West Seattle, Washington
01 Friday
When Heartland Café proprietor Jay Wergin sent this anniversary announcement, we asked him if he had any photos to go along with it – not just an exterior, but something with Heartland people. He says the resulting photo, atop this story, shows his staff from the Christmas Party – and he says everybody in it is still working there. So here’s what’s in store for the celebration, starting TOMORROW (Thursday 3/29):
Monday, April 2nd marks the Heartland Café and Benbow Room’s 2nd year anniversary.
We have a jam-packed 4-day weekend planned for this event with a touring band from Portland, Smiley, Get Dressed along with Seattle band The Underwater Tiger hitting the stage on Thursday night @ 9 pm. — On Friday @ 9 pm we have 3 bands playing, Can’t Complain, Swingset Showdown and Animals In Cars. — On Saturday, we have some local alternative/soul/cool jazz playing the Benbow Room, solo artist Scott Concinnity from Letters From Traffic and the Amelia Circle band. On Sunday we will be offering food specials in the main dining room.
On the actual day of our anniversary we will be offering “metal and fried chicken” (21 yrs and older only). There will be a live broadcast viewing of Chris Yardley’s Killzone featuring music from Attackhead and Subject7 via ReebLive! There will also be interviews with band members as well as an interview with Chris Yardley — The best part is, you get to taste our famous fried chicken for free! Yes, you heard it right — come and eat fried chicken from 6-8 pm. Our usual Monday special applies as well: $1 PBR Tall Boys and $2 chili dogs 3-9 pm (bar only).
— Yoo Betcha!
The Heartland/Benbow is in the Admiral District at 4210 SW Admiral Way.
From Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark:
Last night, we held a successful Somali Family Night here at Denny International Middle School and Chief Sealth International High School. The event went well with over 65 parents in attendance. Workshops were held on topics including school involvement and supporting your child academically.
We are always so impressed with the results when we reach out to our community — parents shared new ideas that we will use to make our connection with them even stronger.
Principal Kinsey and I would like to extend a special thank you to the following people for their help in making this event a success:
Christine Mattfeld, Leticia Clausen, Mohamed Mohamud, Abdirahman Ahmed, Burhan Farah, Mohamed Roble, Farhiya Omer, Martha Lemberg, Jol Raymond, Vanessa Garcia, Jeff Smith, and many others.
It’s time for city leaders to have a “robust discussion” on city policy regarding homeless encampments, City Councilmembers agreed at a committee meeting that just concluded. As first revealed by WSB Forums member JoB in this post last night, the Planning and Land Use Committee was going to consider an amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan that would have suggested the city supports them being hosted by religious institutions, only. That drew opposition in public comment at the start of the committee meeting, and when the item finally came up for discussion, its sponsor, Councilmember Tim Burgess, ultimately withdrew it, after he and other members agreed it’s time for that “robust discussion.” They said Mayor McGinn plans to propose legislation this spring (Burgess said he believes the proposal will open the door for “many more encampments”) that might provide the springboard for that discussion.
This issue is of particular note in West Seattle because the encampment that calls itself “Nickelsville” has been in a sort of limbo on city-owned land here for almost a year; the mayor told WSB after the encampment’s arrival that he would not seek to have it evicted, but the city has not granted requests to allow the encampment to connect to utilities, so it continues to operate with porta-potties and without running water.
ADDED 3:10 PM: We’ve obtained from the mayor’s office a copy of his e-mail cited by councilmembers at this morning’s meeting, expressing concern about Burgess’s amendment and saying he will be proposing city legislation soon. Read it here.
(Historic photo from King County Assessor’s website)
Five years after it last changed hands, West Seattle’s Hainsworth House – a city landmark, at 2657 37th SW, is on the market again (thanks to Fiona for spotting the listing). The 103-year-old, 4-bedroom, 4-bath mansion is listed for $2.25 million. Its significance as an example of “Tudor Revival” architecture is described in the fourth-from-last paragraph on this HistoryLink.org page.
