West Seattle, Washington
26 Sunday
This Saturday, 10:30-noon, is the second of two “design workshops” for potential changes at California Place Park in North Admiral. After the contentious first workshop (WSB coverage here), the landscape architect whose services are funded by a $15,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund grant has come up with proposals to display, according to a new post on the project website that’s maintained by Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral, the group that procured the grant:
Karen Kiest has done a wonderful job representing the feedback from the community and has created several beautiful options that contain ideas for the neighborhood to review and provide input. We are very excited about what she has to share. There are no plastic playstructures, no climbing walls on the church, no holes or giant sand pits and the trees are all intact! The design options are natural, open, welcoming and timeless – a perfect compliment to the Admiral neighborhood.
If you are closely interested in this project, check back here at WSB tonight Friday, when we will be publishing a longer story including the claims that have been made by park-change opponents and responses from FANNA. In the meantime, we wanted to get out this reminder, since the project has been so closely watched, and the workshop is day after tomorrow (Alki Community Center, 10:30 am-noon Saturday; past coverage is archived here). ADDED THURSDAY NIGHT: We asked FANNA’s Ann Limbaugh about the format planned for the workshop; she says it will be similar to the last one – landscape architect Kiest will make a presentation, people will discuss in small groups at tables.
Just in from the King County Council, following up on the Feb. 26 troubles:
For the second time this winter, public transit throughout King County was brought to a standstill by snow. On February 26, Metro Transit passengers were left out in the cold, stranded by late bus service. The Metropolitan King County Council’s Physical Environment Committee, the panel responsible for Council oversight of Metro Transit, will be taking public testimony regarding the disruption in transit services:
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
9:30 a.m.
King County Council chambers
10th floor, King County CourthouseCommittee members will receive a briefing from committee staff and will also hear from Metro Transit staff on the agency’s reaction to the morning snow.
We know that’s not the most convenient time – you can e-mail the council your thoughts too, if you haven’t already. Their contact info is all here.
Whatever term you want to use, this invitation’s for you: TEAM Delridge, latest push for neighborhood efforts in the King County Food and Fitness Initiative, invites you to a get-together at 6:30 pm March 23rd. Food for thought, from the official invitation:
Does any or all of the following apply to you:
___ I live in the Delridge neighborhood.
___ I learn in the Delridge neighborhood.
___ I work in the Delridge neighborhood.
___ I play in the Delridge neighborhood.
___ I care about the Delridge neighborhood.Do you have ideas or thoughts on the accessibility of healthy food for your family or others’ families living, working, learning and playing in Delridge?
We’ve heard a thousand times before that Delridge needs a grocery store. Is that true? Would a farmers’ market be best? You tell us!
Join other community members just like yourself who are striving to eat healthier, practicing collective action and moving more!
Topics for discussion and prioritization:
What kinds of businesses, organizations, and programs will make a more vibrant Delridge?
What are our largest community concerns, and how can they be addressed?For more information on the exciting initiative or to RSVP for the community meeting, please contact Phillippia Goldsmith at (206) 923-0917 x 116 or via e-mail at phillippiag@dnda.org
If you haven’t seen this on the WSB Crime Watch page, which includes the direct feed from the Seattle Police SPDBlotter site, SPD is reporting an early-morning “home invasion” type break-in in the 3000 block of Harbor Ave (map) early today – for starters, here’s the SPDBlotter report:
On 3-5-09 at 1:13 a.m., three people entered a residence in the 3000 block of Harbor Av SW., stating they had a gun. They then took multiple items including a laptop, flat screen tv, a purse and a set of vehicle keys. The suspects fled in a black Nissan with a temporary plate in the rear window. Officers quickly spotted the vehicle and followed it southbound on I-5 until eventually stopping it at exit 154. All three suspects were taken into custody and the property was recovered from the vehicle. The suspects were transported to the Southwest Precinct and later booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Robbery.
We checked with police for more details – turns out this was NOT random: One of the three people arrested is the victim’s son, who’s in juvenile custody, according to Officer Renee Witt in the media unit, so his status isn’t available, but the other two were adults, a man and a woman, and both are still in jail, according to current listings on the King County Jail Register.
