Two notes from and about the Duwamish River industrial corridor tonight:

First – we dropped by the Lafarge of North America cement plant in eastern West Seattle this morning after getting word of its “Safety Day” expo. Workers browsed exhibits discussing safety advice and protective equipment. Several local businesses were there to talk about safety and health, too.

Second – expect to hear more about this next week, but we thought you’d be interested in the media advisory from City Council President Richard Conlin‘s office:

Seattle – The Seattle City Council will be briefed on a new eco-industrial district concept for industrial lands and the Duwamish River corridor.

WHO: Office of Economic Development, Environmental Coalition of South Seattle, Full council, and Andreas Koenig, EcoIndustry
WHEN: Monday, June 14, 2010, 9:30 a.m.
WHERE: Seattle City Hall Council Chambers, 2nd floor

The Seattle industrial district along the Duwamish River valley and surrounding neighborhoods is one of the largest contiguous industrial areas in the U.S. With approximately 4,000 companies and 70,000 employees and its proximity to multimodal transportation options, this area continues to be a vital economic driver for our region.

The eco-industrial district concept helps industrial sectors and the neighborhoods in which they reside truly coexist, by preparing for future challenges, establishing sustainable development practices, allowing for efficiencies between companies and optimizing business performance and collaboration.

In addition to the full council briefing, Koenig will be part of a more detailed briefing before the Regional Development and Sustainability Committee on June 15, at 2:00 p.m. in Council Chambers.

After getting that advisory, we asked a followup – any geographical boundaries yet for this potential “eco-industrial district”? Rob Gala from the Conlin staff says, in short, no – so far, it’s just an idea, but they would love to hear what you think of it. We’ll have more on it next week, and you’ll also be able to watch these briefings via Seattle Channel if you can’t make it to City Hall.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

A distinctive label describes the event Skylark Café and Club (WSB sponsor) will host tomorrow night to mark its 4th anniversary: Not a party, not a bash … but a prom.

“After four years, we’re graduating … we’re seniors now!” laughs Skylark proprietor Jessie Summa-Kusiak.

Four is a special number for another reason. That’s how many Skylark staffers have been with the music club/restaurant/bar since Day 1 – including the bar manager and kitchen manager, and bartender Cheryl, who is the model in many of Skylark’s ads.

Why the longevity? Here’s one unexpected reason …Read More

(Photo courtesy Shaw Dixon)
More baked goods, anyone? First, Heavenly Pastry – now, meet Baked In Seattle. If you visit The Junction during the next West Seattle Art Walk – Thursday, June 10th – Shaw Dixon invites you to come in and help her celebrate the “grand opening” of Baked In Seattle, sharing “bake space” with Blue Willow Catering and Luncheonette in The Junction (4310 SW Oregon), as well as, Shaw tells WSB, “selling products at the gorgeous luncheonette (and) wholesaling to small, natural groceries around Seattle such as Ken’s and Ralph’s.” Between 6 and 9 the evening of June 10th, you can stop in for free appetizers, wine as well as her specialties – mini-cheesecakes and fruit-filled crumble pie. This is Shaw’s second career – she worked for FedEx for more than a decade, but after a bout with thyroid cancer, she decided to go into business doing something she loved – and that turned out to be dessert-making!

Memorial Day is a time to remember those you’ve lost. The place in West Seattle where that happens every day is Dignity Memorial-Forest Lawn, the only full-service facility in West Seattle, with a chapel, crematorium, columbarium (above) and mausoleum, as well as a cemetery. We’re welcoming them today as the newest WSB sponsor. Forest Lawn can also make arrangements for other types of final tributes – they can even make arrangements with Argosy Cruises if you want to scatter a loved one’s ashes at sea. General Manager Dave Salove says Forest Lawn is a place to welcome people and engage them in the complete process of arranging an appropriate and memorable celebration of a loved one’s life. Their site stretches across both sides of the winding road between the High Point neighborhood and the West Duwamish Greenbelt (map); on the south side are the buildings, on the north side the sprawling open greenery of the cemetery, site to not only private moments, but also the annual community Easter Sunrise Service and Memorial Day Service (coming up at 2 pm this Monday, as usual in conjunction with American Legion Post 160).
Since Forest Lawn is part of a nationwide company, they also can help you with arrangements in other cities – just call them to see if they have a facility in the area where you need to have the funeral. Here at home, Forest Lawn belongs to the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and Dave is on the West Seattle Food Bank board, the Southwest Precinct Advisory Council, and The Kenney Foundation. You can reach Dignity Memorial-Forest Lawn by phone at 206-932-0050, or online.

