We are at The Hall of Fauntleroy along with a HUGE crowd. The buzz started as soon as the 34th District Democrats announced that U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott would join their scheduled forum on health-care reform, during the regular monthly meeting. Outside the hall and inside, we’ve seen sign-holding demonstrators touting various positions in the debate – from “single payer” to “government stay out.” So far, it’s been peaceful although spirited – including a loud ovation for Rep. McDermott as he walked in (some boos, but they were all but drowned out). We will post updates as this happens. Not only is this “standing room only,” it’s “sitting on the floor” room only. Dr. Lisa Plymate is introducing the Congressmember now. Follow our Twitter feed for in-a-flash photos and updates too.
7:25 PM UPDATE: Rep. McDermott is speaking. He says, “This is a war … a war over whether the American people can have health security and economic security.” He says the opponents are the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and he says their profits are the reason why. Many people here in the hall are murmuring “Yes!” as he speaks, something like a rollicking evangelical church service. He says he believes a bill with a “good public option” will emerge from the House of Representatives (he supports what’s known as “single payer”). Now he’s taking questions.
7:43 PM UPDATE: Still lively but not too much tension. Rep. McDermott has blamed insurance and pharmaceutical companies for “the opposition you’re seeing around the country,” and one man in the back yelled THAT’S A LIE! He also said that the House may not abide by the “deals made in the White House” with those industries. One woman asked, “What can we do to get single-payer back on the table?” and McDermott said, “I wish I had a good answer for that.”
7:56 PM: Rep. McDermott is done speaking. Now a rep from Washington Public Campaigns is speaking about publicly financed campaigns. Some of the crowd is dispersing now that McDermott’s portion of the health-care discussion is over (we can hear much discussion happening out in the hall and spilling out onto the sidewalk outside the hall). McDermott says he’ll have an “open meeting” in the area in September. The public-campaign advocate is tying health-care reform to campaign-financing reform, saying publicly financed candidates can “stand up” to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.
*The meeting continues – we will only update if anything major happens – otherwise, watch for our full writeup later.
Things are likely hopping by now; we dropped in just before the new Porterhouse (north of Admiral Theater) opened its doors at mid-afternoon today. That video takes you on a tour of the interior, which we last saw when it was in the final throes of remodeling. Note the art (future participants in the ever-expanding West Seattle Art Walk, they say) and those bound-to-be-legendary 25 taps. The owners have said they’ll serve food 11 am-11 pm (with the bar open beyond that) for starters, considering adding brunch later. ADDED 6:26 PM: If you can’t get over there just yet but want a steadier look at the taps, here’s a pic:
Two updates this afternoon in the ongoing controversy over whether the homeless encampment that calls itself “Nickelsville” will be allowed to stay on Port of Seattle land at Terminal 107 Park in West Seattle: First, a spokesperson for the encampment sent this short announcement:
The port has withdrawn request to show just cause for eviction of Nickelsville residents. Hearing tomorrow before King County Superior Court Judge Kallas is cancelled. Nickelsville looks forward to meeting with the port this week. Date and time pending.
Second, the port has issued its own, longer statement, posted on its website and republished here in full:
On July 23rd, the Nickelsville encampment moved onto the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 107 public park without permission. Port staff members believe that legally, the Port of Seattle has neither the authority to provide housing nor the ability to donate property for the encampment.
“We understand the difficult situation that many of the Nickelsville members are in, and share the concern of many in our community about the serious problem of homelessness,” said Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani. “But the port must consider not just our legal authority and our responsibility to create jobs and economic growth for the region, but the needs and wants of other residents in the region who live adjacent to and use port parks and facilities every day.”
Yoshitani has asked Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag, Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna and Washington State Speaker of the House Frank Chopp to clarify the port’s legal authority to donate the property for housing. Yoshitani hopes the request for legal clarification can be expedited.
In a separate action, the port has withdrawn the motion for unlawful detainer filed before King County Superior Court. The motion was scheduled to be heard on August 13th. However, the port reserves the right to proceed with the Notice of Trespass given to the encampment on July 24th, and Yoshitani has instructed staff members to continue working toward the previously stated August 21st deadline for the encampment to leave port property.
“By withdrawing this motion and seeking additional legal clarity, the port continues to try to work through this issue collaboratively,” Yoshitani noted. “I also encourage Nickelsville members and community advocates to maximize efforts to identify a more appropriate site for the encampment.”
Tomorrow marks three weeks since the encampment moved from another West Seattle location, 2nd SW/Highland Park Way, state land where it had been set up for a month, following almost nine months at various locations elsewhere in the city.
