Also happening tonight: Parks Board in West Seattle, and more
In addition to the Conner project Design Review meeting, lots of notable events tonight. They’re all on the Events calendar — where you’ll find the full list — but here’s an extra shoutout for a few more:
WEST SEATTLE ART WALK: The map/info link will be in the sidebar at right till the event’s over tonight, but if you missed it: 6-9 pm tonight, 40 venues all over West Seattle, and many offer treats and special deals for Art Walk-night visitors and shoppers. Artists highlighted here; printable venue map here.
PARKS BOARD IN WEST SEATTLE: The regular twice-monthly meeting of the Seattle Parks Board (whose chair and co-chair are both West Seattleites) is coming here tonight: West Seattle Golf Course clubhouse, 7 pm. The agenda includes two items of WS-specific interest — the city’s Golf Master Plan and the Seacrest dock renovations for the Elliott Bay Water Taxi (which starts its season April 5). Briefing papers are all linked from the Parks Board page.
SNAP AT WEST SEATTLE LIBRARY: Find out how to make sure your family and neighborhood are ready for anything. Seattle Neighbors Actively Prepare has a free how-to at West Seattle Library (Admiral) at 6:30 tonight.
GENEALOGY AT SOUTHWEST LIBRARY: A genealogy librarian is coming to Southwest Library at 5:30 tonight to show you how to use the Internet to find out more about your family history. It’s free but you have to call to register; number, and more info, all here.
HIGH POINT NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY MEETING: 6 pm at Elizabeth House, 3201 SW Graham. The theme: “Doing more with less impact on the environment,” according to HPNA president Andrew Mead‘s meeting announcement on the HPNA site.
CHIEF SEALTH HIGH SCHOOL MULTICULTURAL NIGHT: Food, performances, silent auction, and more, all presented by the CSHS PTSA, 6 pm.
Vacant city-owned lot in Westwood: Thoughts about its future?
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Neighboring property owners apparently got notice of this a few weeks ago, but it just crossed our desk: The vacant site shown above at 34th/Barton (map), just east of the Exxon station, has been deemed “excess to the needs of Seattle Public Utilities,” and the city’s looking for public input before recommending to the City Council what should be done with it: Sell, lease, or hand over to another city department. The comment period closes this Friday; here’s a city document with more details about the site (which is more than 12,000 square feet, zoned single-family 5000), and if you have comments about what should be done with it, contact Richard Gholaghong at 206-684-0621 or richard.gholaghong@seattle.gov. By the way, this is just one property on a long list of city properties under review, and other sites on the list are in West Seattle; see the complete list here – it includes this site along Admiral just north of The Bridge, most notable for a huge redwood tree – its status is “pending council review of public-involvement plan.”
Update: Crash at 35th and Trenton
(WSB photos by contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
Police are still on the scene of what appears to be a single-car accident. An overturned car is blocking the two northbound lanes of 35th as investigators try to determine what happened. Witnesses on the scene reported that a single female occupant was removed from the car and was treated at the scene before being transported to the hospital. Police are not saying if drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash. 12:15 AM UPDATE: That report was from Christopher, this is an update from TR: We just checked the scene — the car’s been turned upright, and traffic was getting through on the southbound side of 35th – looked like the car would be towed and the north lanes cleared shortly. Information on the victim’s condition may be hard to come by but we will check again and post a followup when we find out.
Tony’s Produce opens for 2009: “Doing our part for the economy”
First we got the tip from Paul of PB&J Textiles … then Bonnie posted it in the WSB Forums … and we ran over to get the scoop firsthand: Tony’s Produce (35th/Barton; here’s a map) has just opened for the year, after the traditional post-Christmas break. Tony and his team are still finishing the set-up inside, but they’re officially open, 8 am-7 pm seven days a week for starters, with what Tony says are “great deals” (this one caught our eye):
He added, “We’re doing our part to stimulate the economy by keeping prices low!” But he also wanted to show off the high quality, too, directing another team member to show off these strawberries:
We asked what’s new this year; “more organics” was the first thing mentioned by Tony, shown here with a couple signs for those offerings:
We’ve got some other West Seattle business updates coming up later today/tonight, but since we had been getting questions about “when are they opening again?” we thought we’d rush this one out first.
