West Seattle, Washington
22 Friday
West Seattle’s own King County Queens held court Friday night at Easy Street Records – three guys named Scott (drummer/singer Scott Vanderpool, guitarist/singer Scott Sutherland, guitarist Scott Muhlbeier) and one honorary Scott (credited on the inside cover as Marsh “Scott” Gooch, bass/vocals). We caught some video while stopping in:
The KC Queens have an official music video, too – see “Krautrock!” here. It’s a cut from their LP “Ladies and Gentlemen, Your King County Queens,” released by Green Monkey Records just last month – you can of course get it at Easy Street. And if you missed the KC Queens this time, they’ll be at the all-day all-night marathon Earfest at Slim’s Last Chance in Georgetown on September 7th at 7 pm.
With Cheryl Serio front and center, The Spyrographs brought retro music to the south side of the Providence Mount St. Vincent campus tonight for the fourth and final free outdoor concert of the summer. A bit of video – “Call Me,” made famous by Petula Clark in the mid-’60s:
We thank The Mount for sponsoring WSB this summer to help get the word out about the series!
P.S. – One more outdoor concert left in West Seattle this season – the final Summer Concerts at Hiawatha show, 6:30 pm next Thursday (August 29th) on the east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center, with Strong Suit, who you might have seen/heard at this year’s West Seattle Summer Fest. If you’re not headed out for an extended Labor Day weekend trip, we’ll see you there!
Three weeks from Sunday, on September 15th, the sixth annual West Seattle Car Show rolls into The Junction. The poster’s now out and making its way onto windows, walls, and bulletin boards; signups are revving up too – WSCS producer Michael Hoffman of Liberty Bell Print and Design says more than 50 of the 100 goodie bags for the first 100 entries are already spoken for. The discount early-bird registration rate, $15, is good until September 1st – download and mail the form ASAP. For spectators, it’s free as always – the vehicles (pre-1980 cars, trucks, motorcycles) will be parked along closed California Avenue SW in the heart of The Junction, 8 am-4 pm on show day, and you can wander to your heart’s content. The West Seattle Farmers’ Market will be on as usual (10 am-2 pm) that day too. For more West Seattle Car Show details, check out the official website and our August 12th preview; we’re proud to be among the co-sponsors again this year.
All week, SW Orchard/Dumar has been closed between Delridge and (almost) 16th SW for work related to the Delridge Way Repaving Project. Now SDOT has announced closures on Orchard from Delridge west to Sylvan Way next month – it’ll be closed to eastbound traffic September 3-13, then to westbound traffic Sept. 16-27, and the yearlong project’s final phase will follow. The full SDOT announcement – with a map – is ahead:
(Wednesday night photo by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
4:35 PM: Here’s the latest in the case of the three robbery suspects arrested in Arbor Heights late Wednesday night: Bail for each suspect is now set at $250,000, according to the King County Jail Register. We’re waiting for probable-cause documents from this afternoon’s bail hearing to come in from the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and will add details when the info comes in. The three were arrested when police pulled over the car shown in our photo above, about half a mile north of 35th and 104th, where a woman had been held up on the street and robbed of her purse. Police then said yesterday they believe the three, ages 19, 21, and 22, were involved in two other crimes Wednesday night – an attack on a man by the Fauntleroy ferry dock, and one outside West Seattle – and that they may be responsible for some of the other recent street robberies around the city.
5:04 PM UPDATE: The documents are in. Here are some of the toplines as we read through:
-None of the suspects has a West Seattle address; the addresses listed for them are in Boulevard Park, the Central District, and First Hill
-What police found inside the car included a handgun, a purse (believed to belong to the Arbor Heights robbery victim), and “several cell phones”
-The three confessed to involvement in the three incidents Wednesday night
There is no additional information about possible criminal histories, but the jail register shows that the 21-year-old suspect from First Hill spent a day and a half in the county jail in June for a case described as shoplifting and harassment.
Seattle Lutheran High School will soon welcome three NFL veterans as part of its annual fundraiser for its Football and Cheer programs. Former Seahawk Orlando Huff and former Huskies Mario Bailey and Greg Lewis will speak to students, parents, and friends at the Pasta Dinner Fundraiser on September 5th at 6 pm in the SLHS gym. The event will also be emceed by journalist and video host (and former UW athlete) Jenni Hogan, who you might recognize from her work in Seattle TV. If you’re interested in attending, tickets are on sale for $10 here.
