West Seattle, Washington
26 Friday
Almost every week for the past few months, we’ve walked into Room 145 at Chief Sealth High School and sat down with two of the students in Sam Reed‘s Web Design II class to talk over a project that was part of an ambitious effort he launched this semester — pairing student teams with small-business proprietors to create websites in a real vendor/client type of atmosphere. (He asked WSB last November to put out the call for small-business volunteers, and got more than three dozen responses!) Tonight, Reed organized a reception for the students, their families, and the “clients” to see the sites unveiled — here’s how it went:Read More
Thanks to Shannon for that photo of tonight’s sunset, taken from Fauntleroy. We consider this the last night of spring, since it’ll be Memorial Day weekend by tomorrow night and that’s the unofficial summer kickoff even if the solstice is four weeks away!
This time last night, 35th/Holden Chevron was at $3.99/gallon for regular, which wasn’t the highest in West Seattle, since we’d noted earlier that Barnecut’s Shell was the first WS station to break $4/regular, at $4.03 by midday yesterday. In the past 24 hours, however, 35th/Holden has pumped that price up a full dime … as you can see at left. Don’t know if it’s the highest in WS at the moment as we haven’t done a full survey, but gave us a double-take.
We reported last week that, after asking the Parks Department for comment from superintendent Tim Gallagher on why a skate feature was suddenly on the back burner for the Myrtle Reservoir park as of the public meeting three weeks ago, we finally got a sort of form letter back, and were continuing to pursue comment. A short time ago, we finally talked with Gallagher by phone — he says there’s a meeting next week involving the “skate community” and if they are enthusiastic about the prospects of a High Point skatepark — the other West Seattle site (besides Myrtle) mentioned in the citywide Skatepark Plan as a possible location (they’re just a block apart, as shown in the photo above) — that could move forward relatively quickly. Here’s what else he had to say:Read More
Just got word of a unique competition at Chief Sealth High School tonight and an invitation for you to attend — 120 students from Sealth, Ballard, and Franklin High Schools are competing in the final round of the Seattle Academy of Finance’s Annual 
Case Competition. Working in 4-person teams, the students got a “business case” six days ago and have had to work to solve it – tonight, they present their proposals to corporate and faculty judges. It’s happening 7:30 pm in the Sealth “Little Auditorium.” (Read the full news release here.) Just so happens part of Team WSB was already going to be at Sealth tonight for a smaller event celebrating a project we told you about last November – business teacher Sam Reed‘s Web Design students have been designing websites for volunteer small-business participants (including a side project we had been contemplating) and tonight, with those participants on hand as well as their families, the students unveil their work. We’ll be there to cover both.
One of the distinctive art features at Fauntleroy’s Cove Park, the little pocket of public waterfront immediately north of the ferry dock, is missing from its perch today (photos added 1:50 pm). It’s a raven that looks over the beach as part of the depiction of a legend about how the sun was created. Overnight, someone apparently knocked the raven down. Gary Dawson of the Fauntleroy Community Association, which maintains Cove Park, says a State Patrol officer called him around 7:45 this morning to say he had the raven — brought to him by someone who found it in the sand. He’s keeping it right now while repairs are strategized and showed it to us a short time ago – it appears to have been broken off right where it was attached to its perch:
Artist Tom Jay sculpted the raven for Cove Park, where it was installed in 2000, the year the park was dedicated. The Fauntleroy Community Association has reported the apparent vandalism to police.
(photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
2 1/2 months after we first told you about West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen‘s renewed push to try to ease rush-hour traffic by keeping the low bridge (Spokane Street Swing Bridge) from opening during certain times of the day, the proposal is now officially open for your comments, and the clock is ticking toward a decision. As the U.S. Coast Guard‘s regional bridge commander Austin Pratt had explained in our followups (coverage here and here), a two-month comment period was to open as soon as notice of the proposed rule change was published in the Federal Register; he just called to let us (and you) know that the notice was published today, triggering the start of a public-comment period lasting until July 21st. He also sent a copy of the relevant pages of the Federal Register; see them here. Excerpted from that, the specific rule language is as follows:
The proposed rule would enable the Seattle Department of Transportation
(SDOT), the owner of the Spokane Street Bridge, to keep the draws of that bridge in the closed position in order to help alleviate roadway traffic Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with the proviso that openings shall be provided at any time for vessels of 5000 gross tons or more.