Weather permitting, they plan bagpipe music at 6 pm tonight and Saturday, as part of Memorial Day weekend. We thank Forest Lawn for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.

That’s Heavenly Pastry‘s Allison Barnes with a basket of her already-legendary pretzels – which they sold at farmers’ markets, among other places, before opening their own retail store at 2604 California SW as of noon today (as previewed here). Again, it’s a “soft opening,” which means they’re not revved up to full production yet – but you will find scones and cookies today as well as those pretzels:

Allison says Heavenly Pastry will be open till 7 tonight, 10 am-7 pm tomorrow, 7 am-3 pm Sunday, then closed Mondays and Tuesdays – which will be their usual days off – before reopening 7 am-7 pm Wednesday.

First WSB’er JanS reported seeing it on a sign on the 2604 California SW storefront … then last night, it was announced on Facebook: Today’s the day Heavenly Pastry and Cake will open its doors. They’re between Alki Bike and Board and Linda’s Flowers and Gifts, and say they’ll be open noon-7 pm today. (Here’s our original preview story from last November.)

This afternoon, we’re welcoming one of the newest WSB sponsors, PB&J Textiles, currently in the middle of a moving sale – more on that in a minute. Here’s what they want you to know: PB&J Textiles began as an outlet for the creative side of us and in looking at interesting options for something to do other than a corporate job. We realized that sewing and embroidery wear was a great area for the two of us to focus on. Thus began PB&J Textiles. If you want to know, PB&J stands for Paul Binder (photo right) and Junior, with Junior being David Robertson. PB&J Textiles is West Seattle’s local custom embroidery shop. We are committed to working and living in West Seattle! Our philosophy is to service the small sized business with a high quality product at an affordable cost to the small business owner, or retail customer. Our goal is to make you the customer happy with our products. We also do work for individual customers. This could be family reunions, weddings, birthdays, the list is endless! Don’t think embroidery is expensive; in many cases it’s not expensive at all! We have more than 20,000 stock designs that are ready to go. In many cases, people will bring in drawings that are quite rough and we can turn that rough drawing into a great embroidered logo. Watch for our new products that we will be introducing in the near future! PB&J Textiles belongs to the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the West Seattle Champions BNI group. If you don’t remember, we also have 2 shop cats, Dakota and Murphy (profiled on WSB a year ago), who always welcome a new face and set of hands to give them some attention. PB&J Textiles will be moving soon to a space adjacent to Skylark Café and Club (also a WSB sponsor) at the far northern end of Delridge, just before the West Seattle Bridge. In preparation for our upcoming move, we have significantly marked down most of our remaining stock! Till their moving date is finalized, find them at 5962 Fauntleroy Way SW (map), and online at pbjtextiles.com, or call 206-243-3053. (Note they’ll be closed next Friday-Monday, 5/28-5/31.)

We thank PB&J Textiles for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.

Less than two months after Tully’s Coffee vacated the storefront on the southeast corner of Fauntleroy/California, we know what’s moving in: Cellular World. A few WSB’ers had e-mailed saying they’d heard “a cellular store” but we hadn’t been able to confirm which one – until we heard from Gypsie, who saw the signs go up today. Cellular World already has a store in Jefferson Square; we just talked with its manager Carlos, who says it’s not yet settled whether that store will stay open after this one is up and running. Whatever happens with that, he says, the Morgan Junction store is scheduled to open July 1st.

ORIGINAL 8:48 AM REPORT: Thanks to Lory for the photo – if you look closely at the storefront, you’ll see the back of the car that crashed into Museum Quality Framing in Admiral early this morning. The 911 log lists a “motor-vehicle accident” at that address at 6:42 am – no indication of serious injuries – obviously the store wouldn’t have been open at that hour, either. Via Twitter, @seattledriver sent a drive-by photo of the damage; we’ll be heading there for a followup this morning.

(photo substituted at 12:24 pm for iPhone photo we’d posted three hours earlier)
9:40 AM UPDATE: We just talked with the store’s proprietor, Robert, at the scene. He says police told him a driver was turning northbound onto California from Admiral when she hit the gas instead of the brakes, went over the curb and into his store. (No damage is visible to the storefronts on either side.) He confirms nobody was hurt. The entire front of the store – glass and doors – is gone, and a repair person is already there working on it, though the insurance adjuster hasn’t even arrived yet. Robert wanted to stress that while some of his framing stock is damaged, as are store fixtures inside, since the car went so far into the store, the customers’ art is all OK. He has no idea yet how long he’ll be closed.

