West Seattle, Washington
28 Sunday
That’s the overgrown and undermaintained “Gateway to West Seattle,” along the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge. Just a month is left now till the September 13th event that pretty much needs to be the volunteer effort of the century to get this cleaned up — all the way from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy — and all you have to do is commit two hours to be part of it – but organizers REALLY need to hear from you NOW. Here’s the latest from Nancy Driver, who’s not only coordinating volunteer help but also the massive preparation work that’s going into maximizing what those volunteers will be able to do that day (with free coffee! snacks! warm feeling of having accomplished something!) as well as soliciting sponsors for some of the costs the city doesn’t cover (like blackberry-munching goats!):
Stan Lock and I met this morning with the City of Seattle’s Clean & Green Interdepartmental team and did a reconnaissance of the cleanup area. The plan is that the City (SDOT) will be trimming up the bottoms of the trees so that Wa. Dept of Corrections can get in and clear out underbrush under the trees. The City will also be blocking off the lane of traffic adjacent to the clean up site for the 6 hours of the cleanup. Additionally, the City is providing three trucks to haul off green debris and bagged litter, as well as providing rakes and garbage bags.
The City is firmly behind the project and has made a substantial commitment to the project but it’s a huge area to clean up and they can’t provide all the resources to do everything that needs to be done to do a complete cleanup. The community needs to show its support, not only through volunteering the day of the project but by donating funding to get the additional needed work done. There’s probably a half acre or more of blackberries to contend with so we hope to raise money to get in a herd of goats for two to three days to clean out the blackberries. This will cost $825 per day. We are also hoping to raise money to have a tree company come in and finish trimming up the trees and take out any trees that need to be removed. There is substantial tree work that needs to be done and based on the estimates received, this will cost around $10,000 to $12,000. We hope that West Seattle merchants and companies developing properties in West Seattle will step forward to cover the costs for this work. Of course, we would welcome donations from individuals too.
Beyond the actual cleanup, we also need local groups and businesses to step up and “adopt” a portion of the gateway area. The City wants to know that once we get this area cleaned up, it will be maintained. Adopting a portion of the area would mean a commitment similar to one you’d have with the “Adopt a Street” program.
We need to pull together 200 or more volunteers for the cleanup day to donate 2 hours of their time. We will need groups of volunteers of 60 to 70 at two-hour intervals starting at 9 am. Volunteers will be asked to do some hand weeding, rake up green debris and pick up and bag litter. Tools and safety vests will be provided by the City, and gloves have been donated by the West Seattle Garden Tour Committee. Diva Espresso is providing coffee and we are talking to other merchants to chip in with some light snacks.
Some of the groups that have committed to pulling together teams of volunteers are: Mars Hill Church, Karen Lavalle/Windermere Realty, West Seattle Garden Tour, Democrats Work, and Harbor Properties.
Because this is such a big undertaking, we have to be well organized on the day of the cleanup to get everything done. This means we need to line up as many volunteers as possible prior to the cleanup (the earlier the better) so that we can have more or less equal numbers of volunteers showing up for the 9 am group, the 11 am group and the 1 pm group.
Anyone interested in volunteering, helping pull together volunteers, or helping with fundraising should contact me at ndriver@quidnunc.net.
Thanks to all who have already volunteered.
Nancy Driver/Fairmount Community Association
Though it’s not West Seattle-specific, we’re going to keep close tabs on the bag-fee-referendum drive because it’s clear a lot of people are passionate about it – on both sides. So here’s the latest: Jan Gee of Washington Food Industry, 
the grocer-advocacy organization that’s gathering signatures to cancel the bag fee/foam ban, points out that their website has gone live at StopTheSeattleBagTax.com. Gee also confirms what we had suspected – this was the first place where the petition drive was reported; they didn’t announce it publicly before signature gatherers like the one we met just started fanning out over the weekend. If you come across anyone organizing a “defend the bag fee” effort, let us know; meantime, one of the fee’s main backers is in West Seattle tomorrow night — City Council president Richard Conlin will be a guest at the 34th District Democrats‘ monthly meeting, 7 pm at The Hall @ Fauntleroy. (Also on the agenda, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson, who’s in a tough re-election campaign looking ahead to next Tuesday’s statewide primary.)