That’s how Trileigh captioned this photo of the young Lincoln Park-born barred owl who was nicknamed “Wollet” during a rash of sightings that followed our first owlet report, which came from Kim and Jordan Petram and included this next photo, back in late May:
(Among other photo reports that followed, Minette contributed too.) Back to today’s top photo – Trileigh elaborates:
I found an owl in Lincoln Park on Sunday, but I wasn’t sure whether it was Wollet or one of his parents. He looked so freshly washed that I thought it was probably “our” baby. Then when I showed his picture to one of my owl-expert friends, she confirmed that it is indeed Wollet: apparently you can tell by his white tail feathers. Hooray! So glad to see that little guy one more time. My friend also tells me he’s likely to start searching for his own territory — so each sighting could be the last.
She has more photos at flickr.com/photos/trileigh. Meantime, we’ve received a few other beautiful West Seattle bird-sighting photos recently (thank you!!!!) and will share them soon too.
FIRST, THE FOLLOWUP: Early this morning we brought you Sue‘s report of a van stolen in Fauntleroy. She just e-mailed to say she has found her van, “in the Allstar (Fitness) area” of North Delridge, and that it doesn’t have much damage.
NOW, A NEW REPORT:Christie e-mailed word of a burglary at 48th/Hinds (map):
Sometime during the day yesterday – we were gone from 1030am until 7pm – someone broke into our home and stole some goods. My husband came home to find the stereo moved around, our iPod touch gone and our new Apple computer gone from the living room. Upon further investigation, we discovered our iPod Nano was missing from its dock in one of the bedrooms downstairs and our jar of change was missing from the bookshelf. No visible sign of entry, but the back door was unlocked when my husband arrived home.
The iPod Nano is the first generation Red (donates to the Aids Fund) 4 GB and is engraved with “always enjoy yourself” – The iPod Touch is first generation Silver with a black case and is engraved with “all the dark can’t extinguish the light.” The apple computer was purchased last year and has the fancy touch sensors in the mouse pad. It has a purple case with the bottom back tabs (that hold it on) broken.
The police have a full report and serial numbers, but if anyone finds anything on craigs list/ebay/etc., please contact Christie Voos at christie.voos@gmail.com
Prospective first-time homebuyers are invited to a Homestead Community Land Trust Q/A session in White Center tomorrow. The official flyer (see it here) focuses on help for first-time homebuyers in White Center, but Laura Evans with Homestead tells WSB, “We also can help with purchasing home in West Seattle or South Park or anywhere else in the City.” Homestead offers $100,000 to first-time homebuyers at certain income levels (listed on the flyer) in exchange for a commitment that, “when you sell your home, you will sell it at an affordable price to another homebuyer on their way to achieving their dream.” Tomorrow’s info-session is at 5:30 pm at the King County Library‘s White Center branch, 11220 16th SW; call 206.323.1227 to RSVP. If you can’t make it, Evans says there’ll be an informational session on Beacon Hill on August 23 (more info here).
Employers are welcome to post their West Seattle-based job openings FREE in the WSB Forums‘ West Seattle Jobs Offered section, and two more just have – including one offering a meet-and-greet tomorrow night – go here to see what’s listed.
COURT CASE: South Park murder suspect Isaiah Kalebu is expected in King County Superior Court at 8:30 this morning to answer charges including aggravated murder (which could bring the death penalty) in the July xx attack on two women who were asleep in their home when he allegedly broke in.
REP. MCDERMOTT TALKS HEALTH-CARE REFORM: Tonight, the long-hot topic gets its highest-profile West Seattle discussion yet, as the 34th District Democrats bring in Seattle’s Congressmember Jim McDermott in addition to other expert panelists. The agenda’s here, but also note the disclaimer on the group’s home page – this is NOT a “town hall meeting” and while everyone’s welcome to attend and listen, “only members may speak and participate,” per the group’s bylaws. The meeting starts at 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy.
We promised nightly reminders; here’s a quick one. Next Tuesday’s primary is the first major election since King County went all-mail – so you need to mail or drop off your ballot by 8 pm that night (August 18th). Election authorities project a fairly low participation rate, but there’s no reason it HAS TO turn out that way – there are major issues/races to be decided, from Seattle Referendum 1 (deciding whether to approve the disposable-shopping-bag fee the City Council approved last year) to narrowing down big fields to two “finalists” in races including Seattle Mayor and King County Executive. You don’t actually have to mail your ballot – you can also put it in one of the 24/7 drop boxes around the county, including the Delridge Neighborhood Service Center (5405 Delridge Way; map) and the King County Library‘s White Center branch (11220 16th SW; map). The first results will be out shortly after 8 pm Election Night.
