West Seattle, Washington
29 Monday
ADMIRAL SAFEWAY: We first reported in February that Safeway had advised the Admiral Neighborhood Association its long-anticipated plan to redevelop the store site was ramping up. Last month, general bullet points emerged when Safeway applied for a permit. Tonight, the company unveils its design at a community meeting at Hiawatha, 7 pm.
THE KENNEY: Last night, the century-old Fauntleroy retirement center discussed its major redevelopment plan — all but one building will be torn down — last night with neighbors. (Our article will be published later this morning; two major changes were revealed last night, including the proposal for one building to be 6 stories high.) Tonight, The Kenney’s management and consultants are presenting the plan again, in a meeting geared toward local community groups and organizations (though everyone’s welcome), at The Kenney, 6 pm.
ALKI COMMUNITY COUNCIL: West Seattle’s fabled beach community has had a lot going on this summer – what’s ahead for fall? Attend tonight’s ACC meeting to find out. 7 pm, Alki Community Center.
Later today – we look ahead to a few of the big events coming up in the next few days beyond tonight, including Holy Rosary’s West Fest (WSB sponsor) tomorrow and Saturday and the first-ever West Seattle Junction Car Show (co-sponsored by WSB) Sunday.
This Saturday morning, if you get to a certain Gatewood address in time, you will score one (or more) of those repurposed buckets, planted with winter veggies, for … believe it or not … $5 each. So says the Urban Land Army, in announcing its Bucket Brigade. Here’s how Sandy Pederson explains it:
Bucket Brigade is a project of West Seattle-based Urban Land Army (www.urbanlandarmy.com), a new local business and website that connects urbanites who want to become more self-sufficient and improve the health of their neighborhood. Growing more of our own food and reducing waste is a big focus, and Bucket Brigade lets us do both!
The buckets are donated by a local westside bakery, Little Rae’s Bakery. They are sturdy, food-safe containers, but they cannot be recycled in Seattle, so we have rescued them from the landfill and planted them up for the people! We have cooking buckets with swiss chard, kale, Pac Choi, beet greens, mustards, and Chinese Cabbage, and Fresh Eats buckets with 3 kinds of lettuce and spinach. All of these plants can be harvested through the winter and are easy to care for (but we have instructions just in case!). They are perfect for people in apartments or condos, fun for kids, and for those who just love a good veggie bucket. Where and when, you ask? 3726 SW Austin (map), 9 am-noon this Saturday. (Side note: Their site points to Not-Just-For-Profit; our fellow small/sustainable businesspeople may want to check it out.) AFTERNOON UPDATE: Sandy says KOMO Radio saw this item and called for an interview, so you may hear her on AM 1000.
It’s the bank with the most branches in West Seattle (five by our count, including the Junction driveup and the Thriftway in-store), so you might be interested in this helpful “what does the situation mean to you?” Q-and-A that the P-I put together. If you still want to know more about the whole “federally insured deposit” promise, the FDIC website has lots o’links here.
If you’ve driven the westbound Fauntleroy Way end of The Bridge in daylight since Saturday, you’ve probably noticed the difference more than 200 people made with long hours of work under the blazing sun that day: Months in the making, the West Seattle Gateway Cleanup cleared tons of overgrowth, trash, and other materials from the stretch between Walking on Logs and 35th/Fauntleroy, which is where, at one point, we passed this solo worker:
No doubt, getting out there and slogging through the mess last Saturday was a chore. So was organizing the whole thing – with a lot of hard work done by the woman whose name you saw on updates posted here in the weeks and months leading up to it:
Nancy Driver took the podium for a moment before the cleanup started on Saturday morning, just for final logistics and marching orders. After it was all said, done, bagged, picked up, cleared away, hours later, we asked her to put together a final wrapup when she had a chance. And we wanted to share that with you tonight, interspersed with more photos:Read More
Timely topic at last night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council — a briefing from Sergeant Jim Dyment, who leads the Seattle Police Gang Unit. Just a day earlier, we had shared the story of the latest wave of gang-related (or at least gang-inspired) tagging in Highland Park (photo at left), so tagging came up as well as many other topics, including what kind of gang activity is most prevalent in West Seattle. Southwest Precinct reps had something to say about graffiti, too. Read on:Read More
“Amazing” is how Shauna described it as she sent us her pix of tonight’s sunset, taken from Alki. In a note earlier, JD explained that the sunset colors are due in large part to smoke from three big fires burning in Oregon, and weather conditions (southerly flow) bringing it this way. ADDED 9:35 PM: Another view from Alki, courtesy of Scott C:
The latest bimonthly edition of the Alki News Beacon is now available online (see it here) – including a challenge to the community from Jule Sugarman, president of the Alki Community Council, which meets at 7 pm tomorrow, Alki Community Center.
