West Seattle, Washington
23 Saturday
Thanks to Bob for the tip that the design/construction firm Pb Elemental is re-selling the above-pictured Alki house that it bought along with the neighboring Shoremont, $875,000. (Most recent WSB coverage here; we checked with Pb after Bob’s note, and they say the re-sale was part of the plan, and that they will share renderings of the Shoremont-site plan shortly.) Also notable: The building going up at 35th/Avalon (most recent WSB coverage here) appears to have a name – we came across this space-leasing listing referring to it as Avalon Square. The listing says it has two rentable retail spaces of about 1,300 sf each. (That’s in addition to 60 apartments, per the city permit files.)
So much happening today that we have another round of reminders to come in a few hours — but first, some events that begin this morning: 9 am, the West Seattle High School Class of 2008 fundraising car wash starts at the WSHS parking lot; 10 am, the West Seattle Family Wellness Fair starts at High Point Community Center; also at 10, the Sanislo Elementary used book sale and bake sale gets under way. Much more on the Events page.
More future West Seattle development news, this time from Admiral Neighborhood Association president Mark Wainwright: He says a representative from Safeway has contacted the ANA because, according to Mark, “They would like to start the process of redeveloping the Admiral store, and want to talk to the community. … No specifics at all right now, but it’s great that they’ve reached out to us early on.” It is indeed considered ideal for neighborhood associations to get first word of something major like that, and it’s another good reason to be involved with the association that represents your neighborhood — to see if there is one, check the WEST SEATTLE NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS list in our sidebar.
Just saw a major medic call at 35th/Graham on the 911 log and got a simultaneous reader report — “terrible accident, motorcycle hit by a car and destroyed.” Heading over to check it out. 4:17 PM UPDATE: Got there within minutes of the original post; the motorcycle was upright but clearly damaged (will add a photo in a minute); no car in sight, except for two police cars bookending the motorcycle, before a tow truck arrived moments later. The road was open. Our original tipster said the motorcycle rider appeared “hurt” but “was moving around.” 4:21 PM UPDATE: Photo added:
As we briefly reported yesterday afternoon, Harbor Properties not only is building Mural in The Junction and proposing a residential/commercial building on the ex-Huling land it’s just bought at 38th/Alaska, it’s also “under contract” to buy West Seattle’s only motel — the former Travelodge, now Seattle West Inn and Suites. This morning, we have more details — on all three — after talking with a Harbor Properties executive:Read More
Thanks to Eddie for the tip: Seattle Public Schools is raising a little extra cash by auctioning a lot of stuff off at Boren tomorrow, starting at 9 am. More info (list, photos, etc.) here.
At left is design option D for 5020 California, aka Spring Hill (not the restaurant), which got the best reviews from the Southwest Design Review Board tonight at Denny Middle School during a semi-rare second round of “early design guidance,” mandated because the first round didn’t go well (WSB coverage here). One of the main concerns that architect David Hewitt was asked to address with this 6-story, 90-unit apartments-and-retail building was the fear it would leave the single-family neighborhood behind it with their alley-facing back yards staring at a big hulking wall. Board members’ consensus tonight was that the revised proposals removed that concern, and also moved more of the building’s “mass” onto the California SW street front, as they also had asked. The dozen or so neighbors who attended tonight’s meeting voiced fewer concerns than the larger group who showed up last month; one outspoken neighbor, Nancy Woodland, noted that reps from the developer, BlueStar (which is also handling Fauntleroy Place, aka the Whole Foods project), had even come to her house for a first-hand survey. Next step for Spring Hill will be the “recommendations” Design Review meeting. Before re-reviewing Spring Hill tonight, the SWDRB got its first look at 9030 35th SW, smaller but not without controversy:Read More
Thanks to Paul Cozens for the latest update:
In a hard-fought battle which went down to the last second, the West Seattle boys beat Cleveland 56 – 53 Thursday night at Bellevue Community College (BCC.)
West Seattle now plays Seattle Prep for third place in the Sea-King District. The game is at 3:00 PM on March 1 at BCC. Win or lose, the Wildcats are going to the state tournament!
Let’s see how many fans we can pack in the BCC gymnasium Saturday.
Go West Side!
