West Seattle, Washington
10 Sunday
We’re just trouble magnets today. After the drama of the 35th (and surrounding streets) shutdown earlier (see posts below), on our way home from an evening outing just now, the Fauntleroy/Alaska intersection got blocked, as we approached it, by a police car arriving to check out a three-car smashup that appeared to have happened moments earlier. Didn’t look too serious, but the city 911 log page does show a fire-engine callout, so things may be a little jammed there till later tonight.
Just back from a trip to check out 35th — all open now — we wound up behind what was probably the last of the officers, two guys in a scary charcoal-gray humvee-ish vehicle you probably wouldn’t ever want to see pull up in your neighborhood. 4 PM UPDATE: Now there’s a brief story in the P-I.
According to a blurb currently atop this news site that was atop a news site for a while,  “a man has barricaded himself inside an apartment” and that’s what’s going on along 35th (see below).
WS Blogger Spouse took the photo from the Chevron on 35th near the shutdown:
35th is blocked off right now south of the Austin vicinity. WS Blogger Spouse had to detour onto a side street … and a couple more of those streets are blocked off too. Lots of police. Not sure what’s going on — WSBS is going back to see how close it’s possible to get to check it out.
Or two. Or even three … We mentioned the White Center Food Bank’s need for turkey donations. We hope at least someone out there heeded the call; we took a few down ourselves. Well, ’tis two days before Thanksgiving, and we just got a note from the WCFB saying they’ve got fewer than 20 turkeys left, but hundreds more families to serve. C’mon, you can get turkeys REALLY cheap at Safeway or Fred Meyer. Open your wallet, open your heart. (And if you know of anyplace else in our area that needs last-minute donations, please leave a comment for all to see!)
We didn’t think he was long for this world after the School Board smackdown of his Phase II Closure Recommendation last Wednesday, just hours after it came out. And now comes the news – superintendent Raj Manhas is leaving.
West Seattle might make the news again tonight, thanks to yet another car crash. We saw at least two tv camerapeople getting video of a car that smacked into a brick column in front of the Admiral Heights complex on California just north of Admiral earlier this afternoon.
The superintendent’s final recommendations just came out, and he’s not backing down from the Pathfinder/Cooper merger. But he did decide not to close Roxhill after all. The final word rests with the school board, in two weeks. UPDATE: Here’s the P-I story, with Roxhill reaction; there’s also some in the Times writeup.
Chalk another one up for West Seattle Blog Spouse, who bet me that the ex-Remo Borracchini spot in The Junction would become a “fancy bakery with something French in its name.”
Sometime in the past 24 hours, a sign went up, as follows: “Coming soon (to delightfully spoil West Seattle with bread, pastry, cakes, chocolates and coffee)/Bakery Nouveau/home of world baking champion 2005/USA top 10 chocolatier 2004/William Leaman.”
According to a variety of online references, Leaman’s been at Essential Baking Company in North Seattle for a while and does indeed have quite an impressive resume, dating back into his teens. West Seattle’s got a fair amount of good bakeries — so could this mean we’re in for something great?
-If you need to travel Alki Avenue/Harbor Avenue near the crash zone (see post below), beware — might be closed for a while — we were just down there a bit to the west side of the bend in the road, and yellow tape still stretched across the road, requiring drivers to turn around and head back toward the beach. Didn’t get to check where the shutdown was on the Harbor Ave side. Meantime, more updates are posted now: P-I story, also channel 5, also channel 7, nothing on the Times site as of 11:45 am … Consensus seems to be the SUV was speeding big-time before careening off the road.
-Speaking of traffic, we also cruised past Chief Sealth HS to see how jampacked the parking areas were for the Mars Hill/WS test run. Lots and lots of signs for “church parking,” including over on the Southwest Community Center side. Hope they are paying the city and school district a bundle of bucks for the privilege of tying all that up …
Just heard the news … two people killed early this morning after missing a turn and driving into the bay. Police 911 call log (link’ll only be valid till 11:59 pm tonight) cites 1238 Alki Avenue (map), with the first callout around quarter past 5 am. As the folks on the Yahoo “Alki Beach Community” group point out, the only local-news source with an online mention right now (including a video link) is channel 4. One of the ABC group members also says police are waiting till low tide early this afternoon to tow the car. This comes five months after another crash in the area that killed 2 people.
As expected, the city council says “Go, tunnel, go.” However, note paragraph number three … can’t wait to see what the council’s definition of “infeasible” is.
Just announced by Seattle Public Schools this morning ... now Roxhill is on the chopping block, and Pathfinder is poised for a move to Cooper. Here's coverage from the P-I, and from the Times.
