West Seattle, Washington
07 Sunday
That picture just in from Paul Cozens (thank you!), with this news:
The West Seattle Wildcats defeated the Bellevue High Wolverines in boys’ basketball today 82-76, in overtime. West Seattle will play for the District Championship next Tuesday at Bellevue CC, opponent to be determined.
2:15 AM UPDATE: Here’s what the Times wrote about the win; the Wildcats’ next opponent is now set – Rainier Beach.
For the second time today, we have good news for fans of fresh fruit and veggies — 
A few WSB’ers asked when Tony’s Produce will reopen for the year – so we just called & spoke to Tony himself, who says tomorrow is opening day, “8 to 8, 8 days a week, as usual.” He adds, “Just wait till you see the stuff I’ve got!” (If you haven’t been there before, it’s at 35th/Barton — map here — under the new red/white/green canvas installed before the holidays.)
WSB EXCLUSIVE: The city Transportation Department invited reporters to a briefing downtown this morning announcing a new program to evaluate and potentially revise parking in several Seattle neighborhoods, including The Junction — and those revisions could even include a return to paid street parking. Other media invitees were no-shows, so your editor here got an exclusive briefing and a chance to ask SDOT all the questions we could think of. Most important thing you need to know: SDOT says the process of assessing the Junction parking situation, coming up with recommendations, and implementing them, will take a full year, and the clock on that doesn’t start ticking till later this year — but you can start having a say NOW. (Other West Seattle neighborhoods will get the same sort of review within the next few years; more on that ahead too.) Read More
We told you this was in the works, and now it’s official: Following a vote of approval by the West Seattle Junction Association board, the West Seattle Farmers’ Market is now clear to go year-round (otherwise, it was set to close for about 2 months after this Sunday). Seattle Neighborhood Farmers’ Market Alliance director Chris Curtis says, “The market currently is about 17 vendors. It will get a little bigger toward the end of March and should be close to 25 vendors in April and over 30 by the first of May.”
We have answers this morning to yesterday’s questions, thanks to Marybeth Turner of SDOT:
Our traffic engineers are counting traffic volumes on 35th SW and Thistle, and at several other locations on 35th SW. This is a follow-up to traffic counts done last year. I understand that results will be available in several weeks.
12:07 PM ADDENDUM: Now we’re told the cameras are NOT part of this, nor part of the red-light cam program. So they remain a mystery.
The clerk told one tv crew the crash sent a soda machine flying right by him. (It’s in one of the photos in the coverage we linked to below.)
We’re off to get pix. For now, here’s online tv coverage; an SUV lost control and slammed into the lobby at the Seattle West Inn and Suites on Alaska west of 35th (aka the former Travelodge). Its driver and passenger went to the hospital; the desk clerk escaped injury.
From the latest reports filed at the Southwest Precinct: A nine-year-old girl had to be rushed to Harborview Medical Center yesterday afternoon after a dog bit her in the face. It happened in the 7900 block of Delridge around quarter past 1; the dog’s owner wasn’t around when it happened, but the girl’s parents were. The report describes the dog as a 3-year-old pit bull named “Cain” and says it was taken away by Animal Control, along with another dog found at the location. Next, the cabbie attack:Read More
That’s 10-year-old Olivia Shain, cuddling her cat Bebe during one of the many hospital stays Olivia’s had to endure in her short life. She has been living with Crohn’s disease – which seldom strikes children – since she was a toddler. Olivia’s West Seattle church and school community are coming together to raise money for her massive medical bills, and inviting you to join them for a spaghetti dinner and silent auction this Sunday. Olivia’s mom, local pet-sitting entrepreneur Demery Shain, agreed to talk with WSB about her daughter, their life, and how you can help:Read More
(Thanks to Val for the newly added second photo.) As the city Transportation Department promised yesterday, their crews are out on 35th just north of Alaska today, starting repair work on what became known in WSB-land as “Bruno” the megapothole. (Backstory here.) Reminder that they expect to work for a week, 8 am-2 pm, reducing 35th to one lane at that spot. Meantime, thanks to several WSB readers for pointing out that SDOT crews were busy elsewhere along the 35th corridor even earlier in the morning, putting down detection cables and installing cameras like this one:
That camera is near 35th/Thistle, identified as one of the two West Seattle intersections that will be first to get red-light cameras, so we have a message out to SDOT asking if that’s what this is all about. One more camera note: Remember the speeder-cam bill (much-discussed here last weekend)? You can track its status here; right now, it’s moved on to the state House Transportation Committee – whose membership does not include either of West Seattle’s state House reps.
This afternoon, the city Landmarks Board considers 3811 California, aka Charlestown Court (historic King County Assessor photo above), the brick Tudor four-plex across from Charlestown Cafe that otherwise is proposed for demolition and replacement with a mixed-use building. Its history is told, with copious photos, in the 46-page landmark-nomination document by West Seattle-based Nicholson Kovalchick Architects (you can read it here), with details such as “this was one of many apartment buildings for which the architect William H. Whiteley was well-known locally”; the document also includes a summary of West Seattle history and the background of the “bungalow court” type of apartment building this is considered to be, with an addendum cataloging some of West Seattle’s “bungalow courts” (such as the “Green Ghetto” whose ex-residents eulogized it in comments here after its demolition, and the 3400-block California buildings torn down recently, before/after photos here) The Landmarks Board meeting (3:30 this afternoon, 40th floor of the Seattle Municipal Building downtown) should be lively – also on the agenda, the much-discussed Ballard Denny’s.
