West Seattle, Washington
02 Wednesday
Dori, the Denny Middle School Lunch Lady, says that’s what she serves every day, and she invited the architects and school administrators overseeing the Denny-Sealth construction project to come have lunch. She was one of about 35 people who came to tonight’s overview of the latest plans for the Denny-Sealth shared-campus project with some serious concerns over the initial plans. The plan presented showed one kitchen which would serve both schools, to be located between the gym and the common areas. As Dori said – a kitchen with no windows or adequate ventilation is not a good idea. What she wants is for the planners and architects to see the existing Denny lunch room and kitchen, which she calls a “kitchen done right.”
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We’ve had a cascade of cupcakes, a plethora of pet stores … now, perhaps, a surge of supplement shops. A year after Super Supplements moved into The Junction, a new permit granted for space in Westwood Village (we haven’t done the backwork yet to figure out which space “E8” refers to) reveals the impending arrival of “Fresh Vitamins.” A quick websearch shows they have several other outlets around the metro area.
Just got word from the Westwood Neighborhood Council that Seattle Public Schools has scheduled a community update meeting next week about the impending Chief Sealth High School/Denny Middle School campus consolidation construction project. The neighborhood group itself called the last update meeting, in June, after learning details about the project that previously hadn’t gotten much public airing. (We covered that meeting in-depth; here’s the link.) The district’s flyer (which touts a weblink, buildingexcellence.org, that as of this writing goes only to a “parking page”) says the meeting at 6:30 pm next Tuesday (10/9) in the Chief Sealth HS theater will include updates on the schedule and design for the project, and take Q/A. Here’s the flyer:Read More
SIGN SAGA #1 — A medic call to Westwood Village around 6 pm tonight is explained by a reader as follows:
One of the main signs inside of Westwood Village Target fell on a lady’s shoulder earlier tonight. It was one of the main signs that say Bedding or Electronics that hang from the ceiling with two tiny strings. It fell on the lady and shattered on the floor. They called the medics for her. I asked her if she was okay right after it happened and she said I think so.
SIGN SAGA #2 — Yes, it’s illegal to hang banners on the Fauntleroy pedestrian overpass, but it’s a tradition anyway — apparently, a tradition someone is intent on stomping out, as any banner that’s gone up lately hasn’t been up for long, and here’s the latest example: A volunteer for a local nonprofit group desperate to get the word out about an upcoming event told us she went up with a banner today and left a note saying “we’ll be back for this on Thursday; if you need it taken down before then, please call (number).” The banner was up when we drove by at 7 pm tonight; gone at quarter past 9; the banner-hanger tells us no one called. Other prospective banner-hangers, you’ve been warned.
Somebody buy, or at least loan, Westwood Village Barnes & Noble some chairs. For the second straight year, as many people stood as sat during West Seattle mega-selling author Terry Brooks‘ annual appearance. Diverse crowd too, 7 months to 70-plus. As was the case for his ’06 visit, Brooks read from his next book and talked about his current one. The latter, “Genesis of Shannara: The Elves of Cintra,” hit bookstore shelves today; the former, the title of which he’s not disclosing (though his “Web Druid” Shawn Speakman tried tonight to get him to spill it), is still in progress — he admitted he’s rewritten its final chapters over and over. Tonight, he confirmed that book will conclude the “Genesis of Shannara” trilogy, though at one point he had hinted online it might run longer than three books. He also pitched a new graphic novel for which he provided the plot, “Dark Wraith of Shannara,” coming out next year (and offered fans in attendance cool promotional bookmarks), and noted his near-future plans include writing another book in his “Landover (The Original Shannara Trilogy)” series, plus traveling to Britain, Japan, and the Seychelles — in response to an audience question about how he so successfully imbues his stories with a “sense of place,” he declared that travel helps fire his imagination; each new place sparks thoughts about “what kind of story could take place here?” SIDE NOTE FOR WEST SEATTLE BOOK LOVERS: Square 1 Books’ “Words from the West Side” event featuring WS authors is coming up on September 16th @ ArtsWest; read more on the Square 1 blog.
Catching up from the weekend, we have another work-party report from one of West Seattle’s treasured greenspaces: Lina Rose from EarthCorps says 10 volunteers joined her and forest steward Kirsten Rohrbach to clear almost 1000 square feet of invasive weeds from the Thistle Street Greenspace along Longfellow Creek, including clearing space around young cedar trees planted along the creek trail. Lina sent photos; first one shows what it looked like before they dug in:
Next, volunteers in the middle of their work:
No “after” photo – you’ll just have to go see for yourself (Thistle Street Greenspace is one of those places we’ll admit is on our “haven’t been there but must go soon” list; it’s easy to find, just off Thistle east of Chief Sealth HS). Next work party there is September 22nd; other Longfellow Creek sites have monthly work parties, listed here (and also always included in our weekly West Seattle Weekend Lineup posted every Friday morning).
An e-mail address popped up on help-wanted signs in the window of the future Taco Del Mar in Westwood Village, so we wrote to ask when it’s opening. Heard back in short order from owner Travis, a WS resident who also owns the Jefferson Square Taco Del Mar. He says they’re hoping to be open by September 8th, with hours 7 am-10 pm Monday-Friday, and are still “eagerly looking for employees (who can work during the days!!).” Here’s the address for job inquiries.
