West Seattle, Washington
06 Wednesday
Two months after the sign went up, the doors are ready to open for the first of two years Chief Sealth High School will spend at the former Boren Junior High on Delridge – and now there’s word that Sealth is inviting the community to a tour and barbecue next Saturday, 11 am-2 pm. Address: 5950 Delridge; here’s a map.
From the Times: Moses “Moe” Beerman, who helped in the creation of West Seattle’s wonderful murals, has died. His memorial is set for Fauntleroy Church on September 29th — which would have been his 88th birthday. The Times story notes that not only did he work on the murals, he also designed the fabled Hi-Yu float featured in the Junction Post Office mural shown above. ADDED 2:47 PM: From Judy Pickens:
As a tribute to Moe Beerman’s artistic talent and humor, Fauntleroy Church is putting together a collection of his cartoons to display at his memorial service and keep up for awhile afterward. Anyone who has a particularly cherished example of his work (card, poster, or ?) and would be willing to have it scanned and reproduced for the show should call the church office at 932-5600 or email info@fauntleroyucc.org by Sept. 19. One or two sentences about the cartoon (occasion, year) would be great, as well.
From the WSB inbox, CB tells the story:Read More
One week from today, as officially announced 7/30, the city shuts down Alki SW from California Way (by Seacrest) to 63rd, noon-6 pm on Sunday 9/7, for its last 
Car-Free Sunday of the summer. Last week, Car-Free Sunday #1 on Capitol Hill was cut short by rain and roiled by controversy, but the first report we’ve seen about Rainier Valley today calls it “trouble-free.” We’ll add other links as we find them; meantime, here’s the city page with all the info you need about next Sunday – we’ll of course continue posting info in the week ahead. ADDED MONDAY MORNING: The P-I has a Rainier Car-Free Day blurb up now.
(The Michael Jackson original is unembeddable, so we’re showing the Star Wars version instead)
The summer may be over but a thrilling new round of fun has begun, per Lora Lewis from Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor), who just announced … she’s putting together a dance team to “join the Thrill the World Guinness Book of World Records event!” — thousands (millions?) of people doing the “Thriller” dance in groups, worldwide. The team’s already got a blog (check it out here; looks like Blayne of “Project Runway” fame is involved too) – plus the date for the first rehearsal: This Wednesday, 8-9 pm, Ginomai (southwest corner of 42nd/Genesee; that’s conveniently right before this week’s PR viewing party) — you’re invited — just RSVP by sending Lora a note at lora@hotwirecoffee.com. Subsequent rehearsals will be the same day/time each week; the Seattle event for Thrill the World, at which time this team will strut its stuff, is 11 am October 25. Lora’s already registered the team so as she puts it — “all you need to do is show up and dance!” (and she has a step-by-step video, so don’t worry if you’ve never done it before). More at the team’s blog (thrilltheworldws.blogspot.com), and the official worldwide website is thrilltheworld.com.
That’s Addie Killam of Highland Park, getting ready to ride her new hand-operated bike along Alki this morning. If Addie’s name sounds familiar but you just can’t quite place it – we first told you about her in this April report, when news came that she had become paralyzed after a freak surfing injury. Later, friends, family, neighbors, and WSB’ers worked to help fix up a house so she could come home to West Seattle this past June after weeks of rehab in a Colorado hospital. Now, Addie’s in training for a special Mike Utley Foundation fundraising ride coming up in about a month. Along the Alki bike path, we talked to her for a moment before her training ride this morning:
The Mike Utley Foundation raises money “to find a cure for paralysis”; Utley’s story is detailed here — he is a Seattle native who was a football star at Burien’s John F. Kennedy High School and then at WSU, followed by two years in the NFL, till the injury that paralyzed him in 1991. He underwent rehab at the same place in Craig, Colorado, where Addie spent time earlier this year. Now he lives in Wenatchee, where she’ll be riding her new bike in the 50-mile Dam2Dam on September 27:
Addie’s looking for sponsors for next month’s ride; to find out how to help, check out this post on the blog about her ongoing recovery – it’s got full details on what to do (you can also go directly to this page on the Mike Utley Foundation website – just make sure you fill in Addie Killam’s name).
Out of the WSB inbox, from Don, who wants you to be aware of what happened to him:
In the neighborhood due south of Alaska Junction’s Jefferson Square, we discovered that mail had been taken from our box, opened, and gone through, in search of credit card information and anything else of value. The perps tossed the remainder in our yard, which was ironic, as one thing of value turned out to be some expensive train tickets for an upcoming vacation trip. The only thing we actually lost was one of those fake credit-card-like things on a junk-mail come-on from American Express, but we found pieces of the neighbor’s mail near our house as well. When we mentioned this to USPS personnel, they told us to call the police and file a report, and let the local postmaster know as well.
