West Seattle, Washington
17 Sunday
The proposed 75-apartment project on Delridge to provide housing for homeless people living with mental illness has been granted city money as well as state money, we have confirmed. According to Seattle Office of Housing spokesperson Julie Moore, the city grant to Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) is for “up to $4.45 million.” That follows the state’s decision to grant $500,000 to DESC’s Delridge Supportive Housing project, as reported here Wednesday.
When we first spoke with Moore yesterday, at which time she had confirmed the city funding decision but not the amount (which she provided today), she also said that her department wanted to clarify some of what was written on the “Concerned Neighbor” website we reported on yesterday, and she has provided a document that she says clarifies the city’s “siting policy,” which the anonymous author suggested did not synch with the DESC plan. Caveat: As with the “Concerned Neighbor” site info, we have no way to fact-check the info we’re pointing you to – but here it is, so you can make up your own mind.
A county group was set to potentially decide on DESC project funding yesterday, but delayed its decision after hearing from a group of Delridge residents who voiced concerns about the project. Meantime, DESC executive director Bill Hobson has answered questions we e-mailed him on Wednesday. He says they have not yet closed on the Delridge property (in the 5400 block); their architects are still working on a presentation for a not-yet-scheduled “Early Design Guidance” meeting of the Southwest Design Review Board. (We have requested a digital copy of a sketch that a Delridge attendee photographed at yesterday’s county meeting; if we don’t receive one, we’ll add that photo here.) Our note to Hobson was after word of the state funding but before word of the city funding; regarding the state funding, he says that the half-million dollars represent “around 3-4% of anticipated total project costs,” which would mean those costs are at least $12.5 million.
ADDED FRIDAY EVENING: Our video of WSDOT‘s Matt Preedy briefing the media two hours after the big news that The Viaduct will open early. Among his remarks and replies – news that they’ve noticed some problems with the travel times on the lit-up signboards and will work on those; also, they did the semi-annual Viaduct inspection during this closure, so the next one won’t be till spring. The actual reopening time won’t be known till tomorrow – depends on how much work gets done tonight.
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ORIGINAL 12:08 PM REPORT: Just in from WSDOT:
Alaskan Way Viaduct to reopen midday Saturday
Demolition mostly complete; new SODO off-ramp to open Monday morning
SEATTLE – Great progress by demolition and construction crews means the Alaskan Way Viaduct is expected to reopen midday Saturday between the West Seattle Bridge and the Battery Street Tunnel, a move expected to help relieve recent regional traffic congestion on Interstates 5 and 405 and local streets.
Starting this weekend, drivers will travel on a new, temporary construction bypass that will allow an estimated 110,000 vehicles a day to keep moving while construction on a replacement State Route 99 tunnel continues through the end of 2015.
Quick work by demolition crews allowed them to beat the scheduled Monday reopening of the viaduct by nearly two days.
“This project is six months ahead of schedule and today we’re again ahead of schedule,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said. “Thank you to the hard workers on this project, and the people of the region who were patient, found alternate routes and adjusted their schedules. Everyone showed a great spirit of cooperation.”
“Commuters made the difference by doing their part to find other ways and times to travel, which allowed our crews to close this key route for an intense period of work,” state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said. “Our crews worked aggressively to accomplish a massive amount of demolition during the longest closure we’ve ever attempted on a major state highway.”
The clock began ticking Oct. 21 when crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation closed the highway and launched their effort to aggressively demolish the southern mile of the seismically vulnerable viaduct. In about eight days, a 2,825-foot-long stretch of double-decked highway was reduced to thousands of tons of concrete rubble and steel rebar.
“Through the week, construction crews made rapid progress on demolition and debris removal, and had good weather for things like roadway striping,” said Matt Preedy, WSDOT Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement program deputy administrator. “Thanks to our contractor’s thoughtful planning and approach, we are able to reopen the roadway early and give it back to drivers.”
SR 99 reopening details
· Northbound and southbound SR 99 are expected to open midday Saturday from the Battery Street Tunnel to the West Seattle Bridge.
· The on-ramp to northbound SR 99 from South Royal Brougham Way is expected to close at 6 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29 and reopen once crews finalize roadway connections.
