What the Southwest Advisory Council is up to
Your West Seattle city-run community centers all have Advisory Councils – and one of those groups wanted to share the news of what they’re up to. We were forwarded the above photo of members of the Southwest Community Center Advisory Council and a summary of their monthly meeting last Thursday:
Guest speakers were Royal Alley-Barnes and Sue Goodwin from the City of Seattle, who described a new program. Seattle Youth Violence Initiative (“Power of Place”) coming to Southwest C.C. soon. The late Friday and Saturday program is planned for teens on the “edge “. It targets good kids who are starting to face the challenges associated with adult decisions. The teens will be offered on site community resource support for counseling and educational guidance. Focus will be placed on making choices that will prepare teens for success in life.
Join Us! Citizen direction and participation is essential to our success. Monthly meetings are held to talk about programs, policies, and financial issues. Our advisory councils always are looking for new members. If you would like to get involved, please contact the facility staff for further information. The next meeting of the SWCC Advisory Council is scheduled for 7 pm Oct. 15th at the Community Center and is open to the public.
Read more about the SWCC Advisory Council here. For the other centers: Alki’s advisory-council info is here; Delridge, here; Hiawatha, here; High Point does not have a standalone council listed.
Another way to see seals (and more): Cheap kayaking tomorrow
Greg Whittaker from Alki Kayak Tours at Seacrest e-mailed earlier tonight to say their 10 am-1 pm Alki Lighthouse tour tomorrow didn’t have anyone signed up so he slashed the price to $20. And he attached that cute photo of a little seal checking out a kayak. Whittaker says, “I want to offer it to all those WS people who haven’t come out yet maybe cause they are watching their wallets or simply forgot about us. Currently we have harbor seals pupping, sea lions feeding on salmon, and a few of the first northerly migrants coming through.” Signup info here.
Fall arrives in West Seattle: Equinox sunset scenes
Thanks to David Hutchinson for that photo emphasizing the amazing fiery colors of tonight’s sunset, just moments before fall officially arrived at 7:06 pm our time. Here’s a photo from Marty, taken from his Alki-area deck:
(Added at 9 pm – a sunset Twitpic from @niktrain.) And Kevin McClintic was among the 30-plus people who turned up at Solstice Park (east of Lincoln Park) for an astronomy-appreciation gathering in honor of the occasion – at left in the purple, it’s Alice Enevoldsen, who issued the invitation and brought her telescopes:
When we left the park a while ago, Alice had taken a group of stargazers over to have a look at Jupiter, after everyone admired the crescent moon.
Lost in West Seattle: Have you seen “Londey” the bear?
(photo added early Wednesday)
The best place to report lost/found items is usually the WSB Forums – except for pets, which have their own page – but we wanted to share this one here too. Rebekah, Dan and daughter Luka are looking for “Londey” the bear and hope you have seen it:
My father just passed away on June 12th and before he died he took a trip to London. On his return he purchased a bear for his first granddaughter (who was only about 5 months at the time), my daughter Luka. He’s a tan bear with a hooded red sweatshirt with ‘London’ stitched to the front – we call him Londey. My daughter is very fond of him and carries him around by his hood. As I’m finding out now that he’s missing, he’s pretty sentimental to me too. We were at Whale Tail Park and Pioneer Coffee on Alki and then walked down Alki, around the point by the light house and back around to Whale Tail. Somewhere along the way, we misplaced him. I feel silly crying over a little bear, but I am truly heartbroken, as he was one of the more important things that she has from my late Father. The last place I recall seeing it was at Pioneer, I went back and looked around there, and left my info, but they have not seen it. And I’ve called all the shops down Alki.
I’m hoping that you may be able to make a post to your readers to keep their eyes peeled, or to call if they have found him. My phone number is 206-290-2352.
City buys more Admiral land to add to West Seattle’s greenbelts
On behalf of City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen (who chairs the Parks Committee), this photo and update are just in from his legislative assistant Brian Hawksford:
In August the Seattle Parks Department closed on a .12 acre property, with an abandoned house, located in the Admiral Way greenbelt.
Last spring Councilmember Tom Rasmussen spotted a “for sale” sign on the property and immediately called the Parks and Recreation Department to urge them to make an offer. The property was in foreclosure and the Parks Department negotiated a purchase favorable to the City.
This acquisition along with the transfer to the Parks and Recreation Department of the Manning St. SW triangle and 9.6 acres of other City owned properties along Admiral Way will place over 70% of the land fronting both sides of Admiral Way from the West Seattle Bridge to the Belvedere Viewpoint into a greenbelt.
