West Seattle, Washington
02 Saturday
(cameraphone photo added 2:28 pm, more pix/vid to come in separate post a bit later)
Just set up in the 7100 block of West Marginal Way (map); we’ll head out for pix in a bit but in the meantime, you can see one on its official website. This, by the way, is at the intersection with Highland Park Way, same vicinity as one of the two potential city-jail sites in West Seattle. Organizers say they hope to make this a “permanent” encampment. The location was kept secret till organizers and participants, who met at four locations last night (according to their Google group) to make the move, actually set it up. According to their website, “While we are on Duwamish land, Nickelodeans are fearful that Mayor Nickels does not understand this.” The address they give, 7115 West Marginal, is Pacific Plumbing Supply’s property; we’ll check when we’re down there to see exactly what parcel they’re on. 1:10 PM UPDATE: The mayor told KING5 in an interview that just aired, “We will treat it like any other encampment – we will post it, and then clear it.” To “post” it means giving the residents 72 hours’ notice to clear out, as was done in the case of the Camp Long encampment covered here on WSB earlier this year. 2:01 PM UPDATE: Co-publisher Patrick is at the site and reports it’s on the river side of West Marginal, about 20 yards southeast of the intersection with Highland Park Way. Checking that on Parcel Viewer now … site has multiple owners but comparing it with aerial photograph of proposed jail site, looks like it’s definitely within those boundaries:
2:29 PM UPDATE: Seems the squatters didn’t know this was a proposed jail site – just a coincidence – or so they tell us; co-publisher Patrick, who is en route back with video etc., reports it’s fairly disorganized. Media swarming, of course; we ran into one newspaper columnist and one wire-service reporter. And this is now certain to be discussed at tonight’s prescheduled Highland Park Action Committee meeting (7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club, 11th/Holden).
This just in from the mayor’s office. We’re all thinking about banks a little more than usual given what’s happening in the $ world, so this program for the “unbanked” may affect more people than before – read on:Read More
THIS MORNING: First day of fall-quarter classes at South Seattle Community College. (So 16th SW will be busier, among other effects.)
THIS MORNING: Seattle City Council members hear from Junction business leaders, developers, and city reps regarding potential public-private coordination as big projects change the face of the “Fauntleroy Triangle,” in a briefing organized by West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. According to the agenda, this briefing should start around 10:15 am; you’ll be able to watch it live at SeattleChannel.org or cable TV channel 21. We’ll be covering it and will post here and via Twitter when it’s about to begin.
THIS AFTERNOON: The “design team” that will help shape the future of the Denny Middle School site, once the new Denny is built on the Chief Sealth High School campus, meets for the first time at 3 pm today at Denny.
TONIGHT: Highland Park Action Committee, 7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club (10th/Holden). The jail-site search is in a bit of a lull but this group is continuing its work – and tackling other issues, too (last month, it was a presentation on the Spokane Street Viaduct project, which just kicked in with the lower eastbound Spokane St. shutdown last week).
That video shows a classic car revving up at the West Seattle Junction Car Show this afternoon (so loud, our camera’s mike had a little trouble coping!) – just as awards were handed out. Dave Dunn‘s ’41 Willys won the top award of the show, named in honor of the co-presenting Maple Valley Street Rats‘ Gary Parker, who died earlier this year. We also snagged a photo of Dave (plaid shirt) and his trophy with other event organizers, including our main info source, Michael Hoffman from Liberty Bell Printing (far left):
We don’t have the full official list of winners – they were rattled off faster than we could write – but we did want to note one other recipient – youngest participant, Steve Becker, 16 years old, who brought a 1941 Buick (not shown):
Now a few more pics, as promised:Read More
Both out of the WSB inbox. First, from Gretchen:
I just wanted to give a heads up about a car break-in that happened in the 1700 block of Thistle. I usually park my car in the driveway but it was left on the street for the past 5 days, since Wednesday. When we went to move it up into the driveway this evening we saw that the driver side door was open and the glove box had been torn apart. Nothing of value in the car, but filed a police report and placed a fraud report on our credit just in case. The door worked fine, no windows broken, so I think I left it unlocked. So…a reminder to not become complacent like I did! Lock those doors!
From Jennifer:
Just wanted to let you know my car was broken into at the West Seattle Allstar Fitness 2629 SW Andover St. on 9/20/08. According to the staff this seems to happen often.
Here’s the official Seattle Police advice for preventing “car prowls” (the term for crimes like these).
