West Seattle, Washington
28 Monday
Three months ago, former City Councilmember Jeanette Williams 
(seen at left in a city archives photo from 1973) was remembered for accomplishments including fighting to secure federal money to building the high-rise West Seattle Bridge. Now, there’s a campaign to name the bridge in her honor as the Jeanette Williams Memorial Bridge; a resolution supporting the proposal was adopted unanimously at last week’s Seattle Community Council Federation meeting and is circulating among other councils in the city as well (here’s the wording as also recently endorsed in View Ridge, according to SCCF chair Jeannie Hale). City Council approval would be required; no word yet of a timetable for a formal proposal coming before the council, but we asked Councilmember Tom Rasmussen – who got his political start working with Ms. Williams – and he told WSB he’s all for it. We’ll keep you posted. (Maybe it’ll happen in time for the bridge’s 25th anniversary this summer?)
Almost one full year ago, it started here with the precinct caucuses:
(2/9/08 photo by Tim, taken at Arbor Heights Elementary)
As we reported that night, the 34th District went 70% Obama, 28% Clinton, on a day of overflow crowds everywhere. Two months later, for the district caucus April 5 at WSHS, it was standing- and floor-sitting-room-only:
Seven months after that, on Election Day, we found Chris Porter – who’d been an Obama delegate at the Democratic National Convention – among the morning sign-wavers on the Fauntleroy overpass:
That night, we shot this video at Skylark Cafe and Club (WSB sponsor) during a long, loud ovation after the networks called the Obama victory:
We’ll be back at Skylark tonight; it’s one of the venues with post-inauguration celebrations listed (along with other events and info re: today) on our special Inauguration page.
Five days after the announcement that Governor Gregoire, County Executive Sims, and Mayor Nickels want to see
the Alaskan Way Viaduct’s “mile in the middle” Central Waterfront section replaced with a $4 billion package of improvements centered on a deep-bored tunnel, the chatter about it continues, and we have two things to share tonight: First, 34th District State Sen. Joe McDermott sent a note after Week 1 of the new legislative session wrapped up, pointing out that he’s now writing updates in blog format on his official website. (It’s not entirely blog format, since you can’t leave comments, but maybe that’ll change.) His latest post, which you can read here, describes the tunnel announcement as “Viaduct Success.” (He’s also posted a podcast — 3 1/2 minutes of audio — but it’s not about The Viaduct; it’s about the state-budget shortfall.) We’ll keep an eye on the next move re: The Tunnel – the Legislature’s website doesn’t currently have anything specifically on the agenda. Now, the other tunnel note: West Seattle poet Carol Smith has penned a lament to drivers’ prospective loss of views – read on:Read More
(the ticketed seats in front of the U.S. Capitol, with sign-bearing passersby, and media)
Those are just a couple of the latest photos sent back by two of the West Seattleites who are in “the other Washington” for the presidential inauguration. Last night, we published the first report from Fauntleroy residents Carter and Dan (read it here; photo of Carter at right), and this morning we added photos they sent; tonight, we have just received another report, and lots more pix, including the two above – read on:Read More
(photo from Carter, showing the space that’ll be jammed with people on Inauguration Day)
Over the past few weeks, we’ve received e-mail from several West Seattleites who will be at the Presidential Inauguration on Tuesday – and they’ve promised to send updates on what it’s like to be there, both before and during (maybe even after). We have our first dispatch tonight from Carter and Dan, Upper Fauntleroy residents who’ve already arrived — here’s what Carter wrote (with more photos, added Saturday afternoon):Read More
At the mayor’s open house: About 50 people there (Southwest Community Center in Westwood) as of 7 o’clock. No formal presentation, the mayor really is just working the crowd, with a variety of other high-level city staffers there (including SDOT director Grace Crunican and deputy mayor Tim Ceis, both of whom are also West Seattleites). At the Water Taxi dock open house: Also about 50 people (Alki Community Center) as of this writing, including County Council Chair Dow Constantine. Easels are set up displaying the changes planned for the Seacrest dock, which will stretch it out beyond the existing “L” shape, to a “T” that would be perpendicular to the end of the current fishing pier; there’s also information about an upcoming study of parking in the area. A formal presentation is about to be made. 8:44 PM NOTE: We’ll be publishing separate stories on both events – which are now over.
(WSB photo from December 14)
When we published first word of the mayor’s plan for three “open houses” to personally field citizen concerns about the trials and tribulations of Snowstorm ’08, JenV commented, “I foresee a packed house in WS.” If that happens tonight (6:30-8 pm at Southwest Community Center; here’s a map), it’ll be the only one of the three. According to this Seattle Weekly item about the Tuesday event in Green Lake, and this Central District News report on last night’s event in the CD, very few people have shown up to tell the mayor — and a massive retinue of city workers — what they think, and/or to hear what he says. Are YOU going?
