisting clients with food selections. Groups and individuals are welcome. If available, please contact Audrey Zemke our Volunteer & Resource Coordinator at 206-762-2848 or email her at audrey@whitecenterfoodbank.org. Thank you!
Also from SDOT – the weekly spring/summer roundup of big events around the city that just might affect traffic. In particular, Saturday afternoon in SODO will be crowded, so if you are NOT either going to the UW commencement at CenturyLink Field or the Mariners’ game next door, you will likely want to keep your distance. Here’s the full lineup, Friday-Sunday:Read More
The next round of Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project-related closures has just arrived in e-mail from SDOT, including the weekend westbound closure they’ve already announced, plus other closures/changes AND a projected reopening date for the 1st Avenue South offramp from the eastbound SSV – read on!Read More
(Photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
Walk through the Automotive Technology area on the north side of South Seattle Community College on Puget Ridge, and you’ll see students like those, hard at work – painting, fixing, building, inspecting, and more. But in the paint bay today, you won’t find a car – you’ll find a hydroplane!
And, as Automotive Collision Repair instructor Steve Ford was quick to point out during our visit, it’s no museum hydro – it’s the U-37 hydro that Schumacher Racing – owned by driving legend Billy Schumacher, who won 17 races in the ’60s and’70s – will bring to Seafair and other races this season. Right now, though, its refinishing and paint job comprise a final exam for his graduating seniors, one of three “teams” he set up (one of the other two teams did prep work like masking and sanding, pre-paint job, while the other worked on fabrication). Here’s everybody we found in the shop this morning – that’s instructor Steve, front and center:
So when you see that 14-foot-wide, 31-foot-long hydro at Seafair this August – where it’ll bear the SSCC name and logo – remember it’s got a little bit of West Seattle! (And yes, as the announcement sent by SSCC communications director Candace Oehler pointed out, the college is being paid for the work.)
(Rendering of what Vesseliye might look like along 20th SW – massing only, not final design)
One week from tonight, the Southwest Design Review Board will meet for a second ‘Early Design Guidance’ review of a four-story, 20-unit apartment building planned at 9051 20th SW (map). The meeting “packet” is available online now, and the added information explains why the project, called Vesseliye (translated at the 1st meeting in February as “Joy”), is going back for more “early” guidance even though the board agreed it could move to the next phase. The developers say that several discoveries since the 1st meeting have led them to completely revise the plan into one building instead of two. The site currently holds the two vacant, vandalized houses shown in our photo’s foreground (we’ve blurred the graffiti), which are just south of two commercial properties:
The design-review meeting is at 6:30 pm next Thursday, June 14th, at the Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon, entrance on the north side).
SIDE NOTE – THIS MONTH’S OTHER DESIGN-REVIEW MEETING: Today the city sent out the official notice of the June 28th meeting first reported here on Tuesday, the first review for a 30-unit building at 3829 California SW.
June showers bring …June flowers? Thanks to “G” for the bright photo, which, as with a different community-contributed flower photo earlier this week, is at least a counterpoint to the gray weather. On with the list of calendar highlights for today/tonight:
NEW WINES FROM SSCC: The Northwest Wine Academy at South Seattle Community College (6000 16th SW) is releasing five new wines with a noon-6 pm tasting today – details here.
MUSIC AT C & P: Singer/songwriter Jim Page performs, 6-8 pm, at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor; 5612 California SW).
BUSINESS NETWORKING MIXER: Hosted by “I Take the Lead” at West Seattle Windermere in The Junction, 6 pm (details here).
ART OPENING/PERFORMANCE AT MIND UNWIND: The Admiral District’s gallery/class/performance space (2206 California SW) features the opening of Brent Ray Fraser‘s “Nostalgia,” 6:30-11:30 pm, detailed here.
MADISON ORCHESTRA/JAZZ CONCERT: 2nd concert this week for Madison Middle School‘s musicians – this time, orchestra and jazz performances. 7 pm in the Commons, everybody’s invited.
School-concert season continued last night with the second of three concerts featuring Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School students. We have four groups on video, starting with the Sealth choir, above, whose songs included the one featured in our clip, from the Broadway musical “Rent.” Ahead – three orchestral performances:Read More
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
As this school year began, we checked in with both major local public high school’s PTSAs – and as the year ends, we’re circling back.
So on Tuesday night, we sat in on the West Seattle High School PTSA‘s last meeting of the year, eight months after covering its first meeting of the year.
The changing of the guard was among the major items of business – the full officer slate for 2012-2013 is at the end of this story. But the major discussions involved activities sponsored/presented by the PTSA, all successful in their own way, and yet with room for much more participation – particularly Grad Night, the all-night post-graduation party meant to provide both fun and safety.
