West Seattle, Washington
18 Monday
You can donate to the bake sale at the Delridge Day festival this Saturday without even baking. Francesca Annis from the Delridge Community Center Advisory Board explains:
There will be a bake sale to benefit youth programs at Delridge Community Center during the Delridge Day Festival hosted by the Delridge Community Center Advisory Board. Goodies made by the School Age Care and Teen Programs include snickerdoodles and bacon-chocolate-chip cookies!
Contributions from C&P Coffee Co., Great Harvest Bread Co., Sugar Rush Baking Co., and Zatz a Better Bagel will also be available.
We are also accepting homemade and store-bought items from the community. If you are interested in making a donation you may drop it off at the community center on Friday (please make sure to label it) 11 am-6 pm or bring it directly to the table on Saturday beginning at 9:00 am. If possible, please wrap homemade items individually and mark if the item contains nuts.
Question about the bake sale? E-mail Francesca, wskeekai@gmail.com. For full details about the festival (with co-sponsors including WSB) – check out the brochure, which includes a vendor list/map and schedule of events (music, contests, more).
Two burglary reports in West Seattle Crime Watch today:
The first one answers a few questions we received last night and this morning about police cars rushing Admiral-bound on Tuesday evening and a traffic stop on the bridge: A neighbor told us late last night about a burglary in the 3700 block of SW Grayson in Admiral (map); we weren’t able to get followup information till this morning, but here’s what SPD’s Det. Mark Jamieson could tell us:
Officers answered a “burglary in progress” call that came in at 5:22 pm. The victim came home from work and saw a ladder up against the house, where there shouldn’t have been one; walking around the east side of the house, they noticed a stranger inside – described as a white male in a white T-shirt and backward baseball cap. The intruder saw the resident and bolted, kicking open and destroying a French door in the process. The burglary victim saw a white “Ford or Chevy type” van in the area, and shared that information with police, who subsequently stopped one. However, no arrest was made, Det. Jamieson says, because the resident couldn’t confirm that was the person seen inside the house. (While the available SPD information didn’t include the location where the van was stopped, we received a separate note this morning from a WSB’er wondering why traffic was stopped on the eastbound bridge about that time as police questioned someone in a white van.)
Also in Crime Watch today, a reader report from Mike:
Wanted to inform you that my garage on 31st ave SW near High Point playfield was broken into sometime last Saturday (8/12) between midnight and about 2:00 or so in the afternoon. They broke the latch on the main garage door and took pretty much all of my tools. According to the cop that came over to talk to me, another guy’s truck was broken into across the street as well. The insult to injury was that I was fixing my car at the time – they even took the parts I had just bought for my car.
West Seattle’s smallest public high school has a new home. You may recall that Middle College High School lost its longtime home at South Seattle Community College (here’s our 6/13 report), which says it needs the space; then Seattle Public Schools planned to co-house it at Boren with K-5 STEM (reported 6/15), but neither school community welcomed that, and a new solution was sought (with confirmation 8/6 that MCHS would definitely not be at Boren). Just received from SPS:
Dear South Seattle Middle College and K-5 STEM at Boren families:
As you know, our South Seattle Middle College program lost its classroom space at South Seattle Community College for the 2012-13 school year and we were planning to co-locate the program on the K-5 STEM at Boren campus.
I’m pleased to announce that we have secured classrooms for South Seattle Middle College at the High Point Center Building located at 6400 Sylvan Way SW in West Seattle. As a result, the Middle College and K-5 Stem programs will remain on separate campuses.
The space at the High Point Center is well-suited for our small Middle College Program and is conveniently located with easy bus line access for our high school students.
We appreciate the feedback from our families, and we worked very closely with the Middle College Principal, Cindy Nash, as we developed a solution we believe will benefit both our Middle College and K-STEM families.
We look forward to seeing all of you at the start of the 2012-13 school year.
