Seen on the shore: Cricket at Alki; otter on the rocks
First: West Seattle photojournalist Matt Durham from mattdurhamphotography.com shares that photo, along with this explanation:
Saturday evening, a team of die-hard cricket players took the beach at Alki. The “batsman” stands in front of a “wicket” and tries to hit runs from the “bowler” (pitcher). The game, cricket, has some similarities to baseball. There are eleven players on a team and batsman tries to score runs the bowler throws from an opposite wicket. The game can last an afternoon or several days.
Second, West Seattle resident Bill Bacon sent this photo, taken at Myrtle Edwards on the downtown waterfront, as a semi-rare closeup look at one of the river otters that live in Elliott Bay (and are often seen, in and out of the water, over here):
Thanks to Matt and Bill for sharing the photos; as you know if you’ve been here more than once, we are thrilled to share your photos and video as well as pix and clips we get ourselves while covering the news, so keep editor@westseattleblog.com in mind … thanks!
Labor of love: Who’s digging in at those “work parties”
Every Friday in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, we include listings for Saturday morning work parties at West Seattle’s greenbelt treasures, from well-used parks to tangled greenbelts. So who are the intrepid volunteers who show up to help tend what so many of us take for granted? We sent a new WSB contributing reporter out this morning to meet one group and find out how much progress they’re making.
By Jonathan Stumpf
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The first Saturday of every month is like most at Lincoln Park: Dog-walking, jogging and baseball make up the bulk of activities in this 135-acre urban forest. But among the shrubbery and trees, a group of individuals — the Friends of Lincoln Park — are performing an activity that is vital to the park’s future: the removal of invasive plant species.
The Friends of Lincoln Park is a volunteer group led by West Seattle resident and trained forest steward Sharon Baker. For three years she has been leading individuals into Lincoln Park to help with the removal of invasive plants like English holly and ivy, Himalayan blackberry, Stinky Bob, nipple-wort and clematis, with hopes of reclaiming the forest for the native plants.
Today, nine volunteers are on hand for this work party to help with removal of Stinky Bob and blackberry in the north end of the park. While Baker is not a botanist by trade, she did take an intensive course on plant identification through the Native Plant Society. “I know enough to be dangerous in the park,” Baker says. This knowledge is passed along to her group of dedicated volunteers—this is the first event for only one volunteer—and they begin ripping the blackberry and Stinky Bob from the undergrowth.
Read More
The night before its season launch, see the Water Taxi’s new look
We just couldn’t wait till tomorrow morning — went to the downtown waterfront tonight to get photos of the new trim and new logo on the newly rebranded King County Water Taxi. Tomorrow, of course, you can see it in person …
… free rides all day, and while the big party at Seacrest Pier (map) is noon-2 pm (with the fireboat Leschi scheduled for a spray show around 12:45), the Water Taxi sails its full schedule on day 1, which means you should see its first arrival at Seacrest around 8:45 am. P.S. If you’re trying to remember what the Water Taxi USED to look like, here’s a WSB photo from last fall:
Talking with King County Council Chair Dow Constantine at the Gathering of Neighbors today, we’re pretty sure he mentioned a new look for the shuttle buses too, so we’ll be watching out for that tomorrow morning as well. ADDED 11:07 PM: Well, we don’t even have to wait till tomorrow for THAT – turns out the King County Ferry District has a Flickr stream with an entire sequence of photos of the shuttle-bus rewrapping — see it here (as well as more pix of the Water Taxi’s new look).
This Morgan Junction storefront won’t be empty much longer
Thanks to Mike for letting us know that storefront in the 6500 block of California SW (map), the former home of Aaron’s Bicycle Repair, has swapped its “for lease” sign for a “coming soon” sign — Pilates Westside, says the sign. The company on the business license for that name and this address trace to this local Pilates instructor; we’ll be trying to track her down to find out more. (The bike shop, you may recall, moved a few doors south to the former liquor-store space; we checked recently with the Liquor Control Board to find out if it had secured a replacement West Seattle location yet, and the answer was no.) Morgan Junction’s the hot place to be, not only with this new business moving in, but with Zeek’s Pizza (opening in about a month, reiterates its website) and Feedback Lounge getting closer to opening a few blocks north, and construction well under way on the new park just north of the always-jumping Beveridge Place Pub. (Morgan Junction-area residents and businesspeople, by the way, are reminded that the Morgan Community Association‘s next meeting is 7 pm April 15th at The Kenney.)
