West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
Thanks to Shell Marr for that photo and word that The Wash House laundromat on 35th (between Morgan and Graham) has abruptly closed. Shell adds, “It’s really too bad they did not make it, Vicki & Jim were just the nicest people and really made doing laundry somewhat enjoyable if that is possible. Thank you, Vicki & Jim …” Meantime, another sign just sighted, this one on Delridge:
We first told you two months ago that Olympia Pizza and Pasta was taking over the short-lived Pacino’s Coffee spot; it’s had a temporary banner up for a while, but the official sign just appeared this week. We don’t have any info yet on a targeted opening date.
Did you shop? Did you sell? Did you have fun? Since we filed so many separate updates, we thought we’d put up this “open thread” post specifically for comments wtih WSCGSD reports, if you care to share ’em. We’ll have an official survey within a few days seeking feedback for next year, but if you have something to suggest now, that’s welcome here too. (P.S., don’t forget the contests.) Thanks to EVERYONE who was part of the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day in some form or another; our first time organizing it has been intense but fun! (Now it’s off to round up the sandwich boards …)
“Christmas at Skylark” (3803 Delridge), as dubbed by Patrick the Sales Guy, who has been making most of the photography rounds today. However, in the past hour, your editor here and Junior Member of the Team broke away from WSB HQ to see what’s up. Dropped by a couple sales incognito, west of California, north of The Junction; bought strawberry lemonade from the kids at 47th/Dakota, wandered into an alley sale a few blocks east and got the unsolicited proclamation from the saleholder that “All the good stuff’s gone; it’s been a busy morning.” Well, not ALL the good stuff; Junior Member was furious we wouldn’t let him spend $5 on a big hulking scanner. Meantime, back at the sales – here’s the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle sale at 5637 42nd SW:
Along Fauntleroy (5962), two pix from the PB&J Textiles sale:
We drove through The Junction and noted group sale sites in the vicinity were still jumping, as were Junction businesses (megaline outside Bakery Nouveau, even at 1:30 pm). There’s still an hour to shop; get a map here if you need it.
BULLETIN! Sunshine just broke out at the halfway mark. Now, more of the bigger sites:
That’s the bake sale at the North Delridge Neighborhood Council sale, 2512 SW Genesee, raising money for tot-size play equipment at Cottage Grove Park. Heading northwest from there:
Booming business when we stopped by the Log House Museum sale (3003 61st SW). Next – in the Admiral District, Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor; 2210 California SW) is participating:
South of The Junction, there’s a group sale (like Hotwire & Freshy’s, both shown earlier) at C and P Coffee (5612 California SW):
Alki UCC church (6115 SW Hinds) is having a plant sale as part of WSCGSD:
And here’s another one of the fundraising sales – a multifamily sale at 4136 Beach Drive, raising money for the American Cancer Society:
Sales continue till 3 pm; get your map here.
That’s Amber Bennett, proprietor of Freshy’s Coffee at 2735 California SW, holding their entry for the “Best Sign” contest – one of two contests we’re having as part of West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day today — “Best Sign” is for sellers; photograph your creative sign(s) and e-mail the photo after the sale to garagesale@westseattleblog.com; “Most Unusual Item” is for shoppers OR sellers – e-mail a photo and tell us which participating sale you bought/sold it at – same address, garagesale@westseattleblog.com. Prize for “Most Unusual Item” is a Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor and sale location today) card; prize for “Best Sign” is an Illusions (WSB sponsor) gift certificate; whichever contest gets the most entries will also have a second prize awarded, a gift certificate from the new Body Bar massage/skin care dayspa; winners will be announced Monday night. Back to Freshy’s for a sec – they’re doing the “Handmade Brigade” arts/crafts sale as well as yard-sale stuff – here’s a look down their sidewalk across from Hiawatha:
More group-sale updates coming up next. The sales continue till 3 pm; get your map here.
That’s Gina (left) and JanS from the WSB Forum Community, at their sale @ 2655 45th SW (near Lafayette). Part of the sale is raising $ for Jan, a longtime WSB’er who’ll be out of work a while after hip-replacement surgery this week – some items are offered at whatever you’re willing to pay as a free-will donation; read more about this sale in this thread on the forum. (More updates to come; sales continue till 3 pm; get your map here.)
ADDED 10:29 AM: Those are photos from 7138 32nd SW, a sale raising money for the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which fights childhood cancer. The family hosting the sale has a child fighting cancer, and is telling their story online here. (Click the address in that sentence to see where it’s at on the Google version of the WSCGSD map; get the printable map here.) ORIGINAL UPDATE: Another round of photos is headed this way – first some anecdotal observations, as the WSB team member who’s not on photo patrol took a quick side trip down the hill to the store – saw lots of folks browsing the sales in the Gatewood/Upper Fauntleroy area – and the sky’s getting lighter all the time! P.S. If you just can’t find a preprinted map (we know our official locations still have some, we checked this morning), we’ve also put a few out in a box by our sandwich board sign near WSB HQ – look for it @ California/Thistle.