Sincerely,
Carmela Dellino
Executive Director of Schools, Southwest Region
Seattle Public Schools
(Mt. Constance in the Olympics, photographed from West Seattle by Danny McMillin, shared via Flickr)
That’s a cool view as the temperature starts to rise – though the forecast still says Thursday/Friday are the REALLY hot days; today will be closer to “very warm.” As for what’s hot on the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar – here are selections for today/tonight:
TONIGHT’S **DOUBLE** TRAFFIC ALERT: Two overnight closures tonight – southbound Alaskan Way Viaduct/99, 9 pm-5 am, and eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct, 10 pm-5 am. (Here’s this week’s edition of our day-by-day list.) **2:37 pm update – SDOT has just canceled tonight’s SSV closure**
GATEWOOD READS AT HIGH POINT LIBRARY: 11 am-1 pm, three Gatewood Elementary teachers are there to read and talk with students, looking ahead to the new school year (just three weeks from today).
FRESH VEGETABLES, WHERE THEY’RE GROWN: Wednesday is the day you can stop by the High Point Market Garden Farm Stand at 32nd and Juneau and buy fresh organic vegetables grown and harvested steps away. 4-7 pm.
ASK AND ANSWER: Meet real-estate and home-service professionals, and bring your questions! Presented by Savvy Seattle Women at Prudential Northwest Realty offices in Jefferson Square, 6-7 pm – details here.
THE NOISE GUY AT THE LIBRARY: What? You thought libraries were supposed to be quiet? Guess not at the West Seattle Branch, where The Noise Guy appears at 6:30 pm – details here.
SUNDAY SOCCER ON WEDNESDAY: Did you know the West Seattle Sunday Soccer folks also have a Wednesday night pickup game at Delridge Playfield, 7 pm?
OPENING NIGHT FOR ‘GODSPELL’: The 12-to-16-year-old Theater Conservatory summer students at ArtsWest have been working on “Godspell” and are ready to debut it for you, 7:30 pm.
NIGHTLIFE: Trivia at 7, open mike at 9, at Skylark.
LAST DAY FOR PCC’S BOGO PIZZA COUPON: Haven’t tried PCC Natural Markets‘ take-and-bake pizza yet? The longtime WSB sponsor has a coupon (get it here) you can use to buy one, get one free – and today’s the last day.
(SDOT photos, courtesy Darin Stephens)
Some driving the Spokane Street Viaduct in recent days have asked why squares are being cut from some of its newly paved surface. The questions started in the comment section following our Friday update on the close-to-completion project.
As promised, we followed up with SDOT. Project spokesperson Paul Elliott talked with project manager Stuart Goldsmith and replies that the problem is delamination – some of the new concrete didn’t bond with the old concrete: “Repairing and resurfacing the old bridge deck required a hydro-demolition process to clean and roughen the old deck to ensure a good bond when the new thin lift micro silica overlay was then applied. If there is any oil or other dirt remaining, we can end up with delamination/an inadequate bonding.” (The hydro-demolition process was discussed in our story about a work-zone tour two months ago.)
The delaminated spots were discovered with a low-tech type of testing, which you can see in WSB coverage of the Fauntleroy Expressway seismic-retrofit work back in January – “the best way to determine whether or not the bond is solid is to drag metal chains across the top and listen for problem areas,” as Elliott explains it. The problem spots (we’re checking back to ask how many) were cut out for repairs:
He says the work will not set the schedule back further. Meantime, other work that’s going on includes pouring of the permanent concrete barrier between westbound and eastbound – the green material is the rebar:
And here’s a section after the pour:
Milestones ahead for the project: Friday morning, as noted in our day-by-day closure list, the Harbor Island onramp to the eastbound SSV reopens after its long closure; starting next Monday (August 20th) the 1st Avenue South offramp from the eastbound SSV closes for about 5 weeks, during which time it’ll be repaved.
ADDED 6:18 PM: SDOT’s reply to our followup questions, which included: How much of the resurfaced bridge deck has the delamination problem? Why did it happen? What about concerns of an uneven surface post-repairs?
