Another east-west West Seattle divide: Sunday wading pools
What’s missing in that picture? Kids enjoying a city wading pool on a sunny Sunday afternoon — according to people who live near that pool, which is in the park next to Delridge Community Center. It’s always closed on Sundays – as are the two other wading pools in eastern West Seattle (Hughes and Highland Park), as well as not-too-distant South Park wading pool, while the two wading pools in western West Seattle (Lincoln Park and Hiawatha) are open seven days a week. In correspondence with the concerned neighbors, as well as in a response to a WSB inquiry, the Parks Department says the wading-pool schedule is carefully considered by geography. More on that ahead – but first, we took a look at the online citywide schedule and made this map, with blue markers showing the 7-day-a-week pools/spray features and red markers showing the ones closed Sundays (most of those are closed both weekend days, with a few exceptions; Delridge is open Saturdays):
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The schedules aren’t new but the Sunday closures became particularly glaring for neighbors in the 90-degree heat a week ago, when the pool had a “rogue opening” as one neighbor described it, after somebody figured out how to turn on the water – and now they are trying to get the Parks Department to make a change – read on:Read More
What’s big, between now and Friday
CLOSURES: Southwest Community Center, all week (maybe a little longer), related to the renovations at adjacent Southwest Pool … West Seattle Driver Licensing office, reopening Wednesday.
NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP MEETINGS: Big night on Tuesday, highlighted by Junction Neighborhood Association with guests including BlueStar reps to discuss the latest design for Fauntleroy Place (received and published here hours before the June 12 groundbreaking ceremony), 6:30 pm @ Ginomai; also Tuesday, Westwood Neighborhood Council gets a Denny/Sealth update and discusses the neighborhood vision for the Denny site’s future, 7 pm @ Southwest Precinct (location changed because of SWCC closure); Admiral Neighborhood Association meets @ 7 pm Tuesday, Admiral UCC Church, and Fauntleroy Community Association meets @ 7 pm at the schoolhouse.
EVENTS: The BizJam Seattle entrepreneur/small-business conference takes over Youngstown Arts Center on Wednesday and Thursday (your editor here is among the presenters, 2:30 pm Wednesday); it’s the West Seattle Second Thursday Art Walk 6-9 pm Thursday; and Friday is the first of 3 days/nights for West Seattle Summer Fest in The Junction (come see us at the Information Booth!).
NOT IN WEST SEATTLE BUT IT’LL AFFECT YOU: The City Council‘s public hearing on the proposed foam ban and bag tax is 7 pm Tuesday at City Hall downtown.
TONS MORE GOING ON … check the WSB West Seattle Events calendar page for the full list.
Who’s, and what’s, in the Grand Parade: New details
Just this morning, we brought you a look ahead to the big events still to come this summer in West Seattle and beyond, now that the fireworks have filled the skies and the Seafair Pirates have stormed the beach … One of the biggies, the July 19th West Seattle Grand Parade, presented by American Legion Post 160 (above, our 2007 photo of “Mr. Spud,” whom Post 160 promises will be back this year). And tonight we have the official news release, with word of the Grand Marshal, a special award, and much more:Read More
Two new coyote sightings, and another “coexistence” chat
(Photo of the one and only coyote sighted so far near WSB HQ, from April 2007)
It’s been a while since anyone’s e-mailed about coyote sightings. In the past 24-ish hours, though, we’ve received word of two, and that also provides a reason for a reminder about the citywide “coexisting with coyotes” forum next week. First, the sightings. Dale reports one early Friday morning “on the hill over Thriftway“:
They looked comfortable and well-fed, and our cat came home later. So all is good. They seem to like our pond. We’re a few blocks north of 39th SW ravine, (6700 block of 39th SW; map), and have a heavily wooded yard, as do our neighbors. Main point of the post is to let people with outdoor cats know, so they can respond accordingly.