From the city P-Patch managers via the North Delridge mailing list — thieves spotted at the Delridge P-Patch:
Our office got a call this afternoon from a neighbor of the P-Patch stating she witnessed two men roaming the garden with shopping bags stealing produce at about 1:30 pm this afternoon. She confronted the thieves and called police, but disappointingly they never came or called back. She described the thieves as two caucasian men in their thirties. One had reddish brown hair and was wearing gold pants. They were both thin and tall according to the neighbor. They ran across Delridge in opposite directions, one toward the boarded up green house across Delridge and the other into the wooded area across Delridge. She has seen them around the neighborhood before. Please be aware and on the lookout. Hopefully her confronting them will deter them from stealing more.
You may recall, we reported Lincoln Park P-Patch theft (which subsequently attracted citywide-media attention) two months ago.
That’s the word just in this afternoon from the King County Public Health Department, along with this link to where and when you can get a flu shot – use the box on the right side of the page to put in your zip code.
Yet another thing that’s unique about West Seattle – we’re one of the last neighborhoods within city limits with a bowling alley. Which brings us to a quick mention that West Seattle Bowl just opened registration for its juniors league – first day of play is next Wednesday; more info’s on the flyer.
Just out of the WSB inbox from Nancy Woodland at WestSide Baby – can you help?
WestSide Baby has empty diaper shelves in the Newborn size! Although we were lucky to collect 27,000 diapers at Stuff the Bus at the end of July, we started supplementing the smallest (newborn) and largest (5&6) the very same week. As often occurs, most diaper drives result in a lot of diapers in the 1-4 sizes and our smallest and largest baby bottoms are missed. We will take open packages and we’re thrilled to announce a NEW Diapers Only drive-thru drop off location in the West Seattle Junction at Red Cup Espresso: 4453 California Ave. SW. Diapers can also be dropped off at any of our other drop off locations found at www.westsidebaby.org.
We also collect carseat and booster seats that are in good condition, less than 6 years old and that have not been in an accident. We really need those carseats as well and we can accept them at the drop off locations.
The specific dropoff locations are listed on this page of the WestSide baby site.
Just back from the Delridge Community Center basketball courts south of the Southwest Youth and Family Services building, where a refurbished court with that colorful center was just dedicated by its namesake Brandon Roy (WSB preview here). The 24-year-old former West Seattleite, now Portland Trail Blazer, returned to his old neighborhood to pose for photos galore with family — including his toddler son “BJ” (Brandon Junior) — friends, and sponsors, signing some autographs along the way. It wasn’t quite the Kodak, er, Facebook moment when somebody asked him to try a shot:
In fairness, he may be a bit rusty – he’s recovering from knee surgery that happened just last month (full details on his official “B Roy” website). And in addition to looking ahead to the new NBA season next month — he and fiancee Tiana Bardwell also are expecting their second child, a baby girl due in January. Here’s what he had to say during the ceremonial portion of today’s event:
Just out of the WSB inbox, from walkability activist Chas Redmond:
I’m a member of Grace Crunican’s ad hoc committee on pedestrian/bicycle/freight mode improvements and earlier this year the group (comprised of equal members from the freight community, the pedestrian community and the bicycle community) recommended some easy fixes to some sticky wicket issues – navigation for peds and bikes across the Ballard Bridge and via Spokane Street to the West Seattle low bridge. We discussed improvements in signage for both peds and cyclists and today Grace indicated that the signs, significant numbers of direction and wayfinding signs, will be installed on both the north and south approaches to the Ballard Bridge and on the east and west connections via Spokane Street and across Harbor Island for the WS low bridge by the end of this November. This is fantastic news and will go a long way toward improving the bike and pedestrian connections for anyone living in WS or further south and in Ballard or further north.
Speaking of signs, we’d be remiss not to take this moment to remind you again that another effort Chas is involved with, West Seattle Walking Trails, has a couple new chances for you to get involved; read about ’em here and here.