An update today on the SDOT plan we reported last week – repaving another block-plus of California SW, between SW Hudson and SW Dawson south of The Junction. They were hoping to do it this week, but weather changed the plan to next week, and they have just announced that if the weather doesn’t get in the way again, the work will be done next Tuesday through Friday. At least one lane will stay open each way for the duration. More details here.
From the WSB West Seattle Events calendar:
PUBLIC LIBRARY STORY TIMES: 11:30 am at Southwest branch (35th/Henderson), it’s Preschool Story Time; 5 pm at High Point branch (35th/Raymond), it’s Somali Story Time.
K-5 STEM AT BOREN DESIGN MEETING: It’s the second meeting of the Design Team – which includes community members – for this new West Seattle public elementary school. 6:15 pm at district headquarters in SODO; details and map in our calendar listing.
‘GREEN STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE’ MEETING: A meeting tonight will present the next steps in the county’s plan to reduce combined-sewer overflows (CSO) at the Barton Pump Station by building “green stormwater infrastructure” – raingardens, bioswales – uphill in some parts of Sunrise Heights and Westwood. 6:30 pm, Westside School (7740 34th SW); here’s our preview story from last week.
HIGHLAND PARK ACTION COMMITTEE: Agenda highlights are here; the meeting’s at 7 pm (optional 6:30 pm potluck precedes it), HP Improvement Club, 12th and Holden.
LAST WEEK FOR ‘LITTLE VOICE’: Tonight at 7:30 pm, it’s the fourth-to-last performance of “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice” at ArtsWest.
“Madison is VERY excited!” according to the website announcement from Madison Middle School about its first musical: “Beauty and the Beast,” to be performed at 7 pm April 6th and 10 am April 7th in the West Seattle High School Theater. (Thanks to Jenny for sending us a heads-up.) School productions can sell out, so if you want to be sure to get tickets, you can buy them in advance through the school office, $10/ticket (3429 45th SW).
If you’re boiling eggs to decorate for Easter, and expecting to throw them away or put them in your food-waste recycling cart – here’s an alternative: Paul West of Gardening with Urban Nitrogen wants to collect them! He says he’s doing this “as a pilot project to develop local fertilizer alternatives to replace the exotic organic fertilizers that are typically used in urban gardens” and if you will donate to his experiment, he’ll arrange to pick up your Easter eggs from your front porch (West Seattle only) the morning of April 9th, provided they’re set out by 8 am. Then he’ll grind them into garden fertilizer and report to Sustainable West Seattle by the end of the growing season. The point he’s trying to draw attention to:
Urban food wastes such as eggs, milk, beans, and other high protein, low-fat foods are great sources of nitrogen. These typically end up at the Cedar Grove Composting facility where they get mixed with low-fertility wastes. Meanwhile, urban gardeners buy organic fertilizers (blood meal, fish emulsion, sea kelp, rock phosphate) from far-away places to grow their vegetables. This project fosters food security and local resource development.
West says he needs more than 1,000 eggs to make this work. To arrange to contribute, e-mail him at peedublyou@gmail.com.
A wide-ranging agenda Tuesday night for the third meeting of the Advisory Committee formed as a means of addressing community concerns regarding DESC‘s planned Delridge Supportive Housing project. (Our coverage of the first meeting is here, the second meeting here.) Above, our unedited video of the entire 2-hour meeting (makes better audio than video – we apologize for awkward angles on a few public commenters because of where they stood to speak in relation to where our photographer was positioned).
Toplines, ahead:Read More
(Cheering capacity crowd just before the competition began)
“These are not the Hunger Games,” quipped Mary Palmer, emceeing tonight’s Global Reading Challenge citywide finals at the Seattle Public Library‘s Central Library downtown. “Nobody’s going to die tonight.” And, she added semi-sternly, if anyone came for the thrill of “winning,” they’re not in the right place either – as the kids repeated after her, they’re all already “WINNERS!”
