West Seattle, Washington
04 Friday
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.
The park-in-progress west of The Junction is already known, albeit unofficially, as Ercolini Park, so you might wonder if you read the second item here today (or saw the original city press release), what’s up with the “name search”? The neighbors whose time, toil, and $ have gone toward making the park a reality, Friends of Ercolini Park, plan to submit their own proposal before the November 1st deadline and are hopeful the final official result will honor the land’s previous owner, as does the park’s current unofficial name.
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.
The West Seattle Little League renovation project at Alki Point’s Bar-S Playfield just got a big boost — a $100,000 Boeing/Mariners Care Athletic Field Grant. The official press release says an official presentation is planned at Safeco Field this Friday night during a ceremony before the Mariners-Rangers’ game.
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.
Any time now, that bright blue cover comes off for the final weekend of the 2007 season at West Seattle’s only public outdoor pool, Colman Pool on the shore at Lincoln Park. (Our favorite way to get there is to park near Lowman Beach and walk the south stretch of Beach Drive, plus the unpaved section of Lincoln Park shore trail.) Both days this weekend, Colman Pool is open for lap swim noon-1:30 pm and 5-7 pm, public swim 1:45-4:45 pm. After Sunday, unless you belong to one of the private organizations with pools (Allstar, YMCA), your swimming option will be Southwest Pool (on Thistle next to the SW Community Center, a few blocks east of 35th).
Warning for Fairmount Playfield users: The city plans to use herbicide there next week to stamp out an infestation of Japanese knotweed. This is somewhat noteworthy because it’s a pesticide-free park; the city says there’s no way around having to poison the knotweed. Having seen the city’s photo (right), we believe these are the plants we only half-jokingly refer to each summer, upon sight of them in public places, as “the triffids.”
Tomorrow, you get two “last chances”: First, last chance to ride the Elliott Bay Water Taxi‘s special early run, 6:10 am. As you may recall, this extra run was added for Freeway Fright ’07; the road work ended early, but Metro stretched the bonus WT run one full week to gather data. The Water Taxi’s regular season, by the way, has another month to go — it continues through September 30th.
Second, it’s the last non-holiday weekday of the year at Colman Pool. The beautiful beachfront pool at Lincoln Park will be open daily through Labor Day, then closed till one final “post-season weekend” Saturday-Sunday, September 8th-9th. For us, it’s just not summer unless we swim there at least once.
Despite three crosswalks with pedestrian-activated lights, crossing Fauntleroy Way SW along the length of Lincoln Park remains hit-and-miss, at best. Sometimes literally. And right across from LP’s biggest parking lot, the city plans to take away a remaining non-signalized crosswalk, this one at Fauntleroy/Rose, while another problem percolates …
What makes this stretch of road more problematic than others, besides the presence of a big busy park on one side, is the traffic bound for the Fauntleroy ferry dock. Gary Dawson of the Fauntleroy Community Association says the crosswalks and ferry traffic aren’t mixing well, to say the least:
If you use any one of (the Lincoln Park crosswalks) during the afternoon commute period you put your life at great risk, stop lights or not. The reason is, the line to the ferry dock going southbound moves when queued, whether there are pedestrians in the crosswalks or not. Another near-miss (yesterday) afternoon. A neighbor going southbound stopped so a young boy could cross over to the park. The ferry queue did not. The lad had to run for his life. This, sadly, is more typical than not.
This time the Fauntleroy Community Association is contacting the Mayor’s office (the neighbor already has) to find out how serious he is with his pedestrian safety program.
We’ll stay in touch to find out what FCA hears back.
