West Seattle, Washington
26 Thursday
Thanks to Deborra for sending word. It’s also in the Traffic.com alerts you can find from the WSB Traffic page anytime – “Highway 99 – Past W. Seattle Brg – accident blocking all lanes – involving a hazmat situation; also blocking the on ramp from Spokane St.” 10:29 AM UPDATE: Note from this city traffic camera that the ramp off The Bridge is closed and things are already pretty jammed heading eastbound on The Bridge – see the “live” image (refresh the page for the latest) above. 10:39 AM UPDATE: Radio reports say the accident involves a gravel truck. We’re also checking to see if the “viaduct closed when flashing” lights are working, just out of curiosity. 10:45 AM UPDATE: The southernmost one on 35th is. 11 AM UPDATE: The “live” picture above shows that the ramp to The Viaduct just reopened, so all this should clear up in a while.
What we reported here last Friday night is now officially confirmed: Alki’s “Car-Free Day” is set for noon-6 pm Sunday, September 7th. According to the official information handed out at the announcement event that just concluded at Alki/Bonair with Mayor Nickels and SDOT director Grace Crunican (pictured above) — both West Seattleites — plus City Councilmember Jan Drago and others, the closure will be from Harbor Ave/California Way SW to Alki Ave/63rd. Here’s a map (the hikers mark the western and eastern ends of the closure):
Here’s video of the mayor explaining how he got into the spirit of the announcement while on the way there:
As we also had reported, the “Car-Free Day” won’t be entirely vehicle-free — there will be a lane for the Water Taxi shuttle and for residents who can’t get to Alki homes any other way; that’ll be the curb lane. Many more details and video to come in report #2; the mayor was joined at the announcement by West Seattleites including Christy Pudduck and Sarah Steere, the entrepreneurs who run Coastal on Alki — you’ll hear from them in report #2, along with Abby Suplizio, who leads the West Seattle chapter of CoolMom, the group that got first word of the impending announcement. Car-Free Days also were announced for Capitol Hill and Rainier Valley areas; read ahead for the official city news release:Read More
This just in from Bill Schrier with the 34th District Democrats. He’s put up more info about Mr. Ekroth at 34dems.org – excerpt:
Nels and his wife, Fair Taylor Ekroth (1910-1990), were civil rights activists and supported various labor movements, political rallies, and protests during the 1940s and 1950s. Fair Taylor Ekroth was an officer of the Progressive Party in 1948 and the two met in Seattle in 1949, when both were working for the Progressive Party. Nels was investigated by the Committee for Un-American Activities and lost his job on Seattle’s waterfront as a result.
The 34th DDs are working on a special tribute page. Mr. Ekroth would have turned 90 in eight days. (Photo courtesy 34dems.org)
When we talked with the Seattle Animal Shelter last week about the iguana rescued in High Point (it’s gone to a foster home), we asked about one other recent case – the pit-bull dog that bit a girl at Lafayette Elementary on the last day of the school year (original WSB report here). They didn’t have the info handy then, but promised to find it, and indeed, we just got a call from Don Baxter from SAS: He says the dog was “put down” after the 10-day quarantine period at the shelter — because its owner was never found, and they can’t run the risk of adopting out a dog that’s already bitten someone. “Plus, it showed additional aggressive tendencies while it was here,” Baxter added.
Re: last night’s WSB story about a local home that might be used for the Re-entry Housing Pilot Project: For those who have asked, the neighborhood is keeping its Thursday meeting as a block-level meeting, so they are not publicizing the time/place; WSB will be there to cover it and report back on what’s next. Meantime, speaking of coverage, one of the neighbors tells us KIRO TV picked up the story from WSB and is working on its own version to air tonight.
