West Seattle, Washington
28 Sunday
News for West Seattle (and vicinity) bike riders, from Stu Hennessey of Alki Bike and Board: Starting this spring, be ready to roll with Spokespeople West Seattle – monthly rides every 1st Sunday, 10 am, starting April 4th, from Stu’s shop in the Admiral District. He explains:
Spokespeople rides are for every skill and every age group with an emphasis on socializing and skill building. Skill building activities include route selection and familiarization, safe handling skill in traffic, efficient use of gearing and in traffic cooperation and safety skills. Professional bicycle mechanics may perform spot checkovers and helmet fit and adjustment may be required. Helmets are required on all rides. Food stops and area enjoyment stops may be included. Kidicalmass is another concept of all kids and family rides that may be scheduled in addition to the Spokespeople rides.
Ride will vary in length between 5 and 15 miles. All riders will ride together with regrouping stops as needed. Maps will be provided for each ride. Ride speed will be 5-15 miles per hour depending on skill focus. Ride time will be approximately 2 hours. Heavy rain and snow will automatically cancel the ride.
All rides will be publicized through the Cascade Bicycle Club, Sustainable West Seattle, West Seattle Blog [events calendar] and by e-mail. Ride description and skill-building focus will be included in the announcement. Ride leaders will be Cascade Bicycle Club-Certified. The primary ride leader will be Stu Hennessey, who has more than 30 years experience as a bicycle-ride leader, tour guide and bicyclist as primary transportation. Contact info: 206 938 3322 – e-mail alkistu@hotmail.com
Alki Bike and Board is at 2606 California SW (map) – and also happens to be one of seven Admiral District merchants sponsoring WSB again this month. Stu’s big special right now: 20% of the shop’s labor income through March 1st goes to Haiti earthquake relief – Doctors Without Borders and the American Red Cross. Bicycle tuneups start at $89.99. (See the full list of Admiral District sponsors here – including a coupon from Max and Quinn’s Atomic Boys Shop-O-Rama!)
(WSB photo from December 2009 by Christopher Boffoli)
Every Sunday, Restoration Worship Center meets at High Point Community Center. The photo above shows its leader, Bishop Deborah Dinkins, from the day we met her during a pre-Christmas toy drive which almost didn’t happen – till many bighearted people reached out (here’s our story). Starting today, Bishop Dinkins has a new effort, and hopes you will help:
I have this heartfelt mission to do a canned/ non perishable food drive event to help Haiti and our local community in need. The Launch date for this event is starting Sunday February 7, 2010 until we reach our goal of 17,000 canned goods and 17,000 dry goods/nonperishable food items.
We need monetary donations to cover the cost of storage containers and transportation cost of shipping to those less fortunate as a result of this catastrophe. The local community will also be helped because we need to support our neighbors as well for food help or essential needs based on what we receive.
The location to drop off the food and monetary donations will be High Point Community Center
between 11:30 am and 3:00 PM on Sundays. The address location is 6920 34th Avenue SW [map].The Church is nonprofit 501c3; any donations are tax deductible. Any questions and information, contact Bishop Deborah Dinkins for more information at 360-440-4428. or Susan McKinney at 206-618-3657.
On your to-do list for today, if you haven’t done IT already: VOTE. Tuesday is Election Day, and there are two measures on West Seattle voters’ ballots: Seattle Public Schools‘ levies Prop 1 (capital) and Prop 2 (operations). If you’re recovering in-person voters like us, keep in mind the drop boxes in Delridge and White Center are BOTH gone, so you can’t engage in almost-old-school voter behavior like dropping off the ballot at the last moment, unless you go to one of the two remaining boxes (downtown and Tukwila) – get your ballot in the postal mail, with a stamp, ASAP. Meantime, to find out more about the levies – go here. And Laurie Rasmussen from Alki Elementary PTA has forwarded their endorsement for your consideration – read ahead to see it:Read More
Some people refuse to read comments on online news stories, for myriad reasons: No time; no interest; the suspicion that all comment sections are like the ones on “anything goes” sites, toxic pits of profanity and insults. While some comments might seem like time-wasters, an amazing amount of WSB’ers use comments to add helpful information, both during breaking/developing stories, and sometimes on stories that are days old, like this one from last Monday about neighbors hit by burglars. Since even regular comment-readers don’t tend to go back and check older stories, we wanted to highlight the followup that just appeared in that story’s comment section:
Thank you everyone for the helpful information. Even though we’ve been burglarized, we still love West Seattle, and it is unlikely that these burglaries are isolated to West Seattle. Wherever there are items that can be pawned or hawked on Craigslist, there’s some thief that wants them.