That’s the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee, one of today’s group-sale spots (proprietor Lora offered space in exchange for a nominal donation to Furry Faces, a West Seattle-based animal-rescue group). Next — after stopping at the Community School of West Seattle megasale (see previous post), we hopped a couple blocks over to 9211 21st SW, where the sale’s in the back yard:
(Map/list of all sales available here.)
Brief shower at 8 am. We can see breaks in the clouds behind it, so don’t panic. Meantime, our roving field crew just stopped at the Community School of West Seattle; they started at 8 am – by 8:05 they’d already made $100! 9450 22nd SW. (Photo above) (Map/list of all sales available here.)
From the National Weather Service, updated at 4 am, still looks like the rain (aside from a spatter or two) SHOULD hold off till AFTER West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day‘s official shopping time ends @ 3 pm:
TODAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF RAIN THIS AFTERNOON. HIGHS NEAR 60. SOUTH WIND TO 10 MPH.
TONIGHT…RAIN LIKELY IN THE EVENING…THEN CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE LOWER TO MID 40S. SOUTHWEST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
Need a WSCGSD map/list? Get it here.
FOOD DRIVE AT YOUR HOUSE/APT/CONDO/ETC.: Please put out a bag of nonperishable food by your mailbox or mail slot this morning – it’s the big day for the annual Stamp Out Hunger letter carriers’ food drive.
SPRUCEUP #1: All volunteers welcome as Pathfinder K-8 families and staff, with help from Seattle Works, brighten up their campus, with painting and landscaping projects and more, 10 am-2 pm, drop by and join in.
SPRUCEUP #2: Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s quarterly Adopt-a-Street cleanup is today; you can join in by meeting the group outside Metropolitan Market for free coffee/snacks at 9 am. (Plenty of time to shop the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day sales after this wraps up @ noon!)
(Updated 8:44 am to add the Gatewood report)
First, from Karla:
It’s 12:48 a.m. and my husband, son and I just got through cleaning up the two dozen eggs that were thrown at our house at approximately 12:30 p.m. We live just across from the Admiral Lookout — when I heard the first few eggs hit, I saw a boy approximately 17 years old in a black sweatshirt and black pants run north on 36th Avenue SW and then around the corner on Olga. I ran downstairs to tell my son who ran out our garage and saw some teenagers drive off in a black car. My husband saw the black car from our upstairs bedroom window as well. Just wanted to give everyone in our neighborhood a heads up.
Hours later, from Chris:
Just thought I’d write in about some vandalism that happened last night on Rose Street in Gatewood between 39th and 41st Avenues. It looks like someone drove up the street with a baseball bat, breaking all the drivers’ side mirrors on cars parked along the north side of the street. A neighbor of mine said he heard it happen around 2:30 Saturday morning. I don’t know if other streets were hit as well.
More updates as West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day approaches (9 am-3 pm tomorrow): Just before their second night of donation-accepting ended at 8 pm tonight, we stopped to see the Pigeon Point Neighborhood reps at Cooper Elementary (which benefits from their sale) …as you can see above, quite a haul. Also a possible candidate for the Most Unusual Item contest (can you guess what it is? PP Council prez Pete Spalding showed it off):
If you’re going to Pigeon Point, the North Delridge Neighborhood Council sale raising money for Cottage Grove Park play equipment is a stone’s throw away at 2512 SW Genesee. Here’s one of the items they hope to buy for the neighborhood’s littlest kids to play on:
Other neighborhood/block/business/group sales: The Community School of West Seattle, 9450 22nd SW, with more than 100 families participating – this was the first sale to sign up this year! … Block/multifamily sales include 8818 18th SW, 4115 32nd SW, 4136 Beach Drive, 6701 21st SW, SW Dakota between 46th and 47th, 3260 42nd SW, 5406 36th SW. Three coffeehouses on California SW have multi-participant sales: Hotwire (WSB sponsor) at 4410 California, C and P at 5612 California, and Freshy’s at 2735 California … Other businesses with sales include Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) at 2210 California, Skylark at 3803 Delridge, PB&J Textiles at 5962 Fauntleroy, Westside Glassworks at 1904 SW Dawson. And while we don’t know how big their sale will be, we were excited that our first West Seattle Neighborhood Garage Sale Day sign sighting — a sign not put up by us, anyway — was on a utility pole steps away from WSB HQ!
Quick links again:
*Printable map with sale listings (8-page PDF)
*List of places to get preprinted map if you don’t have printer access
*Clickable Google map showing all sales (so you can take a closer look at locations)
The STAR 101.5 “Teacher of the Week” promotion had another West Seattle winner today — congrats to Arbor Heights Elementary second-grade teacher Sally Shavey. This comes six weeks after Lafayette Elementary fifth-grade teacher Catherine Bloom won the same honor.
