West Seattle, Washington
05 Friday
West Seattle Elementary School now has a big new banner to tell the world about its progress. We recently published an update from WSES on continued test-score growth, and on Tuesday, principal Vicki Sacco and her staff welcomed visitors including Washington Education Association president Kim Mead (above left), Seattle Education Association president Jonathan Knapp (above right), and State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, and received a special recognition banner. Mead and Knapp are touring federal School Improvement Grant-receiving schools in the city, and WSES is one of the stops; WEA says our state’s grant recipients have outperformed those in every other state.
WSES students and staff are also proud of their anti-bullying campaign, shown off for the distinguished visitors:
Pink is the signature color for the no-bullying campaign (previously reported here last March). The hand-raising in our photo shows students/staff affirming the pledge to be kind to each other.
(Before the leaves fell: Delridge Skatepark photo by Laura Goodrich, shared via the WSB Flickr group)
From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar and the just-launched Holiday Guide (new events/info added daily, and please remember to send us yours!):
LINCOLN PARK WORK PARTY: Time to spare on a weekday? Perfect! EarthCorps has a work party 10 am-2 pm today – details in our calendar listing.
ENTREPRENEUR/CO-WORKING MEETUP: Noon today at West Seattle Office Junction – details in our calendar listing. (5230 California SW)
SPECIAL DONATION DROPOFF FOR WEST SEATTLE FOOD BANK: Want to help out the West Seattle Food Bank for Thanksgiving but don’t have time to get TO the food bank? 4-7 pm today in The Junction, WS Food Bank reps will be at Easy Street Records, hoping to collect hundreds of small (10-pound-ish) frozen turkeys – you can even bring one (or more) without getting out of your vehicle. Or, donate cash or a check. Here’s our original announcement about this. (California/Alaska)
SCHOOL BOARD VOTES ON BOUNDARIES (ETC.): 4:15 pm is the official start of tonight’s Seattle School Board meeting, including votes on the “Growth Boundaries” and capacity-management measures, but the key votes aren’t until 6 pm. Here’s the full agenda, including the list of people signed up to speak starting at 5 pm; the final version of the boundary maps are here; the plan for Arbor Heights to be housed at Boren with STEM during its two years of new-school construction is here (that’s also the document with the plan for EC Hughes, once vacated in 2015, to revert to a building for emergency/interim use). The School Board meets at district HQ in SODO. (3rd/Lander)
DELRIDGE DISTRICT COUNCIL: Reps from community councils and other key organizations around eastern West Seattle meet tonight at 7 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, to discuss issues and receive briefings including one on the Barton Combined Sewer Overflow project. (4408 Delridge Way SW)
(East-facing camera on the West Seattle Bridge; see other cams on the WSB Traffic page)
6:59 AM: Welcome to Wednesday. In case you missed this alert we added to yesterday’s traffic/transit tracker late in the day, after it was sent by SDOT, note some possible downtown delays this morning:
(The) Homeless Advocates March will get underway at 7:45 am after the participants spend the night at Westlake Park. A Seattle Police motorcycle escort will accompany the 100 participants in the street as they make their way east on Pine Street to Fifth Avenue, then southbound on Fifth to the City Hall at Cherry Street. The activists have a goal to “Get 1000 people off the streets by summer 2014.” They will occupy the Committee to End Homelessness in King County (CEHKC) Governing Board Meeting being held at 8:30 am in the Bertha Knight Landes Room of City Hall. Motorists can expect to encounter delays between 7:45 and 8:30 am as the marchers move along the downtown streets. Given the timing of the event, commuters may need to allow for extra time to get to work.
7:27 AM NOTE: It’s much colder this morning than yesterday, but still above freezing. However, forecasters say we’ll likely wake up to below-freezing temperatures tomorrow, so if that might mean windshield-scraping for you, find the scraper today.
