West Seattle, Washington
25 Monday
The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has just called a “smog watch” for all of King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, because the air is stagnating and hotter weather’s on the way. It’s expected to last until at least Wednesday evening. Here’s what the agency suggests you can be doing to help lessen the severity:
-Driving your most fuel-efficient car, and combining errands into one trip.
-Skipping gasoline-powered yard work and gas-fueled recreation.
-Carpooling or riding the bus to work, events and outings.
-Refueling your car in the cooler evening hours
Full details on this PSCAA page. (And you can check the current air quality here!)
… because what we would have come up with last night, if we’d done the usually-weekly survey of all West Seattle stations, would have been way outdated by late morning today. See photo at left (California/Andover 76); while most WS gas stations were still in the four-dollar-and-teens vicinity over the weekend, so far today most of the ones we’ve driven by have dropped into the four-oh-somethings. Let us know if you see someone drop below $4 before we see it (posted price, that is; gas was available at $3.99 at Admiral Safeway this morning, for example, for those who qualified for the dime-a-gallon discount and applied it to the $4.09/gallon price there).
Followup on this item from this morning: Just got the scoop from Lt. Steve Paulsen at the Southwest Precinct — although this was a county investigation, he notes (so we will check with King County Sheriff’s Office to see if there’s a news release with more info) — as part of a multiple-location drug raid, a “high-risk entry” had to be made, involving the SWAT team and devices known as “flashbangs” designed to make noise catching the suspects/targets by surprise. Again, SPD doesn’t have full details since they weren’t the lead agency, but apparently all went well. 4:54 PM UPDATE: Just heard back from Sgt. John Urquhart, who handles media for KCSO. He says:
… there were two drug search warrants served simultaneously this morning shortly after 5:00 AM. One was a house in the 23800 block of 140th Ave SE, Kent. The other was in the 7000 block of 16th Ave SW. There were arrests made … SPD SWAT helped on the 16th SW house, and our SWAT helped with the house in Kent. Occupants of both houses were expected to be “armed and dangerous”, but no shots were fired and no one was injured.
As reported here over the weekend, West Seattle’s only city-run indoor swimming pool, Southwest Pool — currently closed for extensive renovations and maintenance — has just changed its planned reopening date to November 1st, a month later than first expected. Project manager Garrett Farrell called us this morning to explain what happened, and how things are going overall. Bottom line: The Parks Department had to publicly bid the project; the original low bidder turned out to not have the proper qualifications, and re-evaluating, then awarding the work to the second-lowest bidder, cost three weeks. Why wasn’t the bidding done sooner, we asked? Because, as reported in our preview story about the project, the scope of the work had to change — and a quarter-million dollars extra had to be found — when it was discovered relatively late in the game that a big electrical vault hidden in a planter in front of the community center was complicating matters – here’s a Parks photo (this is where the raised planter was, on the northeast side of the building):
The old vault had to be taken out, a new, larger one installed, and that’s upgraded electrical service to the building; Farrell says the project is now on target to wrap up in late October; Parks has set November 1st as the new reopening time in hopes that gives a little bit of wiggle room – progress so far includes not only completion of the electrical work but also other demolition work and some water piping to adjacent Southwest Community Center. Farrell adds, “The roof has been removed from the boiler room and we are waiting on the delivery of two large mechanical units. The first will go in the basement, and then we can put the building back together. Roofing work will start in early August and continue for six to eight weeks.” (You can see the inner workings, pre-project, in the video we included in our preview story.) He says the construction company, TCM, is doing “a fantastic job” and also has kudos for the SWCC staff being “superflexible as we tear up their house and put it back together.” Note that the community center IS OPEN – you just have to enter through the back (south) side while the pool work has the front entrance blocked off.
For everyone watching RapidRide, the new Metro service scheduled to start in West Seattle in 2011 – its “schematic design” is scheduled to go before the Seattle Design Commission this Thursday (3 pm, City Hall downtown). Though it’s a county project, as a Metro service, the city is closely involved, as we mentioned a week and a half ago when a city delegation including Councilmembers Jan Drago and Tom Rasmussen van-toured the route.
