West Seattle, Washington
02 Wednesday
-Guess who’s surfaced in the growing push to keep Charlestown Cafe from being replaced by a standalone Petco store: Former City Councilman Charlie Chong. His letter to the current council members is in one of the latest posts on the Our Town/West Seattle group site, as it moves to organize the fight.
-Also stepping up their fight: The Morgan Junction/Gatewood neighbors who say the construction across the street from Gatewood Baptist shouldn’t have sneaked through the permit process as a group of small projects instead of the one semi-big project it really is. One neighbor has just posted a new comment on this WSB page, contending the project is clearly illegal, and also wants everyone to know project updates are on the ORCA site.
-And one last reminder regarding a (so far as we know) noncontroversial project: As we mentioned Sunday, tonight’s the third and final public meeting to talk about what’s going to be done to transform the “Ercolini property” (photo below) into a park.
If you drive a few blocks west on Alaska from The Junction, you’ll see a big grassy lot on the right. This is the future park currently known as the “Ercolini property,” and the city’s final public meeting on its development is coming up this Tuesday night (6-7:30 pm at the Senior Center). For a tidbit of history on the park site, check out this photo page from a relative of its namesake. Kudos again to the community members who worked to get this land turned into a park instead of, oh, say, townhomes.
… to the deadline for naming two future WS parks, including “Junction Plaza” (currently home to the WS Tree as the holiday season winds down).
In case you didn’t hear this one yesterday … we found it on the city press-release page. Seems showing up at a park in ’07 with an unlicensed dog could earn you a fat fine.
We were going to say that driving around WS tonight was “normal” — no major lights out, etc. — for the first time in more than a week, but the pre-Christmas craziness is making up for it. Crowds galore. Good for our local businesses, at least.
In post-storm notes … got e-mail from the office of local County Councilmember Dow Constantine (while Seattle City Councilmembers aren’t elected by district, King County Councilmembers are), saying he’s pushing for a “formal council review of the local response to (the) windstorm.” As for the city, haven’t seen anything yet about the outcome of today’s “briefing.” The video is now posted on the Seattle Channel site (with an ironic disclaimer about “diminished” audio quality because of an “unforeseen technical problem”).
Today’s storm-aftermath photo: proof some of the fallen trees in Lincoln Park are being cleared away; we spotted this pile in the central LP parking lot.
Oh, this is a sad sight. Just found this post (with photos) about Lincoln Park playground damage, by local blogger Matt Rosenberg (on Sound Politics).
This near-winter time of year, it’s tougher to get a chance to tour the town in daylight. So here’s what we spotted today while catching up:
-A new pedestrian stoplight is up (though the crosswalk’s not painted yet) at Fauntleroy & Kenyon, around midway down the east side of Lincoln Park. About time; without it, you’re taking your life into your hands if you try crossing Fauntleroy anywhere between the 76 station and the park’s southernmost parking lot. Looks like the Fauntleroy Community Association’s been campaigning about this problem for a long time, so perhaps we have them to thank. (Speaking of pedestrian safety, here’s your chance to make a BIG difference: The city’s Pedestrian Advisory Board needs new members, and Monday’s the application deadline.)
-What was Fauntleroy Auto Works (Cali Ave just north of Fauntleroy), future site of what we think of as the Monorail Memorial Park, is now a pile of rubble.
-We found six seven places to buy Christmas trees in West Seattle, so far. (All are now listed on our ever-evolving West Seattle Holiday Stuff page.) Seems like fewer than years past, but as we realized while driving around, we’ve got fewer empty lots these days. P.S. The P-I mentioned the Holy Rosary lot today in a story about nonprofit tree sales.
Don’t go to Lincoln Park this Saturday looking for a quiet stroll among the trees. It’ll be the site of the Sundodger Invitational college cross-country meet. Haven’t found the exact times yet, but did find this course map.
(Also on Saturday — one more festival before we officially say goodbye to summer — the Morgan Junction Community Festival. The entertainment lineup is posted here.)
… let’s shout it together so it can be heard all the way across the water, from Vashon to Bainbridge to Magnolia … WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO? (Did you notice how early it’s getting dark? Sigh …)
Here are three things you might want to add to your to-do list, since within a few weeks you won’t be able to do them again till sometime next spring:
-Ride the Elliott Bay Water Taxi. It goes on hiatus at the end of this month.
-Go swimming (or sunbathing) at Colman Pool. A week from Sunday is its last day of operation this year. There are few sights sadder for us Lincoln Park walkers than the fall/winter plywood up over the CP plexiglass.
-Enjoy a demonstration at the West Seattle Farmers Market. The market itself is supposed to stay open every Sunday through mid-December, but the demos on its calendar only run through September (this Sunday, fresh tomatoes! yum!).
Took a closer look at the in-the-works Dakota Place Park, north of the Junction, on Sunday morning. Cool way to honor a chunk of West Seattle history (instead of, oh, say, turning it into more condos). The official city info page is here; citizen organizers have a site here. Several other park projects are under way on our peninsula too, including the ex-monorail site in Morgan Junction — where butcher paper just appeared on the windows of the ex-Video Vault building, to become the new home of Beveridge Place Pub as part of a deal with the city.
Got an e-mail from someone wondering what’s up with the empty lot at the northwest corner of 42nd and Alaska. I remembered something about the city acquiring that lot as parkland, so I checked around and indeed, a park is still in the works for that site, known as “Junction Plaza” — timely question since, according to this city news release, city leaders want your ideas on exactly what to do with it; they’ll be at the Summer Fest in two weeks with a booth featuring the latest scoop.
While city leaders deliberate what to do about the viaduct, the Sonics, and other sore spots, it seems they also are plotting a network of skateboard parks. If you’ve got anything to say about this, there’s a hearing at SW Community Center tomorrow night.
| 2 COMMENTS