· The southbound SR 99 off-ramp to South Atlantic Street will remain closed until 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 31.
· Drivers can expect a slower, 40 mph speed limit on much of the viaduct between the Battery Street Tunnel and the West Seattle Bridge.
· Drivers can expect a recommended 25 mph construction zone speed limit through the curving bypass in the SODO area.
· Metro Transit’s 11 bus routes that travel on SR 99 will begin using the new bypass at the start of service on Sunday morning, Oct. 30.
Friday evening commuteUntil the viaduct reopens, drivers will face heavy regional congestion that this week was focused on I-5 and I-405 and parts of the downtown Seattle street grid. Commuters are encouraged to plan ahead and consider alternate routes.
ADDED 12:54 PM: Metro says its Viaduct routing will resume Sunday morning. Read on for full details of their plans:Read More
Every morning this Viaduct-closure week, Seattle Police have been out on the West Seattle (high) Bridge, looking for bus-lane rulebreakers. Every morning, they have reported a double-digit tally of tickets, and we’ve been adding them to our commute coverage as a postscript. This morning, though, the SPD Blotter summary includes something startling: A speeding ticket for 103 mph, more than twice the limit. SPD doesn’t usually publish drivers’/riders’ explanations, but says this motorcyclist reported being “late for work.” P.S. We just called in search of additional details beyond what’s in the Blotter item: Det. Mark Jamieson tells us that speed was so high, the officer could have chosen to arrest the man, but reports he was cooperative and pulled over immediately, so cited him instead. Price on that ticket? $411.
The beekeeper gear is a hint of what’s been unfolding alongside Jacobsen Road on the south side of Me-Kwa-Mooks Park: According to Puget Sound Beekeepers Association president Brad Jones, a city tree crew discovered a feral honey-bee colony while “cutting down a problem tree” on Thursday. This drew “much interest from beekeepers” in, and outside of, West Seattle, Jones told WSB. They needed to cut the log down further, in order to relocate it – bees still inside – to a “better, safer spot for the winter.” If they survive the winter, he explained, beekeepers will carry out another operation to get them into “standard beekeeping equipment.” They were hopeful the sizing could happen this morning; we’ll be checking back. Discoveries like this are important, because the wild honey-bee population has dropped dramatically in recent years. (The bee discovery also was noted on Beach Drive Blog – check out the spray-painted warning in one of their photos.)
(WSB photo from Admiral Treats and Treasures, October 2010)
Hallo-weekend is here, so we’re reminding you about the four major business-district trick-or-treating events that are planned in the West Seattle/White Center area tomorrow and Monday:
WEST SEATTLE JUNCTION: 1-3 pm tomorrow (Saturday); more info here.
ADMIRAL DISTRICT: 3-6 pm Monday (Halloween) – here’s the map; here’s the list. Among the participants, as you’ll see on those PDFs, is Umpqua Bank (WSB sponsor), which opens in the new retail building on the Admiral Safeway site two days later (November 2nd, 9 am) but confirms they will have reps with candy in front of their almost-open location.
WESTWOOD VILLAGE: 5-7 pm Monday (Halloween). Note that the center is under new ownership/management this year and has promised more spirited participation.
WHITE CENTER: 5-8 pm October 31st (Monday) – more info here
Lots of other Halloween events, today through Tuesday (the legendary Skeleton Theatre is happening Monday and Tuesday nights), are listed on the WSB West Seattle Events page.
From Tim within the past hour:
A man in a blue track suit just went down our block (7500 block of 46th Ave SW) testing car door handles. About 5’ 7-8”, medium complexion, w/short dark hair. 911 has been contacted.
(Photo added 2:55 pm, thanks to Trileigh Tucker for sharing!)
Thanks to Chris for sharing news of an orca sighting in the Brace Point area south of Fauntleroy less than an hour ago. They are probably out of the area by now – Chris said they were northbound, and checking the Orca Network Facebook page, they seem to be continuing to head in that direction. So this is just a heads-up, keep an eye on the water today, and let us know if you see any!
2:55 PM: Thanks to the commenters who continue to share info. They’re out there somewhere!
