Lost stuffed animal

We just learned a blogger trick: look for unusual local Craigslist ads to spotlight. We could resist almost everything … except this. (Hope someone finds it!) AFTERNOON UPDATE: Re-checked the ad, it’s now bannered “it’s been found.” Was it a WSB reader? We may never know.

New place for WS drivers to veg out

Look for hubbub around the Admiral Safeway gas station sometime today. The P-I says a “news conference” is planned, with no less than Hizzoner on the guest list, to show off the station’s new biodiesel (fuel from veg oil) offering. We noticed it on the sign yesterday:

safewaybio2.jpg

Charlestown fight gets a tv spotlight

February 21, 2007 12:05 am
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 |   Charlestown Cafe | Development | West Seattle news

Check it out. And remember, if you are interested in helping — or at least monitoring — the campaign to save the Charlestown Cafe, you can join the Our Town/West Seattle group.

Nameless no longer

A city press release is out with official names for two West Seattle parks. No surprises, though — the site known as Junction Plaza will be Junction Plaza Park, and the site in the Delridge/Cottage Grove area is Cottage Grove Park.

Beyond chocolate chip cookies

If you want to learn how to really bake, it appears you can do so with the help of the champion chef who runs Bakery Nouveau in The Junction — he’s offering classes, according to BN’s relatively new webpage.

Watch your mailbox

If you’re registered to vote, you might get your viaduct ballot before the week is over. In today’s viaduct news (so far), the guv still says it’s Replacement-A-Duct or nothing — no, wait, she even ruled out “nothing.” And if you want to read all the million-dollar fine print before your ballot arrives, the official “voters’ guide” is now available on the city website.

Just like old times

February 19, 2007 10:06 pm
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 |   West Seattle weather

28 mph wind at Alki Point as of a few minutes ago. Could get a little worse tonight, says the forecast. Put that flashlight by the pillow.

Not sure whether this makes us feel younger or older

February 19, 2007 8:16 pm
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 |   Not WS but we're mentioning it anyway

Tomorrow would have been Kurt Cobain’s 40th birthday.

(Though we categorized this under “Not West Seattle but [etc.]” — he did have a WS link … a fascination with one of West Seattle High School’s movie-star alumna, Frances Farmer, after whom he named a song but apparently not his only child.)

Early warning

High Point-to-Delridge drivers, beware: Cindi from the Morgan Community Association alerts us to more upcoming traffic woes; this excerpt is from the latest Morgan Junction e-mail newsletter, quoting the major construction company on the High Point project:

“SW Morgan / Sylvan Way will most likely be closed for a short period (one to two weeks) during late February/early March. This closure is being planned in conjunction with work taking place on an unrelated development east of High Point. This coordination will minimize the impacts to the neighbors and surrounding area. SW Morgan / Sylvan Way will then be temporarily closed for a longer period (several months) this summer to allow for complete rebuild of the roadway and utilities associated with our project. We will provide notification to local residents and businesses and will have a detour route well-indicated. Every effort will be made to minimize the duration of street closures.”

We’ve been asked before about the deplorable condition of Sylvan Way closer to Delridge; Cindi is checking on whether repairs to that stretch might be included in those summer closures.

This one may hit home

Also from the P-I: a little hand-wringing about the teardown trend — not homes-to-townhomes, which seems to be West Seattle’s most popular flavor, but homes-to-bigger-homes. Our favorite quote in the story (which doesn’t feature WS but still seems relevant) is an explanation of why people are moving from the burbs back to the city:

“It’s the commute,” he said. “If you’re not working at Microsoft, why would you want to live in Issaquah?

(For us, the commute is only one of about 6,955 reasons we don’t want to live in the burbs, but that’s another post.)

Hail to the memories

February 19, 2007 6:32 am
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 |   Holidays | Westwood

Great Presidents Day article in the P-I, set at the retirement home near Westwood Village.