That photo comes with this report from Gatewood resident and West Seattle Internet business owner Bill Hibler:
This happened at 6:30 this morning. No one was hurt although my wife was pretty shook. The tree landed on the corner of the house where there is a bathroom. She was standing at the sink washing her hands when it hit, immediately causing the ceiling to sag and finally break through. I was upstairs and thought there was either an earthquake (the house shook pretty good) or lightning had just struck about 100 feet from the house causing the one of the loudest thunder claps I’ve heard.
There was NO wind. The root structure was rotten and just the weight of the rain on the very large leaves of a broad-leaf maple caused it to topple.
This is the kind of thing you want to have happen AFTER the West Seattle Garden Tour.
If you want a professional to examine the tree, call Mark Harman of Stonehedge at 206-937-7428.
An update tonight on the conversion of 3207 California SW (formerly Muttley Crew Cuts, now in Admiral) to the future Swinery: Two weeks ago, we brought you WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli‘s report on Chef Gabriel Claycamp‘s project, including a look inside the space they’re remodeling (that’s one of Christopher’s July photos, at left). This afternoon, WSB’er Michelle, who lives nearby, e-mailed to say work on the space seemed to have abruptly halted, and that a “stop work” notice was posted. We first checked city records; they confirm that someone filed a land-use complaint last week, regarding the need for more permits in the remodeling process (though a permit application to convert the space from “residential” to “food processing” is shown as filed). Then we checked with Claycamp, who says, “Everything we have done so far is OK to do without a permit,” adding that he has a meeting with the city tomorrow to present plans, after which he expects the complaint will be resolved. (We left a message this afternoon for the city inspector who is handling the complaint, and will try again tomorrow.) Claycamp did say that he and his crew encountered a few surprises while working on the building, and that fixing those will push the Swinery’s West Seattle opening date into mid-September (they were hoping for this month, at one point).
That’s the latest bar chart for responses to the neighborhood-plan survey we’ve been talking about – literally a once-in-a-decade chance to have an official say on where growth and planning goes from here. Whether or not you made it to the July 28th meeting to discuss the plans face to face, the city is hoping to get as many people as possible to fill out an online survey asking the same four questions. Yes, we know, it may not seem fair that Ballard/Crown Hill is ahead because it’s all lumped together as one neighborhood, while West Seattle has FIVE (Junction, Admiral, Delridge, Highland Park/Westwood Village, Morgan Junction), but nothing we can do about that now; it’s how things shook out a decade ago. But we’re not even being challenged by Ballard – our fellow online-only neighborhood-news providers at Rainier Valley Post are issuing a challenge to other neighborhoods. Not sure if this will turn into one of those Super Bowl bet deals where we each offer some famous local foodstuff (what IS an iconic West Seattle food, anyway? Husky ice cream, maybe?) – but we’ve up for a challenge. Before 5 pm tomorrow, go here to take the survey. If you don’t live in any of those five neighborhoods, fill it out for one that you frequently visit. The more voices are heard in this process, the better the end result; tell your friends, tell your neighbors, use SHARE THIS below to send this around.
Though it seemed to have a ring of finality, remember, the July 23 announcement that the city wouldn’t recommend paid street parking for The Junction was NOT the end of the year-plus-long city parking review of the area. Full findings and recommendations are yet to come – will some areas see more restrictions? fewer? or? — and if you want to be part of the process, here’s your next chance: The West Seattle Junction Parking Project Committee‘s next meeting is now set for a week from Thursday – 6 pm August 20th, at the Ginomai arts center (southwest corner of 42nd/Genesee; map). Dante Taylor, who’s heading the parking review for SDOT, explains, “At this meeting we will discuss the findings from the parking study and available parking management tools for WSJ.” You don’t have to be a committee member to be at the meeting. Need to catch up on what’s been reviewed and studied so far? Here’s our archive of Junction parking-review coverage; here’s the official project page on the SDOT website.
Thought that we would put it out to all the West Seattle businesses, we took a counterfeit 20 today, about 12:30. Description of the guy is 6’1″ dark complexion, slender build, 3 Inch afro that was kinda messy, appx 30-35 years old, with a slight accent. Wearing yellow, green and blue striped oversized polo with faded light blue baggy jeans. We don’t know if he was on foot or in a car, but he headed out of our shop north on 35th Ave SW. Just a word to the other business owners out there.