Follow-up to last Saturday’s city-organized public forum (WSB coverage here) about the two southeast West Seattle sites under consideration for a possible new misdemeanor-offender jail: The city just sent word it’s updated the jail-project website with feedback from that event (see it here). The city’s series of four public forums on the four proposed locations winds up tomorrow night at Seattle Center; that event is expected to focus mostly on the Interbay location, but city reps reiterated Saturday that participants are welcome to discuss any and all of the sites. The next government-organized public meeting after this will likely not be till fall, once an environmental assessment is out for these sites and any non-Seattle sites that the city’s new jail-project partners propose.
We reported here late Friday night that Mayor Nickels was expected to announce this week that Alki will indeed have a “Car-Free Day” before summer’s out (a source told us it’ll be September 7th). And now it’s confirmed that the mayor is making an announcement at Alki tomorrow morning, though it’s described only as an event where he “will announce the dates and the streets chosen for the city’s Car-Free Days. As part of the city’s ‘Give Your Car the Summer Off’ campaign to combat global warming, selected roadways will be open to only pedestrians and bicyclists on designated summer Sundays.” We’ll be there to bring you the official word as soon as it’s announced.
Thanks to everyone who has forwarded us an e-mail that is circulating today, and/or has asked about some new signage that has gone up, regarding the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project and work in that area beneath/alongside the east end of the West Seattle Bridge. We wrote an extensive in-depth preview about it and published it here in May, with graphics, detour information, and more. You can see that story here. We also have just checked with the city regarding what’s about to happen in the area – which is actually utility work, not the widening project itself, which starts in fall, but the utility work WILL trigger the first closure to dramatically affect West Seattleites heading for destinations such as Costco. We will add the details on the utility work here shortly, but since that e-mail is apparently going around fast, wanted to start by posting the link to our original preview. More shortly. ADDED 1:45 PM: Here’s the information on what’s about to happen in that area:Read More
Your editor here has driven past the Corner Inn (California/Fauntleroy) thousands of times, yet never been inside till this morning’s auction, almost two months after its sudden shutdown. Above, you see just one video clip of many we captured during the auction’s first 45 minutes – even without any personal memories in the place, we found ourselves oddly teary at the sadness of the scene – the icicle lights and Mylar stars still dangling from the ceiling, right next to the elevated portable podium where the namesake of James G. Murphy Auctioneers cheerily (as our video shows) plowed through the list of items, from a colander, to photos from the wall, up to the piano and organ – those by the way went for a shockingly low price; that clip ahead (and we’ll be adding more as we go through our video):Read More
As demolition proceeds on the 39th/Alaska/Fauntleroy ex-Schuck’s (etc.), the project on the site of the ex-Schuck’s that was knocked down seven months ago at California/Charlestown (WSB coverage, with video, here) is close to completion. It’s been six weeks since our last update, so we just checked back this morning with the leasing agent for Charlestown Center, Joe Beynon, who says he can reveal two of the businesses that are going in — Anytime Fitness is leasing two-thirds of the top floor, a hair salon called Budget Cuts is leasing part of the first floor. Who else is moving in? Beynon says he’s “not at liberty to disclose that” just yet. The spaces will be turned over to tenants on August 7th.
The preview’s at 8 this morning, auction’s at 10, for the fixtures and furnishings from the former Corner Inn at California/Fauntleroy, less than two months after it abruptly shut down. The James G. Murphy Auctioneers website has a list of items, plus pix. Besides the coin-operated pool table, there’s the piano, the organ, and pie case, among other things. (The auction is at the shuttered restaurant/lounge, by the way.)
