Coyote alert: Lincoln Park
Ted sent this to WSB last weekend and we missed the chance to post it then, but he advises us he’s still hearing the howls, so it’s not too late to issue the alert. Not to evoke anti-coyote hysteria – just a reminder to be careful:
Just wanted to let you know – saw a brazen Coyote in Lincoln Park during the day on Sat. We had our dog on a leash but another couple that was approx 100 ft away from us did not. No sooner did we pass the couple but we saw what appeared to be a very alert and scoping Coyote. I am thinking he may have been checking out the little lap dog the couple had off-leash. We were on an interior trail – near the chin-up bars. Please keep the parks (and coyotes) safe – keep your dogs on a leash !!
Happening tonight: 2 meetings on multi-million-$ projects
DENNY-SEALTH UPDATE: It’s been a few months since the last general update on what’s going on with this fast-track Seattle Public Schools project to consolidate the neighboring middle and high schools on one campus. Tonight, the Westwood Neighborhood Council sponsors a gathering to get out the latest info. Read more here, including the meeting agenda. It all starts at 7:30 pm @ Southwest Community Center.
HIAWATHA PLAYFIELD IMPROVEMENTS: The city will present details on improvements to the field, iighting, and more that have been years in the making; read more here. This meeting happens at 6:30 tonight @ Hiawatha Community Center. (Got the reminder about this last night at the monthly meeting of the Admiral Neighborhood Association, where the main topic was the California/Hanford/Hinds upzone proposal; our full writeup on that is coming up a little later this morning.)
It’s official: Ercolini Park will be … Ercolini Park
The suspense is over; the city Parks Department has made its decision. David Cagen from Friends of Ercolini Park just forwarded the park-naming announcement from interim parks superintendent Christopher Williams:
After receiving overwhelming support from the community, I have decided to name the park site located at 48th Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street, Ercolini Park. This name will recognize the longtime ownership of this site by the Ercolini family and their willingness to sell this property to the City for a public space.
I look forward to joining you for the opening of the new Ercolini Park in early 2008.
More parks news coming up in an hour or so – this just came in so we wanted to publish it fast! 3:30 PM ADDENDUM: Friends of Ercolini Park chair Katie Hjorten wrote to the FoEP group (and gave us permission to republish):
I called Jim Ercolini to let him know and he couldn’t have been more pleased. He told me that he was the last descendant with that last name both here and in Italy. He said his parents would be so proud and pleased since they were share croppers in Italy. It was their life’s dream to own land. Now it will bear their name in perpetuity. He thanks all of us for our work on this project.
Parks plan, West Seattle meeting #1: Surprisingly interactive
We went to tonight’s Southwest Community Center meeting for the Parks Department’s future Strategic Business Plan not realizing it would be an interactive format – listen to organizers for a few minutes, then break into groups and discuss ideas and opinions for most of the rest of the time. What resulted was a public meeting that really felt like a public meeting – with the emphasis on “public.” This was the first of six of these meetings happening in West Seattle over the course of the next week (full list here, continuing with High Point Community Center @ 7 pm tomorrow), and if you care about the future of our city parks, we strongly urge you to make time to participate in one of them. Here’s what we experienced tonight – including a high-level observer:Read More
2 important events in West Seattle today & tonight
SENATOR HERE THIS MORNING: U.S. Senator Patty Murray and a long list of business and education leaders will be in West Seattle this morning, in Olympic Hall at South Seattle Community College, for a field hearing of Murray’s Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety.
FIRST STOP IN THE CITY PARKS HEARING TOUR TONIGHT: As we reported earlier this month, the city Parks Department is touring the city in a series of 30-plus public hearings on what should be in its forthcoming Strategic Business Plan. Tonight is the first of five hearings in West Seattle (7-9 pm, Southwest Community Center). Lots more info here; the full list of meetings is here; if you are absolutely certain you cannot make it to any of those meetings, the Parks Department has a “short online survey” you can take here. With so much parkland here on our beautiful peninsula — and remember, we’re the biggest neighborhood in the city! — it’s vital to have West Seattle opinions, hopes, and dreams represented in the forthcoming Parks plan.
