West Seattle, Washington
14 Saturday
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.
Streets on the north side of Westwood Village (off the stretch of Trenton shown below) are having trouble with a group of at least half a dozen teenage boys running around wreaking havoc — with violent vandalism that includes throwing rocks at people, through house windows, and through car windows. Neighbors are banding together and working to put more pressure on police to catch these culprits, which they note has been tough because it’s not considered an “emergency” and gets lower-priority response. However, our tipster does say three police cars were in hot pursuit of the group tonight; here’s hoping they are caught soon, and just as important, appropriately prosecuted.
That phrase apparently applies to the Westwood Village vicinity for a non-shopping reason.
After we referred to the forthcoming, long-in-the-works Giannoni’s Pizzeria at Westwood Village as “mysterious” one too many times, their owners surfaced in our inbox and shared some details about what they’ll be doing when they open (south side of WV, next to Sally’s Beauty Supply). And they confirmed, they’re not a chain! Click ahead to read their full e-mail:Read More
Tonight, a rare sighting of squadcarfuls of West Seattle’s Finest taking a break someplace besides Caffe Ladro: at the Westwood Village Barnes ‘n’ Noble.
Just spotted this as we drove home from a produce trip to Tony’s: SDOT is putting up left-turn signals on 35th at Thistle. If you’ve never tried to make that turn (in either direction), you’ve never enjoyed the death-defying thrills of cars relentlessly racing toward you at what seems like freeway speed. This should save some lives, from reduced stress as well as reduced collision rate:
While dropping off our ballot @ High Point Community Center, we grabbed a handy all-in-one spring brochure for HP, Delridge, and Southwest Community Centers, including SW Pool. Noticed while leafing through it this morning that registration for spring swim lessons starts tomorrow morning. 7 am sharp. That time is important, because lesson registration can turn into a madhouse (maybe not if you sign up online); classes are available for 6 months through adult age, and they fill up fast. We’re mentioning it because if you don’t live on the south side of West Seattle, you might not even be aware that Southwest Pool exists. It’s just east of Denny Middle School, and worth checking out if you feel like swimming but don’t happen to belong to the Y or a pool-equipped health club.
Great Presidents Day article in the P-I, set at the retirement home near Westwood Village.
-As a couple people wrote to tell us, a “retirement sale” is now under way at Leslie’s, just south of Spiro’s.
-The construction site at Westwood Village now has a banner up promising GIANNONI’S PIZZA (different from the website spelling but we still can’t figure out who’s behind it), COMING SOON, PIZZA BY THE SLICE.
-Lots of signs of progress as Garlic Jim’s Pizza in The Junction gets ready to open next month, including a NOW HIRING sign.
-Just up the block from there, facade work is under way at the ex-Bobby’s Hobbies, future (apparently) bakery.
-Today’s supposed to be the last day for Hollywood Video at 41st & Alaska (mixed-use megaproject coming soon).
A friend of ours who grew up in a mountain state told us that you know you’ve REALLY gotten some snow when, days or weeks after it melts, dirty slushy piles of it are still lingering in parking lots and similar places. So, we can now officially declare our Snow-n-Ice-mare ’07 a REAL event, upon discovery today of the official Dirty Slushy Leftover Pile near the southwest edge of Westwood Village:
Here’s an alarming tale that reportedly unfolded at “a” Starbucks (who knows which one, considering there are three) at Westwood Village. As of right this moment, the King County jail roster lookup shows the guy’s still in jail.
If you’ve got business at the post office — you might want to wait a while. WS Blogger Spouse reports that after two postal holidays (New Year’s Day plus National Day of Mourning for Pres. Ford), it’s a spillover crowd, at Westwood, at least. No word yet on the Junction branch.
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