West Seattle, Washington
24 Wednesday
(photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
During commutes like this morning, when something goes wrong with The Viaduct or the high bridge, many eastbound West Seattle commuters flock to the low bridge. Just one glitch with that: It sometimes opens for vessel traffic during peak-commute hours. That’s a sore spot for drivers such as WSB’er Jennifer, whose question about the situation was featured here last November. West Seattle-dwelling City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen has been pushing for rush-hour restrictions, especially as traffic-affecting work on the Spokane Street Viaduct section of The Bridge gets closer, and talked to WSB about where this stands:Read More
Latest update from SDOT:
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) crew installing the temporary flex-rail on the Alaskan Way Viaduct northbound between Cherry and Main Streets has completed the work early. An overnight vehicle accident which damaged the guardrail forced the closure of the far left lane while Seattle Police investigated the accident and the SDOT crew worked to install a temporary guardrail. All lanes are now open and flowing smoothly on the Viaduct.
1:12 PM UPDATE: SDOT spokesperson Peg Nielsen tells WSB they should know tomorrow when the permanent repairs will be done, and says that they always try to get that sort of work done during the “non-peak” hours of 9 am-3 pm.
We just talked with Don Jordan, executive director of the Seattle Animal Shelter, to find out what will happen to the owner of the two pit bulls shot by police in Westwood last week, as well as what will happen to the one that survived. Jordan confirms the dogs’ owner has a history with animal-law enforcement, but not involving the same two dogs from this incident. At the very least, though, the owner will be given citations that Jordan says will total more than $1,000 in fines — for violations including allowing a dog to menace/bite, allowing a dog to roam, and expired tags (neither of the dogs had a current license). Once the city investigation is concluded within a week or so – Jordan says they have two witnesses left to interview – the case will be sent to prosecutors for review to see if any criminal charges are warranted. If not, Jordan says he still has an “administrative process” he can trigger to determine whether or not the surviving dog would have to be returned to the owner. (Previous coverage: Original report the night it happened; followup with more details from the police report; update last night from the man who was attacked, along with his Chihuahua.)
While we were downtown, this update came in from SDOT:
The far left lane (westernmost lane) remains closed on the Alaskan Way Viaduct northbound between Main and Cherry streets due to an overnight accident. SDOT crews are installing a temporary flex-rail. The work should be completed by noon or 1:00 p.m. and the left lane will be re-opened at that time. At this time three lanes are open for traffic past the work zone.
P.S. You can now get Viaduct-related news as part of the mix on our new MORE page — we just added it to the parameters by which the automated feeds there are sorted.
Thanks to Eddie for the tip, which is verified by Traffic.com: Accident on northbound Viaduct near Seneca. One lane’s closed. 6:49 AM ADDITION: Adding the camera showing the eastbound bridge at the Viaduct exit, so you can check how things look before you leave (the Viaduct remains cameraless). 7:23 AM UPDATE: We can see northbound 99 traffic from the eastbound bridge, and it’s definitely crawling. 8:04 AM UPDATE: No change as we looked onto 99 while heading back on the bridge westbound. 1st and 4th said to be busier than usual but not too bad. Radio traffic report says repairs might keep that Viaduct lane closed all day (we’ll check with SDOT later). 8:20 AM UPDATE: We’re heading downtown ourselves for a while; will leave this item atop the page so you can share comments and check cameras (find more on our Traffic page). Damage photo and original crash info here. 10:25 AM UPDATE: We’re just back from downtown. Traffic still looks sluggish northbound; heading in, we took 1st and 4th to get to the south edge of downtown, and it took half an hour to get from the 1st offramp to 5th/Cherry! Will post a separate update when we find out from SDOT what’s expected for the rest of the day.
West Seattle gas prices are now as high as they ever got during last spring’s price pump-up — the top posted price for regular is $3.49 (Lincoln Park 76, photo at left), which is where it peaked in WS (at that station and 35th/Holden Chevron) last May. 
