West Seattle, Washington
28 Sunday
So you’re a festival queen at the end of your yearlong reign, about to turn over the tiara – and you tell the audience about your fondest memories:
Yes, as reported here before, the Hi-Yu float has needed help for a while, and even that will be a fond memory for good-humored Sivona Lingle. Last year, she was the only candidate for the senior court in the Miss West Seattle Hi-Yu Scholarship Program, and therefore has served the past year as a one-woman senior court. Last night, quite a different scenario – she crowned her successor, and two princesses, from a field of five candidates, during a high-spirited event in the expansive (and warm!) sanctuary of Grace Community Church. Watch video of all three crowning moments – and a few other highlights, including the Talent Award-winning performance – as our story continues just ahead:Read More
In its two-months-so-far fight against two proposed city-jail sites in southeast West Seattle, the Highland Park Action Committee has seen some of the same city reps more than once, particularly Doug Carey, the main person on the hot seat at the contentious South Park forum June 26th (WSB coverage here). But tonight, the city sent in a different team to represent its side of the jail-site story: Fleets and Facilities deputy director Mary Pearson (photo left) and Office of Policy and Management senior policy adviser Catherine Cornwall. They took questions for about 40 minutes, after opening remarks. Toplines ahead:Read More
(photo added 9:59 pm – the new Miss Hi-Yu posing for pix with her parents Ramona and Robert)
At Grace Church, the 2008 Miss West Seattle Hi-Yu Coronation has just concluded with Margo Femiano, who graduated from Chief Sealth High School last month (as class president!), chosen as the new queen. The princesses are Alicia Watanabe and Katie Tarabochia. More on the big night (including video) later!
Just uphill from the P-Patch pilfering we reported here last night, there’s trouble at Solstice Park (formerly Lincoln Park Annex): Pam from Nerd’s Eye View reports “the markers (there) are COVERED with tagging … it’s not just a paint-over deal, these are carved stone markers.” Pam says police told her it had to be reported by the victim – in this case the Seattle Parks Department – so she called the department’s maintenance hotline (206-684-7250) to alert them.
Though Mayor Nickels has publicly expressed opposition to sending a new parks levy to Seattle voters before 2010, a majority of City Council members just voted to ask you to vote on the Parks and Green Spaces Levy this November, which is when the current Pro Parks Levy expires – a unanimous vote by all 7 councilmembers (with Sally Clark and Richard McIver absent). The current version, which has undergone a tweak here and a tweak there since the Citizens’ Advisory Committee approved it a few weeks back, totals $145 million over six years, which reportedly will cost the average homeowner about $70 a year. “The reason we’re doing this is is that parks are the affordable place to go in renewing our spirits,” said Council President Richard Conlin. West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who chairs the Parks Committee, thanked the many people who took the time to attend public hearings and offer comments, saying, “It’s been a very good public process,” even if it didn’t “take as long as the usual Seattle process” and, in looking ahead to what a new park levy might accomplish, reflected on the excitement that surrounds the opening of a new park – just nine days ago, he was at the dedication of Ercolini Park west of The Junction (below left, with Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher):
Back to the pre-vote speeches: “This is a very deliberative process we’ve gone through (with public hearings and a citizens’ advisory committee),” said Councilmember Tim Burgess. “Some of the greatest public works projects in our country have been done during tough economic times.” Councilmember Nick Licata said, “There’s been some criticism our citizens have become overburdened with levies … (but) this was not created by council alone.” Councilmember Jean Godden said, “Everybody cares about parks … parks touch everyone.” Councilmember Jan Drago said, “I have reservations about placing this on the ballot … because of (a) lack of prioritization, I believe we will have three competing ballot issues,” but she added, “I have decided to let the voters decide.” Councilmember Bruce Harrell said he has “faith” voters will make the right decision after “scrutinizing” everything on the ballot. The council already approved the mayor’s proposal to put a Pike Place Market renovation-money levy on the same ballot, November 4th; the other one to which Drago referred is a likely Sound Transit levy. The mayor could veto the levy, but only six councilmembers’ votes would be needed to override (and as we mentioned, seven voted “yes” today).
