West Seattle, Washington
05 Tuesday
If you hadn’t already heard: Registration is open for the second annual BizJam Seattle conference for “indie” businesses, presented by Biznik (motto: “business networking that doesn’t suck”) – and again this year, it’s happening in West Seattle, at Youngstown Arts Center. This time around, it’ll span two days – Day 1, July 9, will focus on what small businesses need to know about “social media.” Read more about BizJam here (disclosure, we’re speaking at BizJam; in the year since the last BizJam, we’ve become an “indie” business ourselves). Speaking of social media, you can find us on Twitter as westseattleblog and on Facebook as WS Blog — we also just set up a West Seattle Blog group there.
… the city is trying to do it with a new campaign called “Give Your Car the Summer Off.” (Official news release here.) One of the related webpages says the city will identify certain streets that can be closed to cars for a while at different times during the summer. Any street(s) in West Seattle where you think that would work?
That’s a recent photo of Longfellow Creek Garden, the small organic garden/farm that is taking shape in North Delridge (first reported here last month). Zach Zink wrote us a while back inviting people to come help with getting LCG in shape, and got quite a response. Now he’s asking for help with a new challenge for this nonprofit operation: “We are in need of a certified plumber to install a few pieces of equipment so we can have an irrigation faucet at the Garden. Our budget is pretty low this year, and getting water installed is going to run us between 500 and 700 dollars. Saving on labor would help us out to the tune of 200 dollars!” If you can help or know someone who might be able to, e-mail Zach at zach@growingwashington.org.
Good turnout last night for the monthly West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting at the Southwest Precinct — including folks who took advantage of the opportunity to directly ask local police leadership about issues in their neighborhood (one attendee was looking for followup on a burglary at his house; the Community Police Team is putting him in touch with detectives). We already reported one update from the meeting last night; here’s what else was discussed, including the briefing on “casing”:Read More
First of at least two reports from tonight’s West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting — Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen had a little information about the mother and son shot in their Delridge duplex last week. He said both are doing OK; no one in custody right now but a possible “person of interest” was detained, then released pending further investigation. He also said the shooting was not random – the mother was definitely targeted, not sure about the 10-year-old son. Other news from tonight’s meeting included the promised briefing on “casing” (no revelations but good reminders) and plans for WSCSP’s first Officer Appreciation Day at the precinct. More on all that in the morning.
Above left, that’s Seattle Seahawks cornerback Kelly Jennings, focusing on the educational field rather than the playing field tonight at South Seattle Community College, appearing on behalf of City University, which is partnering with SSCC in a new 4-year-degree program (reported here last month). This was part of College Night at Brockey Center on the school’s campus in northeastern West Seattle:
During the event, visitors wandered between booths and tables set up on behalf of other educational institutions as well as SSCC programs like its culinary-arts offerings, spotlighted in a cooking demo:
College Night is an annual SSCC event organized to provide information on transferring to four-year programs or further exploring some of the school’s vocational programs. (One more note on Jennings’ appearance – info provided in advance notes that he holds two degrees in Finance and Business Management from the University of Miami.)
Quick followup to our update the other day mentioning the permit’s been granted for repairs to the fire-damaged Charlestown Cafe: We heard back from co-owner Larry Mellum, who explains you’re not seeing signs of work onsite because “The hood is being fabricated offsite … We will know a little more by the end of the week but at this juncture it looks like we COULD be opening around the 10th of June. It is early so don’t hold me to that but it is looking that way!!”
From two people who want you to know what happened to them – read on:Read More
We’ve mentioned the citizens’ committee set up by the City Council as it considers whether to push for a new parks levy later this year. Just got word this afternoon from the office of West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who chairs the council’s Parks Committee, that a West Seattle meeting has just been added so you can share your opinion with the citizens’ advisory committee (which includes three West Seattleites — Sharonn Meeks, Pete Spalding, and Bruce Bentley): 7 pm June 2, Alki Community Center. Full details:Read More
Followup on this morning’s crash at Jan’s Salon south of Morgan Junction (earlier WSB coverage here): We dropped by to talk with Jan earlier this afternoon; she is still trying to sort things out and expects to be closed at least a few days (photo above shows some of the damage, through the shop window). She was not insured – she said she was “between insurers.” She also said it was a quirk of fate that she wasn’t in the salon when this happened – she originally had a 9 am appointment scheduled today, but the client canceled, otherwise she would have been in the salon at the time of the crash. (The truck, shown in the photos from our earlier coverage, was towed after a couple hours; we wound up two cars behind the tow truck as it rattled past our corner, heading southeast.) Jan says she’s been in business at this location (California & Frontenac) for 14 years.