Thanks to Cindi Barker from the Morgan Community Association for forwarding first word that the final public meeting for the Morgan Junction park design is set — 7 pm March 12 at The Kenney. (The design options shown at the meeting last month can be seen here.)
Some good news about the dog-poisoning concerns at Fauntleroy Park and Westcrest Park (background in previous WSB coverage here): Seattle Parks security supervisor Larry Campbell was at tonight’s West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting, 
and he says nothing more has been reported since the most widely publicized case, in which “Mo” the Katrina survivor (photo left) got sick after romping at Westcrest. However, he says, the Parks Department has put up flyers saying it’s keeping close watch on the parks, and asking that anyone who sees anything suspicious, or thinks their dog’s been poisoned, call 206/684-7457. Meantime, “Mo” continues to recover, and we just got word tonight of a fundraising party this weekend:Read More
Some news from tonight’s West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting at the Southwest Precinct: Community Police Team Officer Adonis Topacio told the group about a shots-fired investigation under way earlier tonight near the South Delridge 7-11 — at least half a dozen shots fired, nobody hurt, but a parked vehicle was hit. He says the search for suspects is focusing on a “suspicious apartment” in a building on 20th SW, and the SPD Gang Unit is looking at this case. (10:03 PM UPDATE: Coverage we just watched on TV tells a slightly different story – KING 5 reports the car hit by gunfire belonged to Chief Sealth HS employee Barry Ray, who says he was driving when the bullet hit – here’s the link to the story.) Topacio and fellow CPT Officer Brian Ballew also had updates on some of the investigations we’ve followed in previous West Seattle Crime Watch coverage:Read More
Ever heard the sound of what it takes to power an industrial-size walk-in freezer?
That’s one of the sights and sounds of our recent video tour of the White Center Food Bank. What were we doing there? Backstory: Last November, we took you inside the West Seattle Food Bank for a behind-the-scenes mini-tour. Then we got a recent invitation to come visit the “other” food bank serving part of West Seattle — the White Center Food Bank — where we learned about the service boundaries between WSFB’s area and WCFB’s area, and a whole lot more:Read More
That’s 2312-2314 44th SW in North Admiral, with applications just filed for demolition of this building and replacement with five townhomes split between two buildings. According to county property records, the doomed duplex is exactly a century old, and sold last month for $750,000. The multiplex immediately south is an ex-apartment building that converted to condos last year.
Just got this. We suspect it’s the section best known for “Bruno” the pothole (backstory here and here, which included photos such as the one above), going out to check:
SDOT to pave 35th Ave SW at SW Alaska
SDOT crews will begin tomorrow (February 20) to pave a portion of 35th
Avenue SW at SW Alaska Street. One northbound lane on 35th Avenue SW
will be closed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day for approximately one
week.
5:26 PM UPDATE: Marybeth Turner of SDOT confirms “it is the same area, according to our pavement management staff.” So bye-bye, “Bruno” …
We had quite the discussion here over the weekend after reporting that the “pirate” FM station Radio 33 was back on the air, as they’d planned, getting ready to broadcast the Homelessness Marathon. Their return had to be cut short, though, according to this communique just out of the inbox from Radio 33’s chief engineer:
Radio 33 had to leave the air early on Monday morning due to a bad sound card in the automation computer. Management deemed the sound quality too noisy and distorted to allow on the air, and it will not be fixed in time for the Homelessness Marathon that was set to air Wednesday night.
Looks like you’ll be able to listen to the marathon online, though.
Out of the WSB inbox this morning, a reader reports her house getting egged — for the third time in the past few months — in the Seaview neighborhood, and wonders if it happened to anyone else. (Otherwise, we haven’t heard much about this particular brand of vandalism since last month.)
This hour, Mayor Nickels delivered the 2008 “State of the City” address. 
Its full text is online; we see just one West Seattle-specific shoutout, a mention of Myrtle as one of the reservoirs getting new parks along with covers. (WSB coverage of the last Myrtle public meeting is here.) More intriguingly, he ends the speech saying he will be asking for citizens’ thoughts on a “Customer Bill of Rights” for the city (this news release has some details); certainly WSB-ers have had much to say about the city’s responsiveness or lack of same – what do you think such a “Bill of Rights” should include?
We now know a lot more about the woman hit and killed while crossing Barton by Westwood Village a week and a half ago — 55-year-old Therese (Teri) Marie Soike — the first pedestrian killed in West Seattle since 85-year-old Oswald Clement last October. The photo you see at left was provided by Teri’s daughter Shelby Hampton, who says the family is “still in shock” and “completely devastated” — Shelby adds, “My sister and I were very close to our mother and nothing can prepare you for a death like this.” They are hoping to find witnesses to the crash, and agreed to talk with WSB:Read More
ELECTION: Presidential primary, 7 am-8 pm if you haven’t voted by mail; more info here.
RAPIDRIDE: Last of 4 West Seattle open houses to share information and take comments for this phase of Metro’s West Seattle RapidRide bus-service planning, 6-7:30 pm @ Southwest Library.
CRIMEFIGHTING: West Seattle Community Safety Partnership, under new leadership elected last month, invites you to tonight’s meeting, 7 pm, Southwest Precinct. If you have a neighborhood crime or nuisance concern and would like to ask local police what’s being done, or what can be done, about it — this hour is well worth your time. (WSB coverage of last month’s WSCSP meeting is here.)
Another reminder that summer (not to mention spring) is getting closer: Just got a note asking us to tell you that the dates are set for this year’s Alki Art Fair (photo above is from last summer’s event) — July 26-27 — and organizers have set up a website too (check it out here) with info on how to register to participate this year as an artist or craftsperson vendor.
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