Last report on first-ever West Seattle Junction Car Show: Winners!
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
West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports: 2 car break-ins
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).
Reader report: Delridge-bound driver “de-rails”
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.
Happening now: Cupcakes for Cora
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.
West Seattle Junction Car Show update
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.
Westwood Council sets Denny site meeting date
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.
Junction Car Show coverage, early edition
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.
Hours till the first-ever West Seattle Junction Car Show
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.
Bizarre incident on Alki tonight
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.”
NAIOP’s huge work party to help fix up Camp Long
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.
Congrats, Wildcats: West Seattle High School beats O’Dea!
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.)
Protests in West Seattle, Ballard target Mars Hill parenting seminar
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.
Happening now: West Fest, night 1
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.
Denny/Sealth: The decisionmaking’s not all done yet
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.
Today/tonight in West Seattle: Temp “parks”; punishment protest
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).
Update: Admiral Safeway proposal unveiled tonight
(view from the northeast – if you were looking down from a helicopter high over Admiral Starbucks – click for larger version)
Even before tonight’s community meeting, the folks at Safeway cautioned that what they are showing tonight is more their “vision” for the sight than what they will take to the Design Review Board next week — since there’s a set procedure for those meetings, reviewing three options for general size, shape, layout, etc. But nonetheless, it’s our first look at what they are hoping to build on their current store site that takes up the southern half-plus of the block fronting California and 42nd between Admiral and Lander: a bigger new store, plus more than 30 residential units, and a separate small retail building on the northwest corner of the lot. Just ahead, three more views (all four are courtesy Fuller/Sears Architects), plus Safeway’s description of its hopes and dreams (followed by our bullet points from tonight’s meeting:Read More
Alki Community Council: Sidewalk controversy resurfaces
(click image to see full three-page document with city’s “final design”)
First update from tonight’s Alki Community Council meeting: Issues are still simmering with the city plan to finish the sidewalk on the north side of Alki Sw, from 63rd SW west to the other side of Alki Point. What you see above – difficult as it may be to decipher (even if you click on the image to see the full three-page document) – is what’s described on the city’s webpage for the project as “the final design,” and labeled on the document as “100% review” (dated tomorrow, by the way). At one point, the ACC had hoped that city project manager “Sam” Woods would be at tonight’s meeting; instead, she has been going door-to-door through the affected area this week to talk with residents. Just one problem, said a few attendees at tonight’s meeting: The letter from SDOT director Grace Crunican (read it here) says those visits were happening yesterday and today – but some didn’t even get the letter till today. They say they still have safety concerns about the plan and would like to see it presented one last time (the previous, contentious community meeting was this one in April) – with safety details highlighted (beyond the two raised crosswalks, at 64th and at Alki/Beach, as reported here in July) — before it’s finalized prior to construction (which Crunican’s letter says will start early next year). ACC secretary Larry Carpenter says he’s certain that such a meeting is already in the city’s plans; we’ll check with SDOT tomorrow, and we’ll also be asking about a report tonight that the project is $150,000 over the original budget.
Almost a year after 59th/Admiral shooting, case close to trial
We told you recently that two of the three 2007 West Seattle murder cases both ended with plea bargains instead of trial — Brian Walsh pleaded guilty last month to a reduced charge of second-degree murder for killing “Benny” Reside at Cal-Mor Circle and is awaiting sentencing; Jabarie Phillips pleaded guilty earlier in the year to a reduced charge of manslaughter for killing Dewayne West outside West’s house at 37th/Findlay, and was sentenced last month to 13 years in prison. 
That leaves the case of the shooting last October 13th inside a car at 59th/Admiral (10/13/07 scene photo at left, arrow points to the car) that killed 33-year-old Francisco Bailey-Ortiz. The suspect, an Alki resident, was 17 when it happened and is now 18; we stopped identifying him when his defense labeled him a victim of child sexual abuse (detailed in our report last October 29th). He has remained in jail, though his bail was cut to $200,000, and we have continued to watch the case through a fairly standard string of hearings, continuations, legal motions, etc. Now, it looks like the case is going to trial; a date’s been set for early October, and a pretrial “omnibus” hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. We checked with the suspect’s lawyer, Robert Perez, today, to find out if there was any chance a plea bargain was in the works for this case too. His reply: “I can assure you there will be no plea bargaining in this case. (The defendant) is not a felon and he has no intention of becoming one based on the victimization that led to this tragedy. He will seek justice from a jury of his peers. The case will go to trial during the week of October 6.”
Thanks to Diane for spotting this: 
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