West Seattle, Washington
25 Friday
First, the NOT HAPPENING NOW – this was tentatively scheduled as the first day for Lincoln Park‘s wading pool to be open, but since it’s not warm, sunny weather, that’ll have to wait at least another day. (We went down to check in person just to be sure, as we’ve seen the occasional digression from the “warm, sunny” requirement/s.) Remember – the wading-pool schedule citywide is different this year because of mandatory safety improvements (our coverage, with dates, is here). Now, as for what IS happening now —
That’s Full Tilt Ice Cream proprietor Justin Cline, photographed emerging from the prep room in the back, where he had been working on mint-chocolate-chip peletas. Full Tilt (9629 16th SW, White Center) opened at noon today and will be open late tonight because two bands are playing; the shop’s celebrating its first birthday by donating a cone or pint to the White Center Food Bank for every cone or print purchased today. (Another good reason to go to White Center tonight – the monthly White Center for the Arts open house, starting at 5 pm, enter from the 16th SW entrance to the old skate rink, a few doors south of Full Tilt.)
Just four days after it went up, much of the fence came down at Alki’s Statue of Liberty Plaza. David Hutchinson shares that photo and this explanation:
The Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza reopened to the public early this afternoon. Thanks to the great work of the Seattle Parks & Recreation construction crew, all 850 newly engraved pavers have been installed. Next week the 7 Tribute Plaques will be placed in the concrete ribbon along the promenade side of the Plaza, with the Time Capsule scheduled for burial at a later date. It will be placed in the landing at the top of the steps to the south of the Statue. A 12×12 inch bronze plaque will be installed at that time.
All WSB coverage of the Alki Statue of Liberty is archived here, newest to oldest.
Thanks to Forest for the tip that fencing went up around Hiawatha Playfield in the past 24 hours or so. We’re checking with the Parks Department for an official status report, but this is likely to mean the long-awaited start of field improvements (detailed here in a story that also noted the previous project delays). The work will include new lighting (up to 90′ high) and synthetic turf, with the end result accommodating baseball, soccer and football; here’s the official project page. (Side note: The cost of this project came in at half a million less than estimated, according to Parks managers, and that’s the money now rechanneled to replace two-thirds of the funding pulled from the Delridge Skatepark at the last minute in last year’s budgeting process.) P.S. Here’s the overview rendering of the Hiawatha project from our coverage last year:
Today is scheduled to be the second day of work on Phase 2 of the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza. Fencing went up Tuesday morning, and when we dropped by late Tuesday afternoon, project volunteers including David and Eilene Hutchinson were continuing to sort through the 800-plus new inscribed bricks (and 7 tribute plaques like this one) that will be put in over the next few weeks, while work is also done to pave the way for the placement of a new time capsule. The money raised by the new brick/plaque sales will go toward plaza maintenance.
More photos tonight courtesy of Trileigh (you can see additional pix here) – who says:
The owlet seems extraordinarily fluffy these days. He must be getting a pretty good education in crow management, given the amount of time his parent spends dealing with those paparazzi!
That’s “Wollet” the barred owlet above (my, how Wollet has grown! remember this, three weeks ago?) – and one of the watchful grownups here:
So when’s the last time you saw a swimming-pool pump impeller? Jim sent that photo, taken at the Beckwith and Kuffel machine shop where one of the big parts from Southwest Pool‘s circulation pump was being fixed for those emergency repairs this afternoon. According to assistant coordinator Matt Richardson, the repairs were finished on time, and the pool did reopen at 5 pm. Lap swim’s under way now till 6, then as usual, it’s a public swim from 7:30 to 8:30, and Shallow Water Aerobics and Hydrofit from 8:30 till 9:15. Southwest Pool is West Seattle’s only municipal indoor pool; its full schedule is here. West Seattle’s only municipal outdoor pool, Colman Pool, is now in 7-day-a-week summer operation. One more SW Pool note – just noticed on its website, a three-week closure is scheduled in late summer for “main drain work,” Aug. 22-Sept. 13.