9:16 AM: Speaking of frost – some is reported on the ramp from the southbound 99/Viaduct to the westbound West Seattle Bridge, per police radio – they’re calling for help in getting that handled. Also, a one-car crash has been reported on the westbound bridge at the Delridge exit. (Added for the archives: Photo of the crash by alextutu1821, shared via the WSB Flickr group)
10:59 AM: That’s all over, so far as we know. New note: If you have questions about the possible Metro cuts, look for an info-table at The Junction tomorrow (Thursday) morning, 6:30-9:30 am – details here.
Tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting featured crime-trend updates from Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Pierre Davis and transportation-safety info from SDOT’s Jim Curtin (who started speaking about 26 minutes into our video). We’ll add toplines later but just in case you’re interested, we recorded the entire hour and a half meeting on video and it’s just finished uploading, so we present it here for your potential late-night/early-morning viewing. More later!
ADDED 9:40 AM WEDNESDAY: Toplines from WSB’s Katie Meyer:
*From SDOT community traffic liaison Jim Curtin’s presentation – the top spots in West Seattle for collisions, October 2010-October 2013:
1) Olson Place SW and 1st (aka, east end of Roxbury)
2) 35th/Avalon (that includes collisions near the bridge entrance)
3) 8th SW and SW Roxbury
Major causes of collisions:
33% caused by speeding
48& of fatal crashes involve impaired drivers (alcohol or drugs – no increase in marijuana so far)
22% of fatal crashes involve distraction
Most common type of collision in West Seattle:
“Hit parked cars” (1,150 hit parked car hit “incidents “in the three-year time period Curtin covered – some are multiple-vehicle incidents, so higher total of hit parked car numbers).
CRIME TRENDS: Lt. Davis stressed both the importance of reporting crime AND suspicious sightings – “partnership with the community” – and of prevention. People are still, he lamented, leaving keys in cars, leaving home doors unlocked, etc. Also, he warned, mail and package theft ramp up this time of year (for obvious reasons), and he reiterated something noted last month, that West Seattle will have holiday-season emphasis patrols, with officers out on foot beats. Traffic emphasis patrols will be “highly visible” in the months ahead, too.
NEXT MEETING: WSCPC is taking December off; at 7 pm January 21st, Ann Graves from Seattle Animal Shelter will be on hand to discuss various animal-control issues.
6:45 PM: We’re in the basement at Hope Lutheran Church along with more than 30 people here for a meeting that wouldn’t have happened if neighbors hadn’t petitioned the city for it. While the 36-unit, no-parking-space apartment building proposed for 4535 44th SW is going through Design Review – with at least one more meeting to come – other components of public comment are routinely dealt with via e-mail, postal-mail, phone comments … unless at least 50 people petition for a meeting to address SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act)-related impacts. No decision will be made tonight, but anyone who wants to get up to a microphone and speak is supposed to get a chance to do so. City planner Tami Garrett is presiding. We’ll be publishing notes as it happens. It’s starting with some voicing of confusion over the meeting’s topic – “we thought it was about the lack of parking,” per a few voices from the audience. “Is there anyone here from SDOT?” one man asks. No, just the Department of Planning and Development. Garrett clarifies that Design Review doesn’t include impacts such as parking, traffic, and noise, but this type of meeting does.
6:51 PM: Some confusion continues. Garrett explains that this is not microhousing – the units are proposed as full-fledged, if small, apartments. One man asks her to clarify how best they can express their opinions to decisionmakers about the lack of parking; he says he was “stunned” to find out this building has none. Garrett finally moves into the introduction, explaining that this project is in what’s considered a “frequent transit zone” that is part of an “urban village,” and that’s why no parking is required. She says two planners will review this project – she deals with Design Review and SEPA, while another planner will deal with “how it meets the land-use code.”
Questions arise from around the room, again, regarding why the law doesn’t require parking in this kind of law. Both city law and SEPA have changed, explain Garrett and co-worker Molly Hurley, who says “Tami’s role and my role are limited to review of this project to make sure it meets current codes. Therefore we are not effective conduits for your concerns about … the codes and policy,” which she says need to be expressed to City Councilmembers. A few minutes later, Hurley acknowledges that DPD does “have a hand in writing codes.” This particular change traces to last year, they say. “It was adopted at the City Council level,” explains Garrett, after someone in the back asks, “Did we get a say in (the change)?”
