Of politics, and pumpkins (yours)
Our first WSB’er jack-o-lantern photo of 2008 – and appropriately enough, it’s a political pumpkin. Thanks to HunterG and family, who report this is their way of combining their excitement about Halloween and the election. Yes, if you send a Palin or McCain pumpkin, we’ll show that too, not to mention pumpkins that have nothing to do with politics. We featured West Seattle jack-o-lanterns this time last year, both the photos you sent and the ones we picked up around town, and we’re doing it again this year, so if you’ve got a pic to share or a location to report, please e-mail us. Meantime, back to politics — first-time events listing so it’s a special shoutout: The West Seattle Democratic Women invite all to their October 23 lunch, 11:15 am at the West Seattle Golf Course, with a program including King County Democrats Chair Susan Sheary speaking on I-26/Non-Partisan Elections (perhaps the most complicated measure on the November ballot, and we’ll be writing separately about it later this week), as well as West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist and the Democrat running for state treasurer, Jim McIntire. To make a lunch reservation, e-mail wsdwomen@yahoo.com or call (206) 935-3216 before 10/22. More election info later today (and here, anytime) – if you vote by mail, start watching your mailbox, because ballots are going out this week.
School-levy idea session tonight: Meeting? What meeting?
As we mentioned this morning, Seattle Public Schools reps have spent the week touring the city to invite members of the public to come offer ideas for projects to put in the next capital levy that’ll go before voters, likely February 2010. We got first word almost three weeks ago and mentioned it here; it was publicized many other ways, too. Certainly, Friday is a less-than-optimal night for a public meeting; even considering that, the turnout was absymal — just 4 people were on hand for the meeting: 2 members of the public (both teachers), the official SPS presenter, and the reporter we assigned to cover it. Here’s her story:Read More
Election countdown: West Seattle happenings this week
WEST SEATTLE OBAMA FUNDRAISER: Graham Ford sends word of West Seattleites organizing an evening of “food, comedy and fundraising” for the Democratic presidential campaign, 6-8 pm tomorrow at Talarico’s in The Junction. Talarico’s is donating the pizza; the comedy is by Joe Vespaziani (video). Here’s the flyer with full details.
34TH DISTRICT DEMOCRATS: Wednesday night, it’s the final pre-election monthly meeting of West Seattle’s biggest political group – 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy. The 34th District Democrats, by the way, have just joined WSB as a sponsor – note the “paid political ad” space on the sidebar – to provide a continuous link to the sample ballot they have created listing their endorsements for the November election. Their WSB ad links directly to that printable sample ballot, or you can see it here.
ATTENTION, WEST SEATTLE REPUBLICANS: We’ve said it before, if you’ve got an event or meeting coming up, let us know and we’d be happy to publish that news too; editor@westseattleblog.com. (Here’s the 34th District GOP webpage.)
REMINDER – WSB HAS AN ELECTION-INFO PAGE: Debate schedules, links to information on the hot races and topics, automatically updated digests of political news and blogs — find it all here.
Running out of time to register – and another vote note
Tomorrow’s the last day you can register to vote in the general election (E-Day is November 4th but the state starts sending out mail-in ballots within a couple weeks). Various groups plan registration drives around West Seattle on Saturday, but you can also do the deed online right now by going here. If you vote by mail, by the way, you will have an in-person dropoff option in West Seattle starting October 17th (and continuing round-the-clock through 8 pm on Election Day, 11/4) at the Delridge Neighborhood Services Center (one of only two such dropoffs in the entire city!). And when it comes time to make your voting decisions – you can find lots of info links (voters’ guides, official websites for candidates and ballot measure supporter/opponents, debate schedules, more) on the WSB Election page.
Budget-speech side note: Delridge Playfield turf $ from where?
