West Seattle, Washington
24 Wednesday
That’s Pathfinder K-8 student Elizabeth Baer, photographed by Eric Baer as she presented her investigation “Slime Roll” during a previous edition of the annual Pathfinder Science Fair, which happens in the school cafeteria 6-7:30 pm tonight. Eric tells WSB, “Nearly 100 science projects will be shown by students, covering every field of science and technology from robotics to volcanology to botany. … Pathfinder School is one of only a handful of Seattle Public Schools that has a Science Fair open to elementary-aged students.” The event is sponsored and run by the PTSA at Pathfinder, which is a public alternative school on Genesee Hill (map). ADDED 9:30 AM: Thanks to GenHillOne for noting tonight also is Family Math Night and Science Fair at Denny Middle School — according to the Denny website, that event is 6:30-8:30 pm.
As promised, the 34th District Democrats have posted the official list of precinct-by-precinct results for West Seattle (plus Vashon and the rest of the 34th). Find it here. (P.S. The 34th DDs’ monthly meeting is 7 pm Wednesday night, The Hall @ Fauntleroy.) The King County Republicans only break it down by legislative district (see that here) – the 34th GOP ended with 66 McCain delegates, 44 Paul, 40 Huckabee.
Remember West Seattle architect and Design Review Board member David Foster’s beef about — 
and investigation into — so-called “micropermitting,” the loophole through which some big (and sometimes not-so-lovely) townhouse developments escape design review? Two weeks after the original WSB report (and followups here and here), KUOW picked up on it today, featuring Foster and someone who’d taken a different viewpoint in our original comments thread, High Point resident and real-estate agent Wendy Hughes-Jelen. Read the story and get audio links here.
From our most recent round of report-reviewing at the Southwest Precinct: A couple in the 2600 block of 52nd SW called police after discovering an alarming anomaly in their bank account: 
In late January, they wrote a $30 check to their newspaper carrier, put it in the self-addressed envelope he provided, and put it in their mailbox for pickup. Unfortunately, someone else apparently got to it first; in early February, they discovered their bank account was running a lot lower than it should have been. Checking online, they discovered the $30 check had been forged into $800, and that the payee name had been altered too. Next: Car-cutting, indecent exposure, and more:Read More
Caught that photo late morning while en route to the Viaduct event posted below – sign removal under way at the ex-Huling/Gee dealership location on Fauntleroy south of Alaska. Then before we could even post it this afternoon, we wound up hours later alongside the truck carrying the signs away:
Haven’t done a check on that property yet today but as we reported over the weekend, Huling land a couple blocks east is slated for a mixed-use project (we expect to talk with Harbor Properties tomorrow to find out more).
Thanks to the folks at Ventana Construction (WSB sponsor) for the tip, which we just confirmed by driving by to see the new sign on the door: Red Cup Espresso in The Junction is now renamed after its late owner, Angelia Paulsen (backstory here), as Angelia’s Espresso. In a note to WSB that we published January 10, her husband Sean O’Dea had said he was thinking of making that change.
(rendering as shown at last week’s district-sponsored meeting)
ORIGINAL 3:17 PM REPORT: The agenda for Wednesday’s school board meeting has been updated with the district’s Denny-Sealth recommendation: Option 2, which means combined campuses, but more money, specifically $10 million added for Sealth renovations. This will be officially introduced at the Wednesday board meeting and voted on February 27. 5:10 PM UPDATE: At saveseattleschools.blogspot.com, Melissa Westbrook breaks down the info on the supplemental agenda documents that lay out where the extra $10 million is to come from. As of this writing, we haven’t seen an official district news release, nor anything new posted on the Sealth or Denny websites, regarding the decision to recommend Option 2, so the agenda info is all that’s on the record at this point. Here’s the direct link; side note of interest, that document from superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is dated January 31st, so she appears to have made her decision several days before last Tuesday’s public meeting at Sealth (WSB coverage here). Next steps: Tomorrow night (7 pm @ Chief Sealth HS), the Westwood Neighborhood Council has its moderated-panel public meeting regarding the project; Wednesday night, school-board members meet and the Option 2 recommendation will be “introduced”; they will vote yay or nay two weeks later. Since the final say is in their hands, if you want to express an opinion on the newly released recommendation, contacting board members is likely your best course of action; their contact info is here.
