Today’s P-I article about the deal for Whole Foods to come to Fauntleroy Place uses that word to describe the project site. Seems a little harsh. Now, just a bit to the west, we *would* say that’s a good word for the empty ex-Burger King and the tattered, shuttered building that I vaguely recall as having been a car-stereo store once upon a time.

As for the project itself, we’ve got mixed emotions on the idea of a Whole Foods store here. The WS Blogger household does enjoy “health food” (brown rice is on the stove even as we type). When the WF in North Seattle was relatively new, we dropped in a few times. Found most of their stuff overpriced, including the extensive deli offerings. Didn’t see any reason to stop patronizing our local PCC, at least in favor of a crosstown drive.

So now they’ll be here, not far from the Jefferson Square Safeway — we loathe Safeways, so if business there is affected, no biggie in our personal view. The Morgan Junction Thriftway might feel some heat, since that’s just a mile down the road, and it’s cultivated a tiny bit of upscaleness. But how will the folks at PCC cope? Brand loyalty might not count for much any more, even for those of us who can count their PCC membership years on into double digits.

Bottom line for me … we would still rather see West Seattle get a Trader Joe’s, so we can stop the frequent trips to Burien!

Interesting question raised in the “cover story” in the new edition of the Alki News Beacon. We here at WS Blog remember a slightly sleepier time at Alki, back when a drugstore held the space now occupied by the Alki Bakery coffeehouse, among other things. Heck, we’re just happy — when we venture beachward — to see the Homestead hasn’t been chased out yet (though we’ll red-facedly admit to never having actually set foot inside).

Urban early-morning power outage! Folks from the morning newscast on Q-13 spent at least a couple hours near the Alki Bathhouse this morning, talking about The First of February Windstorm ’06. My favorite part — the horrifying revelation that Tully’s had to open late because of the outage. You know things can get ugly when you just can’t get that quadruple grande you’re counting on. Might I suggest a dip in the bay, as an equivalent wakeup jolt?

Didn’t think so.

Prediction for next Alki TV sighting: The traditional semi-annual orca pod drive-by. Choppers ahoy!

Ah, if only “Seattle Live” were still around, maybe they’d finally find inspiration in this for an episode of “COPS — in West Seattle” ….

… for Best Community Newspaper in West Seattle, I nominate these folks. Kicks the Herald up one side of the block and down the other. Wonder if we can get something like that going on this side of Cali Ave someday.

West Seattle could grow if this happens.
Or would that be Southwest Seattle?
Would South Seattle no longer be South Seattle, if the city limits moved so much further south?
White Center is such a gray area, anyway. I dare you to identify, from memory, exactly where the city-limits signs are. I only know of one for sure.
But I would suggest, let’s not stop there. Let’s go ahead and just annex all of Burien. And SeaTac too. I mean, let’s end their miserable run of trying to correct people who don’t get the capitalization or punctuation quite right. We can stretch Seattle all the way to Tacoma … or, at least, Federal Way.

Buried in the aforementioned (well, in this layout, belowmentioned) West Seattle Herald article is the mention that Video Vault, once a hotbed of anti-monorailism, is going to hit the stop button forever next month. I haven’t spent a dime there since they started campaigning against the monorail, and I would hold that against them in perpetuity, for what it’s worth. Then again, we’re not exactly major video connoisseurs, so they’re not missing out on much business. Anybody want to lay odds on yet another bar/tavern taking over the space? Or will it be view condos?

Quiet night on the west side. Not raining. Seahawks game still four long days away; no overt signs of blue-and-green fever yet. Still not light enough late enough into the evening for beach volleyball. Starbucks’ red-cup season is over.

HELP! I’M BORED!

If you want proof nothing’s happening, check out the banner story at WestSeattleHerald.com: It’s about something that HASN’T HAPPENED … at least yet.

No news is NOT always good news.

Good news if you already own a home on this side of the bay, bad news if you don’t. Our prices are movin’ on up, according to a realtor quoted in the second half of this story. (Though the cynic in me notes, he’s likely finger-crossing for a self-fulfilling prophecy, since his company has a major stake in West Seattle real estate.)

From the P-I’s account of the Friday power outage:

“The larger of the two outages occurred around 4:30 a.m. when a tree fell on power lines at 32nd Avenue Southwest and Southwest Brandon Street, cutting off power to about 7,500 Seattle City Light customers.

The outage stretched from Alki in the north to Southwest Findlay Street in the south and 23rd Avenue Southwest in the east to 53rd Avenue Southwest in the west, City Light spokeswoman Sharon Bennett said.”

Gotta find out exactly how our power grid works — how that outage managed to result in an unscheduled off-day for the kids at Schmitz Park Elementary, but not for, say, Lafayette, barely a mile away, and located between Schmitz Park and the outage source.

As I write this late Saturday morning (as the streets are about to be vacated so that everyone can gather ’round their teevees for the Seahawks pregame, game, and postgame), there’s a definite break to the west. Chances are good it’ll be long-overdue activity-suitable weather all afternoon … right while everyone’s in the living room.

Radio talk-show host New York Vinnie cited West Seattle tonight while talking about restaurant districts where he doubted the smoking ban was costing businesspeople customers. He talked about being at West 5 and looking across to the Matador — or perhaps it was the other way around. Sure, those joints might be buzzing, but what about the teeny ones like the Poggie Tavern or Be’s Restaurant, where it sometimes seemed you could come down with emphysema just by walking past their doors? I’d love to hear how they’re doing.

A local TV station told the story tonight of the “TEMPORARILY CLOSED” sign on the Cat’s Eye Cafe north of Lincoln Park. Seems a car crash is to blame. Hard to tell from the outside, but pictures of the inside made it clear why they’re closed. The woman who runs the cafe told the reporter she’s hoping they’ll reopen in about three weeks. Hope so!

This P-I column today tells the heartening story of two West Seattle families with more in common than where they live.

Turns out I know a little something about both families. Anyone who’s been in West Seattle more than a few years will of course recognize the name of Mike Heavey, who had a boffo sign team back in his campaigning days. But it took me a few minutes and a bit of Googling to remember why I recognized the name of John Moe — I’d followed a link once to his blog.

Though she may not have a West Seattle link, the third player in the P-I column is noteworthy too. As we learned back in our early-parenthood days, maternity nurses rock.

Wow, how did we sleep through all this?

That’s one thing about our little peninsula … a whole lot of land where there’s nowhere to run except right into the Sound.