West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
All 3 are on our frequently updated everything-West-Seattle Events page, but also worth one more big shoutout:
4-8 PM @ ARBOR HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY: Holiday bazaar! Food, music, shopping, fun; read more here.
6:30 PM @ WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOL: The (so far) only scheduled public meeting about the upzoning proposal for a block-plus of California Avenue between Hanford and Hinds; property owners are expected to attend to explain their intentions, as well as city reps and concerned neighbors; everyone’s welcome. (Read our previous coverage: Yesterday, Monday, Nov. 20, Nov. 13 in 2 parts here and here, original report on November 8th.)
7 PM @ HIGH POINT COMMUNITY CENTER: The second of 6 chances within 1 week for West Seattle residents to have a say in the city Parks Department’s future plans (read our complete coverage of the first meeting here).
Big response to this morning’s post about the Chief Sealth High School class offering free web design to some West Seattle nonprofits and small businesses next semester; the P-I’s Big Blog checked in with teacher Sam Reed, who told us this afternoon he’d heard from more than a dozen prospects; by tonight, it was up to 30.
The King County Elections Department has just certified final results from this month’s election; the final count in Seattle School Board District 6, which is centered on West Seattle (but is voted on citywide in the general election), was Steve Sundquist (photo left) 61.2%, Maria Ramirez 38.4%. Sundquist and other newly elected school-board members will be sworn in at school-district HQ in Sodo tomorrow night.
Do you have a West Seattle nonprofit organization or small business with no website (or not much of one)? Chief Sealth High School teacher Sam Reed, and some of his students, have an offer for you:Read More
We were lucky to grow up with some opportunities to travel, around the U.S. as well as to a few other countries. Nothing too fancy, but still — as you know if you have been able to travel — it changes your perspective on your own slice of the world, in so many ways, that carry on throughout your life and enhance your ability to “think global/act local,” among other benefits. With that preface, here’s a chance to help some West Seattle teenagers gain that perspective as they prepare for the journey into adulthood: At West Seattle High School, the Travel Club is looking for partners and supporters to help make sure everyone who wants to join a 10-day student trip to Italy and Greece next spring can go. A nicely written press release appeared in the WSB inbox – so we’re sharing that, and the information that follows it about how you can help, including fundraising events that are just a few weeks away:Read More
From West Seattle Blog contributing photographer Matt Durham, two photographs of events around WS today — first, from the Gee West Seattle (ex-Huling) auction preview (more info on the auction, which starts tomorrow and Thursday @ 10 am, in this earlier post):
Second photo is a familiar scene to West Seattle families with kids in elementary school — and for everyone else, it explains why you are seeing kids out and about earlier than usual this week — it’s “early release” time, to clear afternoon/evening blocks for parent-teacher conferences. Here, Matt photographed Kent Ferris, 4th-grade teacher from Lafayette Elementary in the Admiral District, meeting with parents:
Parent-teacher conferences (and early dismissals) continue citywide through November 20; here’s the district calendar. (Prints of Matt’s WSB photos and his other work are available through his site, MattDurhamPhotography.com.)
First: Word comes from Divina that the shop @ California/Genesee will feature student artists, K-12, from around West Seattle, during tomorrow night’s monthly West Seattle Art Walk in The Junction (more participants are listed on the Art Walk blog). A separate e-mail, from Amy, alerts us to the fact that this year’s Poetry on Buses poets include two Gatewood Elementary students — 6-year-old Sharon Zumwalt (read her poem here) and 6-year-old Giovanni Paredes (read his poem here); this year’s winning poets are being celebrated at a launch party tonight.
Frank Coluccio just e-mailed this update on the Gators’ championship game, played today and mentioned here last Tuesday night:
After a very well played game that went into overtime, the final score, after regulation and the two overtime periods (a total of 70 minutes), was 2-2. CYO doesn’t have a penalty kick shootout after the overtime period so Holy Rosary and Sacred Heart will be Co-Champions for this year’s CYO 7th grade girls division. Holy Rosary jumped out to a 1-0 lead and Sacred Heart tied it up 1-1. Then the Gators went up 2-1 on a corner kick. Sacred Heart tied the score on a penalty kick with about 10 minutes to play. Both teams played their hearts out.
Frank Coluccio e-mailed WSB late tonight with a hearty “GO GATORS!” — on behalf of the Holy Rosary 7th grade girls’ soccer team, which has made it to the Catholic Youth Organization championship game, after defeating St. Bernadette of Burien, 3-0. The Gators play Sacred Heart for the title at Bishop Blanchet, noon Saturday.
High-school football playoff victory tonight for West Seattle HS: Wildcats 26, Bishop Blanchet 7. Next weekend, WSHS plays Evergreen.