Then from northern West Seattle, Burke e-mailed tonight: “Just met a coyote racing across the lower end of Fairmount. Looked like he had been pretty well spooked by something.” (Burke also mentioned seeing “the otter that finds it convenient to poop in the swimming pool at Harbor Park Condo. Just saw him ‘loping’ across the parking lot concealing himself under the parked cars as he went.”) Now, about that “coexistence” forum with info helpful for anyone in Seattle: It’s planned for Tuesday night at the Pritchard Beach Bathhouse in Rainier Beach (city news release here; map here). We covered the last one, in February in Magnolia (WSB article here).
Seafair Pirates’ Landing at Alki, report #2: Video (and more pix)
That’s actually a screen grab from a video clip that we considered too short to use but the scene was irresistible — After the Seafair Pirates came ashore (first round of photos in our first report here), we wandered up to the street-side spot where their land vessel Moby Duck was parked east of Alki Bathhouse, and watched (and videotaped) as they mingled with fans and even brought a lucky few onboard their “ship.” More pirate pix ahead, including video of the scalawags hoisting a young fan onto Moby Duck (which is a modified DUKW amphibious craft), but first, we have video of the actual landing, as the everpopular U.S. Army Mechanized Landing Craft came ashore, preceded by cannon fire, of course (and a bit of a jolt as the vessel hits the beach):
More ahead, including the Moby Duck scene at streetside, the seawall crowd, pix of Pirates and fans, and the fireboat putting on a show:Read More
Photos: Seafair Pirates Landing at Alki
Thanks to David Hutchinson for that photo from the Seafair Pirates‘ Landing on Alki a few hours ago, and for the next four – avast, er, vastly better than ours, so we’re showing you his first, with ours tacked on at the end. We also shot video and will have that up in a separate post a little later.
Despite the mostly cloudy weather, the event felt more festive than last year, or perhaps our perception came from standing on the beach instead of up on the promenade – who knows. More of David’s photos – pirates up close and personal! – and ours, ahead:Read More
Your chance for a closer look at the Orchard Ave. statue
Now that the 4th is past, we’ll talk more about other events coming up – the big one next weekend is West Seattle Summer Fest Friday-Sunday in The Junction, but next weekend has more to offer too, including an event at the site shown above: Along Orchard west of Delridge, across from Home Depot, by Tug Tavern, that small house with the big statue out back is inviting you to a Vietnamese Cultural Festival a week from today, including a closer look at the statue; we first found out about it after dispatching a student-journalism team to go find out more about the statue, something we’ve meant to do for a long time, as we often get questions from passersby – read on to learn about it, and about next Saturday’s event:Read More
West Seattle 4th of July: Scenes from Alki
That was the Beach Fire From Hell. As the evening progressed, its stokers started throwing in the furniture they brought for their day at the beach. A chair, another chair, a table. Flames roared skyward. Black smoke billowed seaward. Embers danced toward nearby log-sitters’ backs. Parks crew came over immediately after the fireworks and doused it, about the same time two officers broke up a simmering squabble nearby. Speaking of officers:
They wasted no time clearing the beach as soon as both fireworks shows (Jul-Ivar’s started first, followed by Lake Union, both quite clearly visible from our spot toward the west end of the sand) ended. “LET’S GO, LET’S GO, TIME TO GO, PEOPLE, BEACH IS CLOSED, SIDEWALK TOO,” they shouted (and loudspeakered from a slow-moving car). 10:40 pm is earlier than the usual beach-closing time, a few people were heard grumbling. (We stopped briefly to send a Twitter message for the previous post and we were quickly told in no uncertain terms to get a move on.) Now, the pre-fireworks sights:
Brief appearance by the crescent moon, visible over Bainbridge before clouds moved in from the south. Nice sunset too:
Long night ahead; our windows are open and it still sounds fairly thunderous out there.