Kelly Guenther sends this photo from what he describes as the annual Junction Merchants’ Boat Cruise, apparently docked in Bremerton. We recognize some well-known faces … how ’bout you?
Two notes regarding proposed projects that the Southwest Design Review Board will consider in public meetings coming up this month and next: First, a change — The 9/11 date we first mentioned last week for the Admiral Safeway (photo above; the rendering for the new proposal is to be released at a community meeting sometime in the next few weeks) rebuild project has just been moved to 9/25, per the city’s Design Review-Upcoming page; on that night, after the Safeway project at 6:30 pm, it’s the next review for the Harbor Properties project at 38th/Alaska, both meetings at the Southwest Precinct. Meantime, here’s what’s on design reviewers’ agenda this Thursday night:
On Thursday, two major projects are on the Southwest Design Review Board agenda – the newest design for Fauntleroy Place (above, the most recent publicly released rendering) at 8 pm; the 35th/Graham High Point mixed-use project at 6:30 pm, both meetings at High Point Community Center. Chip Marshall from Lowe Enterprises, which is developing the HP project, gave WSB a tiny bit of a sneak peek today regarding the commercial part of the project:
At this point the commercial is only in the very rudimentary planning stages. It will be along 35th and a portion of Graham street with a public plaza space in-between at the junction of the two streets.
Of course we are at the mercy of what end users will want to locate there, but we believe that given its location on a busy street as well as being the gateway to High Point that it should be attractive to a number of potential tenants.
We have had a meeting with High Point residents and they expressed interest in a coffee shop, some form of food related business that could also serve as a community meeting place, a restaurant as well as possible live work spaces, all of which we are open to.
(Left to right: Westside Dermatology’s Abbey Reyes, Dr. Kelli Arntzen, Amy Nelson PA-C, Stacey Lynema, and Jon Davis)
This afternoon, the traditional WSB sponsor welcome goes out to Westside Dermatology, located in The Junction on 44th SW. When we welcome a sponsor, they get the chance to tell you about themselves, and here’s what Westside Dermatology has to say: “Last September several WSB readers recommended Westside Dermatology’s Dr. Kelli Arntzen in the reader recommendations section for someone suffering from psoriasis. To this day new patients to Westside Dermatology keep mentioning the WSB as how they heard of the clinic. Having lived in West Seattle for over 18 years, Dr. Arntzen appreciates how the blog has provided a sense of community and a source of information to West Seattle. She founded Westside Dermatology in 2004, and has since added Amy Nelson PA-C and James Collyer, MD to the practice. Along with General Adult & Pediatric Dermatology, they provide cosmetic services like Botox, fillers (Restylane and Juvederm), and laser treatments (laser hair removal, IPL photo rejuvenation, laser vein and spot treatment). They also have a full-time aesthetician, Jennifer Hogan, who specializes in helping patients develop a daily skin care regimen with dermatology-grade skin care products like Dermalogica, SkinCeuticals, and Revale. Jennifer also provides medical facials and chemical peels. They recently became one of the very few clinics in Seattle offering the Aluma Skin Renewal System, a radio frequency device that tightens skin and reduces wrinkles in a nearly painless, no downtime procedure. Appointments can be made by calling 206-937-8954. For more information, visit their website at www.Westside-Derm.com.” Thanks to Westside Dermatology for supporting 24/7 West Seattle news, information, and discussion by sponsoring WSB; all our sponsors are listed on the WSB Advertise page, along with information on how you can join them. (Reader Recommendations, by the way, now have a section all their own in the WSB Forums; you can find it here.)