OPEN HOUSE: West Seattle’s only non-public high school, Seattle Lutheran HS, invites interested families to find out more about SLHS, 6:30-8 tonight, more info here.
DENNY/SEALTH, THE NEXT MEETING: Another community meeting tonight at 6:30, Chief Sealth HS library, as part of the planning process for the Denny/Sealth combined-campus project; more info here.
FIGHTING CRIME: The recent concerns at Westcrest Park are among a variety of topics expected to come up at the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety meeting tonight at 6 o’clock, St. James Place (9421 18th SW).
On Election Day — when four Seattle School Board seats will be decided, including the open seat for West Seattle’s District 6 (Maria Ramirez vs. Steve Sundquist for the seat Irene Stewart is leaving) — the board’s highest-profile hire of the year happens to be coming to West Seattle, and inviting you to lunch:
Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson Ph.D.
Cordially invites you to lunch and an informal community gathering in School Board District 6Tuesday, November 6, 2007
11:45-1:15 p.m.
Denny Middle School library
8402 30th Ave SWLunch is available for purchase for those who RSVP by Nov. 1
$3.50, exact change please
Choices include Chicken Caesar Salad
Turkey Sandwich on Hoagie RollRSVP with your lunch choice to Pat McKenzie at 252-0200 or
pmckenzie@seattleschools.org
This community gathering is open to anyone in District 6. Please feel free to let your District 6 friends, neighbors and colleagues know about this gathering.
You should know, Denny actually is quite famous for its food.
At midday tomorrow, sadly, the Rent-A-Ruminant goats leave the formerly tangled slopes of Gatewood Elementary. Organizer Steve from the Gatewood playground project tells us they’ve been amazed at the reception — people stopping by for a look at the goats at all hours, as well as during the “Kids for Kids” playground-renovation fundraiser they had last weekend. He says they’ve definitely covered the costs of bringing in the four-hooved land-clearers, so that’s good news; Steve adds, “Bringing them in has made significant strides in knocking down the foliage [as shown in WSB photos above & below, taken this morning] … so we can now go back with humans and continue the cleanup. … (After this) we could use volunteers to help dig out roots and lay out the burlap and wood chips. All time spent counts as hours that we need for matching our grants.” Contacts for the Gatewood PTSA and playground project organizers are here; see WSB goat-arrival video here.
If you see this before 2 pm Saturday, you still have time to get down to Gatewood Elementary and join in the “Kids for Kids” fun. If you see it later, the goats aren’t scheduled to leave till Tuesday morning, so you may get a chance for an impromptu look. (And check out WSB video of their arrival here.) Quite a crowd when we went by a little while ago — first two photos are onlookers admiring rain-shielded goats; third one is from the other “Kids for Kids” events up on the Gatewood playground:
-Congratulations to the West Seattle HS Wildcats for making it into the Metro League football playoffs after their win tonight in the big cross-WS-rivalry game against the Chief Sealth HS Seahawks.
-Some readers wrote us earlier in the day worried about the White Center shooting. Teenage suspects are in custody. If you haven’t gotten around to looking up exactly where that happened, here’s a map. To get resident reaction, the P-I’s “online reporter” went to Papa Murphy’s in the nearby business district and talked with people including a man from Arbor Heights who, according to the resulting blog post, expressed his concerns about safety in south WS.
-We have been watching county Medical Examiner reports and online “King County deaths” lists for identification of the victim in last weekend’s 59th/Admiral shooting. Nothing public, even almost a week later, which seems unusual. However, the King County online register does reveal that the suspect is back in county jail, with bail listed as $500,000 and the charge as “murder 2” — as we first reported last weekend, he was only briefly in the county jail, then transferred to juvenile custody; this would suggest he is now charged as an adult — we are looking for verification in the online records.
As promised, video of the goats that arrived at Gatewood Elementary (location) today to munch away invasive plants. The folks at Gatewood hope everyone will come see the goats 10 am-2 pm tomorrow during their special “Kids for Kids” playground-project celebration:
Also, reader Luckie kindly sent us a photo from the Lafayette Elementary fundraising Walk-A-Thon today, noting “here’s proof the kids had SOME good weather today!”
Thanks to reader K for sending pix of the most eagerly awaited animal act to hit West Seattle since the baby seals. (News about them, coming up in a bit.) We are processing video right now too.
Happening at elementary schools in West Seattle today:
LAFAYETTE WALK-A-THON: It’s an annual tradition for this elementary school in the Admiral District. Starting at 9:15, and continuing throughout the day (more info here), each grade gets its turn to take 45 minutes to walk laps around the Lafayette playground, raising money for a variety of school projects. Past beneficiaries included the playground itself, which is continuing to undergo renovation work. If you stop by to cheer them on, note there’s a bake sale too.