Days after West Seattle’s newest park was dedicated in Morgan Junction, there’s big news for the push to finish the long-awaited park in The (Alaska) Junction: Susan Melrose of the West Seattle Junction Association tells WSB they’ve just received word they’re getting the $98,000 city Neighborhood Matching Fund grant sought to help complete Junction Plaza Park. That brings the money gathered for the project (updated)to $295,000 – the current design will cost about $350,000 to build. (For comparison, the just-finished Morgan Junction Park cost almost half a million dollars.) Another major fundraising push will come during next month’s West Seattle Summer Fest (WSB sponsor), with a beer garden set up at the site, proceeds benefiting Friends of Junction Plaza Park. The group also will be participating in this Saturday’s Junction Clean and Green event, which will be centered at the new Genesee P-Patch (as reported here last month) — with Mayor Nickels scheduled to appear — but also will include a Junction Adopt-A-Street cleanup with work at the 42nd/Alaska park site (just a few blocks south of the P-Patch). It’s hoped that the park project will be ready for groundbreaking this fall. It’ll also be a beneficiary of the West Seattle Garden Tour coming up July 19 (tickets on sale now). ADDED 4:09 PM: A Friends of Junction Place Park meeting also has been announced, for 6 pm July 6, Senior Center of West Seattle.
ALKI STATUE OF LIBERTY PLAZA: Phase 2 of work on the 9-month-old plaza is scheduled to start today; as announced last week, fencing will go up (for about 2 weeks) as new bricks and tribute plaques go in.
EMERGENCY CLOSURE OF SOUTHWEST POOL: As the Parks Department announced yesterday , Southwest Pool has to shut down noon-5 pm today for emergency repairs on its main circulation pump. They’re expecting to reopen at 5 pm for “evening programs.”
WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL: Main item on the agenda tonight – YOU, and whatever concerns you want to bring up to Southwest Precinct police leadership, who also will share their latest toplines on crime trends. Find out what’s happening and how best to keep your family safe, 7 pm, SW Precinct meeting room (map).
Look further ahead with the WSB West Seattle Events calendar – and please be sure to send info about any events you’d like to see listed!
(December 2008 photo by Brian)
Six months ago, when Winter Solstice arrived on December 21st, skiing, snowmobiling and snowshoeing were rampant along West Seattle walkways and streets. If you didn’t have the equipment to try making your way around in any of those ways – you probably tried driving – and if you did, you may have used one of the maps made during our snow coverage, using WSBers’ road-condition reports, by Alice Enevoldsen. Now, half a year later, Alice is looking ahead to Summer Solstice this weekend, with an online exploration of West Seattle’s Solstice Park (the former Lincoln Park Annex, uphill from the Fauntleroy Way-fronting tennis courts). See her story (with, yes, a map!) here.
The Parks Department asked that we share this: “Southwest Pool will be closed from noon to 5 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16, for emergency repair of the main circulation pump. The pool will reopen for evening programs at 5 pm.”
Thanks to Minette for sending new photos of the Lincoln Park barred owlet and its family (previously featured May 23, May 27, May 31), along with the story of what was happening while she observed them (including this watchful adult):
Minette wrote:
Last night I went to visit the owl family in Lincoln Park and I’m happy to report that as of yesterday they’re all alive and doing well, including little Wollet.
While I was observing them, the crows were of course going crazy cawing at them and dive-bombing the family, but the owls didn’t seem overly concerned. The male and female spent a good deal of time together grooming each other while little Wollet sat on a branch in a tree about 40 feet away making his funny little screechy “feed me” sounds. At one point he made a very good, controlled flight to a tree that was nearer the adults, so his skills are definitely improving.
If you missed the link in a previous report – here’s Seattle Audubon info about barred owls.
