West Seattle, Washington
23 Tuesday
From Steve:
Around 10 am today saw the most beautiful (and large) coyote in the greenbelt just east of the 3700 block of 58th Ave SW and Chilberg Pl SW. Really stunning animal – it looked at me rather nervously from about 100 feet away. I grabbed my camera but by the time I returned (maybe two minutes) he was gone.
Here’s a map.
Two highlights tonight, from the WSB Events list:
-It’s the second Wednesday night for the Sidewalk Cinema Rainy Night Movies series @ Kenyon Hall (never mind the rainlessness). And these are movies you probably haven’t seen before (maybe never even heard of); the list is here.
–“The Retreat from Moscow” continues at ArtsWest tonight; we don’t currently do entertainment reviewing here but once in a while a reader sends something out of the blue – Lynn Taylor e-mailed to say she attended this last week and wanted to let other WSB readers know, “This is a really top quality piece of theatre – both the writing AND the acting, especially the mother and father roles. Very poignant yet with humor sprinkled in. We’ve seen all range of quality from Arts West – and this is right up there with the best we’ve seen.”
That’s “Design Concept B” for the park that will be built atop and around the newly covered Myrtle Reservoir (map). It has a spot saved at the northeast corner for a skatepark. Here’s “Design Concept A,” which doesn’t:
Though there are many design issues to decide, the potential skatepark was at the heart of most of the Myrtle Reservoir park discussion last night at High Point Community Center:Read More
Two and a half weeks after owner Angelia Paulsen‘s untimely death, Red Cup Espresso in The Junction is open 7 days a week, according to a sandwich board we saw out front – 6 am-2 pm weekdays, 7 am-4 pm weekends, which appears to be a bit of an update from what her husband told WSB last week.
School-tour season continues today – the WSB Events page lists many West Seattle schools’ tours, continuing on into February. One of the schools with tours today is Gatewood Elementary — which also just happens to be looking to celebrate its past as well as hosting potential participants in its future — per this announcement:
Gatewood Elementary turns 100!
Are you a Gatewood graduate? If so, we would love to hear from you. We will be celebrating Gatewood’s birthday on May 31st, 2008, and would love to have you join in the party. Please contact celebration coordinator Celia Townsend with your name, contact information and any stories or photos you would like to share. Thank you!
E-Mail: cktownsend@comcast.net
Phone: 206.932.1939
With other West Seattle businesses remodeling, posting “for rent” signs, pondering moving, etc., the folks at WSB sponsor Click! Design That Fits thought you might like to know that their closure this week is just temporary – they’ll be open again on Saturday (with new artwork from Brad Strain).
More than two hours of lively discussion later, we’re back from the Myrtle Reservoir park meeting. The potential “skatespot” in the new park is now proposed as a 10,000-square-foot (less than a 10th of the park’s size) facility in the northeast corner (at 35th/Willow) — but there’s no money for it in the Myrtle park budget, so if the Parks Department ultimately decides to go ahead with it, they’re going to have to figure out how to pay for it (some of the youngest skatepark supporters at the meeting suggested a fundraising campaign). While we work on our full report, we’ll be posting links to the park-design options (and other documents shortly), since Parks Department project manager Virginia Hassinger was kind enough to send us advance copies late today and told the crowd we’d have them up soon. ADDED 9:45 PM: OK, here are PDFs of the four items from the Parks Department, representing the drawings shown at tonight’s meeting. We will show the design alternatives inline in our writeup in the morning but since this is a big park space, these links are the best way to take a closer look (plus you can zoom in on PDFs if you want): Park Concept Alternative A here, Park Concept Alternative B here, Park Design Issues here, Park Site Conditions here. (Note that Alternatives A and B are not “either-or” — just two possibilities, and the final product could have features of both, and/or features not seen in either.) Next steps, discussion details, and more, coming up in the full report.
This just appeared on the list of upcoming Design Review Board meetings — 9030 35th SW (map) has been added to the agenda for the February 14th Southwest DRB meeting that was already set to consider Fauntleroy Place. This proposal would replace the two 85-year-old houses shown above with what the city project page describes as a “new 4-story building providing 3,000 sf of retail and 33 apartments with parking for 38 vehicles.” Apartment buildings already bookend this site, by the way.
Freedom Church (35th/Roxbury), midday today, the funeral of teenage shooting victim DeChe Morrison; photo e-mailed (thank you!) by Patrick:
As mentioned previously, police had a significant presence around the church, for reasons including the fact no one’s been arrested yet. The Southwest Precinct reports all was quiet; in the late morning, we noted groups of officers a close, but discreet, distance from the church, including these motorcycle officers at 35th/Barton:
Switching gears, we have two shots from this morning’s nearly simultaneous sunrise/moonset. The southeastward view is from Bill “at the top of Southern”:
And here’s the westward view, from Robert Stever:
Thanks to Bill and Robert for those photos … any time you have one to share, from the sunrise to the sunset to the fender-bender down the block, send it our way.