7:04 PM: The first speaker, Ellen, begins.
Quick shoutout in honor of a West Seattleite’s fast action after a collision involving a police officer: You might have heard about what Michael Katz did when he saw a driver hit a Seattle Police motorcycle officer in SODO yesterday – as explained in the SPD Blotter summary, “A man ran over to our officer and notified dispatch by using the officer’s radio. His quick-thinking and calm demeanor alerted officers to the situation and sped up emergency response.” A WSB reader tipped us later that the man was a West Seattleite, and we made contact with Katz today to confirm. No, he’s never used a radio like that before, he told us, but “they’re pretty user-friendly.” P.S.: We have an inquiry out to SPD to ask how the officer is doing.
When Katie sent a short note asking us to add to the calendar two meetings later this week to see if there’s community interest in forming a West Seattle Toy Library, we thought it sounded like news. So we asked for more details. She explained:
There are no other toy libraries in Seattle. They are very popular in the UK and Australia. The USA has a National Toy Library Association that affiliates with toy libraries in other major cities. They are not as popular in the US as they are in other countries around the world but I think that should change. The recent interest to be green and teach sustainable practices to our kids should extend to the realm where they live: toys.
I was tired of buying toys that my toddler would play with for 10 minutes and then toss aside. I want to teach her what it means to recycle in a meaningful way and I want her to learn to treat things with respect so it can be used in the future. I was looking for something that we could do as a family, and so I google searched toy libraries in Seattle. Much to my amazement and annoyance, there isn’t one. So. I guess we’ll have to start one. The tool library has been a major source of inspiration for me and I am looking for other families who want to jump on the bandwagon and get this thing going!
The meetings are 7-8 pm this Thursday (November 21st) and 3-4 pm this Saturday (November 23rd), both at C & P Coffee Company (5612 California SW; WSB sponsor). Come to one to talk about “what a toy library is, overview of function, & opportunities for participation.”
(First 3 photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
West Seattle’s Holy Rosary School is celebrating its centennial, and as part of that, its 460-plus students gathered today for a group photo in the church. That’s our view of the big picture, above. Here’s Carl Baber, the parent who served today as official photographer:
He had quite the task to wrangle 460-plus photographic subjects at once. But they got a treat after their historic pose – they were all allowed to make goofy faces:
We asked HR if they had a comparable all-school shot from sometime in the past hundred years. Answer: No; but for comparison’s sake, here’s a 6th-grade group shot from 1959:
And for a bonus view of history, an aerial (looking west-northwest, with 42nd SW in the middle, between church and school):
The people we talked with at HR today didn’t know what year that’s from – do you? Meantime – read about the school’s history here.
Another West Seattle business has just received the scam call claiming that City Light will cut off their power immediately if money isn’t handed over. This time, the report comes from Wendy at Flower Lab in Admiral. We’ve reported on two others in the past week and a half – here and here. If you get this (or another) scam call, report it to police! It’s not new – as City Light explains here – but the scammers are gambling they’ll find someone who doesn’t know it’s fake, so spread the word, especially to businesses. (You can use the Share This feature at the bottom of this and every WSB story – mousing over it enables you to e-mail a link or share it via multiple social-media services.)