That video clip and another one we posted on YouTube after the 9/14/07 Mars Hill Church baptisms at Alki remain the most-viewed WSB videos ever (while also among our lowest-quality clips, since we got our first video camera just three days earlier). In the ten months since, not only have we gone through some changes, so has the Mars Hill-West Seattle website, where we just found this update with word a new round of Alki baptisms is planned during an end-of-summer barbecue, 6-9 pm August 26th. While the post proclaims, “A West Seattle summer would not be complete without a beach baptism event on Alki,” at this point it’s not described as a regional event, unlike last year, which MH leader Mark Driscoll declared “the biggest mass baptism in Seattle history” (WSB coverage here).
The clock ticks, Alaskan Way Viaduct traffic rumbles on, and the roar of reminders about looming viaduct change gets increasingly louder. In the past six days, we covered two major meetings with viaduct info that will interest anyone who drives it – first, the public comment meeting for the South End Replacement Project “environmental assessment” (and the comment period’s not over yet, so there’s still time for you to have a say), then the advisory committee briefing on why the semi-short list of Central Waterfront options does not include a retrofit (photo above is from that event). Read on for what you should know about both – including links where you can see the full PowerPoint-type presentations from both events:Read More
Douglas Cox and Kevin Palmer, arrested after the July 1st robbery at the Admiral/California Wells Fargo that led to a standoff downtown (in which police shot Cox after he refused to drop what turned out to be a pellet gun), were both in court today and pleaded not guilty, according to the Times. (We posted excerpts from the charging papers here on July 7th.)
THIS AFTERNOON: City website says the City Council may vote today on whether to send the Parks and Green Spaces Levy to the ballot, after its 2:30 pm Committee of the Whole meeting @ City Hall downtown. TONIGHT: Miss West Seattle Hi-Yu Coronation @ Grace Church, 7 pm; Highland Park Action Committee (jail-sites fight and more) @ Highland Park Improvement Club, 7 pm; Sustainable West Seattle, 7:30 pm @ Camp Long. More events in West Seattle (and/or of WS relevance) for the days/weeks/months to come, on the WSB Events calendar page.
We wanted to know why a neighborhood flag was half-lowered, so of course, we asked “The Google.” The Kitsap Sun says it’s in honor of a Seattle soldier killed in Afghanistan. Per the governor’s website, this is done when any member of the Armed Forces from our state is killed while on active duty. Guess we should have known that already; now we do.
Less than two weeks after work began at the site of the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza, with temporary removal of the statue and demolition of the old base and surrounding asphalt, concrete is being poured this morning. Meantime, as we mentioned in coverage of last Thursday’s Alki Community Council meeting, the committee that raised $ for the plaza is looking for volunteer help again to plan the Sept. 6th dedication — and inviting potential volunteers to a July 31st picnic next to the construction site. ADDED MONDAY EVENING: More photos, thanks to David Hutchinson:
After a couple weeks of stagnation, gas prices are dropping a bit, so we’ve taken our West Seattle-wide Gas Price Watch survey for the first time in 3 weeks. You can see the regular and premium prices at each station by clicking locations on the map above (we’ve added the newly reopened Roxbury station, so there are 21 West Seattle stations in all) — or read on for the text list, lowest price to highest, including comparisons going as far back as 12 weeks:Read More
They’re known more for washing (and styling) hair than for washing cars, but today the staff of Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor) became volunteer vehicle-scrubbers to raise money for Pencil Me In For Kids. When we dropped by the car-wash site outside the West Seattle Eagles‘ HQ in The Junction during the car wash’s final hour, they were already closing in on 30 cars. Speaking of volunteer power, we got an “after” photo from Saturday’s last round of portable-painting at Pathfinder K-8:
Eric Baer reports almost 50 volunteers were on hand, including two teams from Seattle Works (which had declared this a “hot project”). Now on to volunteer neighborhood-issue activism:
Those three are from the Highland Park Action Committee (from left, Jessie, Dina Johnson, Blair Johnson), which maintained a presence at White Center Jubilee Days all weekend as part of its campaign against the two potential city jail sites in southeast West Seattle. (Wondering about the costumes? Blair’s is obvious; Jessie and Dina were going with the WCJD “Pirates” theme.) HPAC’s next meeting is 7 pm tomorrow (Monday) night, Highland Park Improvement Club @ 11th/Holden, where they’ll plot strategy for Saturday morning’s city-organized jail-sites forum @ South Seattle Community College‘s Brockey Center (9 am-noon). Dina also sent photos from an entirely unrelated event – the Mediterranean Fantasy Festival this weekend at Hiawatha:
That’s Habib, dancing solo. Dina shared a few more Medfest photos, which (if you’re viewing this from the home page) are a click away:Read More
Lots of gardening-related news today already (Community Harvest update here; West Seattle Garden Tour report here), but here’s one we wish we didn’t have to report. Maybe it’s a simple case of misunderstanding, rather than outright deliberate theft, but whatever it is, Lincoln Park P-Patch coordinator Michelle wants it to stop – here’s what she e-mailed us:
I was wondering if you would post a note on your blog about the rise in the number of theft incidents from the Lincoln Park P-Patch over the past couple of months. We have had entire vegetable plants stolen from the beds as well as produce prematurely harvested.