We’ve received a couple notes about a very loud noise waking folks up early this morning in the Puget Ridge area. Nothing obvious on the 911 log and we’re checking other sources, but sometimes the best source of information is to just throw it out to WSBers, so if you know anything, please post a comment or e-mail us; thanks!
A followup in the controversy over the city’s search for the best place to build a misdemeanor-offender jail (with two West Seattle sites in the “final four”): The Highland Park Action Committee says it’s doing its own analysis of the city’s just-released report on whether a high-rise jail makes more sense than a low-rise jail, and will release its own report in 2 weeks. HPAC chair Dorsol Plants says, “HPAC’s members as well as its consultants in both the legal and civic field will be reviewing specifically the mathematical figures to insure they are both accurate and consistent.” WSB coverage of the jail-sites issue is archived (newest to oldest) here.
We spotted that person fishing just offshore at Lincoln Park at sunset tonight – sparkling end to a beautiful day. On West Seattle’s “other” big beach, low-tide-walking and volleyball started the day (both shown in this clip):
The Alki Volleyball Association had qualifying going on all weekend for next month’s US Open in Huntington Beach, California; another big volleyball event on Alki is just two weeks away – the EVP Pro Volleyball Tour is visiting in two weeks (here’s our coverage of last year’s stop). Also at Alki today, the Festival of Indian Culture (back at the beach after a detour to the Eastside last year) – these photos are courtesy David Hutchinson:
And in the early afternoon, we caught some of the first people to use the Delridge wading pool on its first Sunday of the season – added after community concerns were called to the Parks Department‘s attention (WSB coverage here and here):
Later in the day, we’re told, the pool drew quite a crowd. Meantime, now that all the really big festivals are past – it’s time to just relax and enjoy simple pleasures like wading pools, Colman Pool, beaches, parks, forested trails … we’ll be spotlighting some of those options this week.
We usually hear from Dina Johnson on Highland Park Action Committee issues but today she e-mailed WSB with a report of something entirely unrelated – a bizarre scene of apparent vandalism in Westwood. She writes:
I found this seemingly undisturbed scene at 10 this morning, across the street from Staples in Westwood Village. I hate to think this is someone’s idea of fun on a Saturday night, just a few blocks from my home.
It’s the north parking lot of 8826 25th Ave SW – the driver’s license office – next to a 8826, a 4-story multifamily building under construction.
If you can’t quite place the location, that’s a wide shot showing the building, and some of the smashed items below. Dina continues:
Looks like some idiots broke into the structure and hurled stuff off the upper floors to smash below: 2 microwave ovens, at least 6 computer monitors, and glass bottles. The parking lot is covered with a mess of broken glass and metal debris.
We’ll be watching for the report on this one. Meantime, Dina posted several more photos – including the booze and smokes packaging she found in the debris – on this webpage.
Thanks to Jenny Simonds for sending us photos from Saturday’s monthly Friends of Lincoln Park work party. Second photo above shows Sharon Baker, the volunteer forest steward who always sends us advance word of these events – we include them in the WSB Events calendar, as well as in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup – every weekend there are anywhere from two to five opportunities around West Seattle for you to help protect and restore our beautiful greenspaces. If you’ve ever walked in Lincoln Park, you know how many invasive plants are in need of clearing; on Saturday, Jenny says, “We were pulling English ivy & holly from just south of the North ballparks.” Also at work in Lincoln Park this time around, Margey Thoresen:
And Jim Frazzine:
Jenny tells us there also were dozens of Friends of the Earth volunteers working elsewhere in the park. If you’d like to join in the next Friends of Lincoln Park work party, click here for Sharon Baker’s e-mail address. Besides watching the aforementioned WSB pages, you can also track upcoming work parties in parks/greenspaces around West Seattle and elsewhere at greenseattle.org.