We’re still combing through the past week or so of reports filed and approved at the Southwest Precinct – read on for the noteworthy cases we’ve seen so far:Read More
Introducing – the Puget Sound Stars Baseball Club (13U)! We heard from Brian Chase, who says, “My son just finished with West Seattle Little League and some of us decided to start a Sandy Koufax Select 13U Baseball Team here in West Seattle. We have many WSLL & Bronco kids on the team but have a few spots open for the 2009 season.” If you know a player who might want to go for one of those spots, tryouts are a week from tomorrow, 6-8 pm 8/20 — for more details including location, e-mail Brian by clicking here.
From Admiral to Pigeon Point, some West Seattle residents say train noise is getting worse, and – as first discussed in this WSB Forums thread – they are ready to figure out how to put some limits on it. 
Not to stop the trains — as Liz Hardy explains, “Many people are affected by this noise because we have found that the bulk of the train traffic is at night and early morning. While we all understand that this is an industrial area and we do not expect (or want) the train traffic to stop, this is also a residential area and something needs to be done to mitigate the effect that the train noise is having on the surrounding neighborhoods.” As the West Seattle Train Noise Action Committee, they are now working to establish a federal “quiet zone” (explained here) in the area around the Port and Harbor Island. They’re hoping you can come to their first meeting, even though it’s downtown – they’ve booked West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, plus SDOT and Port of Seattle reps too – is Monday, at City Hall downtown for various reasons, and they are hoping for a big turnout – if you are concerned about train noise, be there: 5:30 pm Monday 8/18, Sam Smith Conference Room on the 2nd floor at City Hall (600 4th Ave.; here’s a map).
If you’re interested in classes/courses/lessons offered at local parks, community centers, Camp Long Environmental Learning Center, and/or Southwest Pool (after it reopens Nov. 1) — you should know, signups start at noon today. You can do it online (and browse what’s available) here.
About 500 green survey forms for the city’s Pedestrian Master Plan are in circulation in West Seattle – but only about 100 have been returned. Now’s the time: If you got one, fill it out and send it in; it won’t cost you a cent, since it’s already addressed and stamped. As West Seattle walking advocate Chas Redmond says, “West Seattle has a lot of issues with sidewalks and connections and no-crosswalk streets so it really behooves residents to fill the questionnaire out and simply drop it in a mailbox – post-paid and addressed already.” If you didn’t get one, you can still help; an online version of the survey is linked from this page.
According to two sources, including a comment on the original accident coverage, the man hit by a car last night after chasing his dog onto 35th near Dawson has died. The King County Medical Examiner identifies him as 39-year-old Gregory Hampel, who lived near the accident scene. The commenter on last night’s report, identified only as “a friend,” says:
He was a great man, a great father and a good friend. He will be missed by all.
As a father, in fact, it has been pointed out to us, Mr. Hampel helped make legal history; he and his partner won a case involving adoption rights for same-sex couples. Here’s one of many online references we have found so far; a newer article says a federal appeals court upheld the ruling almost exactly a year ago. Meantime, he is the third person hit and killed by a car in West Seattle in the past year (we mentioned the other 2 in Sunday night’s coverage). ADDED 12:55 AM: This short Times article says Mr. Hampel worked as a teacher at Tacoma’s Seabury School, which sent e-mail about the crash to the school community, calling him “a bright light in our community.”
The second Tuesday of every month is usually a very busy night, with up to four major neighborhood associations/councils in West Seattle holding their monthly meetings. This month, all but one are on hiatus — the one that WILL meet tomorrow night is the Westwood Neighborhood Council. They are expecting two high-profile guests: city parks superintendent Tim Gallagher and West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist. WNC has been focused on the Denny/Sealth school project for quite some time and now is laser-focused on what will happen with Denny’s current site, once the school moves to its new spot on the Sealth campus. Here’s the Westwood vision for that site’s possible future; as we mentioned the other day, citizen involvement is being solicited now for both the school district’s “design team” for the site and for a committee that will hold hearings on code “departures” for the Denny/Sealth project. The WNC invites you to join its meeting at 7 pm tomorrow night, Southwest Precinct meeting room (Delridge/Webster).