During his budget speech this afternoon (video and documents linked here), Mayor Nickels mentioned West Seattle a few times, notably when talking about the budget including money for artificial turf at Delridge Playfield (see page 10 on his “budget highlights” document). This raised a question for us, as we had just told you on Saturday about the Parks Levy campaign stopping at the field and noting that the levy would raise $3 million for the Delridge turf project (see it on the levy “project list” here). So which is right – Delridge turf $ coming out of the mayor’s budget if passed, or coming from the new Parks Levy if passed? We talked to the mayor’s communications director Robert Mak, who believed it was from regular city $ – but that doesn’t explain why it’s on the levy list too, so we’re checking with levy supporters to see what they have to say. TUESDAY MORNING UPDATE: Heard back from Councilmember Tom Rasmussen (who chairs the council’s Parks Committee). He says, “If the playfield improvements are funded through the 2009-2010 Parks budget and capital improvement program as recommended by the Mayor, then funds earmarked in the levy for the field can be redirected to other parks or athletic fields projects.” TUESDAY EVENING UPDATE: Robert Mak’s answer to our followup question is along those same lines. He says the mayor included it in the budget proposal “trying to guarantee this project gets done” – levy or no levy. (The levy was proposed and sent to the ballot by the council, you may recall, despite the mayor’s stated desire to wait another couple years before asking voters for more parks $.)
Find out how the mayor wants to spend your $
If you want to watch live as the mayor tells the city council what he wants to do with city $ for the next fiscal year, his speech will be live at 2 pm on Seattle Channel (online here; on TV, cable channel 21). The official reminder from his office makes a point of noting it will include the youth-violence-prevention proposal he announced a few weeks ago (which focuses on three areas of the city, including ours, with major involvement from West Seattle-based Southwest Youth and Family Services, whose director spoke with us for a followup).
“Nickelsville” campers ask for permission to use another site
According to letters posted on the official website for the West 
Marginal/Highland Park Way encampment this morning – after a weekend spent on the state-owned site adjacent to the city land from which campers were rousted Friday afternoon – they’re promising to move “after midnight Wednesday,” but asking the governor for permission to set up at another state-owned site described as “500 yards southeast.” We just checked Parcel Viewer; the site most closely resembling that description is adjacent to Highway 99, parcel #5367202516. We don’t know for sure that this is the site they’re targeting, but whatever site they have in mind, if the governor’s office tells them not to use it, the letter says, they won’t, but they “will move together as a group … to another location,” though they aren’t saying where that might be: “It could be anywhere” (here’s their open letter to “property owners”). The letter goes on to thank the governor for treating the campers “like human beings” and invites her and her staff to visit, ending “… we will always have an open tent there for you.” We just called the governor’s office to ask if Gov. Gregoire has an official response to the request yet; they’re checking. 2 PM UPDATE: Talked with Ron Judd on the Gregoire staff a short time ago. He visited the site over the weekend but had not officially received today’s request yet. He also noted that the Wednesday deadline is not one set by the state, but by the city.
Election: Parks Levy campaign stops in Delridge
Some people just get involved in politics young. That little girl seemed determined to get the day off to a running start, along with one of three groups that toured the city today to campaign for Seattle Proposition 2, the $145 million, six-year parks levy (text/pros/cons/$ impact here) that’s going before voters just as the old Pro Parks Levy expires. This group started its day with a stop at Delridge Playfield, one of the West Seattle spots that stands to benefit if the levy passes, according to West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen: (who chairs the council’s Parks Committee):
Specifically, Delridge Playfield would get $3-plus million to replace its sand fields with artificial turf; the fields were hosting games when the levy campaign stopped by today:
The official pro-Prop 2 website has a map of other projects in West Seattle (and around the city). This is one of three local money-raising measures you’ll be considering on the November 4 ballot – the others are Seattle Proposition 1, the Pike Place Market levy (text/pros/cons/$ impact here), and Sound Transit Proposition 1 (text/pros/cons/$ impact here), which would expand light rail and includes money to study a potential future expansion into West Seattle.