From Wednesday night’s meeting of the Southwest District Council (WSB sponsor): Busy agenda including not only updates on West Seattle projects, but also guest appearances by City Council President Richard Conlin, Alaskan Way Viaduct team reps, and a 
Seattle City Light spokesperson. But first: A followup on a story we brought you at this time tonight, the kickoff of the Friends of Junction Plaza Park‘s efforts to collect pledges of volunteer time and money to get the park finished this year. Susan Melrose of the West Seattle Junction Association told the SWDC that just since the Tuesday night meeting, 22 signed pledges have come in, representing 400 hours of volunteer time, and organizations are volunteering too – nearby West Seattle Christian Church has pledged 200 hours of volunteer time. Patti Mullen of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce said she had spoken with Lafarge Cement, who, she told Melrose, “wants to know if they can offer any labor and product that can support you.” Volunteer pledges circulated through the room before the meeting ended; here’s a form you can print, sign, and send in – also, as mentioned before, look for park volunteers at this Sunday’s West Seattle Farmers’ Market. Listening to the park update, Councilmember Conlin said, “It’s great to see Junction Plaza Park moving forward,” and that segued right into his update – which, along with Viaduct and City Light points, is just ahead:Read More
Tough night for the Seattle Lutheran High School boys’ and girls’ basketball teams at the state 2B tournament in Spokane – the boys lost 68-42 to Napavine, the girls lost 62-26 to Colfax. They both have games against North Beach tomorrow in the consolation round: the boys at 12:30 pm (full tournament bracket here), the girls at 2 pm (full tournament bracket here). THURSDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: The girls won today’s game, 55-47, and play Orcas Island tomorrow at 12:30; the boys lost today, 66-51.
Sarah Bonzer e-mailed today to ask if we’d share a request that she in turn is sharing on behalf of her friend and co-worker, Katie Hogan; both of them live in West Seattle – that’s a candid photo of Katie at left, sent after we asked Sarah for one to go with this story. Before reading Katie’s request, you should hear what Sarah has to say about her friend Katie:
Katie was diagnosed with advanced cancer three years ago and I’ll never forget the day she made the announcement in our conference room at work. You don’t wish something like this on anyone, let alone a woman in her thirties with a young daughter and husband who has survived his own bout with cancer. Katie is one of the gentlest, most caring, considerate and hard working individuals you’ll ever meet. My life is better for having known her during this time, if that is at all possible. Sadly, Katie likely won’t live a full life like the rest of us. Yet in her final years, she stays committed to organizations such as the one she describes below which have supported her during this journey.
The organization is called the Young Survival Coalition; its Seattle branch has less than $40 left in its “Sunshine Fund.” Sarah says even $10 would be a big help – but you don’t have to take her word for it; read Katie’s note, by clicking ahead:Read More
Just in from the Department of Ecology, word that the state’s investigating a diesel spill of unknown size in Duwamish waters near Harbor Island – read on for the full news release:Read More
That video by WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli captures what happened on the day last November that 4532 42nd SW (map) — a huge house with a lot of history, including time spent as one of West Seattle’s original hospitals — met its demise. The newest date written onto the Southwest Design Review Board‘s calendar is for the next review of the project that will replace it, seen here in a rendering from its last SWDRB review last June:
4532 42nd SW is now the second project on the SWDRB agenda for April 9, 8 pm – location TBD – first one that night, at 6:30 pm, is 2922 SW Avalon (featured here yesterday). But there’s a West Seattle Design Review meeting *before* then, too – a week from tomorrow, at 6:30 pm March 12 at High Point Library, the Conner Homes Junction project gets its next look (and part of that project, its “alley vacation” request, has a third hearing before the Seattle Design Commission at City Hall downtown tomorrow). Side note: We cover the Design Review scheduling, reviews, and votes closely because this is a rare step in the development process, for some projects, when the public gets a chance to speak out at a public hearing. For details on how that works, you can check out the Community Guide to Design Review.
If you’re heading southbound on California SW through the 3300 block – south of Prost, The Bohemian, Spiro’s, and the almost-complete Madison Heights townhouse project – it’s slow going because of those four huge cherry-picker trucks working on trimming tree branches away from power lines. City Light has had major tree work going in West Seattle for almost a year now; SCL’s Scott Thomsen just confirmed to WSB that this is city work — “JTS Inc. is working there for us with a city arborist. They’ve been out in West Seattle for the past three weeks. They’ll be working in that area for about another month.”