GATEWOOD GOATS: The storm-delayed arrival of the Rent-a-Ruminant herd is expected to happen around midday today; this too is part of a big playground improvement project. The really big event is 10 am-2 pm tomorrow, and you’re invited.
These and other happenings are also on our Events page (including tons of Halloween and Thanksgiving/Christmas fun); our West Seattle Weekend Lineup will be out a bit later this morning.
Good thing it’s sounding more like we won’t just have to hunker down and hide inside tonight (unless the forecast changes again – next update should be out within an hour or so), because there are some big things happening tonight (all from the WSB Events page – keep sending us the word on what’s up with your school, business, organization, community group, etc., thanks!):
GOOD FOOD, GOOD WINE, GREAT CAUSE: 6:30 pm tonight at the Hall at Fauntleroy, it’s the winetasting fundraiser and auction for West Seattle Helpline.
GOOD BEER, GREAT CAUSE: Murphy’s Furniture on Avalon has a benefit tonight for the West Seattle Food Bank — Oktoberfest beer tasting with Elliott Bay Brewery’s brewer talking about the price of hops (almost as hot a topic these days as the price of gas). Brats to go with the beer, too!
INFO NIGHT FOR INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE PROGRAM @ CHIEF SEALTH HS: If you haven’t heard about IB, it’s a rigorous high-school program and CSHS had to go through a lot to get it — this is its first year and the CSHS community is incredibly excited about it. Find out more about IB at Chief Sealth at 7 pm tonight.
ALKI COMMUNITY COUNCIL: Tonight’s the monthly meeting, featuring Q/A with candidates for key open seats on the City Council and School Board. ACC meetings are always great places to find out what’s happening in West Seattle’s highest-profile neighborhood. 7 pm, Alki Community Center.
Ah, wine country: The rolling hills of Napa … Sonoma … Walla Walla … Puget Ridge. Yes, as in, the eastern highlands of West Seattle, home to South Seattle Community College and its award-winning winemaking program. Back in June, when we shared the news that SSCC’s Northwest Wine Academy had received a medal at the Seattle Wine Awards, some readers asked when its next wine release was scheduled. Last night was the night; our WSB videographer dropped in to talk to a couple of the program leaders, wine program coordinator Regina Daigneault and wine program winemaker Peter Bos:
At last night’s event, the academy offered its 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Merlot for sale, $20 each, and offered pre-sale of its 2006 barrel-fermented Chardonnay and 2006 no-oak Chardonnay (each $18) and 2006 late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc ($15). It also announced two upcoming happenings we’re adding to our Events page pronto: the Holiday Barrel Tasting on December 7 and 8, and the Gifts from the Earth food/wine event on January 26, touting “30 Washington wineries and 15 celebrity chefs.” If you want to check on wine availability following last night’s event, e-mail Regina here.
As promised at the somewhat contentious meeting we covered earlier this week regarding the Chief Sealth High School/Denny Middle School shared-campus project, another meeting is happening in short order: October 25th. School district liaison Eleanor Trainor explains, “(This) meeting will differ from the two general update meetings we’ve had. This meeting will focus on the pedestrian links and community initiatives for the Sealth campus. It will be an open forum for neighbors to discuss ideas about the exterior spaces and the campus’ connection to Longfellow Creek.” Here’s the official flyer:Read More
If you have driven by the above-pictured greenery along Fauntleroy a couple blocks north of Lincoln Park, you might not know there’s an elementary school behind all that. But the fine folks of Gatewood Elementary have a plan to clear things up: Gatewood parent Steve White wrote to let us all know about the impending arrival — one week from today — of those beloved Rent-A-Ruminant goats (seen along Admiral back in July). Steve says the objective of the goats’ work October 18-21 is “to mow down a hillside of ivy as part of our playground renovation project. … The ivy removal is part of ridding the school grounds of invasive plant species, and restoring the native plants.” The Gatewood playground renovation, Operation Imagination, has been three years in the making and is going well thanks to donations of time and money as well as various grants; it will be spotlighted during a day of fun events while the goats are on site, “Kids for Kids,” 10 am-4 pm Saturday 10/20.
Dori, the Denny Middle School Lunch Lady, says that’s what she serves every day, and she invited the architects and school administrators overseeing the Denny-Sealth construction project to come have lunch. She was one of about 35 people who came to tonight’s overview of the latest plans for the Denny-Sealth shared-campus project with some serious concerns over the initial plans. The plan presented showed one kitchen which would serve both schools, to be located between the gym and the common areas. As Dori said – a kitchen with no windows or adequate ventilation is not a good idea. What she wants is for the planners and architects to see the existing Denny lunch room and kitchen, which she calls a “kitchen done right.”
Read More
| Comments Off on Tonight’s trio of West Seattle happenings