With the rising cost of food and fuel, we recognize that everyone is feeling the pinch at the stores lately. That, and the concern over the safety of mass produced food, is why many of us find growing our own vegetables and herbs to be our best option. Quite a bit of sweat and effort goes into growing the gardens, so to have someone come along and pluck until their heart’s content is very discouraging. We want to let the community know that they are more than welcome to wander and admire the variety of flowers and vegetables there, but the produce and plants are not up for grabs. If anyone is interested in gardening a plot of their own, they can find more information at: www.ci.seattle.wa.us/neighborhoods/ppatch/gardening.htm.
We’ve also reported here in recent months about various group gardening efforts that are using volunteer help and sharing the harvest with those who helped do the work (like Longfellow Creek Garden in the Delridge area), so watch for more word of chances to get involved with gardens like those. TUESDAY MORNING P.S.: After this WSB item appeared Sunday night, two citywide media outlets contacted us Monday asking about the story; here’s the KOMO version.
From the other side of the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry run – and a few miles’ drive beyond that – came the winners of both the Float and Overall categories in Saturday’s West Seattle Grand Parade, the Port Orchard Fathoms O’ Fun float (check out the royalty’s dance moves). Our parade coverage continues (previous installments are archived here) with the full list of winners, and more photos, just ahead:Read More
That’s what we overheard as we walked up to this West Seattle Garden Tour stop:
The “Southern St. Communal Garden” stop on the tour (aka “Color Crazy”) involved a group of homes a block west of California (intersection map here) on the hillside over southern Lincoln Park. This mini-subdivision made news last year when the mysterious “West Seattle Art Attack”-er was on the prowl — third photo in this post shows the tile-decorated mail drop out front. The theme resurfaces on one of the garden paths:
We also photographed a pair of young ladies taking advantage of the traffic for an on-the-spot fundraiser: Alex and Alissa were selling lemonade to raise money for Alex’s Explorer West Middle School trip to Rome:
Nine gardens in all (all outlined on the WSGT website) were on this year’s West Seattle Garden Tour, with a portion of the proceeds going to nonprofits including ArtsWest and the Seattle Chinese Garden (which also had tables at the stop we visited); admission also included an hourlong lecture at The Kenney by PlantAmnesty founder Cass Turnbull. The WSGT runs on a whole lot of volunteer power, even as a self-guided tour, so if you couldn’t help out this year, think about pitching in next year – contact info is on the WSGT website.
That’s part of the haul from this year’s first fruit-tree harvest by Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle. If you have a fruit tree whose yield could go to help make sure everyone in our community has good healthy food, yours could be next – harvesting help is needed too. Here’s the latest update from Aviva of Community Harvest (who also sent the photos – thanks!):
Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, the group that harvests surplus fruit from residential trees, had its first harvest on Friday. Six volunteers met for a few hours in the backyard of a house near Westwood Village. The result: 113 pounds of beautiful ripe cherries to be distributed at the White Center Food Bank on Monday. If you are interested in joining this effort or know of a tree to donate, have a look at their website: www.gleanit.org.
Community Harvest has also published the map for the 1st Annual Edible Garden Tour of West Seattle. It is a very diverse group of gardens, including a condo food jungle, a parking strip farm, permaculture gardens, community gardens, as well as more traditional backyard vegetable patches. Read more and get the addresses on www.gleanit.org/tour.html. Come get inspired August 2, 10 am-2 pm.
HI-YU COMMUNITY BRUNCH: You loved the Concert in the Park (WSB coverage here); you cheered the Junior Court Coronation (WSB coverage here); you saw the Hi-Yu entry in The Parade (part of the contingent shown above); this morning, keep the Hi-Yu Festival party going at the Community Brunch, 9 am-noon @ American Legion Post 160 (36th/Alaska), $6 adults/$3 kids.