Mystery Seaview Samaritans: Possum rescued from the road
Out of the WSB inbox – Deb Barker tells the story:
We had a bit of drama on 48th Ave @ SW Graham this afternoon with a sick or wounded possum lying in the middle of the busy roadway. Two strangers stopped to tend to the critter, getting it into a box, duct taping the box together and getting it into my car. (I was running back and forth setting up traffic cones, calling animal control, fetching gloves, tape, etc). I am hoping that my fellow rescuers read the West Seattle Blog so that they know that the critter was delivered to Seattle Animal Control on 15th West, and they were going to have PAWS take it. (I offered to take the possum to Lynnwood, but it sounded like PAWS was enroute anyway). Also, I have the sweatshirt and blue strapping ties that the rescuers left behind.
But most importantly, I want to thank both of the rescuers for taking time out of their day to stop and offer comfort and aid to a small creature. I’m sorry that the drivers along this street were mostly idiots who couldn’t be bothered to slow down while you crouched in the middle of the street protecting the possum. You are my heros – I am so honored to have met you – THANK YOU!!
Let me know if you’d like your belongings returned – the Blog will know how to reach me.
And indeed we do – e-mail us at editor@westseattleblog.com (other contact methods here).
Want to be part of a new West Seattle P-Patch? Deadline’s here!
From the WSB inbox, an update on the P-Patch plan in The Junction, and the above photo, with a call for action RIGHT NOW, if you are interested:
Friends of West Seattle Genesee P-Patch
Urgent! We need your help now! West Seattle has been an under-served community for p-patches, and in recent years has lost two of them. There are currently more than 100 West Seattle residents on a wait list for a p-patch plot. There are also no city-run p-patches north of SW Edmunds St. Here is a great opportunity for West Seattlites to come together and volunteer to help local residents in need of a plot. Currently, West Seattle p-patchers must seek sites outside of our area. We are looking for volunteers for the following tasks, especially if you already have the tools and know-how:
Demo a small section of concrete sidewalk and reclaim a few more square feet of garden space.
Build a hogwire fence (we will secure the materials).Haul away shrubs and brush in your truck.General labor such as digging, tilling, and taking out shrubs, brush, and 3 trees.
If you have a group of young ones that you can lead in making garden stepping stones or would like to build short sections of picket fence panels, I want to hear from you!
This is the final weekend before the opportunity for you to contribute to your community through this project closes. Please contact me as soon as possible at wscc.grounds@hotmail.com or call me at 206-280-5015. Aaron, Genesee P-Patch coordinator.
Crash at 35th SW/Marine View Drive
Checked out a “medic response, 6 per” call to 35th SW/Marine View Drive (map) – just one vehicle left at the scene and no traffic trouble, but we then got a note with more to the story: Apparently a bicyclist was involved in the collision too and was taken to the hospital. We’ll let you know if/when we are able to find out more.
Gathering of Neighbors updates: Council leaders, and more
City Council President Richard Conlin has just spoken to the crowd that’s here in the cafeteria with us and some of the other participants at the Gathering of Neighbors (music and treats are back here too, all free) — the photo above is from a few minutes earlier, when he stopped to talk with Highland Park Action Committee leaders including chair Dan Mullins (left) – all the fun here is continuing till 3 pm at Chief Sealth @ Boren. Also from the HPAC booth – a collage display that Dina Johnson put together:
Lots of other neighborhood groups here too – we spoke with Andrew Mead of the High Point Neighborhood Association, Cindi Barker and Chas Redmond from the Morgan Community Association, we’ve also seen Matthew Slye with the Admiral Neighborhood Association, and Junction Plaza Park (where we chatted with Junction Neighborhood Organization president Erica Karlovits – they’ll be at the Farmers’ Market again tomorrow too – pledges of volunteer help are going well, now it’s time to chip in a few dollars to make the park happen):
We have talked to so many other cool people who are here – Larry Carpenter of the Alki Community Council just stopped by, the city’s Neighborhood Service Center reps Stan Lock (based in The Junction) and Ron Angeles (based in Delridge) are here, as are the Southwest Precinct’s Community Police Team officers – we’ve seen Officers Adonis Topacio and Ralph Wilson so far. Music is big here too – we’re next to the Glee Club, and Toni Reineke with Westside Symphonette has a table in the hallway:
The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce organized this along with Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association (DNDA) so they’re here in force too – stop by the Chamber’s table and get one of their West Seattle Community Resource Guides:
Be sure to fill out the survey too; there’s a dropbox on our table. Also just dropping by: County Council Chair (and Executive candidate) Dow Constantine, who you will see emcee’ing the King County Water Taxi kickoff tomorrow at Seacrest, noon-2 pm (don’t forget the fireboat Leschi will be there at 12:45 – weather’s looking good so far).
