MYSTERY HELICOPTER: Received more than a few notes about this earlier this evening (thank you!) but couldn’t find anything obvious via scanner or in person. Anybody who can solve the mystery of what a chopper was doing over eastern West Seattle – Triangle, Fairmount, possibly Pigeon Point – in the 7 pm hour, please share. (10:16 pm: Nancy e-mails to say that from past experience, it might have been a chopper covering sports at WS Stadium; not WSHS football since they were at Ingraham — 33 to 6 win for the Wildcats, by the way, congrats, and they’re in Game of the Week running for next week! – but schedules reveal Seattle Prep played O’Dea tonight at WS Stadium.)
DOOR-TO-DOOR ALERT: This quick note from Todd in the California/Charlestown (map) area:
Just a note to alert the area that those pushy magazine salespeople (who ignore or can’t read ‘no soliciting’ signs) are at work on the Admiral / Gen. Hill line.
ONE MORE NOTE: Just got word from Carol Viger that the West Seattle High School Grad Night fundraiser car wash planned for tomorrow is off. We’ll let you know when it’s rescheduled.
WEAVERS: Special guests are visiting Cafe Rozella (which is on the southeast edge of West Seattle/north edge of White Center) this afternoon/evening — a women’s weaving collective from Oaxaca, Mexico, 3-9 pm. Read more here.
LAUNCH PARTY: Can’t think of the last time we heard a local business announce a “launch party.” But that’s what’s happening tonight at Beveridge Place Pub, 6-9 pm, to inaugurate Farris Law, PLLC, a new practice focused on small businesses. Proprietor Valerie Farris has planned the party as a fundraiser for Furry Faces Foundation and the West Seattle Food Bank through a fundraising raffle ($5/ticket, 4 for $20) for a variety of donated items including many geared toward her potential clientele, from a “PR startup package” to gift certificates for web design.
HANDBALL, ANYONE? Tonight (and/or any other Tuesday), you are welcome to join the open practice for Seattle Team Handball at Hiawatha Community Center, 7-9 pm. “All ages and genders,” according to the Seattle Team Handball website. (Tuesday afternoon note: Organizers say there’s a chance they might have to move to the West Seattle High School gym, so if you don’t find them at Hiawatha, head next door.)
SELF-DEFENSE FOR TEENS AND WOMEN: Tonight is the second of two “self-defense seminars” for teenage girls and women offered this month by Lee’s Martial Arts – open to ages 11 and up. More on the LMA website.
We’ve been out of the house since mid-morning, just catching up now on the WaMu failure/takeover/etc. news. That’s where we have two of our three accounts, none of them amounting to much, but having not been through this before, we wondered what this means, and found this on the Seattle Times site, for starters. (Wondered if the WaMu site itself would have anything, but so far it looks same as ever, replete with the WhooHoo nonsense that didn’t even make sense in theoretically good times.) Here’s the FDIC statement. Let us know if you’ve found any other good links; we’ll continue to look too. EARLY FRIDAY UPDATE: They added the new owners to the WaMu website – although the pre-existing cute-kid photo is just dying for a caption (“3, 2, 1, guess who owns you now!”):
“ALKI IDOL”: Starting tomorrow night, a two-month talent contest kicks off at Bamboo on Alki. Auditions are tomorrow night and October 2, 9:30 midnight. Here’s the official website.
DECALS ONLINE: The question comes up from time to time, “where can we get those Alki decals with the seagull?” – various stores are mentioned, but now there’s also a place to get them online, announced in the WSB Forums today: alkidecals.com.
QUAKE DRILL: A statewide earthquake drill is planned for 10:15 this morning, and EVERYBODY is urged to participate. Find out more about it here.
A CALL YOU MIGHT GET IF YOU’RE A SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS PARENT: In connection with the quake drill, SPS is sending out “test emergency calls” from its new SchoolMessenger system; a “random sample of 5% of … families” will get these calls; another 5% will get a “general announcement” version of test calls from the system.
SPEAKING OF SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Today is the first “two-hour early dismissal day” of the school year.
AND ONE MORE SCHOOL NOTE: Today’s the first monthly informal coffee hour that West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist — 9 to 10 am, Coffee to a Tea with Sugar in The Junction; drop by to talk education issues.
GETTING OUT THE LONG-TERM-CARE-RESIDENT VOTE: That’s the topic of a major conference at Providence Mount St. Vincent today, 9:30 am-2:30 pm, with everyone in the local long-term-care community welcome to participate.
