West Seattle, Washington
02 Wednesday
The idea for this event hatched on the North Delridge Neighborhood Council e-mail list this past week – and they’re ready to trumpet the news:
ICE CREAM SOCIAL
Thursday, August 27th, 6:30-8:30 p.m.Cottage Grove Park
( 5206-26th Ave. SW , 2 blocks west of Delridge Way , between Brandon and Puget) [map]Come have fun, meet your neighbors, play your favorite lawn games, and enjoy a sweet treat.
Bring your own bowl and a favorite game (Frisbee, horseshoes, bocce, croquet, badminton, etc.).
All are welcome–we look forward to seeing you there!
The North Delridge Community Council meets the 1st Wednesday of every month, 6:30-7:45 pm, at the Delridge Library to engage in local issues, build community, and much more.
Contact us at northdelridge@gmail.com
(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli)
The Admiral District’s next new restaurant is days away from opening: 4 months after first word that Brickyard BBQ was moving into space just south of Admiral Pub (map), WSB Forum members have been wondering when they’ll open. So Christopher Boffoli stopped by this afternoon on behalf of WSB to check, and reports that this Wednesday (August 26) is expected to be its official opening day. He reports that the activity spotted there in recent days has been “soft opening” activity for friends and family, as is traditional in the restaurant business. For our last report in late July, the owners told us they’d be serving Texas-style barbecue, likely 11 am-10 pm.
Four months ago, North Delridge Neighborhood Council co-chair Mike Dady led a tour of “problem properties” in the area – including rundown homes that sit vacant (like the one above at 3804 23rd SW, where another complaint is under investigation now), often frequented by squatters, posing safety and sanitation risks to neighboring residents and businesses. (Here’s our detailed report.) Two City Councilmembers — Sally Clark and Tim Burgess — plus one council candidate (David Bloom) and two city department heads were along for the tour; action was promised on several fronts, including a potential city rule change to allow properties to be demolished even if a plan for their replacement has not been approved. Dady followed up with the city this past week and learned that rule change is making it through the system; here’s the “determination of non-significance” published last month as part of the process – according to Department of Planning and Development director Diane Sugimura, one of the city officials who joined April’s tour, no one appealed that notice, so the ordinance went to the mayor’s office last week – you can read its full text here. Mayoral and council approval are required; we’ll follow its progress through the system.
(Photos by WSB contributing journalist Kathy Mulady)
If you haven’t been to West Seattle Farmers’ Market yet today … as always, it continues till 2 pm, with a profusion of late-summer flowers, including sunflowers and gladiolus.
The next special event at the market, by the way, is Tomato-Tasting Day, two weeks from today, with the Zucchini 500 races a week after that.
We have received half a dozen notes now about this – some wondering what’s happening, and one with a little information, so we are sharing that info to let people know it is being checked out: An audible alarm has been going off for more than 12 hours at an Admiral-area home. (We will not get more specific about the address – if you are in the area, you know; any comments that get more specific will be deleted, since this is obviously a currently unoccupied house.) According to one nearby resident, whose note had the subject line “The never-ending burglar alarm,” police have checked it out repeatedly, but the alarm does not seem to be tied to any particular company, so it can’t be disabled, and no one’s been able to reach the residents by phone so far. Another nearby resident, Kristen, described the situation: “It’s been going ALL night…kinda putting a buzz kill on our Sunday morning.” 11:26 AM UPDATE: Just got word it’s finally stopped.
Story and photos by Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
West Seattleites had the chance to learn the story behind a popular park on Saturday morning, as the Southwest Seattle Historical Society presented a Live History Talk and Walk at Me-Kwa-Mooks Park, featuring Alan Schmitz — grandson of Ferdinand and Emma Schmitz — describing the area as he came to know it as a child.
He was joined by SWSHS president Judy Bentley (photo below) and by Joan Hockaday of the Olmsted Society, author of Greenscapes—Olmsted’s Pacific Northwest (photo above with Schmitz), about the famed designer of parks in Seattle and elsewhere.
Sharing stories and memories, Mr. Schmitz painted a picture of Me-Kwa-Mooks very different from what we see today.
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: Not only will fruit and vegetables abound at today’s market (10 am-2 pm, 44th/Alaska, map) — here’s the Ripe ‘n’ Ready lineup — but fresh fish is in the spotlight too — Loki says via Twitter that it’s selling its last fresh Alaskan salmon of the season.
DELRIDGE PRODUCE CO-OP MOBILE MARKET: Third day of its second 4-day week, which means you’ll find them today next to Cottage Grove Park (map/address), 11 am-3 pm. The photo at left is from Saturday’s session, with rainbow carrots among the offerings again. If you’ve missed our earlier reports, this is a four-week experiment to see if Delridge can support an enterprise that would offer fresh, healthy food, explained here, and while it’s in the experimental stage, the produce is free (just fill out a quick survey!).