Update: “Nickelsville” campers on the move, sort of
After hearing two reports that city reps were expected at the West Marginal/Highland Park Way homeless encampment around 6 this morning, we headed down. No city reps yet, but the campers are moving off the site of their own volition – sort of – they are moving to the adjacent parking lot, which is believed to be state land, and perhaps not subject to the city eviction warning. 6:43 AM: About a dozen tents moved to the parking lot (cameraphone photo above). An organizer’s going around telling people, be ready to be arrested, though on the other hand, they now believe the city won’t show up this morning because too many media crews are around. 10:12 AM: Our crew is back at WSB HQ after a four-hour stakeout; we’ll check back again later, but nothing more had happened by the time we left a few minutes ago. 11:47 AM: Still there, as far as we know. A couple photos we got before leaving at midmorning; second one, the Honey Bucket folks came by to pick up two of the four portabuckets at the site – said they had a “work order” to do it and wouldn’t say anything more:
“Nickelsville” updates: Deadline past, still there
… at last report, anyway, though the 72-hour grace period before eviction/clearing expired at 5 pm tonight. We’ll be checking in the early morning hours, since you never know what might happen when the TV crews pack up after the 11 pm news. And as we reported last night, at least one community liaison insisted the mayor told him that city crews would move in sometime Friday. A post in the Nickelsville Google Group says tonight that they want supporters to be there “as soon as possible … after the sun rises.” Blogging Georgetown went down this evening to check out the scene. We called the mayor’s office for comment and were told late this afternoon that the city doesn’t announce when sweeps happen, but in this case, whenever it happens, SDOT will clear the area because it’s their property, and Seattle Police will be there to assist just in case. The spokesperson also added that the mayor’s office is sensitive to the political nature of the protest, but (paraphrasing now) rules are rules.
New homeless encampment in West Seattle: “Nickelsville”
(cameraphone photo added 2:28 pm, more pix/vid to come in separate post a bit later)
Just set up in the 7100 block of West Marginal Way (map); we’ll head out for pix in a bit but in the meantime, you can see one on its official website. This, by the way, is at the intersection with Highland Park Way, same vicinity as one of the two potential city-jail sites in West Seattle. Organizers say they hope to make this a “permanent” encampment. The location was kept secret till organizers and participants, who met at four locations last night (according to their Google group) to make the move, actually set it up. According to their website, “While we are on Duwamish land, Nickelodeans are fearful that Mayor Nickels does not understand this.” The address they give, 7115 West Marginal, is Pacific Plumbing Supply’s property; we’ll check when we’re down there to see exactly what parcel they’re on. 1:10 PM UPDATE: The mayor told KING5 in an interview that just aired, “We will treat it like any other encampment – we will post it, and then clear it.” To “post” it means giving the residents 72 hours’ notice to clear out, as was done in the case of the Camp Long encampment covered here on WSB earlier this year. 2:01 PM UPDATE: Co-publisher Patrick is at the site and reports it’s on the river side of West Marginal, about 20 yards southeast of the intersection with Highland Park Way. Checking that on Parcel Viewer now … site has multiple owners but comparing it with aerial photograph of proposed jail site, looks like it’s definitely within those boundaries:
2:29 PM UPDATE: Seems the squatters didn’t know this was a proposed jail site – just a coincidence – or so they tell us; co-publisher Patrick, who is en route back with video etc., reports it’s fairly disorganized. Media swarming, of course; we ran into one newspaper columnist and one wire-service reporter. And this is now certain to be discussed at tonight’s prescheduled Highland Park Action Committee meeting (7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club, 11th/Holden).
Update: Council discussion with West Seattleites, toplines
ORIGINAL POST: You can watch live online at SeattleChannel.org, or on cable TV at channel 21, the discussion previewed here is about to start, a bit later than expected since previous City Council business ran long. If anything major is revealed, we’ll add it to this post ASAP before writing our full report afterward. West Seattle businesses and developers are being briefed by Junction Association president Dave Montoure, Junction-based architect Brandon Nicholson, and Harbor Properties’ Denny Onslow. 10:55 AM UPDATE: A couple major proposals – the Junction Association (officially a “business improvement district”) is looking to expand its jurisdiction into the “Triangle” area into the east; the group’s suggestion is for a “view corridor” on developments along California, meaning the tallest parts of the buildings would be set back a ways from the street, so the facades along California would not be as tall; tree grates along California in The Junction to expand “walkable” surface on the narrow sidewalks. 11:06 AM UPDATE: Another major proposal: A median with trees along the section of Fauntleroy through the “Triangle” area. (We have the illustrations that are being shown today and will include them in our report afterward.) 11:22 AM UPDATE: The discussion is over. What we mentioned previously are the main headlines; stand by for that full report including the visuals of California, Fauntleroy, and Alaska and their potential futures.