If you’ve been following the saga of the Satterlee House – the city-landmark-designated “Painted Lady” of Beach Drive (4800 block) – you know its current owner, William Conner, is challenging a city ruling against his proposal to build three 3,000-square-foot-average homes on its long front lawn (most recent WSB report here). In testimony before the city Hearing Examiner, who affirmed the city Landmarks Board ruling that Conner had appealed (WSB coverage of the decision here), it was disclosed that the house has significantly settled and that the problem likely had contributed to the failure of at least one purchase offer over the years. One of the witnesses at the hearing (as reported here) was the Satterlee House’s longtime listing agent, AC Braddock, who e-mailed WSB to say that Conner has committed to repairing the settling, and she believes that might “help someone to decide to buy the entire property as an estate. Having the house lifted and made more level should give a prospective owner more confidence in the viability of the home and seriously consider making the investment required to update the home and grounds as an estate home.” Braddock adds that she plans to schedule some open houses before and after the repair work.
This filing just appeared on the city Department of Planning and Development website – no dates on the entry but the project number is among the latest few issued – an application for development at 4755 Fauntleroy, the former Huling (and fleetingly Gee) site on the west side of Fauntleroy just south of the Fauntleroy/Alaska Shell station, same Huling spot where we took the shown-above sign-removal photo three months ago. The city webpage describes the application as:
Approx. 360,000 sf over six floors with 2 levels underground parking. 244 residential units (approx.) with retail @ grade.
The filing is devoid of other details, except for the applicant, listed as Jim Lee, with an address and phone number that appear to trace to Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects in Pioneer Square. No sale records for the property at this point, but we recall at least one other area development that popped up this way, before the deal even closed. Meantime, of course we have now added this to the clickable Junction/Triangle development map. 10:58 AM UPDATE: This application apparently is really new – called DPD to see if they could tell us which planner’s been assigned to it, and they said it hasn’t even had an “intake appointment” yet.
Those are some of the 100-plus people who packed the Highland Park Improvement Club on Monday night to find out why two of the four potential city-jail sites are in their backyard (previous WSB coverage here), and to decide what to do about it. One revelation in a city rep’s presentation particularly galled them — hear about it, and see the map we made afterward, straight ahead:Read More
Development and sustainability don’t have to be at odds with each other: That was the 
central theme tonight at Camp Long as Sustainable West Seattle‘s latest monthly meeting looked at Junction/Triangle development, the opportunities, the realities, and the potential pitfalls. With much of the area getting a “fresh start” as new development proposals come in for the former Huling parcels as well as other sites, city planner Marshall Foster — a West Seattle resident — had important reminders about what it takes to have a well-planned neighborhood: Is it compact, is it complete, does it offer a wide variety of goods/services, how mobile can its residents be (whether by foot or by transit)? One of the companies currently developing Junction/Triangle sites, Harbor Properties, was represented at the meeting, by Sean Sykes. He talked about the HP project that’s currently in the Design Review process, on parcels including a former Huling shop and part of the West Seattle Montessori site. No new revelations since the last DR meeting (WSB coverage here); Sykes says the company’s been talking with Metro about how to address a possible transit gap in the area between the year or so between the project’s opening and the start of RapidRide. Right now, Harbor’s looking at building this project to a 3-star green rating; Lucia Athens from the city’s Green Building team said she hopes they’ll aim higher, for at least 4 stars. Other participants tonight included Dave Montoure, West Seattle Junction Association president, who’s part of a recently launched project exploring how to improve the Triangle/Junction entrance to West Seattle (WSB coverage here), and Derek Birnie, executive director of Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, which led many recent redevelopment projects including transformation of the old Cooper School into Youngstown Arts Center and the creation of the 35th/Morgan buliding that houses West Seattle organizations including the WS Food Bank (next up for DNDA, the Delridge Day festivities on May 31).