You may recall Admiral Theater entertainment director Dinah Brein McClellan putting out the call here on WSB for a couple to get married onstage during the upcoming singalong showing of “Mamma Mia.” At least one citywide media source read about it here and in turn, that brought forward Melodie Anderson and John Babcock, whose relationship has stretched across several years and two states (they originally met in San Diego; John followed Melodie when she moved up here) – as well as a cancer fight (Melodie is a survivor, and John’s been by her side all the way). We photographed them last night when they came to The Admiral to meet with Dinah, and today Dinah’s sent word that they are The Ones. The big event is a week from this Saturday – 7:30 pm March 14th, right before the movie. Now Dinah’s thinking it might be a great idea to “give John and Melodie a great sendoff.” The new Luna Park Italian restaurant Cafe Revo already has donated a celebration dinner for 4, and Dinah says Sugar Rush Baking Company/Coffee to a Tea‘s chipping in with a wedding cake and mini-cupcakes . Anybody else want to get in on this with something else for the lucky couple (in addition to attending the showing, not just to cheer on John and Melodie, but also to sing along with your ABBA faves)? Could be the West Seattle media event of the month, and you’ll be in the spotlight too (plus, who doesn’t love a love story?). Give Dinah a shout – dinah@admiralentertainment.com. She says John and Melodie weren’t the only ones to contact her, but she sees “something magical” about their story – love will conquer all, which is the theme of the “Mamma Mia” movie too.
We’re at the end of a two-part media event this morning put on by Seattle Public Utilities and the mayor’s office to start intensifying the reminders that the way you handle your trash/recycling is changing in a big way at month’s end. Rates are rising, pickup dates are changing, weekly food/yard-waste collection is happening, and you’ll be able to recycle more items (and you won’t have to separate the glass any more). First part of the media event is in the photo above – on a Beacon Hill streetcorner, the mayor and a neighborhood family used plastic props to demonstrate the new push for more food recycling. Second part, we’ll be adding video in a bit – we and the other media reps were taken inside the gigantic recycling-sorting facility at 3rd/Lander in Sodo …. (photo added 4:48 pm)
… for a look at what happens AFTER your recycling is picked up, BEFORE it’s sent off to whoever’s buying the “raw” materials. Loud, smelly, fascinating. Clips to come.
Here’s more info on the upcoming changes. Specific info on your new collection day should arrive in your postal mail. ADDED 4:14 PM: 1st video clip and some extra info:Read More
Congratulations to the Chief Sealth High School boys’ basketball team for beating Cleveland 76-66 last night (the game for which your votes won the channel 7 “Game of the Week” web poll) – that means they play Seattle Prep tomorrow night — 6:30 pm, Bellevue Community College — with the winner going to the state playoffs. When Sealth faced Prep on January 13, it was a close game, with Prep winning 45-41.
(added Wednesday afternoon, Junction Plaza Park rendering)
(Susan Melrose of the Junction Association and Isaac Cohen of Seattle Parks Foundation)
From Tuesday night’s first meeting of Friends of Junction Plaza Park, designed to get the long-semi-dormant park project across the finish line: Three women are giving the group a jump start: There’s Susan Melrose, who’s been helping Junction merchants bring new energy to the business district in her role as director of the West Seattle Junction Association; Erica Karlovits, who helms the Junction Neighborhood Organization and co-chairs the Southwest District Council; and Katie Hjorten, who we last heard from publicly when, as chair of Friends of Ercolini Park, she helped celebrate that park’s dedication west of The Junction last July. After the meeting, we asked her, why get involved with another park? Read More
First, this note went out last night on the Pigeon Point neighborhood list:
Two cars in the 4100 block of 20th Ave were car prowled, a van at the very north end of 20th Ave was burglarized and a vehicle was stolen from the corner of 21st Ave and SW Genesee. [map]
Then tonight, Pigeon Point neighborhood organizer Pete Spalding sent this followup:
Just wanted to give everyone a quick update of what I have learned in the last 24 hours. It seems that at a minimum there were 11 vehicles that were either car prowled, vandalized, burglarized or stolen on Sunday evening/night. Most of these were on 20th Ave SW and the one that was stolen was on 21st.
Pete also reminded Pigeon Point’ers that this is a good time to organize a Block Watch if you don’t have one already, and a good time to meet with yours if you do. (Benjamin Kinlow, crime-prevention coordinator at the Southwest Precinct, is the person to contact about setting one up.)
As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child – and in the case of this story, it takes a village of fundraisers to rustle up the money for programs to help kids. The West Seattle Family YMCA (WSB sponsor) gathered fundraising volunteers at The Hall at Fauntleroy tonight for the Partners With Youth Campaign “victory celebration”: More than $202,000 raised, close to the $205K target (half of the total $410K goal, with the other half raised by the Y’s Board of Managers). This money goes to keep YMCA programs accessible to kids, teens, and families in West Seattle, Vashon, and South Park. Tonight’s event brought together volunteers to report their individual achievements – those who exceeded certain personal goals got T-shirts – the photo above shows Katie Taylor, director of the Y’s afterschool program at Madison, calling out goal-exceeders’ names. (The Y website offers online-donation opportunities, by the way.)
