West Seattle, Washington
29 Monday
Just broke this story at our partner site White Center Now: King County Councilmember Dow Constantine‘s office has announced a discussion October 2nd about a potential Alcohol Impact Area in the White Center business district – and the announcement notes that since the district includes areas within Seattle city limits as well as unincorporated King County, authorities and community members on both sides of the line are invited – and that the concept of “adjacent AIAs in unincorporated King County and the South Delridge area” should be considered in the discussion. The discussion is set for 7 pm Thursday, October 2nd, during the regular meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council at North Highline Fire District headquarters. Read more here (the seventh news item today on White Center Now, with at least one more to come – newsiest day for our partner site since it launched seven weeks ago).
(WSB photo from 35th/Juneau crash scene, 9/4/08)
Just in from Denise Sharify, who works for Neighborhood House in High Point and has been active on area pedestrian issues: A pedestrian-safety rally is set for 2:30-4 pm October 7 at 35th/Juneau, where a High Point 15-year-old was hit and injured just a few weeks ago. Everyone concerned about pedestrian safety in our area – not just on 35th – is encouraged to join in; Denise’s note to community members also mentions the California/Dawson crash that killed 92-year-old Rosemary MacCorkindale yesterday and the 35th/Brandon crash that killed 39-year-old Gregory Hampel last month. More details on the rally when plans are further finalized.
The Neighborhood Farmers’ Market Alliance, which manages the West Seattle Farmers’ Market among others, says not only will WSFM be year-round again this year, it also will keep its regular hours throughout the year (winter hours last year were 11 am-2 pm, but this year, Janet Hurt just confirmed, it’ll keep the 10 am-2 pm schedule every Sunday, all seasons).
(On the West Seattle border, anyway.) Just out of the WSB inbox from Vera at Village Green Perennial Nursery (WSB sponsor):
Hey- just to put the word out- last night someone stole our Village Green sign from the corner of Roxbury and 26th (map) – it was chained to the tree and they SAWED off the leg and stole the sign. I have the sawed-off piece. If anyone sees a sign around – probably lying on the side of the road somewhere…or being reused as a ‘newly made-over’ sign- please contact us- they are not cheap. Someone also had to have seen this event take place…sawing wood takes a minute or two…
(Photo from Monday afternoon, while investigators worked at the crash scene)
One day after the deadly crash in the California/Dawson crosswalk south of The Junction, we checked with Seattle Police to get an update on the investigation and the people involved. First: Seattle Police media unit Officer Mark Jamieson tells WSB the victim was a 92-year-old woman; (this added 3:29 pm) the Medical Examiner’s office has just identified her as Rosemary MacCorkindale. Officer Jamieson also tells us the driver was a 77-year-old woman. Both are described as “Seattle residents.” As for whether the crash will result in a citation or charges, none so far, since the investigation is not complete yet, but Jamieson notes the driver did not appear to be “impaired.”
Last week, we mentioned a briefing planned this week by the Florida man who proposes the “Seattle Skyway” – an admittedly pie-in-the-sky, or road-in-the-sky – Alaskan Way Viaduct alternative. He called this morning to say that it’s open to the public – which hadn’t been noted before – so if you’re interested, it’s 6 pm tomorrow, Duwamish Room at Ivar’s Acres of Clams on the downtown waterfront (the room seats about three dozen, first-come first-served).
If you want to know what’s going on in the official review process for what will happen to the Central Waterfront section of The Viaduct, here’s the next place to be: 
Day after tomorrow (Thursday 9/25) is this month’s meeting of the people from all over the area who have been meeting as the Stakeholders Advisory Committee (including West Seattleites Pete Spalding of Pigeon Point and Vlad Oustimovitch of Gatewood). As was reiterated during the recent Viaduct briefing presented to the Southwest and Delridge District Councils (WSB coverage here), this committee is not making a decision or recommendation, but rather helping vet the possibilities (8 current “scenarios,” as we reported when they were first unveiled, soon to be narrowed to 3, then 1). You’re welcome at these meetings too – Thursday it’s at 4 pm, Bertha Landes Room at City Hall downtown (map).
Recent WSB coverage of the Alaskan Way Viaduct is archived here; the state has a prodigious amount of info available on the official AWV site here.