Jogger attacked in Lincoln Park
Police are looking for a man who jumped a jogger late yesterday: reports here and here. She got away OK; he unfortunately got away too and was described in the tv report as “25 to 35, about 5-7, light brown hair, possibly balding … wearing a white, oversized sweatshirt with a pattern on it, and gray sweatpants.” The attack location is described only as “a trail in the south end.”
Thursday night notes
-As of this writing, the West Seattle Bridge ramp to northbound I-5 is STILL closed because of the situation which, piecing together various accounts (see comments on post below), appears to involve public-safety/emergency workers trying to talk someone off their perch on that ramp. This has been ongoing for almost 11 hours, according to the city 911 log, which shows the incident open since units were first sent to a “rope rescue” at Columbian/12th at 10:27 this morning.
-WSB reader Venkat found an advance link to an article in this Sunday’s New York Times about “what you get for $900,000” in several real-estate markets. One is right here in “West Seattle, Washington,” where the article features an Alki condo.
-We mentioned last week that the city Parks Department is holding meetings all around the city in the next few weeks to gather thoughts about what should be in its forthcoming Strategic Business Plan. We also promised to let you know when a link was up for an online survey to be offered to people who couldn’t attend those meetings. Now it’s up — go to this page and follow the “short online survey” link.
Saturday in the park (and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday …)
The city Parks Department is out with its full list of upcoming public meetings as part of the department’s creation of a Strategic Business Plan — and no fewer than half a dozen of those meetings will happen here in West Seattle, over the course of eight days starting November 28th. According to the Parks Department webpage about the plan and the meetings, they want to hear your answers to these questionst:
-In what areas does Parks and Recreation do well?
-In what areas does Parks need to improve?
-What are the key policy issues Parks will face in the next five years?
-What are the emerging trends that will drive how Parks does business over the next five years?
That same page has times and locations for all meetings citywide, including the ones in West Seattle: Southwest Community Center on 11/28, High Point Community Center on 11/29, Delridge Community Center on 12/1 (the only weekend meeting in WS), Hiawatha Community Center on 12/4, Camp Long and Alki Community Center on 12/5. (We’ve added them all to the WSB Events page, for handy later reference.) For those who can’t make it to any of those meetings, the Parks Department is promising an online survey will be available soon (doesn’t appear to be up yet but we’ll let you know when it is). After these meetings, the Parks Department will come up with a draft plan, take it around to another series of meetings, and finally submit the end result to the City Council in mid-March.
Another graffiti-vandalism problem, and a question
Just out of the WSB inbox, Betsy writes:
Someone sprayed graffiti on the end of the guard rail on the beach side of the road at the corner of Alki Ave. and Beach Drive recently, and today I discovered that they’d also tagged the slope of the retaining wall on the beach just down the sidewalk of the boat landing area. I really hate this stuff. It’s Seattle Parks property, but if I call them will they just come out with some gray paint and cover it? That’s just as ugly and attracts new taggers just as the original graffiti does. Do any of your readers know if paint remover will work on metal and concrete?
Ercolini Park: They (you) did it!
Just two days ago, we told you about the fundraising deadline today for matching funds to make Ercolini Park (48th/Alaska; photo above from last summer) a true park when construction work begins shortly — and we have word from Bill Barna that, thanks to one last big donation — $2,800 from Wanda Pommer — they made it! Bill and everyone at Friends of Ercolini Park send out a huge thanks to everyone who helped them reach the goal and says the big thing now is to make good on commitments of volunteer time (also vital in the “matching funds” process); as Bill explains, “It is also important to remember that all the volunteer hours that were pledged have actually been assigned a dollar value. If the volunteers don’t make good on their contributions some of the park features may suffer. So, PLEASE, everyone who committed time … make good on your pledge.”