As we reported in coverage of last month’s 34th District Democrats meeting, West Seattle State Sen. Joe McDermott thinks you should be able to register to vote all the way up till Election Day. But that’s not a popular idea, yet, so he is heading that way incrementally: The Senate has approved a bill he’s co-sponsoring, to move the in-person voter-registration deadline a week later, to 8 days pre-election. According to a Legislature news release, the 8 states allowing Election Day registration have voter participation averaging 10 percent higher than other states. His bill, SB 5270 (status and other links here), now moves to the House.
That’s King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, special guest at this afternoon’s meeting of the Rotary Club of West Seattle at Salty’s on Alki. He shared what he described as a “remarkable” story — one that might cheer you up a bit, if the off-and-on deluge of Crime Watch reports tends to leave you worried. Satterberg said the crackdown on car theft has brought dramatic results – and he says that’s particularly important because car theft is seen as a springboard to other crimes; someone steals a car to go commit burglaries, or worse. Read on to hear about the numbers he listed, what else he told the Rotarians, and after that, a few notes about what they’re up to:Read More
SSCC (West Seattle’s only college) just sent this out and wanted to make sure you knew:
Thanks to a generous donor to the South Seattle Community College Foundation, we have an opportunity to offer a special scholarship round to award two full scholarships (3 quarters each) to two students who have been in the U.S. Foster Care System.
Because it can be challenging to contact students who are eligible for this scholarship, we encourage you to let all students know it is available so they can determine whether or not to apply.
The application deadline is Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 4:00 p.m. in the Development Office, Room RS-01.
Application is available online; call 206 764-5809 for additional information.
(photo added 2:22 pm)
Dave Brewer e-mailed to share this alert:
On the 2900 block of SW Avalon Way, a section on the east side of the street that used to have no-limit parking is now a 2 hour zone. My assumption is that it has to do with Cafe Revo, directly across from the area.
Riders in my van pool (as well as at least three others that I am aware of) have been parking in this area during the work day for a couple years, so a warning to any others who have been doing the same.
Further up the hill (across from Ola, animal clinic, and beyond), is still unlimited.
We’ll be checking with SDOT to find out more, and see if anything’s in store for other areas of West Seattle.
Just in from Seattle City Light – a warning that a familiar phone scam is making the rounds again – read on for the official news release:Read More
(video added 2:06 pm, SLHS gym sendoff for the teams just before 1 pm )
An update this morning from Bil Hood at Seattle Lutheran High School (which is on the northeast edge of The Junction):
Our basketball teams are heading to Spokane this afternoon for the State Basketball Tournament in Spokane.
The boys get started tomorrow night at 5:30 v.s the number 2 team in the state, Napavine. The girls follow at 9 vs. the number 2 girls team, Colfax.
There are links at www.SeattleLutheran.org to live audio and video feeds from the games as well as a cell phone text service that will send you the scores as they happen.
GO SAINTS!!
ADDED 2:06 PM: Video of this afternoon’s sendoff for the teams, before they left SLHS.
P.S. FROM ORIGINAL REPORT: One other high-school basketball note – we told you yesterday morning that Chief Sealth is in the running for its match vs. Cleveland to be chosen channel 7’s “Game of the Week” if it wins a webpoll – last hour to vote – go here (right sidebar). ADDED 2:05 PM: Thanks for voting – they won. Now, they’re trying to sort out exactly what that means – what kind of showcase the game will get – we’ll keep you posted.
We’re at Concord Elementary School — which is in South Park but is part of Seattle Public Schools‘ “West Seattle South” grouping — where a celebration is just wrapping up in honor of the recent designation of Concord and Denny Middle School as “international schools.” Above, you see members of the Denny steel-drum band and masked Concord second-grade dancers, who performed for dignitaries including Denny principal Jeff Clark, Concord principal Sandra Scott, and Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson. More highlights in a bit, along with details on specifics of exactly what this designation means to these two schools. (Clark, by the way, has ties to both schools – he mentioned he’s best known at Concord as “Gabe’s dad,” because his first-grader is in the immersion program, which now serves kindergarteners and first graders and will add second grade in the fall.) ADDED 11:46 AM: More from this morning’s event, including video: Read More
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