1:32 PM UPDATE: Still an hour and a half to get down here to the Gathering of Neighbors. Music and food here in the cafeteria – lots of giveaways along the way – at the Stor-More (WSB sponsor), among other places:
Other WSB sponsors here include Ventana Construction (which is having another one of its free workshops next week):
Eagle Electric, too:
And Fitness Together:
We’ve picked up a few more stories along the way and will publish them in a bit – it’s 3 pm now, time to fold up and head back to HQ.
From the Gathering: Two updates – paving and parks
From the Gathering of Neighbors (continuing till 3 pm at Chief Sealth @ Boren, find us in the cafeteria, where free food’s available too!), where so many of the people we talk to often for WSB news stories are also here:
FAUNTLEROY PAVING UPDATE: Jessica Murphy from SDOT just stopped by our table. We asked if there’s word yet on whether the Fauntleroy Way paving project will stretch past California (see our previous report) – she says the bid was awarded a week ago and it WILL cover the full stretch, all the way to SW Holly. She’s here with updated flyers.
PARKS LEVY COMMITTEE UPDATE: Pigeon Point’s Pete Spalding (above with wife Kerry Hughes) is here too, on behalf of the PP Neighborhood Council; he is one of three West Seattleites on the new committee overseeing how the money from last fall’s Parks Levy will be spent, and he tells us there will be a series of four public meetings citywide next month to get your thoughts on how to use the levy’s “Opportunity Fund” — dates aren’t set yet but will be soon, and he says one WILL be in West Seattle. So if there’s a park project you’d like to see happen (the Delridge Skatepark would be one proposal, since money to build it got cut out of this year’s budget)
More to come – including photos from the event!
Where to find us at Gathering of Neighbors
Once you come in the doors of Chief Sealth @ Boren, be sure to follow the signs to the cafeteria. Lots of great people to see and meet along the way – we’re in the cafeteria (where some special events will be happening too) – once you enter the cafeteria, we’re on the left side, red-covered table, two laptops, right next to the Seattle Glee Club. (Free food, music, and other special events will be happening in here too – it’s a little crowded in the hallway but make your way back here and find the fun.) Already had our first today-only-discount West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day signup and the event hasn’t even officially started yet! See you here. (We’ll post some in-progress reports as the event unfolds, too.) 11:25 AM UPDATE: Not even half an hour in, and we’ve already had four signups, including two groups!
West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day 2009 signups begin!
Come see us at the Gathering of Neighbors (11 am-3 pm, Chief Sealth @ Boren) for a special one-day, in-person discounted signup fee, or sign up online right now by going here. Garage Sale Day isn’t one big sale, but many sales all over West Seattle, big and small, all brought together on one map, promoted around the region by your friendly neighborhood WSB team — it’ll be the 5th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, our second year coordinating it. Saturday 5/9/09, 9 am-3 pm, is the big day. If you don’t have a place to sell your own stuff, by the way, get in touch with Lora @ Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) – she’s going to open her courtyard as a group-sale spot (and if anyone else is interested in doing that, please contact us to coordinate – garagesale@westseattleblog.com). Contests this year too – still finalizing the details (last year we had “best sign” and “most unusual sale item”) and prizes. Five weeks from today, mark your calendar, sign up now … last year we had more than 145 sales, but remember, there are 60,000 people in West Seattle, hundreds of thousands of more in the city limits, plenty of shoppers to go around! (Hope to see you at Gathering of Neighbors even if you’re NOT signing up … full participant list here.)
Got gardenable land? Need some? Urban Land Army needs YOU!
Let no potential garden go ungardened! Gatewood gardener Sandy from Urban Land Army sends word of the new project Land Link, which is looking for YOU:
www.urbanlandarmy.com. To contact us with questions: hq@urbanlandarmy.com
Sandy adds, “I will also be starting a series on the Urban Land Army blog next week called ‘Grow It Yourself: The First Season.’ From my Gatewood test garden, I’ll walk people through how to grow 5 vegetables and 5 herbs – from ripping out the lawn to seeding and harvesting and preserving. Complete with photos, video, and fun reading!”