Those are our first clips from a media tour this afternoon of ongoing Viaduct strengthening work that’s been under way since fall beneath the section of the Viaduct that’s just south of Columbia. This is the part – site of the old Yesler Mill, long ago, according to WSDOT’s Matt Preedy – that’s settled several inches, and WSDOT isn’t sure why this section settles more than the rest, but they’ve got a couple months more work to keep it from getting worse. Here’s his progress overview:
Another WSDOT spokesperson told us this event was meant not only as a media update on the work but also as a reminder of tomorrow night’s meeting at Cooper Elementary, which will focus on the big piece of the Viaduct puzzle – what might be done with the “Central Waterfront” section. WSDOT confirms that it will be open-house format 5:30-6:30, then open mike @ 6:30 for you to have your say on what you hope will happen. (And another reminder, the next weekend closure of the Viaduct is March 22-23.)
It’s been on our Events list page but in case you missed it, the Seattle/King County Gang Prevention and Outreach Group will be at Delridge Community Center 6-8 pm tonight for a community forum. Be part of the solution. Here’s the flyer; here’s the agenda.
What you see in that photo is the aftermath of one of dozens of rock- and brick-throwing incidents that targeted residents and drivers in West Seattle, mostly the Admiral area, over the past few months – in this case, the brick was thrown through the glass door of a home, causing almost a thousand dollars damage, as well as a psychological toll. The victim tells WSB, “The greatest impact was not the financial aspect but the random act of vandalism and violence. The sound of the brick through the glass and not knowing what it was. Then the fear and uncertainty. My poor dog was traumatized and has been jumpy since.” It’s a miracle none of these incidents hurt anyone; in past cases in other areas, this sort of attack has been deadly. We told you about the first two arrests; now we know that Southwest Precinct police have identified and talked with four suspects in all — three are 13 years old, one is 14. But what we didn’t know till talking further with the folks at the precinct is the backstory of how Officer Patrick Chang cracked the case, if you’ll pardon the phrase – it involves confessions, MySpace bragging, and more:Read More
Yes, we know there are many fine coffee establishments where you can get wi-fi absolutely free – but if you absolutely cannot avoid going online at Starbucks at some point for some reason, you will be interested to hear this.
From Shannon Felix at Avalon Glassworks — which was honored as the 2007 West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year — it’s time to nominate the West Seattle business you think deserves that award next:
We ask your readers to promote their favorite local businesses by nominating them for this award!
The Chamber is now accepting nominations from the public for the local businesses that exemplify innovative and ethical business practices and contribute to the greatness of the West Seattle community. One business will receive this exclusive honor at the Chamber’s Annual Awards breakfast on April 9, 2008. Print a nomination form at www.wschamber.com or e-mail your nomination directly to pmullen@wschamber.com. All nominations must be received at the Chamber office by March 7, 2008. Nominations may be submitted by any individual … you can even nominate yourself. Visit the Chamber web site for more information, www.wschamber.com, or phone 206-932-5685.
By the way, the Chamber’s monthly lunch meeting this Wednesday (11:30 am, The Hall @ Fauntleroy) has an intriguing program focusing on transportation — with guests from Metro and the city Transportation Department. This will be the day after Tuesday night’s communitywide public meeting (5:30 pm, Cooper Elementary, but public comment doesn’t start till 6:30 so you can be “late”) about the fate of the “Central Waterfront” section of The Viaduct, so there’s much important info bound to emerge in the next few days about future transportation challenges — and opportunities.