Tomorrow’s not just Halloween …
… it’s also the fundraising deadline for Friends of Ercolini Park, to help them qualify for city matching funds in their work to create a park for the growing residential neighborhoods west of The Junction. (The land has been set aside — but now it’s time to start putting in the features that will transform it into a park.) The group says work should be starting within a few weeks, and they expect to have “a park to play in by spring!” Read more about the project on the city’s page about it, and to help Friends of Ercolini Park get across the $ finish line, use the “donate” link on the group’s website. (Also coming up, this blog post from an Ercolini relative reminds us, is the deadline for the city to accept name suggestions, though as that writer notes, it’s hard to imagine it could end up being named anything else.)
New Westcrest worry
Westcrest Park, home to West Seattle’s only off-leash area, got a microburst of attention recently after a tv report about public sex in the park. However, frequent visitors are focusing right now on a different concern — theft. A member of the Westcrest Off-Leash Area Yahoo! group asked us to get the word out about two thefts this week alone. The victim of the first one reported that a man stole her purse out of her car while she was just feet away unloading dogs. The purse contained her cell phone; here’s what she tried a while later:
“I also called my cell phone and the guy answered it. I told him I would be filing a police report with a description of him and his car and the theft and he told me to F off.”
The other theft happened today, according to a note posted by park steward Steve:
“We got hit again this morning, Wednesday, about 10 am. This is getting really ridiculous. I’ve been to the south precinct on Delridge to ask if they could patrol the lot once in a while, but no one was even there. Perhaps others could stop by there to ask as well ..squeaky wheel theory. Once again, I don’t think anyone is looking out for us except for us.”
Saturday haps
Many fine things to do in West Seattle today, and the WS Weekend Lineup lists a ton of them. But as the day begins, we want to single out a few:
ONE RACE/ONE VILLAGE: First-ever 5K run for the Agathos Foundation. Registration starts at 8 am at the Bathhouse (we believe the website means “Alki Ave” where it says “Beach Drive”).
KITTEN ADOPT-A-THON: Just found out about this last night, walking past All the Best Pet Care on Alki and spotting flyers on the windows. 11 am-3 pm, at the store (next to Cactus).
ME-KWA-MOOKS SIGN CELEBRATION: 10:30 this morning at the park that’s a lot bigger than it looks from Beach Drive. A volunteer organizer says the event is “to celebrate the installation of an interpretive sign that will tell you where a mansion once stood, what the park’s name really means, and why the trail through the woods gets better every year. Coffee, pastries, and unforgettable historical insight are all on the house!”
And if you have to leave West Seattle this morning, remember The Viaduct is closed 7 am-11 am for the Heart Walk.
West Seattle dogs, unleashed
Wildlife danger isn’t the only reason not to let your dog run loose on local beaches. Potential penalties are another good one. And the best news is, you do have somewhere to take your dog and let it run free: Westcrest Park. The park steward for the off-leash area, Steve McElhenney, e-mailed us this weekend (with photos taken during sunnier times) and wanted us to get the word out. Steve says, “Off-leash area are created in conjunction with Seattle Parks & Rec and COLA, Citizens for Off-Leash Areas, to offer locations for dogs to run and play off leash … It’s a great little community we have, a great place for the dogs, and a way to meet new people and make new friends.” As with the gathering in the photo below:
There’s even a Yahoo! list for Westcrest users to share dog photos and updates on park events, such as a work party that Steve says is coming up October 18th from 6-8 pm (much like the one in the second photo he shared):
Steve also says Westcrest has a separate “small/shy dog area,” and 98 total acres of trails. Ready to check it out? Here’s the city link again; the parking lot is at 5th and Cloverdale.
New West Seattle trees, with Nobel cachet
The WSB photo/video crew is just back from the tree planting at Pelly Place held today in connection with Earth Summit II at Chief Sealth HS. First photo shows Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai assisting students with the tree planting:
The photo below shows Gatewood Elementary students who read a poem at the event. Others in attendance included King County Councilmember Dow Constantine; no mayor sightings — he is in Eastern Washington today. We will post video from the Pelly Place event later.
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