The top posted price for premium is $3.83 (Admiral Chevron), and 
the top posted price, period, is $3.95 for diesel at two Shell stations (Delridge and Roxbury, photo at right). The lowest posted gas price in WS is $3.25 for regular (Delridge Arco, photo at left). All this is from our survey late last night; with prices now matching last year’s high, we thought it was time to take baseline checks of the price range at all WS stations:Read More
Unless you are following the heated pit-bull debate on the comment thread for our followup on last Tuesday’s officer-shoots-pit-bulls incident in Westwood, you will miss this, so we’re reposting this note from the man who was walking his Chihuahua when those dogs attacked:
dear wsb.com readers, I am the person who along with my little dog was attacked tuesday evening. I like the officer who was forced to shoot felt that I and my 7lb. dog were in real danger. To those who wished to donate for help with vet bills the good news is that my little Rosie, while sore had no bad injuries. (I still can’t believe that I prevailed in that battle.) perhaps those who still wish to help could help a family license a pet so some child in a family going through tough times won’t be forced to lose a beloved animal. That kind of karma can move a long ways forward.
Thanks dwr&Rosie
We are now sending a note to “dwr” to ask how HE is doing.
One of the city council’s newest members, Tim Burgess, blogged tonight about the light sentence given to West Seattle rabbi Ephraim Schwartz for the November 2006 47th/Admiral crash that killed Tatsuo Nakata — who worked as chief of staff for the then-councilmember that 
Burgess defeated a year later, David Della. In his blog post, titled “Wrist Slap for Traffic Death,” Burgess (left) — a former detective — recaps our city’s pedestrian-vehicle crash stats, as well as calling the Schwartz sentence “inappropriate.” (Side note: Before publishing this, we looked to see which other city councilmembers blog; looks like only Sally Clark. Her newest post is mostly about Burgess’ blogging, which she seems to be saying he does too often; not sure what that’s about, since if you scroll down his main page, you’ll see he doesn’t even post daily.)
The folks behind PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support) have just announced Little PEPperS, starting this spring in West Seattle, for parents with babies and toddlers (through 3 years old). Ahead, the full announcement, including how to sign up:Read More
Just announced at the end of the week – if your property taxes are paid by your mortgage company, meaning you don’t get an itemized statement showing exactly where the money goes, the county’s going to send you one anyway; they’ll start showing up in the mail in a few weeks. (Hmmm, wonder if the county could find a way to save paper and postage and e-mail it instead?)
Even if you’ve walked by ’em a hundred times, take a second look at some of the public artworks around West Seattle. We just happened onto the city pages that provide a little background into these installations (artist, date, inspiration, etc.), such as the West Seattle Cultural Trail along Alki, the Longfellow Creek Trail signs (photo left), Sky Legends at High Point Library, this one outside High Point Community Center or this one outside Southwest Community Center … seems the sign outside the Southwest Precinct is even public art.
Relief efforts in Darfur get 25% of the proceeds from dozens of restaurants in the Northwest this Tuesday. This page has the full list, which includes the West Seattle establishments Endolyne Joe’s in Fauntleroy, Blackbird and Mission in the Admiral District, and Talarico’s (21-up only) in The Junction. (While checking the restaurants’ individual websites, linked here to their names, we also noted another benefit coming up at Endolyne Joe’s — a Denny Middle School music fundraiser March 25, promising live performances by the school’s band and chorus; we featured Denny’s midwinter-break music camp in this recent video-enhanced feature.)
We found those two Girl Scouts selling cookies outside Thriftway this afternoon – second day of local Scouts’ sales – their West Seattle cookie-selling locations are listed here. (We got Thin Mints, $4/box, yum.) More West Seattle Saturday scenes ahead, including the rainbow-and-hail video link:Read More
Per the Times, the West Seattle High School boys’ basketball team fell short in their game against Seattle Prep this afternoon. And the Seattle Lutheran High School boys and girls didn’t make it to the final rounds of the tournament in Spokane. Nonetheless, we want to send out a hearty “congratulations” for the kids, their families, coaches, and supporters; good job! SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Here are the brackets for the tournament WSHS is in; thanks to David for pointing us to that site where the Wildcats can be tracked through the next rounds. They play Squalicum at 9 pm Wednesday, KeyArena.