The City is currently undertaking a significant reforestation effort along this stretch of Admiral Way as part of the Green Seattle Partnership. The house will be demolished (date to be determined) and the site restored to a natural condition.
This acquisition was made possible with funding from the 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy. Councilmember Rasmussen praised the Parks and Recreation Department for its quick action in saving this portion of the greenbelt from possible development.
Starting later this year, people with proposals for spending the levy’s Opportunity Fund will be able to start the application process – find out about it here. And you can get a firsthand look at what the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Oversight Committee, which has three West Seattle reps, is up to, by attending their next meeting a week from tonight, 7 pm September 29, at Parks HQ downtown.
2 traffic alerts
First – West Seattle Bridge ramp to northbound I-5 is blocked – police and fire are dealing with a report of someone who fell or jumped. Second – a reported signal out at Fauntleroy/Alaska. 3:39 PM: I-5 ramp now open again.
Nominate a local-food hero to be honored at Eat Local Now!
Less than three weeks till the Eat Local Now! dinner/auction October 11th in West Seattle, co-presented by Sustainable West Seattle and CoolMom.org, with co-sponsors including WSB. In addition to buying tickets, there’s something else you can do right now: Nominate a “local food hero” (deadline in six days) to be honored at the event. Here’s the official announcement:
Nominate your favorite local food movement warrior for the Jeff Fairhall Local Food Hero Award. The award will be presented at the 6th Annual Eat Local Now! Dinner Celebration at the West Seattle Masonic Hall on October 11th.
Eat Local Now! established the Jeff Fairhall Local Food Hero Award in 2008 in honor of Fairhall, who pushed organic food into the mainstream founding the Essential Sandwich Company and later the Essential Bakery. Fairhall was a pioneer in creating organic food that was sold in supermarkets, on airlines and in corporations. He passed away in 2007.
Viki Sonntag was the first recipient of the award in 2008 for her outstanding work in local food activism in the Puget Sound region.
To nominate a Local Food Hero, please download the nomination form and submit it by Sept 28, 2009.
Here’s that form; to buy tickets online for Eat Local Now!, go here.
West Seattle food news: The Swinery is open
(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli, added 1:16 pm)
Photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is on the scene for WSB and reports, “Swinery just opened its doors. People already inside shopping. They have plenty of bacon. Bacon dogs too!” 3207 California SW (map). Website here; photos to come. 1:18 PM: Adding Christopher’s photos, including this one of the “bacon dogs,” which he reports are “selling briskly”:
Christopher also reports: “As soon as they opened the doors (at noon on the nose) there was a steady stream of people coming in the door. I left around 12:30 and it hadn’t let up. Sandwiches, cheeses, deli meats are in the front cases. Butcher case is in the back of the store as is where you take your items to pay. They also have a small fridge with drinks and some other house made specialties like fig jam, etc.”
Hours are on their main website. If you haven’t been following the Swinery saga, there’s a lot of background in Christopher’s detailed preview feature, published here two months ago. 5:17 PM UPDATE: Christopher adds that their credit-card machine wasn’t up and running as of early this afternoon – so be forewarned. He shot some video too – here’s the clip:
Midday notes: HPAC forum addition; WSHS-CSHS volleyball; more
HIGHLAND PARK ACTION COMMITTEE CANDIDATES’ FORUM ADDITION: Dina Johnson says West Seattle-residing Port Commission candidate Max Vekich has just joined the lineup for tomorrow night’s 7 pm forum at the Highland Park Improvement Club building. (The rest of the list of those who have RSVP’d can be seen here.) P.S. Mike McGinn, the only mayoral candidate who has RSVP’d, just released his “neighborhoods policy”; read it here.
CROSSTOWN VOLLEYBALL: Thanks to West Seattle High School assistant volleyball coach Jim Hardy for sending a report on yesterday’s varsity game vs. Chief Sealth High School:
West Seattle 3 Sealth 2
25-23; 22-25; 25-14; 22-25; 15-8
Westside Highlights: Emmie Riley: 5 Aces; 11 Kills
Nicole Broten: 4 Aces; 21 Digs
Taylor Magera: 28 Assists
School news of all kinds, from sports to academics to extracurricular and more, always welcome at editor@westseattleblog.com. Speaking of which:
HIGHLAND PARK ELEMENTARY HOLIDAY BAZAAR: HP Elementary’s PTSA has announced its holiday bazaar (first one we’ve gotten official notice of!) and is looking for vendors:
Highland Park Elementary school is having a Holiday Bazaar on December 5th from 10 am to 3 pm. We will have lots of vendors selling home made items as well as a few commercial vendors, bake sale items, lunch will be for sale and an awesome Raffle!! We are also collecting food for the local food banks – bring in one non-perishable food item in exchange you will get one free raffle ticket – one free ticket per person. If you are interested in being a vendor or have general questions please e-mail Christie at highlandparkpta@hotmail.com or call and leave a message at 206-252-8240.
