6:07 AM: It’s Tuesday, the 169th morning without the West Seattle Bridge.

ROAD WORK

*Permanent repairs on the Admiral Way sinkhole are set for today and tomorrow;

*Here’s the newest Delridge project info about where work is focused this week.

*1st Avenue S. Bridge: 3 more NB overnight closures are planned tonight, Wednesday night, and Thursday night, so if you are heading off-peninsula late at night/early in the morning, use the West Seattle low bridge or South Park Bridge.

CHECK THE TRAFFIC BEFORE YOU GO

Here’s the 5-way intersection camera (Spokane/West Marginal/Delridge/Chelan):

Here’s the restricted-daytime-access (open to all 9 pm-5 am) low bridge:

The main detour route across the Duwamish River is the 1st Avenue South Bridge (map) . Here’s that camera:

The other major bridge across the river is the South Park Bridge (map). Here’s that camera:

Going through South Park? Don’t speed.

Check the @SDOTBridges Twitter feed for info about any of those bridges opening for marine traffic.

You can see all local traffic cams here; locally relevant cameras are also shown on this WSB page.

TRANSIT

Metro – Still reduced service and distancing, with some changes starting September 19th, and the potential return of fares on/around October 1st.

Water Taxi – Still on its “winter” schedule, with the 773 and 775 shuttles running – see the schedule here.

Trouble on the roads/paths/water? Let us know – text (but not if you’re driving!) 206-293-6302.

5 PM: Thanks for the tip. The SDOT video camera on the “low bridge” confirms a stalled vehicle on the right side of the westbound lanes. Rainy commute, so bring your patience; if you’re headed eastbound out of West Seattle, for example, the high bridge looks as backed up as any AM commute.

5:10 PM: A second vehicle (unofficial apparently, no rollers) showed up/pulled over to help, and now both vehicles have moved along, so the low bridge is clear again.

5:25 PM: Given it’s so ugly out there, we’ll keep this atop the stream for a while. Another problem: 1st and Massachusetts, a blockage, blamed on “debris.” (Update: According to radio communication, a sign of some sort.)

6:20 PM: If you are heading to or from Burien, heads up – there’s an apartment fire just south of White Center, Ambaum and 122nd. Even some Seattle Fire units are now being sent to help out.

6:46 PM: Metro says the Ambaum fire is delaying Route 120. Meantime, the low bridge has closed so a vessel can get through.

7 PM: Low bridge has reopened to surface traffic.

8:29 PM: There’s no power-outage-style map available, so we have no way of knowing how much of West Seattle is or isn’t affected, but Comcast is reported to have acknowledged nationwide trouble tonight with at least part of its video service. (Added: Our partners at the Times have a report on this too.) Haven’t seen anything about an ETA for a fix, but Comcast has said the big pay-per-view fight would not be affected. Added at right: Image from the comcast.net page for our account

9:59 PM: Some commenters say their service is back. (The fight’s over, too.)

Back in September, we mentioned – thanks to tips – that the TV show “Treehouse Masters” was filming an episode at a home on Beach Drive. The episode debuted this week (as a new round of tips informed us) and we just found it on YouTube, where it was posted today – so if you want to see how it turned out, watch above!

P.S. If you just want to cut to a tour of the finished treehouse itself, that’s in this “Behind the Build” clip on the Animal Planet website.

One sunny September day, a Subaru showed up on the sand at Alki Beach …

(9/10/2014 photo by Don Brubeck)
Commercial shoots aren’t that rare over here, but we don’t often get to see the finished product. This time, we do – watch for the Alki scenes in the middle and at the end:

Thanks to Creighton for pointing out that the Subaru spot is now on the air, and that the Alki scenes feature a Make-A-Wish kid named Ryan. While the commercial itself doesn’t reveal much about Ryan – not even his name – Subaru also made a “behind-the-scenes” video about him, explaining that Alki was relevant because his “wish” is a trip to Hawaii. Further research turns up even more of his story, as well as his website. He is a Black Diamond resident diagnosed a year and a half ago with aplastic anemia, for which he received a bone-marrow transplant last May. His mom writes here about their experience being part of the commercial shoot on Alki, which didn’t promote a specific car model but rather the company’s charity-donation program.

We’re into the quieter heart of summer now – past most of the big festivals – a time to just enjoy the weather and the sights. Sunrise is still early enough that many of us miss it, but West Seattle photographer Danny McMillin – whose images you’ve seen here before – put together a video look during Saturday’s early morning “golden hour.” He says it’s for a contest on the video-hosting service he used, Vimeo, but wanted to share it more widely here, too (thanks!)

Union organizers and other activists came to West Seattle on Tuesday afternoon for a media briefing organized by UFCW 21 to spotlight their concerns about “the global supply chain for clothing” and working conditions for the people who work as part of that chain.They chose Jack Block Park in hopes of a scenic backdrop showing container-laden ships bringing in imports. Unfortunately, the rain moved in just as they were starting; also unfortunately for their hopes of a citywide spotlight, we were the only media who showed up.

Their main target of concern is Wal-Mart, which doesn’t have a nearby store – but, the organizers insisted, the corporation wants to open stores here. We rolled video on the entire 16-minute briefing, and have published it above. Speakers included Kalpona Akter, an organizer from Bangladesh, who said she had been jailed and otherwise persecuted for her campaign to improve working conditions. She went to the Wal-Mart shareholders’ meeting recently to pressure the corporation to make changes; here’s more on that – including Wal-Mart’s side of the story – from the New York Times.