The percentage of the new roadway requiring repair due to delamination was less than 5% of the total resurfaced area and was well within expectations given the condition and age of the old deck. Delamination repair was anticipated as part of the deck refurbishing process, which is why we test it, and does not delay the project.
Drivers on the roadway, to include motorcycle riders, should not be able to detect the cuts once they are filled with concrete. We will continue to review the contractor’s work to ensure the roadway meets the required specifications prior to the city accepting the work as complete.
The Seattle Glee Clubs – based in West Seattle, performing citywide – start a new season next month, so they’re recruiting singers right now:
Seattle Glee Clubs’ two vocal groups — the Seattle Metropolitan Glee Club women’s choir (the Met) and the Offbeats Vocal Jazz Ensemble — both have openings for the 2012-2013 season that begins in September.
The Met, which performs a combination of traditional choral, folk, jazz and popular music, has openings for all female voice types. The group is led by highly experienced musician and director, John Gulhaugen. An audition and some background in music are required. Rehearsals begin Tues., Sept. 11. 2012. For more information, e-mail John Gulhaugen at: The_Met@Seattlegleeclubs.org.
The Offbeats, performing a variety of jazz styles, including swing, bebop, Latin and contemporary, has openings for tenors and baritones. Acclaimed Seattle jazz singer Kelley Johnson directs the group. An audition and some background in music are required. Rehearsals begin in mid-September. For more information, e-mail Kelley Johnson at: Offbeats@seattlegleeclubs.org.
First of two reports from tonight’s Fauntleroy Community Association board meeting:
(WSB photo added Wednesday afternoon)
While FCA board members say they’re fine with the Seattle Police plan to install a fixed speed-monitoring/ticketing camera in the Gatewood Elementary school zone on Fauntleroy Way, they say the current southbound warning light needs to be moved. (That point also was made in comments on our Sunday night story about the forthcoming camera.) Ahead, the letter FCA is sending to the city:
The weather alert we mentioned this morning has gone up a notch or two: We are now up to an Excessive Heat Watch alert for Thursday and Friday, which the National Weather Service declares are “likely to be among the hottest days of the year,” possibly the mid-90s here. (The recent mini-heatwave officially peaked at 93.) The warning is currently expected to kick in Thursday afternoon and remain in effect through Friday night. We’ll keep an eye on the forecast as it evolves.
Sometimes WSB commenters, usually referring to quality-of-life issues, wonder aloud if West Seattle is going to hell. It is, literally, said one of the demonstrators who took up positions this afternoon by the 35th SW entrance to/exit from the bridge. We passed by a little while ago and heard the man on the southwest corner using a megaphone to amplify a monologue about his opposition to abortion. Then we got a note from Krista, who sent the above photo and says the shouting was quite audible in nearby businesses, including a nearby martial-arts studio: “This obnoxious man plus 2 others are using the corner of 35th/Fauntleroy to shout anti-abortion and other prosthelytizing rants while my son and other children are trying to do martial arts class at SIMA. He’s been using a loudspeaker and it’s attracting quite a disgusted audience.” She says they called police, who said the amplification would be illegal (obviously otherwise, freedom of speech should apply) so they would send someone by to check it out. The people on other corners appeared to be quietly holding signs, including a woman on the northeast corner with one about choosing between Jesus and the devil. We didn’t see any mention of a particular church or denomination affiliation.
5:36 PM: As of about 10 minutes ago, Krista says, they’re gone.
WSB is proud to be a co-sponsor of West Seattle’s next summer festival – Delridge Day, coming up this Saturday (August 18th). We’ve been bringing you previews, and today we asked organizers if the official vendor list is out yet; turns out they had just finished the brochure, with the list and map and other details of this Saturday’s festival, 11 am-3 pm at the park between Delridge Community Center and Delridge Skatepark (Delridge/Genesee) – see it all here (and we’ll see you there!).
Story and photos by Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Three weeks from tomorrow, the sprawling Seattle Public Schools campus at 5950 Delridge Way SW will reopen as the new K-5 STEM at Boren elementary.