“Walking on Logs,” now rolling on rinks

Just saw bold new T-shirts on the “Walking on Logs” figures alongside the Fauntleroy end of the high bridge — bearing the official Rat City Rollergirls logo. Bet that’s in honor of their season-opener next weekend.

This rocks

February 18, 2007 12:20 pm
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 |   WS miscellaneous

If you see this before 5 pm — a big weekend event that didn’t make it to C Ro’s roundup (linked below) is happening right now — the West Seattle Rock Club’s annual Gemboree, at the Masonic Temple on 40th. Free!

Another history lesson

A list of great/not-so-great moments in Seattle transportation history that’s in the Times today includes this line:

1984 — Scandal-plagued high-level West Seattle Bridge survives referendum and opens.

Had no idea, about the scandal OR the vote — just the freighter crash that accelerated the bridge work. Online, we found a little bit about the scandal (design problems, city employees getting fired over them), but can’t find more about the vote. Old-timers, any enlightenment? (We weren’t here in the eighties.)

Your favorite Junction shop?

Quiet night, weather’s turned miserable again, nothing in WS seems to be making news right about now. So how about a little discussion? Tell us about your favorite shop (non-food/beverage, please, we’ve talked about all THAT enough for a while) in The Junction. We’ll start — Pegasus Book Exchange. You can take in books to sell, and you get credit applicable to part of the price of anything there you want to buy, same day or even years into the future. So what’s your fave? Leave a comment!

New Viaduct Vote catch phrase

One result of a No/No viaduct vote might be the so-called retrofit. Viaduct, The Blog coined a new catch phrase for it: “Repair & Prepare.” LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE: Just read at Friends of Seattle that the 34th District Democrats decided this week not to endorse the rebuild (so did they go pro-tunnel, or No/No?).

Driven to anger

Yes, we know new owners have taken over Huling. But the fallout from the recent scandal continues, in little ways as well as big, such as this blogger deciding to finally write, in furious detail, about a previous experience at the dealership.

Bridge alert

If you didn’t see the mobile light-up signboards today, here’s the warning in writing: Some WS Bridge ramps will be out of commission for a while 2 am-10 am Saturday.

WS this weekend

February 16, 2007 5:17 pm
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 |   West Seattle restaurants | WS beverages | WS culture/arts

We’ve been slacking lately on our previously reliable Friday roundups of weekend events. Luckily, today, Alki’s contributor to Metroblogging Seattle, C Ro, did it for us — although with a lot more drinking opportunities!

Taking a BIG bite out of crime

Two bits of good news:

The P-I says (opening with a couple of West Seattle anecdotes) car theft is way down.

-The minutes from the last SW District Council meeting say tagging is way down because cops have recently nabbed no fewer than 10 graffiti vandals.

The mayor goes south

Don’t know if we’re ready for another community meeting till we truly recover from WSDPM, but this one could be good. Same location as WSDPM — The Hall at Fauntleroy. The Fauntleroy Community Association has enticed West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician to travel a few miles south from his Admiral home base to answer citizen questions at 6:30 pm March 1 (but will it be over in time for GA?). The FCA site asks that you e-mail questions, however, so we’ll have to get some clarity on whether there will be any actual audience open-mike time at this event. (We still have the same question we had two months ago — why was he virtually invisible when thousands of us were without power for days after the windstorm?)

Best time to avoid the crowds

So we show up at Thriftway a little while ago — right around 9 pm — look around at the nearly empty parking lot, and exclaim “where IS everybody?” Slowly a vaguely-aware-of-pop-culture light starts to flicker to life … Seattle’s favorite TV show (starring a ferry catastrophe this week, to boot) is on. Next Thursday at 9, we’ll pick some hot restaurant to try to crash …

Got space?

February 15, 2007 7:44 pm
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 |   West Seattle festivals

If you are one of the few people who knew we were around last summer, you know we are nuts about the Hi-Yu Parade (and a few other summer staples). Seems the fine folks who organize it, and take the Hi-Yu float to other festivals, need some space this spring.