(Luna/Anchor Park, photographed last weekend by Doug Branch, shared via WSB Flickr group)
As is often the case with Tuesdays, another big day/night to get involved in your community! From the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar and newly launched Holiday Events and Info Guide – a few highlights:
BAZAAR: Under way until 1 pm, the “mini-Harvest Festival” bazaar at Senior Center of West Seattle; details in our calendar listing. (California/Oregon)
QUESTIONS ABOUT METRO CUTS? Just found out about this one via a retweet from South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor), where Metro reps will be on hand at midday today:
Learn about #KCMetroCuts at @SouthSeattleCC 11am-2pm today. http://t.co/hzh9a0d778
— King County Metro (@kcmetrobus) November 19, 2013
VOLUNTEER NIGHT AT WESTSIDE BABY: Can you help? 6-9 pm; details in our calendar listing. (10027 14th SW)
GREENWAY OPEN HOUSE: 5:30-7:30 pm, get info and/or ask questions about the South Delridge/Highland Park greenway plan-in-progress. Open house @ Salvation Army. (9050 16th SW)
WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL: Speaking of traffic/pedestrian/bicycling/etc. neighborhood safety, Jim Curtin from SDOT is the scheduled guest at tonight’s monthly meeting. Crime trends and Q/A with Seattle Police reps too, as always. 7 pm, Southwest Precinct. (Delridge/Webster)
COMMUNITY MEETING FOR ‘NO PARKING’ DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL: 6:30 pm at Hope Lutheran Church is the community-requested meeting with city planners regarding 4535 44th SW, proposed for 36 units and no parking. This is separate from the Design Review process, which doesn’t look at traffic and other environmental effects. Details in our calendar listing. (42nd/Oregon)
ZZ WARD LIVE: The next in-store at Easy Street Records is ZZ Ward, tonight at 7 pm. (California/Alaska)
BELLY DANCING AT SKYLARK: Skylark Café and Club‘s monthly Alauda showcase is at 7 pm tonight. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
This year’s edition of the WSB West Seattle Holiday Events and Info Guide is live! Besides following that link, you can find it any time by clicking the HOLIDAYS tab atop every page of WSB. We’ll be adding to it daily (sometimes multiple times a day) as more events, donation drives, and info snippets come in, from now through New Year’s Day; it’s your one-stop shop for all types of holiday-related information, grouped by types rather than dates (if you want to see what’s happening on any given day, our year-round West Seattle Event Calendar remains the place for that.) If your holiday event/etc. isn’t in the guide yet, please send information as soon as possible to editor@westseattleblog.com. Our guidelines, as with regular calendar items, are:
-Information in plain text in the body of your e-mail, NOT in a Word/PDF doc (etc.).
-Doesn’t have to be a big wordy “press release,” just a few basic facts is fine!
-Photos/posters not required but if you send one, please send as a .jpg.
-Please include a Web and/or Facebook link for your event if available; if you’re charging admission and are selling tickets online, a link for that would be great too, to save us the time of looking for it.
-Unless it’s something you’ve scheduled at the last minute, PLEASE send at least a week in advance.
Thank you and happy holidays!
(City cameras are broken again, so here’s a state camera, 1st Ave. S. Bridge; see other cams on the WSB Traffic page)
6:47 AM: No specific incidents so far on the routes through/from West Seattle, but we’re watching as usual, for the morning commute and beyond.
8:05 AM: Thanks to the commenters who pointed out that the SDOT cameras are stuck again. So we’ve switched to two state-run cameras, facing south over the south end of the 1st Avenue So. Bridge, and looking south over I-5 just south of the West Seattle Bridge.
8:33 AM: Tommy and Lindsey have both pointed out that new stop signs are installed on the 26th SW greenway in North Delridge. (Added Tuesday pm: Greenway info/map here) And, not all drivers are noticing. Tommy sent this quick clip:
And Lindsey tweeted:
There's a set of new stop signs up at 26th & Juneau. Beware, a lot of cars haven't noticed them yet. @westseattleblog
— Lindsey Hurd (@lindseyhurd) November 19, 2013
By the way, if you have a question about neighborhood traffic safety, SDOT’s Jim Curtin is the person to ask, and he’s the guest at tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting – 7 pm, Southwest Precinct (Webster/Delridge).
P.S. The city traffic cams are working again, so here’s the east-facing one from the bridge:
For more cams, see the WSB Traffic page.
10:32 AM: SDOT reports via Twitter – and commenters have noted here, too – that northbound 99 is closed at Battery St. Tunnel.