Haven’t had any coyote pictures in a couple weeks – till these pix taken by Pam at Fauntleroy/Mills (map). She writes:
On our way to work this morning, we saw a coyote roaming on Fauntleroy at the bottom of SW Mills St. I called Animal Control, thinking they might take some action – but they were totally unconcerned and said that coyotes are all over the place in Seattle. (Ironically, we had just seen a news story this morning about a coyote who had dragged a two-year-old around by her head…)
A neighbor said she’s seen coyotes in Lincoln Park on occasion – but it was still really interesting to see one roaming in people’s bushes in our neighborhood. Watch out for your kitties and little pups!
As previously noted, the official government position is to promote coexistence, including avoiding behavior that will encourage coyotes to get too close to people for their good or ours; some tips are in this article we wrote in February. (The news story Pam mentions, by the way, is this one from the mountains east of L.A.)
The Weather Service still says rain not likely in the metro area before Saturday night, so we’re looking dry for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day 9 am-3 pm tomorrow. Here’s hoping. Meantime, quick links in case you are not already all geared up for shopping 143 West Seattle garage/yard sales big ‘n’ small tomorrow:
*Printable map with sale listings (8-page PDF)
*List of places to get preprinted map if you don’t have printer access
*Clickable Google map showing all sales (so you can take a closer look at locations)
*Info on fundraiser sales and contests
We’ll be spotlighting business and block sales later tonight. One fundraiser addition: The WSB Forum Community sale at 2655 45th SW will include a chance to donate to a fund that’s being set up for longtime WSB reader JanS, a self-employed massage therapist who’s going to be out of work a while after hip-replacement surgery this coming week (read more in this forum thread). And a couple trivia points: The northernmost sale is 1418 Palm SW; the southernmost sale is 3737 SW 108th; westernmost sale is 3247 64th SW; easternmost sale is 7937 11th SW. We’ll be out and about with as-it-happens coverage tomorrow starting in the 8 am hour (though again, official sale time is 9 am-3 pm) – and more previews are coming up later tonight.
Followup to this post from this morning — Hi-Yu president Tim Winston just e-mailed to say:
We have managed to find drivers and the float will roll in the Sequim Irrigation Festival tomorrow @ noon. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. We will send parade pictures.
(You of course will be able to see the Hi-Yu Float right here in West Seattle during the Grand Parade down California on July 19th – but this is the first of more than a few other gigs it has to make between now and then!)
Not sure exactly how many vehicles were involved; debris scattered over a fairly wide range (note the foreground of above photo). Medics appeared to be helping at least one person. Obviously, stay away from the area TFN. 4:13 PM UPDATE: Tow truck is just now helping clear the scene; should be open again soon.
So we’re lunching at Easy Street a little while ago, enjoying today’s soundtrack (a Chic LP from disco’s heyday!), and … noticing bubbles floating by the street-level window now and then. Music-induced flashback to roller disco, maybe? Nope. Went outside and found those folks on the roof over West Seattle Optix — they explained simply, “It’s a great day for bubbles!”
Thanks to Michelle for the tip that a sign had gone up in the window of the former Basic Green Box spot in the 3400 block of California, between the townhouse cluster and the future Bohemian: We stopped by to check it out, and it’s going to be a West Seattle branch of Prost (here’s the site for its North Seattle location). (We also bumped into Bohemian’s owner, who says they hit a snag or two but are now hoping to open in June.)
Three and a half months after Megawatt passed the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day torch to us at WSB, tomorrow is the big day, 9 am-3 pm (get your map here if you haven’t already) – but there’s lots more going on tonight, Saturday, Sunday (which of course is Mother’s Day) in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup — 41 events on the list ahead:Read More
Once upon a time, the Community Centers (we have five in West Seattle — Alki, Hiawatha, Delridge, High Point, Southwest) each had its own activity brochure. Then came a sort of odd grouping which split West Seattle north/south for combined brochures; we even mentioned this at one of those parks meetings last year – suggesting it would make sense to have all the WS centers in one brochure. Voila, that happened (maybe it was already in the works anyway), with South Park included too; see that brochure here. If you enjoyed that format – or not – we just stumbled onto an online survey about it, while collecting info for the West Seattle Weekend Lineup (out within the hour). Take the “combined brochure” survey here.
First, the remodeling — WSB’er The House sent that photo of a sign spotted at Westwood Village QFC. Now, the move: Marilyn at Murphy’s Furniture has confirmed her new location in Pioneer Square (as first reported in January, she’s leaving Avalon; as first reported last weekend, Cafe Revo‘s taking the space): 314 1st Ave. S., next to Elliott Bay Books, hoping for an early-June opening. This is her last weekend on Avalon and she’s having a sale. Next, the opening — Last night’s West Seattle Art Walk participants included a new business on the north edge of The Junction, The Body Bar, and we stopped in to find out more – even came away with another prize for the Garage Sale Day contests – read on:Read More
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