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET FRESH SHEET: Also in The Junction, it’s Farmers’ Market day. We link to the fresh sheet here every Sunday morning for your pre-shopping convenience. Here’s the latest.
WEST SEATTLE GARDEN TOUR: 9 am-5 pm. Self-guided tour, so go where you want, when you want – with the map you get for the price of admission. Here’s where to find tickets (locations include West Seattle Nursery, which, by the way, has a brand-new website).
And then there are festivals …
JUBILEE DAYS: Thanks to “Trick” for sharing that photo of one of the street-fair-staple (you saw them at West Seattle Summer Fest) nuns, from day 1 of the Jubilee Days street fair in White Center (map and more info here), continuing today.
MEDITERRANEAN FESTIVAL: Hiawatha plays host to belly-dancers and much more for day two of Medfest today, 10 am-8 pm. More info here.
That’s just the start. Click here to go directly to the Sunday section of the West Seattle Weekend Lineup to see what else is up today/tonight – like the Pencil Me In For Kids car wash!
Thanks to Meredith K. Hailey for sharing her West Seattle Grand Parade photos, including that great close-up of one of the dogs that accompanied the Luna Park Cafe contingent (who won second place in the Commercial category) toward the end of the parade. No cats in the parade, but the next best thing — video of Furry Faces Foundation promoting its fall “Catsino” fundraiser:
A few more pet sightings from the parade – including the inanimate kind – just ahead:Read More
That’s part of the crowd that had staked out spots in the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) while it was still light enough for us to get a decent photo – by the time the movie (“Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” preceded by a NFFTY short) started around 9:25 pm, we estimate, somewhere between 150 and 200 people were on hand (and still room for more – down front, as Sidewalk Cinema‘s Philip Borgnes pointed out in his pre-show remarks, although we’d advise arriving no later than 8:30 pm). Aside from a brief technical speed bump that resulted in the opening credits running twice, plenty of fun — the fundraiser raffle ($1/ticket, 3 for $2) offered movie-appropriate prizes (shrubbery, Knights Who Say “Ni” cupcakes) among other loot (Hotwire prepaid $20 coffee card); the concessions courtesy of West Seattle Christian Church (WSB sponsor), with proceeds benefiting West Seattle Food Bank (same as the raffle) are nicely priced (popcorn, candy, beverages including $1 water or soda); the pre-movie short was a touching little feature produced by students at Ballard High School. Beautiful clear night but it cooled off fast, so a blanket and/or jacket is usually a good idea. Next Saturday night, the movie is “The Goonies” (trailer); the full series list is on this page, along with each movie’s sponsors (we’re a co-sponsor for the entire series and also presenting “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” an old fave, two weeks from tonight).
The kids in that video clip were among the participants in the Kiddies’ Parade presented by the Rotary Club of West Seattle right before the Grand Parade — it’s open to all who show up, on a shorter route. There also were many young participants in the bigger parade, as well as entries promoting events coming up to help local kids:
On the hood of the Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor) VW Bug, you’ll see a logo for Pencil Me In For Kids — the pink sign on the car’s sign was a reminder about a car wash tomorrow, 10 am-2 pm at the West Seattle Eagles parking lot, with Illusions staffers scrubbing vehicles to raise money for PMIFK, which buys school supplies for kids in need. And a week from tomorrow, it’s the annual WestSide Baby “Stuff the Bus” diaper drive:
WestSide Baby‘s Nancy Woodland broke the news to WSB during Summer Fest last weekend, right after First Student offered her organization space on that bus (which took second place in the Community Floats category!) to promote “Stuff the Bus” during the parade (right after the WestSide Baby marching unit) as well as a bus for the diaper collection on July 27. All you have to do is show up at the bus that day – it’ll be parked right next to the West Seattle Farmers’ Market on 44th south of Alaska – with one or more packages of disposable diapers, to help “Stuff the Bus.” Meantime – yet more parade coverage later tonight!
One month after a sighting of a fuel-tanker truck at that long-closed gas station on Roxbury a few blocks east of 35th, multiple reader reports say it’s now open – thanks to Tom for the photo. You’ll note its branding is still under wraps; the station’s official name is simply Roxbury Gasoline, according to the liquor-license filing we saw a day after the truck sighting.
Thanks to David Hutchinson for sending photos of the classic car show on Alki today. More pix ahead plus details on a new annual car show coming to West Seattle in a few months:Read More
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