So much to do, so little time: Happening in West Seattle today
That’s just a slice of the 400-strong crowd at the Duwamish Alive! Earth Day mega-work party southeast of Cooper School last year – and a similar crowd is expected today (with at least three political leaders – Mayor Nickels and County Councilmembers/Executive candidates Dow Constantine and Larry Phillips – visiting along the way). It’s part of a HUGE slate of not just Earth Day events, but also fun fundraisers, live music performances, 2 big rummage/garage sales, and a lot more happening today – we’ll just point you directly to the Saturday section of the West Seattle Weekend Lineup – click here.
Using Twitter — even to find out diving conditions at Seacrest!
With Oprah talking about it today, Twitter is suddenly The Next Big Bandwagon. We’ve been talking about Twitter here for a long time – WSB has been using it since November 2007, and we added a page here last year enabling you to check out recent tweets by almost anyone mentioning West Seattle, plus our latest tweets. You don’t need to sign up for Twitter to see what’s on it — just as long as you know who you’re looking for, you can check out their latest tweets on the Web; for example, we are @westseattleblog, so you can see what we’re up to at twitter.com/westseattleblog, Twitter member or not. Enough about us: We got word via Facebook (where you can “friend” us: WS Blog) from local diving instructor Dave Rintoul of Dive Canuck SCUBA that he’s set up a Twitter account – inspired by one in Malibu – to share info on Seacrest diving conditions. Find him at twitter.com/seacrestdiving – he says he’ll be looking for more divers to share the responsibility of posting condition updates.
West Seattle scenes: Schmitz Park signs of spring
From West Seattle photojournalist Matt Durham, of mattdurhamphotography.com:
Clockwise from lower left: Spring foliage adorns the trails as hikers and naturalists tour Schmitz Park Friday. White Trillium flowers (Lily family) can be found by the keen observer. Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) sprouts from soggy soils and their flowers are short-lived. Various other plants and flowers await visitors in West Seattle’s second-generation “old growth” forest.
Never been to Schmitz Park? Here’s a map.
California Place Park: Design workshops end – now what?
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Much has changed since the first public discussion of possible changes to little California Place Park in North Admiral – and much has not.
What has changed:
*After going through the design process funded by a $15,000 city matching-funds grant, the proposal for possible park changes does not include anything resembling a children’s play area.
*The so-called “southern triangle” of city-owned land, southwest of the park itself, is now under Parks Department supervision since the process brought to light the fact it was somewhat neglected SDOT-owned right-of-way.
*Life has changed for one of the leaders of Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral — Manuela Slye is moving her Admiral District home-based bilingual Cometa Playschool — which some critics had suggested was a motivation for proposing park changes — to part of the former Prudential NW space about two miles south.
What hasn’t changed:
Those opposed to any changes in the small triangle of lawn and trees remain resolute, particularly nearby resident Jan Bailey, who has spent many hours standing in the park with her NO CHANGE TO PARK sign, gathering almost 700 petition signatures, and brought her sign and flyers to last night’s meeting, greeting neighbors at the door, then keeping vigil at the back of the room.
Also unchanged, one stark reality: The fact that intensive community fundraising would be needed to make any changes to the park.
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More West Seattle restaurant news: New ownership for Alki Cafe
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Thanks to the anonymous e-mailer who tipped us to this last night; we confirmed it in person this afternoon: Alki Cafe‘s longtime owners Carol and Steve Roaldson have sold the restaurant. It’s now owned by John Bang, who was there today, greeting customers, too busy to talk in detail at the time but promising to share more information about his plans shortly.
Metro proposals unveiled: Delridge-Junction Route 50 won’t happen
Metro has just unveiled a slate of proposed route changes, mostly related to the impending opening of the light-rail line: Southwest changes are listed here (including rerouting the south end of 128, which travels through West Seattle/White Center) – but we noticed one big thing missing: The proposed Route 50, which generated some West Seattle excitement because it would have included a leg taking bus riders directly between North Delridge and The Junction, is no longer under consideration. That’s “because of costs,” Metro spokesperson Linda Thielke tells WSB; she also noted that the proposal generated mixed feedback during the public-comment period. Its Southeast Seattle leg had been linked to some changes that were generating concern in that area, according to what Metro reps told the North Delridge Neighborhood Council two months ago (WSB coverage here). The next step for all the changes proposed today is a County Council committee public hearing next Tuesday night (info here) and then a vote in May. (If you want to see what’s being proposed for southeast Seattle, here’s the direct link to those details.)