As reported here last Wednesday, eastern West Seattle now have a city-run wading pool to use on remaining sunny summer Sundays — almost a month after Delridge residents first pointed out that the only wading pools in the area open on Sundays were on the west side of the peninsula (original WSB report, with map, here), the city agreed to change the schedule for the pool north of Delridge Community Center (shown above). The hours are noon-6 pm, and this means that, weather permitting, the Delridge wading pool will be open 7 days a week through the end of the month. Here’s where to find info on all city-run wading pools.
It’s Farmers’ Market day, 10 am-2 pm at 44th/Alaska in The Junction, and the latest “ripe ‘n’ ready” fresh sheet — which we link to here every Sunday morning — says West Seattle is one of the markets that is now selling wool!
Yet another good turnout for week 3 of this summer’s West Seattle Movies on the Wall — above you see part of the crowd that filled the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) last night for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” presented by WSB and co-sponsored by Click! Design That Fits (also a WSB sponsor). If you haven’t made it to Movies on the Wall yet this summer (3 more to go!), it’s powered by Sidewalk Cinema, on this very wall:
The full slate – which was chosen with your help (you may recall the nomination/”voting” process last spring) — is listed on this page. Next week it’s “Finding Nemo”; after that, “Ghostbusters” and “Galaxy Quest.” The movies are free but you’re encouraged to bring a few $ because of several fun ways to spend it for a good cause 
– every week there’s a raffle on behalf of a nonprofit suggested by the sponsor(s) – at left, from WSB, that’s Junior Member of the Team and Patrick the Sales Guy showing off the items we raffled last night to benefit the Nature Consortium (which restores the West Duwamish Greenbelt and is presenting the Arts in Nature Festival later this month) — a “big bag of West Seattle,” with the bright bag contributed by Click! Design That Fits, a $20 coffee card contributed by Hotwire, a T-shirt from West Seattle Bowl (WSB sponsor) along with an hour of bowling for up to six people, a copy of “West Seattle 101” (select chapters from which can be found in this special WSB section), and some West Seattle decorations (including the “Murals of West Seattle” poster JMoT is holding) courtesy of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Besides the raffle tickets, you can buy concessions at Movies on the Wall too, presented by West Seattle Christian Church (WSB sponsor) with proceeds benefiting the West Seattle Food Bank, and you’re encouraged to bring a nonperishable food donation for WSFB too. Movies start at dusk; tonight, that was about 9 pm, but we always suggest arriving early enough to stake out a good spot. See you there next Saturday!
That garden along SW Rose in Gatewood was one of 10 stops today on the first-ever Edible Gardens of West Seattle tour, presented by Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle. That view looks west down Rose, with Puget Sound in the distance – notice the garden’s in the “parking strip” (which is adjacent property owners’ responsibility to maintain). We talked with one of the gardeners, who tells us in this video clip that the garden’s good for more than food:
The tour was free (locations were listed on the online map). Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle is best known for organizing volunteer help to harvest fruit from trees where it otherwise might go to waste; to find out how to help with harvests, or how to “donate” the yield of your tree(s), check the CHoSS website.
Just saw that sign as we headed west on Thistle – per the sign and also the Southwest Pool webpage, the major renovation/maintenance work on West Seattle’s only city-run indoor pool will last a month longer than first expected. Just before construction started in June, we met with the project manager — for this indepth preview of the work they’re doing — and at that time it was still expected the pool would reopen in late September, as the sign showed at the time:
We’ll be checking with the Parks Department to find out why the pool reopening’s been moved back so far, and we’ll let you know what we find out. (Re-reading that story we published in June, we’re reminded that project manager Garrett Farrell warned at the time that the original 3 1/2 months was “a pretty tight time schedule.”)