It’s been boarded up for two years, since the end of Chief Sealth International High School‘s two-year stay.
Now, elementary schoolers are moving in, and crews have been working to “make it a respectable place,” as project manager Jeanette Imanishi puts it.
She was our guide for a tour on Monday, along with district communications specialist Tom Redman. Outside, of course, there’s fresh paint. Even the north-side portables, which won’t be used but are staying on the site, are getting a new coat.
Inside, the floors are shining:
Read on to see the rest of our photo tour – from the classrooms to the playground, and beyond:
(Photo courtesy Heath)
12:10 PM: The “car fire” call at East Marginal/South Spokane is a truck fire, according to a caller (thanks!), and causing traffic trouble on the east side of the “low bridge” – so if you’re headed that way, we’d suggest an alternate route for now!
12:14 PM: Adding an image from the eastbound high bridge a few minutes ago – smoke was visible across the top of the screen.
(Photo courtesy Heath)
12:24 PM UPDATE: Thanks to Heath for the fire photos. Harbor Island exit from West Seattle Bridge is going to be shut down because of the fire, per scanner. Fire itself is reported to be “tapped.”
12:51 PM UPDATE: Still snarled at last report.
12:56 PM UPDATE: From SDOT via Twitter, the Harbor Island offramp from the Spokane St. Viaduct (westbound) is reopened, but southbound E. Marginal and eastbound Spokane St. are still blocked.
1:26 PM UPDATE: Traffic is moving again, says commenter NorDel; police are still awaiting the tow truck.
4:38 PM UPDATE: There’s a new, not-related-so-far-as-we-know crash in the same area; meantime, we passed by around 3 and though we weren’t in a position to get a photo, we saw the burned truck on a flatbed, apparently getting ready to be hauled away. And now we have followup information courtesy of SFD’s Kyle Moore:
At noon, Engine 13, and Engine 36 were dispatched to reports of a truck fire on the lower level bridge at East Marginal Way South and South Spokane Street. When Engine Company 13 arrived they found a cargo truck fire with an exposure to an empty gasoline tanker truck.
Firefighters laid a hose line and pumped foam on the fire putting it out. Firefighters evaluated the driver of the cab for his complaints of minor smoke inhalation. The driver declined transport to the hospital.
The cause of the fire is considered mechanical or electrical deficiency due to the driver complaining of smoke coming from the engine and then his cab filling with smoke while he was operating the cargo freight truck.
The cab was a total loss but the damage is still being estimated.
I was told he was hauling frozen fish.
Thanks to Mark for the photo and a heartening tale (tail?) from the West Seattle Bridge this morning: Somehow a dog turned up on the westbound bridge around 9 am. Both directions stopped, Mark says; he and others on the EB side watched as people on the WB side “chased the little thing all around the bridge deck and finally corralled it, to some applause.”
ADDED: Even if you don’t usually read comments, make an exception here – as Laura, who was involved in the rescue, tells the story of saving little runaway Bell.
After a wave of stolen-bike reports, this morning, a stolen car – Ann hopes you can help find hers:
This morning we woke up to find that my 2000 green Honda CRV had been stolen. It was parked outside our home in the 3900 block of SW Austin St. [map] SPD has been notified. It has an aftermarket spare tire on the back and a yellow KEXP sticker on the upper right side of the back window and a worn Rat City Rollergirls sticker on the left side of that same window. We would appreciate everyone keeping an eye out for it.
As of this writing it’s not yet on the SPD @getyourcarback Twitter feed but should eventually turn up there. (The latest tweets from that feed, by the way, are featured on the WSB Crime Watch page.)
(Lincoln Park wading pool, by Michelle Riggen-Ransom via the WSB Flickr group. Its season goes through 9/3 but some pools close this week!)