Details: Conner project Design Review #4, and the reason for #5
(from left, DPD’s Michael Dorcy, board members Vlad Oustimovitch, Christie Coxley, Deb Barker, Joe Hurley, David Foster [standing])
Thursday night, after a 3 1/2-hour meeting of the Southwest Design Review Board — the fourth on the Conner Homes two-building California/Alaska/42nd project — ended with a decision to have a fifth meeting, we published a quick summary. What follows here is the long version — who said what and why, and what that fifth meeting is for.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
That mockup from one of the previous meetings on the Conner project — in which participants took the basic mass of the western building and imagined some different form and flair — is part of the reason why Design Review Board members want architects to come back one more time: This building, particularly its uppermost section, still doesn’t resemble what they’re hoping to see at the most prominent corner of the business district that is the heart of West Seattle.
Thursday night’s three-and-a-half-hour meeting settled the other remaining major issues, including whether that building would keep its residential entry on California as proposed and would keep its parking-garage entry/exit on 42nd as proposed (answer to both: yes).
Read More
More West Seattle birds: These geese are fuzzy – and famous
(WSB photos by Torin Record-Sand)
A family of Canada geese along Harbor Ave got their 15 seconds of fame this afternoon — catching the attention of media photographers (including ours) heading away from Seacrest after the diver-rescue incident. These little guys even turned up in a clip on the channel 4 news.
Yes, we know some consider geese a nuisance, but you know, they’re noble in their own way. Including lifelong fidelity.
Gathering of Neighbors tomorrow: See who’ll be there
Just received the official final list from Phillippia at DNDA, which is presenting the Gathering of Neighbors/Biz Expo with the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. To see the full list, click here – we’ll be there along with more than 70 other local businesses and organizations, including — just to name a few — WSB sponsors Budget Blinds, Eagle Electric, Stor-More, Ventana Construction, and the West Seattle Family YMCA, plus lots of other folks you’re going to want to meet, including the West Seattle Emergency Communications Hubs volunteers, the community orchestra Westside Symphonette, WestSide Baby, experts to answer your questions about what’s up with the Alaskan Way Viaduct, we could go on all night. Just come by and say hi, 11 am-3 pm tomorrow, Chief Sealth HS at Boren (5950 Delridge; here’s a map), and remember that if you’re thinking about joining in this year’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (May 9), sign up at our table tomorrow — the first day of registration — and get a one-day-only discount on the signup fees (which pay for mapmaking, posters, other fun stuff that gets WSCGSD on the regional radar). See you tomorrow!
West Seattle Weekend Lineup: Welcome back, Water Taxi! edition
, 
Better late than never, we present the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, with the return of the Water Taxi on Sunday, the Gathering of Neighbors tomorrow, the second and final weekend of “The Underpants” (all three events are WSB sponsors), and the final performances of ArtsWest‘s “History Boys.” Slower weekend than usual, what with Spring Break, but still more than 30 events in this edition of the West Seattle Weekend Lineup:Read More
Happening now: West Seattle Lions’ plant sale
Very belatedly finishing the West Seattle Weekend Lineup – if you see this before 8 pm, it’s not too late to catch night one of the West Seattle Lions‘ annual Plant Sale, happening at Senior Center of West Seattle (4217 SW Oregon St), tonight till 8. It continues tomorrow 9 am – 3 pm. Dahlias, rhodies, scented geraniums, tomatoes, and much more. West Seattle Master Gardeners on hand to answer your questions. Cash/check only. Proceeds benefit Lions philanthropic work (including eyeglasses and hearing aids for low-income WS residents, and scholarships for college-bound WS teens).