Within the past hour, the ribbon was cut, speeches were made, and the $480,000 Morgan Junction Park is now a full-fledged member of the Seattle Parks system. It’s also the site today of some of the events in the Morgan Junction Community Festival – but be sure to make your way behind Beveridge Place Pub, Feedback Lounge and Zeeks Pizza to see the community group and business booths, including ours. Now back to the park dedication: Morgan Community Association president Deb Barker made note of this park’s origins as a site for the Seattle monorail-that-wasn’t:
In addition to the plaza-like park itself, there’s also a sidewalk art project fronting California SW alongside the park – it went in along with new sidewalks funded by SDOT – and two of its creators, from SuttonBeresCuller, accepted thank-you art from Steve Sindiong of MoCA:
Others who received similar honors from Sindiong and Deb Barker on MoCA’s behalf included Parks project manager Virginia Hassinger, who led many a public meeting on the park design (in addition to the considerable behind-the-scenes work):
And Gary Sink, owner of the nearby Beveridge Place Pub, which helped make the park happen as part of a purchase of the entire monorail-property site, where he moved his popular pub to the former Video Vault building that’s just south of the park (it used to be where the Feedback Lounge is now):
Q13 FOX sent a photojournalist, so you might see a bit of the dedication on their 9 and 10 pm newscasts. Now, for the rest of the day, it’s the festival in and around the park, and we’ll be reporting as it happens (the occasional Twitter update at @westseattleblog as well – where you’ll find links to photos we “tweeted” before the event, including City Council President Richard Conlin in his “I Love West Seattle T-shirt” – he and Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher were the two top dignitaries on hand for the event). [added 8:55 pm – video of Gallagher discussing the park’s relationship to BPP]
The park is on the west side of California SW, a block north of Fauntleroy (map).
MORGAN JUNCTION PARK DEDICATION: 10 am today, right before the Morgan Junction Community Festival, which is happening in and around the park 11 am-6 pm. The park’s been open a couple months just north of Beveridge Place Pub, on the former Fauntleroy Auto Works site once tabbed for a monorail station. (More on the festival shortly – we’ll be there all day, reporting “live.”)
GOODBYE, GENESEE HILL: The elementary school building atop the hill had already been closed once when it was reopened to serve as “temporary” home to West Seattle’s only public alternative school, Pathfinder K-8. More than a decade later, the district is closing it again and moving Pathfinder to the Cooper building in Pigeon Point. The Pathfinder community is leading a closure ceremony/commemoration 10 am-2 pm today.
CHIEF SEALTH HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION: Members of the Chief Sealth Class of 2009 end their high-school years with a commencement ceremony at 1 pm. This year, it’s at Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center, same place West Seattle HS had its graduation two days ago.
For more of what’s happening around the peninsula today, see the West Seattle Weekend Lineup.
West Seattle photojournalist Matt Durham from mattdurhamphotography.com shares this scene, describing it only as follows: “A monster emerged … out of a downed tree’s root ball at a West Seattle park. The location will remain a mystery.” Hmmm.
(2008 photo by David Hutchinson)
It’s been anticipated for quite a while that the next round of brick installation, and time-capsule placement, would be happening soon at the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza. Now there’s word from Libby Carr that it’ll start next week:
Seattle Parks & Recreation has informed us that the Phase II construction work on the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza will begin on Tuesday, June 16th. The immediate area of the Plaza will be fenced for approximately 2 weeks while the 850 new engraved bricks and 7 Tribute Plaques are installed. Preliminary work will be done for the installation of the Time Capsule which has been prepared by the Log House Museum. The Capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2059. Some additional maintenance work will also be done at this time.
Funds raised in Phase II (by selling these bricks and plaques) are dedicated, through the Parks Department, to the future maintenance of this plaza, after paying for the cost of materials and labor.
We are anticipating a Celebration event for the completion of Phase II will be held in late September.
