No winter break for the West Seattle Farmers’ Market – it’s continuing year-round, and new additions pop up each week throughout the year. Here’s today’s list of what’s new and what’s fresh; the Farmers’ Market is open 10 am-2 pm, and those first couple hours are just the prelude to the first Hometown Holidays Sunday fun, Santa photos and all.
That’s the view from the stage in the Farmers’ Market parking lot a couple hours ago, as your WSB co-publishers joined an eclectic crew of performers and guest tree-lighters for what turned out to be a double tree lighting (maybe not such a surprise if you saw the lights being tested last night) – the little “official” Junction tree, and the big tree right on the 44th/Alaska corner. Hope you enjoyed it; having sat through too many long events featuring endless speeches, we managed to make it through what was envisioned as an hour-long program in about 40 minutes. Of course, the nailbiting part is ahead of time, when you wonder whether anyone will show up – here’s the view from the refreshment-tent-to-be around 4:30:
Even around 5 till 5, almost no one was there, but we all chanted the mantra: No one in Seattle EVER shows up early for ANYTHING. And sure enough, before long, hundreds were on hand. Our pix are all from the stage/backstage view, but one group that provided a particularly festive view from any angle – the “Plaid Tidings” guys from ArtsWest‘s holiday show:
OK, now as for the actual tree-lighting – everyone was watching the small “official” tree, but instead, the big tree on the corner lit up – followed shortly afterward by the little one — Junior Member of the Team got both:
We’ll add some more video later – the Endolyne Children’s Choir did a great job too, as well as the plaid guys. Meantime, The Junction (WSB sponsor) is a hot place to be tomorrow, too – the first Hometown Holidays Sunday brings Santa photos at Cupcake Royale, noon-4 pm, along with mule-carriage rides and special in-store events (more here). SUNDAY NIGHT P.S.: Nice photo gallery by the fab M&M at Incremental Updates (one of the 100 West Seattle-based blogs whose automated feeds power our Blogs page) – get past the first couple showing us, and there are lovely shots of lots of nice folks having a great time. See it here.
We didn’t make it to this morning’s district-organized “community workshop” on the school-closure plan — same format as the one we covered Thursday night — but a report is up on the P-I site. It mentions Arbor Heights Elementary parent Gerard Denommee getting applause for suggesting taking the issue to state lawmakers and fighting for better public-school funding, rather than continuing to pit neighborhood against neighborhood to fight for shares of a shrinking pie. The Arbor Heights PTSA Yahoo! group also has an account of the meeting, and a more vivid description of the ovation received by Denommee, as well as a mention of Cooper Elementary parents’ presence (as they’d planned at the meeting we covered last night). Next meetings: Tuesday night, the School Board is scheduled to get new data and discuss the next phase of recommendations at a board workshop starting at 4 pm at district HQ; that same night, a district-organized meeting is planned at Arbor Heights, 6 pm. In the meantime, feedback can be sent to the school district any time at capacity@seattleschools.org. (All WSB coverage of this round of school-closure proposals is archived here.)
Last reminder, join us in The Junction — Farmers’ Market parking lot at 44th/Alaska — from 5 till about 6 pm tonight, for the West Seattle Junction Tree Lighting event … including music from Endolyne Children’s Choir, a sampler of “Plaid Tidings” from ArtsWest, singalongs with the band Hazelwood Motel, and lots more – see you there!
They’ve got their own tab in the “navigation” bar below the sunset header on every WSB page – just click there any time and you’ll find them – as well as in the Freebies, Deals, Sales section of the WSB Forums – but we also wanted to give it a shoutout here: As an extra incentive to “Shop Local” this holiday season, 12 WSB sponsors have put together special coupon offers (even a discount on your Christmas tree!). We expect to have more to share soon too, but for starters, these are available right now for you to print out and use. Click here to get them (a 3-page printable, clippable PDF). Thanks for supporting West Seattle businesses, especially the WSB sponsors who make it possible for you to find West Seattle news, information, and discussion here 24/7! (We’ll be handing out the coupons at tonight’s tree lighting too, so look for a copy there.)
Made it over to Highland Park Elementary (10th and Trenton; here’s a map) to check out the holiday bazaar – lots on sale, plus kids’ activities too – a chance to “fish”:
The Highland Park Elementary bazaar continues till 3. Under way till 4 pm, it’s the Southwest Community Center bazaar (on Thistle a few blocks east of 35th; here’s a map); another reminder, all the rest of what’s happening today/tonight, and tomorrow, is in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup!