Late summer/early fall is prime time for baby seals on the beaches – that Alki clip above is from WSB’s very early video days last September — and when they show up, the volunteers known as the Seal Sitters spring into action. (And often … here’s proof.) Many people asked us at the time how they could help as official Seal Sitters volunteers, in addition to knowing what to do when you see a seal on the beach (answer, as reinforced on the Seal Sitters’ site: basically, nothing – its mom will likely be back after hunting, and if you get too close, that could jeopardize the reunion). Today, we have word the Seal Sitters are about to have two volunteer-training events, and they hope to see you there:
The West Seattle “Seal Sitters” are regrouping in anticipation of what could soon be dozens of baby seal “pups” gracing our shores. The pups “haul out” to get much-needed rest and warmth by sleeping peacefully on the beaches and rocks, often for long hours before mom returns for them. These pups are extremely vulnerable at this time and need our protection to help them survive; only 50% of harbor seals survive their first year.
Robin Lindsay, a freelance photographer, has been documenting the babies for the past few years. She urges as many West Seattle residents who can to join Seal Sitters, a group of dedicated volunteers who come together to guard the seal pups and educate onlookers on their lives and behavior. “It’s thrilling to watch wide-eyed seal pups grow and develop, and you meet incredible people!”
Seal Sitters will be holding a volunteer training session on Sunday, August 10th from 3:00 to 5:00 pm at Hiawatha Community Center (2700 California Ave SW). A second training will be held at Alki Community Center (5817 SW Stevens) on Tuesday, September 9th from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Anyone with an interest in marine mammals is encouraged to attend. Those who complete a training session are eligible to join the Seal Sitters Intern Program.
Seal Sitters have created a website – www.sealsitters.org – that features photos of seal pups, and provides additional information on seals and Seal Sitters. Please check this site for any time and location updates prior to attending.
From the county website comes word that the proposal to raise Metro fares a quarter this fall (reported and discussed here a month ago) is getting a second look – because the bus system faces a worse money crunch than originally expected. Read the full news release here. Will it mean a new proposal for a higher rate hike? Or other changes? West Seattle’s County Councilmember Dow Constantine chairs the Transportation Committee and is quoted as saying, “”Every available tool that Metro Transit has to keep the buses rolling must be on the table. That includes cutting costs, postponing investments, innovating to maximize service efficiency, and increasing fares.” Here’s his contact info, if you have a suggestion for what should be done.
Out of the WSB inbox, from Michale:
Just thought your readers should know that my car was broke into at the Westcrest dog park yesterday around 5 PM. My passenger side window was smashed out and the door frame bent. This was in the North parking lot. A couple of days ago, there was glass from another car window that had been smashed out. I should have taken the hint and parked somewhere else! I just want to warn other readers that this is happening at the dog park lately and be advised to make sure there are no valuables in the car. This seems to be a smash and grab. The thief did not take the time to go through my car, but simply reached through and grabbed a saddle bag – luckily for me it was empty.
When we published this WSB story yesterday afternoon about some Junction businesspeople circulating petitions opposing the alley “vacation” proposed by Conner Homes for its California/Alaska/42nd buildings, we promised to share any response from Conner Homes as soon as we received it. So here’s the entirety of a letter e-mailed to WSB a short time ago:
August 1, 2008
Dear Neighbors,
We are aware that some of you are concerned about our proposed development at the junction of Alaska and California Streets.
Please be assured that it has always been our intention to build a project that enhances the Junction. We have tried to keep the community aware of our plans and, to this end, have already had a number of group and individual meetings to update residents and merchants as they have progressed. We will continue to do so.
However, if any of you feel that we have been remiss on this score, we will be happy to meet with you either in a group or separately, so please feel to contact me or Project Manager, James Miller directly and we will set something up.
I understand that many of you are concerned about the impact of the development on overall parking in the area as well as the effects of our proposed alley vacation.
In terms of parking, we want to make it clear that our development will INCREASE the number of parking spaces available to the public. The number of surface spaces will remain roughly the same and there will be a considerable amount of new parking for retail created in our proposed underground garage. As a result the current parking congestion will be lessened.
We have also heard that there are worries that our development will somehow lead to the development of the public parking lots owned by the West Seattle Trustees Parking Association. We do not know how this rumor got started but it is completely false. Our development will have absolutely no effect on these lots and as a member of the Association we are not aware of any plans to develop these lots.