BENEFIT FOR NURSES’ TRIP TO SENEGAL: Tonight’s your chance to support nurses Syd and Susie‘s trip to provide health care in Africa (previewed here) by donating supplies and/or money – and the place to do it is The Bohemian, starting at 5:30 pm.
More in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup.
Fire-dancing at dusk was featured again this year at the Nature Consortium‘s Arts-in-Nature Festival, which opens its second and final day at Camp Long at 11 this morning – last night, however, a different act ignited the fire … The Cabiri. These photographs are by Greg Wright, who also caught the aerial troupe in a less-incendiary moment:
Though The Cabiri isn’t on today’s Arts-in-Nature schedule, so much more is — see the schedule by looking here — including the Camp Long cabins in their temporary new roles as art zones:
Arts-in-Nature Festival runs 11 am-6 pm today at Camp Long (map/address); admission is by donation, $5. (Here’s our earlier report with WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli‘s video and photos; added Sunday morning – Christopher has put together another video with scenes from the end of Night 1:)
First – from Saturday night’s Outdoor Movies on the Wall finale – iPhone snaps shared by Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) proprietor (and Movies on the Wall ringleader) Lora Lewis, who estimates 250 people parked themselves in the courtyard for “Cars,” including the ones shown above as they waited for the free barbecue offered before the movie by West Seattle Christian Church. Also on hand, reps from the West Seattle Food Bank and White Center Food Bank – WC Food Bank’s Rick Jump and WS Food Bank’s Heather Hsu:
The food banks were the beneficiaries of Saturday night’s raffle proceeds. (As a Movies on the Wall co-sponsor, we’d also like to thank everybody who made this a spectacular season – dating all the way back to the springtime call for movie suggestions.) Meantime — earlier Saturday in The Junction, the “Big Bonanza“ end-of-summer sale took centerstage. We brought you an in-progress report Saturday morning; here are more photos and vignettes from WSB contributing journalist Kathy Mulady — first, canine companion Cooper eager to move along as Carolyn Magoon checked out the table outside Capers:
Kathy also reports that “the West Seattle Junction Association booth at California/Alaska, hay bales and all, was the scene of spontaneous squirt gun battles between volunteer Meghan Sykas and nearly anyone who could do with some cooling off. Little Anna Morris, 3, was more than willing to accept the challenge, dousing not only Sykas, but some who were standing too close.”
The Junction’s booth also offered sheriff badges and bandannas, like the ones that 2-year-old Riley Yip is sporting here:
Next big event in The Junction: The second annual West Seattle Junction Car Show (co-sponsored by WSB), closing the streets to celebrate cool wheels on September 20th (we hear pre-registration’s going well; if you want to get in on it, here’s where to start).
They’re by no means rare, but when coyote sightings are brought to our attention, we pass them along as a reminder that you’ll want to make sure your pets are inside, etc. Just got a call from Pam, who lives along lower Lincoln Park Way, north of Lincoln Park, east of Lowman Beach (vicinity map), and says a coyote’s been hanging around behind her house for going on an hour now, so she wanted to make sure others got the word. (Past coyote reports, some with photos, are archived here.)
We’ve received a flurry of notes/texts asking about those fireworks a bit earlier tonight; here’s what they were all about – a wedding, per Magnolia Voice.
WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli covered today’s Great Cross-Sound Race from Alki to Blakely Rock and back — an annual tradition for Sound Rowers — with video and photos. Here’s his shot of the nautical chart of the course:
And a still shot of the winners, in #4, Rainer Storb and Todd Silver, who finished in 52:24:
In second, 16 seconds behind (according to the published results), the rower who’s finished first as a solo the past two years, Evan Jacobs; third place, 29 seconds behind 1st place, Tyler Peterson; fourth, at 54:36, race directors Jeff and Theresa Knakal. The competitors spanned a wide age range; here’s Jack Fleming emerging from Elliott Bay:
Also, a diverse range of watercraft:
In addition to Christopher’s video, photos and reporting above — Greg Wright e-mailed photos to share – here’s the always-impressive crowd shot, looking out from shore:
For Sound Rowers’ full-season race schedule, go here. (Added early Sunday – link to full results from Saturday’s race.)
The WSB Forums have been abuzz about this – and we finally have a link to share from one of the photographers who caught it on camera: An (apparently) old Ivar’s sign fished out of Elliott Bay off West Seattle shores last night. See it here at seattletimes.com. Whether it’s history … is for now a mystery.
WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli reports from the Nature Consortium‘s Arts-in-Nature Festival – which continues through 9 tonight (with evening performers including fire dancing by The Cabiri, shown above in an aerial performance earlier) and again 11-6 tomorrow:
Beautiful weather for the 11th Annual Arts in Nature Festival going on at Camp Long this weekend. I stopped in for an hour around noon on Saturday and each event going on had a healthy audience though it definitely wasn’t crowded. I’d advise people to park on 35th though as open spaces in the Camp Long parking were scarce.
More photos from Christopher, before his report continues:
Lots of crafts for the kids. Coloring, painting, printmaking and face-painting, etc. Music and performance shows inside the geodesic dome on the meadow and down by the pond. The cabins are featuring art installations, including multimedia presentations in some of them.
Christopher also recorded video of one performance, by Lelavision:
For the full Arts-in-Nature Festival schedule, tonight AND tomorrow, go here. Admission is by donation, $5; the Nature Consortium is a West Seattle-based nonprofit whose major work involves restoration of the West Duwamish Greenbelt, the largest remaining stretch of contiguous forest within the city limits.
We’ve got an update on the West Seattle Helpline back-to-school backpack drive (sponsoring WSB right now to help get the word out) from Helpline director Anna Fern – including information on how you can help, not just with backpacks, but also with clothing donations:
We have collected about 130 backpacks towards our goal of 200. Along with the backpacks, people are donating lots of school supplies. The community response has been overwhelming. The West Seattle Rotary made a large contribution towards the program and the Helpline. A local attorney donated money for over 20 backpacks. Members of the First Lutheran Church of West Seattle donated over 60 backpacks. And individual donations from West Seattle residents are still coming in!
We have over 150 requests for backpacks with appointments for picking them up (including) next Tuesday and Thursday. (But we are receiving over 10 requests a day…so we will end up having more than 200 requests by the middle of next week. We have limited it to just families in the West Seattle area–98106, 98126, 98136 and 98146 zip codes.) …
We still need more backpacks, but even more than that we really need “gently used or new clothing” for school age children. Most families will be picking up the backpacks and then shopping at the Clothesline at the same time.
You can donate backpacks by dropping them off at Capers in The Junction (map/address), Coffee at the Heights (WSB sponsor) in Sunrise Heights (map/address), or Helpline HQ (map/address). To donate money so Helpline can buy more backpacks, use the button atop its website. And to find out how to donate clothes for Clothesline (we’ve reported on this “clothing bank,” here and here), here’s how to contact them.
Just got a phone call from a resident in a neighborhood southwest of The Junction – saying two young woman are selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door, claiming to be raising money for a “trip to Holland” (a destination also mentioned in this recent alert). He says neighbors gave them money, then looked up the information online and found claims of a suspected scam, and “ran after them to get their checks back.” Past door-to-door alerts (including comments, where more stories usually emerge) are here; city rules for door-to-door solicitors are here.
As mentioned earlier, it’s “Big Bonanza” end-of-summer sale day in The Junction. Kathy Mulady is covering it for WSB with updates and photos, and sends this vignette:
Balloons brighten the West Seattle Junction Saturday morning as the Big Bonanza event gets underway. Rob Wastman with the Skate Church (in the red shirt), and a member of the merchants’ association, delivered balloons to businesses and had an extra one in his bunch for Sam “Samster-the-Hamster” Seidl, 4, who was out and about with her dad, Mark Seidl. More than 30 businesses in The Junction have sales and special events planned today. We will be standing by for the Junction Showdown at high noon.
More later!
Several West Seattle churches have celebrated their 100th anniversaries in the past year; among them, Tibbetts United Methodist Church, whose Rev. Dr. Joanne Carlson Brown is shown in the top photo, shovel in hand, as she and church members worked to help spruce up Lincoln Park earlier this month. All ages pitched in:
(Kathryn Ushimaru and Nora Hallmon)
Sara Carter shared the photos, explaining, “As part of (our) centennial celebration, we wanted to give back to our community.”
(Amy Hallmon and Howard Bogie)
She added, “Tibbetts is proud to have been living the Way of Jesus in West Seattle for 100 years and we’re looking forward to the next 100 years.” They invite anyone interested in finding out more about their church to check them out online at tibbettsumchurch.org; the church is at 3940 41st SW (map). Other West Seattle churches that have recently celebrated their centennials — or are still in the midst of festivities now — include Fauntleroy Church, Alki UCC and Holy Rosary. And by the way, you don’t have to be part of a group to help beautify a West Seattle park – there are work parties every weekend, always listed in our West Seattle Weekend Lineup, and browsable even sooner at greenseattle.org.
