Happy anniversary
If there’s a kid in your life, think about dropping by Curious Kidstuff in the Junction today (Sunday 6/11) and checking out its anniversary sale. A big banner’s been up outside the shop for a while to promote the sale. It’s a shop with a conscience, all too rare these days — for years, a welcome refuge for those who would rather not see kids play with fake weapons or shoot-em-up video games. Hope they’ll be around for many more years.
Finally working!
It’s been more than a week since I first noticed AlkiNews.com had this link to an (at the time, alleged) Alki live cam. Each day and night, I’d try it to see if it was worth adding to this site … but it wasn’t working … till now! Hope it stays up; of all the WS spots in need of a live cam, Alki would be top of my list. (And remember I’ve got a cam page on this site; if you know of any suitable-for-family-viewing WS live cams to add to the list, please send me the link!)
More about West Seattle’s next megachurch
If you’re curious about what brings Seattle’s best-known fundamentalist church to WS, new Web pages shine some light: It’s the building. (Didn’t realize they’d already shut the whole thing down for renovation & transformation, looking ahead to a fall/winter launch.) I don’t know anyone involved with Doxa or Mars Hill — but even as an outsider, if you read between the lines of the pages on the MHWS site, including this FAQ, it sounds like quite the takeover.
New connectivity choice?
Noticed recently that a lot of land-use applications in West Seattle these days — these addresses in Gatewood, Delridge, north end of Delridge, Admiral, Morgan Junction — are for wireless antennas for something called Clearwire. Thought maybe that was just a front company for the various wireless companies, but have since learned otherwise. And today, driving along Cali Ave, we noticed another Clearwire application sign up in front of the block of apartments/stores just south of the Junction 7-11. The Clearwire Web site does not mention how soon the company expects to launch West Seattle service; separate from the controversy over too many antennas going up too close for comfort, I’m interested in the possibility of an alternate broadband provider. Service from the Comcast monopoly is not really that Comcastic for us, and Qwest DSL doesn’t seem to be an option in our neighborhood. So we’ll keep an eye on this one too …
OK, we will!
Sign of life finally at the former tanning-salon space next to Pagliacci in the Junction: someone’s scrawled WATCH THIS SPACE over the butcher paper covering the big front window. P.S. Doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but Pagliacci’s about to celebrate its TENTH ANNIVERSARY on this side of town.
TJ’s or not TJ’s?
A new comment on an old post reminded me I hadn’t heard much lately about the rumors of Trader Joe’s finally, finally, FINALLY coming to West Seattle. Seems speculation is centering around the forthcoming mixed-use project on Admiral just west of Metropolitan Market, so we went fishing around a bit.
Project description mentions “grocery store.” MM & Safeway are so close by (and PCC not much further), it would have to be something “specialty” like TJ’s.
The contact name on the applications traces to the same architect that handled the same owner’s project to the north (Bartell’s and what’s above it) — no sketches on the site, though.
A notice on a pole at the site mentions another design-review meeting just about a week ago — anybody got the scoop on that? Just curious.
Did find a couple other notes of interest along the way. First — a little history about part of the site. Second — I can’t find a direct link to the relatively recently renamed “Admiral Neighborhood Association,” but it looks like neighborhood leaders joined in a “street-level survey” a little earlier this year, with results documented here.
Enough about all that, though. Any inside info on TJ’s, or not TJ’s, very much welcome. Definitely tired of driving to Burien. And this is one of the last few franchises we still don’t have out here (in the years since WS Blogger Spouse and I arrived, we’ve stopped having to drive somewhere else for Pagliacci, Jamba Juice, Barnes & Noble, to name a few).
Sunday afternoon miscellany
-If you have a small child in the house, something new turned up at the WS Farmers’ Market today … fresh, local, vegetarian food for babies or toddlers.
-For the produce we didn’t find at the Farmers’ Market, we dropped by Tony’s on 35th. Great prices — beautiful apples for 99 cents a pound, mushrooms for $2.50. Kinda fascinating that the guy who runs it is the president of the Burien-area sewer district.
-Further north on 35th, we noticed the “Mars Hill West Seattle, Coming Soon” sign up at Doxa. According to the MH Web site, the dedication was just the other night.
-Also as we cruised northward on 35th, a wildlife sighting … one of our majestic national symbols, being pestered by crows. Common, I know, but always mesmerizing, as the crows are so much smaller than the eagles, yet so brazen about this behavior.
Recycling
OK, it’s a stretch to say this is the kind of recycling urged in Al’s movie … but nonetheless, I’m recycling today by pointing you to this post and reminding you tonight is the night for the benefit. We’re all stuck on this planet together — let’s help each other as much as we can.
Annexation angst
A sighting of popper noisemakers at QFC reminds me … If nothing else, here’s a reason to keep White Center un-annexed, and therefore unincorporated: If either Seattle or Burien takes over the turf, that means no more fireworks. I’m not a fan of those heavy-duty war-grade monstrosities you can get at the reservations, but I do think it’s appropriate to have a few sparklers in your own back yard on Independence Day. So, for as long as we’ve been in West Seattle, we’ve wandered over to the Roxbury Safeway parking lot a day or two ahead of time and bought a few boxes of safe-n-sane fireworks, then clandestinely ignited them in our yardlet, hoping nobody would sic the cops on us. But they’re against the law in Burien as well as Seattle, so if either of those cities annexes our neighboring chunk of unincorporated King County, it’s farewell, fireworks. Food 4 thought. Meantime, in a few weeks you’ll find us over in the Safeway parking lot tent, trying to settle on a modest pack of personal pyrotechnics.