6:52 PM: Added Trileigh’s photo a bit earlier – and here’s a gallery of close-up shots featured on the KING website.
(More cams on the WSB Traffic page; travel times on the city Travelers’ Info map)
Good morning! No problems so far; we’re on commute patrol again, with the Alaskan Way Viaduct still closed (but still on schedule to reopen by 5 am Monday). First West Seattle Water Taxi run: 56 people. High bridge busy, as has been the case at this hour all week. More updates to come.
6:30 AM UPDATE: Weather’s dry till post-commute, per our friends at KING 5. They also are providing a new view of the high bridge this morning, covering the bus-lane crackdown from the side of the road – police are out one more time. Plenty of traffic. Meantime, commensurate with the lower-than-earlier-this-week Water Taxi ridership in the very-early going, the Don Armeni parking lot is wide open.
6:45 AM UPDATE: Status quo: High bridge busy, low bridge not (per KING’s helicopter view a few minutes back). Water Taxi carrying 63 people.
7 AM UPDATE: Same thing. If anything, maybe a little less traffic this morning (three-day weekend, anyone?).
7:15 AM UPDATE: 100 on this run of the Water Taxi. The high bridge is looking better than last hour, NOT crawling as you come off Fauntleroy, but slowing once you get around the 99 exit.
7:30 AM UPDATE: Quiet!
7:45 AM UPDATE: Link Apartments (WSB sponsor) in The Triangle to SPU in less than 20 minutes, tweets Whitney. … 94 on this run of the Water Taxi. As noted earlier this morning, the WT switches to its winter schedule on Monday – weekdays only, commute periods only. So this is the last weekend you’ll be able to take it till next spring.
8 AM UPDATE: Still smooth sailing.
8:15 AM UPDATE: High bridge moving along, not slowing till the usual point around 99. No trouble spots reported anywhere in the immediate commute zone. Awaiting the 8:15 Water Taxi report before our crew wraps up its week of hanging out at Seacrest in the mornings … here it is: 81.
8:30 AM UPDATE: If you go get on the Viaduct (what’s left of it) northbound at Royal Brougham, no traffic trouble there either, and we haven’t heard of any major backups along 1st or 4th this morning for those heading that way.
8:57 AM UPDATE: So quiet, we forgot the 8:45 update. We’ll of course pick up the traffic coverage again for the commute home tonight, since PM has been worse than AM for most of the week. And if the Viaduct opens earlier than scheduled, or if any problems erupt over the weekend, we’ll have traffic updates Saturday-Sunday too. Monday morning, we will be on early watch as well, since the new configuration of 99 could mean some complications until people get used to it. P.S. In case you were wondering … Daylight Saving Time ends one week from Sunday (so you switch your clock the night of Saturday, November 5th).
(Thursday photo by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
It’s been beautiful every morning this week out at Seacrest Pier, with views like that one, for our crew tracking the West Seattle Water Taxi‘s usage as a commute alternative during this Alaskan Way Viaduct closure week. It’s had an extended schedule, with extra runs, each weekday during the closure. And ridership has been at least triple last month’s average, according to the county’s stats.
But just so it doesn’t catch you by surprise, whether you’re a Water Taxi veteran or new convert, we want to remind you that the winter schedule begins Monday. This is the second year the Water Taxi is running through the winter. The biggest change is again that it’s a Monday-Friday, commute-times-only schedule. See the winter schedule here. This schedule continues into March, and then it’s back to 7-day-a-week runs.
High-school volleyball playoffs are under way, and Chief Sealth International High School has a victory to celebrate, beating Holy Names, 3-1, at home tonight. The game started late because of “Viadoom”: Holy Names had to play Bainbridge Island first to determine who would face Sealth, but Bainbridge got delayed by the Viaduct-closure afternoon traffic – we spotted their bus waiting to turn onto the Hanford detour route in SODO, while that stalled truck (chronicled in our afternoon-commute coverage) was backing everything up. Next game for Sealth is on Saturday.
ADDED: Video of the final 22 minutes of the set, all the way till the two teams shook hands at the very end. Meantime, a little more information on what’s next – Sealth will play Eastside Catholic at 11 am Saturday at West Seattle High School where at the same time, different court, WSHS, which beat Sealth in the division-championship tiebreaker, will play Seattle Prep. The winners of those two games will face off at 7 Saturday night.