To elaborate on the location, Coffee at the Heights is in the building on the northwest corner of 35th/Webster (map).
On behalf of the Southwest Precinct Advisory Council, Pete Spalding reminds us of the big block party coming up this Saturday afternoon: It’s time for the annual Picnic at the Precinct (official flyer here). Not only will you get the chance to meet many of the SW Precinct-based police who work all over West Seattle (and South Park), as well as precinct leadership, but, as Pete says, “There will be free food, entertainment, most of the divisions will have their equipment out there, and we have 20+ community and service organizations signed up to be there to tell the community about the work they do here in West Seattle.” Covering the picnic these past two years (2007 here, 2008 here), we’ve noticed the equipment often includes high-tech crimefighting tools (like the robot in the ’08 clip above) that tend to impress picnic-goers young and old. Drop by between 1 pm and 4 pm Saturday – SW Webster will be closed on the precinct’s south side (map), just west of Delridge. (Forecast doesn’t sound too bad so far.)
As reported here last week, Stoyan Tanev, the owner of Delridge Vacuum and TV, was challenging the city’s revocation of his license, and an appeal hearing was scheduled for this morning before the Hearing Examiner downtown. We got to the Municipal Tower a few minutes late and discovered the hearing room empty, except for the examiner’s paralegal, who told us that Tanev did not show up, so the examiner will issue a “notice of default.” That means, according to the department’s published rules, the appeal is dismissed, as is allowed in cases where “without good cause, the appellant fails to appear or is unprepared to proceed at a scheduled and properly noticed hearing.” Last spring, he faced trial on charges of “receiving stolen property” but the case was dismissed because of an agreement in another case, reported here on April 21 after assistant city attorney Beth Gappert briefed the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council. That case involved charges of not having the proper license and not retaining used goods for the required 30 days before selling them. The shop was expected to close this summer; we have messages out to Gappert to check the current status of the situation.
Thanks to Mary Pat Byington at Alki Community Center for the reminder: Registration opens at noon today for fall programs at not just Alki, but all of West Seattle’s city-run community centers — which also means Delridge, Hiawatha, High Point and Southwest. You can see the brochure (left) with the combined listings for all of them by going here (Alki Bathhouse,South Park CC and Southwest Pool are included too). You don’t have to go to a center to sign up – you can do it online – through the SPARC system. But note that you need an account for online registration – this page explains how that works, and creating one isn’t instant. Even if you’re not signing up for something (yet), also note the fall brochure has the dates for major events from Halloween carnivals to Christmas Ship stops.
(Monday photo courtesy CoolMom.org)
In that crowd of more than 40 people visiting federal offices in downtown Seattle Monday morning were Tara Reynolds, Terri Glaberson, Jen Bradbury and Cynthia Tamlyn from the West Seattle chapter of CoolMom. The visit – which also included people from Washington Environmental Council, Fuse Washington, Climate Solutions and People for Puget Sound, among other groups – was meant to urge Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to take “action on a climate/energy bill that President Obama can take with him to Copenhagen in December,” as Glaberson explains. The bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (HR 2454), passed the U.S. House in a close vote earlier this year — after a CoolMom visit to the office of Seattle’s Rep. Jim McDermott – and now is facing a U.S. Senate vote (legislative details here). More on Monday’s visit on the CoolMom website; they also have a photo gallery here. If you want to tell the senators what you think about the bill, Sen. Murray’s contact info is here; Sen. Cantwell’s, here.
Porterhouse, the new restaurant/pub in the old Blackbird Bistro space by Admiral Theater, is opening at 3 pm Wednesday – just got that confirmed from a staffer. First to report it was the West Seattle-headquartered Washington Beer Blog, via Twitter (@beerblog). Also, thanks to Sarah, who e-mailed us a little while ago about a note on Porterhouse’s door announcing the Wednesday opening. Our most recent update on Porterhouse was this story on July 22nd; our first report was June 5th. Toplines, from those previous stories: It’ll be open to all ages; food hours 11 am-11 pm for starters; menu “gastro-pub … pub food with a twist”; 25 taps (21 added to the space’s pre-existing four!).