West Seattle 4th of July: Watch this spot for evening updates
We’re computerless for a few hours but able to update Twitter via mobile phone, so we’ll post updates (particularly breaking news, but maybe some Alki observations too) this way. Otherwise, check out our coverage from earlier, and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
(Early Saturday note: The “live” Twitter feed has gone back to its home in the sidebar. What’s below is a screengrab of the four updates we posted while away)
The space above this line will show our four most recent updates. Doesn’t look like there’s a way to go to the archives from there but the Twitter “what am I doing” box halfway down the right sidebar does access archives via the lower-right arrow (if necessary).
4th of July Alki-area traffic restrictions: Barricades are up
On the north side of west Admiral, we caught these scenes around 6:30:
A few minutes later, we noticed the entrance to Harbor wasn’t blocked off yet, but we had traveled it around 6:15 and it looked like the detour up California Way was being readied (downhill traffic on that street already was being stopped). The police presence was very much in evidence just about everywhere we traveled in the area, including a group of bicycle officers conferring near the Harbor 7-11 just after 6. Our most recent update on police’s Alki-area traffic plans is here; we’ll be offline for a while later this evening to go see the fireworks ourselves (guessing we won’t be able to park any closer than Cormorant Cove, the way things were looking during our drive-by) but as mentioned earlier, we’ll post any breaking news via Twitter (if you’re not a Twitter member you can still see our most recent posts on any WSB page, in the blue box halfway down the right sidebar – the little arrows in the lower-right corner of the box click through previous updates – update, looks like we’ll be able to add a Twitter area to the top of this page for a while so you may not have to use the sidebar).
West Seattle 4th of July: High Point party
A party’s under way celebrating the official opening of High Point’s Commons Park; we went up the knoll on its southwest side for these views that show how sweeping the park is:
The mini-amphitheater on the south side of the knoll had live entertainment – we were there for the end of a jazz combo and the start of these young performers:
Commons Park is most easily reached from Graham, at 31st (map).
Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade: Singing doctor, and more!
That’s just a small stretch of the hundreds of kids (and grownups!) who participated in this morning’s Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade. Despite 17 years of living in West Seattle, we have to admit we’d never been before – but it’s unquestionably the biggest West Seattle event of the holiday aside from fireworks viewing. Here’s a photo of organizer Sherri Chun just before the parade, with Mayor (and Admiral resident) Nickels and West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival court members off to the left.
We also have video of what Hizzoner had to say (including a presidential-campaign joke), plus a local pediatrician singing the national anthem (he’s good!), a click ahead:Read More
More West Seattle 4th of July 2008 scenes
That’s the festive scene at Hamilton Viewpoint a short time ago, right after the Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade ended there — food and fun (our parade video will be up in a bit, along with coverage of the first-ever Ercolini Park parade) ensued. On our way there, we noticed a parade detail that we hadn’t caught in our video – along the route (44th and Sunset, heading west, then up to Atlantic, heading east, across California, down Palm to Hamilton VP), several houses put out speakers with Sousa marches and other parade-perfect music, like this one at California/Atlantic:
Other scenes: Here’s Alki, BEFORE the crowds – thanks to Dan E for these shots (don’t forget the traffic restrictions kick in at 6 pm; also we just got a text message that speed patrols are in action on The Bridge right now):
And now, completely unrelated to the holiday but we happened to spot it while driving through Morgan Junction on the way home — these signs are tacked up on poles along both street sides of the MJ Starbucks:
Still no official word on which stores are closing, by the way. ADDED 12:30 PM: Thanks to Joe Follansbee for a shot of West Seattle’s own tall ship Yankee Clipper (based at the marina under The Bridge) – proclaimed the city’s official tall ship by Hizzoner (who you’ll see in our upcoming Admiral parade coverage) – Joe photographed crew members and Sea Scouts relaxing on board yesterday afternoon as Tall Ships Tacoma geared up:
Joe also sent those beautiful pix of tall ships sailing from Elliott Bay toward Tacoma the other day.