Here are some of the lessons we’ve learned since the burglary (along with a few opinions of our own).
As a neighborhood, we need to coordinate our efforts. We will plan to contribute.
We have heard lots of stories about how Craigslist seems to be fueling this problem. Let’s start getting the word out that until Craigslist puts in some security measures to deter thieves from selling our stuff, it is little more than an online black market and pawn shop.
From what we’ve heard and read, there is a fairly serious mail theft problem in West Seattle. Best thing to do is to lock your mailbox or get a P.O. box.
Serial numbers are helpful to the police, take an hour and go through your electronics and write down the serial numbers and store them somewhere online so they can be included with police reports.
An audible (external) alarm or a dog is a very good deterrent to burglary.
We’ve also heard that people sometimes don’t report the issue even when they see it or hear it. As a neighborhood, we should be reporting to police when we hear audible alarms and barking dogs or anything that sounds like it could be really bad.
After this experience, we’re absolutely convinced that suspicious soliciting (such as our Comcast visitor) or loitering activities (such as the type we’ve read about here on the other WSB burglary postings) should be reported immediately to the police (not hours later, immediately). We will be doing our part by calling the police on suspicious solicitors and ask them to come out and check their credentials.
We’ll keep checking in here, we really appreciate the helpful information, and we hope that sharing what we’ve learned since our burglary will help others to prevent it from happening to them.
(Note: CL has an official policy banning sales of stolen property.) We have long said, WSB doesn’t have “readers,” it has collaborators. Comments are a simple form of collaboration; sending information (here’s how), from event listings to photos to Crime Watch reports and much more, is another way. But even if you “only” read, you are still collaborating, by seeking and using information. Thank you.
Thanks to Fauntleroy’s Judy Pickens for sharing word of this big recycling event coming up in two weeks:
The Green Committee at Fauntleroy Church is partnering with 1 Green Planet for convenient recycling on Sunday, Feb. 21, 9 AM-2 PM in the church parking lot. Bring washers, dryers, & other appliances; TVs & other electronics; computer equipment of all kinds; batteries & scrap metal of all kinds. Free; details at www.fauntleroyucc.org
Fauntleroy Church is at 9140 California SW: if you haven’t been there before, be sure to check the map, because it’s a stub of California SW that’s NOT connected to the multi-mile straightaway (so vividly visible in this photo).
WestSide Baby executive director Nancy Woodland had reason to smile. WestSide Baby’s 9th annual Benefit Tea in Brockey Center at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) on Puget Ridge was sold out long before the doors opened – check out the crowd:
Volunteers young and old made it a success – including ambassadors Sonja and Kelsey (wearing, and handing out, tiaras):
WestSide Baby’s website counted the guest list at more than 450; we’ve got messages out to find out the final tallies. WestSide Baby helps thousands of families and has lots of other ways for you to make sure they can keep doing it. 10:59 PM UPDATE: Nancy Woodland says the final guest count was 470 – and they raised more than $100,000. “Unbelievable and amazing and we are so very thankful!” she adds. ADDED 12:36 AM: Courtesy of Donna Ryan Photography, Rinku Wheaton speaking at the event, including her thoughts on being part of WestSide Baby’s “Giving Circle” (read more about it here):
That’s one of the photos Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor) tweeted – find them on Twitter at @illusionshaird and on Facebook too – during today’s “Have a Heart Day” fundraiser. Stylists donated their time and all proceeds from haircuts went to the West Seattle Food Bank. Illusions says they raised more than $900.