Whether you want to express support for this or opposition, what’s REALLY important now is following the official procedure for commenting (there’s also an official procedure for requesting a public meeting on this) – read on for those specifics:Read More
Two highlights from the slate of events on tonight’s agenda (see the Events list page for more):
CITY COUNCIL IN WEST SEATTLE: Topic – the city budget and how you think city leaders should spend your money. Time/place – High Point Community Center (map), 5:30 pm. Tons of supplementary info here.
ALKI PROJECT MEETING: Neighbors gathered signatures to force an official city meeting to review the proposal to replace a house at 59th/Stevens, across from Alki Elementary and Playfield, with a five-unit development. As explained at the last Alki Community Council meeting (WSB coverage here), they are concerned the three-story buildings will put much of the playfield in shadows at key times of the day (our coverage included graphics they created). The meeting’s at the Admiral (West Seattle) Library branch, 6:30 pm.
Several major items on the agenda tonight as the Delridge District Council — representatives of neighborhood groups and other organizations in eastern West Seattle — gathered at the Southwest Precinct for its monthly meeting. We’re breaking them up into a few separate reports, starting tonight with two items — a Seattle City Light rep’s revelations about street lights (what to do about them and what it means when one flickers), and more details about what’s coming up during the gala Delridge Day festival later this month, including a new free “Art Lending Library” to be introduced that day:Read More
The police car shown in that video clip, and a pickup truck, suffered notable left-front-end damage after a collision within the past hour at the curve just uphill/south from the Fauntleroy ferry dock; map here. (Thanks to the cell-phone tipster who texted us with word of this.) Traffic is flowing past the scene again, and a tow truck was there while we were there; no info on the circumstances but officers at the scene told us “everyone is OK” and the fact no medic units were called out seems to underscore that. THURSDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: According to police Lt. Steve Paulsen, the crash happened while police were responding “to a disturbance at Lincoln Park” and is blamed on slick roads. He confirms all involved are OK.
Guess it won’t be TOO horrible if this forecast holds and Memorial Day is something like today (photo above shows an afternoon sunbreak along Lincoln Park’s north shore). At least Colman Pool will be open (we were so desperate today to get a glimpse, despite the plywood over the plexiglass on the west and south sides, we took our young assistant up on his offer to sneak a photographic peek through the drainage openings at the bottom of the brick wall):
Colman Pool’s opening day is Saturday (schedule here).
It’s in the Delridge/White Center area. Read more here to see if you can help. (That link, by the way, goes to a post on a new blog set up by Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association executive director Derek Birnie to share info on upcoming events and volunteer opportunities in the greater Delridge area; you can browse it any time at delridge.blogspot.com.)
So says this post on the blog kept by neighboring Chill, which also mentions the pickup driver helped with the cleanup.
That’s the sign in Ron Richardson‘s yard along Fauntleroy across from Lincoln Park, which he updates with the
death and injury toll in the Iraq war. We’ve told you about it before; our most recent post, and comments on it, led to coverage in the citywide media. Richardson introduced himself to us at our table at the recent Sustainable West Seattle Festival in The Junction, and told us he’d added a new number to his sign, in honor of an area resident killed in the war in 2005, Christopher Dickison (photo right). Here’s his story of how that happened — timely as Memorial Day approaches:
The most important response [to the sign], by far, came three weeks ago when a woman and several of her family knocked at my door. The woman, Leanna Dickison, wanted to thank me for having the sign. She told me that her son, Christopher Wayne Dickison, was fatality number 1754. Christopher’s twin sister Rhonda Herrera was part of the group. Chris’ mother had made a blanket as a gift for me. I thanked her and suggested she take the blanket to the VA Hospital and present it to one of the Iraq vets at the VA.
I have since visited Leanna and learned more about Christopher. The family lives in White Center. Christopher was a graduate of Evergreen High. He joined the military in 2002. He was in Iraq for a year when his tour of duty was extended. It was during this extension that Chris was killed. I looked up Chris’s name on the internet and found articles and memory pages by those who knew him as a friend, a relative and as a comrade in arms. This reminded me that the internet can be a rallying place for folks to share their respect and love.
I have attached a current photo of the sign, a photo of Chris and a list of some of the websites that memorialize Chris. I have added the number 1754 on the sign and it will stay there. Each time I change the other numbers I will remember Chris and his family. They are our neighbors and part of our community. As folks spot my sign I hope they remember Chris and all of the others killed and wounded in Iraq. I also think about this war and why we are fighting it. I hope your readers think upon this as well.