Enjoy this not-too-hot day – the National Weather Service has published a “special weather statement” warning about the next heat wave, later this week. Just in time for the next round of outdoor music/movie/festival fun … but more on that later. A few highlights from the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar for today/tonight:
LIBRARY STORY TIMES: Three in West Seattle today/tonight! 10:30 am for toddlers at the West Seattle Branch; 11:30 am for babies at the Southwest Branch; 7 pm for families at the Delridge Branch.
LUNCH AND FASHION SHOW: 11:45 am at the Senior Center of West Seattle – details (including reservation number) here.
NIGHTLIFE: Trivia That Rocks at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) with food and drink specials, 8 pm … Baby Ketten Karaoke at Skylark, 9 pm … Starlite Singer-Songwriter Showcase at Shadowland, 9 pm.
More bike thefts in West Seattle Crime Watch, plus a boat stolen – and found – as well as some miscellaneous reports. First, about Shane’s bike:
I wanted to report my mountain bike stolen late last night, (Aug. 12th), from my garage, (2400 block of SW Edmunds), and see if anybody sees it in the next few days. I mistakenly left my garage door open last night, so I’m partially to blame. All that was taken was my Specialized Enduro Expert bike, blue with some distinctive orange stripes on the frame that are not very visible in this photo, (did not have the fenders on it anymore). May still have a sticker on the side of it that said “You laugh because I’m different, I laugh because you are all the same.”
Ahead, the ski-boat saga – and various reports from a local block watch:
Read More
New info tonight about this weekend’s big Delridge Day festival (with WSB among the co-sponsors) – here’s what Holli Margell is sharing tonight:
– The Music Stage has a full 4-band lineup from 11 am-3 pm: Ellis Brothers, Moongirl, Sidesaddle Cowboy, and from the North Delridge Neighborhood, Low Land High.
– Skate Competition prizes have been counted and there’s plenty of decks, hats, shirts and other swag for lots of contestants. Registration starts at 10 am, closes at 11 am for competition. Parental signature (minors only) and helmets required for entry. A $15 registration fee includes Festival Shirt.
– Kids Zone has a Face painter and Balloon Artist booked. Bouncy House and Picnic Games are ready!
– The vendor-booth area is up to 60! You’ll see local artists, businesses, and non-profits. Bring some cash for a new plant start, local art or books. Youngstown Flats, the new development on 26th, will be giving out free Ice Cream tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis until they run out.
– We need your help to make it an amazing day! A completely volunteer led festival, we depend on volunteers for event day to help the event run smoothly. Any time you have to give is helpful from setting up tables for an hour in the morning to picking up trash after the festival in the evening. If you can help make it an awesome event with your time, please e-mail delridgeday@ndnc.org or visit http://tinyurl.com/ddvolunteer for more details.
To check out more about the festival, Skate Competition, Food Truck Chow Down, Kids Zone, and Vendors, visit the webpage: www.ndnc.org/delridgeday
The park is along Delridge south of Genesee, adjacent to the Delridge Skatepark and Delridge Community Center.
Just added to the Southwest Design Review Board schedule: Another apartment-building proposal for Avalon Way. This one is planned for 3078 Avalon Way (map), on a site that currently holds half-century-old multiplex units.
(King County Assessor’s Office photo)
The proposal is for a 7-story building with 65 residential units and 77 underground parking spaces. The developer is the same as the 30-unit apartment building planned at 3829 California SW, which means this is likely the project foreshadowed in this WSB comment. Its Early Design Guidance meeting is tentatively set for one month from tonight, 6:30 pm September 13th, at the Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon in The Junction).
Got a question, complaint, compliment, concern, to share with Mayor Mike McGinn and/or city staff? You have another chance coming up on August 28th, two weeks from tomorrow, at Southwest Teen Life Center (2801 SW Thistle). It’s following the usual format – a “community information fair” with local organizations and institutions tabling 5:30-6:30 pm, then a youth performance TBA at 6:30 pm, and Q/A with the mayor and staff from 6:40 till about 8 pm. His last one here was in May at the Senior Center of West Seattle (WSB coverage here). And in March, he had one at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (WSB coverage here).