BE ON THE LOOKOUT. These creeps take advantage of unlocked mailboxes and have no problem committing local and federal crimes. They are probably working neighborhoods across the area.
In a later e-mail exchange, Don told us police would not take a phoned-in report because nothing of value was missing. We will be checking with local police leadership after the holiday to see if there is a baseline for reports to be taken in this kind of situation; Don’s filing a report online with USPS, in the meantime.
While at Alki for another story this morning, we checked in on the Statue of Liberty Plaza — since the big all-day dedication ceremony is next Saturday, just one week away (there’s extensive coverage in our Alki Statue of Liberty archive, plus a full schedule of events is on the Plaza Project website). As you can see in the photos above and below, there’s not much still missing but the new pedestal and the statue itself (this 7/8 report includes video showing it “flying away” when temporarily removed for the construction); plantings are even in place now:
One week from today is the first of four presentations at West Seattle-area library branches focusing on early literacy. They’re happening at four different branches, one day each month from September through December, and they’re geared toward parents, educators, and child-care providers. Free of charge, but you need to register; more info here.
A few miscellaneous notes to share, including one from the scanner moments ago:Read More
New post on County Executive Ron Sims‘ blog: Charts showing this summer’s rise in Metro ridership. Previously, he notes, the trend was for lower ridership during warm weather. (Well, we haven’t had that much warm weather this summer, but never mind that. Some of the ridership-rise reasons seem obvious – hello, $4 gas.) 400,000 boardings per weekday, as of last month. Meantime, reminder: Metro’s on Sunday schedule for Labor Day; Water Taxi and its shuttle are on Saturday schedule. Here’s the official advisory.
Just announced by WSDOT – another round of open houses to share the latest on what might happen to the Central Waterfront section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct (the part that Governor Gregoire vows to bring down by 2012; what will replace it, is still being worked out). 
One of them’s in West Seattle — 5:30-7:30 pm September 16th at Fauntleroy Church. This is from the latest AWV bulletin, which also reminds us all that the next weekend-long inspection closure for The Viaduct is set for October 18-19. (And if your head’s not already spinning from all these dates, remember that the first closure related to the Spokane Street Viaduct project kicks in on September 8th – we’ve got the WSB archive with the details permalinked atop the right sidebar to make sure nobody misses that news.) Back to The Big Viaduct – here’s the info page with all the latest on the Central Waterfront project, including the upcoming West Seattle open house.
Seattle Public Schools‘ communication team has just announced the plan for Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson‘s appearances on the first day of school next Wednesday, and the biggie is right here in West Seattle, at Denny Middle School:
At Denny Middle School, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson will join Mayor Greg Nickels in a press conference, welcoming students back to school and encouraging middle-school students to start thinking about college. 10 am–11 am.
Her other announced appearances include Concord and Wedgwood Elementaries.
Some of what was discussed at last night’s South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition meeting will be of interest to anyone living/working in south West Seattle – including some good news about ongoing issues in the area — so we’d like to point you to the full report we have just posted on partner site White Center Now; you can read it here.
Scenes like that one along Alki SW won’t be repeated along West Seattle streets next month, after all. As Beach Drive Blog first reported, the route for this year’s Seattle-area Breast Cancer 3Day Sept. 12-14 has been revealed, and it’s traveling along the Eastside plus the edges of North Seattle (see the “cheering stations” listed here). Nonetheless, more than a few West Seattleites are among the walkers, so if you get a chance to go cheer them, you’re bound to be giving some neighbors a boost.
A changing of the (sign) guard in The Junction this week: Six years after Also Furniture changed its name to Sleepers in Seattle, the Also signage came down, and Sleepers signage went up:
The photos come from Sleepers in Seattle owner Meryl Alcabes, who notes that her company’s been in The Junction for 17 years in all.
We’ll be posting a few updates from tonight’s South Delridge/White Center Community Safety meeting, both here and at partner site White Center Now; because of the area covered by that meeting, law enforcers from both the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct and the King County Sheriff’s Office attend. One major update tonight came from SW Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen: He says the Community Police Team officers (meet them here) will be back to normal duties “next week.” You may recall, the precinct’s been dealing with personnel challenges mostly caused by officer injuries, and Lt. Paulsen announced in late July that the CPT officers would have to move to patrol duty, though they would continue to work in their usual areas; he said at the time that this situation was likely to last “a month to a month and a half,” and it’ll be right in that time frame when they return to normal duties next week.