We got that photo on the south side of Youngstown Arts Center, looking southeast up the 23rd SW hill (map), after Eryka e-mailed us about what caused the damage: “Last night at 12:15 a.m. a driver in a brand new four door white pickup truck rounded the corner on Oregon to Delridge, quickly plowed through the guardrail, fence, and into the Cultural Arts Center lawn and driveway.” She says the driver appeared OK but impaired, and that police administered a sobriety test, then “cuffed him.” She added: “He went completely through the wire fence (or maybe under it?) and took out a couple of trees in the process. People zip around that corner incredibly fast. It’s a scary thought.” 9:32 PM ADDENDUM: Be sure to read the comments, where Mike Dady from the North Delridge Neighborhood Council notes this is at least the fourth time in two years this has happened – but also says help is on the way.
While back in The Junction for the Car Show-ending awards ceremony (more on that in our wrapup later), we hopped over to the Seattle Lutheran High School gym, where the Cupcakes for Cora fundraiser (previewed here) continues till 5:30 pm. And we got to meet Cora, who is in pre-kindergarten at Our Lady of Guadalupe. She said she’s feeling “fine,” and her parents confirm all’s going well right now; some 4-year-olds just aren’t too chatty but we really got Cora to talk a blue streak when we asked about her friends at school:
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
Mom Chrissie and dad Ron were kind of out of the viewfinder by the time Cora told us all that, but they wanted to say “thanks” to the West Seattle community for its generosity. If you don’t see this till after Cupcakes for Cora is over, there’s info in our preview post about how you can still chip in to help Cora and her family as this brave little girl fights to win her battle against the Wilms Tumor that has already put her through surgery and chemotherapy.
Thanks to Mark B. Bauschke for those photos with a closer look at a few of the cars gracing California between Edmunds and the post office (closed to traffic except for the cross streets) right now during the first-ever West Seattle Junction Car Show, continuing till 4 pm. We also received this cameraphone photo from somebody – nostalgic to us, since Dad had a T-Bird like this one in the early ’60s:
When we checked with one of the organizers, Liberty Bell Printing’s Michael Hoffman, about participants we might interview before the show, he mentioned West Seattleite Gordie Ryun, calling him “the reason we have a Car Show … (he) has had this idea for several years.” We didn’t catch up with him in advance but found him and his car at the show today.
Here’s video of Gordie telling the story behind his “T-Bucket”:
If you have any pictures you’d care to share, send ’em along (and be sure to let us know how you want to be credited) – we’ll post more tonight.
Though the current Denny Middle School won’t be vacated for more than two years — winter break 2010-2011 — Seattle Public Schools leaders say they need to finalize a plan for its site within the next few months. As mentioned here Friday, the district-organized Design Team (for which community volunteers were sought) starts meeting tomorrow (3 pm at Denny), and now the Westwood Neighborhood Council has set a community meeting to engage neighbors in a discussion of what they want to see. Here’s the announcement just released:
Goodbye Denny, Hello Sports Complex?
After Denny Middle School is relocated to its new location on the Sealth/Denny campus, the Seattle School District will demolish the existing school building. Current District plans call for an expanded sports complex including lighted softball fields, tennis courts and parking to occupy much of the area. As neighbors of the schools, what would you like the future site to look like?
Denny school neighbors voice your opinion!
Westwood Neighborhood Council is hosting a community meeting
7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Monday October 6
At the SW Community Center, 2801 SW Thistle
Come find out what is happening in your community!!
Please go to www.westwood-neighborhood.org for more information about this meeting, and about the School District’s plans.
Our coverage of the Denny site discussions to date, and the Denny/Sealth campus-combining project that’s leading to the future demolition of the current school, is archived here.
More than a year after we published first word of a proposal to tear down the 85-year-old Shoremont apartments at 57th/Alki, key permits have just been granted for the site: This one is a building permit for five townhouses; this one is a permit for a single-family residence; and here’s the demolition permit. A rendering for the single-family home is viewable here on the website of owners/developers/architects Pb Elemental, who sent us one for the other units when we first wrote about their plans last March.
That’s the view to the north and the south from midblock on California SW between Alaska and Oregon about half an hour ago, as entrants in the first-ever West Seattle Junction Car Show got ready to show off classic wheels like these:
And more participants were still arriving as of minutes ago – here you see a few heading north through the sections of California that otherwise are closed off for the day (Edmunds to Alaska, Alaska to Oregon, Oregon to the post office) with the east-west streets still open):
This grouping of cars looked very nicely color-coordinated with the Capers storefront:
We’ll be back later for a closer look; the car show (with WSB among the many sponsors) is scheduled to continue till 4 pm. More info about today’s events in this preview.
Lots of West Seattle folks with long-planned events today proved themselves adaptable, like the people of Pigeon Point, whose community celebration this afternoon-evening went on as scheduled – with just a few changes, like moving the bouncy house inside Cooper Elementary (map). Next West Seattle neighborhood celebration on the calendar: the Fauntleroy Community Association‘s Fauntleroy Fall Festival, October 19.