(Arbor Heights team at top left, Alki in black in the middle, Roxhill is the far-right team in blue)
And that, they were – though in the end, only two of the ten competing teams scored high enough to move on to the final round of competition, a video-linked competition next month against Canadian students. And one is from West Seattle – George’s Magician’s Treasures, from Alki Elementary! (added – photo courtesy Kathleen)
GMT and the team from Adams both scored 120 points. (added) Here’s our video of the announcement of all teams’ scores (including WS’s other 2 contenders, from Roxhill and Arbor Heights) – in the last minute or so, you’ll see how Alki celebrated:
After finding out from this WSB Forums post that Comcast had issued a warning of an overnight internet-service outage tonight (actually early tomorrow), we checked to see how widespread it would be. Here’s the reply from Comcast’s Steve Kipp:
We will be doing maintenance on the vast majority of our service area in West Seattle. The work will take place between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. We anticipate that service will be interrupted for about 5 minutes. The time of the interruption will vary depending on when we do the maintenance work on the equipment serving that neighborhood.
All of the work will take place at our headend facility in Burien and won’t involve construction crews working out in the individual neighborhoods.
Sometime in the next few days, wander past The Beer Junction‘s new location at 4511 California SW (first reported here last July), and you just might find the store in “soft open” mode. Proprietor Morgan Herzog will reopen with new features, not just a new storefront. Some are small – like the shopping carts on the left side of our top photo – some are large, like the added bar:
And then there are the familiar features, like Pliny the Oscar:
What about the beer, you ask? (And the other beverages?) 1,250 types of beer fill the refrigerated cases along the store’s walls – here’s the north side:
1,250 is not only double what Morgan opened his former location (across from Jefferson Square, on the site of <strong>Equity Residential‘s future mixed-use project), that’s also about 200 more than he had in stock when he closed that store earlier this month to finish the move. He’s also stocking 100 hard ciders, 50 meads, and 90 wines, plus assorted merchandise including T-shirts and mugs. Hours will be the same as the old location for starters, including Monday closures.
The West Seattle Eagles‘ Aerie is where a Celebration of Life will be held for member Diane Laxton this Sunday (April 1) at 3 pm. WSE Madam Vice President Amy McGrath shares this remembrance of Ms. Laxton:
Diane Amalea Laxton, born May 18, 1957 in West Seattle, Washington, passed away peacefully March 23, 2012, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.
Diane was born and raised in West Seattle, attending Gatewood Elementary, Madison Middle School and graduating from West Seattle High, class of 75. After graduation, Diane held numerous jobs, most notably at Pemco Insurance, where she spent thirty-two years. Recently, Diane was employed at Butter London.
Diane’s most challenging, yet rewarding role, was caring for others. Over the years, Diane cared for her grandfather, spent twelve years caring for her two nephews, and would be at a friend’s side in a moment’s notice. Compassionate, gracious, loving, warm hearted and generous are just a few adjectives that exemplified who Diane was.
Two days till a special meeting to help North Delridge residents find out about crime trends and how to mobilize to protect themselves and their families. We first reported on the meeting plan on March 7th, the night Southwest Precinct operations Lt. Pierre Davis announced it at the SW District Council meeting. We checked back with precinct leadership for more details; Capt. Steve Paulsen explains that the focus is on Delridge and its neighboring streets, from the West Seattle Bridge to reopening-this-fall Boren School. Capt. Paulsen and Lt. Davis will provide crime information, and will introduce community members to the Community Police Team Officer for their area, Jon Kiehn, and precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon. Everyone in North Delridge is welcome at the meeting, 7 pm Thursday (March 29th) in the precinct’s community room, along SW Webster just west of Delridge Way SW.