This is the last day for the longtime home of Howden-Kennedy Funeral Home at Fauntleroy and Alaska. As reported here previously, HK is moving to a new location on 35th SW; the owners sold the 93-year-old business’s longtime site to the developers of the 4755 Fauntleroy Way project, which also includes the old Huling Auto site to the south, the now-closed Shell station to the east, and the old used-car lot to the west. In our photo is Len Burton-Hardin from HK at left and Kraig Kennedy at right – who happened to be stopping by for some business involving another structure on the site. His father Dick Kennedy, who died in 2007, took over the funeral home in 1954. HK will open its new 35th/Ida headquarters at 9:30 Monday morning. We have a message out to the 4755 Fauntleroy developers to ask about a timetable for demolition at the project site; environmental work is ahead at the former service station next to the about-to-be-former funeral home.
(UPDATED 3:34 pm with new information from Union Gospel Mission – scroll to end)
Nine days remain until the September 1st date by which city leaders committed to closing the encampment that calls itself “Nickelsville,” on mostly city-owned land at West Marginal Way and Highland Park Way. By multiple accounts – including the one you’ll see below – the number of people there has increased instead of decreased. What will happen when September 1st arrives, remains to be seen. First: We asked for comment from the mayor, whose spokesperson Aaron Pickus replies:
I’m not going to speculate on what will happen on September 1st. What I can say is that our focus is to find shelter for those currently living at the site.
In June, when 7 councilmembers called for the closure, the mayor replied that he would “follow the City Council’s direction to evict those who remain” if the site isn’t vacant on September 1st.
The City Council, which called for the closure, is on its summer break right now, so no official discussions are scheduled on their part. But the latest acknowledgment that the closure date is approaching comes from the Westside Interfaith Network, a coalition of local churches and faith-based groups that has long coalesced around the issue of homelessness. We covered its forum on the issue in mid-June. WIN’s Mary Anne deVry says the group plans nightly vigils at Nickelsville starting this Sunday – NOT to demand that it stay open, but to show their concern about the unsolved problem of homelessness. She writes:
Westside Inferfaith Network (WIN) met this week and decided to hold a vigil at Nickelsville’s parking lot each evening next week (Sun. 8/25 thru Sat. 8/31). This idea arose as we were discussing the growing crisis of homeless people. Our idea is based on these facts:
-Nickelsville is closing (September 1st) & there are still ~150 residents with no confirmed place to move,
-There’s a steady increase of homeless people (recently 9 families asked shelter at N’ville in a 13 day period–& many couples/singles keep coming–none of them were looking for “freebies!)
-2-1-1 reports shelters are full (most people coming to N’ville are told to do so by 2-1-1),
-it’s not safe to live in the greenbelt or city streets.
-We also know literally tens of thousands of people in our area struggle on the brink of homelessness. There will be future homeless people.
(Sunflowers in Delridge, photographed by Flickr member alextutu1821 and shared via the WSB Flickr group)
Highlights for the rest of your Friday, from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
PET ADOPTIONS: Noon-3 pm, the MaxMobile will be at West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) with adoptable pets! (California/Fauntleroy/Morgan)
THIS YEAR’S FINAL CONCERT AT THE MOUNT: Enjoy ’60s tunes at 6 pm tonight with The Spyrographs performing at this year’s fourth and final outdoor concert on the south side of the Providence Mount St. Vincent (4831 35th SW; WSB sponsor) campus. The concert’s free; if you want to buy dinner at 5:30 pm – tonight’s featured entree is salmon or chicken Caesar salad.
IN-STORE AT EASY STREET: King County Queens perform at Easy Street Records, free/all-ages, 7 pm. (California/Alaska)
AT KENYON HALL: 7:30 tonight – from the description in the calendar listing:
Internationally renowned queen of old-time blues guitar Del Rey, award winning blues and boogie woogie pianist Arthur Migliazza, master of the blues harmonica Grant Dermody, and poet of the dobro Orville Johnson join forces to raise the roof, and then some! Piano, guitar, dobro, and harmonica playing, and down-home singing by the area’s finest.
Historic Kenyon Hall is at 7904 35th SW.
THE BEARD BROTHERS: The Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) home page asks the question: “Ever hear ‘Kashmir’ done with just an acoustic guitar, percussion and electric violin?” If not – or even if you have – the Beard Brothers are a “don’t miss,” at the Feedback, 9:30 tonight. (6451 California SW)
LOTS more on the calendar – and don’t forget the freeway ramp closure that starts at 7 tonight.
