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West Seattle politics 2201 results

Quick notes
June 6, 2007 11:08 am
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   Delridge | Development | Environment | West Seattle politics | Westwood

-Funny, we were just talking about Fauntleroy Place: A city council committee agenda that just landed in our inbox mentions a “possible vote” next Monday morning regarding the “alley vacation” that is a key part of the FP project.

-Another council committee has a briefing at 2 pm today regarding the latest version of the citywide skatepark plan. Two (updated from first version of this post; thanks to the reader who corrected us) proposed WS skateparks are currently on the list: Roxhill and Delridge.

-The city kicked off a push for low-flow showerheads today. If you haven’t tried ’em, you might be surprised. We converted to one during a remodel a few years back and it’s really not that dramatic a change.

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Second candidate for WS school-board seat
June 4, 2007 11:52 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle politics | West Seattle schools

Last weekend, we mentioned the jump-started campaign of Steve Sundquist for the WS-district Seattle School Board seat that Irene Stewart is relinquishing. The online campaign-filings list (which will be updated all week till the filing deadline Friday afternoon) now shows Sundquist has a challenger, Dan Dempsey. Can’t find an official campaign site for him but this appears to be a site he maintains. Meantime, the other WS-centered political position we’ll be voting for this year is King County Council District 8; incumbent Dow Constantine appears not to have filed papers as of this evening but had a campaign kickoff lunch today, so it’s a good bet he’ll be back on the ballot.

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Live at West 5
June 4, 2007 11:13 pm
|    Comments Off on Live at West 5
 |   West Seattle politics | West Seattle restaurants | WS beverages | WS culture/arts

Just saw channel 7 in The Junction outside West 5 to present coverage of tonight’s City Council nightlife-ordinance hearing; the story’s not on their website as of this writing, but you can read about what happened (minus the WS angle) at the P-I site. Also at Slog, where Skylark gets a shoutout.

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Off to the races
June 2, 2007 9:04 am
|      3 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle politics | West Seattle schools

As the Times points out this morning, election season is about to begin. You’ve probably already noticed sundquistsign.jpgthat one candidate has gotten a jump on things by blanketing West Seattle with yard signs (photo at right) even before officially filing to run. Steve Sundquist is the first declared candidate for the WS (District 6) school board seat that Irene Stewart is giving up. We don’t know much about him yet (here’s his site if you want to peruse for yourself), but we’ll miss Stewart, who we thought was doing a decent job in a difficult (to say the least) situation. As for when we’ll start voting – the primary is now earlier than ever – August 21.

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$ to plot a viaduct-less future
May 29, 2007 3:46 pm
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   Transportation | West Seattle politics

SCENIC_Alaskan_Way_AWV1.jpgThe City Council just officially approved its $8 million plan (which will apparently take a year to draw up, so guess the viaduct’s not going anywhere any time soon) to try to figure out how we would all get around without a viaduct or a tunnel. Press release text after the click:Read More

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Door-to-door canvasser who perhaps needs a different career
May 29, 2007 10:39 am
|      21 COMMENTS
 |   Door-to-door alert | West Seattle politics

The Herald‘s Letters to the Editor section yields another tale of interaction gone awry.

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Mayor’s son reportedly indicted
May 24, 2007 2:27 pm
|      9 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle people | West Seattle politics

Tough month for Mayor Nickels. First he lost his father — now he has to deal with reports that his son has been indicted for alleged casino cheating. FRIDAY EARLY AM UPDATE: Citizen Rain (new local blog aggregator) has a link to Jake Nickels’ MySpace. (The cached version seems more interesting.)

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Well-connected councilmember
May 22, 2007 5:25 pm
|    Comments Off on Well-connected councilmember
 |   West Seattle online | West Seattle politics

Amusing high-tech tidbit about our County Councilmember Dow C on Slog.