A neighborhood in Sunrise Heights, in the 32nd/Holden area (map), is nervously watching a newly rented house. It’s been rented by an agency called Sound Mental Health, to use as housing for some of its clients. And one of the programs from which those clients might come is the Re=entry Housing Pilot Project — a relatively new, state-funded program (described here) to help people make the transition from jail/prison to the rest of their life. Of course, once they’ve done their time, they have to go somewhere. But these neighbors are worried their street isn’t the right “somewhere” – partly because of schools and day-cares nearby, and 10 small children on the block. But they also wonder why they got no notice – till this happened, as explained by Bill:
A couple of my neighbors were in front of their house doing yard work when they noticed two young people walk up to the house that is right next door to them. They knew the house was recently for sale and/or for rent so the said “hello” thinking that these might be their new neighbors. What they quickly learned was that they were actually County employees doing a site inspection for the house because this home had been leased out to the County to house 5 convicted felons who will be released from prison. The County employees stated that these were not sex offenders but simply “convicts who committed violent crimes, domestic abuse, are recovering drug addicts or have mental health issues. Our neighbors quickly informed the rest of our block about this and we just had a neighborhood meeting (over the weekend) to discuss this. Nobody in our neighborhood was contacted by the County or anyone else for that matter to inform us that felons convicted of violent crimes would be moving in right next door to us.
We’ve learned a lot more since that first note came in — including the fact those weren’t county employees — an explanation of why neighbors didn’t get notice – and whether felons really might be moving in, ahead:Read More
At day’s end, when the heavy-equipment operators parked their rigs for the night, that’s what was still left at the future site of Fauntleroy Place — a massive mountain of debris, and the shell of the ex-Schuck’s/Hancock Fabrics building’s east-facing facade. Crews started tearing into the building around 10:40 this morning, as we showed you here; we checked back around mid-afternoon for another video clip — the progress here was coming from inside the building (keep an eye on the background for chunks falling down, especially one pulled from up top about a minute into the clip):
So there’s more work to do tomorrow. And as mentioned before, the newest Fauntleroy Place design gets a public hearing before the Southwest Design Review Board at 8 pm August 14th (two weeks from Thursday), at High Point Community Center.
That’s a look inside the old Chief Sealth High School commons, where the old floor’s just been pulled up for replacement – one of many renovations that will be taking place in the next 2 years. At the back of the photo, the old cafeteria’s blocked off for hazmat work including getting out the type of old pipes that were wrapped with asbestos insulation way back when; the new cafeteria and commons will be a shared facility with the new Denny Middle School to be built on the Sealth campus, and while that’s not fully opening till a year after Sealth students return in fall 2010, project manager Robert Evans says the new cafeteria and commons will be ready in two years. We met with Evans and other key leaders from the Sealth/Denny project at CSHS this afternoon; full details of what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and the latest on the process to determine the future of the Denny site, coming up.
Here’s the official news release from the council – the fee kicks in next January (added late afternoon, the mayor’s news release, after the council’s version):Read More
Just out of the WSB inbox from Nancy Folsom:
Kelly Davidson, Project Manager for Seattle Parks and Recreation, just sent
me the news that Grindline (http://grindline.com/cgi-bin/view.pl) has been
selected as the DCC skate park designer.It’s great news. I was fortunate to be on the interview board last Tuesday
along with Matt Johnston–SeattleSkateParks.Org, Susan Golub–Seattle Parks
Projects & Planning, and Kelly. All the candidates were strong, but I felt
Grindline was the strongest. The company is local to West Seattle and is
passionately committed both to the sport and to the Delridge neighborhood.I hope the community brings their most positive ideas Wednesday night for
the first public design meeting. This development has the potential to be a
stellar community resource. As neighbor, I want this to be a fantastic
project, and it will take all of us working together.The meeting is Wednesday from 7:30 – 9 p.m. at Delridge
Community Center, 4501 Delridge Way SW.
(video no longer available due to Blip.tv shutdown)
WSB was there about 10 minutes ago as the backhoes finally started tearing up the former Hancock Fabrics/Schuck’s building at Alaska/Fauntleroy/39th that will be the site of Fauntleroy Place (Whole Foods, a new Hancock store, and almost 200 apartments). Demolition work at the site started last week and has proceeded relatively slowly because crews have cleared a lot of recyclable material from the interior. (Video added 11:43 am.)