Sorry to report that we had the wrong information on our calendar – the Art Under $100 sale in South Park is actually TONIGHT, 4 pm-10 pm, not during the day. From the announcement:
South Park artists will knock your socks off with original, edgy works not seen at a typical holiday sale. What’s more, everything is affordable, with nothing priced over $100. The event will showcase a diverse array of art including painting, sculpture, neon, jewelry, clothing, photography, glass, letterpress, and more. Local musicians Mark Johnson (Amateur Radio Operator) and Kevin Suggs (Evangeline, Amateur Radio Operator, KEXP) will sculpt an ever-changing atmospheric sound-scape throughout the event. Sip wine, feast on appetizers, and actually enjoy holiday shopping. A mysterious masked bugle boy will blow his horn every half hour to announce art raffles donated by the participating artists. Raffle tickets will be available for $2 each or 3 for $5
While out covering the early-morning events (see preceding reports), we just had to stop by the Junction Christmas tree – which is decked with lights and awaiting tonight’s lighting. The event starts at 5 pm in the Farmers’ Market parking lot – we’ll be introducing performances from the ArtsWest “Plaid Tidings” cast, West Seattle’s own Endolyne Children’s Choir, and the band Hazelwood Motel, as well as drawing the first winners in The Junction’s $5,000 Holiday Giveaway (WSB sponsor). As for the weather – what a difference from last year, when the tree was lit amid sleet, snow, and slush (WSB coverage here)! P.S. If the weather has you considering a car wash today – get over to West Seattle High School for a fundraising car wash in the parking lot, 10 am-2 pm, full details in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup.
Also up early and volunteering their time early this morning: The Rotary Club of West Seattle. This is the day for their annual Christmas Shopping Spree at Sears in Sodo – when Rotarians team with local kids to share breakfast and lunch, shop for clothing and shoes, take photos with Santa, and more. The kids will go home with the items they’ve chosen and tried on – items they desperately need this time of year, including coats and socks:
… but there’s holiday fun later this morning too, and we’ll have pictures of that later. Rotary volunteers were there just after 6 am; the kids arrived around 7. West Seattle Rotarians have been doing this since 1972, and this year, they’re shopping with 90 kids from six West Seattle elementary schools (more background is on the Rotary Club’s website, where you can also find out more about the group, which meets Tuesdays most weeks – meeting info is in the left sidebar on the club’s home page).
With bright red chef hats and bright yellow Kiwanis Club T-shirts, chefs are turning out the pancakes and ham fast as they can, as the Community Pancake Breakfast continues till 11 this morning at the Masonic Hall (on 40th SW between Alaska and Edmunds, lots of parking). Local Scouts are helping serve; decorations abound; Christmas music is playing – here’s a short video clip surveying the scene:
West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival‘s fundraising blown-glass ornaments are on sale too – dress up your tree while helping Hi-Yu fund its next float (as reported here last week, the theme, just chosen, is “Hi-Yu 75 Years: How Sweet It Is”):
Gift baskets are being raffled, too. All in all, the mood is festive and bright, and it’s a warm way to kick off a day of holidaying – shopping, tree-buying, whatever. $6 adults, $3 kids, proceeds go to the charitable work the Kiwanians do. Nice folks too, and we thank them for greeting us cheerily so early in the morning!
Most mornings, we can just write one roundup that highlights several notable events happening in the ensuing 12 hours or so. Today – so much going on (as listed in our current West Seattle Weekend Lineup), we’re just starting with the morning highlights:
PANCAKES, SANTA, ROYALTY, MORE: 7 am-11 am, Masonic Hall (4736 40th SW – here’s a map), the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle‘s long-awaited Community Pancake Breakfast – a great deal ($6 adults/$3 kids) for good food, and it goes to benefit Kiwanis charitable work – bring an unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots too. Along with breakfast, you can get Santa pix plus meet West Seattle Hi-Yu royalty (and another chance to buy those beautiful glass ornaments they’re selling).
SAFETY: The weather’s been so calm lately, you may have forgotten about the potential treachery of fall/winter rain. Don’t let that keep you away from the city’s landslide-awareness workshop – free! – 10 am-noon at South Seattle Community College (as previewed here last month).
HIGHLAND PARK ELEMENTARY HOLIDAY BAZAAR: This isn’t just a chance for holiday shopping, but also an opportunity for family fun – 10 am-3 pm, you’ll find carnival games, raffles, craft items and more at Highland Park Elementary.
More later on what’s ahead tonight – though we have to mention, of course, the top of the ticket is the West Seattle Tree Lighting, with musical and theatrical entertainment as well as a holiday singalong and the first drawings in The Junction’s $5,000 Holiday Giveaway (entered yet?). 5 pm, Farmers’ Market parking lot, we’re helping emcee and we hope to see you there! (Dozens more events are listed here.)