We first mentioned West Seattle-based CheapWineStore.com when its liquor-license application went in last December (WSB report here), and now that it’s up and running, it’s 
joined the WSB sponsor team to get the word out. Here’s what its owner (photo left) wants you to know about the business: “Patrick Collins, a fellow West Seattleite, has launched a new online wine store, CheapWineStore.com. It has been created for the person who enjoys a great wine at reasonable prices, but is also interested in trying something new. CheapWineStore.com was created for the fun, unique wine drinker who enjoys trying new wines, but doesn’t really want to pay an arm and a leg for it. CheapWineStore.com will feature more than 10,000 different labels – from organic, to Washington wines, as well as ports and fine wines from all over the world. They are also offering free delivery in West Seattle for orders over $100. Patrick’s motto is: “Try something different–it’s just wine!” Patrick Collins, owner of CheapWineStore, is like many other West Seattleites. That is, he believes in giving back to his community. Therefore, Patrick also volunteers much of his time to many local charities including Northwest Harvest, the American Cancer Society, the Son Rise House and is donating a portion of the proceeds from every sale to our local animal shelter, the Animals First Foundation.” Thanks to CheapWineStore.com and all our sponsors for choosing to grow their businesses by advertising on WSB to let you know what they’re offering; our Advertise on WSB page is where you can see the latest on our traffic, plus the full list of current sponsors and how to find out about joining them.
This event has been on the WSB Events calendar for a while, and it’s been previewed at partner site White Center Now, but the day’s getting closer and the call for volunteers (see the flyer here) has been renewed in the West Seattle as well as WC: A coalition of environmental and economic-justice groups plans to send volunteers to visit every home in White Center this Saturday to share information about energy efficiency. As you can imagine, that takes a volunteer force of hundreds; if you can spare some time that day, go here to find out how to get involved.
This summer, we covered the centennial celebration of Fauntleroy Church. This weekend, another longtime local church — First Lutheran Church of West Seattle — celebrates its centennial-minus-ten. A special event will mark the 90th-anniversary celebration, and the church’s leader offered this article to tell you about it:Read More
Before we get to the “Nickelsville” discussion at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting – which ended in a way you might not have expected – the rest of the agenda, including a “thank you” to a popular policeman:
That’s HPAC chair Dorsol Plants presenting a certificate of appreciation to Southwest Precinct Community Police Team officer Adonis Topacio. CPT officers (read about them here) are each assigned to proactively work a certain area of the Southwest Precinct’s region, and Officer Topacio’s includes Highland Park, so he’s often at HPAC meetings to present updates (like this one) and listen to concerns. Tonight, he offered some crime stats from the past month and a half in the Highland Park area: Four auto thefts, 13 car prowls, 15 burglaries. Overall, though, he said it had been a relatively quiet summer, but added that police are working to deal with the recent wave of gang graffiti (WSB report here). Also on the agenda tonight, two reps from the White Center Community Development Association with a briefing on what’s going on with their organization – we’ll be writing up those details for partner site White Center Now and will link back here when that’s up. No major updates on the jail-sites issue, meantime, as the process is idling somewhat while Seattle awaits its potential partners to offer more suggested sites; Dan Mullins is trying to organize more Duwamish-corridor business owners to get involved with opposition to the WS sites and said a meeting with at least two City Council members is planned later this fall. Plants warned tonight’s attendees that if HPAC participation (about 20 people were on hand tonight) dwindles out of complacency, it raises the chances unpopular projects like this will turn up in the area. But the latest development at the potential jail site closest to Highland Park, “Nickelsville,” drew what some might consider a surprising reaction – read on to see why:Read More
The school district is gearing up for a capital levy that’ll likely go to voters in February 2010, and starting meetings now to ask for input on what to ask voters to spend on. The first West Seattle meeting is set for October 10, West Seattle High School library, flyer here.
CREATIVE TEENS: Just announced, PugetSoundOff.org, offering teens and young adults (13-21) a place to sound off and speak out – kicking off with a contest; read about it here. (We’ll be helping judge part of the contest, if they haven’t thrown us off the panel for missing a meeting when all that news was breaking this afternoon.)
POET POPULIST: Mike Hickey, husband of West Seattle’s funniest blog author (Mona from kirida.com), is in the running for Poet Populist of Seattle. Mona writes about it here; you can vote for Mike here. (We should note, there’s another West Seattle candidate too.)
VOLUNTEERS: We showed you the big Camp Long work party with NAIOP on Saturday; several other groups had work parties/cleanups that day, including this one from which we just got pix:
Onlineshoes.com and Keen Footwear were part of the Delridge Natural Area work party on Saturday; we couldn’t get over to take pix but invited them to send us some (any volunteer effort you’re part of, we’d love to see your pix too, preferably within a couple days of when it happened, the sooner the better, editor@westseattleblog.com). There are more work parties in West Seattle’s greenspaces every Saturday (among other times); greenseattle.org is the best place to get a sneak peek, but we put them in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup every Friday morning too.
This just in from co-publisher Patrick at the Highland Park Action Committee meeting: Community Police Team officer Adonis Topacio is briefing the group and mentioned there was a shooting late today near the Delridge Community Center. A man was hurt and is at the hospital but according to officer Topacio, is “non-cooperative.” No arrest reported so far. More details as we learn them.