Someone on the Alki Beach Community Yahoo! group asked this weekend about the status of Shoremont, the old brick apartments at 57th/Alki (photo above) proposed for teardown-to-townhomes as first reported here last summer. We just happened onto new information about it, while researching a different apartment-complex sale that’s now the second half of this post. A recent list of “weekly top King County property sales” posted here says Cobb Construction just sold the Shoremont site to Lead Construction, for $2,200,000 (verified in county records). Further research doesn’t bring up much about “Lead Construction” but crossreferencing suggests it’s related to this firm (whose site mentions a “Lead Consulting” on this page). Meantime, this too has sold:
We mentioned back in October that this 18-unit apartment complex, the Cal Ray at 6000 California, was up for sale. The latest areawide sales report (scroll down to West Seattle) shows it’s sold, for a bit more than its listing price ($1,995,000 at the time of our original report; the sales report says it sold for $2,000,000, county records say $1,998,000). The listing flyer had mentioned “strong redevelopment potential” – but nothing’s been applied for at the site, so far. (Meantime, if you missed it over the weekend, we’ve learned of at least one more new apartment building in West Seattle’s future.)
Thanks to Luckie for that shot of the Lafayette Elementary “Best of Broadway” cast, who performed three of the past four nights at the West Seattle High School theater. In addition to the photo- and video-enhanced report we posted last night about Saturday events around West Seattle (BESIDES the caucuses), we have more to show you tonight:Read More
So we’re watching the online agenda for this Wednesday’s Seattle School Board meeting very closely, waiting for the Denny-Sealth recommendation to be posted (purportedly tomorrow), and just noticed something on the agenda that might be of interest to SPS families now – the proposed district calendar for next school year. Not final till it’s officially approved, of course, but here’s a direct link if you want to take a look. (Highlights: First day of classes, Wednesday 9/3/08; winter break Monday 12/22/08 through Friday 1/2/09; spring break 3/30/09-4/3/09; last day of next school year 6/16/09.)
We told you a few weeks back about registration season for several local youth sports leagues, including West Seattle Girls’ Softball. We just heard back from Steve Peer, league president, who wanted to share the video you see above — featuring the Filmateria Studios Clickin’ Cleats, the team he coaches, a 10-and-under team photographed last year, which was their third year together. Steve says, “During the registration process, I’ve heard from lots of parents either new to West Seattle or with daughters who are 7 to 8 years old who are interested in the league. Most want to know more than the league philosophy, schedules, and fees. When it boils down to it, most of the parents want to know if it’s fun for the girls!” Steve says the video answers that last question pretty well. WSGS registration is open till next Friday (2/15); you can sign up, and/or get info, at the WSGS site, and Steve notes that financial assistance is available for those who might not be able to play otherwise — contact him directly (click here for e-mail address).
Last month, we announced the winners of the first quarterly West Seattle Community Recognition Awards, 
a new way to honor West Seattleites working to make a difference — the brainchild of Julie Mireille Anderson from Divina, with the nominating process open to everyone in West Seattle. As we open the next round of nominations, we are profiling the first three winners — people you may or may not have heard about or met, people whose hard work makes West Seattle a better place. Thursday, we told you about Cindi Barker from the Morgan Community Association (meet Cindi here); Friday, Larry Carpenter from the Alki Community Council and Southwest Seattle Historical Society (meet Larry here); and today, we profile Fairmount Springs community organizer Paul Sureddin, who also is webmaster for FS and MoCA:Read More
First, a couple more photos that have come in since our caucus updates ended last night. This one is from Katie McKeehan Hart, who photographed her daughter Mary Kate Hart as they caucused at West Seattle Elementary:
This one’s from Josh Sutton, showing how big the group from just one precinct got, caucusing at Chief Sealth High School:
ADDED SUNDAY NIGHT: SRO caucus scene at West Seattle High School, from Matt Taylor:
Now, the “what’s next” info. First – there is still a statewide presidential primary on February 19; if you vote by mail, you’ve received your ballot by now. The Democrats are not using the results to choose any delegates (they have always used the caucuses instead; here’s 34th District Democrats chair Ivan Weiss’s explanation); the Republicans will choose half their delegates from the primary results, half from their caucuses yesterday. If you’re a Democrat and you’re wondering whether to bother voting, one thing to keep in mind, if you care, is that since the race is still perceived as close, the national media will likely pay attention to the results anyway, regardless of whether delegate-awarding is involved, so if you want your candidate to look good, you might as well show up for this too. (Personally, we never miss a chance to vote for anything.) As fr the long process of converting yesterday’s caucus results to national-convention delegates: The Democrats’ legislative-district caucuses are on April 5; delegates who go on from there will attend county conventions on April 13; then caucuses by Congressional district (here in West Seattle, we’re part of the 7th District) are on May 17, the state convention is on June 14, and the Democratic National Convention is August 25-28 in Denver. Oh yeah, and the actual election … November 4. (By the way, the 34th District Democrats are promising precinct-by-precinct breakouts on their website within a few days; for some unofficial counts, check the comments below our running post from last night.) One more note – just as we were writing this, we received the following from Steve Heck, titled “Open Letter to Washington State Democratic Leadership,” with some points of concern regarding the process, and he thought it might be a point worth discussing here:Read More
Want a reason to go to the West Seattle Farmers’ Market (11 am-2 pm, SE corner 44th/Alaska) today? Today, 2/17, and 2/24 are the last 3 sessions before the market takes a brief late winter/early spring break. Here’s today’s fresh list:Read More
At our caucus, so many said they yearn for hope. Want some now? Before and after caucusing, we visited other events where people gave their time today to make West Seattle a better place:Read More
7:10 PM, FINAL UNOFFICIAL 34TH DISTRICT DEMOCRATIC RESULTS: The 34th District Democrats’ site says: 70% Obama, 28% Clinton. State Democrat results are here; state Republican results are here. Coverage below shows all previous updates, oldest to newest.
ORIGINAL 3:13 PM REPORT: Just back from our caucus (at Denny Middle School). Topline on our precinct caucus: About 40 participants (more than twice what we had when caucusing with the same precinct four years ago); we started with a proportion of votes equal to 2 Obama delegates, 1 Clinton delegate, 1 undecided; ended with 3 Obama delegates (to the district convention) and 1 Clinton delegate. P.S. This photo just in from Tim, who caucused at Arbor Heights Elementary and says the lunch room was so packed they expanded to classrooms (same thing at Denny):
ADDED AT 4:19 PM: Thanks for the delegate results you’re posting comments. Keep ’em coming. Note the 34th DD results update link. Meantime, here’s another Arbor Heights Elementary photo, from Jeff:
ADDED 4:34 PM: Yes, there are Republicans in West Seattle. The line to get into the GOP caucuses at Southwest Community Center was literally down the stairs and out the door:
ADDED 4:43 PM: WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham sends these photos from Gatewood Elementary: First, State Sen. Joe McDermott during the pre-caucus sign-in:
You can figure out who Sarah Lehoch and Terrence Veccavo were supporting:
Here, Matt photographed 3-month-old Waverly Davis:
Copies of Matt’s WSB photos and his other work are available at his site, mattdurhamphotography.com. Meantime, we received another photo of a very young caucus attendee — this is Melissa‘s 4-month-old:
4:55 PM ADDITION: Lively citywide coverage at Slog, including Eli’s impassioned defense of the joyful messiness of the caucus process. For a sample of other news blogs around the area are reporting on caucuses, check the headline digest at Citizen Rain. More here as info and photos come in. So far, the results reports in the comments thread equal roughly 75% Obama, 25% Clinton. 5:05 PM ADDITION: The state Democratic Party has a results page ready, though it’s all 0’s so far. WA GOP promises results after 6 pm. 5:29 PM ADDITION: State D results are starting to come in: 66% Obama, 32% Clinton with 34% reporting. 5:48 PM ADDITION: The state also has a “jurisdiction-level results” page — scroll down to “King – 34th LD” for West Seattle (and Vashon). Doesn’t say if this is final but our district is listed at 73% Obama, 26% Clinton. 6:19 PM ADDITION: Bill Schrier, 34th DD webmaster, kindly informs us that the 34th has 1038 total delegates, so anything you see isn’t final till it hits that total. 6:30 PM ADDITION: The state Republican site is starting to post results. With 16% in, it’s McCain and Huckabee almost tied, Paul not far behind.
