West Seattle, Washington
26 Friday
(WSB photo taken at Seacrest, May 2007)
If you can get out and get to the beach at midday, this week brings some excellent chances for low-tide walks. Here’s the chart; today the tide bottoms out at 10:19 am at -2.8; tomorrow, 11:04 am, it’s -3.8; then Wednesday, it’s the lowest tide of the summer, -4.1 at 11:51; Thursday is almost as good, -4.0 at 12:39 pm; and Friday it’s -3.4 at 1:38 pm. On Wednesday and Thursday, you’ll even have a chance to consult an expert, as the Seattle Aquarium will have its beach naturalists out at Lincoln Park and Constellation Park (south of Alki Point), 10:30 am-2:30 pm. (But almost any place on the West Seattle shore is a great place to see what is revealed at low tide — our other favorites include Cove Park just north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock and Seacrest, where the pilings beneath the pier host a nice array of starfish and other sea life, as shown in our photo above.)
Actually, it’s been a one-year pump jump – see that nostalgic photo at left? Admiral Chevron, exactly one dollar cheaper, exactly one year ago today (here’s the WSB report from 6/2/07). Anyway, back to the present: We were just getting used to $4/gallon regular, when suddenly $4.20-something/gallon regular began to appear … so we surveyed the West Seattle gas stations again late last night for the specifics on what’s happened in the past week, including not only the highest and lowest prices, but also which station went up the most in the past week and which went up the least:Read More
The sun’s coming back someday. Maybe even this afternoon, the forecast suggests. So we’re adding three outdoor-fun chapters to the West Seattle 101 (note the “tab” link on our header) section here on WSB. WS 101 
is the all-things-West-Seattle book written by Lori Hinton, who’s been sharing selected chapters here on WSB for the past few months. Today, we add Lori’s stories about Westcrest Park Off-Leash Area for dogs and their people, the blazing beach fires of Alki, and historic Colman Pool (which reopens Saturday for its third and final preseason weekend); the full WS 101 on WSB archive is here.
Hadn’t heard of this till it turned up in tonight’s Orca Network “sightings” e-newsletter (subscribe here) — the state has launched a Flickr page to collect photos illustrating the problems facing Puget Sound, and is inviting contributions. As the intro text on that page aptly puts it, “One of the reasons many don’t know that Puget Sound’s health is failing is because we don’t often see what the problems are. We take its on-the-surface beauty for granted.”
Besides these two anniversaries mentioned yesterday — the Skylark newsletter that just landed in our inbox reminds us, the North Delridge venue celebrates its 2nd birthday next Saturday. From the newsletter: “Next week we officially enter the Terrible Twos. Expect tantrums, public nudity, and incessant yet adorable questions from now on.” Skylark remains the only West Seattle eatery with a menu mentioning WSB (see why, here).
One more local church note — Alki Kid’s Place is starting up at Alki UCC, with afterschool and summer programs that organizer Cheryl Snyder notes are “nonreligious,” though they are official nonprofit programs under the church’s umbrella. Click to see the flyer with more info, including how to register.
After this morning’s groundbreaking for the Hope Lutheran School/Church expansion/renovation project, we caught the video above, as an illustration of the church building boom in that block of 42nd alone – Hope Lutheran leaders and members in a procession past the West Seattle Christian Church (WSB sponsor) construction project, on their way to continue their service at the Seattle Lutheran High School Gym, where they’ll hold services all summer while site work is under way. More on what’s happening with these projects, and another one under way at Holy Rosary a bit farther north along the same street, ahead:Read More
After we reported the news a week ago that Capers in The Junction was ending food service at the end of May, more than a few laments were posted. Now, here’s the first account of what blogger e_bourne called “the last supper” (maybe more like the last lunch). (P.S. Capers is about to join WSB as a sponsor – and the official welcome tomorrow will include a question for you – so keep an eye out.)
Thanks to Bob Bollen for e-mailing that shot of what appears to have been Coast Guard training off Alki around 9:30 this morning. (The USCG is out in West Seattle waters often, but not always in such colorful fashion.)
That’s the flyer Highland Park residents are circulating for their next major meeting tomorrow to strategize their plan of action in response to the city’s list of potential misdemeanor-offender jail sites — two of which are in southeast West Seattle:
Tomorrow night’s meeting is a followup to the Highland Park Action Committee-called meeting two weeks ago (WSB coverage here). You’ll find a tentative agenda on this comprehensive special page that Dina Johnson has set up on the HPAC website regarding this issue; she says West Seattle’s State Rep. Sharon Nelson, one of the local leaders who’s expressed opposition to these sites, is expected at the meeting. The city website’s jail-project section has no official public meetings listed yet, though a spokesperson for the project told WSB two weeks ago that meeting dates/times would be announced “soon.” We’ll check on those meetings’ status before Monday night’s Highland Park gathering, which starts at 7 pm, HP Improvement Club (11th and Holden). Meantime, the city is continuing to accept comments through a form on this webpage. (Two more citizen meetings are ahead as well, and included on our Events list page: the 34th District Democrats are set to discuss the jail-sites issue at their monthly meeting June 11th, and another HPAC meeting is set for June 16th.)
FIRST CHANCE: The second of two Nia classes to raise $ for earthquake relief in China is this morning at Youngstown Arts Center, 10 am. Jill Pagano from NiaDivas says the first one on Saturday brought in more than $200!