… is the fact that a fellow blogger is actually claiming to be excited to be “scooping” WSB. And more exciting STILL is what “Robla” has posted — a link to the Westwood Village website (scroll down the directory on the right) revealing that PIZZA IS COMING TO WV!!!!! (oh yeah, and Taco del Mar, too, but we’ve already got that in Jefferson Square)
Now the big question — does anyone have any idea what a “Gionnoni’s Pizza” is? Google draws a big fat blank (aside from the aforementioned Westwood Village link). What is this dastardly trend of places opening without websites where we can find out more about them? (like Talarico’s, which finally advertised a website in the Hi-Yu Festival booklet but as of this writing, that website is still “under construction”)
Anyway, thanks, “Robla”! We had news about a new Junction biz (thanks to a tipster) but now it’ll have to wait till later …
Back from a grand tour of WS with several bits of news. Most will have to wait for morning, except for this bit of breaking news from the Junction: An eviction notice is posted on the front window of Emily Ann’s Dollar Boutique (the former Kitty Corner, next to Key Bank, across from and to the south of Easy Street). It’s dated today and gives the store 10 days to “vacate.” Beneath that posting, rather superfluously, is a simple page with this bold print: WE ARE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
-Not only is West Seattle home to the mayor, we’re also now home to Miss Seafair! (Official coverage and photo on the Seafair home page, here.) So now if you’re joining us at the Torchlight Parade downtown on Saturday night, you can cheer crazily for her as well as for the fine folks on the Hi-Yu float.
-Haven’t heard a lot of noise on the school-closure issue lately, but the final School Board vote is set for tonight. There’s been a lot of excellent, thought-provoking discussion for the past few months — including issues beyond the closures/consolidations — on the “Saving Seattle Public Schools” blog, whose main contributor will be a Pathfinder parent next year.
-Lost/found dog/cat notices are sadly common on poles and windows — but last night while out and about, we spotted a “found rabbit” notice. It’s in the window of Pet Elements on the south end of Morgan Junction, and pretty vague, mentioning only that a “small domestic rabbit” was found “on California Avenue” and suggesting a call to the Seattle Animal Shelter if it might be yours.
The ruling’s in, according to a short post on the Seattle Times’ home page, which says regulators have pulled the school’s two titles because of the girls-recruiting scandal.
A WS Blog visitor forwarded us this e-mail overnight … won’t get to head out and independently verify it till later, but it looks like the garden shop on the north edge of the Junction is pulling up stakes:
Farewell from In Bloom
When we first opened the store in November 2003 it was with the dream of creating a welcoming environment to showcase and sell the things we loved: garden accessories, house plants, vintage pottery, home decor, and local crafts.
In Bloom has lived up to many of our dreams, providing us the opportunity to meet many wonderful customers and artists, as well as giving us an outlet to showcase fine products and creative ideas. Unfortunately the demands of running a store have taken their toll on our health, happiness, and well-being. And so, with our hearts full of warm feelings and our heads full of happy memories, we are closing the store in August 2006.
Sorry to hear it. That’s a tough location, right at the edge of the business district, but one that we think will be a boom zone within a few years — these nice folks may just have been ahead of their time.
Not sure exactly what’s up — we’ll check while en route to the Pirates in a bit — but WS Blogger Spouse tells me that Alaska is all torn up on the block between Easy Street and Key Bank. Last-minute work in time for next weekend’s Summer Fest/Street Festival/etc.?
Speaking of which, the whole music schedule is up online for the festival … and as a tipster told us a few weeks back, it’s quite a lineup, sponsored by West 5, Easy Street, and KEXP.
Wow, in the olden days, the music lineup was pretty much something that couldn’t have been sponsored by anything more eclectic than (bless their hearts) the Senior Center and Poggie’s Tavern. How far WS has come!
The superintendent’s “final” (for now) school closure/change list is out — and Pathfinder’s move to Boren is now out. Pathfinder will stay on Genesee Hill but the district says it’s got to go somewhere. More on Saving Seattle Public Schools, including links to full details.
The West Seattle Bridge reopened in both directions late this morning after wreckage from the overnight crash was cleared. We’ve heard that the Water Taxi did extra business because of the traffic nightmare, and it’s adding some extra runs for folks returning home tonight. As of mid-afternoon online reports, no information apparently about who the crash victims were or what exactly caused the crash.
If you use the high bridge to leave WS in the morning, check the traffic reports and the bridge cams before you go — right now it’s closed both ways because of a deadly crash. Here’s what’s online right now in the relatively early morning: P-I, channel 7, channel 5.
If you’ve never had to detour around the bridge before, beware the low bridge as an option — in situations like this, it clogs pretty fast. Heading south through White Center and then north on Highway 509 can also work.
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