Thanks to Pam Rago, family-support worker at Highland Park Elementary, for sharing this information that will affect not only some families at her school, but at three others in our area:
Washington State has approved what is called “slow start” for Title 1, full-day kindergarten schools including Highland Park, Roxhill, Sanislo, and West Seattle. This means that kindergarten will not start on September 4th. Kindergarten will start three days later, on Monday, September 9th.
During the first three days of school (September 4th – 6th) the kindergarten teachers will be meeting with families for a beginning-of-the-year parent-teacher conference. This will give our teachers the opportunity to learn more about the incoming kindergarteners before school begins which will then help teachers tailor their program to best meet each child’s needs.
If you have an incoming kindergartener at one of the schools involved, she says, the school will contact you (if it hasn’t already) about setting up the meeting time.
In case you haven’t already seen this in the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar: With school now less than two weeks away, families in need are invited to a backpack-giveaway event this Sunday. It’s at West Seattle Baptist Church (4157 California SW), 1-3 pm Sunday (August 25th), and there’ll be free pizza, too, WSBC says. If you have questions, call the church at 206-932-3717.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; other cameras are on the WSB Traffic page)
The weekend’s almost here! As we get going with today’s commute watch, those reminders again:
*At 7 pm tonight, the northbound I-5 exit to the West Seattle Bridge closes for the weekend, to reopen by 5 am Monday. State crews will be replacing two half-century-old expansion joints and replace “a 550-foot section of rutted-out roadway … with new concrete.” Here’s the detour map; here’s the schedule of other closures ahead for the same area.
*Sunday morning, the Alki Beach 5K – benefiting breast-cancer patients – closes part of Alki Avenue until about 11 am.
ADDED 2:04 PM: Two weekend closures you will want to know about if you’re using Highway 99 north of downtown:
Saturday, Aug. 24
Crews will close two lanes of southbound SR 99 across the Aurora Bridge from 6 a.m. to noon.
Sunday, Aug. 25
Crews will close two lanes of northbound SR 99 across the Aurora Bridge from 6 a.m. to noon.
Some in the crowd at Hiawatha for Thursday night’s Fly Moon Royalty concert might not realize they were lucky – they were there for what the duo had described earlier as their last live show in this area for quite a while. Here’s a quick snip of video from Instagram:
With Action Jackson providing the beats and background as DJ/producer, Adra Boo is the voice of Fly Moon Royalty:
There’s often something extra at the concerts, and this time around, it was free face painting:
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Next Thursday at 6:30 pm, it’s this year’s finale for the Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series, featuring Strong Suit.
In West Seattle Crime Watch notes tonight:
ROBBERY SUSPECTS: First, an update on the three men whose arrests we covered late last night in Arbor Heights, believed linked to other crimes around the city: They were not booked into jail until midday today, so their bail hearing isn’t until tomorrow afternoon. We haven’t turned up any information on criminal records yet, but the authorities have access to more tools than we do, so we should find out something definitive when probable-cause paperwork is available tomorrow.
BUSY DAY FOR BURGLARIES: The SPD map, tweets, and scanner traffic total up to (at least) eight burglaries reported in West Seattle today, more than three times the average:
10:22 PM: On our way to check out what was initially dispatched as a “heavy rescue” at 16th and Trenton. At least one private ambulance has been called. More shortly.
10:45 PM UPDATE: As is frequently the case with “heavy rescue” calls, this one involved a flipped vehicle, one of two involved in a collision in the northbound lane of 16th SW just south of Trenton. Police have just reopened southbound 16th.
10:56 PM: Added two photos we took at the scene. One person is reported to have been taken to Harborview Medical Center. If we get any more info later tonight or tomorrow morning, we’ll add it here.
What seems like the endless summer just keeps putting on amazing shows like this, even with the fall equinox now exactly one month away. Thanks to everyone sharing photos – we start with three and expect to add more – above, by Michael Copeland, shows the later stage as the sky glowed pink; next, the orange heart of the sunset, from BCH in Fauntleroy:
And early on, Chas Redmond sent this photo from Alki Point:
ADDED: Even more photos – like this one from Tom, taken on Beach Drive:
***Other views ahead!***
Another military flyby turned some heads on Alki Beach this afternoon: This time, 2 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. Thanks to Danny McMillin for the photo of one of them; he also shared a picture of the four Chinooks that drew attention last weekend. Boeing co-produces the Osprey, which is flown by the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps.
5:12 PM: Just in from King County: The West Seattle Water Taxi is canceled for the rest of this evening.
5:32 PM UPDATE: Now the county says never mind, they’re putting the Rachel Marie into service and the WS WT will resume as of 5:45.