That’s one of the slogans half-jokingly suggested toward the end of a small but spirited meeting at Cooper Elementary School tonight in Pigeon Point (map) – its first group meeting sinceSeattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson announced at Wednesday night’s School Board meeting that her staff — as requested by board members last week — was looking into possibly moving Pathfinder K-8 to Cooper instead of to Arbor Heights Elementary. The “Save Cooper … Again” refers to previous proposals to close or change the Cooper program, and some of tonight’s participants were veterans of those battles — read on for our report on the talking points Cooper is rushing to prepare as a late entry into the school-closure battle:Read More
Brennan Coyle — who recycles old skateboards into creations like the one with which he posed — is one of the people we caught up with tonight at the skatepark-art celebration that accompanied the first night of the Youngstown Arts Center/Cooper Artist Housing holiday open house — and as you can see, he truly combines skating with art. Though construction of the Delridge Skatepark is on hold a while till money can be found to build it, after skatepark dollars were slashed from the new city budget, design is proceeding and so is the work of a community team focused on incorporating art into the skatepark. (The skating-related event was for tonight only, but the Youngstown/Cooper Housing open house continues tomorrow, noon-5 pm.)
I … wanted to get the word out about a pair of prowlers in the Gatewood area. I live on 41st behind Thriftway and came home to a neighbor of mine who stopped me and said she chased away 2 (african-american) men in our front yard this morning at 10 AM that were clearly prowling in the windows of our home. Our front yard has a white picket fence and she had said they had opened the fence and they were in our front yard looking in the home. She walked up to our yard with her large dog and they immediately retreated up the street to 41st and Frontenac. Thanks to our great neighbors but I wanted to let the area know in case anyone may have seen these guys today.
Thanks to WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli for capturing the beauty of tonight’s sunset, from Beach Drive.
Reminder, Christopher’s photography will be featured at Ama Ama (WSB sponsor) next Thursday night, 6-9 pm, on the inhouse bigscreens, during the Holiday Edition of the West Seattle Art Walk.
The school-closure fight isn’t taking the weekend off: We stopped by Westwood Village on the way to the Cooper Elementary school-closure meeting (where we are now) – as promised, Arbor Heights Elementary parents are sign-waving outside Barnes and Noble, where students are at a “pajama party” tonight (and where a book fair all weekend is raising $ for Arbor Heights programs, as mentioned earlier) – we also saw at least one TV station (KIRO) there with a live truck, so you may have seen them on TV tonight. No other media here at Cooper, just us. More on their story later; the meeting has just begun (to recap – the district is now looking into possibly moving Pathfinder to Cooper instead of the original proposal last week to move it to Arbor Heights – more findings about that should come out at the board’s work session starting at 4 pm next Tuesday at district HQ).
While out admiring the sunset (photos of that are up next), we scouted Christmas lights – and happened onto this house on SW Spokane, east of 58th, on Charlestown Hill (map). The tree is covered with green lights on its trunk, purplish-pink through its branches, echoing one of the prettiest areas of the Point Defiance Zoolights display, so we’re featuring it here. We’ll be out looking at many more in the nights to come; got tips, and/or pix, please e-mail us!
Hope we will see you in The Junction tomorrow night for the West Seattle Tree Lighting – 5 pm, Farmers Market parking lot (44th/Alaska), your WSB co-publishers get to help emcee, and there’s an all-star lineup of fun including the Endolyne Children’s Choir,ArtsWest‘s “Plaid Tidings,” and the first drawings in The Junction’s $5,000 Holiday Giveaway. Also this weekend – the Kiwanis Community Pancake Breakfast tomorrow morning, a variety of artists’ open houses, myriad holiday concerts, a holiday wine tasting at SSCC, and even Sunday is jampacked – like an auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity, plus Taproot Theatre with “It’s a Wonderful Improv Life” and the Rainbow City Band‘s holiday concert — all part of the more than 70!!!!! (busiest weekend in MONTHS!!!!) West Seattle-and-vicinity events on our handy list ahead:Read More
Like last night’s Holiday Bazaar (WSB coverage here), Arbor Heights Elementary had long been planning a book-fair event tonight at Westwood Village Barnes and Noble – but now it’s taken on an added dimension. First, the book fair: 10 percent of B/N purchases made today through Sunday, with the voucher number 413831, will benefit various programs at AH, such as kindergarten assistant teachers and books for the school library. Meantime, Arbor Heights families will be there tonight for a kids’ pajama party starting at 5 pm, with kindergarten teachers presenting story time at 5:30, and in the meantime, the “Save Arbor Heights” campaign will be active outside, with signs and petition-signature-gathering. Tomorrow, they’re planning to be at the next “community workshop” (9:30 am) as well as School Board rep Steve Sundquist‘s Delridge Library gathering (3-5 pm) – more info on the Save Arbor Heights website.