Quiet weekend so far (knock wood) so we’ll post the West Seattle Farmers’ Market fresh sheet a little earlier than usual, plus a note on the WSFM start time: We doublechecked with market management, and now that it’s year-round, it’s also back to the 10 am start time. Here’s what you’ll find tomorrow:Read More
BUS FARES: The Metro adult-fare increases kicked in today. Full details here.
FERRY CHANGES: 3 boats on the Fauntleroy run next weekend; this explains why.
Reminder that you are invited to the Alki Bathhouse 4-7 pm today to help celebrate the life of longtime West Seattle Herald reporter Tim St. Clair, who died earlier this week after battling cancer. Two other notable passings have come to our attention in the past few days: WSB regular Jan reports that well-regarded guitarist and West Seattle native Rick Novito died this week (he played most recently with Leroy Bell, whose MySpace site has a few tributes); Jan says Rick’s memorial is set for Thursday at Holy Rosary (Sunday night update: 4 pm, according to this published obituary), and there are efforts to organize a jam in his honor afterward. Here’s a photo of Rick sent by his family:
Last note, Cafe Rozella is remembering a longtime patron known as Panchito; the CR blog pays tribute here.
Thanks to Bob for the tip that the design/construction firm Pb Elemental is re-selling the above-pictured Alki house that it bought along with the neighboring Shoremont, $875,000. (Most recent WSB coverage here; we checked with Pb after Bob’s note, and they say the re-sale was part of the plan, and that they will share renderings of the Shoremont-site plan shortly.) Also notable: The building going up at 35th/Avalon (most recent WSB coverage here) appears to have a name – we came across this space-leasing listing referring to it as Avalon Square. The listing says it has two rentable retail spaces of about 1,300 sf each. (That’s in addition to 60 apartments, per the city permit files.)
So much happening today that we have another round of reminders to come in a few hours — but first, some events that begin this morning: 9 am, the West Seattle High School Class of 2008 fundraising car wash starts at the WSHS parking lot; 10 am, the West Seattle Family Wellness Fair starts at High Point Community Center; also at 10, the Sanislo Elementary used book sale and bake sale gets under way. Much more on the Events page.
With everything that is discussed openly in our everyday lives and in the media these days, you might conclude there is nothing too taboo to talk about. That would not be true; a big, dangerous one remains.Read More
First: Deb sent the link to this West Seattle post on Vintage Seattle, through which we learned that VS blogger Jess Cliffe is moving to WS this weekend; welcome! Now, some current-day pix (from before the rain swept in):
That’s from Marybeth, as is this surf-level bird’s-eye view:
Next – two photos courtesy of Chas Redmond, who was on the Lincoln Park shore at a moment today when the water was sapphire blue:
Chas reports the afternoon winds gave that kayaker quite a bit of trouble.
Last weekend we told you about the draft West Seattle Walking Trails map (if you haven’t checked it out yet, feedback is still welcome) – tonight, the new Discovery Map, which we heard about from the folks at Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor). They’ve written about it on their bizblog (if you haven’t already seen the entry in the latest roundup on our Blogs page), and are offering free copies at their shop in the Admiral District. You can also preview the map online.
More future West Seattle development news, this time from Admiral Neighborhood Association president Mark Wainwright: He says a representative from Safeway has contacted the ANA because, according to Mark, “They would like to start the process of redeveloping the Admiral store, and want to talk to the community. … No specifics at all right now, but it’s great that they’ve reached out to us early on.” It is indeed considered ideal for neighborhood associations to get first word of something major like that, and it’s another good reason to be involved with the association that represents your neighborhood — to see if there is one, check the WEST SEATTLE NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS list in our sidebar.
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