Our first report on Tuesday night’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting focused on a progress report regarding the upcoming summer concert series. Now, more from the meeting, much of which focused on a presentation about the draft Seattle Pedestrian Master Plan, an agenda item on many of the community meetings we’ve covered lately – and important because you have until next Monday (June 15) to comment on it. On behalf of the city, consultant Peg Staeheli summarized the plan’s key points; as noted before, the PMP is an online document, and as Staeheli put it, it’s worth taking some time to “wander” through the plan. It’s not only about the walkability of local neighborhoods, however – “maintenance is a huge issue,” she observed, which in turn means education of home and business owners regarding their liability for making sure the sidewalks around their properties are usable. (Did you know that whatever’s growing over your sidewalk needs to be cleared for 8 feet of headroom?) The city’s ideal street is a “complete street,” Staeheli added, saying that Morgan/Sylvan through High Point is an example — with landscaping, pedestrian features, and other components. The pedestrian-planning process was more than document creation, she added, saying that city programs/divisions are working together more than ever, looking for opportunities such as the current Fauntleroy road work, which has been preceded by curb cut/ramp creation along much of the stretch that will be repaved. Also from the meeting, Ann Limbaugh from Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral had a quick update on California Place Park, reminding attendees that a celebration of the just-concluded design process is set for one week from this Saturday. The design report from architect Karen Kiest will be made public then, she said.
Back in March, when we checked on the status of work at Myrtle Reservoir, which has now been “covered” — with a park coming to the new open space that was created – park project manager Virginia Hassinger told us she was hopeful the site would be turned over “this fall.” Today we’ve received an update from the city, saying the rest of the work on the reservoir site will start later this month – so nearby residents should watch for a return of construction activity – to be complete “by the end of October.” Hassinger has said that once the site is turned over to Parks for construction, the park should take about three months to “build.” (Here’s the approved design.)
They haven’t yet announced whether they are going to proceed with fundraising for any additions to California Place Park, but Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral have set the date for the community celebration marking the end of the design process for which they obtained a $15,000 grant: 3:30 pm Saturday, June 20. Musician/entertainer Eric Ode will perform. While the future of the main park site is still a question mark, money for a P-Patch community garden on the “southern triangle” across the street is proceeding through the Parks and Green Spaces Levy allocation process (as reported here last week). It’s been almost exactly a year since first word that a group of neighbors was proposing changes to the tiny park in North Admiral; our archived coverage, newest to oldest, is here.
Two of West Seattle’s green spaces are in better shape this week than they were last, thanks to work parties with extra volunteer help. First, the photo above from last Saturday was shared by Mike Arizona, volunteer steward for the Delridge Natural Area across from the Chief Sealth High School/Boren campus:
The event was attended by 13 volunteers, all from www.Onlineshoes.com. This was the second time in the past year the kind folks from Onlineshoes reached out to me and asked to set up an event with their employees. We cleared about 2300 square feet of the park of non-native plants (ivy, blackberry, holly), picked up trash and put down a layer of mulch on 1400 square feet. This area is now all ready to be planted with native trees and plants this fall.
The restoration of this site is part of the Green Seattle Partnership project (greenseattle.org) whose goal is to restore all 2500 acres of Seattle’s urban forest parkland. Another great website to get information is www.longfellowcreek.org. The next volunteer work party is June 27 from 10 am to 2 pm. For more information contact Mike Arizona at m_a1533@yahoo.com.
And last Friday, an even-bigger group of volunteers – workers from outdoor-industry businesses that belong to the Conservation Alliance — worked in Lincoln Park:
Krissy Moehl says almost 100 volunteers were there, with help from the Cascade Land Conservancy and Green Seattle, as a Backyard Collective project from the alliance’s ConservationNEXT. Look for a wrapup soon at conservationnext.com/blog.