(P.S. The Food Bank has its own big fundraiser coming up in April – “Instruments of Change” – ticket info’s online now.)
At Southwest Community Center in Westwood, it was the perfect segue – right after 100-plus people wrapped up the West Seattle Reservoir Park planning meeting (full report still to come), they were invited to move upstairs to celebrate Neighbor Appreciation Day. Among the surprises: Live music. There were treats, too, plus a free swim at co-housed Southwest Pool, and a thank-you card:
(Thanks to Dina Johnson for the card photo!) West Seattle’s three other community centers – Alki, Hiawatha and High Point – hosted open-house-style Neighbor Appreciation Day parties too. P.S. Southwest CC will be host Thursday night to the Westwood Neighborhood Council‘s next meeting – 7 pm – agenda notes on the WNC website.
Lots of options for the Big Game tomorrow – we have added even more to the West Seattle Super Bowl Viewing Guide first published here Thursday night (now up to Version 1.2). As for the game of love — we’ve got a West Seattle Valentine Dining Guide in the works too; here’s version 1.0 – more to be added, let us know if you have full details on something that’s not listed.
ORIGINAL 12:22 PM REPORT: A crash at California/Monroe (map) in Gatewood has California SW closed for a few blocks in both directions. As you see in our photo, it involves a car and a pole, and utility lines are down. No serious injuries reported. 12:59 PM UPDATE: Street’s still closed. Seattle City Light apparently needs two crews to deal with the pole/line problem caused by the crash, and is still awaiting the second one. 1:19 PM: Brian Zenk shares this photo from another angle:
1:51 PM: California SW is now open again. But you can’t turn onto Monroe – it’s blocked off – the pole is still at an angle.
11:19 PM: That’s one photo we didn’t use earlier – showing that part of the pole was knocked all the way across California to the west side of the street. As of just minutes ago, crews are still out working on the pole and the lines, and the California end of Monroe remains blocked off.
Longtime West Seattle resident Victoria Shaw has a request for West Seattle’s art community (and anyone else who sees this):
I am the director of an international children’s art and cultural exchange program called “The Mural Project” (themuralproject.net).
We are working with the organization Art For Haitian Children to help them rebuild an art school in Jacmel, Haiti and to gather art supplies to take to them this Spring.
I know that there are many artists in the West Seattle area, if any of you might have extra acrylic paints, rolls of canvas and/or paintbrushes or would like to donate new items, these children would love to receive them.
If you have any questions please contact Victoria Shaw at (206) 937-9747 or
_amural98@aol.com
BIG crowd at Southwest Community Center right now for the second meeting to help figure out what the future park atop West Seattle Reservoir (adjacent to Westcrest Park in Highland Park) will look like. At least 100 people here; meeting leaders asked for a show of hands to help classify who’s here and why – dozens raised their hands when asked who’s here to advocate for Frisbee golf at the future park, 
which is being created because the reservoir’s being covered. At least a third of the people here also raised their hands when asked who lives in walking distance of the park; we see Highland Park community advocates here as well as leaders from other eastern West Seattle neighborhoods including Westwood and Pigeon Point. The meeting continues till noon; participants are currently discussing, at tables with maps and Sharpies, what they’d sketch out for the park. Project manager Susanne Friedman from the Parks Department says the final two design meetings are likely to be scheduled for late April and late June. 12:31 PM: Meeting has wrapped up. Crowd voted for the next meeting to be on a Saturday morning again – Parks says the date will be the last or second-to-last Saturday in April. As for all the ideas offered – separate story to come later.
BASKETBALL: From Denny principal Jeff Clark:
I am very pleased to share that both the Denny International Middle School girls’ and boys’ basketball teams are playing in the Seattle Public Schools championship games (today). Our girls will be playing Whitman Middle School at noon at Franklin High School. Our boys’ team is playing Eckstein at 2:00, also at Franklin. Everyone is invited to come and cheer on the Denny Dolphins!