As far as the alley vacation we are confident that this will be a real plus for the abutting owners representing the majority of the properties along the alley have supported it. Still we appreciate the concerns of some merchants about possible disruption to their business and we want to assure them that we will work directly with them to come up with a solution (turnarounds etc.) to mitigate those impacts.
We do want to be clear that this is not a permanent alley vacation but only temporary to allow completion of the underground garage. Once this process is complete (in around 10-12 months) the alley will be restored to a much improved condition.
Specifically, the overhead wires will be under grounded, the alley will be widened and pedestrian friendly amenities will be added. These mitigations, along with a pedestrian walkway between 42nd Street and California will make the alley a real asset to the community overall.
As an additional mitigation we have also agreed to commit substantial funds to getting the proposed public park across the street from our property off the ground to the benefit of all residents and merchants in the area.
It should be noted that the two large developments underway in the area will be completed before we begin construction so that overall disruption to the community will not increase.
Finally, we firmly believe that a quality development in this location will improve the Junction, both in terms of housing and new retail opportunities for all West Seattle residents, as well as provide increased business activity for existing merchants.
As long term owners of the property we are fully committed to improving the Junction and welcome any opportunity to work with you to achieve this end.
Thank you for your attention and we look forward to working with you to make this a project we can all be proud of.
Sincerely,
Charlie Conner
James Miller
Connerhomes.com
425-455-9280
(7/24/08 photo by David Hutchinson)
Since the Alki duplex fire a week ago yesterday, we’ve continued to check with the Seattle Fire Department regarding their determination of what caused it. Just heard back from SFD spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen, who says investigators just couldn’t find enough evidence – so it will be permanently classified as “undetermined.”
Thanks to Anne at Ventana Construction (WSB sponsor) and to Darren, who both e-mailed to ask about police action in Fauntleroy last night. 
Turns out it was an arrest at the ferry terminal; thanks to Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen for a quick response with info: The call first came in around 9 pm as “a man with a gun menacing people in the ferry line. Police rushed to the terminal (5 or so cars, by both accounts) and found out it was actually a woman, who had a .380 in her car. According to police, it started “when (she) cut into the ferry lane and was kicked out of place by employees. The suspect then pointed her loaded pistol at a nearby car containing 2 adults and 2 small children. The victims feared for their lives and ducked. Nobody was injured.” Officers took the woman to the King County Jail, where she was booked for investigation of assault. (The jail register shows one person booked late last night for that potential charge, a 47-year-old from Vashon.)
That’s a page from Google Earth, mounted and marked with push pins – each color denoting an attribute of a little bit of land in a certain Sunrise Heights neighborhood – a house with kids, a school, a playground. It was shown to us tonight at High Point Community Center, after a meeting that a weary but victorious group of neighbors decided to have even though the original reason for it had become a moot point. Those are the neighbors from the 32nd/Holden vicinity, who went into hyperdrive when a chance conversation with visiting strangers revealed that a house had been rented for likely use as a new home for up to five former “high-risk, high-need” inmates (original WSB story here). Read ahead to see what was said tonight and what they hope you might learn from their experience:Read More
Talked with Southwest Precinct crime-prevention coordinator Benjamin Kinlow at tonight’s meeting 
for the neighborhood that almost had a Re-entry Housing Pilot Project house moving in (original WSB story here; last night’s followup here). We asked him how “Night Out” preparations were going; he said it looks like registrations have eclipsed the record set last year, around 200 so far. You’ve still got a full day to sign up your block party for next Tuesday night (which gets you the right to close off the street); here’s how to do it. And as we mentioned earlier today, if you wouldn’t mind WSB stopping by for a quick pic, please send us your block party’s address/time frame — we want to make sure our coverage next Tuesday night shows the world that West Seattle neighbors are serious about watching out for each other and staying safe. (Meantime, more on the aforementioned meeting, in a bit.)
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