Thanks to the 34th District Democrats for sharing that shot of their new Executive Board: left to right, 2nd vice chair David Ginsberg, state committeeman Chris Porter, state committeewoman Marcee Stone, district chair Tim Nuse, alternate county committeeman Robin Hess, county committeewoman Lisa Plymate, first vice chair Kim Becklund, treasurer Stu Yarfitz, county committeeman Ivan Weiss, secretary Miki Meahan (and, not pictured, alternate county committeewoman Asha Mohamed). They’ve moved into those roles after the 34th DDs’ reorganization meeting last night at The Hall at Fauntleroy, a lively gathering as is the tradition for our area’s largest political group; here’s a video crowd shot:
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
Now, one more group with leadership responsibilities — the committee chairs:
Left to right, it’s Jackie Dupras (newsletter), Greg Doss (legislative action), Beth Grieser, Brian Earl (bylaws), Les Treall (outreach), Jeff Upthegrove (membership), and Walter Sive (finance).
Another headline from the meeting: Read More
From the WSB West Seattle Events calendar, two major meetings tonight: 6 pm at Youngstown Arts Center, it’s the second design meeting for the Delridge Skatepark; though the city has not currently budgeted the money to build it, the design process is proceeding so the project will be ready when construction money becomes available. (Here’s our coverage of the first meeting last summer.) 7 pm at The Hall at Fauntleroy, our area’s biggest political organization, the 34th District Democrats, gather for “reorganization” – choosing the group’s new leaders. More at 34dems.org.
(12/18/08 photo by Raymond Overgaard)
Quick notes from this morning’s Seattle City Council briefing on snowstorm response, third one in one week (our coverage of the previous two: Monday 1/5 and Tuesday 1/6). Today, councilmembers heard from – and questioned – city Emergency Management director Barb Graff. Here’s what it all came down to: Who really had a handle on the big picture, the fact that the roads were in bad shape, buses weren’t running because of that, and more reinforcements needed to be called in? Read on for what was said, who said it, and what next:Read More
Both councils are tackling Snowstorm ’08 followups this morning (in addition to other agenda items), and both meetings have now begun, live online and on cable TV – the Seattle City Council, seattlechannel.org or cable 21; King County Council, kingcounty.gov or cable 22. We’re monitoring both and will post here if anything major is revealed/announced, with wrapups later. City councilmembers, by the way, have a big meeting later today too, announcing their collective and individual priorities for 2009 at 2 pm, with public comment to follow.
Just in from Mayor Nickels‘ office – three “open houses” next week where you’re promised the chance to talk with him and city staffers about the December snowstorm response – note the third one is happening here in West Seattle (home to the mayor, deputy mayor, SDOT boss, among others):
SEATTLE – Mayor Greg Nickels invites Seattle residents to talk with him, department heads and city staff about their winter-storm experiences. The input is being gathered as part of a citywide performance review of emergency snow operations.
Three meetings are planned and residents are invited to attend any or all:
● Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Green Lake Community Center, 7201 E. Green Lake Dr. N.
● Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Garfield Community Center, 2323 E. Cherry St.
● Thursday, Jan. 15, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Southwest Community Center, 2801 S.W. Thistle St. (map)The sessions will offer residents an informal opportunity to talk one-on-one with the mayor and meet with staff from transportation, utilities and other departments.
(one of many photos we received during Snowstorm ’08)
The Seattle City Council has another post-snowstorm discussion coming up next Monday morning, after more than five hours of briefings this past Monday and Tuesday. Since snow-related trouble hit West Seattle particularly hard, from missing buses to missed trash pickups, it’s not surprising that some of the toughest questions at those briefings came from WS-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. Before memories of those first two briefings faded too far away, we e-mailed to ask him about any reflections on what he heard – read on to see what he sent back:Read More
City Council President Richard Conlin, once mentioned as a possible challenger to Mayor Nickels next year, has just sent a news release (read it here) announcing he’s running for re-election to the council. Meantime, a WSB Forums member recently launched a campaign … not for mayor, but to find a mayoral candidate. (The other three councilmembers whose terms are up this year: Jan Drago, Nick Licata, and Richard McIver, who previously indicated he wouldn’t run again.)