One month after the “closing sale” for Admiralty House Antiques, with owner Fred Dau deciding to fully retire and sell the site (as he told us in this interview), we were asked if there’s any news about what’s happening there now. Here’s what we have found: The building already has a sale pending, according to the online listing ($1,050,000) for the 2,200-square-foot building on a 5,700-square-foot site, recorded as two lots, zoned NC2-40 (mixed-use retail and residential up to 40 feet). We don’t know the buyer’s identity, but city records show a development proposal already has been submitted for part of the site, proposing a 3-unit rowhouse, with its address changed to 4304 SW Walker (Admiralty House is 2141 California SW). The project page on the city website has this notation: “Existing retail building to remain w/ no work or changes.”
In case you wondered about a big police presence in the Genesee area this past hour – Seattle Police are trying to sort out a collision involving one of their cars and an SUV (not pictured) near 48th and Andover. No serious injuries, we’re told, and nobody had to go to the hospital. We don’t know anything at this point about the circumstances of today’s crash, but commenters brought up safety concerns about this intersection back in April, when a crash left a car upside-down.
P.S. Thanks to the WSB’er who texted us about the SPD involvement – otherwise, this was noted only as a “motor vehicle accident” on the Fire Department log, not an indicator of unusual circumstances, and we might have missed it. Text or voice: 206-293-6302 any time.
6:50 PM UPDATE: More info has just been published on SPD Blotter:
A female officer sustained minor injuries in an intersection-related collision today in West Seattle. At approximately 12:26 p.m. today a Southwest Precinct patrol officer was driving her marked police car eastbound on SW Andover Street approaching 48th Avenue SW, an uncontrolled intersection. At the same time a civilian-driven passenger vehicle was approaching the same intersection northbound on 48th Avenue SW. The two vehicles collided in the intersection and both drivers sustained minor injuries.
The civilian was treated and released from the scene by fire department medics. The officer was transported by police vehicle to an area hospital for follow up evaluation and treatment. Both vehicles sustained disabling damage and were towed from the scene.
There were no citations issued at the scene pending further investigation and collision reconstruction.
Traffic Collision Investigation Squad detectives responded to the scene and continue to actively investigate.
Three months after we first reported that the six-years-vacant Chuck and Sally’s Tavern in Morgan Junction will be transformed into the new home of The Bridge, the project is entering a new phase – serious exterior work.
We’ve been noticing it all week, especially the upper row of windows revealed by the removal of some of the old siding. So we asked The Bridge’s Rita Dixson how things are going:
We are making great progress … we have re-habbed the transom windows that had been covered up for years – so nice to be able to restore some of the original architectural charm of the building! We are planning on breaking ground (today) or Friday for the kitchen foundations, as well as continuing on with re-vamping the exterior facade.
For a comparison, see the “before” photo in our May story. One of the renderings shown here in June shows how the revealed windows figure into things:
The Bridge is losing its current site on 35th just south of Avalon because of a mixed-use project (about 160 apartments and a roughly equal number of parking spaces, 15,000 square feet of retail) in the works for 4435 35th SW, which had a second Design Review Board meeting in June (WSB coverage here), four years after its first one.
9:56 AM: With early-morning help from Seal Sitters volunteers, a life-size bronze sculpture of a harbor-seal mother and pup is now at its permanent home on the east end of the Alki Beach promenade. The work started early this morning and isn’t done yet – sculptor Georgia Gerber came from Whidbey Island to make sure her creation made it safely into its spot:
The sculpture, funded by grants and donations, is part of the Year of the Seal project, explained here. We’ll be revisiting the installation site later for an update; we’re told it’ll be fenced off for a while so that part of the materials can “set.” More to come.
ADDED: As promised, we went back to check:
We found volunteers Ralph and Betty in the process of what you might call sculpture-sitting; the installation will remain taped off until sometime Friday.
Less than two weeks until classes start at Chief Sealth International High School and other Seattle Public Schools. As announced in early July, Chief Sealth will have a new principal for the new school year, Aida Fraser-Hammer. And she has just announced an invitation to the Sealth community to drop by next Monday (August 26th) for a “meet and greet”:
On Monday August 26th, 2013, the doors of Chief Sealth International High School will be open for you!!!
Come on in anytime between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm to Meet ‘n Greet Principal Aïda Fraser-Hammer and her administrative team, Andra Maughan, Clint Sallee, and Cheryl Sullivan.
EVERYONE IS WELCOME!! BRING THE KIDS!!
The district’s first day of school is Wednesday, September 4th.
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