Not registered to vote? 20 days left to change that
Highland Park activist Dina Johnson says she’ll be out on Alki again this afternoon in her suffragette garb — “circa 1912,” as she describes it — registering people to vote. Unless you’re new to this state, your deadline to register is October 4th — if you sign up by mail, that’s the date your form must be postmarked by; you can download the form from this page on the King County website. If you ARE new to Washington, your deadline is October 20, but you’d have to register in person to push it that far (more details here). The presidential race is only the top of a tall stack of important state/local races and ballot measures; go here to get a look at some of what you’ll be voting for – provided you’re signed up. (If you’d like to sign up with Dina’s help, look for her and husband Blair Johnson on the Alki promenade this afternoon. Lots of other local activists are busy trying to sign up voters too, with so much at stake.)
34th District Democrats’ meeting: Election countdown
Certainly the presidential election has taken fascinating turns – but that’s just one race on a huge slate you’ll face when your ballot arrives in the mail, or when you go vote in person on November 4th. We got quite the reminder of that while covering Wednsday night’s meeting of West Seattle’s biggest political group, the 34th District Democrats – they got endorsement pitches from supporters of initiatives that may not even be on your radar screen yet. They also heard local organizers’ presidential get-out-the-vote strategies too. Two and a half hours of what the 34th DDs call “all the democracy you can handle” — here are the highlights:Read More
City Council to get West Seattle Junction development briefing
View Larger Map
(Updated version of WSB clickable Junction/Triangle development map)
Heard about this after last night’s 34th District Democrats meeting (full report on that is still in the works), and it’s just been confirmed by West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen: Toward the widely voiced concern that the Junction and Triangle areas be looked at in a “big picture” sense while so much development roars forward, Rasmussen is asking Junction developers (here’s our report on their West Seattle Chamber of Commerce appearance yesterday) and leaders of the Chamber and the West Seattle Junction Association to be at the September 22nd City Council “briefing” session. Also invited: along Representatives of city agencies including SDOT (transportation) and DPD (planning). Rasmussen staffer Brian Hawksford explains, “The purpose would be to have the developers describe their projects to the Council in an informal setting and to explain how they hope the city can be helpful in the overall improvement to the streetscape.” Rasmussen himself elaborates:
I see all of the development that is being planned in the Junction area as a tremendous opportunity to create one of the greatest residential and commercial neighborhoods in the City. For that to happen it is important for the developers and the City to work together to insure that design of the buildings, landscaping, transit planning, traffic management, parking and pedestrian walkways are all coordinated and complementary. The City can play a major role to insure that the coordination occurs. Recently I met with representatives of the Fairmount Community Council and they too see this potential. I would like as many people who are interested to participate.
I know it may be difficult for the public to attend this meeting during a weekday here at City Hall. The meeting is planned to be held here … because I would like the Council to understand the importance of this effort. It will be televised and can be viewed online as well. If people would like more meetings to be held, we can do so in West Seattle.
The meeting’s at 9:30 am September 22nd at City Council chambers downtown. It will be shown live, as are all such council sessions, by the Seattle Channel — channel 21 on cable, or seattlechannel.org online.
Preview of coming attractions
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.
Reminders for tonight: Thrills, designs, Dems
THRILLS: Not too late to get in on Thrill the World-West Seattle, the group that’s going to dance as part of the world-record attempt (different locations, don’t worry, you won’t have to fly or drive somewhere distant) – tonight’s the second practice, 8 pm, Ginomai (42nd/Genesee), more on the official WS website.
DESIGNS: Right after that, Ginomai’s also the spot to join the weekly crowd cheering Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) barista Blayne in “Project Runway” — show’s at 9 pm on the big screen (bring dessert to share!).
DEMS: Less than two months till The Election – and that means West Seattle’s biggest political group has only two more monthly meetings till then – more potential endorsements are on the agenda tonight for the 34th District Democrats, among other things, 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy.
digests on our 
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