SECOND CHANCE:
That video shows the Seattle Swing Dance Club in action when we checked them out a couple weeks back at the Masonic Hall in The Junction. That’s where they dance the first and third Sunday of each month — and that means today. As explained on the SSDC website, there’s lots going on when they get together on those Sunday afternoons/evenings — workshops, social dancing, and competition. Beginners are just as welcome as experts. This weekend they’re hosting a renowned guest instructor, Mary Ann Nunez (more on her workshops here). If you watched the video but are still trying to figure out this dance style, it’s explained here.
Sunday morning — time to post the “fresh sheet” if you’re going shopping at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market today (10 am-2 pm, southeast corner of 44th/Alaska):Read More
In Saturday coverage of Delridge Day @ Youngstown Arts Center, as well as in this report from the last Delridge District Council meeting, we talked about a new Youngstown feature making its debut — an Art Lending Library for the community. For the video clip above, we asked Seth Damm to explain — and show — more about how it works, and he had a few new details – including the delivery/pickup aspect! Drop by or contact Youngstown (website here) to find out how to “check art out” in this new way.
That’s the subject line on the forum post of the week, just up within the past few hours. So sweetly written, you might want to read it even if you don’t usually check the WSB Forums.
That short video peek inside Brockey Center at South Seattle Community College might present a scene resembling the average multi-participant event … tables, booths, etc. … but today’s West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Business Expo presented more than your usual options, offering West Seattle businesses and other groups a chance to put their best foot forward (in more ways than one, as you’ll see just ahead):Read More
It’s been almost five months since the initial info about Metro RapidRide bus service to/from West Seattle began making its way around West Seattle (including that bus-concept sketch we photographed at a JuNO meeting). Routing announcements were to be made “within a few months,” Metro officials said at the time; no formal announcements yet, but the next major progress report is expected on Tuesday, when the Seattle City Council’s Transportation Committee has this scheduled (9 am):
What’s going on with Rapid Ride, Metro’s bus rapid transit between West Seattle and downtown? The Committee will be briefed by Seattle Department of Transportation Director Grace Crunican and Metro’s General Manager Kevin Desmond.
RapidRide isn’t supposed to start rolling till 2011, but routing decisions were to be made now so that preliminary work could begin.
In the Admiral District, Revolution Coffee proprietors David “DJ” Johnson and Angie Houck threw a sidewalk party today to celebrate their shop’s third anniversary.
Meanwhile, on Alki, well-wishers were invited to sign a big old door propped up out front of Coastal Boutique, celebrating its fifth anniversary today with a beach sandbox party today. Even the littlest partygoers got to leave their mark:
“A.L.L.” stands for Art Lending Library, which is debuting at Delridge Day (under way till 4 pm at Youngstown Arts Center). We’re heading out and about to more of today’s events but thought we’d post that as well as this photo of Kore Ionz, one of the groups performing today (you’ll find fun outdoors as well as indoors @ Youngstown):
Lots more later, from this event and others (the West Seattle Weekend Lineup list has the full lowdown on everything that’s happening today — and tomorrow).
Just went through a couple more days worth of police reports – this list is nowhere as long as the one we posted the other day, but a few unusual incidents — five, to be exact — starting with the case of the defiant shoplifter:Read More
Thanks to the folks who have sent us the link to a citywide-media story today about The Junction’s food-waste composting program. We broke that story here a month and a half ago (original WSB coverage here). But this is exactly why we set up the “More” page – so you can also keep track of what citywide/regional media sources are saying about West Seattle – the P-I story and others are linked there right now (the link lists are frequently and automatically updated, and the second half of the page includes the latest CL listings tagged West Seattle). P.S. If you missed it, the latest WSB Junction coverage involves a request for your input on the upcoming city parking review — check that out here.
That photo shows the trial run last year for a lemonade stand you’ll find 10 am-4 pm today at 31st/Henderson (map), raising money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to fight childhood cancer. Also at 10 – the first of two weekend Nia classes to raise $ for earthquake relief in China. Those are two of myriad events happening in West Seattle today — full list here in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup — Delridge Day at Youngstown Arts Center and the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Business Expo at SSCC are the biggies — two businesses are having anniversary celebrations today (Revolution Coffee in Admiral and Coastal on Alki) — and in the middle of it all, Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott is having a Town Hall meeting at the Admiral library branch at 2 pm.
From the unofficial Seattle Public Schools blog at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com: District leaders say they’ll solve the problem that threatened to leave some West Seattle High School students out of the Advanced Placement Language Arts class they wanted to take next year. The WSHS website doesn’t reflect the reported change yet, but in a nutshell, here’s what happened — 87 of next year’s 11th graders wanted to take the class; the school said it only had room for 60; after saveseattleschools.blogspot.com contributor Melissa Westbrook wrote about it in the second part of this post, site founder Beth Bakeman e-mailed Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson about the situation, and she told them all the students will be accommodated, saying, “What a great problem to have.”
Daily through June 23, you can visit The Mount to see its annual Intergenerational Art Show, with works on display (and offered for sale) in the first-floor hallway. The artists are not only the kids of The Mount’s Intergenerational Learning Center, but also some of the facility’s residents too. Meantime, students at two West Seattle schools showed off their artistic talents last night — we’ve got a few photos ahead:Read More
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