Go paddle yourself
Surprise — the sun’s out. Forecast still insists it won’t be for long, but I have faith I can at least get out and pull weeds for a while. If you’d rather do something else environmentally friendly that also happens to get you out on the water, Cami from ever-trusty AlkiNews.com tells us Alki Kayak Tours over at Seacrest Boathouse is offering demos on Eddyline Kayaks till 3 pm today. (I personally think West Seattle needs a few more businesses with “Tours” in their name — why not show off our beauty? — so I don’t mind the occasional plug!)
Warming up to Al
About a month before Al Gore was elected Vice President in 1992, West Seattle Blogger Spouse and I shoehorned ourselves into an outdoor crowd at the UW to watch him speak. This was supposed to be some sort of appeal to Them Young Voters; what passed for local music royalty pre-grunge, the Wilson sisters, opened for him, as I recall.
I remember the sunshine and the energy. I don’t remember being terribly impressed by him. But Al Gore ’06 is a different guy. See for yourself in “An Inconvenient Truth,” aka “the Al Gore movie” or “the global-warming movie.” We just got back from shoehorning ourselves into an indoor crowd downtown to see it.
Cool thing is, it’s not what you’d expect. It’s not a huge scarefest full of “Day After Tomorrow” disaster-rama-style effects — it’s heartbreaking pictures, and impressive charts, and a whole different side of the ex-Vice President. Best thing, it ends with zillions of bits of advice on how you can do something about the problem. Chances are, here in our blue peninsula amid a blue city, you might be doing something good already. (Here at WSB World HQ, we’ve “planted trees. Lots of trees” and we “recycle” — abundantly — so now we just need to give City Light a call as per the credit-sequence exhortation and ask if they use “green energy.”)
Also advised, “tell everyone you know to see (the) movie.” So that’s what I’m doing here, with a link to Saturday showtimes, and a link to the tie-in site. If you’ve got an environmentalist bone in your body, it’s a lot more satisfying than, oh, say, “Over the Hedge.”
Another grand opening
Tonight’s the night for Skylark Cafe & Club, where Madison’s used to be, just as Delridge starts heading south from the bridge. We’ll be at the Al Gore movie instead. But once the crowds ebb a bit, the Skylark menu (mmm, mac ‘n’ cheese!) sounds too good for us to wait TOO long to check out!
Casualty of the Cupcake Clash?
Thanks to a tipster I’ll just refer to as “C” — we’ve learned there’s one less bakery in the Junction. Remo Borracchini’s, toward the Junction’s south end, has closed up shop. Sign says “Thanks for your years of patronage; visit us at our Rainier Avenue location.”
I’m not too broken up; don’t know if we ever went there, though I do vaguely remember some other bakery there previously, where West Seattle Blogger Spouse remembers trying to get a latte long ago and being told “Oh sorry, the gal who knows how to run that machine is out on break.”
Interesting, though, the west side of Cali Ave has been fairly low-turnover, compared to the east side. The only other recent shutdown I can recall is the tanning salon next to Pagliacci.
Pet owners, take heed
As we continue to co-exist with urban wildlife, things like this happen. (I found it on a blog search, but the author mentions he’s sent copies to the media, so the tale might be told more widely soon.)
I am very sorry to hear about this family’s loss. I deeply understand grief at the loss of a pet — we’ve been through that. But because this author seems to be urging a search-and-destroy mission against coyotes, out of his pain and grief and fury, it’s worth noting: The vast majority of urban-wildlife-vs.-pet cases involve unattended pets. That’s not a humane way to treat your pet, in any circumstance. Cars are a much bigger threat to them than other animals (no matter how “quiet” you think your neighborhood is) — as other, unfriendly humans can be.
Important to note, this sounds like the rare exception. The author does not describe the specific circumstances except to say that the dog’s owner “witnessed” the coyotes take it.
But again, in hopes of saving OTHER pets’ lives, it’s an appropriate occasion for one of my soapbox issues: The most responsible way to care for a pet is to keep it a house pet. Dogs, you can walk, on leashes. Cats — they do NOT “need” to roam outside. Old myth. (Besides possible danger to them, they also are a danger to what relatively few birds we have left in our neighborhoods.)
I’d love to hear your comments if you disagree with me. I just feel strongly that the solution to urban wildlife-vs-pets isn’t “eradicate the urban wildlife,” it’s “keep your dogs on leashes and keep your cats in the house.” (The blogger who lost his family dog also talks about kids — fwiw, I don’t believe you should leave them unsupervised either.)
Belated Cupcake Royale review, & Junction stroll
Used the sleepy holiday morning this past Monday as the perfect occasion to go try Cupcake Royale “for real.” As I wrote here a couple weeks ago, we dropped in on Grand Opening Night, but I didn’t actually have a cupcake — left that to one of my escorts. So this time, it was cupcakes and coffee for breakfast.
Verdict: Great frosting (mint), so-so cupcake (vanilla). Not too sweet, which is good, but not so moist (as at least one other reviewer here had mentioned), which was a little disappointing. The coffee (double-tall latte) was also just OK. I’ll give them another chance next time it’s convenient, but I’m not going to go out of my way to rush all the way to the Junction for a “fix.”
Meantime, we kept the radar up for news while down in the Junction for the CR stop. Seems like there’s more to say about what’s NOT going on than about what IS — the old Neilsen Florist shop still has papered windows, but the grease-penciled message from a glass company is gone; the new Super Supplements (ex-Urban Fitness site) doesn’t have an opening date posted yet; the former First Mutual Bank storefront shows no sign of what will move in next.
Bad news for gardeners
It’s not West Seattle, but I just have to publicly lament this … I’m sure I’m far from the only person in WS with some Heronswood plants in the garden. I only discovered them two years ago, and I remember being shocked to find out they had actually sold out to a Big Corporation … now that seems to have come around to bite them (and us customers) in the you-know-where.
| Comments Off on Happy anniversary