Live coverage has just started on Seattle Channel (cable 21, or online at seattlechannel.org). This is a council briefing WITHOUT public comment, focusing on the Office of Emergency Management and Department of Transportation. If anything major is revealed, we’ll add it here; otherwise, watch for a summary afterward. Looks like the council has some other business to handle first (including a report on “toxic runoff”), so the storm-response agenda item is NOT first up. 9:55 AM UPDATE: It’s going to be a while – they haven’t gotten through the other agenda items yet. But they are discussing other possible additions to the review schedule, such as inviting the mayor to listen to public comment at some point (first public comment opportunity is at a council briefing at 9:30 am tomorrow), and possibly scheduling an evening meeting for public comment. They are now starting a briefing on salmon, city creeks, and toxic runoff; the storm discussion is to follow that. The creek briefing is certainly relevant to Fauntleroy and Longfellow Creeks in West Seattle, so we’ll summarize its key points afterward too. 10:27 AM UPDATE: Storm response presentation is starting now. 11:33 AM UPDATE: It’s over now, with some interesting revelations along the way – writing up a separate summary.
One week ago today, on a rainy post-snowstorm Sunday afternoon, Sarah and Tas Philp of West Seattle welcomed about a dozen people into their home — not for a holiday party, but for a discussion to help the incoming White House administration decide how to handle an issue that truly touches us all: Health care.Read More
(January 18 note: We now have an INAUGURATION INFO page – click here to go there)
A few national-news sites have posted the Obama/Biden Inauguration Day schedule of events in the past few hours, so it seems to be relatively new news – if you haven’t seen it, here’s the Inauguration Week/Day schedule on the official Inaugural Committee website. From that site, we discovered the Inaugural Committee has its own Twitter feed at @obamainaugural (see/follow it here). Meantime, the first open-to-the-public Inauguration Day events to cross our radar have been on the WSB Events calendar for a few days – here’s the announcement we first published there:
INAUGURATION DAY, will be busy for the WEST SEATTLE DEMOCRATIC WOMEN, as in the morning they will be having a Breakfast/Inauguration Viewing and later in the evening hosting an Inaugural Dinner/Gala. You need not be a member of WSDW, a female, or even a Democrat to attend either function, simply want to celebrate President-elect Obama’s inauguration and the CHANGE it will bring! The BREAKFAST/INAUGURATION VIEWING will be from 7:00 A.M. to approximately 10:00 A.M. at the West Seattle Golf Course. A big screen TV will be provided so to watch the Inauguration and Parade. Please contact WSDW via Karen at (206) 935-3216 or e=mail wsdwomen@yahoo.com to make a reservation.
The WSDWomen’s INAUGURAL DINNER/GALA begins at 6:00 P.M. at The Hall at Fauntleroy with a no-host beer and wine social hour followed at 7:00 P.M. with dinner and a dessert run showcasing absolutely scrumptious desserts. State Sen. Joe McDermott will be the Master of Ceremonies. Dancing and other frivolity will top off the end to a spectacular day! Please contact WSDW via Karen at (206) 935-3216 or e-mail wsdwomen@yahoo.com to obtain tickets to this event.
Reservations are required for both.
Other West Seattle Inauguration Day events open to the public? Let us know – editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!
ADDED SATURDAY AFTERNOON: First one that we’re adding to the calendar – Dave at West 5 sends word that his Junction establishment’s a fine place to celebrate afterward: “No TVs to watch the event but we will celebrate with Happy Hour pricing all day 11-6, with $4.00 bloody marys & mimosas.”
Just heard back from City Council President Richard Conlin (left), after e-mailing him to ask what kind of inquiries/hearings will ensue regarding Snowstorm ’08-related woes. We decided to ask him because he runs the Environment, Emergency Management, and Utilities Committee, so trash — among other things — would be under his auspices. He says a “more formal response” is coming out later today, but since we asked. First, a “full council briefing” is planned a week from today, January 5th. Next day, Tuesday 1/6, a joint meeting of his committee and the Transportation Committee (chaired by Councilmember Jan Drago, overseeing roads and snowplows among other things), “at which point we will go over the situation in detail and also have a public comment opportunity,” Conlin says, adding, “After that, we will lay out a set of issues to review and work on, and determine how we will involve the public and carry out the review. Our last review (after the 2006 windstorm/flooding) involved a set of joint meetings between EEMU and the Energy Committee, including an evening public comment time, and resulted in a work plan for the Utilities that made an important difference in the performance of City Light in particular in this situation — outages were relatively few (thanks to some proactive tree trimming and other preparation), and were handled and reported back to the public promptly (thanks to some better preparation and organization).” So if you want to address the council personally at your first opportunity, sounds like 1/6 will be your first chance. To e-mail or otherwise contact them now, seattle.gov/council will point you in every possible direction; Conlin’s info is here; Drago’s info is here; EEMU Committee info here; Transportation Committee here. We’ll let you know when times and places are set for the aforementioned meetings/hearings (and any others), and they’ll be on the WSB Events calendar (where we list meetings large and small, outside WS too when it’s of WS relevance like this, as well as other types of events). 2:48 PM UPDATE: The detailed “formal response” promised by Councilmember Conlin has just arrived in our inbox and we suspect many others – read on for the full text, which includes some times (will add to our calendar shortly):Read More