Chris shares this photo of a jewelry box, and word of what else he found with it at a West Seattle park this afternoon:
I found a broken Jewelry Box with a lid inscribed with “Mother” multiple times at the entrance to Myrtle Reservoir Park this afternoon. Found what I presume are the contents strewn all over the grass there and, while nothing looks to be of great value, I thought the owner might want back what could be recovered. I have all the items I could find and will gladly turn them over to a someone who can identify any of the items. I’m guessing this was stolen from a home and dumped, but I suppose it could’ve been a car. Most of the items are pieces of jewelry and watches, and some music stuff. I figured the owner would be able to describe these items if they wanted to claim it. I can be reached at gulliver.chris@gmail.com or 503.406.8079.
From Heidi Horwitz, fundraising chair for the Rotary Club of West Seattle:
One bag, two bag, red bag, GOLF BAG… Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled purses, yearning to be worn; the wretched refuse of your teeming closets and drawers just in time for Christmas shopping! Friday; December 2nd, 12-1:30 pm, West Seattle Golf Club Banquet Room. Luncheon and purse sale with mini-auction of 10 premium items; just in time for Christmas gift-giving!
This fundraiser will consist of sales of donated purses, men’s wallets, and golf bags that are either new, have been pre-owned, or as we like to say: ‘Gently Used.’ Proceeds from this luncheon event will benefit the West Seattle Rotary Service Club. The West Seattle Rotary Service Foundation is a 501 C-3 nonprofit organization.
We hope that you can join us for the fundraiser, but if you cannot attend the event itself, perhaps you will consider making a donation of purses, wallets, or golf-related items.
You can e-mail Heidi at heidihorwitz@comcast.net to find out how to donate. Tickets to the event are available at westseattlerotary.org.
there and back again… from Laura James on Vimeo.
Weary from a long Viadoom Evening #4 commute? Before we get to more of tonight’s news, how about a glimpse into another world – underwater, near Alki? Diver/photographer Laura James has shared more videos. The one above includes a look at other divers using “scooters” (propulsion devices, no wheels and not “ridden”); this one is more sealife-centric, including a tranquil-looking jelly:
light and jelly at the Junkyard from Laura James on Vimeo.
The first one was closer to the Salty’s/Seacrest side of Alki, while the second one, Laura says, was shot off Alki Point.
(SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES)
(Top L, north of 1st Av. S. Bridge; top R, 1st @ Holgate; below L, I-5 on south end of downtown; below R, 12th headed for bridge to Beacon Hill, where there’s alternate WS Bridge access)
First update: Traffic is slow EASTBOUND on the high bridge right now. More to come – we’ll be hitting the road in a few minutes to get a firsthand look, and please let us know what you are seeing (if you can send info safely, such as, from a bus!).
4:14 PM UPDATE: Travel times show 4th is in better shape than 1st right now.
4:35 PM UPDATE: On the road now. High bridge looks better, peeking up the onramp from Avalon. Busy stream coming off the low bridge – here comes the 54 and the 55, homeward bound. And another 54.
4:40 PM UPDATE: Problem – stalled truck eastbound on the low bridge.
Lineup building behind it.
High bridge is busy eastbound from 99 forward. Westbound looks OK. We’re on 1st Avenue South now – past the Hanford detour, which we’ll check out in a minute – looks busier toward downtown than heading away. … Scratch that. Avoid 1st South. The backup from the detour is significant. A Bainbridge Island school bus is even stuck in it (checking, we think they’re headed for a match in West Seattle).
4:50 PM UPDATE: The stalled semi is still on the westbound low bridge, according to the scanner. Detour to the 1st Avenue South Bridge if you can. Take 4th or 6th to get to Michigan, which connects eastward.
5 PM UPDATE: We’re on southbound 4th now. Looks good through SODO. We’ll see what happens when we get close to 1st South Bridge turnoff. Text from someone on a bus says police have blocked off scene of stalled semi on low bridge.