Here on the south side of WS, we noticed a multitude of signs last night for a yard sale that continues today — all on two-sided sandwich boards, no two sides alike. If you happen to stop by the sale site, give ’em props on our behalf. The fine print on #4 made us laugh out loud.
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When Giannoni’s Pizza opened in Westwood Village two weeks ago, a few people mentioned they’d tried it. Now that some time has gone by, a WSB reader e-mailed to ask us to ask everybody out there for more reviews. Anyone?
In case you saw the same police activity at WV Barnes & Noble this morning (we were at the Museum of Flight) — four police cars, people in handcuffs, store briefly closed (or so one would-be customer was told) because of it — here’s what WSB reader Liz later heard from store staff: it started as a shoplifting investigation, then appeared to involve credit-card fraud, and there was concern one suspect was armed. Ended uneventfully with up to 3 arrests.
Just spotted on the slope beneath the Sealth/SWAC field, north of Westwood Village, people in protective suits attacking the weediness, Scotch Broom and all … gee, you would think it would have been safer to call in the goats instead.
Tomorrow is the first full day of business for Giannoni’s Pizza, on the south side of Westwood Village (between Sally’s Beauty Supply and the future Taco Del Mar), after a soft launch for lunch today:
The Giannoni’s proprietors tell WSB the restaurant opened for 4 hours at lunchtime today for 4 hours and served more than 140 slices. Starting tomorrow, they plan to be open 11 am-10 pm daily.
If you’re still in the market for a fan or air conditioner you’re not completely out of luck, but you’re running out of choices.
Here’s the mini-AC shelf at the Delridge Home Depot as seen just before noon.
And as of lunchtime this is what the fan aisle at Target looks like.
Next to QFC, the Pet Pros store-to-be (ex-laundromat) has a “help wanted” sign posted out front; on the south edge of WV, the suspense (?) is finally over regarding which of the new spaces next to Sally’s will be Giannoni’s Pizza and which will be Taco Del Mar:
That’s what the current state of things boils down to, regarding the school district’s plan to build a new Denny Middle School on the Chief Sealth High School campus, with some shared facilities — or so it sounded when district reps made their case during a semi-contentious community meeting tonight (called by the Westwood Neighborhood Council). Click for more:Read More
Its immediate past — the 100-plus Class of ’07 grads who gathered at SW Athletic Complex across the street this afternoon to celebrate the successful end of their pre-college educational careers:
Present/future, change is ahead for Sealth and its neighborhood. As we have mentioned previously, it is working to boost its academic image (which may factor into its underenrollment) by offering the International Baccalaureate program, one of only two high schools in Seattle Public Schools — only 14 in the entire state — with IB. And its future holds a big construction project (page 4 in this doc; approved by voters last February), in tandem with nearby Denny Middle School, set to start immediately after next school year. The Westwood Neighborhood Council has questions and concerns (as do people at both schools; see page 3 of this) and is hosting a community meeting one week from Wednesday (June 27) to talk about the project.
While we compose our epic forthcoming post about tonight’s meeting on the ex-Hollywood Video-etc. Junction project (could keep us up all night), please enjoy this amazing tale centering mostly on two of West Seattle’s many Starbucks.
Hot on the heels (tails?) of discovering that All The Best is Alki-bound, we think we can match a name to the pending pet-stuff store at Westwood Village: Pet Pros is advertising jobs at its “new West Seattle store.”
A WSB reader just e-mailed to say someone stole their 5-year-old’s tricycle from their yard in Westwood, his first and only bike, and they’d like you to be on the lookout, since it has sentimental as well as monetary value. Full text of their e-mail below the photo:
Stolen from our Westwood Village yard, probably by some joker who got tired of riding it a block away. So just in case it shows up let us know, we don’t have the funds right now to buy a bike for our 5 year old and it was a special 2nd birthday present. It was red, rusty, monster front tire, ladybug bell on front. Attaches to a red wagon but they were too busy to steal that, too, hence why we think it was a lark.
If you see it, their contact info is in this post on Craigslist.
-Funny, we were just talking about Fauntleroy Place: A city council committee agenda that just landed in our inbox mentions a “possible vote” next Monday morning regarding the “alley vacation” that is a key part of the FP project.
-Another council committee has a briefing at 2 pm today regarding the latest version of the citywide skatepark plan. Two (updated from first version of this post; thanks to the reader who corrected us) proposed WS skateparks are currently on the list: Roxhill and Delridge.
-The city kicked off a push for low-flow showerheads today. If you haven’t tried ’em, you might be surprised. We converted to one during a remodel a few years back and it’s really not that dramatic a change.
The city permit files say a pet-food store is in the works for Westwood Village. We can’t find a center blueprint to match WV “suite numbers” to specific stores, so we can’t tell if that’s what’s going into the laundromat space (below) that just emptied out north of QFC, but crews are certainly working fast and furious to convert it into something. Also, the permit files mention progress on the WV in-the-works Taco Del Mar.
Two updates on the violent vandalism mentioned here a week ago — first, neighbors are working to revive the Westwood Neighborhood Council, which apparently had gone dormant; second, the vandalism story was featured on tv last night.
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