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Next chance to speak out on the “nightlife premises legislation”
May 22, 2007 3:48 pm
|      3 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle politics | West Seattle restaurants | WS beverages | WS culture/arts

With so many blossoming businesses in West Seattle — West 5, Skylark, etc. — concerned about the so-called “nightlife premises legislation” that’s been making its way through the City Council, we thought you might want to know the next hearing has just been set (June 4).

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WS school-board member won’t run again
April 19, 2007 6:30 pm
|    Comments Off on WS school-board member won’t run again
 |   West Seattle politics | West Seattle schools

Crosscut says West Seattle’s rep on the Seattle School Board, Irene Stewart, has decided not to run for re-election. UPDATE: Since our original mention, we have been forwarded the press release she sent out. Click ahead if you would like to see it:
Read More

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Domestic-partnership bill one step away from becoming law
April 10, 2007 11:20 pm
|      9 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle politics

Tonight the state House passed the domestic-partnership bill, with a fair amount of WS legislator involvement — Sen. Erik Poulsen co-sponsored the Senate version, Rep. Joe McDermott co-sponsored the House version (and invoked Alki Point during debate).

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Thursday tidbits
March 29, 2007 9:26 am
|      8 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle history | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics | West Seattle restaurants

-Thanks to the reader who tipped us that Bakery Nouveau is featured on the cover of Seattle Magazine’s new “best restaurants” issue. Yum.

-A new exhibit at MOHAI will feature 19th-century paintings from a daughter of the Denny party’s namesake.

-Also from the P-I, Ted Van Dyk has a good post-viaduct-vote rant. Reminds us of the interesting sight we saw while traveling up Cali after the Charlestown meeting last night — an apartment window plastered with not only a YES ELEVATED sign, but also RECALL NICKELS and even mock Times front pages with the apartment-dweller’s fantasy future headline NICKELS DEFEATED. (Perhaps a Steinbrueck relative lives there!)

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Night in the life of a councilmember
March 27, 2007 9:28 am
|    Comments Off on Night in the life of a councilmember
 |   Development | West Seattle politics | WS miscellaneous

Busy dance card tomorrow night for West Seattle’s King County Councilmember Dow Constantine. He’s the guest of honor at a fundraising “roast” at West 5, kicking off his next campaign. But his staff tells us he’s hoping first to drop in and “touch base” with the gathering crowd at the Charlestown Cafe meeting, which they regret was scheduled long after the West 5 shindig was nailed down. (Afterparty, anyone?)

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Oh dear
March 14, 2007 9:16 am
|    Comments Off on Oh dear
 |   West Seattle politics

Tracking back a link that brought someone to our site this morning … we discovered that if you Google the phrase:

MOST FAMOUS POLITICIAN

the first thing that comes up is Hizzoner’s home page. Completely and totally our fault. (Although you can argue whether it’s good or bad to be known by that phrase.)

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Slighted?
March 7, 2007 2:44 pm
|    Comments Off on Slighted?
 |   West Seattle politics

For what it’s worth … WS only got one shout-out in the text of the State o’ the City speech (read it and watch it here), just delivered by West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician. Even in the section that mentions tons o’construction in various neighborhoods … no mention.

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Deputy mayor in WS tonight
March 1, 2007 6:52 am
|    Comments Off on Deputy mayor in WS tonight
 |   Fauntleroy | Transportation | West Seattle politics

Reminder — Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis talks transportation at the Fauntleroy Community Association’s community meeting at The Hall tonight. (He’s filling in for Hizzoner, who is in DC this morning to talk to Congress about global warming.)