Alki 4th of July without Elliott Bay fireworks? Ivar’s cancels show
(July 4, 2008 photo by Susan Grossman of Singing Pixel Photography)
Thanks to Barbara for calling our attention to this: Ivar’s announced that it won’t have a 4th of Jul-Ivar’s fireworks show this year; read the story here; here’s the official Ivar’s announcement. That means fireworks-viewing opportunities from West Seattle will be inconsistent at best, since the Ivar’s show has been the one visible from Alki east/southward; some of the fireworks from the Lake Union show can be seen most years, along with scattered fireworks from other areas such as Bainbridge Island, but it won’t be even remotely the same. West Seattle fireworks fans are left mostly in the lurch; ironic given the circumstances of the show’s creation, as noted in today’s news release:
The 4th of Jul-Ivar’s fireworks show started in 1964 at Green Lake when (West) Seattle native and Ivar’s “flounder” Ivar Haglund was given a last-minute chance to save the town’s annual Seattle fireworks show from cancellation. Haglund funded the entire show. As the only fireworks show in town, its original pyrotechnic partner, Hitt Fireworks Company, created a thrilling display that drew attendance from King, Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap and surrounding counties. In its heyday, the 4th of Jul-Ivar’s had shows in Lake Union then moved to Elliott Bay
What a Bellevue SWAT team was doing in West Seattle
Thanks to the folks who called earlier this afternoon to say they saw a SWAT team around Delridge/Holden. We actually saw the vehicle go by (although not in any particular hurry) at the start of the aforementioned problem-properties tour – and noticed the vehicle quite clearly marked “Bellevue.” Checked with the media liaison at Bellevue Police, who would only say they were “serving a warrant” as part of an “ongoing investigation.” ADDED 8:23 PM: WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli points out it’s the same house from the second part of this recent story he covered.
ADDED FRIDAY NIGHT: Another photo, from Tony Bradley:
Delridge dilapidation tour, report #1: “Unintended consequence”
That’s a view through the open front door of the last stop on today’s tour of Delridge-area problem properties, organized by North Delridge Neighborhood Council co-chair Mike Dady. Though he’s been fighting to get something done about vacant/trashed buildings in the area for three years, this one just turned up on his radar the other day – and in fact, when the tour group arrived, it turned out a city notice was posted:
Because of “high hazard” of imminent danger, the notice warned, the premises needed to be vacated by next Thursday. Those notices come from the Department of Planning and Development, whose top brass was on the tour, including director Diane Sugimura. City Councilmembers Sally Clark, who chairs the Planning, Land Use, and Neighborhoods Committee, and Tim Burgess, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, were there too — he’s in this photo with Dady, looking at the first stop on the tour:
So was City Council candidate David Bloom, who got involved after hearing about the problem during a West Seattle visit, plus Department of Neighborhoods director Stella Chao, Mayor Nickels’ public-safety liaison Julien Loh, and concerned neighbors — more than 20 people. The city leaders acknowledged that some of these problem properties are an “unintended consequence” of a city law meant to “preserve housing” — which instead has resulted in vacant, crumbling buildings left standing.
At the very end of the tour, when everyone else had left, Dady expressed cautious optimism that change might be coming; Burgess said he’s introducing a proposal to crack down on property owners who allow illegal activity on their land, and Sugimura expressed support for changing the code that prevents those owners from tearing down even their own buildings without a plan for replacement. More specifics, and photos, coming up later.
Morgan Junction park name: 1 more day to get signatures
Just heard from Pete Spalding, who’s been helping lead the months-long community effort to convince the city Parks Department to name the new Morgan Junction park after longtime West Seattle Herald reporter Tim St. Clair, even though he’s been gone less than the three years the department lists as a minimum for such naming proposals. Pete says they have ONE MORE DAY to gather petition signatures supporting the park name – they will be at the Gathering of Neighbors tomorrow, 11 am-3 pm at Chief Sealth High School (at Boren), where you can sign in person, or if you can’t go, contact Pete at bayouwonder@msn.com and he’ll arrange to get your signature. (The park is scheduled for its official dedication at the Morgan Community Festival in June, but construction’s been proceeding quickly — including sidewalk work on the California SW frontage — and it will likely be done well before then.)
West Seattle school news: Cometa Playschool growing, moving
Got a note from Michelle today, saying she’d spotted a sign on part of the cleared-out Prudential property in the 3200 block of California SW, saying Cometa Playschool is moving there. School operator Manuela Slye confirms with this short news release:
Cometa Playschool has outgrown its home-based space and is moving to a new and bigger location at 3212 California Ave SW, in the Admiral District of West Seattle, just one block south of Hiawatha Park. The new facility enables a separate art room and expanded bilingual programs for children ages 12 months to 6 years, all led by native Spanish speaking teachers trained in Early Childhood Education. Cometa’s play based philosophy inspires children to learn Spanish through songs, games and artistic expression. Cometa is currently accepting applications for summer and fall programs. For more information please visit www.cometaseattle.com or email info@cometaseattle.com.
| Comments Off on Seen on the shore: Cricket at Alki; otter on the rocks