Catching up from the weekend, we have another work-party report from one of West Seattle’s treasured greenspaces: Lina Rose from EarthCorps says 10 volunteers joined her and forest steward Kirsten Rohrbach to clear almost 1000 square feet of invasive weeds from the Thistle Street Greenspace along Longfellow Creek, including clearing space around young cedar trees planted along the creek trail. Lina sent photos; first one shows what it looked like before they dug in:
Next, volunteers in the middle of their work:
No “after” photo – you’ll just have to go see for yourself (Thistle Street Greenspace is one of those places we’ll admit is on our “haven’t been there but must go soon” list; it’s easy to find, just off Thistle east of Chief Sealth HS). Next work party there is September 22nd; other Longfellow Creek sites have monthly work parties, listed here (and also always included in our weekly West Seattle Weekend Lineup posted every Friday morning).
Tonight, the Highland Park Action Committee invites you to a brainstorming session about improvements at Westcrest Park as the city gets ready to put a lid on its reservoir. (If you’re scratching your head wondering where Westcrest is — it’s in southeast WS — and it’s got the only official off-leash area in WS, among other things.)
Just one week till construction starts “in earnest” on Ercolini Park west of The Junction, according to Bill Barna, one of the neighbors who’ve been leading the drive to make it reality. He sent us a photo (below) showing the park site tarped over after city crews busted sod to clear the lot in preparation. Just one little thing preventing everything from being perfect … the last leg of their fundraising effort is a few thousand $ short, which could affect how EP ultimately looks and functions. If you can help, they’re taking donations quick ‘n’ easy online.
Per 1 of 2 dueling press releases, WS will be in a pilot plan for recycling bins at beaches & parks next spring. (2 councilmembers suggest it’s their idea; Hizzoner says it’s his.)
On the easternmost edge of West Seattle, a couple of parks dot the shore of the Duwamish, including T-107 Park, where a WSB reader spotted two signs like this:
It’s on the same type of frame as a “for sale” sign, but this sign (right) at the Ercolini Park site on Alaska west of The Junction can be best described as “for info.” Right now, it’s stocked with flyers for a block party alongside the park site during Night Out tomorrow (6-9 pm, along 48th SW between Alaska and Oregon); park organizer Bill Barna says they’ll be accepting donations during the party as they finish up their last round of fundraising following a city matching-funds grant. (Speaking of Night Out, if your neighborhood is having a party and you don’t mind telling us about it in case any neighbors haven’t heard, leave a comment here or e-mail us; city organizers say they can’t give us an area-wide list. Also we’re hoping to post Night Out pix afterward, so even if you don’t tell us about your party in advance, take a pic and send it to us!)
Harbor Avenue around the northeastern edge of the WS peninsula will be in for big changes if either or both of two ambitious ideas presented at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting become reality. It was emphasized that the two plans are not officially linked — but they have undeniable “synergy.” They involve land adjacent to, and east of, what many describe as West Seattle’s “secret gem,” Jack Block Park.
First: The Pier 1/2 concept for a new Water Taxi dock. It’s an unofficial proposal but may be gaining steam, since most would agree the Water Taxi can’t stay at Seacrest forever (among other things, the parking crunch is just too ridiculous). Pier 1/2 is Port of Seattle property adjacent to Jack Block Park. Much more on this and the other proposal, after the click …Read More
Three meetings in less than two weeks, including the Alki Community Council last night, and now we know there won’t be a decision any sooner than fall about whether the Alki Statue of Liberty — removed for recasting exactly one year ago today — will return to its old base, or to a new plaza like this (all architects’ art here):
Both the couple leading a drive to restart the plaza project, Libby & Paul Carr, and the city Parks Department project manager for the statue, Pamela Kliment, are in difficult positions, to say the least. They all spoke at last night’s ACC meeting, but since it was just one item on a busy agenda, there wasn’t a ton of Q/A time. What’s difficult: For the Carrs, the fact they and their volunteer assistants are working hard on something completely unofficial, since the final say lies with the Parks Department; for Parks, the fact they have to be the “reality check” on a volunteer effort that inarguably is full of enthusiasm, vision, inspiration, and hope — Kliment noted that for one, it’s “distressing” that the statue spot is empty, after one full year, and for two, the situation is larger than the statue itself. Which the Carrs likely would not dispute, as they have a larger vision as well — they hope a grand new home for this “Little Sister of Liberty” could spark a nationwide revitalization project for the many other similar statues that have fallen into disrepair in the half-century since the Boy Scouts donated them. So for now, the Carrs and their group — which is not yet officially certified as a nonprofit — will continue their work, including a new logo they debuted last night (shown below; copyrighted by local artist Phil Jones) that they plan to put on fundraising items such as T-shirts and posters; and the Parks Department will look ahead to a public meeting announced last night, 7 pm Thursday, Sept. 13, location TBD (Kliment said she’s hoping for the Bathhouse but it’s got a “temporary hold” for that night).