Here are the links that Ron provided: a page featuring citywide media coverage from Christopher’s death in 2005, a guestbook that he has signed and you can too, and a video tribute posted online.
Side note: Richardson also is involved with another issue right now — voter-owned elections — and told us he’ll be speaking about that at tonight’s Delridge District Council meeting (7 pm, Southwest Precinct).
If you hadn’t already heard: Registration is open for the second annual BizJam Seattle conference for “indie” businesses, presented by Biznik (motto: “business networking that doesn’t suck”) – and again this year, it’s happening in West Seattle, at Youngstown Arts Center. This time around, it’ll span two days – Day 1, July 9, will focus on what small businesses need to know about “social media.” Read more about BizJam here (disclosure, we’re speaking at BizJam; in the year since the last BizJam, we’ve become an “indie” business ourselves). Speaking of social media, you can find us on Twitter as westseattleblog and on Facebook as WS Blog — we also just set up a West Seattle Blog group there.
… the city is trying to do it with a new campaign called “Give Your Car the Summer Off.” (Official news release here.) One of the related webpages says the city will identify certain streets that can be closed to cars for a while at different times during the summer. Any street(s) in West Seattle where you think that would work?
Several stations are at $3.99/regular right now, but we were just in Admiral and spotted $4.03 regular at Barnecut’s Shell.
That’s a recent photo of Longfellow Creek Garden, the small organic garden/farm that is taking shape in North Delridge (first reported here last month). Zach Zink wrote us a while back inviting people to come help with getting LCG in shape, and got quite a response. Now he’s asking for help with a new challenge for this nonprofit operation: “We are in need of a certified plumber to install a few pieces of equipment so we can have an irrigation faucet at the Garden. Our budget is pretty low this year, and getting water installed is going to run us between 500 and 700 dollars. Saving on labor would help us out to the tune of 200 dollars!” If you can help or know someone who might be able to, e-mail Zach at zach@growingwashington.org.
SEACREST SEAGULL, ER, LOL-GULL: Yes, we know, there are a million places to generate your own goofy captions for photos. However, an actual blogger from our Other Blogs list has a thread going that might appeal to those with a twisted sense of humor, as she’s inviting captions for a photo of Seacrest’s famous one-footed seagull. We contributed one already.
MORE ON WHAT THE BOHEMIAN’S GOING TO BE LIKE: We’ve told you about The Bohemian, going into the former Leslie’s Country Store space next to Spiro’s in the 3400 block of California. Its previous one-page website is now expanded into a site with full details on what they’re planning to do. (Mini-update on the future Prost West Seattle next door – it’s applied for a liquor license, and one reader got e-mail from the owner saying they hope to open in August.)
Good turnout last night for the monthly West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting at the Southwest Precinct — including folks who took advantage of the opportunity to directly ask local police leadership about issues in their neighborhood (one attendee was looking for followup on a burglary at his house; the Community Police Team is putting him in touch with detectives). We already reported one update from the meeting last night; here’s what else was discussed, including the briefing on “casing”:Read More
CITY JOB FAIR: 10 am-6 pm at the Joint Training Facility on Myers Way; map and more info in this post from last week.
DELRIDGE DISTRICT COUNCIL: This is the monthly meeting of reps from neighborhood groups and other organizations in the eastern West Seattle area the city considers the “Delridge District.” Public always welcome. 7 pm, Southwest Precinct meeting room.
SHORT SCHOOL DAY: We wouldn’t usually mention this but someone went to the trouble of texting us about it late last night, so why not. Early-dismissal day today for Seattle Public Schools.
More events for today and beyond are on the WSB Events list page.
Thanks to Susan Stern Grossman from Singingpixel Photography for that photo of the USS Rushmore as it passed West Seattle shores today, headed to Terminal 30 for a history-commemorating event you can read more about here. The Rushmore is one of two Navy ships that will be open for tours 9 am-2 pm tomorrow.
LINK #1: Highland Park Action Committee‘s website now has the promised page compiling information in the group’s fight against the two proposed city-jail sites in southeast WS.
LINK #2: As a side note to this morning’s truck crash at Jan’s Salon south of Morgan Junction (WSB coverage here and here), salon neighbor Chill has posted a note to clients on its blog.
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