5:14 PM UPDATE: WSB commenter Travis says the stalled semi is being towed. However, keep in mind, it takes a while to clear backups, even after the reason for the backup is fixed – so 1st is likely to be bad for a while. We took 4th, which was backed up a few blocks from the turn for the 1st Avenue South Bridge; we detoured to 6th per recent advice from a friend, and are now on Michigan heading for the 1st S. Bridge. Just found this “live” view of the low bridge on a camera that usually points elsewhere:
… Now we’ve crossed the 1st Avenue South Bridge. Looks good heading homeward-bound once you’re on it. Even if you’re in north WS, you can get off and head toward Highland Park Way but stay right to keep on West Marginal, which will take you up to Spokane St. under the bridge and on to Avalon, Admiral, Harbor, etc. … Oh well, now that camera is back to the bridge approach (looking east on Spokane), maybe helpful anyway.
5:35 PM UPDATE: Commenter says the 5:15 pm Water Taxi was full. Another one says tempers are short in the 1st Avenue South backup. Firsthand reports helpful – don’t type while driving, though! – our road crew is back at HQ as we have to cover a 6 pm community meeting (though we will still be tracking traffic, too). We hope the Bainbridge Island girls’ volleyball team made it to Chief Sealth for their 5:30 pm match against Holy Names (winner of that one plays Sealth at 7:30) – we noted a sighting of their bus in the 1st S. backup at 4:40! Appears some commuters have detoured to Water Taxi; commenter says 5:15 pm was full, and Bill in the 5:45 line says it looks like a full house will ensue for that sailing too.
6:08 PM UPDATE: The low bridge opened right after 6, as it has been doing pretty much every day this week. Remember, 3-6 pm was the only time period during which it was promised the bridge would stay closed to marine traffic. The Water Taxi has been sold out for the past two runs; if you travel on the 6:15 pm, let us know if it had to leave folks in line too!
6:35 PM UPDATE: We’re at a meeting in White Center where someone coming from the Eastside was supposed to be here half an hour ago – so that says something about the traffic. No real train trouble at Hanford this afternoon/evening, we’re told – unlike what we documented yesterday. (A TV crew was there to do a story, we’re told, so just figures it didn’t replicate.) … Wait, now an update from Michele (at 6:45), “stopped by a train on the second set of tracks.”
6:49 PM UPDATE: From Krista via Facebook: “Our 54 local bus driver is rocking it. Just did a 180 degree turn in an articulated bus to find us a better reroute that isn’t blocked by a train. There were at least 10 buses behind us stuck in the traffic on E Marginal Way. Still a loooong commute home tonight.”
7:24 PM UPDATE: Via Twitter, Gwen says some people are getting out and walking. (A few minutes later, we checked back with her, and she said that after half an hour on 1st S., her bus had finally moved, and was over the low bridge, “everything clear now.”)
From Joe:
I live down on 26th & Trenton St. (behind Westwood Village) and noticed that my blue 2006 Yamaha Vino scooter had been stolen. It was parked on 26th Ave just north of the 26th & Trenton intersection. License plate 910305. Probably stolen sometime between 1 pm Wednesday and noon today (Thursday). The only modification is it has a windshield. Looks exactly like this (plus a windshield).
(Click to see larger image)
Today’s afternoon/evening traffic update will start in a few minutes – but first, our bird’s-eye view, courtesy of Erick (in a crane!), of how the Alaskan Way Viaduct South End demolition was looking as of late this morning. An official update from WSDOT:
Overnight, crews continued to remove debris from the demolition site and removed steel protective plates from the roadway. Today, crews are concentrating their efforts on demolishing the lower bridge deck near South Atlantic Street, striping the new construction bypass and paving. Later tonight, crews will begin installing approximately 40 truckloads of concrete traffic safety barrier along 3,000 feet of the new bridge and bypass.
We also asked them what’s being done with the rubble, after a WSB’er sent us that question. From Viaduct project spokesperson Travis Phelps:
The concrete is going to Seattle Tunneling Parnters (our tunnel contractor). They’ll grind up the concrete and use it for creating roads in and through their workzone and form a launch pad for the boring machine. The rebar is being recycled.
Again, Highway 99 remains scheduled to reopen Monday morning at 5 am – but obviously it won’t be the same as it was – you’ll be driving a construction bypass till you get to the central portion, which will NOT be demolished till the tunnel is done (four-plus years).