(New info added Tuesday midday – scroll down)

That video is getting West Seattle a bit of national attention tonight in the ongoing controversy over Target‘s donation to a group backing a Minnesota candidate with a history of opposing gay rights (folding in the “corporate personhood” controversy too). The musical protest took place in the Westwood Village Target store on Saturday, apparently around 11 am; we didn’t hear about it till afterward, and weren’t able at the time to confirm it, but you can tell by watching even just a few seconds of that video that it was shot inside the local store. Thanks to Amy for sending the link tonight. (The Target boycott had been discussed a week earlier in the WSB Forums.) ADDED 10:30 PM: Doing a bit more research on this – the credits attribute it in part to Agit-Pop, which bills itself as a “subvertising agency”. Going to try to see if anyone there will reveal why they chose the West Seattle Target, as opposed to the hundreds and hundreds of others in the U.S. 11:13 PM NOTE: As commenters point out, Agit-Pop has a Seattle office and the co-credited organization Backbone Campaign is Vashon-based, so the WS choice isn’t such a mystery.

ADDED 11:50 AM TUESDAY: Just heard back from Bill Moyer at Backbone, who explains, “Performers were participants in our Localize this! Artful Action Camp. This was the final and the location was chosen because of its proximity.” The Backbone website has the schedule for last week’s camp – you’ll see that Saturday’s schedule included “Flashmob Field Trip.”

Two popular bands’ shows overlapped a bit tonight on the two stages at West Seattle Summer Fest – Satchel on the Alaska stage (which is right outside KeyBank at Alaska/California) and Hell’s Belles on the California stage between Oregon and Genesee, across from the West Seattle Eagles‘ HQ:

(Ever-rockin’ Jeff Gilbert from Feedback Lounge [WSB sponsor] was scheduled to intro Hell’s Belles – we missed him, as the show started a bit before the billed time of 9 pm.) As for the Saturday slate – it starts early, with Caspar Babypants (starring West Seattleite Chris Ballew) on the Alaska stage, next to our Summer Fest home in the info booth, at 11 am, while up at the California stage, Rat City Brass kicks things off at 11:15 am. And tomorrow night is Street Dance night at the California stage, with All Mixed Up and Cherry Cherry (Cars and Neil Diamond tribute bands, respectively). For our Summer Fest coverage from earlier today, scroll through our West Seattle Festivals coverage archive.

Just before the school year ended, Madison Middle School reading teacher Stacia Bell e-mailed to say she was so proud of the 6th-grade reading students who had been writing and performing monologues for novels they’ve been reading as “a challenge project” for her class, she had been videotaping them and wanted to share – with families’ permission, of course. So she put together the video with a sampling of some of the monologues – a slice of life from a special project at a local school. We look forward to sharing more stories about what’s happening in West Seattle’s schools when they are back in session this fall – here’s how to reach us.

Thanks to Donna for e-mailing to let us know about the Denny International Middle School Play-A-Thon, with student musicians on campus for a 24-hour marathon of playing and listening to music, with breaks, of course. It was open to the public for a while tonight, so we dropped in to hear the Denny Jazz Band, directed by Marcus Pimpleton – in the clip, that’s the Glenn Miller big-band classic, “In the Mood.” This is a music-program fundraiser, by the way, with the student musicians getting pledges. We’re told you are welcome to drop by tomorrow, with a full slate of bands set from 8 am to 2 pm (maybe take a musical break while out shopping during West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day?).

Take three minutes to watch our coverage of last night’s Northwest Hope and Healing “Style ’10” fashion-show fundraiser, shot and edited for WSB by Edgar Riebe from West Seattle-based Captive Eye Media, and you’ll get the exuberant spirit of those who watched and participated at Showbox SODO – including West Seattleites involved with NWHH as well as West Seattle boutiques (Carmilia’s, Coastal, Sweetie) and Ola salon, as well as the new store West Seattle Runner. NWHH helps women get through the shattering experience of having just been diagnosed with breast cancer. NWHH executive director Shari Sewell told Edgar that about 350 people attended “Style ’10,” and that it raised at least $60,000 for Northwest Hope and Healing. He describes the crowd as “lively and dressed to the nines.” You’ve got another chance to be part of a major event to help NWHH later this year, right here in West Seattle – August 29 is the date set for the annual Alki Beach 5K Walk/Run.

A long day of competition for more than 200 Fire Cadets/Explorers – future firefighters, as the city called them in the announcement – has wrapped up at the Joint Training Facility in southeastern West Seattle. We dropped by toward the start of the day, first as the participants rallied along with the pros they work with – then as the competition began. It’s not all about simulating dragging people heroically out of burning buildings – here’s the stuff most fire scenes are made of, under-appreciated yet vital – hooking up to the hydrant:

Other skills in which they competed included mass-casualty triage, search and rescue, and a Combat Challenge Relay, described by the city as “four-member teams … carrying a hose bundle up the tower, hoisting a section of hose, search and rescue, and repositioning a charged hose line.” Cadets and Explorers are 14 to 21 years old. ADDED 12:25 AM SUNDAY: Our citywide-news partners at the Seattle Times covered the event too.