When last we checked in on the proposal to “upzone” California Avenue between Hanford and Hinds, and a bit further south on the west side of the street (city map at left) — first reported here nine months ago — city planners told us in mid-June that they were “writing the recommendation.” Now, almost two more months have gone by, while the signs and notices posted along that stretch of California SW continue to fade in the summer sun, so we called the city today to see where in the pipeline that recommendation might be. According to Bryan Stevens in the city planning department, the decision “should be published at the end of the month. Due to the complexity of the issues and the analysis that must occur, it’s not uncommon for a rezone request to take 10-12 months before it goes to Council.” (That refers to the City Council approval that would be required for a zoning change; a Hearing Examiner hearing would be scheduled after the recommendation is published, too.) If you missed the original round of reports on this, our coverage is archived newest to oldest here; the official city webpage for information on the proposal is here.
If you visit the WSB Forums, you may have seen a recent thread by Justin, co-owner of Full Tilt Ice Cream, suggesting a White Center blog. We had been working offline on plans for one for a while, so we contacted Justin and inquired whether there might be any advantage to a partnership — otherwise, if he was ready to launch something, we were ready to support it. 
Justin had been talking with another dynamic White Center entrepreneur, Ricardo from Cafe Rozella, but they hadn’t launched a site yet, so we agreed to join forces on a site that is intended to be very different from this one – much more of a true blog (WSB is at its core a neighborhood-news site, not so much a “blog” though we have the word in our name since that’s what we evolved from): White Center Now, at whitecenternow.com. We all started posting content within the past week (starting with the Big Al Brewing opening) and intended to keep it as a soft launch till we finished adding content on the sidebars and inside pages, but the company which had kept whitecenterblog.com idle for 9 months (the only reason we’re not launching at that URL – it wasn’t available) suddenly decided to do something with it starting today, perhaps inspired by the WSB thread, so we’re letting you know that White Center Now is already up and running – with some very interesting contributions already from Ricardo and Justin, and a couple of news items from us. It’s a very simple layout – we are not bells and whistles people – but you know that, if you are a WSB regular; it’s about the words, the pictures, the stories, the information. If you have White Center news, photos, events, information, ideas – and/or if you are interested in being a contributor – please e-mail whitecenternow@gmail.com. White Center and West Seattle will grow even closer together in the years to come, we believe, as travel to downtown gets more difficult, so we are honored to be involved with Justin and Ricardo – and the others to come – in this effort to tell, share, and experience the stories of this growing community.
Thanks to John Cahill for sending photos of the truck that toppled onto its side on the West Seattle Bridge exit to southbound I-5 this morning (WSB coverage here), blocking that ramp for more than two hours. From another angle, its contents didn’t look too much the worse for wear:
We first told you yesterday about a petition drive to repeal Seattle’s upcoming disposable-bag fee (and foam ban) by referendum, after we encountered a signature-gatherer (toting the sign you see at left) outside West Seattle Thriftway. City law does not require such referenda to be recorded or even reviewed before signature-gathering begins, so we were having some trouble finding out who’s behind it — till two people (thanks to Alcina and Diane) just posted/sent word that the Puget Sound Business Journal reported about an hour ago, it’s the Washington Food Industry, a grocer-advocacy group.
We stopped in a while ago to check back with Michael Dein, who told WSB over the weekend (previous coverage here) that he would be reopening Puget Sound Key and Lock in Morgan Junction today, four and a half months after the as-yet-unsolved arson attack that gutted his shop – this photo was taken that day:
A month after the fire, West Seattle Blog Forum members put on a benefit to raise money to help him reopen; today he wanted to thank them – and he also told us his new start is off to a good start:
As reported over the weekend – he is giving back to the community, by offering a special service for domestic-abuse victims (read about it in our Saturday report). Puget Sound Key and Lock is at 6016 California SW, on the north edge of Morgan Junction.