We are in the King County Superior Court courtroom of Judge Michael Fox, where Brian Walsh has just been sentenced for the 2007 beating murder of “Benny” Reside (left), a mentally and physically disabled man who had been letting him stay in his apartment in Morgan Junction’s Cal-Mor Circle. This was the second part of a sentencing hearing that began October 17 (WSB courtroom coverage here), after Walsh pleaded guilty to second-degree murder (in a plea deal that we covered last summer). Prosecutors and family wanted the high end of the sentencing scale, 18 years, while defense argued for the low end, around 14. Reside’s sister Pam Reside Leach and brother-in-law Jeff Leach addressed the court again today (photo above shows Pam [left] directly addressing her brother’s killer [far right]), and for the first time, the killer, Brian Walsh, spoke as well, sobbing and asking the family’s forgiveness, reading from a handwritten statement. The judge is imposing the maximum possible sentence – 220 months, mostly, he says, because of the “absolute helplessness” of the victim, the unprovoked nature of the attack, and the savageness of the crime. More details from the courtroom – and the family’s reaction afterward (“It’s not a happy day,” Pam said) – will be added shortly. ADDED 12:38 PM: Read on for those details – what the family said, what the killer said, what the judge said:Read More
Just out of the WSB inbox from “a concerned Cooper parent” – to recap, one week after proposing that the Arbor Heights Elementary program be closed so that Pathfinder K-8 could be relocated into the AH building, the district is now also studying the possibility of Cooper Elementary as a Pathfinder home (which has been proposed and dismissed before):
Just wanted to get some information out about the possible closure of Cooper Elementary as a new location for Pathfinder. I understand that Arbor Heights has had a very vocal presence, fighting to keep their school alive. They have done a fabulous job. Unfortunately, their success puts Cooper Elementary on the chopping block.
The Cooper school family faces many challenges in organizing their efforts, including economic circumstances and language barriers. This makes us no less of a family, and no less deserving of community support. None of our kids deserve to be displaced.
We are holding a meeting at 6:30 pm (tonight) in room 107 at Cooper Elementary to organize ourselves and our message. Please attend if you can. If we don’t let our thoughts be known to the District and the public we may well lose the Cooper building to the Pathfinder program. Please come and contribute your thoughts and your voice.
Thanks for helping us get our message out. Hopefully the Delridge community can rally the same way Arbor Heights has and save Cooper Elementary!!
Arbor Heights also plans a protest and petition drive tonight at Barnes and Noble-Westwood Village during an already-scheduled school-related event; more on that separately, a bit later. WSB will of course cover both events.
Thanks to WSB’er “Chuck and Sally’s Van Man” for a tip that involves, yes, the long-closed Chuck and Sally’s Tavern in Morgan Junction (map): A film crew is there today. We went down the hill to check it out. It’s an independent production called “Greenspoke“; according to this site, “principal photography” just started a few days ago. A webpage for the film itself has the tag line: “Well-meaning scientists aim a green bullet at climate change. Bullets ricochet.” Here’s the online bio for its writer/director/producer Tom McEntire. (Film-crew members are also AROUND Chuck and Sally’s, as you’ll notice from the second photo we just added, taken across the street.)
Last reminder, join us in The Junction — Farmers’ Market parking lot at 44th/Alaska — from 5 till about 6 pm tonight, for the 
there any time and you’ll find them – as well as in the 
That’s one of the slogans half-jokingly suggested toward the end of a small but spirited meeting at 
Hope we will see you in The Junction tomorrow night for the West Seattle Tree Lighting – 5 pm, Farmers Market parking lot (44th/Alaska), your WSB co-publishers get to help emcee, and there’s an all-star lineup of fun including the Endolyne Children’s Choir, 
a variety of artists’ open houses, myriad holiday concerts, a holiday wine tasting at SSCC, and even Sunday is jampacked – like an auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity, plus Taproot Theatre with “It’s a Wonderful Improv Life” and the Rainbow City Band‘s holiday concert — all part of the more than 70!!!!! (busiest weekend in MONTHS!!!!) West Seattle-and-vicinity events on our handy list ahead:
Like last night’s Holiday Bazaar (
for the 2007 beating murder of “Benny” Reside (left), a mentally and physically disabled man who had been letting him stay in his apartment in Morgan Junction’s Cal-Mor Circle. This was the second part of a sentencing hearing that began October 17 (
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