West Seattle, Washington
13 Wednesday
Looks like Admiral Safeway has budged a little from its hard line against non-shoppers using its parking lots. We were just forwarded this snippet from a bulletin sent to Lafayette Elementary families by the principal:
I have spoken to Steve Rood, the Manager of Safeway. He assured me
that Lafayette parents can continue to use back (south) parking lot for up
to 2 hours for drop-off and pick-up. Also, if we have an evening event,
with prior notice, we can continue to use the Safeway parking lot.ÂÂ
Our post about the start date for this year’s Elliott Bay Water Taxi season brought lots of questions — we took them to County Councilmember Dow Constantine’s office, which has graciously provided lots of answers. His staff’s entire, info-laden reply, after the click:
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Actually, this time we’ve got events in West Seattle AND a bit beyond … just a click away:Read More
This seems to be moving pretty fast. All but one outside lane in each direction is now chewed up/dug up all the way to SW Spokane on the north edge; the southbound lane is extremely groovy, and not in the good sense of the word.
Seattle Public Schools now seems settled on the plan to sell the old Fauntleroy Schoolhouse building as well as several other pieces of “surplus property.” It’s home to a busy child-care center as well as The Hall at Fauntleroy; many have wondered what a sale would mean to the site’s future. The Fauntleroy Community Association site says an event is now set for April 29 to serve as both an open house and “an opportunity to express your ideas for this property if it were in community hands.”
Getting a jump on our weekly “what’s happening this weekend,” which will be up tomorrow as usual — we wanted to give you 24 (or so) hours notice about two benefit events, both happening tomorrow (Friday) night. #1 — From 6 till 8 pm in the West Seattle High School commons, it’s the annual chowder cookoff, with chowders from local restaurants offered in what the school calls a “blind taste test.” More info a ways down the school’s home page. #2 — The West Seattle Big Band is playing @ Evergreen HS (between White Center and Burien) as part of an “Evening of Swing,” 6:30-9:30 pm, benefitting the school music program.
Haven’t seen this on any of the newspaper sites, but Seattle Police confirmed for us that they have arrested a suspect in the 37th/Findlay shooting that killed Dewayne West. The suspect’s name is Jabarie Phillips. Police couldn’t share a lot of details but do say their original suspicion that this “wasn’t random” was indeed the case. Our research found that he, like the victim, is in his 30s, and has a criminal record stretching back into juvenilehood, most recently some sort of drug case dismissed less than two weeks ago. He is in the county jail, bail listed as a million dollars.
Businesses in the repaving zone are hopeful we won’t all abandon them during this time of inconvenience. We’ve been to Hotwire, where a handwritten sign on the door says, THANKS FOR BRAVING THE CONSTRUCTION/YOU MAY PARK IN THE COURTYARD FOR 5 MINUTES. If you’ve got any artistic inclination, you’ve got a week and a half more to get in on their “First Annual Coffee Cup Design Contest.” Submit a design by 3/31; customers will vote on the entries in early April. (Entry form & guidelines here.)
This morning’s P-I dissection of Pointlessness at the Polls points out, pointedly, that despite WS being home to Hizzoner, our collective voting position was a 180 from his. (P.S. Don’t forget, the Lame-Duck-A-Duct is closed most of this weekend.)
The date is set for its 2007 debut — April 29 — running thru late September.
The city says the grass ballfields are open again. Guess our spectacular sunny morning did the trick.
The Coast Guard returned to Don Armeni at midday today, launching at least three of their inflatables, with another hovering offshore. Still wondering why they often turn up here, instead of launching from their convenient downtown base across the bay?
As of midmorning today (camera pointing northwest, SW Alaska in foreground):
Now most of Cali between Hinds and the post office is chewed up/grooved, so slower going. We tried side streets to the west as a detour; won’t do that again, those free-for-all intersections aren’t cut out for the overflow. Unrelated side street note: On 41st north of Admiral, heading north from Metro Market, the center stripe is green, leading all the way to a “shamrock” near the end of the street. Our e-mail tipster says the repainting is a St. Patrick’s Day holdover that apparently happens every year; first time we’ve seen/heard of it.
On the east edge of The Junction, developers of the mixed-use project with the QFC didn’t waste much time after booting Hollywood Video. A reader e-mailed us late yesterday that demolition work was racing ahead. What you see behind the backhoe is actually a house behind the ex-store – by late last night, it was just a shell:
Just spotted this as we drove home from a produce trip to Tony’s: SDOT is putting up left-turn signals on 35th at Thistle. If you’ve never tried to make that turn (in either direction), you’ve never enjoyed the death-defying thrills of cars relentlessly racing toward you at what seems like freeway speed. This should save some lives, from reduced stress as well as reduced collision rate:
The cone zone stretches farther north this morning — all the way to Hinds. Pavement-chewing machine is currently busy on the west edge of the road.
-Another one of our looming megaprojects gets its Design Review Board closeup this Thursday: 4729 42nd SW, aka Soon-To-Be-Ex-Parking-Lot Behind Soon-To-Be-Ex-Petco, aka Ex-Monorail Land.
-Make sure your calendar’s marked for the big meeting a week from Wednesday at Charlestown Cafe, which folks are trying to save from the fate of becoming future home to Soon-To-Be-Ex-Petco.
-Jumping back down to The Junction, we heard concerns a while back from the neighbors of 4515 41st SW, more “mixed use” creeping into a residential neighborhood. Its next Design Review Board spotlight comes up April 12.
-Now hopscotching back up toward Admiral, we got a note recently from a neighbor who wonders if anyone else cares about the phenomenon of creeping commercialism spilling further inland from Cali. This neighbor lives near the beauty salon across from the far corner of PCC’s lot, west of McDonald’s, and contends zoning only allows a home-based business, not a business-focused house with big signs. The neighbor says a zoning inspector ruled the signs could stay because they don’t have text — they’re considered “art.” They’re campaigning to get the businessperson to tone down the signs.
-Finally, another reader points out that the ex-Christian Science church north of the Hiawatha playground, east of Safeway Parking Smackdown Ground Zero, has relatively recently transitioned into something called Sanctuary At Admiral, giving The Hall At Fauntleroy (among other venues) a run for its money.
So says Slog, which had been tracking the semi-clash between ArtsWest and a downtown theater company re: who would wind up producing a big-deal play both apparently had procured rights to.
The city parks department has just issued an alert — it’s closing all grass ballfields around the city because they’re just too soggy, with rain most of the weekend and more on the way. That includes Alki, Fairmount, High Point, part of Hiawatha, Highland Park, Roxhill, and West Seattle Stadium, among others.
Cones and crews are out on Cali from just north of Spokane, south to the post office. (Photo below is from the north edge of this morning’s work zone.) The truck that’s chewing up the old pavement is making fast work of the eastern edge of the road, for starters. Things were moving fairly well when we passed through; but if you just need to get between North WS and South WS, certainly you could try alternate routes such as Beach Drive or 35th.
Reminder that the Cali Ave repaving is supposed to start back up today. We’ll check it out in a while to report back. Your updates (as comments or e-mail) welcome too.
Our usual visitor volume was down by several hundred last night, so we rolled over to Alki to see if you were all at the Celtic Swell. The outdoor space was stuffed and the sidewalk too, almost as much of a backup as we saw outside Fado downtown as we approached the Viaduct from Columbia yesterday afternoon. However, the more interesting sight at Alki last night was the minus tide (new moon approaching); made for a nice flashlight-enhanced beach walk. Tide tables say no more minus tides at night for a while, but looks like some good ones at midafternoon next Thursday and Friday.
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