Reading citywide-media coverage regarding the latest developments in Seattle Public Schools‘ plan to cut trees to make way for an Ingraham High School project, we were startled to see the reports featuring a line about alleged unauthorized district tree-cutting as Denny/Sealth construction/renovation work begins on the Chief Sealth HS campus. Certainly the West Seattle project has had more than its share of controversy, but we hadn’t heard about any tree trouble, so we started digging around. Here’s what we found out:Read More
We’re still watching the situation that’s blocked the West Seattle Bridge ramp to southbound I-5 — a tipped truck blocking the ramp for about an hour now. Interesting info in the latest update from WSDOT:
The incident knocked over a streetlight and damaged a portion of the railing. Drivers should expect delays. … A WSDOT bridge inspection team is enroute to inspect damage to the on ramp. WSP and WSDOT Incident Response Teams are on the scene. The Washington State Patrol has activated the Blok-Buster program for this incident. Blok-Buster, a joint program with WSDOT, WSP and local tow companies offers a $2,500 incentive to a tow company if they are able to clear the semi-truck in 90 minutes or less. This program, active in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, requires tow companies to bring additional tow trucks to get the roadway open more quickly. Traffic accidents are unpredictable and heavy truck incident sare the “worst of the worst.” This program is an innovative way to clear these traffic incidents faster and safer.
11:13 AM UPDATE: WSDOT now says two tow trucks have arrived, and while they’ve pulled the truck onto I-5, the ramp remains blocked, as do the three right lanes of southbound I-5 at that spot, resulting in a one-mile backup through downtown. 11:35 AM UPDATE: I-5/Spokane cam is back on the truck, and it appears to be upright now, so this may be cleared soon. 12:17 PM UPDATE: All clear now. The state says the light is fixed but the railing won’t be fixed till tomorrow.
(Photo courtesy Seattle Fire Department)
It’s been in service since July 1st, but this weekend marked the official dedication of the new Medic 32, based at Fire Station 32 in The Junction – thanks to the Ed and Karen Levy Charitable Foundation (that’s Karen Levy, photographed with some of the SFD team, including Chief Gregory Dean next to her [in a tie]). This is the seventh medic unit the foundation has donated to SFD in the past 20 years – here’s a little more background info from the fire department:
The 2008 model is manufactured by Braun Northwest and has an updated drive train, engine and body style. The interior of the unit was custom designed by Seattle Fire Department firefighter/paramedics.
The Department’s medic units are staffed by two firefighter/paramedics that have completed nine months of intensive medical training through the Medic One Program. The County-wide Medic One system focuses on providing first-rate pre hospital emergency care to critical patients. The Department has a total of seven medic units assigned to fire stations throughout the City.
Station 32 itself, by the way, is targeted for replacement – yet another one of the major private and public projects on the drawing boards in The Junction/Triangle area.
(traffic-cam image moved to newest post)
This just in from WSDOT: “The Spokane Street on ramp to southbound I-5 is blocked due to a semi that has tipped onto its side. Traffic traveling eastbound on the West Seattle Bridge is backing up.” 10:50 AM UPDATE: The camera view we have up now is a city-operated camera looking at that onramp.
When that Alki duplex caught fire two and a half weeks ago, its owner was out of town and its tenant managed to get out OK (though her cat was missing for a while). Several people asked in WSB comment threads whether the tenant needed any help, and we renewed that question in an e-mail exchange with a friend of hers. Over the weekend, she e-mailed WSB to say there is one thing that’s proving to be a challenge – finding a new place to live:
Hoping to find a house for rent in the Admiral area, but it’s difficult; if anyone is a good networker and knows of a nice quiet neighborhood that takes dogs, that would be helpful. I really need a nice quiet place to recover from the chaos of the fire and Alki, it’s been too much.
If you have any leads, please post a comment here, or e-mail us and we will forward to her.
Reporting this somewhat belatedly after Sunday night’s 35th/Dawson crash pre-empted the weekend-wrapup post … The Seal Sitters‘ first training session of the season drew a good turnout (the photo above shows just part of the group; there were a couple more rows of attendees before we left Hiawatha a few minutes after their presentation began). But it’s not too late for you to get involved; September 9 is the next training session, 7-9 pm at Alki Community Center. And even if you don’t become an official volunteer, you can help by remembering what to do – and what not to do – when you see a baby seal; the key thing to remember is “leave it alone” – the Seal Sitters’ site has more specifics.
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