4th of Jul-Ivar’s fireworks: Scenes from the barge
That cot under a semitruck trailer is where 4th of Jul-Ivar’s fireworks show — that’s the one on Elliott Bay, the main one you’ll see from West Seattle — operator Gary Louderback sleeps the night before and the night after. He just talked to us a short time ago at the semi-secret (they asked us not to say) site in West Seattle waters where he and about 20 other people are working right now to put together the show on the 240-foot barge that will be towed into the bay later today — here’s a quick video clip panning across the scene:
Click ahead for a closer look at a row of fireworks, plus we have a quick clip with Gary talking about the biggest effect you’ll see:Read More
Chief Sealth High School sign goes up at Boren
Spotted while driving Delridge, headed for the fireworks-barge photo-op (we’ll have video and info up about that before we leave for the parades) – it’s almost identical to the sign outside Chief Sealth‘s closed-for-two-years-of-renovations campus on Thistle, except it has the school’s website address in the blue stripe at the bottom.
West Seattle Little League All-Stars update: 11-12s win!
Thanks to Cami for another update (and the photo) – that cheering you heard from Bar-S Playfield over Alki Point tonight was the sound of the West Seattle Little League 11-12 All-Stars winning the championship:
West Seattle Little League’s Majors (11-12) All-Star team defeated the South Highline Nationals 6-4 tonight at Bar-S and clinched the District 7 championship! The game included a grand slam homerun by West Seattle’s Matt Weller in the bottom of the second inning.
The team will now advance to the Little League 11-12 state tournament in Mill Creek on July 19th. For the first time ever, West Seattle Little League swept the District 7 all-stars tournaments winning the 9-10, 10-11 and the 11-12 divisions. All three teams were undefeated! For more information, please visit www.westseattlelittleleague.com.
West Seattle July 4th updates: Alki traffic; parade; fireworks facts
The West Seattle 4th of July page is the one-stop holiday shop, but we have a few additional details right now, from answers to some questions about the Alki traffic restrictions tomorrow night, to some fireworks facts you might find fun if you are info-nuts like us. First, we talked to Lt. Norm James – who wanted you to have first word of the Alki restrictions in mid-June (original WSB report here) – and he answered a few of the questions we’d been asked:
–Admiral: It will stay open. But the streets that head west toward Alki will all be involved in the traffic restriction when it kicks in around 6 pm.
-Buses: They will continue to go through along Alki/Harbor. (Links to the holiday bus/Water Taxi schedules on on the 4th of July page.)
-Who gets through: As previously stated in the police advisory, residents’ “guests” will be allowed through – Lt. James says he’s been advising that people who fit into that category get a note from their host(s) that they can show police, or have a phone number ready for officers to check.
Lt. James said few complaints have come in about the plan to reinstitute these restrictions (which were used some years back) and they expect everything to go smoothly.
Now, the parade reminder – Sherri Chun sends a reminder that the Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade is definitely on for tomorrow, starting @ 10:30 am at 44th/Sunset, followed by picnicking and games at Hamilton Viewpoint. The only other 4th of July parade in West Seattle is an informal neighborhood parade planned around the new Ercolini Park (which is looking ahead to its formal dedication on July 12th). Other events here.
Last but by no means least – THE FIREWORKS! Most of the fireworks you’ll see from north- and east-facing West Seattle are from the 4th of Jul-Ivar’s show, which traces its history back to legendary West Seattleite Ivar Haglund (seafood-eatery namesake). We’re planning to join the media tour of the fireworks barge in the morning as part of our holiday coverage (we’ll continue updating through the day). But before that, here are some fun facts about this year’s show, from the Ivar’s PR team:Read More
West Seattle Little League championship game tonight
Even more fun in the Alki area tonight, besides the art reception/show (5-8 pm) at the Bathhouse and general pre-holiday excitement – Cami from West Seattle Little League reports:
The 11-12 All-Stars team plays tonight at Bar-S field [map] at 6 pm against the South Highline Nationals. This is the Championship game for this tournament. If WSLL loses, a game will be needed tomorrow at 10 am to determine the champion. Go WestSide!
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