WEST SEATTLEITES ON THE RADIO THIS AFTERNOON: On KUOW during its 2 pm show, an interview with local author/historian Clay Eals about the history of West Seattle’s transportation woes (94.9 FM or listen online). Meantime, though it’s not listed on their webpage right now, we heard a promo for KIRO Radio‘s Ron and Don talking with West Seattle barista/former “Project Runway” contestant Blayne during their 3-6 pm show today (will update when we get a specific hour).
FIRST OF TWO KENNEY MEETINGS TONIGHT: As we first reported a month ago, The Kenney is launching a $150 million redevelopment project, including tearing down old buildings and putting up new ones to double its capacity. Tonight is the first of two meetings to show the plans and answer questions; it’s geared to area residents, 6 pm, Fauntleroy Church. Tomorrow, a meeting geared to local community groups and organizations, 6 pm at The Kenney.
ADMIRAL SAFEWAY MEETING TOMORROW NIGHT: Second-to-last reminder, Safeway unveils its plans for the major Admiral redevelopment at a community meeting tomorrow, 7 pm at Hiawatha Community Center, one week before its first Design Review Board session. Safeway declined our request for a pre-meeting peek at the plans, preferring you to see it at the meeting first; tomorrow’s format will be a presentation followed by Q/A, *not* a drop-in open house – be there at the start. (Forest points out in e-mail that a Tacoma Safeway project evolved with significant neighborhood input, another reminder that your participation can make a difference.)
PARK-ING DAY LOCATIONS: We’ve told you before about PARKing Day, a nationwide event this Friday meant to call attention to the need to make sure urban areas have greenspaces. Its centerpiece: Community groups converting parking spaces into mini-parks for the day. The official Seattle map is out (see it here), and there are two area locations: One in the heart of The Junction, the other on 16th SW in White Center (in front of Full Tilt).
BUSINESS BIRTHDAY: We like to mention local businesses’ anniversaries, and here’s the next one – M3 Bodyworks (WSB sponsor) is celebrating its third anniversary with a discount on its prepaid massage package – you pay for four, the fifth one is free. It’s an online-only special, available till midnight Saturday night; go here to check it out.
Just out of the WSB e-box: After less than 3 years in business, Blackbird Bistro in the Admiral District will shut down this Friday. Will see what we can find out about what’s happening in the space next. Here’s the full text of the e-mail:
With mixed emotions we are announcing that Blackbird Bistro has been sold, and the last day of operation will be this Friday, September 19th. We are excited for the new (currently confidential) concept to step in with fresh legs and take the space and the neighborhood to the next level. We are also looking forward to concentrating on building the brand and expansion of our other restaurant Mission-Latin Restaurant & Lounge www.missionbar.com.
Thank you to all of our wonderful customers, and our dedicated employees past and present. It has been an amazing 3 years, and we are looking forward to continuing to help build the Admiral business district with the help of our soon to be neighbors. Please contact us at blackbirdbistro@gmail.com with any specific questions or comments.
One of the hardest things about selling a restaurant is laying off dedicated and talented employees. Blackbird would like to help in anyway to find the right place for these staff members to work… if any restaurants would like resumes / references from these employees please contact us at the email above.
If you have outstanding giftcards, please email us the 19 digit code on the back, with your name and address, and we will replace it with a card of the same amount for Mission.
Thank you again for your support,
Eric Cozens & Peter Morse
You may recall, various “blind” ads for a “West Seattle bistro” were rumored to involve Blackbird, going back more than a year ago; here’s one such discussion (comments included) from August 2007, and a followup from later that month.
Southwest Precinct Sgt. Jeff Durden shared this story at last night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting: The burglary unit investigated a case back in late July in which uninvited guests showed up for a party, and “three laptops and some purses” disappeared as a result. One month later, investigators got a call from a B.C.-based company called Absolute Software, described by Sgt. Durden as “a LoJack device you can purchase, software to track your laptop” in case of theft. Seems at least one of the stolen laptops had been tracked to Mitchell, South Dakota, 1,470 miles away:
The address first traced to a computer-repair shop, but instead, the laptops turned out to be in an apartment above that shop – where a new tenant happened to be from Seattle. A search warrant was obtained and stolen laptops were recovered. “I’m not necessarily recommending (Absolute),” Sgt. Durden concluded, “but in this case it sure worked.” And as he pointed out (borne out by our West Seattle Crime Watch archives too), laptops are an extremely popular target for burglars and other thieves. (Still more to come from last night’s meeting, including the Gang Unit sergeant’s briefing.)