Just back from Highland Park, where more than 100 people gathered to declare themselves ready to fight the possibility that a city jail might be built on one of two sites in southeast West Seattle. They heard from a city project representative as well as a communications consultant assigned to the project, and one revelation that raised eyebrows was that the city apparently had not yet mapped out the proximity of schools to the four finalist sites (the other two are in the north end). We’ll be overlaying the location of the nearest schools onto our Google map of the two WS sites for the full report on this meeting coming up later tonight in a separate post.
For the first time in the months we’ve been covering the Denny Middle School/Chief Sealth High School combined-campus controversy/vote/aftermath, we sat in this afternoon on a meeting of the School Design Team, which includes reps from various constituencies with various types of ties to one or both schools. Today’s major items included the first look at a proposal for the exterior design of the new Denny on the Sealth campus, and Denny principal Jeff Clark didn’t mince words with his first reaction — that and more ahead:Read More
So we were at Tony’s Produce (35th/Barton) this morning to get some, well, produce, and we noticed something new – that big blue corn-roasting machine, and big signs touting ROASTED CORN. This all started just a few days ago:
That’s Joey, son of the stand’s namesake proprietor Tony, seasoning the corn with a special mix including Parmesan cheese. $2.50/ear, available noon-8 pm, and Tony (below right, with Joey) proclaims, a la the onetime TV chef Mr. Food, “It’s so GOOD!”
Several reader reports from people who want to alert neighbors to recent break-ins/thefts, plus weekend followup notes, all ahead:Read More
As mentioned over the weekend, the two southeast West Seattle sites (mapped here) on the list of four possible locations for a new city misdemeanor-offender jail are on the agenda at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting (7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club at 11th/Holden; map). We just confirmed that West Seattle’s County Councilmember Dow Constantine and State Rep. Sharon Nelson will be writing letters to city leadership to express opposition to building the jail at either of those sites. (We’ll be checking with West Seattle’s other legislators too.)
Its official name is Fauntleroy Place, but as reps of the development firm BlueStar wryly acknowledged at last week’s Junction Neighborhood Organization meeting on major Junction projects (WSB coverage here), it’s become better known as “the Whole Foods project.” Whatever you want to call it, we’ve just received word from BlueStar’s Eric Radovich that the official groundbreaking ceremony is set for the evening of June 12th, 5:30-7 pm. (Recap: This project [city project page here] will replace the current Schuck’s/Hancock Fabrics building at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th with residential units over retail space that will be entirely devoted to two tenants: Whole Foods and Hancock.) 3:46 PM UPDATE: Regarding the question asked in comments about the status of the stores currently on the site, here’s what Radovich e-mailed back:
Hancock Fabrics began their “Everything Must Go” liquidation sale today. They will be open until the inventory is depleted (typically 30 days or so)…Schuck’s is a sub-tenant of Hancock Fabrics and I believe they have been given notice and will close in mid to late June. We will do our groundbreaking on June 12 regardless, and start with work in the north end of the parking lot.
As reported here last week, the construction schedule has moved way up for the Fauntleroy/Dawson (map) pedestrian signal. We spotted pole work under way a short time ago (shown in photo above, taken from the west side of Fauntleroy, facing south).
Sun’s out, first holiday weekend of summer is a week away, and you might be starting to think about summertime outdoor swimming in West Seattle. As mentioned previously, Colman Pool in Lincoln Park — one of the city’s two outdoor pools — opens this Saturday for the weekend-only preseason (schedule here); daily operation starts June 16, same day Southwest Pool (West Seattle’s only city-run indoor pool) closes for 3 1/2 months of work. West Seattle also has five city-run wading pools: Hiawatha, Delridge, Hughes, Lincoln Park, and Highland Park. They’re all on a clickable map on this city webpage with opening dates and operating hours; the first to open will be Lincoln Park, on June 14 (it’s in the northeastern section of the upper park area).
Thanks to Eric for the tip that the Ercolini Park playground — built with work parties like this one we covered last month — was open for business today. Not sure if this was just a “soft launch” or what; we’ll be checking with project leaders. (Ercolini is just west of The Junction, at Alaska/48th.) 10:20 PM UPDATE: David Cagen from Friends of Ercolini Park clarifies, “Someone opened up the fencing on Friday and people filtered through all weekend. Nothing was official nor sanctioned, but people had a good time!”
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