Admiral Safeway project: Latest details and request for comment
A new filing in the Admiral Safeway redevelopment project, and this one comes with a request for community comment (read the request memo here): The plan proposed by Safeway would require that the city “vacate” part of an existing alley – the L-shaped one shown here on the south side of the site:
The petition now has been received by the city and that means it’s time for comments, which are requested by October 23rd. The five-page document explaining exactly what Safeway wants to do and where also contains the newest outline of the proposed project (including “flexible workspaces” as first reported here in July, and the “public benefit” items meant to satisfy a city requirement that the public get something back if it gives up right-of-way). See the document (which includes maps) here. Then if/when you are ready to comment, here’s what the city asks you to do:
Return your comments to: Moira Gray, Seattle Department Transportation, PO Box 34996, Seattle, Washington 98124-4996, or e-mail comments to moira.gray@seattle.gov. Please include your name and whether you are responding as an individual or as a representative of an organization when you return your comments.
As for the project’s overall status, lots of city decisions yet to come: Because this vacation is part of the project, that means the Seattle Design Commission will have to sign off on it, after at least one hearing to review the project, particularly the “public benefit” proposals; rezoning also is requested, and that requires City Council signoff. Meantime, the project had not finished going through Design Review, so the West Seattle board also needs to see it at least once again before it gets a green light – nothing scheduled so far – here’s our report from the last DR meeting in November ’08.
West Seattle Crime Watch: Parents fed up with graffiti vandals
Tony sent photos of the latest tagging on the back of Schmitz Park Elementary School – which we’ve blurred, as we usually don’t show specific tags unless, for example, police are asking for help tracing/tracking someone (akin to the policy suggested here). Tony wrote that he saw it as he dropped his kids off at school Monday, and, “My girls told me that it wasn’t there on Friday. You can even see that the school had already painted over graffiti on this wall last week or the week before.” And another student’s father has posted about this in the WSB Forums, calling himself Schmitz Park Dad, and suggesting that community vigilance might stop the problem: “We know that all three taggings were done over weekends, most likely late in the evening. I am requesting that any Schmitz Park Elementary parents, or other community members in the neighborhood, make an extra effort to drive by the school in the evenings, particularly over the weekends. Perhaps one of us will spot the vandals and the authorities can be notified. The graffiti on all occasions has been on the north (rear) wall of the property by the very back playground.” (Read his entire post here.) As we mentioned to Tony in e-mail, police have said at recent public meetings that they want to hear about graffiti vandalism because they’re keeping a database to track it so that if and when someone is arrested, they may be linked to more than one case — so it’s important to make sure this is reported to police (if it’s a school or park, the institution is supposed to make the report directly), and also to photograph it before it’s painted over so those photos can be provided to police. And if you see taggers “in action,” call 911.
Today/tonight: Swinery, Rotary, money, mural, author, Scouts …
(Pilot Long Nguyen photographed California SW, south to north – click for larger version)
Highlights for today/tonight from the WSB West Seattle-wide Events calendar: The Swinery deli/meat shop is scheduled to open at noon, 3207 California SW … Rotary Club of West Seattle lunch @ Salty’s features guest speaker Harry Schneider on a famous terrorism/civil-rights case (more details here) … Providence Mount St. Vincent offers a free Q/A session on retirement planning, featuring local financial planner Brian Duffy, 3 pm (free but RSVP to 206-938-6194) … if you live in High Point, come to the Commons Park Amphitheater between 3 and 6 pm to have your photo taken for the “Faces of High Point” mural project (more here) … author Robert Spector reads from his book “The Mom and Pop Store“ (featuring West Seattle businesses!), 6 pm at CAPERS in The Junction … Cub Scouts recruiting extravaganza at 7 pm tonight, West Side Presbyterian Church, boys 1st-5th grades welcome … More here.
ADDED 11:34 AM: One more Scout recruiting event – tomorrow night, according to this note from Suzanne:
Pack 284 is having a Pack meeting Wednesday 7 pm at Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is our first meeting of the year and a recruitment night event. The boys will be making pop bottle rockets to launch on Saturday afternoon. Please bring 2 empty 2-liter pop bottles to make your own rockets. All boys 1st-5th grade are welcome and sisters too!