“NICKELSVILLE” UPDATE: Not much was reported on the second day of the homeless camp’s existence at Highland Park Way/West Marginal; tonight at 7 pm, organizers hope to rally “community supporters” as they count down the final hours till the city’s eviction notice kicks in at 5 pm Thursday.
CREATIVE TEENS: Just announced, PugetSoundOff.org, offering teens and young adults (13-21) a place to sound off and speak out – kicking off with a contest; read about it here. (We’ll be helping judge part of the contest, if they haven’t thrown us off the panel for missing a meeting when all that news was breaking this afternoon.)
Onlineshoes.com and Keen Footwear were part of the Delridge Natural Area work party on Saturday; we couldn’t get over to take pix but invited them to send us some (any volunteer effort you’re part of, we’d love to see your pix too, preferably within a couple days of when it happened, the sooner the better, editor@westseattleblog.com). There are more work parties in West Seattle’s greenspaces every Saturday (among other times); greenseattle.org is the best place to get a sneak peek, but we put them in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup every Friday morning too.
BINGO: Derek, who discovered Monday night bingo at Alki UCC Church after the last time we mentioned it here, noticed it had vanished from our events calendar (oops! fixed!) and wanted to remind all would-be players it’s happening weekly – doors open 5:30 pm, games start 6:30 pm. More on this page of the Alki UCC website.
SCOUTS: Just got a note from Suzanne saying that tonight is Recruitment Night for Cub Scout Pack 284 at Gatewood Elementary School library, 6:30 pm: “Some of the Pack’s leadership and parents will be there to answer any questions about joining Cub Scouts. Our first Pack meeting of the school year will be Thursday at Our Lady of Guadalupe’s cafeteria at 7pm. First – Fifth grade boys are welcome to show up and check out what happens at the Pack meeting and hear about what scouts did over the summer including camp, hiking and the West Seattle Parade.” (ADDED 12:02 PM) Also: John e-mailed to say “Cub Scout pack #285 is having their recruitment night at 6:30 in the community room of St. John’s the Baptist Episcopal Church located (just west of West Seattle High School) at 3050 California Avenue SW. Pack 285 is one of the oldest Cub Scout packs in West Seattle and we are meeting to welcome new Cub Scouts and talk to parents who are interested in scouting. We will also be reviewing this summer’s activities and looking ahead at the fun events we have planned for the year. Boys in the 1st through 5th grade are welcome to join in. Contact Assistant Cubmaster John Woodworth @ 206-265-3295 or Cubmaster John Hoene at 206-372-3153 if you cannot make tonight’s meeting.”
CAR-SEAT RECYCLING: If you have car/booster seat(s) you’re not using – and can get to IKEA in Renton on Wednesday – you can be part of a first-of-its-kind event that WestSide Baby‘s Nancy Woodland just e-mailed to announce – though it’s not in West Seattle, it’s for families here and all over the south King County area. The event also includes safety checks for the car/booster seats you’re using now, and kids’ helmets too; read on for full details:Read More
It’s the bank with the most branches in West Seattle (five by our count, including the Junction driveup and the Thriftway in-store), so you might be interested in this helpful “what does the situation mean to you?” Q-and-A that the P-I put together. If you still want to know more about the whole “federally insured deposit” promise, the FDIC website has lots o’links here.
WEST SEATTLEITES ON THE RADIO THIS AFTERNOON: On KUOW during its 2 pm show, an interview with local author/historian Clay Eals about the history of West Seattle’s transportation woes (94.9 FM or listen online). Meantime, though it’s not listed on their webpage right now, we heard a promo for KIRO Radio‘s Ron and Don talking with West Seattle barista/former “Project Runway” contestant Blayne during their 3-6 pm show today (will update when we get a specific hour).
FIRST OF TWO KENNEY MEETINGS TONIGHT: As we first reported a month ago, The Kenney is launching a $150 million redevelopment project, including tearing down old buildings and putting up new ones to double its capacity. Tonight is the first of two meetings to show the plans and answer questions; it’s geared to area residents, 6 pm, Fauntleroy Church. Tomorrow, a meeting geared to local community groups and organizations, 6 pm at The Kenney.