(photo added 12:28 pm)

(2009 Rampathon photo courtesy Potter Construction)
Tomorrow’s the annual “Rampathon” by the Master Builders Care Foundation in King and Snohomish Counties, and West Seattle’s Potter Construction (WSB sponsor) will be part of it again this year. Staff volunteers “will set one Highland Park grandmother free when they build a wheelchair-accessible ramp to her front door,” according to the announcement. The project is getting financial assistance from the Rotary Club of West Seattle, which donated $3,500 to support construction of the ramp. Across the region, Rampathon has resulted in almost 300 ramps built since 1993, supported by donations to the MBC Foundation; Potter’s Highland Park project is one of 20 scheduled in the region tomorrow.

“We give where we live” is the motto for RED (Renew, Energize, Donate) Day, a nationwide day of service today for Keller Williams Realty. The West Seattle crew is giving their time and talents to a project just blocks north of their Junction offices: They’re working on the West Seattle Baptist Church basement that’s been taken over by the Junction-based Skate Church. Pastors Rob and Serena Wastman from Skate Church say it’ll be a great place for activities including movie nights and afterschool programs – and they also say they’ll make it available to community groups looking for a meeting space.

From left, Rob and Serena, with Keller Williams event organizer Eric Slawson, and Skate Church’s Jovan Wiggins. The church plans a grand opening celebration for their share of the WSBC space in September.

We’ve been keeping an eye on Juneau Street Market (California/Juneau; map) since an apartment fire over the store closed the market eight months ago, watching for signs of reopening. Saw an open door about an hour and a half ago, and dropped in. Owner Binh Nguyen (photo left) was there and said they’re reopening tomorrow, might even “soft-open” tonight. Asked what he did during the long shutdown, he smiled, “Vacation” – adding that the reopening process took so long because of “insurance stuff.” (In a comment following our original coverage of the fire, they had posted that they hoped to reopen in “six to eight weeks.”) The fire in early September was blamed on an extension cord; nobody was hurt. Neighboring Ho-Win Chinese Restaurant was closed immediately after the fire too, but reopened relatively quickly.

We first talked with Ken Ahroni of Lucky Break Wishbone two years ago, when he notched a pivotal win in his fight against Sears and ad agency Young and Rubicam, over the plastic turkey bones they used in a promotion – which seemed a lot like the ones he had been making and selling. Today, Ahroni e-mailed to say, “After four years, we finally prevailed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.” That federal court just rejected the challenge to the $1.7 million award he had won in a copyright case first filed in early 2006; the ad agency had talked to Ahroni’s company almost a year before that about possibly using his wishbones in a Thanksgiving promotion for Sears – procuring a sample, not striking a deal, then hiring another company to produce plastic wishbones in China. (Lucky Break Wishbones are manufactured in Auburn.) From the Lucky Break news release announcing the decision (you can read it in its entirety here):

“The Ninth Circuit’s decision reaffirms the validity of Lucky Break’s claims and originality in product design,” said (Ahroni’s lawyer). “As business becomes more globalized, it will be critical that U.S. courts uphold intellectual property rights in a manner that continues to encourage innovation and creativity. This case is an excellent example of the principle in action.”

After getting the news release about his court victory, we checked with Ahroni to ask if this is indeed the end of the legal line – he says, yes, case closed. And business is good, he tells WSB – sales of his wishbones were up 10 percent in 2009 over the previous year. If you’d like to read the appeals court’s decision, here it is in its entirety (Ahroni clarifies that “not for publication” does not mean what you’d think – it’s a term referring to the decision’s future uses).

(Photo by John Smersh)
Something different for your Saturday night – a jewelry trunk show and artist reception. It’s just getting under way at longtime WSB sponsor Click! Design That Fits in the Admiral District – above, that’s Click! co-owner Frances Smersh, a jewelry designer herself, with Dawn Benedetto of poppi jewelry, in the spotlight tonight. Benedetto describes her creations as “a line of jewelry that doesn’t take life too seriously.” She’s come all the way from the East Coast to meet West Seattle jewelry fans – she’ll be at Click! till 8 tonight (more about the event on their website).