Postponed from last night: the latest reports from the Southwest Precinct:Read More
Per KOMO website: Ephraim Schwartz, the West Seattle rabbi who hit and killed city council aide Tatsuo Nakata at 47th/Admiral in November 2006, must pay a fine and do community service, and loses his driver’s license for 2 years, but no jail time. 10:36 PM UPDATE: Many more details in this P-I story, including City Attorney Tom Carr calling the sentence “outrageous” and the judge calling Schwartz “a lousy driver.”
That’s a photo sent to WSB by a man who lives in the Westwood neighborhood where police shot two dogs, described as pit bulls, night before last. (Original WSB report here.) The neighbor believes those are the same dogs – even if not, he says there’s a dog problem — irresponsible owner problem, maybe more like it — in his neighborhood: “I have called Animal Control AND Police on these dogs NUMEROUS times. I have photos attached of the dogs hunting/stalking during the day right in a neighborhood where children play outside all day and walk to and from school. … I have many, many photos of these and other loose dogs stalking my neighborhood day and night.” On the night of the police/dogs confrontation, we heard scanner traffic indicating a history of previous trouble with the dogs that police shot. Now we’ve seen the full police writeup of what happened Tuesday night, and thought you might be interested in additional details:Read More
5 months after we reported townhouses are planned for the site of that 95-year-old house at 5232 California (across from West Seattle Nursery), the demolition permit has just been granted.
A few blocks north, 5020 California — the “Spring Hill” mixed-use proposal — gets its next Design Review Board hearing, featuring the new design options shown above (full details reported here), 8 pm tonight @ Denny Middle School Library (after the 6:30 pm review of 9030 35th).
1 month after that new paint job went onto Slices on Alki – it’s applied for a new liquor license; the applicant is “Cocktails Inc.” and the category is “snack bar.”
Harbor Properties — currently developing Mural on land including the ex-Petco lot along 42nd, across from Jefferson Square — is going public today with more info about its Junction-area plans. First, as reported here earlier this month, it’s proposing a 6-story mixed-use building (mostly residential) along 38th, south of Fauntleroy, on parcels including a former Huling Bros. service facility and West Seattle Montessori School, and Harbor Properties has now closed the deal for the Huling-owned portion of that land. The other bit of new info: Harbor is also “under contract” for the site of West Seattle’s only motel, the ex-Travelodge, now Seattle West Inn and Suites (site of a headline-making crash last week), and other nearby sites. What will go there? We’re scheduled to talk with a Harbor Properties executive a little bit later this afternoon, and you’ll see a full report here later tonight.
Nothing like a blue-sky photo from last summer to chase the gray-sky blues away if you have ’em … that’s from West Seattle Summer Fest 2007, and we’re rerunning it as we share the news that the dates are set for Summer Fest 2008, as published on the SF site: Friday-Sunday, July 11-13. West Seattle Junction Association executive director Susan Melrose tells WSB that the first planning meeting of the year happened just last night, so look for more details to come; they won’t start taking applications for table space till April.
Before we post an overdue Crime Watch roundup plus a followup on the Westwood pit-bull-shooting case from the other night, we have news about the Southwest Precinct itself: As part of a leadership reorganization involving several precincts and divisions within the Seattle Police Department, Chief Gil Kerlikowske is moving the SWP’s commander, Captain Mike Fann (official SPD photo @ left), to lead the Traffic Unit, and moving Captain Joe Kessler to head up the SWP. Capt. Fann has led the West Seattle-based precinct for almost three years. (P.S. The semi-nearby South Precinct is also getting a new commander, Captain Les Liggins.)
As reported earlier this week, longtime West Seattle Herald reporter Tim St. Clair died Monday night after battling cancer. (His obituary is on the Herald site.) This morning, we just received word that his memorial is set for Saturday on Alki:
A celebration of life for Tim St. Clair, Mr. West Seattle, is being held on Saturday, March 1st, at the Alki Bathhouse, 2701 Alki Ave. SW., from 4 PM to 7 PM. It is open to the public, Tim’s family would love to hear stories about Tim and his time in West Seattle as a reporter for the Herald. Please post this on your site at the request of his family. There will be photos of Tim from his life as well as mementos and awards and memories of a wonderful man who contributed so much to the community.