ADMIRAL SAFEWAY MEETING TOMORROW NIGHT: Second-to-last reminder, Safeway unveils its plans for the major Admiral redevelopment at a community meeting tomorrow, 7 pm at Hiawatha Community Center, one week before its first Design Review Board session. Safeway declined our request for a pre-meeting peek at the plans, preferring you to see it at the meeting first; tomorrow’s format will be a presentation followed by Q/A, *not* a drop-in open house – be there at the start. (Forest points out in e-mail that a Tacoma Safeway project evolved with significant neighborhood input, another reminder that your participation can make a difference.)
PARK-ING DAY LOCATIONS: We’ve told you before about PARKing Day, a nationwide event this Friday meant to call attention to the need to make sure urban areas have greenspaces. Its centerpiece: Community groups converting parking spaces into mini-parks for the day. The official Seattle map is out (see it here), and there are two area locations: One in the heart of The Junction, the other on 16th SW in White Center (in front of Full Tilt).
BUSINESS BIRTHDAY: We like to mention local businesses’ anniversaries, and here’s the next one – M3 Bodyworks (WSB sponsor) is celebrating its third anniversary with a discount on its prepaid massage package – you pay for four, the fifth one is free. It’s an online-only special, available till midnight Saturday night; go here to check it out.
ORIGINAL POST THIS MORNING: We’ve now received about half a dozen notes on this and we’re stymied, so we’re throwing it out in hopes someone can solve the mystery: A blue-and-white private jet that flew over West Seattle, repeatedly, yesterday (we saw it once while covering the boat collision) is back this morning. Any clues? Please post a comment (or e-mail us). UPDATE AT 12:32 PM WITH MYSTERY SOLVED: Thanks to Jerry for e-mailing us with the suggestion it might be an FAA test, based on something he recalled from years back. We called the regional FAA public-affairs office, where Mike Fergus made a quick inquiry and just got back to us with confirmation: That’s an FAA plane, doing testing that he says includes instrument-landing-system testing and flight procedure testing for runways including Sea-Tac’s new third runway. He says the jet will be up again in about two hours, and that the FAA has several jets like this – all based out of Oklahoma City – that go to airports around the country for testing like this.
LAST WEEKEND TO GO TO COSTCO THE USUAL WAY: By Tuesday morning, the sign beneath the sheeting should be unmasked, to point you toward the detour that will kick in from the 1st Avenue South exit on the eastbound West Seattle Bridge – because that’s when eastbound lower Spokane Street will close 1st-5th to all but local (deliveries etc.) traffic. You’ll have to turn left on 1st at the bottom of the offramp, head to Lander, then up to 4th, and then to Costco (etc.). It’s the very first phase of work that in 3 years will result in a double-the-current-width Spokane Street Viaduct (archived WSB coverage here).
PARKING ALERT: Long stretches of California SW between Alaska and Morgan Junctions are marked by “no parking” signs in effect for today; we’ll be checking shortly on exactly what sort of road work this is for.
ANOTHER TRAFFIC NOTE: Another reminder, the eastbound Fauntleroy end of The Bridge will have the outside lane blocked off for the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup most of the day today (hundreds of volunteers; not too late to join them, here’s how).
SPEAKING OF VOLUNTEERS: The volunteer hours and donated $ that communities contribute to city Neighborhood Matching Fund-assisted projects are celebrated today in an NMF 20th-anniversary open house at Youngstown Arts Center, 10 am-2 pm.
IT’S COOKIN’ ON ALKI: Only a couple tents were set up as of late last night but lots more should be showing up this morning for the weekend-long Evergreen State Barbecue Championships along the Alki promenade. More here (including a famous food-seller!).
CLEAN CARS FOR A CAUSE: Latest fundraising car wash – West Seattle High School girls’ volleyball team, 10 am-2 pm at the WSHS parking lot.
WEST SEATTLE GATEWAY CLEANUP: Even if you’re not one of the hundreds of volunteers joining in this huge cleanup effort, you should know that it will shut down a lane on the Fauntleroy end of the The Bridge, so that participants will be safe – the cleanup is happening from Walking on Logs till 35th/Fauntleroy, but the lane closure will start before there. Hours are approximately 9 am-3:30 pm. (Here’s our most recent preview.)
NEIGHBORHOOD MATCHING FUND CELEBRATION: A whole lot of projects around our part of the city (and elsewhere) wouldn’t have happened without the city chipping in NMF money. The program is celebrating its 20th anniversary and throwing parties around town including one Saturday, open-house style, 10 am-2 pm at Youngstown Arts Center.