Sunrise Heights meeting: Hughes School; sex offenders; more
From Thursday night’s quarterly meeting of the Sunrise Heights Neighborhood Association (this area is roughly between High Point and Westwood, between 35th and Delridge):
E.C. HUGHES SCHOOL’S FUTURE: Sage Wilson of the SHNA board has been talking with Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association about applying for a city Department of Neighborhoods grant to study community interest in the closed Hughes school. (After temporarily housing South Lake High School the past two years, it’s vacant again this year.) The grant would facilitate open houses for public input on the site, to figure out if there’s enough interest to look into buying it, since it’s on the Seattle Public Schools surplus-property list. Neighbors’ general consensus was that it’s a good idea to talk about this before a development proposal comes in from outside the neighborhood. Sage will head up the grant-writing effort, to meet a July deadline.
SEX OFFENDERS: Detective Bob Shilling from the Seattle Police Sex Offender Detail briefed the neighborhood about how to find information online, as well as what families really need to know about sex crimes: Long story short, very few involve “strangers.” As for sex offenders in local neighborhoods, you can use this website to see if any level-1 or level-2 offenders are living near you (it’s linked from the bottom of our Crime Watch page if you ever need to find it again); the West Seattle overview is that the Southwest Precinct area has 163 right now, fewer than any other precinct in the city (the largest number is 343 in the North Precinct). Statewide, there are 20,178 registered sex offenders.
POKER TOURNAMENT FUNDRAISER: This Saturday night is SHNA’s 4th annual Texas Hold’em Poker Night at the social hall of Our Lady of Guadalupe, $15/person or $120/table of 9. Must be 21 or older. More info on the SNHA website.
9 days left to sign up for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day
With the recent bursts of sunshine and warmth, thoughts turn to spring cleaning, among other things, and what better way, than to have a garage sale … 
and to invite the entire region to come buy your stuff. Nine days left to sign up to be part of West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day — one peninsula, many sales (almost 150 last year) — on Saturday, May 9th. More than 80 sales are registered so far – we didn’t have that many last year till four days before the close of registration (admittedly, we stretched out the registration period this year, so we had more time to get the word out). Plenty of room on the map for more. And as promised, the map will be out earlier, so you have more time to plot your shopping strategy if you’re NOT having a sale – we’ll have it available starting Sunday 5/3 at our table at the Sustainable West Seattle Festival (WSB sponsor) – and more time to send it around to everyone you know if you ARE having a sale. If you don’t have enough room for one of your own, check with Lora at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) or Cameron at C & P Coffee, both of whom are offering courtyard space, first-come first-served and they’ve already been making reservations … also be thinking about the contests, “Most Creative Sign,” “Most Unusual Item Bought” and “Most Unusual Item Sold” (here’s the report on last year’s winners). Registration deadline is 11:59 pm Saturday 4/25 – sign up online here, or go here to print out a mail-in form, or pick up a preprinted form at Hotwire, Illusions Hair Design, Stor-More Self Storage, Brunette Mix (all four are WSB sponsors), Delridge and Southwest Library branches, or the Senior Center of West Seattle. So far, we have school sales, church sales, block sales, estate sales, individual sales – add yours to the mix, and watch the official site at westseattlegaragesale.com for updates!
Meet a West Seattle Rat City Rollergirl: “Deadly Aim”
By Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
It’s 8:00 Thursday night — do you know where your roller skates are?
If you do, and you’re a female over the age of 21, with current health insurance and a “badass” attitude — you may be a prime candidate for the Rat City Rollergirls.