West Seattle Crime Watch: Yet MORE citizen crimefighters
Heard one line about this from Tony, but couldn’t track down details – till seeing a short story here: Staffers at Zatz A Better Bagel chased the thief who stole their tip jar and caught him over at 7-11, buying candy. (They’re in this week’s Crime Watch Hall of Fame along with “burglarbustindad“ and prowler-questioning Beach Drivians.) 9:16 AM UPDATE: Southwest Precinct Lt. Von Levandowski answered the inquiry we’d originally sent someone else late yesterday – he confirmed the suspect was caught but actually was taken into custody near PCC (which explains an arrest scene someone else had e-mailed to ask about).
Overnight notes: From Eddie’s endorsement, to eatery for sale
(Twitpic from Monday night’s Pearl Jam concert at KeyArena)
West Seattle Pearl Jam fans (and others from around the city) are talking about the band’s 1st of 2 KeyArena concerts right now – on Facebook, on Twitter, in bars, at home, wherever. Among them, Olivia, who noted on Facebook that PJ leader Eddie Vedder urged the crowd to vote for fellow West Seattleite Dow Constantine for King County Executive. (Dow, of course, has been rocking the vote in various venues, including the Mudhoney intro we video’d at West Seattle Summer Fest.) According to Olivia, EV then quipped that Krist Novoselic (formerly of Nirvana) told him to say that.
2 MORE ROCK NOTES: Jeff Gilbert of the Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) in Morgan Junction says Sunday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Garage Sale raised $300 for White Center Food Bank. (And they’re working on a Halloween event – stay tuned!) And if you missed Chris Ballew as Caspar Babypants at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market on Sunday — the quick clip we featured in our first Junction Car Show report is topped by the fun clip shared by West Seattleite Edgar Riebe: “Three Blind Mice.”
ARTS NOTE: ArtsWest just launched a new fundraising campaign — 500 @ $50. They’re hoping to get at least 500 people to chip in $50 (or more) each.
HISTORY REVISITED: A month and a half after we covered the city Landmarks Preservation Board voting to give city-landmark status to The Sanctuary at Admiral, the West Seattle-based website Vintage Seattle has just published several historic photos and a drawing contributed by the granddaughter of one of its architects. See them here.
EATERY FOR SALE: It’s a blind listing but you’ll probably have the same guess we did, regarding this CL item about a Junction restaurant “across from California at Edmunds” offered for $300,000. (No, it’s not the shuttered Ama Ama – that’s for sale by name at $199K.) We’ve got a message out looking for confirmation. TUESDAY AFTERNOON NOTE: The very first commenter found the listing that confirmed it’s Tom Yum Koong.
West Seattle Junction Car Show postscript: Final notes
At one point during Sunday’s West Seattle Junction Car Show, organizer Michael Hoffman of Liberty Bell Printing – who shared the top photo – said something that had occurred to us too: The crowd at times seemed West Seattle Summer Fest-sized. A couple followups: For one, though admission was free, the raffles had great participation, so in the end, $1,671 was donated to West Seattle Helpline. Meantime, here’s a last look at several of the winners — these were chosen by major sponsors – here’s the ’69 Chevelle that won the Don Swanson Insurance Award:
This purple Camaro was the Puerto Vallarta pick:
Best Ford, a 1969 Shelby Cobra Mustang:
Best foreign entry, this 1953 Citroen:
And of all the decade-by-decade winners, our personal favorite was the one from the ’40s – this vintage 1949 school bus:
Also congrats to Jim Clark, who won “Best West Seattle Car” (and we failed to get a shot of his car!). Post-show, lots of photo galleries have turned up online. Mario Pipkin published one on the Old Riders Car Club site. Organizer Michael shared another photo – members of the Bakery Nouveau team in their official Car Show T-shirts:
Brian Zenk shared a collage:
And some cars had just plain fun touches – like this one with the gremlin under the hood:
Our two as-it-happened reports from show day can be seen here and here. Meantime, looks like plans for a third annual Junction Car Show are definitely in motion. Next major event in The Junction – Trick-or-Treating, 1-3 pm on Halloween.
Update: House fire on 26th SW in North Delridge
(WSB photo by Christopher Boffoli, substituted for earlier camphone photo @ 8:19 pm)
Single-family residence fire call in 4800 block of 26th SW (map). More to come. 7:54 PM UPDATE: WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli says it’s suspected the fire started in the kitchen; it’s tapped now, and the family who was home got out OK (as also reported in comments). 8:14 PM UPDATE: Fire investigators at the scene confirm the kitchen is where it started, but they haven’t yet figured out exactly what sparked the fire. They also say the family will not be able to go back into the house tonight.