West Seattle wildlife (sort of): Horse training; bird watching
Sorry, no goat reunions today, but we do have two animal photos to share, and one in fact DOES involve police: That first photo – which we snapped by cameraphone during an afternoon errand at Westwood Village – is in desperate need of a caption. Just can’t think of it. Suggestions? Police told us they took these horses to WV to help them get used to car traffic. (The Seattle Police Mounted Patrol, by the way, is based right here in West Seattle, in Westcrest Park.) Meantime, traveling Beach Drive just north of Me-Kwa-Mooks, we had to pull over and admire this big bird, more than three times the size of the crows that were harassing him/her:
Peregrine falcon? UPDATE: “K” suggests, in the comment section, that it might be a young bald eagle. Photos like this seem to verify that possibility (and of course eagles ARE often seen around Alki/Beach Drive).
West Seattle finale for mayor’s storm-talk open-house tour
That’s Mayor Nickels arriving at Southwest Community Center tonight for the third and final “open house” he scheduled this week to invite in-person comments on the city’s much-criticized response to last month’s snow. As with the other two (coverage linked from our preview this morning), in Green Lake and the Central District, no huge crowds, no fireworks. No presentation, either, so we roamed a bit and caught this exchange about the hottest topic of the storm’s second half — salt — and related environmental concerns:
City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco was one of the other top city officials on hand (along with deputy mayor Tim Ceis and SDOT director Grace Crunican) – what you see on the table by him are some of the preparedness freebies that were handed out at the event:
And it wouldn’t be a public meeting without someplace to write ideas on big pieces of paper – here, Seattle Public Utilities collected concerns about the trash/recycling/yard waste delays endured by thousands for weeks:
For some, it was a family affair – not only parent and child, but also, that’s the mayor’s wife Sharon Nickels at his right:
Perhaps the most interesting note: Metro is taking comments related to its operations during Snowstorm ’08. A hard-copy survey was circulated at the open house. A Metro rep promised to get us an electronic version; we can’t find it online. We’ll share it as soon as we get a copy or a link, should be tomorrow. (Earlier today, we had the opportunity to meet with two King County managers to share some feedback from what happened here as you all shared information with us and each other, and as we worked to procure more official information, during Snowstorm ’08; we will keep you updated as we hear about changes to come.)
West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/15/08
After dealing with weather woes, need a drink? These lights in Westwood offer an illuminated cocktail break. It’s in the 8600 block of 32nd SW (map), and neighbor Dave sent it in, saying it’s just part of a display, and describing it as “a large martini glass (Happy New Year) replete with two olives (including pimentos) and a toothpick atop their flat roof garage.” Got great lights, or seen some? E-mail us! (photos welcome too)
Happening now: Highland Park, Southwest CC bazaars
Made it over to Highland Park Elementary (10th and Trenton; here’s a map) to check out the holiday bazaar – lots on sale, plus kids’ activities too – a chance to “fish”:
The Highland Park Elementary bazaar continues till 3. Under way till 4 pm, it’s the Southwest Community Center bazaar (on Thistle a few blocks east of 35th; here’s a map); another reminder, all the rest of what’s happening today/tonight, and tomorrow, is in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup!
School-closure fight: Arbor Heights families @ Westwood tonight
The school-closure fight isn’t taking the weekend off: We stopped by Westwood Village on the way to the Cooper Elementary school-closure meeting (where we are now) – as promised, Arbor Heights Elementary parents are sign-waving outside Barnes and Noble, where students are at a “pajama party” tonight (and where a book fair all weekend is raising $ for Arbor Heights programs, as mentioned earlier) – we also saw at least one TV station (KIRO) there with a live truck, so you may have seen them on TV tonight. No other media here at Cooper, just us. More on their story later; the meeting has just begun (to recap – the district is now looking into possibly moving Pathfinder to Cooper instead of the original proposal last week to move it to Arbor Heights – more findings about that should come out at the board’s work session starting at 4 pm next Tuesday at district HQ).
School-closure fight: Arbor Heights at Westwood Village tonight
Like last night’s Holiday Bazaar (WSB coverage here), Arbor Heights Elementary had long been planning a book-fair event tonight at Westwood Village Barnes and Noble – but now it’s taken on an added dimension. First, the book fair: 10 percent of B/N purchases made today through Sunday, with the voucher number 413831, will benefit various programs at AH, such as kindergarten assistant teachers and books for the school library. Meantime, Arbor Heights families will be there tonight for a kids’ pajama party starting at 5 pm, with kindergarten teachers presenting story time at 5:30, and in the meantime, the “Save Arbor Heights” campaign will be active outside, with signs and petition-signature-gathering. Tomorrow, they’re planning to be at the next “community workshop” (9:30 am) as well as School Board rep Steve Sundquist‘s Delridge Library gathering (3-5 pm) – more info on the Save Arbor Heights website.