Franklin High School is at 3013 South Mount Baker Blvd.; here’s a map.
RESERVOIR: As per yesterday’s reminder, this morning you can help plot the course of the extra parkland being created atop West Seattle Reservoir in Westcrest Park. 10 am-noon, Southwest Community Center (map).
ADOPT-A-STREET: Hit the street with the North Delridge Neighborhood Council. Join them outside Delridge Community Center (map) at 9:45.
NEIGHBOR APPRECIATION DAY: Events include tours at every city fire station, including the five in West Seattle (list here – ours are 11, 29, 32, 36, 37), 11 am-3 pm; fun events at all four community centers in West Seattle (Alki 11 am-2 pm, the other three noon-2 pm), and the “Raise the Beds” work party at the taking-shape garden (first covered here in October) behind C & P Coffee, 10 am-noon.
CUTS FOR A CAUSE: “Have a Heart” haircut day at Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor), 10 am-3 pm, all proceeds to West Seattle Food Bank (call to see if they have any appointments left, 938-3675)
FOOD DRIVE: It’s “Care To Shop” food-drive day (explained here) at West Seattle PCC (WSB sponsor) for Chicken Soup Brigade/Lifelong AIDS Alliance, 10 am-3 pm
And that barely scratches the surface of what’s up today/tonight in and around West Seattle – including the WestSide Baby fundraising tea (sold out!) and the Chief Sealth HS music program dinner-dance; the longer list is in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup.
Eric Shalit of Box Turtle Design shared that rather grabby shot of a “slackliner” he encountered today at Alki. So, we asked, how high off the ground was he, and what was the “slackline” tied to? In reply, Eric sent another photo; to see it, click here.
Saturday, as part of Neighbor Appreciation Day, Seattle fire stations are all open for tours 11 am-3 pm. This’ll be the last Neighbor Appreciation Day for Station 37, since its replacement is under construction a short distance away. A student journalist accepted our challenge to tell its story before it’s too late.
(A video tour inside West Seattle’s Fire Station 37)
Story and video by Nicholas Trost
University of Washington News Lab
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
When Fire Station 37 (map) shuts down later this year, it will be sorely missed. Those firefighters lucky enough to have worked at the station appreciate its unique appeal and residential feel.
“The station feels and looks like home,” said firefighter Jorge Bernal, who currently works there. “When you’re away for 24 hours at a time, it’s a comforting place to be.”
The station has the ambience of a residential home. Upstairs there’s a nook with a couch and television where firefighters can go and rest. The living room is also similar to one you would find in any home, with low lighting and comfortable-looking furniture.
“There are cool areas where you can go away and relax for a bit,” said Lt. Lori Bish, a firefighter also at the station. “Not all places have those areas.”
Sadly, Station 37 is no longer able to adequately serve the Seattle Fire Department. At only 4,148 square feet, the station is too small to accommodate firefighters of the 21st century and their equipment.
“We have to move,” said Bish.
Scores now, video and details to be added to this story later: In high-school varsity basketball at Chief Sealth High School tonight, both Sealth teams beat West Seattle High School – girls CSHS 40, WSHS 31; boys (just completed) CSHS 50, WSHS 39.
(Added 12:36 am Saturday, the details) GIRLS’ VARSITY: Chief Sealth’s Lady Seahawks combined a near perfect night of free throw shooting and a big defensive outing to beat West Seattle 40-31. The game was largely decided in the third quarter when Sealth managed to keep the Wildcats from moving the ball upcourt. Between effective rebounding and sharp passes, the Lady Wildcats found themselves spending most of their evening under Sealth’s basket. At times, both teams tried to shoot the ball from the perimeter, but neither had any success.