During the 9 years that Jo Ann Yockey has been head of school at Westside School (WSB sponsor), enrollment has doubled, from 130 to 268, and a middle-school program has launched, among other achievements. Now, Yockey is moving on to a new challenge, with a new job starting in July at Abiqua in Salem, Oregon. Her successor, Kate Mulligan, chosen by Westside’s board earlier this year, was at the Sunrise Heights campus this morning, visiting from her current job at Hualalai Academy, a K-12 school in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. We stopped by the school as Mulligan, at left in our top photo with Yockey, was finishing a school-community meet-and-greet. It’s a big week at Westside for other reasons – one of which you can glimpse toward the right side of the photo, a sign about the 23rd annual auction coming up Saturday. Even if you’re not going – you can bid in the online auction, continuing through Thursday night – the listing/bidding site is here.
Also happening at Westside, as we found out from communication/development director Jana Barber, who showed us around, new raised beds for an edible garden:
Barber says a grant from the Medina Foundation is helping fund the garden, where the students will grow food to donate to the West Seattle and White Center food banks, and they’re already raising seedlings in classrooms for short-season crops they hope to be able to harvest before this school year ends in June. Also growing inside the Westside building – this year’s baby salmon:
Westside second-graders raise salmon ever year, and these baby fish will be released into Fauntleroy Creek this spring.
Regina shares the photos, along with this message: “Thank you, West Seattle, for helping feed our neighbors – from Troop 282 and Pack 793.” Those are two of the local Scouting groups who collected food donations during Scouting for Food, door-to-door and at dropoff spots, last Saturday, and while we don’t have a poundage total, you can tell from the photos that people gave generously:
Remember that until the end of April, donations to the West Seattle Food Bank and White Center Food Bank, both of which serve WS, count for extra, because of the Feinstein Challenge – you can follow the links to their respective websites (click on their names in this story – all blue text in WSB stories leads to a weblink) to find out how to give, in multiple ways.
(Danny McMillin‘s ’10-shot combo’ of an eagle taking off from Alki; larger view on Flickr)
From the WSB West Seattle Events calendar:
CLOSURES AGAIN TONIGHT: As part of the ongoing Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project, the 1st Avenue South offramp will be closed from the eastbound West Seattle Bridge, and the 1st/Spokane intersection will be closed too, both 9 pm tonight till 5 am Wednesday.
DELRIDGE SUPPORTIVE HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE: The group reviewing issues related to the DESC Delridge Supportive Housing project meets again, 6:30 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW)- the agenda (see it here) includes a presentation by the Delridge Produce Cooperative, a prospective tenant for the building’s commercial space, as well as time for public comment.
WEST SEATTLE BLOCKWATCH CAPTAINS NETWORK: The group’s agenda tonight – see it here – is centered on planning Block Watch Captains’ Appreciation Day. 6:30 pm, Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster).
WEST SEATTLE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRAS’ ANNUAL OUTREACH CONCERT: From the WSCO announcement:
The West Seattle Community Orchestras’ Debut and Intermediate Orchestras will perform at 6:30 pm at Highland Park Elementary thanks to a 4Culture grant from King County. … Highland Park’s own music teacher and WSCO Debut Orchestra conductor Daniel Hershmann -Rossi will lead his group through four pieces including Offenbach’s Can Can and Handel’s Sarabande. Toni Reineke, Ph.D., Intermediate Orchestra conductor, along with assistant conductor Anton Coleman, will lead their group through Smith’s Rites of Tamburo, Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, along with several other pieces. Concert is free to all; donations gladly accepted at the door to support Highland Park’s music program; a bake sale sponsored by the Highland Park PTA also benefits school programs.
3 WEST SEATTLE TEAMS IN READING CHALLENGE FINALS: Tonight’s a huge night for Global Reading Challenge teams from Alki (George’s Magician’s Treasures), Arbor Heights (Da Peeps), and Roxhill (Stoehr’s Superstars) – citywide competition with seven other teams at the downtown Central Library, 7 pm. Good luck, all!