BARBECUE CHAMPIONSHIPS: Once again this year, the Evergreen State Barbecue Championships are happening on Alki this weekend. Saturday-Sunday are the official days but you are likely to see setup happening (and a lot of RVs) starting Friday night. Last year when we covered this, a big question was “does anyone SELL food?” We have word of at least two vendors – one of which is a sponsor, Tom Douglas Restaurants, which says it’ll be selling “Rub with Love BBQ Salmon Sandwiches with Arugula and Fennel Mayo.” We don’t have precise hours for vendors but on Saturday we’ll report what we find out at the scene.
PLAYGROUND PROJECT: Supporters of a “playscape” in Admiral’s California Place mini-park plan a neighborhood ice-cream social starting at 3 pm (the park’s at California/Hill; here’s our most recent coverage of the proposal).
FUNDRAISING CAR WASH: Just got word the West Seattle High School girls’ volleyball team has one in the parking lot, 10 am-2 pm Saturday. Lots more events, and you’ll see them in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup tomorrow.
Those signs outside The Hall at Fauntleroy are a hint at what’s happening inside tonight … the 34th District Democrats‘ second-to-last meeting before the general election. We’re here to find out what the area’s largest political organization is up to – one promised presentation will include the Democrats’ presidential-campaign strategy “precinct by precinct,” according to a gentleman putting together a projected presentation – that should be interesting, given how things are playing out on a national level right now. Any major news that emerges, we’ll post as/when it happens; otherwise, look for a roundup later. Meantime, we’re also still working on a story that emerged from today’s monthly West Seattle Chamber of Commerce luncheon meeting — the four developers responsible for eight major projects in the Junction area all presented updates — with some info you may not have heard before — that’s coming up later tonight.
In hopes of a little extra heads-up, we ran down tonight’s highlights as the week began (transportation forum, neighborhood-group meetings, Seal Sitters training, here’s the full preview for tonight). So now, a few words about Wednesday and Thursday highlights:
THURSDAY: The monthly West Seattle Second Thursday Art Walk, 6-9 pm. Haven’t been lately? It’s not just The Junction any more — participants all over West Seattle; full lineup here. The High Point Neighborhood Association‘s having its quarterly meeting at 6 pm at the Commons Park Amphltheater (pedestrian-safety issues may come up, given what happened last week, but that would be after 7 pm – from 6-7, as noted in comments below, the meeting will include a program about Somali/East African culture). And the Design Review Board meeting for BlueStar‘s Spring Hill mixed-use building at 5020 California (new design previewed here) is at 6:30 pm at Hiawatha.
Both from the P-I’s “Big Blog“: #1 – A West Seattle woman digs up photos from the beauty pageant in which she and Sarah Palin were both contestants. (Our own weird Palin side note is that someone anonymously sent the WSB mailbox a “Sarah Palin for Vice President” bumper sticker many MONTHS ago; specifically, it said MOTHERS AGAINST GOV’T CORRUPTION/GOV’T SARAH PALIN FOR VP/(smaller type) JOHN MCCAIN FOR PRESIDENT. We gave it to a friend. Next time someone sends us something random, we will remind ourselves that anything could become a collector’s item someday.) #2 – If you’re inclined to go downtown tomorrow night, we’re on a P-I-moderated panel about the neighborhood-blogging biz. Among our fellow panelists, the just-decloaked “Geeky Swedes” of MyBallard.com. (We have a side note on that one too; Cory Bergman and I both held the same management job at KCPQ TV, a few years apart — TR)
Not too long ago, Elise wrote with a question/concern about a van parked in her neighborhood and whether it had the right to be parked the way it was frequently parked. We made a suggestion or two in e-mail; some of her questions had to do with the rules about Residential Parking Zones (city webpage here), and as Elise proceeded to do some research, she thought you might benefit from what she found out:
1) Even if you have a zone permit (or guest permit) you must move your car every 72 hours. Basically, having the permit does not exempt you from those rules. But, you are allowed to park anywhere in your zone as long as you
have your permit.
2) The city is considering changing the rules on the # of permits that can be issued per/household to only 2. I asked when this would be in effect and she said she did not know. City Councilwoman Jan Drago chairs the Transportation Committee, so she would be a good person to contact in order to express support of this proposal (jan.drago@seattle.gov).