It was way back in January when we first told you the city planned to add red-light cameras “this year” to those two intersections — 35th/Avalon (westbound) and 35th/Thistle (southbound). A comment in our latest High Point traffic-light update made us realize we hadn’t followed up on them lately, so we checked with SDOT, where spokesperson Marybeth Turner gave us two bits of news: First, those two West Seattle cameras are “still in design” and no date yet for installation. However, for those of you who drive through South Park, the 14th S/S Cloverdale red-light cameras (map) ARE now in operation – that’s on the way to the South Park Bridge if you head east from southeast West Seattle/White Center through SP. P.S. Just to be clear – while SDOT installs the red-light cameras, Seattle Police run the enforcement program.
From the WSB inbox:
My name is Cody, and I live on the corner of 35th and Roxbury. Monday morning my car was parked across from the Freedom Church on Roxbury and I had found that someone had flexed my window damaging it and broke in trashing my car and throwing everything out of my glovebox trying to find something. Living in Seattle I’ve learned to keep nothing of value in my car so the only thing they got was a broken iPhone charger :). This morning I walked out to my car parked on 35th and found that someone had side swiped me, taking out my back tail light, and mirror and leaving a nice big white scrape all along the driver’s side. This has not really been my week. I just wanted to let people know to park at your own risk on 35th and Roxbury.
Christopher just sent this – in light of this recent discussion, you might want to be on the lookout:
Just a few minutes ago I watched a man walk down my alley (just off
Oregon between 40th and 41st). He was white, thin, in his 20’s, about
5 foot 7, wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket and a baseball cap. He
drew my attention because he seemed to be acting
suspiciously…looking around at my neighbor’s doorways. When I saw
him pick-up and examine a copper garden ornament in a neighbor’s
garden I decided to go out there to see what was up. When he saw me
he put the item down and walked away. I called the SPD non-emergency
number and filed a report while I followed him on foot for a few
blocks until I lost him. He may or may not have driven away in a
small red Chevrolet that was parked at 39th and Oregon. Just wanted
to spread the word. From what I heard, 11 am seems to be prime
burglary time. I’m not sure if he was looking for metal in general or
if he was just opportunistic. Just thought I’d pass this along so
folks can be on the lookout.
If you go to Seacrest, you might see some yellow tape cordoning off the end of the fishing pier, after the Elliott Bay Water Taxi hit it this morning. Argosy Cruises, which operates the Water Taxi boat Sightseer, confirms a “minor incident” at Seacrest; we checked with Argosy after getting this first-person account from Sofia:
I was waiting on the lower dock to ride the 7:30 am water taxi to work this morning. As the Elliott Bay Taxi pulled in you could see a worried look on the boat’s captain. As she got closer she shouted Oh No and we could tell the boat was coming in too fast. I held on to the rail to brace myself as the taxi came in and hit the upper fishing dock and knocked out the South West Corner Piling (the one closest to the lower loading dock for the taxi). The post was knocked away from the dock and the whole dock shook, the boat then proceeded to go underneath the dock and then finally stopping. There was a small amount of damage to the boat, the overhang over the upstairs windows was bent slightly. The fisherman on the dock were shook up, then they proceeded to joke and pretend that their legs were cut off, but I am sure the ship’s captain was not finding it funny. I felt really bad for her, you can tell she was very scared during this. She then calmly and professionally loaded the boat, called someone (I am guessing argosy headquarters) and then had one of the boat’s mates tape up the corner of the dock so no one stands on that edge. I did not get a photo, but thought people might want to know what happened. It was quite a way to wake up on a groggy morning commute!
Argosy confirms it has staffers out at the dock but spokesperson Maureen Black stresses that the Water Taxi’s schedule IS NOT affected by this. We went out to the scene and indeed saw people in a small boat looking at the piling — here’s video:
In case you’re taking off for a long holiday weekend shortly, we wanted to mention some of this now: Seattle Public Utilities just sent a reminder that trash/recycling is on a normal schedule for Labor Day pickups next Monday, but many other services are NOT on a normal schedule: Ferry schedules differ depending on route (all listed here; Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth is on the holiday schedule); the Elliott Bay Water Taxi and its shuttle buses (Route 773) will be on a Saturday schedule and Metro buses will run a Sunday schedule (both per this Metro infopage); libraries and community centers are closed. We’ll add more as we get it; by the way, if you’re driving state highways, WSDOT has put up one of its cool “worst/best times to drive” pages based on past stats.
Out of the WSB inbox, from Courtney:
We live across the street from Rocksport on SW Alaska and woke up this morning to a missing motorcycle. Sometime between bed last night (11pm) and leaving for work this morning (530am) our 2008 Suzuki GSX-R black on black has gone missing.
Just filed a police report, bike did have a wheel lock on the front wheel – so it had to be at least two people who took it. If anyone saw anything or knows anything it’d be great to know.
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