Just got a note from “Bradley5” suggesting WSB’ers might be able to help WSHS make it onto the channel 7 sportscast this Friday night as the “Game of the Week” — the WSHS-O’Dea game is one of seven “Game of the Week” options in the webpoll on the right side of this page. It’s a one-click vote; deadline’s 7 pm tomorrow.
The city’s Department of Information Technology is coming to High Point Library tonight to offer you a free “Home Computer and Internet Security Workshop” – here’s the official description:
Tired of viruses, email & money scams, spies and thieves? Join your neighbors as you learn tips and tricks for keeping your home computer safe while on the Internet by the City of Seattle Office of Information Security Chief Michael Hamilton. One of his most important responsibilities is keeping the City’s computers and networks safe and secure, and he can show you how to do the same at home.
The workshop’s 5:30-7:30 pm – first-come, first-served, so check for space: call Vicky at 206.233.7877 or e-mail vicky.yuki@seattle.gov.
The clock’s ticking toward the previously proclaimed end-of-year decision deadline for the fate of the >Alaskan Way Viaduct‘s Central Waterfront section, and tonight’s open house at Fauntleroy Church is part of the latest phase of the winnowing-down-the-options process: The state’s doing environmental reviews, including a look at the eight options currently being reviewed (listed on The Viaduct website here, and shown in previous WSB coverage here). You have till September 30th to tell the state what you think; e-mail and phone options are both listed on this page (along with one more way to participate – attend the Stakeholders’ Advisory Committee meetings – next one’s 4 pm September 25th at Seattle City Hall).
That’s a bit of video from last week’s practice for the Thrill the World West Seattle team – second time they got together to work on the “Thriller” moves they’re going to do as part of the Thrill the World world-record attempt on October 25th. Starting tomorrow night, the weekly 8 pm Wednesday practices are in a new location: a bigger room at West Seattle Christian Church (SE corner of 42nd/Genesee, across the street from the previous location). And mastermind Lora Lewis of Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) has a question for you: If you were going to pick someplace “West Seattle iconic” for the big zombie dance that day, where would you pick? Someplace obviously with room for a few dozen dancers, but otherwise … she’s interested in what you would suggest. Meantime, keep up with the Thrill the World West Seattle exploits on the official blog.
You might remember the Alki incident Sunday night — shots fired, nobody hit, somebody nabbed shortly thereafter. Tonight at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council‘s monthly meeting at the Southwest Precinct, Sgt. Jeff Durden shared a few more details — Two suspects were arrested, “white males in their 20s” in a silver Lexus with Oregon plates, armed with a Glock; Sgt. Durden added that “five shell casings” were found near Spud, but reiterated nobody hit, no property damage either. (Two more reports still to come from tonight’s meeting – the amazing tale of how a laptop theft got solved, plus Gang Unit Sgt. Jim Dyment’s guest appearance.)
Thanks to Brian for sending that photo of tonight’s sunset, taken from Fauntleroy. Here’s one we got from Gatewood:
Starting preschool is enough of a milestone — but Cora, a West Seattle 4-year-old, happens to be doing it while undergoing chemotherapy. Shortly after her birthday this past June, she was diagnosed with a Wilms’ tumor (explained here) in one of her kidneys. Friends and family say this is very rare – eight in a million US kids. One day after Cora was diagnosed, the tumor and kidney were taken out in a seven-hour operation. Her immune system is compromised because of the chemo but her family and friends are “praying for a healthy fall and winter so she can continue to attend (preschool).” To help in Cora’s fight, they are inviting you to join them anytime between 2:30-5:30 pm this Sunday at the Seattle Lutheran High School gym (4141 41st SW; here’s a map) for cupcakes, a silent auction, and a chance to buy Team Cora T-shirts. (If you can’t go, you can still help: Cora’s aunt Lori says, “Checks are payable to Ron and Chrissy Cardenas at any Wells Fargo branch to acct# 9713630631; if they would like to donate electronically they can use the Routing and transmittal #125008547.”
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