One more reminder tonight – our next update will be some early-morning pix as the cars get set up (some spaces are left for same-day registration – “load-in” is at 6:30 am, from the east side of the Edmunds/California intersection). Tomorrow, 8 am-4 pm, it’s the first-ever West Seattle Junction Car Show (with WSB among the co-sponsors), featuring more than 200 pre-1975 cars along California SW, which will be closed in Edmunds-Alaska, Alaska-Oregon, and Oregon-post office sections (the west-east streets remain open to traffic). There’s a raffle, T-shirt sales (design at left), and several special options for breakfast, including Puerto Vallarta opening at 7 am, West Seattle Eagles offering breakfast starting at 7 am, and Elliott Bay Brewery opening at 10 am. And don’t forget to wander over to the West Seattle Farmers’ Market at 44th/Alaska for the zucchini races (here’s our coverage, with video, from last year). The forecast looks a little better than today.
In the Alki area and saw some police/fire activity a little while ago? WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli checked it out, and sent the photos that accompany this post. At first, a “water rescue” call went out on 911, with the typically large response; then all but one engine was canceled. Witnesses who were having a party under tents at the beach (photo below) told him a fully clothed man had gone into the water and looked to be in danger/trouble, so someone called 911, and when fire/police started to arrive, he ran out of the water, soaking wet, and took off into the residential neighborhood to the east. When a new emergency response showed up a few minutes later, Christopher investigated that, and discovered the man — still sopping — turned up near Alki Community Center, was checked out by paramedics from Engine 29 and turned out to be OK. Christopher adds, “He was quoted as saying the temperature of the water ‘surprised him.’ Police transported him home.”
Thanks to Diane for spotting this: Seattle Condo Blog reports that West Water, the Morgan Junction condo conversion chronicled here last year during its inescapable marketing blitz, has taken its remaining for-sale units off the market. Nothing to independently verify that but listings at both its addresses (6960 and 6970 California SW) that came up in G-searches are marked “unavailable.” We first reported last November that some of the units were up for rent,
That’s Tai, and he’s one of more than 350 volunteers who are toiling — rain? what rain? — at Camp Long right now, for a huge work party organized by NAIOP (National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, a trade association for real-estate and development companies) as one of its “community enhancement projects.” We wandered the park at midmorning to see what was going on – first, the logistics center in the lodge:
Next, out into the park. NAIOP had a map to various work sites, labeled by area and by priority. One big priority, fixing up the fire ring toward the south end of the “Parade Grounds” meadow:
All along the trails, groups were restoring and rebuilding, including another huge priority – the big bridge down the trail leading north toward the golf course – lots of work alongside cabins and picnic shelters too:
And of course, the front entrance was getting some love too:
As we left after a while (we’re going back later to see how it all turned out), we ran into someone who spent LAST Saturday on a big cleanup/restoration project – Nancy Driver, co-organizer of the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup, walking by with pruning saw in hand. She explained that some NAIOP members such as Harbor Properties and Excel were major contributors (manpower as well as $power) to the work that went into the Gateway Cleanup, and she wanted to do something to reciprocate. You can lend a hand in West Seattle greenspaces just about any Saturday, by the way – the regular volunteer work parties are always in our West Seattle Weekend Lineups published every Friday, and they’re also listed at greenseattle.org.
Just in from our correspondent at West Seattle Stadium: The big game just ended, and West Seattle High School‘s football team has beaten O’Dea, 21-6. We shot video of the game-end celebration and we’ll put it up when it comes into WSB HQ a bit later. This is big because WSHS has NEVER before beaten the football squad from O’Dea, which the Times noted here has won the Metro League 12 of the past 14 seasons. ADDED 10:32 PM: The end-of-game video, starting a few seconds before the clock ran out. Note that we did NOT go to shoot the game itself, so we don’t have highlights – we went to the stadium late in the game to make sure we’d be able to share the score fast if they won (last year we learned it’s almost impossible to find out the score any other way), and since WSHS did win, we shot the fans going wild (more so than the players). Congratulations! (P.S. Anyone interested in sending pix/video and/or texting or phoning in the score after any local schools’ games, we’d love to share more of this; let us know if you can help.)
Left to right, that’s JanS, JoB, and Kat near Mars Hill Church-West Seattle tonight, in a vigil/protest that grew out of a vigorous discussion in the WSB Forum and elsewhere this past week. It began with first word that MH was sponsoring a two-day seminar with parenting author Tedd Tripp, whose teachings include an advocacy of corporal punishment and say it may even be merited for babies. Opponents decided to gather tonight outside MH-Ballard, where Tripp is speaking, and MH-West Seattle, one of several MH branches where the seminar is being broadcast live. As families arrived, the West Seattle trio stood on the corner across from the church’s south side and offered their thoughts to those who walked by, as well as offering flyers.