A potentially big piece of the puzzle regarding future development in the area along Fauntleroy east of The Junction, in the wake of the closure of the Gee/ex-Huling dealerships, is clearer today with two things we’ve just learned: The first one is this new application filed by Harbor Properties for a 6-story mixed-use building at 38th/Alaska. We found it after learning that West Seattle Montessori School has sent home a letter to its students’ families informing them the school has to leave its current location, because part of the property has been sold to Harbor Properties (which is building “Mural” in The Junction) and is going to be developed into apartments. We have a message out seeking comment from Harbor Properties, but in the meantime, here’s the full text of the letter, a physical copy of which was provided to WSB by a source with ties to the school, followed by more info on the development application:
Dear Parent of West Seattle Montessori School:
This school began in 1980 in just the property that is now the preschool building. We grew quickly and were renamed as West Seattle Montessori School in 1985. Over the years we continued to grow and expand from that original two preschool classes and one 1st and 2nd grade class into a diverse campus that includes 5 preschool classes, 3 elementary classes, and our 6th through 8th grade Middle School program.
Through the years we made several offers to purchase the facilities that we rent, but were turned down. On February 5th, our landlord informed us that the preschool building property has been sold to Harbor Properties and will be developed into apartment buildings in 2009. Harbor Properties met with us to discuss how they could incorporate a space for the school into their property designs. They expect to begin reconstruction in early 2009 and would have the project ready for us for the school year beginning 2010, which would mean moving our preschool and lower elementary programs to an interim site this coming summer.
After absorbing the initial shock of this news, and in discussing this with our staff, we all agree that we want to try to keep all our classes together in one campus and are excited to seek a property that meets all our needs. We are now working with a commercial realtor and have been told that there are several properties available that could meet our requirements. We know what a supportive group of parents we have and hope that if you have any suggestions or leads for us, you won’t hesitate to share them.
The Board of Directors
West Seattle Montessori School
After getting that letter, we started checking city and county records for property ownership and development applications along that block of 38th. We found the development application filed for 4550 38th, which is the Huling-owned property immediately south of West Seattle Montessori:
As you can see on that city page, it describes the proposal as “Const of a 6 story mixed use bldg. (5) floors Residential, Type VA construction over one level commercial/parking garage.” The earliest date on the proposal is January 23, so this appears to have been in the works for at least two weeks. More later, when our research continues post-caucus.
CAUCUSES: FInally, at the 11th hour, just about every media site large and small has joined in with “how to” links. Ours will stay up at the top spot in the right sidebar till it’s all over at midafternoon. (P.S. At least one note suggests those robo-calls with the wrong caucus date were still continuing last night. According to citywide-media reports, it’s not a sinister plot; a firm paid by the Obama campaign programmed Maine reminders – for Sunday – to go to Washington numbers – where of course TODAY is caucus day.)
DONATE USED BIKES & PARTS TODAY: PCC, 11 am-2 pm. Here’s what it’s all about.
TWO CLEANUPS AND A WORK PARTY: All happening before you caucus, so no excuses — Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s area cleanup starts at 9 am (more here); The EARTH Project at Cooper Elementary has a work party on the south side of the school (next to Pigeon Point Park) starting at 9 am; Junction Neighborhood Association, at 10 am (more here).
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: Received a couple notes about this — the Admiral restaurant Circa (2605 California) celebrates its 10th anniversary with a party tonight, described in one e-mail this way: “No regular dinner service – but a party for anyone who wants to celebrate. There will be raffles at 7:00 and 10:00, drinks, and food of course (miniature portions of Circa favorites: steak salads, Circa burgers and chocolate cake).”
Many more events are listed in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup.
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