The low-low (below -3 feet) tides are gone till an encore early next month, but we have a few more community-contributed photos to remember them by. Above, Tracey Spenser‘s view of an anemone amid glistening greenery; next, Lura Ercolano shows us a moon snail has quite the infrastructure beneath the graceful shell:
Also out on the beach, “Diver Laura” James – but look very carefully behind her, around the center of the photo:
The great blue heron was apparently too intent on fishing to mind the people nearby:
Thursday’s low tide will still make for decent beachwalking – -2.6 at xx – but if you are hoping to get out while the beach is at its widest, mark your calendar for late mornings Monday 7/2 through Wednesday 7/4 (here’s the July chart). Thanks yet again to everyone who shared their photos during this “wave” of low-low tides!
For the second time in less than a year, a deadly heart attack has felled a youth-sports coach on the sidelines of a field in West Seattle. Last October, it was 38-year-old West Seattle Soccer Club coach Ed Kingston, at Riverview Playfield; last Thursday, KIRO TV reported today, 34-year-old baseball coach Ian Holding died on a field at the Southwest Athletic Complex. The KIRO report links to a memorial website for Coach Holding, which says family and friends are gathering tonight in Normandy Park to remember him. The tribute website says he was a coach for the 15U team of the Burien-based Washington Brewers, part of the Seattle Elite Baseball League, and that his 15- and 7-year-old sons were there when it happened. A memorial fund has been set up; donation information is here.
“I’m not a veteran, but I value their contribution and want to do something that helps them out,” local entrepreneur PJ Glassey explained, when we asked him about an upcoming benefit he’s promoting for a new veterans-assistance group. “Veterans are the reason we are still a free country. While we all may not agree with all the various wars we get involved with, we can all agree that our soldiers are serving us to the point of risking their lives and that means a lot to me.”
The show Glassey – son of a Vietnam veteran as well as owner of X-Gym on Harbor Avenue- is promoting is coming up June 16th at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in North Delridge, a “hypnosis/comedy” performance by Joe Black. Glassey says, “This event is kind of a ‘kickoff’ for the brand-new organization One Less Mountain, which helps veterans when they get home so they can cope, make the transition to civilian life and find the resources needed to make that switch.”
There’s no website for OLM yet, but board member Mark Pollek, a Vietnam veteran, explains that OLM is inspired by Hope for Heroism, a veterans’ peer-helping-peer group based in Israel. Pollek and others including Governor Gregoire’s husband Mike visited Israel to see how it works, and have since been talking with veterans’ and military groups to “see how we could best benefit vets recently discharged from the military.”
Pollek says OLM is starting with a “veteran-transition case-management program” and a “veteran connect program” involving activities “to bring vets together to tell their stories, hear what each other may be going through, validate each other’s concerns, and share methods of success.” The organization also is developing an education program to help corporate human resources people deal with “fear, concern, cultural differences” that may keep them from hiring veterans.
You can find out more at the June 16th comedy/hypnosis show. Tickets are $20, available through Brown Paper Tickets; the show is at 6:45 pm.
(Hi-Yu royalty past and then-present at 2011 White Rose reception; photo by Ellen Cedergreen for WSB)
The West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival has just announced one of its signature summer events, the White Rose Reception:
The 2012 West Seattle Hi-Yu White Rose Reception will take place from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at Fauntleroy Church, UCC, 9140 California Ave SW in West Seattle. This event is for women only and is a celebration of past and present Hi-Yu royalty. Come and share your Hi-Yu memories and learn about this year’s plans for our community festival. Past royalty are encouraged to wear or bring your crowns and memory scrapbooks. Tickets are available at the door for $10 and every ticket comes with two raffle tickets. For more information about Hi-Yu past and present: www.westseattlehiyu.com
E-mail from the Seattle Neighborhood Group calls our attention to a plan in the works for a citywide moment of silence on Sunday. The idea comes from the group Compassionate Seattle, not just because of the shooting rampage that ended here last Wednesday afternoon, but because of other recent deadly violence around the city. Compassionate Seattle is calling for “3 minutes of silent contemplation, prayer, reflection or meditation” at noon this Sunday (June 10th), following “the ringing of bells everywhere – including church towers and individuals in the streets” at 11:45 am). The group’s Facebook event page for this can be found here.
Meantime, the lone survivor of last Wednesday’s shootings, Café Racer employee Leonard Meuse, has been upgraded to satisfactory condition, report our friends at KING 5.
(Photo via WSDOT’s Twitter feed)
The WSDOT media alert on Tuesday called it a ring, but we agree with those who say it looks more like a hoop (or even an echo of the new waterfront ferris wheel!) – 57 feet in diameter and shown off during today’s ceremonial groundbreaking for the Highway 99 Tunnel “launch pit.” It represents the diameter of the tunnel, which is scheduled to be bored starting next summer. Here’s the lineup of (mostly) politicians past and present at the ceremony:
(Photo via the Seattle City Council’s Facebook page)
West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen is at the mike in that photo; locals King County Executive Dow Constantine (behind Rasmussen in the photo) and former mayor Greg Nickels (who was still in office when the state’s tunnel bill became law three years ago) were also there. Today’s groundbreaking represented the start of digging south of the remaining Viaduct, for the spot where the tunnel-boring machine will get started, heading underground and northbound.