So said one Option 2 (shared campus) opponent, right after the school board vote. You’ll see that clip at the end of this post. First, let’s backtrack:
(video unavailable due to blip.tv shutdown)
There, you see the opponents of the Denny-Sealth shared campus who stood silently throughout much of tonight’s Seattle School Board meeting (WSB liveblog archived here), until and during board members’ 5-2 vote in favor of the project — here’s the roll call:
(video unavailable due to blip.tv shutdown)
Ahead: More clips including West Seattle’s board rep Steve Sundquist explaining his support for Option 2 and board member Harium Martin-Morris explaining why he opposed it, plus public comments before the vote (including one FOR the shared campus), and that “it’s not over” vow:Read More
Out of the WSB inbox, from Trissa:
Just wanted to let you know that someone tried to break into a house on the 4000 block of 23rd Ave SW tonight at 8:00 pm. There was a lot of police activity and they brought dogs to try and catch the person or persons. So a thank you to our police and hopefully they will catch the person(s)!
Side note, we were at the Southwest Precinct reviewing police reports, including last night’s pit-bull shooting incident, just before going to the school-board meeting, and will be writing that all up after the Denny-Sealth wrapup report.
We’re monitoring other news while liveblogging the School Board meeting; ArtsWest (WSB sponsor) just sent the lineup for its next season:Read More
9:50 PM: Back at WSB HQ now. Processing video for a separate wrap-up post on tonight’s School Board vote.
9:10 PM: Just back from wading into reaction interview central in the foyer outside the board room. Talked to Sealth staffers Delfino Munoz and John Wright, both of whom spoke against Option 2 tonight. Munoz quote: “It’s not over.” But what’s next – he says it’ll take some time to step back and reassess. (The board meeting continues, by the way; we will continue monitoring in case of anything WS-related.) P.S. The opponents were clearly disappointed as they cleared the chambers after the vote, but were classy about it – no loud boos or other disruptions – in case you were curious (and didn’t happen to be watching on TV). The board’s now discussing future transportation plans for students; high-school students are scheduled to stop getting “yellow bus” transportation as of next year, and are to be given Metro passes instead. WEST SEATTLE-SPECIFIC NOTE: District staff confirms this is the last year that Spectrum kids (one of the district’s gifted programs) from West Seattle who go to Washington Middle School will have the opportunity to ride regular school buses; that ends next year, though Metro passes would be made available for them too. (Meeting adjourned at 9:20 pm.)
9:05 PM – The vote is 5-2 for Option 2. The no votes are from Mary Bass and Harium Martin-Morris.
After the jump, the rest of our liveblogging of tonight’s meeting, in reverse chronological order, exactly as we filed it during the meeting:Read More
Steve lives in the 2400 block of 44th SW and just sent this (we’ll be looking for the official police report during our forthcoming trip to the Southwest Precinct):
Yesterday (Tuesday 2/26) we were disturbed to learn that our next-door neighbors’ house was shot at by a group of five young boys. There is a sizable bullet hole in their front picture window, and police who responded to the incident confirmed that the hole was made by something larger than a BB gun. According to our neighbor, she was returning home from walking their dog when she noticed the boys congregated on the landscaped parking strip in front of their house. The boys appeared to be of middle-school age. One of them was holding a gun pointed at the house. The gun holder tucked the weapon into the front of his pants took off running south down 44th Ave SW with the rest of the boys when she called out to them asking what they were doing. She began to pursue them but pulled up short when one of the boys called out to the others “She’s after us!” followed by something about using the gun.
When she returned to her house she noticed for the first time the large bullet hole in her front window and called the SPD. The bullet passed through the main living room where the family often spend time. Fortunately no one was home when the shooting occurred.
This happened around 9:30 am on Tuesday.
That’s yet another new sign on the big lawn in front of the “Painted Lady,” 
aka Satterlee House (inset right), in the 4800 block of Beach Drive, this time for Ewing and Clark, at least the third time it’s switched listing agents since we started watching it a year and a half ago. Current price, $2.2 million. As we reported earlier this month, the proposal to build three houses on that lawn is going before the city Hearing Examiner in a few weeks; the Landmarks Preservation Board has a say because the Satterlee House is an official landmark, and its ruling is what’s being appealed. One more Beach Drive real-estate note: The fourplex at 4131 Beach Drive is up for sale, $3,050,000, and the listing says it’s in the process of condo conversion. And regarding real-estate in general – it’s been reported that prices are falling more slowly in Seattle than the rest of the country; if you want to track West Seattle real estate, WS realtor (and WSB sponsor) Bill Barna is now offering a regularly e-mailed “market tracker” report. Click here to e-mail Bill for the Market Tracker; or you can see a sample version here. (He also has an automated “new listings e-mail” service that we find useful to monitor for local listings which might be worth noting here.)
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