Three updates tonight on West Seattle help for Haiti post-earthquake relief: First, we’ve got word that The Community School of West Seattle preschoolers’ Bake Sale for Haiti today brought in $422! The kids, ages 3-5, helped manage the money themselves – above, just a few of the preschoolers involved when we stopped by during the sale – pretend cash register, but real cash! Meantime, Kristina just e-mailed this update from Alki Elementary School about a fundraiser happening there right now:
Alki Parent Jill Rose has organized a movie showing of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs in the school cafeteria to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. It looks like we are going to be at capacity! 100% of the proceeds are going to the Red Cross to benefit the people of Haiti, and the families of Alki Elementary are out in force. The school did a penny drive for Haiti, as well, and tonight we’ll be announcing to the students that their small change added up to over $1200!
And the third update: While working on a project for WSB, reporter Mary Sheely learned this afternoon that all Matador locations, including West Seattle, plan to donate 100 percent of profits on Fat Tuesday — which is one and a half weeks away, February 16th — to Haiti relief.
(Sketch showing the “hill” and “valley” topography of the added future parkland)
It’s on the Events page and will be in the forthcoming West Seattle Weekend Lineup BUT since it’s a rare weekend public meeting, wanted to send out one more standalone reminder – the second public meeting about the West Seattle Reservoir/Westcrest Park expansion is TOMORROW (Saturday 2/6), 10 am-noon at Southwest Community Center. Here’s our story about what happened at the first meeting; it’s another chance to have a say about what’s done with the extra park space when the Highland Park reservoir cover is done.
Mentioned here on Thursday that the South Park Bridge closures had been rescheduled, and that nighttime work was planned on the West Seattle Bridge next week. New details are in on both plans – read on:Read More
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
As the saying goes, the ink is barely dry on the lease.
Lori and Tim McConnell just signed a deal for second-floor space in Charlestown Center, which has been home to just two businesses – Budget Cuts and Anytime Fitness – for the year-plus since it opened.
Their new business doesn’t have a name yet (in fact, they’re inviting you to offer suggestions, in case the one they’re checking on doesn’t pan out) – but they are very clear on what it will be: West Seattle’s one and only “specialty running” store.
“The closest sporting-good store is Big 5, and you can only get two flavors of GU there!” Tim points out.
If you know what he’s talking about, you’re going to love their store.
Announced this morning – a series of meetings at which Mayor Mike McGinn invites you to help him fulfill one of the promises made in his inaugural address, for a Youth/Families Initiative. One of the meetings is in West Seattle, March 15th at Denny International Middle School. Here’s the full announcement.
Longtime WSB sponsor Hotwire Online Coffeehouse usually offers seasonal beverages (right now a Valentine’s group is among the offerings) – and in the short run, there are two Super Bowl drinks, accompanying a prediction contest – just in from Hotwire proprietor Lora Lewis:
Is it possible to predict the Super Bowl just by a coffee beverage? The customers of Hotwire Online Coffeehouse think so. Starting today customers will begin purchasing the coffee shop’s two Super Bowl beverages in an attempt to predict the outcome of this Sundays game between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. The staff will keep track of the beverages purchased and tally up the sales as each drink is sold.
Customers can also leave their name and e-mail address along with their vote. If they pick the winning team Hotwire will give them a free 12 oz Americano and a free hour of Internet surfing. Says Lora Lewis, owner of Hotwire Coffee, “We were able to predict the outcome of the Presidential election with our ‘Barackacanno’ and our ‘Average Joe Biden’ (vote was 65 to 11) why not the Super Bowl?”
The Super Bowl drinks will be available through the third quarter of the Super Bowl Sunday then will be removed for final tally. Winning Customers can pick up their free beverages starting Monday.
The Super Bowl drinks are the New Orleans Saints ‘who-dat?’ special (dark chocolate/cinnamon mocha) and Indianapolis Colts special (blueberry/white chocolate mocha). They’ll be available through the third quarter on Sunday. Hotwire’s at 4410 California, just north of the Junction post office. As for watching the game – no big screen at Hotwire but here’s our list of where you can see it on TV in West Seattle (with food and beverage specials listed as well as TV-screen sizes).
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Gatewood pilot Long Nguyen, who shared some spectacular aerial views last year. This new one, he says, was taken from 10,000 feet over Sea-Tac, on a descent to Boeing Field. (Click the image to see a larger version on his gallery site.)
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