White Christmas already: Tony’s is 1st to open (flocking and all)
That’s the legendary Tony, of Tony’s Produce and – this time of year – Tony’s Christmas Trees, applying flocking to one of said trees. We went by after Sandra e-mailed the tip (following up on our earlier mention of tree lots in progress) that they were open (1st one in West Seattle that we know of). Tony says they’re there 9 am-9 pm daily, starting now (35th/Barton, here’s a map). We also have updates on two of the Christmas tree spots we mentioned earlier: “West Seattle Bros” on Alaska west of Fauntleroy will open Friday, and West Seattle Nursery (WSB sponsor) will start selling trees Friday too. ADDED LATER: Skyline Secure Park will have “Christmas Trees on Alki” again this year, entrance across from the Harbor Ave 7-11, also opening Friday.
Gas-pipe road-work update: Puget Sound Energy explains
When we brought you some SDOT information earlier this week about the project that’s been tearing up roads in Fauntleroy (primarily Barton toward 35th) and now has moved east of 35th, we mentioned that we hadn’t heard back from Puget Sound Energy, whose gas line is at the heart of the work. We subsequently got a call from a PSE media person who couldn’t find our phone message but did read the WSB post – so she in turn connected us to another PSE person who had more details on the project. We have lots of new details now about what turns out to be work to replace almost two miles of old metal gas piping with plastic (as shown above) – read on for more about what’s happening, where, why, when (and how come there was no general announcement sent to news sources like us, to share with you):Read More
Happening now: Cat adopt-a-thon at SW Community Center
Those are two of the foster cats available for adoption now through 3 pm at Southwest Community Center (here’s a map). It’s happening in the community-room area on the lower level – go in through the back (south) entrance.
We got one of our cats at an event like this six years ago and she of course is a joy. The foster parents, like these two, are all volunteers, whose work helps Seattle Animal Shelter house more animals while permanent homes are sought:
Again, the adopt-a-thon’s happening till 3 pm. Parking is a little crunchy down there right now because of a football game at neighboring Southwest Athletic Complex, but it’s not impossible to find – remember there’s that big lot immediately to the south.
West Seattle Crime Watch: Possible serial thief nabbed
Several Crime Watch updates just arrived in the inbox — first, Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen says a lot of great teamwork involving police and alert businesspeople may have solved a series of eyeglasses thefts:
On 11/04/08 at about 1230 hrs, SW Officer Bruce Wind observed an occupied suspicious vehicle at Westwood Village. Officer Wind checked the license plate of the vehicle. About a half hour later, Highline Eye Care Center (Westwood Village) called 911 when the employees recognized a possible suspect who robbed them last April. Highline employees provided Officer Wind with crime bulletins from Bellevue PD regarding a string of eyeglass thefts.
As Officer Wind was speaking with the Highline Eye Care employees, SW Officer Phil Rees on-viewed a complaint of an incident at West Seattle Optical (4500 blk of California SW).
Officer Wind recognized the incident and provided vehicle information to other officers. A Traffic officer spotted the vehicle in the 2600 blk of SW Genesee. Both male and female suspect were arrested. Suspected stolen property was also recovered.
Robbery detectives are following up on the case which may be tied to over 55 eyeglass theft cases in Bellevue and Auburn.
Reader report: When analog becomes the anomaly
Burke e-mailed that photo (thank you!) and elaborated:
I stopped in at Staples in Westwood Saturday afternoon and was greeted by this sign at the entrance. No cash? Inside there were a number of similar signs and it is true: no cashbacks, no cash accepted, no change. The clerk only commented that “there was a problem!” I sometimes jokingly ask if cash is accepted, after standing in a line of folks using credit/debit cards to buy groceries. Maybe it’s not a joke anymore?
West Seattle Crime Watch: Busy early morning for police
Two incidents under way right now: Thanks to Brad and Brian for the tip about police at the Money Tree at 41st/Alaska; scanner traffic points to a search for an intruder. Police also are in the 29th/Thistle vicinity, with scanner traffic reporting a medic crew responding to assist with a report of an assault victim. 1 AM UPDATE: Fire truck L(adder)-11 is at the 41st/Alaska scene to help. 1:21 AM ADDITION: Still monitoring the scanner … now, somewhere on 45th SW, police have been called after three people broke a car window and took off running. Missed the block #. 1:36 AM UPDATE: Sounds like the 41st/Alaska intruder may be in custody; police were reported to be talking to him, and then searching to be sure no one else was in the building. 1:53 AM UPDATE: Now officers are checking out a report of shots heard in 19th/Thistle vicinity. RELEVANT SIDE NOTE: This month’s meeting of the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council is at 7 pm Tuesday night — different location — Denny Middle School (30th/Thistle; map).
The official message about urban wildlife tends to stress coexistence – as was the case during an October presentation at Camp Long (
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