(1st two photos by Patrick Sand for WSB)
ORIGINAL 9:52 PM REPORT: Rescue crews are converging on the Fauntleroy ferry dock after what was reported, according to scanner traffic, as a possible person in the water, reported to have fallen out of a dinghy. Our crew’s on the way; updates when we find out more.
10 PM UPDATE: The location where the person is believed to be in the water is actually off the south Lincoln Park beach, so that’s where rescuers are converging now.
They are still on the ferry dock too – with a fire-truck ladder extended (thanks to Maggie for pointing out it’s visible on the webcam):
10:10 PM UPDATE: Rescuers are headquartered by the first picnic shelter on the south stretch of Lincoln Park beach, where divers have been suiting up. Our crews on the scene say the Coast Guard has done a flyover and divers are about to go in.
(Photos from hereon out by Christopher Boffoli for WSB, except dinghy photo)
10:16 PM UPDATE: The ferry that was coming in has stopped a few hundred yards offshore.
(added) According to Southwest Precinct Lt. Alan Williams at the scene, here’s what they believe happened: Two men in two small vessels were going back out to a sailboat anchored offshore. One apparently fell out. He’s believed to be in his mid-20s.
10:35 PM UPDATE: Divers are still in the water – but no rescue yet. No word of an active sighting, either. Adding a photo showing the light from the SFD ladder in the background (substituted later, actual ladder photo).
10:46 PM UPDATE: Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore is on scene. He says there were actually three men taking supplies out to the sailboat, when it was discovered one was missing. (added – photo of one of the dinghies/rafts)
Divers are still searching but if they are not able to find the missing person soon, Moore says the operation will officially change to “recovery” mode.
10:49 PM UPDATE: Our crews at the beach say the victim is reported to have been found and is receiving CPR, has been taken to med unit. Moore says he’s been told the man is still alive and getting “cold water resuscitation.” He is reported to have been not very far offshore – 20 feet maybe.
10:56 PM UPDATE: Back here at HQ, we’re hearing scanner traffic about rescued man – believed to have been in the water an hour. CPR and “slow rewarming” under way as they prepare to rush him to Harborview Medical Center.
11:16 PM UPDATE: SFD’s Moore says the man was found about 25 yards offshore. Don’t know when we’ll find out if resuscitation efforts were successful, but of course we will update the story whenever there is info.
You may recall, this is the second time in five weeks that rescue divers have handled a call off West Seattle shores – last month, diver Tareq Saade died off Seacrest; his body was recovered about eight hours later.
ADDED 11:46 PM: Here is WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli‘s video of Moore’s media briefing right after the man was rescued:
6:38 AM UPDATE: Multiple citywide news orgs are reporting that the man didn’t make it. We don’t have independent confirmation so far, but the odds did seem very much against the possibility of surviving that much time underwater.
8:08 AM UPDATE: We also have spoken with Harborview Medical Center, where a spokesperson confirms the man died.
One longrunning point of contention related to the 66-unit DESC Delridge Supportive Housing project is finally settled.
Not long after DESC went public last June with news of its proposal to build the project to house formerly homeless people, many living with challenges such as mental illness and/or substance abuse, the question was asked: Will sex offenders be among the residents? As we reported on June 27th, DESC executive director Bill Hobson said they would not be allowed in the building’s population “if that’s what the neighborhood wants.” The request had not been formally made by any group representing the population, however, and the issue’s status came up in a mail-group discussion over the past week. That discussion concluded with Vonetta Mangaoang of the Delridge Alliance, a member of the project’s Advisory Committee, reporting late today:
Just this morning, Bill Hobson, in response to my request to have the issue of sex offender exclusion placed on tomorrow’s neighborhood advisory committee agenda, resolved the issue by simply stating that DESC will exclude sex offenders from their Delridge supportive housing facility. His quick and decisive action hopefully resolves neighbors’ concerns.
Thank you to each of you who pointed out the importance of this issue. I encourage neighbors to continue to actively communicate with your neighborhood representatives on DESC’s community advisory committee (e-mail alliance@ndnc.org).