Some accepted flyers, some didn’t; one person was heard to suggest that the protesters go inside to listen for themselves. To that point, we should note that a Mars Hill representative, in logo T-shirt and name tag, offered us and the other media reps the chance to go inside and observe the seminar. We didn’t take him up on it; the controversial topic itself comes up late tomorrow morning. Meantime, we’ve received a photo of the concurrent Ballard protest tonight:
That photo is courtesy of our friends at MyBallard.com; you can see their coverage here.
Gotta love a festival with a 20-foot-high inflatable pig over the barbecue stand. Lots of food options at the West Fest Fall Family Festival (WSB sponsor), happening now through 10 pm, then again tomorrow 10 am-10 pm, at Holy Rosary (42nd/Genesee – look for all the activity NORTH of Genesee), and much dining was under way when we dropped in briefly:
There are also games, bouncy rides, and indoor offerings too — bingo in the gym, with coffee and other autumnal beverages available for purchase. Despite the clouds, it was relatively pleasant during our passthrough. Live music should be under way by now; the schedule is listed in this WSB preview.
The major decisions in the controversial campus-combining project may be in the history books, but there is other work under way now, with public involvement/comment encouraged, and we want to make sure you know it’s happening: First, what is currently being called the “School Design Team for Future Redevelopment of the Former Denny Middle School Site” is about to meet for the first time – in two sessions two weeks apart, the first one next Monday afternoon – here’s the official announcement:
The first meeting is planned for September 22nd at 3 pm at Denny Middle School with a repeat meeting to take place on October 8th at 7 pm at Denny Middle School for parents, neighbors and community members not able to attend the meeting on the 22nd. The SDT process allows a set number of volunteers from the school, parks, businesses and the surrounding neighborhood to attend the meetings to develop the project needs and requirements. The entire community is invited to attend these meetings and voice their opinion and desires regarding the design and use of the former Denny Middle School site. A number of people from the community volunteered to be a part of the design team. At this time the available seats have been filled. However, we may need optional members in the case that any of the team members are unable to keep their commitment for the full length of time. If anyone is still interested in volunteering to be a part of the design team, please fill out the volunteer form.
The first meeting will familiarize everyone with the school design team process and begin the process of deciding together the best use of the space. The intent is to have all stakeholders be able to express their interests.
The second group that’s meeting is the Sealth/Denny School Departure Advisory Committee. Its first meeting actually happened earlier this week, but we didn’t get an announcement ahead of time and we don’t see evidence much of anyone else did, either — we’re thankful that one of the participants called us the next day in hopes we’d shine a little more light on the process. This is a group the city is required to convene because the Denny/Sealth project calls for zoning “departures” – regarding parking and height. The Departure Advisory Committee’s next meeting is 7 pm October 7, also at Denny.
As we first reported here last month, the state liquor store in Morgan Junction is closing for good tomorrow, after losing its lease. Nearby Aaron’s Bicycle Shop is moving into the space. When the state announced the liquor-store closure, the Liquor Control Board said it was seeking another location in the area; we called Olympia today to see if they’ve found one yet — answer, no. So the stores in The Junction and White Center are your nearest options TFN, after the MJ store shuts its doors for good at 8 pm tomorrow.
We just stopped at the White Center “PARK(ing) Day” (backstory here) park and are en route momentarily to the West Seattle version set up by KeyBank in The Junction. At the one in WC (more pix on partner site White Center Now), Sopha Danh of White Center Community Development Association and Richard Brown from Technology Access Foundation are going high-tech and low-tech – with laptops and produce – the latter, to help spark the dream of reviving a WC Farmers’ Market. The WC “park” will be on the west side of 16th SW, half a block south of Roxbury, in front of Full Tilt, till 3; the West Seattle one is scheduled to be in place till 4 – we’ll add pix here as soon as we get ’em.
TODAY: TEMP PARKS: We just checked and the soggy weather’s not stopping the local plans for PARKing Day, a nationwide event with temporary “parks” set up – often in onstreet parking spaces – to demonstrate the importance of greenspace in urban areas. One was planned for Alaska/California 9 am-4 pm today (as of 9:08 am, they’re setting it up), and another in the 9600 block of 16th SW in White Center, 10 am-3 pm in front of Full Tilt Ice Cream.
TONIGHT: PUNISHMENT PROTEST: A demonstration is planned outside Mars Hill Church-West Seattle at 6 pm tonight by people who are upset about the parenting-book author whose Mars Hill-Ballard seminars are going to be broadcast there live tonight and tomorrow, Tedd Tripp, because his advocacy of corporal punishment includes the suggestion parents may need to hit children starting in infancy. This Times story today takes a thorough look at the controversy, including a statement from MH; the genesis of the demonstration was in this WSB Forum thread, followed by this one specifically about the protest plan (check it if you are interested in participating in the protest; meantime, MH’s seminar schedule is here – the “physical discipline” discussion is tomorrow morning).
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