4:32 PM: From SDOT – an alert for tomorrow morning:
Tomorrow morning, November 20, the Homeless Advocates March will get underway at 7:45 a.m. after the participants spend the night at Westlake Park. A Seattle Police motorcycle escort will accompany the 100 participants in the street as they make their way east on Pine Street to Fifth Avenue, then southbound on Fifth to the City Hall at Cherry Street. The activists have a goal to “Get 1000 people off the streets by summer 2014.” They will occupy the Committee to End Homelessness in King County (CEHKC) Governing Board Meeting being held at 8:30 a.m. in the Bertha Landis Room of City Hall. Motorists can expect to encounter delays between 7:45 and 8:30 a.m. as the marchers move along the downtown streets. Given the timing of the event, commuters may need to allow for extra time to get to work.
The next greenway projects in West Seattle are set to include a stretch through Highland Park/South Delridge, and tomorrow night is the chance for residents and businesses in the area to find out what’s proposed and share their thoughts. For this greenway, SDOT is working with Seattle Public Utilities to make this a project that improves area drainage – with raingardens in spots – as well as walking/biking safety. See the map here, along with details on tomorrow’s open house (and other background on the project), 5:30 pm-7:30 pm at the Salvation Army building (9050 16th SW).
This Thursday (November 21st), 3210 California SW – the biggest development on the drawing boards for the greater Admiral area – goes back to the Southwest Design Review Board, 6:30 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon). In advance of that meeting, developer Intracorp has gone public with new renderings that are not in the “packet” published online in advance of the meeting. Above, the full length of the project facade; below,
And this is a rendering of the retail courtyard.
The project’s packet is here; it says they’re currently proposing 149 units, 168 parking spaces, with 3,700 square feet of live-work space, 4,200 square feet of retail space. The last review was in June; our details of that meeting are part of this July roundup. Thursday’s meeting will include a public-comment period, and will be followed by the 8 pm review of 3078 Avalon Way SW.
If you saw a sizable emergency response near Harbor/Fairmount – Seattle Fire and US Coast Guard are saying it was a false alarm. Someone thought they saw a boat taking on water but it was believed to have just been one of the offshore buoys, no vessel in trouble after all.
We’re continuing to follow the case of Michael S. Stanley, 
the convicted rapist who cut off his monitoring equipment in Canada and eventually turned up in West Seattle. He was back in court today for another hearing related to the misdemeanor harassment and resisting-arrest charges filed against him in connection with his arrest in an Admiral alley four weeks ago. City Attorney’s Office spokesperson Kimberly Mills tells WSB that Stanley’s bail remains set at $100,000, the level to which it was raised days after the arrest. However, no charges are filed against him yet in connection with a claim that he sexually assaulted a teenager just before the harassment incident. Seattle Police finished their investigation and forwarded the case to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which has to decide whether to charge Stanley; KCPAO spokesperson Dan Donohoe just told us the case “remains under review.” His Municipal Court trial on the harassment charge, in the meantime, is set for early January.
Two notable benefits ahead at West Seattle Bowl:
15TH ANNUAL BEER CHURCH TURKEY BOWL: This Saturday night, the West Seattle-headquartered Beer Church hosts its annual fundraiser and food drive for the West Seattle Food Bank. Checking the website, there might be a lane or two available, but even if there’s not, you are invited to come by, drop off a food donation, enter a fundraising raffle, and try “all three versions of this year’s Beer Church ale.” Read all about it here.
LIVE UNITED, BOWL UNITED PRESENTED BY TEAM AVRIL: Cliff Avril of the 10-1 Seattle Seahawks is hosting a fundraiser for United Way of King County on December 30th – and West Seattle Bowl expects other Hawks players to be there. $35/person, $175/lane (up to six people). Sign up fast if you’re interested!
Story/video by Tracy Record
Photos by Patrick Sand
West Seattle Blog co-publishers
As the morning traffic of busy 35th SW – including Metro buses – rolled behind them, three local elected officials joined members of the new grass-roots West Seattle Transportation Coalition to decry the political standoff that could lead to dramatic cuts in bus service, hitting hard in densifying West Seattle.
