Fun in the sun

May 26, 2007 12:45 am
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 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle beaches

Assuming we GET some sun — Monday afternoon looks the most promising — in case you hadn’t noticed, recreational rentals are booming along our best-known beach. We got nice sun-splashed photos recently of Wheel Fun Rentals (first photo), which popped up this season next to Coastal, and Alki Rental Shack with kayaks (second photo) and more, at Seacrest.

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Handy links if you’re traveling

-Remember our West Seattle Cams page

-Ferry schedules here

-State highway traffic alerts here

Memorial Day “driving tips” from WSDOT

-Traffic cams for the entire city plus all of King County

Real-time flight info for anything going through Sea-Tac Airport

National Weather Service forecasts for all of Western Washington

Buckle up or else

The new nighttime “Click It or Ticket” patrols are supposed to be out on Alki tonight, according to a WS Herald story earlier this week.

West Seattle’s Memorial Day Weekend ’07

(IF GOOGLE IS BRINGING YOU HERE – THIS IS A 2007 POST – OUR MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVENTS LIST FOR 2008 CAN BE FOUND HERE.)

The 3-day weekend’s almost here, so let’s just call it a 4-day weekend and get rolling already, shall we? The list is shorter than usual since it’s assumed many people are leaving town, but if you’re staying here in fabulous WS, there’s plenty, including one of Kenyon Hall’s occasional extravaganzas, a barbecue demo, and more — just a click away:

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Legends soon to be history?

It was rumored in the comments here a month ago, and now it appears to be headed for reality — according to the liquor-license applications site, someone is applying to take over Legends Bar & Grill, and the “new business name” would be Redline Music & Sports.

Road closure date set for busy WS east-west connector

There’s now a date set for a road closure that will mean months of detouring for people who use Sylvan Way/SW Morgan to get between 35th and Delridge: The closure starts June 18 and is expected to last through mid-September. It’s happening for underground utility work related to all the housing construction in the area; an open house is planned one week ahead of time to help make sure everyone has the info they need to get through the shutdown. This city press release has more info on the exact shutdown zone as well as detour plans.

Mayor’s son reportedly indicted

Tough month for Mayor Nickels. First he lost his father — now he has to deal with reports that his son has been indicted for alleged casino cheating. FRIDAY EARLY AM UPDATE: Citizen Rain (new local blog aggregator) has a link to Jake Nickels’ MySpace. (The cached version seems more interesting.)

Mystery motorcade explained

May 24, 2007 1:13 pm
|    Comments Off on Mystery motorcade explained
 |   WS miscellaneous

What many of us saw this morning was indeed, as some guessed, a training exercise: “Multi-agency escort training for traffic units,” according to the police department, further explaining that this sort of training is vital because motorcades for dignitaries can be dangerous, and practicing with other agencies helps troubleshoot any communication issues that might arise during “the real thing.”

Suspect nabbed in U.S. Bank robbery

May 24, 2007 12:22 pm
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 |   Crime

Remember all the commotion from that Junction bank robbery and ensuing manhunt last week? The guy they think did it is now under arrest.

Beach Drive traffic alert

Big City Light contingent, with flagger and traffic-directing officer, busy a mile or so from the south end of Beach Drive, not too far from where this happened during the windstorm.

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WS Gas Price Watch: Highest price drops too

lincolnpark76may24.JPGLincoln Park 76 still has West Seattle’s highest posted price for regular, but now that’s down a bit, with a two-cent drop today, bringing it to $3.47/gallon. Perhaps this scared somebody somewhere.

Mystery motorcade

We’ve received a few notes about this and happened to see it ourselves (but couldn’t whip out the camera fast enough) — massive police motorcade along Alki about an hour ago, motorcycles as well as cars — will let you know if/when we find out what that was all about!

Giving Mother Nature a helping hand

West Seattle-based naturalist Stewart Wechsler is featured in a Times article today about a plant restoration project at Seward Park. He also does naturalist work at other city parks including Camp Long here in WS. We first met Stewart while chaperoning a school field trip at Camp Long some time back; when it comes to the troubled state of our natural world, he is truly one of the people who, to paraphrase the saying, lights a candle rather than cursing the darkness.

Memorial Day weather watch, the latest

May 24, 2007 8:25 am
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 |   Holidays | West Seattle weather

Now the National Weather Service thinks Monday will be sunny. Might just dare to haul the barbecue out of basement storage after all.

Violent vandals

Streets on the north side of Westwood Village (off the stretch of Trenton shown below) are having trouble with a group of at least half a dozen teenage boys running around wreaking havoc — with violent vandalism that includes throwing rocks at people, through house windows, and through car windows. Neighbors are banding together and working to put more pressure on police to catch these culprits, which they note has been tough because it’s not considered an “emergency” and gets lower-priority response. However, our tipster does say three police cars were in hot pursuit of the group tonight; here’s hoping they are caught soon, and just as important, appropriately prosecuted.

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Colman countdown

May 23, 2007 12:11 pm
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 |   Fun stuff to do

Prior to our road-rage sighting, we walked the Lincoln Park shoreline to check out how Colman Pool is progressing toward Opening Day this Saturday. The plywood’s not down yet (first photo below) but park crews were swarming the place with pressure washers, etc., and left a gate open for a peek (second photo below). (But when you go, keep your suit on!)

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Clearly not practicing for “Drive Nice Day”

One of the ugliest road-rage clashes we’ve seen in a while: At the three-way intersection by Lowman Beach, a huge red pickup and a teal station wagon  were stopped side-by-side, pointed north toward Beach Drive, with the drivers screaming bloody murder at each other. (Mostly the guy in the pickup yelling at the station-wagon guy about being an “old guy” who didn’t know how to drive.) So ugly, we were about to call 911, when the truck roared off. (Oh, and really, tomorrow IS “Drive Nice Day.”)

Better behavior on the bus

As a followup to our discussion last week, a WSB reader sent this more heartening tale:

I caught the 21 bus today after waiting about ten minutes. At the last minute a young man appeared, pushed ahead of me in line and took one of the last seats.

Immediately another young man, tattoos up and down both arms, stood and offered me his.

I’m going silver haired. I’m also disabled, although not in any way that shows. You may be sure I thanked the young gentleman warmly.

Like so many other things, bus etiquette depends on the luck of the draw.

Memorial Day weather watch

May 23, 2007 8:36 am
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 |   Holidays | West Seattle weather

So far the National Weather Service says cloudy but fairly warm.

Cool deal

Somebody at Jones Soda reads WSB so we wanted to say congrats to you all on the Seahawks deal!!!! (If you haven’t tried Jones lately, the “real sugar” makes it extra tasty.)

WS Gas Price Watch: Were we just ahead of the (upward) curve?

delridgearco.jpgEven in the midst of the increasingly loud fuss over climbing gas prices, West Seattle’s lowest posted price for regular just dropped again: Delridge Arco near Home Depot (sorry the phonephoto at left is so blurry) is now down two more cents, to $3.29. Gosh, maybe there’s hope we’ll someday see the “prices” spotted at 35th/Morgan by THPB.

Food-bank fame

May 23, 2007 12:31 am
|    Comments Off on Food-bank fame
 |   How to help | West Seattle news

The Robin Williams surprise also brought a few moments of TV stardom to the West Seattle Food Bank and executive director Fran Yeatts. (She told us the same thing in e-mail that she told the TV crew — no clue why Williams now has chosen twice to have local shows benefit the WSFB.) P.S., you can do your own good deed for the food bank right here, right now.