The folks working on Ercolini Park on SW Alaska just west of The Junction are in line for a $90,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund Award from the city — this isn’t a giveaway, but a hard-fought win that’s only possible when community members commit time and money to projects, enough to impress city leaders to chip in. Ercolini Park organizer Bill Barna says they have a little more fundraising to do — $6K worth — you can go to the Ercolini Park website to find out how to contact them to chip in $ (or anything else the project needs). Congratulations also are in order to Gatewood Elementary School; the next phase of its playground project also is in line for a $90K matching-fund grant. (Full list of matching-fund projects citywide, including a South Park skatepark, is readable here.)
One year ago tomorrow, the old Alki Statue of Liberty was taken down and trucked away. 
Tonight at the monthly Alki Community Council meeting, it’s a third round of discussion about what could, should, and might happen next. (This follows two meetings in the past 8 days organized by community members Libby and Paul Carr, who are trying to re-start the project to build a plaza around the recast statue; here’s our report on the first meeting; a WSB reader’s observations from the second one is in the comments here.) Parks Department rep Pamela Kliment, who’s collecting public comment on all this, tells us she’ll be at this meeting after having to skip the last one; so will the Carrs. It’s an important debate about a West Seattle icon; get in on it by going tonight (7 pm, Alki Community Center) or by e-mailing Kliment (click here).
We didn’t get pix during the Concert in the Park last night … so here now for your viewing pleasure now, belatedly, are the tree and plaque on the south side of Hiawatha Community Center, officially dedicated last night by Hizzoner in honor of West Seattle’s annexation centennial (so now can we secede? j/k):ÂÂÂ
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More than two dozen heat-braving souls just wrapped up the first of two meetings led by an earnest Alki couple, Libby and Paul Carr, who are trying to salvage the stalled Alki Statue of Liberty plaza project. Ultimately, the final say on the future of this West Seattle icon rests elsewhere …Read More
Tomorrow (Wednesday) night, at the height of the heat, you can multitask by cooling off at Alki and joining in a meeting outside the Bathhouse, to help determine the future of the statue that might otherwise soon earn a nickname like “Liberty in Limbo.” Seems the replacement for the old one (Northwest Programs for the Arts photo at left) is done but fundraising for the “plaza” to surround the new one is not, so a community meeting is being called to discuss, among other things, whether to just install the new one and be done with it sooner, or carry on with the “plaza” project and see the installment happen later. Read the meeting organizers’ explanation, in their own words, after the click:Read More
Surely you’ve heard by now that the next couple of days will be ridiculously hot. That means discomfort will skyrocket with the temperatures, since most of us don’t have air conditioning and just aren’t acclimated to 90-plus degrees. 
But we don’t all have to pack ourselves onto the sands of Alki to stay cool. We thought it would be worth discussing alternatives in advance; for starters, we managed to cope with the last megahot spell by taking a late-afternoon walk through Schmitz Park (photo @ right). The trees of Lincoln Park, Camp Long, and other green zones in WS can do the same trick. (You can follow up a walk through LP with a dip in Colman Pool, which is open through the peak of the heat, till 7 pm.) Got a heat-beating tip to share with the rest of WSB-land?
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