Lots of changes in our latest West Seattle-wide survey of gas prices: The highest price in West Seattle as of late last night is seven cents lower than the highest price exactly a week earlier; one station has dropped its price more than twice that much; and four stations are now tied at the low end, while the highest price is not where you’d expect to find it. Text and map versions of the survey, ahead:Read More
Tomorrow afternoon at its 2 pm meeting, the City Council is expected to vote on the bag-fee and foam-ban proposal — you can read the full details here. If it’s approved as currently written, it’ll kick in the first of next year, and you’ll pay 20 cents for every nonreusable shopping bag you get at the store. So you may be in the market for reusable bags if you don’t have them already. No shortage of places to buy them – got one to recommend? (In addition to every supermarket imaginable, we know of at least two other places: WSB sponsor Click! Design That Fits sells Envirosax for $9.50; PB&J Textiles told us a few months back about bags they were selling for $4 at the time – haven’t checked lately if the price/availability has changed.)
Our earlier photos (here and here) were taken inside the bus – but at the end of today’s four-hour diaper drive, you could best tell by looking at the bus windows from back to front, it was pretty full! Congratulations to WestSide Baby. Moments later, we talked with WestSide Baby executive director Nancy Woodland in the day’s first brilliant burst of full sunshine:
The families served by WestSide Baby need help all year – here’s how to pitch in with time and/or money any time.
We’re back in The Junction, where we revisited the WestSide Baby “Stuff the Bus” diaper drive for an update as it goes into its final hour – they were just about to pass 20,000 diapers (way to go, West Seattle!!!!), and there’s still room for more – even if you’ve been by once, maybe you have time to make another run? Look for this big yellow bus on 44th south of Alaska, alongside the West Seattle Farmers’ Market, where lots of friendly WestSide Baby volunteers are there to greet you and take your diaper donation till 2 pm:
Stil time to get a free car-seat check in the nearby Wells Fargo parking lot, too, courtesy of SafeKids-South King County. WestSide Baby is expecting to help local families in need with THREE-HUNDRED THOUSAND DIAPERS in all, before the year’s out – so even if you don’t see this till Monday (or later), check the WestSide Baby website to find out how you can help them help local families (with lots of other essentials too) any time of year.
It may look gray outside, but at the second day of the Alki Art Fair (stretching along the promenade from both sides of the Bathhouse), sunbreaks are happening and so is everything from live music (above, the Forget-Me-Nots, one of the acts playing this morning) to a silent auction (note the banner fluttering in the photo background at right) to kids’ activities like an art tent and a bouncy house. If you can’t quite shake the autumn-ish mood brought on by the clouds, we found at least one booth with handmade sweaters on sale:
Suzanne de la Torre (headquartered on lower Queen Anne) is selling her handmade creations – one of many artists whose wares you can admire, and if you are so moved, purchase. Other apparel for sale at the event includes Alki Art Fair T-shirts, past and present:
T-shirts and tank tops will run you $15 (look for the tent on the water side of the Bathhouse). The Alki Art Fair continues till 5 pm today.
We’re in The Junction, where we just dropped by WestSide Baby‘s “Stuff the Bus” diaper drive to see how things were going after the first hour – they had just passed 9,500 diapers! But that’s just enough to cover the back of the bus (photo above) — LOTS of room for more – lots of “westside babies” (and toddlers) are counting on you! Any kind of disposable diapers will do – go buy a package or two (or more) and get ’em to the big yellow bus (with lots of happy volunteers swarming around it) at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market by 2 pm. And remember, just to the north, the Wells Fargo parking lot (enter from 44th northbound, sign shown below) is where you can get a free car-seat check during the diaper drive:
New in West Seattle? Need a map to 44th/Alaska? Here you go. And if you can’t quite get to the Farmers’ Market, there are five other dropoff spots, including Red Cup Espresso (hand ’em over at the drive-thru window!) on the west side of California just north of Oregon, and Eats Market Cafe in Westwood Village (full list here).
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