Sometime before Saturday, King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division plans to put up a fence around the future site of its Murray Combined Sewer Overflow Control Project – a million-gallon tank across from Lowman Beach. That will precede demolition of the county-purchased homes/apartments on the site. “No parking” signs line both sides of the Lowman Beach section of Beach Drive this week, and the fence is scheduled to be up by Saturday (August 18). That’s the day the county plans a community “painting party” – 10 am-3:30 pm:
You are invited to help paint the mural that will cover the Murray Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Facility construction site fence for at least the next year. The Nature Consortium’s teaching artist will be onsite to explain mural design and help painters get started. Materials and templates will be provided, but wear your painting clothes! Families and children of all ages are welcome, and there is no obligation to stay for the whole day. You can paint for a while, enjoy a snack and then go enjoy the rest of your Saturday.
Along with the community-painted art, which will be on the Beach Drive side of the fence, King County’s Doug Marsano tells WSB that Urban Artworks will produce art panels for the Lincoln Park Way side.
“Wow!”… “Awesome!”… “I never knew this place existed!” Paublo Smith from Pink Gorilla Games, one of the newest WSB sponsors, says those are “the first three things we hear from people.” They expanded to add a West Seattle location earlier this year, and here’s what they’d like you to know:
When you are looking for classic/retro games in Seattle, Pink Gorilla Games “simply is the first place to look,” explains Paublo. “We are a small local company that has a great loyal community willing to share their knowledge and passion for gaming. The people of Pink Gorilla are not ‘Fan Boys’ of any one gaming console, genre, or series. At Pink Gorilla, you know the item has been cleaned, tested, and guaranteed.” Pink Gorilla Games sells, buys, and trades all video games and also sells board games and tabletop games, trading-card games such as Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! etc., and has plenty of imported and domestic video game memorabilia.
“People seek us out as there is nothing quite like us. People still love their vintage game consoles. And they want a clean, organized, trusted place to buy, sell, and trade classic stuff, from Atari and Intellivision, to oddball things like Atari Lynx and Virtual Boy, to the newest of the new, like Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita, to the upcoming Nintendo Wii U.” Paublo adds that Pink Gorilla Games customers “return simply because we care about what we sell. Which is why we clean and bag/protect and organize all the old games the way that we do.”
Pink Gorilla Games may be new to WS (their other two stores are in the International District and U-District), but they’ve jumped right into the community, participating in West Seattle Summer Fest and co-sponsoring the recent festival in Morgan Junction. That’s where their West Seattle store is located, at 6053 California SW. You’ll find them online at pinkgorillagames.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/PinkGorillaGames, and by phone at 206-462-0801. (And check out their WSB discount coupon to save $!)
We thank Pink Gorilla Games for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.
12:27 PM: En route to a house-fire call in the 9300 block of Forest Court SW, which is near Fauntleroy Park. Most of the units are being canceled, so it’s not major. More to come.
12:48 PM: Finally got there to check (it’s on a secluded dead-end street). Kitchen problem – “food on the stove,” as the official Fire Department term for such incidents puts it. No serious damage, no injuries, SFD tells us.
That’s Cal Prinster, who along with dad Gordon Prinster has just made it to New York City – but not by plane or train or car or even motorcycle: They just finished pedaling cross-country! We told you about their plan just before they left back in June; here’s that story. This morning we heard from Gordon, who also shared the photo:
We arrived in Lower Manhattan – slightly thinner – on 8/11/12. We pedaled 3,639 miles in 49 days. It was an unbelievable adventure. We’re now lounging under a tree in Strawberry Fields on a perfect day in Central Park.
Gordon adds that he and Cal – who starts 7th grade at Madison Middle School in 3 weeks – are “looking forward to thanking everybody that gave to pbtfus.org.” That’s the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, for which they raised money with not only this trip but also their 1,732-mile bike ride to the Mexican border last summer. (You can still donate – just follow this link, and please mention Cal Prinster as the “honoree” so they can keep track of everyone who donated in honor of their ride.)
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