SIDE NOTE/REMINDER: Speaking of the remaining Viaduct, the Highway 99 stretch from downtown to the West Seattle Bridge is scheduled for a full-weekend closure later this month, 11 pm June 15 through 5 am June 18, as first noted here last week.
West Seattle Garden Tour volunteers are starting to deliver WSGT ticket books to the places you’ll be able to buy them … to give you plenty of lead time to buy yours for the July 15 tour (co-sponsored by WSB). Yes, that’s Sheila Lengle‘s winning poster art on the cover (here’s our coverage of the ceremony honoring her during last month’s West Seattle Art Walk)! WSGT’s Jane Watson tells WSB the first places to get ticket books will be Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor), West Seattle Nursery, ArtsWest, and Junction TrueValue; the deliveries will continue with Village Green Perennial Nursery (WSB sponsor), and three nurseries outside West Seattle/White Center: Furney’s, Swanson’s, and Wells-Medina. (You can reserve a ticket book online by going to this Brown Paper Tickets page.) Garden Tour tickets are $15, and proceeds benefit local nonprofits.
(WSB photo of Morgan Junction Park as the 2010 festival began)
Summer-festival season is about to start – and the lineup for the biggest June event, the Morgan Junction Community Festival on Saturday, June 23rd, is now finalized, put together again this year by Chas Redmond, who says, “This should be a great year; we’ve got some outstanding music lined up.” (Plus one non-musical fave – the eternally effervescent Bubbleman.) Here’s the lineup:
(The Ellis Brothers, photographed by WSB at The Kenney in April 2012)
10:30 am
Ellis Brothers
swinging kid jazz trio
(WSB video from Bubbleman’s 2011 Morgan performance)
11:30 am
The Bubbleman
amazing things with soap bubbles
(P.S. from the WSB Forums – seems the Bubbleman wants to move to West Seattle! Can you help?) The rest of this year’s Morgan festival lineup, ahead: Read More
Congratulations to the recipients of 2012-2013 scholarships announced by the West Seattle High School Alumni Association, whose Tom Friberg shares information about the recipients and the scholarships – seven new and five returning – for a total of $76,500. Read on for details of the scholarships awarded to, and the studies planned by, Christian Carpio, Raymond Carter, Gabriela Flores, Haily Hage, Lauren Jeglum, Tessa Jinneman, Karen Lowe, Nahn Nguyen, Arlene Orbino, Megan Ormsby, Randall Stefanovitch, and Michael Swanson:Read More
(Seen at low tide; photo by Tracey Spenser – thanks!)
Wednesday begins with sunshine! Here’s the forecast – and here’s some of what’s on the schedule for today/tonight:
TUNNEL GROUNDBREAKING: Though the actual tunnel-boring machine won’t be at work till next year, there’s a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Highway 99 tunnel this morning in SODO, 9:30 am. Not a public event, but watch for coverage.
FINAL LOW-LOW-LOW TIDE: This is the last of four days with a low tide below -3 – it’ll be -3.4 just before 1 pm; and the Seattle Aquarium volunteer beach naturalists are out again too, 11 am-2:30 pm, Constellation Park (south of Alki Point) and Lincoln Park, near Colman Pool.
LIBRARY STORY TIMES: From the Seattle Public Library Calendar of Events: It’s Toddler Story Time at the Southwest Branch (35th/Henderson) at 11 am and Somali Story Time at the High Point Branch (35th/Raymond) at 5 pm.
(added) PARTY AT LINK: The apartment complex at 4550 38th Ave SW sends word they’re “hosting a Stella and Dot jewelry party tonight from 5pm-8 pm! Stella and Dot offers stylish jewelry pieces for women. Anyone can attend this event, and everyone is invited! Sugar Rush will be supplying cupcakes for the party and refreshments will also be served.”
K-5 STEM AT BOREN DESIGN TEAM: Another meeting for the committee with community and school reps shaping Seattle’s new public school (here’s our report on their meeting last week, with topics including curriculum discussions for reading and art, and possible uniforms). They’ll meet at 6:15 pm in the library at Madison Middle School. The public’s welcome, and there’s usually a spot for audience comments.
SOUTHWEST DISTRICT COUNCIL: Reps from community councils and other organizations around western West Seattle gather at 7 pm for their monthly meeting in the board room at South Seattle Community College (6000 16th SW). The agenda’s part of our calendar listing.
SEALTH/DENNY CONCERT: The schools’ orchestra and choirs perform tonight, 7 pm at the Chief Sealth International High School Auditorium (2600 SW Thistle).
Led by music director Clark Bathum, that’s the Madison Middle School Senior Band performing Robert W. Smith‘s ‘Encanto,’ one of the selections from the school’s high-scoring recent trip to the Music in the Parks festival in Idaho. We recorded the video last night during the spring band concert, which also included the Junior Band:
On Thursday night – 7 pm in the Madison Commons – the school’s jazz band and orchestra perform their spring concert; free, and you’re invited.
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