RCRG was founded in 2004, based back then at the Southgate rink in White Center. Though Southgate has since closed and RCRG skaters now practice at rinks in Lynnwood and Bellevue, they maintain their ties to the White Center/West Seattle communities. For starters, at least eight skaters live in the area, including Bird on a Wire coffee shop owner Heidi Herr (skate name: “Skate Trooper”). Also — community outreach is a core value for RCRG, and they participate in local activities including helping clean up Longfellow Creek, and a stretch of road they’ve “adopted” in White Center (where their next cleanup is scheduled for April 25).
West Seattle Rollergirl and “Derby Liberation Front” team co-captain “Deadly Aim” (aka Aimee Ettel) took some time off the track to provide some insight into the world of RCRG and to talk about their upcoming home game at RCRG’s big new home “rink,” KeyArena, this Saturday.
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Happening now: 3rd design workshop for California Place Park
We’re at Alki Community Center for the third and final “design workshop” in this stage of the process that could result in additions to little California Place Park next to Admiral Church (WSB sponsor) at California/Hill. Park-change opponents are here with bright lime-green mini-signs that say NO CHANGE TO PARK on one side, echoing the large sign held by Jan Bailey, greeting meeting attendees outside (then at the back of the room once the meeting began, per photo added above at 7:16 pm), while landscape architect Karen Kiest and members of Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral get ready to lead the meeting inside. About 35 people are here as the meeting starts; Steven Gray from FANNA just announced there will be a May 24 gathering, location TBA (probably at the park), to celebrate the time and energy everyone’s put into this – on both sides. Kiest will be presenting final design options for the park; we’ll add a note or two along the way as the meeting proceeds, before a separate, full writeup afterward. 8:41 PM UPDATE: The meeting just wrapped up; next steps, Kiest will write up a report within the next month and a half or so, and FANNA will decide what if anything they might pursue funding for – cost estimates presented here went all the way from less than $100,000 for one component of the “draft plan” to almost $400,000 for everything that could be done (including extending the park boundaries to green up a currently paved section of land on the north side that belongs to the park but is currently used as road). ADDED FRIDAY MORNING: While we’re working on the in-depth followup, here’s the design artwork shown at the meeting.
Another new West Seattle business, coming to 42nd/Admiral
After more than two years, the “Auto Buff Is Moving” banner is finally about to come down at 42nd/Admiral – because the building’s getting a facelift, with someone new moving in: Eric Renn talked to WSB today about his new “athletic gym,” taking over the long-vacant former Auto Buff space. Our discussion also reveals a bit about the future of the corner in general – previously slated for a mixed-use development with a “grocery store” once rumored to be the ever-elusive Trader Joe’s – read on to find out more:Read More
Rep. Sharon Nelson wins “Legislator of the Year”
Even though the State Legislature‘s session isn’t over yet, Democratic legislative staffers have voted on this award – and given it to Rep. Sharon Nelson, serving her first full term representing the 34th District, which includes West Seattle. She’s shown above with the plaque and her legislative assistant Joe Fitzgibbon; we heard about it last night and asked him for more details – read on for the official announcement we’ve received in reply:Read More
City budget cuts: Another public hearing announced
Tomorrow morning, Mayor Nickels will brief the media on more of the budget-cut plans to bring city spending in line with the dramatically reduced revenue forecast revealed last week. Though council votes aren’t required for him to implement cuts, councilmembers say they want to hear what you think – so they’ve just announced another public hearing, this one for next Tuesday night – read on for the official announcement from the office of Councilmember Jean Godden, who chairs the council’s budget committee:Read More
Admiral Way slope-clearing mystery solved
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More than a few WSBers have asked what we know about the city crew that’s been clearing part of the slope this week along the west side of Admiral Way, about halfway uphill from the West Seattle Bridge. We checked with Parks Department spokesperson Dewey Potter, who explains:
At this site there’s a little bit of park property and mostly Seattle Department of Transportation property. Under the Green Seattle Partnership, it’s the first piece of work to be done on non-park property, and the largest piece of non-park property identified as a Green Seattle Partnership site. Here’s the partnership web site: greenseattle.org and a recent Mayor’s news release
Parks is clearing the invasive blackberries. A banner will go up soon at the site inviting volunteers to come and help, if they’d like to, on the east side (the west side is too dangerous for volunteers because of its proximity to traffic and the steepness of the slope).