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Showtime for the “nightlife” fight
February 27, 2007 10:08 pm
|    Comments Off on Showtime for the “nightlife” fight
 |   West Seattle politics | WS culture/arts

One month after our last post on the controversy over the city’s proposed crackdown on “nightlife” businesses — the so-called “nightlife premises legislation” — opponents and supporters are about to get their day before a City Council committee. Opponents, including West Seattle restaurateurs whom you would never consider to be “nightclub” operators, contend this law will hurt their businesses and your/our right to patronize them — so they’re pleading for backup at the meeting (9:30 am Thursday, City Hall downtown) to make sure they’re not outnumbered by community groups (reportedly mostly from other parts of the city) who have rallied in support of the law. If you can’t be there in person, here’s how to contact council members to let them know what you think. If you want to read the whole ordinance for yourself, here it is.

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Windstorm wrap-up
February 27, 2007 11:41 am
|    Comments Off on Windstorm wrap-up
 |   December 2006 windstorm | Utilities | West Seattle politics

Two months after Wind-tastrophe ’06, a new city report is out (here’s the city press release, with a link to the full report). Best quote is on page 11: “Seattle City Light should develop a more robust emergency power restoration plan for storms.” No comment. 

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Pointlessness at the Polls, T minus 2 weeks
February 27, 2007 6:25 am
|    Comments Off on Pointlessness at the Polls, T minus 2 weeks
 |   Transportation | Viaduct vote | West Seattle politics

-Want to hear the experts discuss the viaduct situation, present and future? Tonight’s the big forum at West Seattle HS (6:30-8 pm) with panelists including City Council member Jan Drago and Seattle Department of Transportation boss Grace Crunican.

-Just two nights till you can get the mayor’s office perspective from Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, courtesy of the Fauntleroy Community Association.

-Ex-govs Gary Locke and Dan Evans declare themselves anti-viaduct (though not necessarily pro-tunnel) in today’s Times.

–MIDMORNING ADD: The No Tunnel Alliance says it will “rally” 4:30 pm-6:30 pm today at 35th & Fauntleroy.

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Mayor cancels but meeting’s still on
February 21, 2007 5:46 pm
|    Comments Off on Mayor cancels but meeting’s still on
 |   West Seattle politics | WS breaking news

Late word from the Fauntleroy Community Association – Mayor Nickels won’t be able to appear at the community meeting in Fauntleroy a week from tomorrow, but THE MEETING IS STILL ON — with a very good (and powerful) surrogate — his righthand guy — Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis. Apparently the mayor has a sudden date to go to the nation’s capital to testify before an environmental committee in Congress.

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Another history lesson
February 18, 2007 10:13 am
|      4 COMMENTS
 |   Transportation | West Seattle history | West Seattle politics

A list of great/not-so-great moments in Seattle transportation history that’s in the Times today includes this line:

1984 — Scandal-plagued high-level West Seattle Bridge survives referendum and opens.

Had no idea, about the scandal OR the vote — just the freighter crash that accelerated the bridge work. Online, we found a little bit about the scandal (design problems, city employees getting fired over them), but can’t find more about the vote. Old-timers, any enlightenment? (We weren’t here in the eighties.)

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The mayor goes south
February 16, 2007 6:27 am
|      12 COMMENTS
 |   Fauntleroy | West Seattle politics

Don’t know if we’re ready for another community meeting till we truly recover from WSDPM, but this one could be good. Same location as WSDPM — The Hall at Fauntleroy. The Fauntleroy Community Association has enticed West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician to travel a few miles south from his Admiral home base to answer citizen questions at 6:30 pm March 1 (but will it be over in time for GA?). The FCA site asks that you e-mail questions, however, so we’ll have to get some clarity on whether there will be any actual audience open-mike time at this event. (We still have the same question we had two months ago — why was he virtually invisible when thousands of us were without power for days after the windstorm?)

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Dow vs. Erik?
February 15, 2007 6:56 am
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle politics | WS & Sports

Now our County Councilguy Dow and his fellow KCC Dems suggest we vote on the Sonics tax plan (the one co-sponsored in the Legislature by our state senator). Er, didn’t some of us already kinda vote on that sort of thing? How about we just have a daily vote on something or another so we can get all these votes out of the way more quickly?

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