(L-R, City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, County Councilmember Joe McDermott, State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon)
Metro outlined those potential cuts at a briefing a week and a half ago (WSB as-it-happened coverage here) – including a map showing the shrunken local route system that would result:
(Click for full-size view)
WSTC’s board met last week to plan strategy, and the first result was this morning’s rally – 14 minutes, which you can watch in its entirety in our clip above, bookended by WSTC’s Deb Barker (below) and Amanda Kay Helmick.
“We can’t keep putting a Band-Aid on this problem, we can’t keep expecting Metro to find funds and close this gap,” warned County Councilmember Joe McDermott, who chairs the council’s Transportation Committee. He pointed out that Metro already has taken $800 million in gap-closing actions.
City Council Transportation Committee chair, Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, pointed out that his own bus route, 37, is one of those that Metro says will be “deleted” if its proposed cuts have to be made. And the effects go beyond citizens’ commutes, potentially putting thousands of cars back on the roads and snarling traffic further, affecting freight and commerce: “If this region is in gridlock, we are in deep trouble with regard to our economy.”
Also there, State House Transportation Committee member Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, who told WSB before the event that a special session is still not looking likely for later this week (when legislators will be in Olympia anyway), because they’re not close to an agreement yet. A special session would be vital for legislators to pass a package that would at least allow local voters to be asked to approve taxes/fees to replace the transit funding that is expiring next year; the package is not just about transit, it’s been stressed, but would include road funding too.
If legislators can’t do it, said Helmick (below), closing out the rally speeches, WSTC wants city and county leaders to go immediately with “Plan B,” which could include asking voters to approve a license-plate tax up to $100. “We need action and we need it now,” she declared.
They closed with a round of chanting “Save our Metro,” and WSTC members lingered for Q/A with media in attendance, which included three TV crews.
WSTC members are all volunteers and looking for more reinforcements – as explained on the WSTC website.
Meantime, to share your opinion on the Metro cuts – which, if nothing changes, would start taking effect next September – and what to do to avoid them, the county invites you to:
*Take this online survey
*Send e-mail to haveasay@kingcounty.gov
*Come to a meeting December 3rd, 6-8 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW), described as an open house with optional presentation/small-group discussions starting at 7 pm
11:13 AM: Thanks to the texter who reports a two-vehicle crash is blocking much of Delridge Way SW at Puget Boulevard (map). Emergency personnel are just arriving; we’re on the way to check it out.
11:33 AM: Traffic is getting through via one lane, alternating. One person has been taken to the hospital, we’re told at the scene, the driver of a Ford Ranger that collided with a Jeep Cherokee. We don’t know anything about their condition yet but will be checking with SFD.
7:56 PM UPDATE: SFD spokesperson Kyle Moore tells us, “Medics transported a 53-year-old male driver who was T-boned. He was unconscious but gained consciousness before we transported. At transport, he was alert, oriented, and breathing, and taken to Harborview in stable condition.”
Calendar items are running light for today/tonight, but here are three highlights:
EVENING BOOK GROUP: This month, the Southwest Branch Library Evening Book Group is reading Northwest-set “The Living” by Annie Dillard. All welcome, 6:45 pm. (35th/Henderson)
DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES: 6:45 pm at Emeritus-West Seattle (WSB sponsor), advocacy group Getting It Right for West Seattle presents unofficial “alternative designs” it commissioned from an architecture professor for the 4755 Fauntleroy Way site (separate from the design its owners have already taken through the Design Review Board and Design Commission). Public is welcome. (4611 35th SW)
SPORTS TRIVIA: Phillip at Talarico’s is trying it again, 3 rounds of sports trivia starting at 8 pm during Monday Night Football – $2/person, cash prizes, including “$100 if anyone can get all the questions right.” (4718 California SW)
10:10 AM: Pacific Science Center planetarium supervisor, NASA Solar System Ambassador, and WSB “Skies Over West Seattle“ contributor Alice Enevoldsen of West Seattle is anchoring PSC’s live online coverage of the upcoming MAVEN launch to Mars right now. The launch window opens in about 15 minutes; Alice is at the launch site in Florida. Check out the coverage here, and read about the mission here; see the NASA TV feed here.