3) If you have complaints about habitual “junk” motor vehicles in the neighborhood it’s best to still call the abandoned vehicle hotline at 206-684-8763. This creates an electronic track record of the car(s) movements. Like the guy in our neighborhood with 8 cars – they refer to those people as “car ranchers” (anyone with between 5-30 cars) who constantly move their cars around on city streets to avoid getting tickets. The only way to have the city do anything about them is by creating the electronic track record. The person I spoke with at the Citizen Service Bureau (206-684-8811) also said the UW School of Law offers a free “Mediation Clinic” to help resolve issues between neighbors (obviously for extreme situations), but their # is 206-685-4140.
(classic 1939 trailer for “Wizard of Oz”)
If you’re going through outdoor-movie withdrawal after the end of the West Seattle Movies on the Wall series last Saturday, you might want to be at High Point Community Center tonight, where Thursday night Family Night activities continue, with “The Wizard of Oz” showing just after 6 pm. As for something else a lot of people will be watching tonight – we haven’t heard of any major West Seattle viewing parties for Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech BUT the 34th District Democrats were promoting the 11th District Democrats‘ viewing party in Tukwila – here’s the info on that. If you’re in south West Seattle or White Center, tonight’s the monthly South Delridge/White Center Community Safety meeting, 6 pm at St. James Place (9421 18th SW; map) – with an excellent agenda item, best practices for when and how to call 911. LOTS of other events tonight, and you can find them on the frequently updated WSB Events calendar page.
OK, a little spooky to get these after coming home from “Ghostbusters”(see previous post). On the other hand, it’s the full moon, so who knows. But we’ve received two notes about this already, so we’re throwing it out for discussion (and also looking around to see if there are similar reports from any other neighborhoods, or any other explanation, such as meteors, or fireworks, or …) – here’s one of the notes:
Around 9:30 this evening many neighbors between 55th and 57th Ave SW (close to the beach) noticed numerous orange glowing lights in the sky. There were at least 8 – 10 of them, all perfectly round and perfectly spaced apart and in the form of an arc. They didn’t move very much from the formation they made, but others said they saw one or two appeared to cool slightly and then fall out of the sky. We were worried about where they fell and whether they might start a fire. I walked a 4 square block radius trying to find someone shooting off flares or perhaps they were might be embers from a house fire or something similar that would explain the glowing lights. Nothing. By the time I got back to my home they had disappeared. Any ideas on what they could be? One neighbor’s theory is that they might have been some type of paper lantern with candles that were released into the sky as some type of memorial…
The second note was similar, though shorter. (By the way, speaking of lights in the sky, there’s a fireworks show scheduled on Elliott Bay next Thursday night in connection with a sailing race; we saw it on the routine Coast Guard “local notice for mariners,” and have messages out to try to find out exactly where on the bay.)
I just had a rehearsal dinner for my wedding this past Friday at Lincoln Park right on the water (closest to the Vashon ferry, shelter #3) .
A close family member of mine believes she has lost the most precious objects she owns there. It’s a gold Medic Alert bracelet. Her son passed away in 2001, and she had his bracelet saved and remade for her. She has worn it for the past 7 years day and night. She’s convinced that it has fallen off at the park during this dinner. We have looked in the area and have been unsuccessful. It’s a very unique piece and had some custom engraving on it (In memory of you, Josh 10-19-79 to 5-31-01). I’ve attached pictures that approximates what it looks like. We plan on going to local pawn shops to inquire about it as well. Just thought it may be worth it to check with any WSB readers.
If you have any idea where it is, please e-mail or call us (all the options are on our Contact page) and we will put you in touch with Libbe and her relative. We usually invite people with lost/found items to post in the WSB Forum (except for pets, for whom we have a separate page) but this one’s a special case; hope someone in WSB-land can help.
FIRST: A “public auction” sign is now up at the closed-last-month (WSB coverage here) Corner Inn (auction’s next Tuesday; here’s the item list, on the James G. Murphy auctioneers site) … SECOND: Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor) has sent an e-mail alert to customers that sidewalk work outside their business and others (west side of California SW between Juneau and Findlay) will start Monday, last three weeks, and affect parking. THIRD: Pink notes like this are on doors at Denny Middle School:
Thanks to the WSB’er who tipped us that Seattle Public Schools posted notices that it’s treating Denny with pesticide today. The notices say they’re doing it in the lunch room and bathrooms, and the pesticide is Onslaught.
CLOSURES:Southwest Community Center, all week (maybe a little longer), related to the renovations at adjacent Southwest Pool … West Seattle Driver Licensing office, reopening Wednesday.
We wanted to know why a neighborhood flag was half-lowered, so of course, we asked “The Google.”
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