That committee meets again tomorrow night, 6:30 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center; the agenda is here.
Two West Seattle Crime Watch notes this afternoon. First, an update from the Alki gunfire incident we covered early Sunday:
(Sunday morning photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
If you missed our story – nobody was hurt, but police arrested a 26-year-old Central District man who they say fired at another man in the alley behind Cactus (they say the suspect was thrown out of Bamboo earlier). After getting a clear description of his vehicle, officers pulled him over shortly afterward, on Harbor Avenue near Salty’s. He’s been in jail since about 3:30 Sunday morning – no charges yet, but he’s listed as “bail denied,” and we’re checking with prosecutors on his status and will add any additional info here. 5:05 PM UPDATE: His bail was set this afternoon at $100,000; deadline for filing charges is Wednesday. The court documents say police found a shell casing as well as a bullet at the scene, both .45 caliber, as was the handgun found in the suspect’s possession.
Meantime, we received a reader report of vandalism at a school playground:
Thanks to Carrie for sending that photo from the playground at Lafayette Elementary, West Seattle’s most populous grade school. We’ve blurred the graffiti – which was a phrase suggesting drug use, rather than a “tag” – as per our usual policy. We checked with Lafayette and are told they’ve reported it to administration, as they’re required to, but that “spot painting” is likely in order too. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for graffiti vandals, since police say their best chance is to get a call so quick they can catch them in the act.
Last but not least:
Stopping by Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor) late this morning, we remarked that the pastry case was so empty, it must have been a busy morning. No, the baristas informed us, the “pastry bandit” was to blame. Investigating further with Hotwire proprietor Lora Swift, we found out they’ve had their pastry/donut deliveries stolen three times in the past week or so, and a table was taken from the Hotwire patio too. Other businesses with doorstep deliveries, be forewarned.
When Kerry from Elliott Bay Brewing Company sent a reminder that EBB was opening its new Public House in Lake City today, we asked for a photo, since we’re not expecting to be up that way any time soon. And here it is! “Our first lunch!” notes Kerry. Find info about the new location here.
When Seattle voters said “yes” to the Parks and Green Spaces Levy in 2008, part of the money was for creation of the Opportunity Fund, to pay for projects proposed by citizens and community organizations. In West Seattle, for example, an Opportunity Fund grant is pivotal to the plan to transform the Highland Park wading pool into a spraypark, under a plan first proposed by Carolyn Stauffer (even before she became co-chair of Highland Park Action Committee). If you’re interested in trying for a share of the second round – the process is about to begin, and workshops have just been scheduled to help would-be grant seekers figure out how to make it happen. We just found the list on the city website; “technical assistance” for would-be proposal letter-writers is at 6 pm April 25th at West Seattle Golf Course, while another workshop for applications is set for 6 pm June 27th at High Point Community Center. Project proposers will pitch the levy Oversight Committee this fall (by the way, that group’s next meeting is tonight at 7 at Parks HQ downtown).
Thanks to Michelle Riggen-Ransom for the photo taken at The Kenney (WSB sponsor), where she helped chaperone two 3rd-grade classes from nearby Gatewood Elementary this morning as they read their poetry to residents:
The poems were great, ranging in topics from soccer, writing, nature and the elusive Seattle sun. Third-grade teacher Amy Griffin did an amazing job organizing the event – the kids were very well-behaved and The Kenney residents were all smiles during and after the performance.
After the reading, children presented hand-written, original poems to their new friends. Attached is a photo I took of some of the kids, with teacher Ms.Griffin on the left. And here’s a quote from The Kenney’s Activities Director Amy Seebeck that she just sent over to Ms. Griffin: “Just wanted to thank you so much for coming today. Our residents absolutely loved having the kids here. Also wanted to extend a special thanks to those who went to our memory care unit. That was so special for them. You made our day!”
Very proud of our third-graders and a big thank you to Amy Griffin for putting together this lovely event!
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