And lift off of the #MAVEN spacecraft on a journey to Mars aboard an #Atlas5 rocket: pic.twitter.com/kbAWwvMoZE
— NASA (@NASA) November 18, 2013
10:35 AM: The rocket has launched.
9:56 AM: Right after this morning’s West Seattle Transportation Coalition media briefing – full coverage on that is coming up – we spoke with City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen about his proposal to add money to the design budget for the “Fauntleroy Way Green Boulevard” project. As we first reported a week and a half ago, he proposed shifting $1.8 million to the project to finish design next year – it’s a plan that’s been more than a decade in the making.
More than $1 million was to come from sidewalk work that SDOT couldn’t start until 2015 anyway, and half a million was to be diverted from design work for a Northgate pedestrian project related to light-rail service that is still almost a decade away. Advocacy groups including Feet First pointed out that while the service is far away, the project involving an overpass needs to be designed ASAP or else some other parts of the project might be in jeopardy. So this morning, in response to our followup question, Councilmember Rasmussen said he plans to propose leaving the $500,000 in the Northgate budget, and downshifting the Fauntleroy request to $1.3 million, and that he is hopeful his fellow councilmembers will support that. Above is the latest version of the Fauntleroy proposal (click it to see the full-size PDF with details including 2 traffic lanes each way and a “cycle track”); SDOT told us earlier this month that they’ll be seeking community comments early next year – the last community meeting about the “Green Boulevard” was in 2012.
3:10 PM UPDATE: The sheaf of budget-amending “green sheets” attached to this afternoon’s Council agenda does indeed include a revised version for this project, with the $1.3 million we reported earlier.
(East-facing camera on the West Seattle Bridge; see other cams on the WSB Traffic page)
As the Monday commute gets going, two reminders:
WEST SEATTLE TRANSPORTATION COALITION EVENT @ 35TH/AVALON: At 8:15 am just north of the outbound 35th/Avalon bus stop, the West Seattle Transportation Coalition will join local state, county, and city leaders to call attention to how big a bite will be taken from WS-area transit if funding isn’t found to hold off potential Metro cuts. WSTC says you are welcome to be there to show your concern.
SEAWALL WORK: Downtown waterfront drivers/riders take note, the seawall project is starting in earnest, with this advisory beginning today:
Construction of the temporary roadway beneath the Alaskan Wy. Viaduct begins. Work will include: removal of the existing roadway and angle parking spaces under the Alaskan Wy. Viaduct between Madison St. and Pike St; removal of trees and signal poles on the west side of Alaskan Wy; ongoing relocation of utility and communications duct banks. A minimum of one lane in each direction will be maintained on Alaskan Wy. at all times. Local Access will be maintained to the businesses on the east side of the Viaduct at all times.
NEW SOUTH PARK BRIDGE: On our partner site The South Park News, you’ll find video of last week’s informal community “slideshow” event looking behind the bridge-building scenes. To answer the big question right off the top, the county says “next spring” remains the estimated date for the new bridge’s debut – almost four years after the old one was shut down.
TRAFFIC UPDATE, 9:32 AM: In 4th/Occidental/Lander vicinity in SODO, a car and Seattle Police motorcycle officer have collided, and the investigation is affecting traffic. No other details yet.
TRAFFIC ALERT FOR LATER TODAY, 10:47 AM: From SDOT – this might affect you if you’re downtown this afternoon:
This afternoon the Washington State Labor Council will hold a rally to support the Machinist Union at Westlake Park from 4 – 7 p.m. At least 2,000 participants are expected to attend. At this time, no lane or street closures are planned, but motorists should expect congestion around the park during the afternoon commute, particularly on Fourth Avenue and on Pine Street.
12:30 PM: The crash on Lander in SODO is cleared. KING 5 has details.
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