P.S. For a time-lapse look at five days of demolition work – check out the video on this page from the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Supporters of Southwest Community Center converged on the City Council budget hearing downtown last night, hoping to convince councilmembers to drop the current proposal to dramatically change the center. In essence, as reported here in September, it would no longer be Southwest CC, but would become Southwest Teen Life Center, with part of its space taken by a Neighborhood Service Center (the only one in West Seattle, moving from its current spot in Delridge). Kathleen Lonergan of the Family Learning Center, a program based at SWCC, shared photos (that’s her at the microphone in the top photo) and an update on their efforts:
We had a great turnout for the City Council meeting last night. We had over 50 people show up to support the effort to save SWCC. We signed in as two groups and were able to speak for 10 minutes. The speakers were myself, Erica Forrest and Michael Goerz. We submitted almost 250 signatures on our petition – these were gathered in the lobby of SWCC in less than one week! We intend to keep the petition available at SWCC (and online at change.org) right up until the final vote on November 21st. We also continue to direct people to our facebook page so we can keep them up to date on the fight to keep SWCC open and available to all of our neighbors in Southwest Seattle.
Here’s the Seattle Channel video of the entire hearing – if you drag the “play” button ahead to the 73:30 mark, you can watch what the Southwest CC supporters said:
Kathleen adds that Karen Crisalli Winter of West Seattle spoke on behalf of Southwest CC as a private citizen (87:30 on the video). We asked Kathleen what else they are doing as a followup to the hearing:
Right now we are encouraging the community to write follow-up letters to the meeting last night. We will keep the petition going. Councilmember Tom Rasmussen is coming by at 2 pm on November 4th to tour the center with us. Our kids are taking flyers door to door in our neighborhood, asking people to contact city council. That’s all we have at the moment. We’d love to organize a meeting but we need more community members to get on board with us, otherwise we’re just talking to ourselves and we’ve already done a lot of that!
What we would love is for more members of the SW Seattle community to contact us, put pressure on the city council, and help spread the word about what’s happening. … Our biggest hurdle is still the fact that so few people really know what’s happening.
We REALLY want to keep the NSC out of Southwest. We don’t feel this relocation benefits anyone except the city. It destroys the available space at SWCC. Even private programs, such as ours, that are being offered space at SWCC after the closure, will be hard-pressed to fit into the center once it’s been remodeled to accommodate the NSC. And it puts the NSC in a much less accessible location for anyone riding the bus. It’s a bad fit all around. We want the community to get as mad about this as we are!
You can contact Kathleen at klonergan@gmail.com to get involved with these efforts, as well as the Southwest CC Advisory Council, chaired by Tom Foley at lilmoto@hotmail.com. City information about the community-center changes is here, though it’s spread across multiple documents.
Eco Beauty, an Aveda salon/spa north of Morgan Junction, is opening late today – but not because they wanted to. They had to wait for police to come investigate a crime; the broken glass above is part of the evidence. Salon manager Phillip Todd, who posted an alert about the burglary on the WSB Facebook page, says that broken window shows how the burglar/s got in; they got away with some money. We talked to them around noontime and noticed that police were there about half an hour ago, so they should be open before long.
ORIGINAL 11:46 AM REPORT: One day after reporting that the DESC proposal for a 75-unit homeless-housing project in Delridge is recommended for $500,000 state funding, we received word of a site at which an anonymous “Concerned Neighbor” has published research that s/he says is relevant to the proposal. We don’t have the research bandwidth to try to fact-check this, so we are not vouching for its accuracy, but here’s the link, so you can read for yourself if you’re interested. (Note the tabs leading to additional pages.) We asked DESC executives yesterday for comment on the funding report and still have not received a reply; if we do, we’ll ask them about this too.
2:16 PM UPDATE: We will have another story in the works for later today; we have heard from Delridge residents who attended a county meeting today regarding another funding request for the project, and we are told the decision was delayed because of concerns voiced by the residents.
4:17 PM UPDATE: Also revealed at that county meeting – the city has granted funding for the project. We have confirmed this with the city Office of Housing. As for how much – the Housing spokesperson is supposed to call us back with that information.