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Carole:
At 9am on 8/22 (Sat) I received a robocall indicating it was from Cardmember Services and informing me I was eligible for a reduced rate (as low as 6%!) on my credit card and all I had to do to take advantage was press “9.” I do have a Chase card managed by Cardmember Services, but wary of a scam and not about to give out personal info over the phone, I hung up and called the number on the back of my Chase card. Customer service informed me that they are not offering rate reductions and are not making these robocalls. IF YOU GET A CALL LIKE THIS DO NOT PRESS “9.” Call your credit card company directly and inform them. I have sent a similar message to the AG’s office asking them to confirm the scam and put out a consumer alert.
“BIG BONANZA” DAY IN THE JUNCTION: Saddle up and gallop to The Junction for Western-themed fun spotlighting a multi-merchant end-of-summer sale – more than two dozen participants, many with deals you’ll find listed here; WSB sponsors on the participant list include Brunette Mix, Dream Dinners (discount on orders placed today at the store OR online – if the latter, note “Junction Bonanza”), Hotwire Coffee (drink specials), Mural Apartments (fees/deposits waived if you sign an agreement today), Square 1 Books (15% off), Wallflower Custom Framing (kids’ art special), Pharmaca – just get on down to The Junction and support your neighborhood businesses (and check out the Junction Association’s booth at Walk-All-Ways for extra fun, including the high noon water fight).
FINAL “MOVIES ON THE WALL” TONIGHT: That’s the trailer for “Cars,” the summer’s last West Seattle Outdoor Movies on the Wall presentation, tonight in the courtyard by Hotwire/Dr. Wolff. West Seattle Christian is tonight’s presenting sponsor and they’re grilling up FREE burgers and hot dogs before the movie, starting at 7 pm; the show’s free but bring a few bucks for charity-benefiting concessions and raffles.
ARTS-IN-NATURE FESTIVAL: Found that YouTube video of Nyamuziwa Marimba Ensemble – just one of dozens of groups, artists, dancers, performers and others coming together at the Nature Consortium‘s Arts-in-Nature Festival (WSB sponsor) today at Camp Long – 11 am-9 pm (and tomorrow 11-6) – schedule and much more info here.
(WSB photo from 2007)
GREAT CROSS-SOUND RACE: This morning at 9, you’ll see dozens of rowers off Alki, heading toward Bainbridge in the annual Great Cross-Sound Race; the winner is likely to be back in less than an hour. It’s fun to watch from shore and cheer when announcers call out the finishers as they cross the line.
MORE! And the Me-Kwa-Mooks history talk, Washington IPA Challenge, dozens of other events, all in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup.
(WSB photos and video by Christopher Boffoli)
South of The Triangle, Providence Mount St. Vincent took on a “South of the Border” flavor tonight during Summer Concerts at The Mount (WSB sponsor), with Mariachi Fiesta Mexicana performing, and Mexican food on sale for concertgoers. WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli reports a grande turnout:
In case you missed it – or if you did, but want to re-savor it – here’s video:
Mariachi Fiesta Mexicana is a Seattle-based group founded more than 20 years ago.
Next Friday night, it’s the season finale for Summer Concerts at The Mount, with Cheryl Serio and Rat Pack Jazz (6 pm, free).
(1st four photos by Matt Durham from mattdurhamphotography.com)
A fundraising dinner/auction tonight at West Seattle Golf Course wrapped up the Seniors for Juniors Tournament festivities – hosted by Alberta “Birdie” Griffey, mom to Seattle’s best-known baseball star, pictured above with Robert Woodard, who coordinated the tournament for Fir State Junior Golf. Here are the junior golfers, posing before teeing off:
Then, it was off to play. One of those golfers, 11-year-old Justin Leary-Bigayan, is seen here teeing off at Hole 12:
As for the “senior” golfers – here’s one you’ll likely recognize — former Seattle Mariners player Dave Henderson (1981-1986) teeing off at the 1st hole:
This was the third annual Seniors for Juniors tourney – raising money for the Northwest Senior Games and for young golfers. Dozens participated, as you can see in this photo from Sharonn Meeks:
Each team was co-captained by a junior and “senior” (50+) golfer.
That unfinished building at 35th/Avalon is owned by developer Michael Mastro, as are several other West Seattle properties, including the LLC holding a stretch of land near the south end of Harbor Ave (once proposed for a development called Aqua Bella) and the parent company of the West Water apartment/condo-conversion complex in Morgan Junction. Tonight seattletimes.com reports that Mastro has agreed to go into Chapter 7 bankruptcy (explained here), after three banks took action attempting to force him to take on that status. What this means to his properties here (and elsewhere) isn’t clear; we had contacted the company a few weeks back to ask for comment on the status of the 35th/Avalon property, but received no reply. The most recent activity on the property involved the boarding up and fencing of its previously open street level (as shown in our photo, taken earlier this week).
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