(part of the route map; click image to see the full regional map)
A friend who works at Microsoft has solved a mystery we started looking into when we discovered a entry on the WSB Twitter page that said “Woo-hoo! West Seattle connector routes announced!” Metro? Sound Transit? Couldn’t find anything re: those services. Then our friend e-mailed to say West Seattle is one of nine areas being added to the Microsoft Connector employee bus service, as of October 6th. (The service started just last year.) ADDED 10:14 PM: Thanks to another source who sent the route map; click the image above to see the whole regional layout.
Seattle Police have just updated their media-line information about the pedestrian-vehicle crash at California/Dawson by Rite Aid earlier this afternoon (previous WSB coverage here), and they say the victim – still described only as an “elderly woman” — has just died at Harborview Medical Center. She was crossing eastward at about quarter till 1 this afternoon, apparently in the crosswalk, when a southbound vehicle hit her. That section of California south of The Junction was closed for about three hours so investigators (photo above) could examine the scene. The victim is the second person hit and killed by a vehicle in West Seattle in less than a month and a half; just last August, 39-year-old Gregory Hampel was hit and killed on 35th SW near Camp Long (here’s our report) – almost parallel to the scene of this afternoon’s crash, half a mile east.
(photos by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
A few more tidbits on “Nickelsville,” the homeless encampment set up near the southeast corner of Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way in eastern West Seattle (here’s our first report). So far as we can tell from the people we talked with at the site, they were unaware that they happen to have set their camp up at one of two West Seattle locations on the “final four” list of potential city-jail sites; just a coincidence. We told them we had just seen the mayor interviewed on TV, saying the city would treat this camp like any other – post a 72-hour warning, then clear it. Here’s what spokesperson Anitra Freeman said in response to that:
We pressed for more specifics – so when/if the posting goes up, what exactly will you do? She said the camp is not operating “top down,” so they would call residents together for “a meeting.” We’ll keep an eye on what happens here; as mentioned in our previous report, it will come up at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting (7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club at 11th/Holden); in fact, HPAC chair Dorsol Plants just confirmed to WSB that he has visited the site and “has representatives coming to the meeting.” (5:35 PM note, just saw TV pix of city crews already delivering the 72-hour warning to the scene, while organizers promise “a standoff.”) Meantime, while WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli was shooting the photo you see atop this report, he also happened onto a not-so-trumpeted encampment in the nearby woods, where he caught these scenes:
P.S. If you are interested in reading some backstory, Blogging Georgetown points to this blogpost by an organizer;
Lots of serious news today. For those who’d appreciate a quick break from it: Cats, on leashes, in Lincoln Park.
Many neighborhood activists and advocates around West Seattle, as well as around the rest of the city, are watching to see what happens with city government’s announced intention to reopen the official neighborhood plans for potential updates. So we wanted to pass along the official city news release about action taken by council members today. West Seattle has no areas up for the first round of intensive review, but will have areas eligible for the “status review” mentioned here:Read More
This update just in from King County Wastewater Treatment, which is overseeing the 53rd Avenue Pump Station project at 53rd/Alki:
In order to excavate to the full depth necessary for pump station construction, King County’s contractor has brought in large machinery which must be set in the pedestrian and bike path adjacent to the construction site. During the week of September 22, pedestrians and cyclists will be shifted to the sidewalk on Alki Ave. SW. The temporary shift is necessary to provide a safe pathway for the public. Flaggers will be on site during work hours to assist pedestrians and cyclists.
That’s by the Rite-Aid south of The Junction. Multiple reader reports say it’s because of a pedestrian/vehicle accident. Working to find out more. 2:55 PM UPDATE: Seattle Police spokesperson Officer Mark Jamieson has the details: A vehicle heading southbound on California hit an “elderly female pedestrian” who was crossing California eastbound right at Dawson in front of Rite-Aid. She’s at Harborview (which usually means serious injuries) and he doesn’t have an update on her condition. The street’s still closed while investigators do their job, but he says most people are managing to detour around the side streets or cut through the Rite-Aid parking lot to get around the section that’s closed. 3:03 PM UPDATE: Officers at the scene say they’ll probably reopen California there within the hour. Meantime, Rite-Aid is definitely the detour – we got the proof on cam (nothing earthshaking here, just a video site note):
4:55 PM UPDATE: The street’s open again.
That’s one page from the presentation made to the City Council this morning by Junction business and development representatives – a vision for Fauntleroy Way as it passes through the area known as the “Gateway” or “Triangle” – potentially turning it into a tree-median boulevard. Read on for our full report on what’s being proposed for Fauntleroy, California, and Alaska in the area, including a dramatic new suggestion for how to stave off what many have called the “canyon effect” of the tall development for which much of the area is zoned:Read More
(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).
This just in from the mayor’s office. We’re all thinking about banks a little more than usual given what’s happening in the $ world, so this program for the “unbanked” may affect more people than before – read on:Read More
| Comments Off on “Alcohol Impact Area” for South Delridge/White Center?