(Alki, photographed this afternoon by Chas Redmond)
We’ll admit we’re enjoying the long-needed rain. The latest forecast suggests most of it will be over by tomorrow afternoon – and that would be in time for the first of THREE outdoor concerts in West Seattle in the next four nights: Tuesday night, it’s a city-presented Music in the Park concert outside the Alki Bathhouse, with the Toucans Steel Drum Band scheduled to play at 6 pm. Here’s a YouTube clip of the Toucans at Folklife in 2008:
The concert is sponsored by the Alki Community Center Advisory Council; no admission charge but you’re asked to bring a canned-food donation for local food banks. Then on Thursday, the fourth of six Summer Concerts at Hiawatha, presented by the Admiral Neighborhood Association (and co-sponsored by businesses including WSB), featuring the Elizabeth Carpenter Trio, 6:30 pm, also free – click the button to hear one of their songs:
By the way, concert organizer Katy Walum told WSB tonight that if there’s rain Thursday night, the concert WILL GO ON:
I have confirmed with Hiawatha CC that we are welcome to use their gymnasium in case of rain. We’ll try to make it as much like the outdoor venue as possible – bring your blankets and chairs, sit on the floor, bring your picnic dinner, etc. The stage will be set up at one end of the gym. The Elizabeth Carpenter Trio is a fantastic jazz trio with an incredibly talented female vocalist, and I hope that our lovely audience will not let a little rain deter them from checking out this week’s act. We may be missing summer, but we don’t have to miss summer music!
Showtime (also free) at The Mount is 6 pm; gates open at 5 and food/drink is available for sale. (Then, after all that great outdoor music, there’s an outdoor MOVIE Saturday night – “Pirates of the Caribbean” is next up for West Seattle Outdoor Movies on the Wall – but we’ll talk more about that later.)
We’ll be reminding you daily from here on out to get your ballot in the mail – we need the reminder too, as diehard oldschool in-person voters who are being dragged kicking and shrieking into the all-mail-voting age. Our favorite VOTE! reminders today come from Hella Bus, a site for the youngest voters, who they’re imploring to prove certain stats wrong. Meanwhile, the county King County Elections Department is publishing nightly 8 pm updates on how many ballots it’s received back — tonight’s update says they’ve received just under 8% so far: See the count here. (It’s broken out in various ways including cities and county-council districts; among the latter, the one including West Seattle – District 8 – has the second-highest percentage of ballots mailed back so far, 9.2%, second only to the 9.4% of District 6 (metro Eastside). If you would prefer to drop off your ballot rather than mail it, there are two nearby drop boxes, both available 24/7 till the voting cutoff time, 8 pm August 18th — the Delridge Neighborhood Service Center (5405 Delridge Way; map) and the King County Library‘s White Center branch (11220 16th SW; map) – here’s the full list of dropboxes countywide. Once you’ve dropped off or sent your ballot, keep checking here to make sure it’s been received. And if you’re still deciding how to vote – we’ve profiled many of the candidates and have a few more stories to run, plus a last look at the mayoral hopefuls; see what we’ve published so far, and watch for upcoming stories, by checking the WSB Politics coverage category (on the CATEGORIES list toward the bottom of the sidebar, where you’ll also find RSS links for each category, if you prefer to get your news via RSS). You should have received a voters’ pamphlet by mail as well as your ballot(s); if you want to find the guides online, here’s the city guide; the county/port guide links are here.
New information tonight from William Khazaal, son of Phoenecia at Alki restaurant owner Hussein Khazaal, who died suddenly over the weekend at age 63 (here’s our Sunday report, with dozens of memories and tributes in its comment section). William says his father’s funeral will be at noon tomorrow at House of Mercy in Covington (15004 SE 256th; map), and there will be a memorial celebration on Alki — with food — in the grassy area by the Bathhouse, right across from Phoenecia, this Friday night at 6:30; the family says the public is welcome at both events. Friday is a day when Mr. Khazaal’s family had hoped to be celebrating something very different: William says that would have been his father and mother’s 40th wedding anniversary.
FIRST, THE FOLLOWUP: Early this morning we 
We promised nightly reminders; here’s a quick one. Next Tuesday’s primary is the first major election since King County went all-mail – so you need to mail or drop off your ballot by 8 pm that night (August 18th). Election authorities project a fairly low participation rate, but there’s no reason it HAS TO turn out that way – there are major issues/races to be decided, from 
who lives nearby, e-mailed to say work on the space seemed to have abruptly halted, and that a “stop work” notice was posted. We first checked city records; they confirm that 
Though it seemed to have a ring of finality, remember, the 
Registration opens at noon today for fall programs at not just Alki, but all of West Seattle’s city-run community centers — which also means 
New information tonight from William Khazaal, son of Phoenecia at Alki restaurant owner Hussein Khazaal, who died suddenly over the weekend at age 63 (
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