One day before Halloween, you might get a knock on the door from someone who’ll be looking for a food-drive donation, not a treat. Angel Laycock from the soccer club HPFC Eagles says that 3-5 pm this Sunday (October 30) they’ll be out on what they call “Trick or Can“:
Small groups of our club will be going around house to house to collect canned food and what we will do is send that canned food to three different food drives which include Highline Area Food Bank, White Center Food Bank, and West Seattle Food Bank. We will be in a couple different areas that include Normandy Park, Three Tree Point, North Admiral, and a few other local locations.
Participating players range in age from 10-17, Angel tells us, and he just wants to get the word out so that you’ll consider having a food donation available if you happen to get a visit. (And if nobody comes by, trust us, there are many other drives in the works to which you can contribute.)
A WSB’er just e-mailed to note that despite traffic highs and lows for drivers and to some degree bus riders, bicycling is in his view “easy, free, clear, and very consistent. The best no-hassle commute.” Which brings us to the video above – transportation reporter Mike Lindblom from the Seattle Times (WSB partner) used a helmet cam to create a time-lapse video of his commute from West Seattle via bicycle yesterday, including a stop at the Cascade Bicycle Club/WSDOT station by the “low bridge” (we noted a cameo by Alki Bike and Board’s Stu Hennessey). In the second half of the clip, Mike slows it back down to real-time pace for a narrated tour past the Viaduct demolition. P.S. Cascade says it’ll have a station by the bridge on Monday too, 6:45-9 am, just to keep people motivated to keep commuting by bike.
(Amanita in Lincoln Park, by Machel Spence, who says it’s a sign of fall she awaits each year! Don’t eat them, though.)
From the WSB West Seattle Events calendar:
WEST SEATTLE DEMOCRATIC WOMEN: Lunch meeting today at the West Seattle Golf Course. Executive Director Craig Salins from Washington Public Campaigns will speak on the organization’s goals and activities as well as discuss its current financial difficulties; a Families & Education Levy representative will discuss the importance of supporting this levy. The Discussion Group meets from 10:30 a.m. to 11:15 am, on ‘Implications of Occupy Wall Street — Seattle.’ Registration is from 11:15-11:30 am with the program from 11:30 am – 1 pm. Cost is $12 members; $15 non-Members OR the minimum fee of $5 which includes coffee/tea and dessert.
‘FAMILY MATTERS’: Tonight there are five Family Matters presentations/events at Fauntleroy UCC Church – full lineup here, 5 and 7 pm.
HIGH-SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL:The Chief Sealth International High School Varsity Volleyball team hosts a Metro League playoff game at 5:30 pm, with its winner playing the Seahawks at 7:30 pm. Doors open for both contests at 5 pm. $7 for adults and $5 for students.
COMMUNITY SAFETY COALITION: The South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition meets for the first time since “Operation Center of Attention” was announced, St. James, 9421 18th SW, 6 pm.
DELRIDGE COMMUNITY CENTER’S FUTURE: The ongoing series of meetings to talk about community-center changes in next year’s city budget moves to Delridge Community Center tonight, 7 pm (details here).
‘THE DESPERATE HOURS’: The West Seattle High School Drama Club presents “The Desperate Hours” by Joseph Hayes, 7:30 pm, WSHS Theater. $7 with reservation (email reservations@westsidedrama.com or call 206-252-8834), $12 at the door.
‘EVIL DEAD’ CONTINUES: “Evil Dead: The Musical” continues tonight at ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery in The Junction, 7:30 pm.
(Collection boxes at the Admiral Way Viewpoint dropoff station last April; WSB photo by Katie Meyer)
Last April, West Seattle dropoff points for “Drug Take-Back Day” brought in more than 250 pounds of prescription drugs – taking them out of medicine cabinets and other storage places where they would pose various risks. This Saturday, it’s happening again, so if you have expired, no-longer-needed, or otherwise-unwanted prescription drugs on hand, gather them up and get ready to drop them off. The Seattle Police Southwest Precinct is listed as the West Seattle site this time, 10 am-2 pm Saturday, Delridge/Webster.
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