We did sit in for a while on the Uptown Espresso gathering that West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen (foreground, right) set up for Saturday morning — after his commentary on the Alaskan Way Viaduct‘s future, published here last week, generated some fiery reaction, but he also offered to discuss any other city issue on people’s minds. As you can see from the photo, a tableful of folks showed up to talk about The Viaduct — including a couple people who also shared Viaduct opinions here on WSB in the past week — one of West Seattle’s Stakeholders Advisory Committee reps, Vlad Oustimovitch (back “row,” right; read his writeup here), and West Seattle Chamber of Commerce executive director Patti Mullen (back “row,” left; read the Chamber board’s letter to elected officials here). Some of those who were there hope to draft a letter in support of the bored-tunnel idea that’s not officially one of the 2 final “scenarios” but is still “on the table” (described unofficially as “scenario #2 1/2”). In a related note, West Seattle’s other Stakeholders Advisory Committee rep, Pete Spalding (whose Viaduct comments also were published here), shared a letter written by 7 other committee members, calling for the state/county/city to proceed with a plan that would include the potential for that deep-bore tunnel – read it here. Next Viaduct step: The state/county/city announcement of a preferred option, still supposed to happen before ’08 ends. Got Viaduct comments? Send ’em in here. MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: From Councilmember Rasmussen afterward, his summary: “At least one small business owner who depends on good freight mobility in the corridor and several frequent Metro Transit riders attended. They shared their knowledge of the options as well as their ideas and concerns. Several people spoke of the advantages of a deep bore tunnel over the current two options being considered. I found the meeting to be very valuable and the information and views I heard will help me to be a more informed and stronger voice for all of us who live or work in West Seattle and who will be so significantly impacted by the construction and the final replacement option selected by the state.”
**We told you last summer about the pilot recycling project in city parks. Now the Parks Department hopes you’ll take a moment to answer a survey about it. Here’s the link.
**Reminder that tonight, in addition to the Alaskan Way Viaduct public forum tonight at Town Hall (5-7:30 pm), there are two big public hearings tonight at City Hall – the new tree regulations at 5:30 (more info on the City Council home page), proposed rules about guns in parks at 6:30 (more info here, including a link for online comment).
**Two weeks after Prost West Seattle opened its doors, there’s word West Seattle’s next drink-and-food — plus music — place is getting close. Feedback Lounge (between new Beveridge Place Pub and future Zeeks Pizza/ex-Corner Inn in Morgan Junction) has posted new pix and info on its MySpace site, and a hoped-for January opening is mentioned; its liquor-license application also has shown up on the state’s website.
**Also just got word that Spring Hill in The Junction has launched a blog-format site (an increasingly popular thing for businesses to do). See it here.
TONIGHT: The 34th District Democrats‘ annual holiday party. Among the highlights – two deep-fried smoked turkeys to be provided by outgoing chair Ivan Weiss, whose farewell message on the 34 Dems’ site is a must-read. (The organization elects new leadership next month.) Party’s at 6:30 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy, bring a potluck item to share; more info here.
TOMORROW: West Seattle Democratic Women celebrate their holiday party at their monthly luncheon, 11:15 am, West Seattle Golf Course. Lunch costs $10 and there’s still time to RSVP; all the info (including e-mail and phone for reservations) is here.
First we told you December 15th was the night set for the city to hear comments on proposed gun restrictions on city-owned land. Now comes word the proposed tree-cutting restrictions also will be public-comment fodder that same night (trees at 5:30, guns at 6:30), summarized this way:
This council bill would provide interim controls including changes to existing exemptions to the tree ordinance, further restrict tree removal or topping of trees on lots of 5,000 square feet or more in single family zones and to all lots in Lowrise, Midrise and Commercial zones, further limit tree removal to no more than 3 trees of 6 inch caliper or greater in one year, and expand existing code enforcement authority.
Here’s the ordinance; 5:30 pm December 15th, City Hall, is the time and place for public comment (per this agenda – which includes information on how to comment by e-mail or postal mail till mid-January). Coincidentally, word of this came just hours after “A West Seattle Neighbor” e-mailed us a lament about Monday tree-cutting – read on:Read More
The November 4th King County election results are now finalized and certified. Find the official numbers here (among them: 70% for Obama and 64% for Gregoire). Turnout was 84%, up 1% from November 2004. Statewide results aren’t final yet but the Secretary of State’s office “tweeted” earlier today that turnout is now 84.5%.
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