By the way, we regularly feature Green Seattle Partnership-promoted work parties in our West Seattle Weekend Lineup, published every Friday – here’s the GS list of what’s coming up this weekend, a particularly big slate since it’s the weekend before Earth Day. This page on the GSP website explains the importance of clearing invasives (ivy, and more) in urban forests.
Another Zeeks Pizza update: West Seattle delivery boundaries
(recent WSB photo peeking inside the Zeeks construction site)
As we first reported last night, the new Zeeks Pizza coming to the ex-Corner Inn spot at California/Fauntleroy has finalized its grand opening date and time: 11 am on Friday, May 1st. After we published word here and on Facebook following Zeeks executive Dan Black‘s announcement at last night’s Morgan Community Association meeting, some WSBers asked if they had firmed up their delivery boundaries yet (always a hot topic when it comes to West Seattle and pizza). We followed up with Black this morning, and here’s his reply:
North – Water
West – Water
South – 116th St SW [map]
East – Highway 509
Plus one pocket outside those boundaries, which he described as “the Shorewood neighborhood.” He also told us after last night’s meeting that Zeeks is thinking about asking customers, once they’re open, to co-create a West Seattle-exclusive pizza that would only be on the menu at this location. Meantime, he adds that they are still hiring, and in the midst of an intensive final two weeks of work renovating and rehabilitating the space; the building’s owner was at last night’s meeting too, and recalled that it was a market and hardware store when he took it over more than 40 years ago.
Tired of taxes? “Junction Rebellion” just announced
One day after Tax Deadline Day, the merchants of the West Seattle Junction Association have just announced a plan to free you from (sales) taxes for a day – the “Junction Rebellion.” Tax-free shopping – in other words, the store pays the tax, not you – with other discounts and promotions, are planned for participating merchants (see the poster) on Saturday, April 25th.
3:46 PM UPDATE: After some commenters asked whether this was tied to yesterday’s “tea party” protests around the country, WSJA’s Susan Melrose asked us to share this message:
The purpose of this promotion was to generate shopping in The Junction for the benefit of our retail members in this trying economy. It was in no way intended to be construed as a political statement, and the timing was inadvertent and unfortunate for our intention (we planned this 2 weeks ago). One of the Junction Association’s core values is to support community and the true intention behind this promotion is nothing more than to have a fun shopping day in The Junction, enjoy living local, and have merchants pick up the tab on sales tax. Sorry for overcomplicating a simple neighborhood sale! To contact me directly: susan@wsjunction.org
Tonight: California Place Park, Sunrise Heights, WestSide Baby
One last round of reminders about these events, from the WSB Events calendar (where even more events for tonight, and way beyond, are listed):
LAST CALIFORNIA PLACE PARK DESIGN WORKSHOP: 7 pm, Alki Community Center. The first workshop was tumultuous; the second one, at which potential designs for park additions were unveiled, was deemed productive; tonight, something closer to a final proposal is presented for discussion and feedback. After that, an entirely different process would ensue if Friends and Neighbors of North Admiral decides to pursue park additions — the search for funding.
SUNRISE HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: If we were to casually define this area, we’d say, between High Point and Gatewood, mostly east of 35th SW. If you live there, you’ve probably received a flyer about this; if not, check out the group’s website, which includes the agenda (plus word of their Poker Tournament this Saturday). Meeting’s at 7 pm, Southwest Precinct (map).
WESTSIDE BABY “SORTING FRENZY”: Hundreds of local families get clothing and other necessities through WestSide Baby, but before donated items can get to recipients, they have to be sorted, and WestSide Baby has monthly “sorting frenzy” parties with volunteer helpers. If you can lend a hand tonight, e-mail sarah@westsidebaby.org.
Including – Earth Day 
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