If you’re going to talk about a playground on a warm almost-summer night, why not do it outside? So that’s exactly what Delridge Playground project organizers decided to do, setting up that table outside the Delridge Community Center tonight. The main task: Decide which of the three designs (all shown in this WSB report) to choose, before Delridge’s new playground gets “built in a day” next month by KaBOOM! – with volunteer help. Design #3 is way out in front:
(This link also shows you its full schematics.) Besides taking votes tonight, they were also accepted by e-mail and at the playground-fundraiser booth at Delridge Day (shown in this report), which by the way brought in enough money to put the community-contribution total over the top. Another vote tonight was for the swing setup; results – two regular swings, one bucket swing, one disability-accessible swing. Also tonight, the fate of the current playground’s popular merry-go-round was discussed; Parks Department rep Maureen A. O’Neill said it’ll be removed, but it can be stored, and maybe painted and fixed up – any time a playground has major changes like this, O’Neill explained, everything has to be brought up to safety code, and she says that means the merry-go-round would need a “textured wood structure” underneath, plus some drainage and concrete work, totaling about $15,000, which would require a lot more fundraising, and/or perhaps another city Small and Simple Grant. But she promised the merry-go-round would be removed and stored carefully. One more note: While the fundraising goal’s been met, LOTS of volunteer help is needed to make the playground happen on July 17 – more than 100 in all – e-mail helpdelridgeplay@gmail.com if you can help.
New information tonight about the Lincoln Park barred-owl family’s owlet (previous coverage here and here), this time (along with that photo) courtesy of Trileigh, who says it even has a name:
The little owlet is getting better about navigating his way through the trees. He practices by walking out on branches, and hopping/flapping from one to the other, with his parents usually nearby. He likes to go sideways along branches to the very farthest end and sit at the tip, which probably makes his parents pretty nervous!
Recently one evening, we were watching as he lost his balance and fell about 30′. He bounced right up (I imagine he could flap his wings with enough strength to cushion his fall) and headed for a nearby tree to climb to be safer from potential predators. Fortunately, the good West Seattleites who witnessed all this stayed a respectful distance away so the little owl could climb without feeling too stressed by humans and dogs coming too close.
His parents flew in and checked thoroughly to make sure little Wollet (named after the owl “Wol” in Winnie-the-Pooh) was safe and sound. A happy ending!
I’ve attached one picture of Wollet tightrope-walking along a branch, and I’ve posted a number of other pictures of him, his parents, and other Lincoln Park birds on my Flickr site at www.flickr.com/photos/trileigh/.
That’s the BigBelly solar-powered trash compactor west of the Alki Bathhouse, a demonstration project of sorts for the city, which is reducing the number of trash cans in local parks (as reported this week by the Times). When the trash-can-reduction campaign came up in the WSB Forums, member Que mentioned that her 8-year-old daughter had an opinion on the matter, after deciding to practice her reading by perusing the aforementioned article. We invited Que to offer her daughter the chance to practice writing by elaborating and sharing it with us (and you). Here’s the result!
I read the newspaper and there was an article about how they were taking the trashcans away from the parks. I don’t believe that they should take the trash cans away because then people will litter. Everyone uses the parks. People use them for playing and having fun and having picnics. We need to have trashcans because people will leave all their trash in the parks. This will make the parks disgusting. Then the parks will be full of trash and bags of poop. That will make the parks not fun anymore and the Moms will not want to take their kids there for picnics because they will be gross. I don’t think that the city is going to save enough money to make it worth having yucky parks. How much money would we all give to have nice parks? The city should find a different place to save that money.
– Rosemary A.
age 8
After we published Kim‘s photos last weekend of a barred-owl family in Lincoln Park, Minette wrote a comment with a link to her gallery of the same owls. Tonight, she’s sharing two more recent photos, along with word that, as of a couple nights ago, they were spotted again, doing well. The photo above is the male owl and the baby; below, the baby by itself:
Here’s what the Seattle Audubon website BirdWeb has to say about barred owls.
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