(WSB photo by Christopher Boffoli)
ADDED 9:27 PM: Christopher’s video:
No official cause announced yet; whenever it is, tonight or tomorrow, we’ll add it here. TUESDAY 12:30 PM: According to Helen Fitzpatrick with Seattle Fire, the cause was food on the stove catching fire accidentally; the flames spread to cabinets and then the attic. Damage = $30,000.
CityDog Magazine announces West Seattle “Cover Dog” finalist
That’s Murphy – who’s now in the finals for this year’s Cover Dog search by West Seattle-based CityDog Magazine. Editor Brandie Ahlgren sent the photo and this note:
The winning dog from the CityDog Cover Dog Model Search at West Seattle Thriftway is Murphy, a soft-coated wheaten terrier. He’s a cutie and nothing like what we’ve featured on the cover in the past.
After winning the CityDog Cover Dog Model Search at West Seattle Thriftway, Murphy is now a finalist with four other dogs to compete to be on the cover of the Winter issue of CityDog Magazine. And, with Murphy’s help, we were able to raise over $1,000 for the Doney Memorial Animal Clinic.
We have one cover dog model search remaining – this Sunday, September 27 at FidoFEST to benefit the Seattle Humane Society [info]. After that dog is selected, ballots will be sent and the people’s voice will be heard on which dog will be the winning dog to grace the cover of CityDog Magazine. Dog lovers may still enter their dog in the cover dog model search at FidoFEST or sign up to receive a ballot by e-mail at www.citydogmagazine.com.
CityDog came to Thriftway on August 16; we took a photo. Last year’s Cover Dog winner was from the West Seattle “tryouts” – Cohen (here’s his cover). We’ll let you know when voting begins!
ADDED: A little more info about Murphy, from his person, forwarded by CityDog’s Brandie:
Murphy turned 1 year old on August 30th.
Likes:
Any kind of attention
Smiling
All toys (especially ones that make noise)
Full body wiggling to greet people and wagging his tail
Shaking hands and giving high fives
Sleeping under the kitchen table
Any food smell!
“Helping” in the garden
Trips to Montana
Dislikes:
Vacuums
Brooms
Dogs/People that don’t like to play
Favorite West Seattle hangouts:
-Walks in the Junction. He especially likes the people eating ice cream outside of
Husky’s and the enticing smells outside of Bakery Nouveau.
-Car rides on Alki with the wind in his hair!
-Getting treats/attention at Mud Bay and Next to Nature
ArtsWest gets $7,500 in federal stimulus money
Got word from the countywide organization 4Culture that a long list of groups getting a total of $250,000 federal stimulus money to help protect arts-related jobs includes West Seattle’s ArtsWest, which will receive $7,500. Checked with AW to see what the money will be used for; Rachel Jackson tells WSB, “That money will go into our AIF (Artistic Improvement Fund), and will specifically go to paying our actors. Unlike other theaters our size (non-equity houses) we pay our artists an hourly wage instead of just a stipend.” The full list of stimulus $ recipients is here. (ArtsWest is currently in the midst of its season-opening run, with “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” continuing till October 3rd.)
West Seattle Crime Watch: Neighbors chase suspected prowler
Yet another case of alert neighbors either scaring off suspected criminals or catching them: This just out of the WSB inbox, from Cecilia:
My husband and I live on Beach Drive, near the corner of Beach and Andover (a couple blocks north of La Rustica) [map]. At approximately 10:30 AM on the morning of Friday 9/18/09, I received a phone call from a neighbor alerting me to a potential attempted residential burglary in our home. Several neighbors and our US Mail Deliverer/Post Man observed a white unmarked van and some kind of tan/gold colored sedan park in front of our home. A short time later, one man got out of the van, came to the front of our home, looked into the front windows, then went around the side yard and back of our home, looking into all the windows. Neighbors were able to scare him off by asking what he was doing. One neighbor and the Post Man followed him in their cars, while he was on foot. He stopped to hide in some bushes near our home and proceeded to look into some windows of a neighbor’s house, at which point he was confronted by neighbors and police were called. By the time police arrived, the man was gone, as were the two suspect vehicles. Because there was no evidence of “forced entry” in our home and no recorded license plate numbers, an actual police report could not be made. Please be aware of an adult male (approximate age unknown), about 6-6’2 in height, approximately 180 lbs in weight, wearing a Nike hat, with brown “greasy” hair in a ponytail. Please also be aware of the vehicles described above.
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