Following up on the capture of the suspected serval in West Seattle (sighting first reported here Friday; capture reported here Saturday; photo at left shows a wild serval, haven’t seen one yet of the actual capturee): We just heard back from Don Jordan, director of the Seattle Animal Shelter, who gave WSB the full scoop on what happened, and what will happen next:Read More
As mentioned here last month, today’s the first day that “enhanced driver licenses” are available in our state, for people who want to be able to travel to Canada without a passport when new ID requirements kick in next week. The West Seattle driver-license office next to Westwood Village is one of only 11 statewide where it’s available. By the way, if you’re going to that office to get one of these or handle any other business — you can get an update on current waiting times by clicking the “Seattle-West” link on this page.
Thanks to WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli for checking this out (map) – big callout for starters but it was called off relatively quickly so nothing big, but in case you heard the sirens, we’re letting you know.
35TH/ROXBURY: Reminder that you will see a significant police presence there much of the day because of teenage shooting victim DeChe Morrison‘s memorial service @ Freedom Church later this morning (as reported here last week).
READER REPORTS CAR BREAK-IN: From Melissa in the 9700 block of 41st (map):
I thought our little neighborhood was immune, but no. Our dog went a little bonkers at about 10 pm Monday night. That must have been whenever was taking my cellphone and binoculars and rifling through our cars was doing so. My husband went out at 5:45 this morning to find my door still open. I wonder if our dog’s barking scared the thief off?
-Major car ice (no surprise since temp’s in the 20s); prep your scraping arm.
-Looks like another morning moonset in the making (big bright full moon in the western sky now).
Happened onto an online hint weeks ago that Emerald City Smoothie was planning a permanent West Seattle location, after posting a portable trailer at Alki last year. Now there’s finally word of where they’re opening — at Allstar Fitness (Andover west of Delridge). Thanks to Ty for spotting the sign and letting us know; the location is confirmed online.
ADDED 10:35 PM: Thanks to Shawn for sharing this moonrise shot from Seacrest:
ORIGINAL POST: Rode the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry round trip late today to see how things are going since the big schedule upheaval. No real tales of woe but we did happen onto another great sunset coinciding with a moonrise.
The Legislature is one week into its session. We talked on Day 1 with new State Rep. Sharon Nelson; your other 34th District (map) legislators are Rep. Eileen Cody and Sen. Joe McDermott. You can check the list of bills they’re sponsoring or co-sponsoring (frequently updated) online: Nelson’s list is here, Cody’s is here, McDermott’s is here. If you want to contact them about anything, remember the semi-secret Rep. Nelson shared in our interview – e-mail them directly (each of their names above is linked to their respective sites), instead of through the general Legislature address; that’s the quickest way to get to them, and therefore for them to be able to get back to you.
Following up on this morning’s dignitary-laden kickoff event (WSB coverage with video clips here) on the King Day volunteer work at West Seattle Elementary: Before the scheduled wrap-up a short time ago, we dropped by again and found the work in full swing:
And also got some before-and-after views of spots we’d photographed when a group of volunteers did prep work last Thursday:
One more King Day note – Dr. King did visit Seattle once, in November 1961: HistoryLink.org tells the story.
Last week, for the first time in almost a year, the Parks Department came to West Seattle for a meeting about the future Morgan Junction park (WSB coverage here and here). Tomorrow, after a similar time gap, the same thing’s happening regarding the park going in at Myrtle Reservoir (map). This park is different for several reasons, including its location in a less-commercial area, its size, and the fact a skatespot is in the plan, which drew some controversy last year. Matt Johnston, the West Seattle resident who runs SeattleSkateParks.org, writes about it today. Whatever you would or wouldn’t like to see in this park, tomorrow night (7 pm, High Point Community Center) is your best chance to make a difference. You can find notes from the March 2007 meeting linked from the project’s official city webpage.
On the heels of the spectacular Sunday sunset, this early-morning scene, courtesy of Shannon in Fauntleroy (thank you!):
Just back from West Seattle Elementary in High Point, where the King Day “Day of Service” work as part of the Hands on Schools project (previewed here on Thursday) got a major kickoff this morning featuring Governor Gregoire, her husband (aka “First Mike”), and Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott. Here’s our first clip, the governor joining in the City Year volunteers’ traditional morning warmup:
Tara Smith with Seattle Works tells WSB that local families are welcome to come by during the work today, which is under way through 3 pm (though the governor’s not staying all day) — they’ve got “family-friendly” activities for ages 5-12. More video ahead, including Gov. Gregoire on Dr. King, plus some of what West Seattle Elementary principal Gayle Everly and Rep. McDermott had to say:Read More
Some updates on the biggest development/redevelopment project in West Seattle, from a presentation at last week’s joint meeting of the Delridge and Southwest District Councils: Project manager Tom Phillips from the Seattle Housing Authority told the groups he’s “very proud” of the way things are going, he says High Point Phase I has only 10 homes left to sell. As part of Phase II, the 160-unit seniors’ complex on Morgan will open in May, and the new park with amphitheater is in the works along with Neighborhood House. (NH construction is set to start this September; a capital campaign is under way now — read more here.) Phillips also told the councils that paperwork had just been signed with a developer for the commercial center at 35th/Graham, though there’s still no grocery-store commitment — he said he’s been told West Seattle is “over-grocered,” particularly with Whole Foods coming to Fauntleroy Place and QFC coming to Capco Plaza. The SHA’s official High Point site is here.
So who says the Internet is a threat to face-to-face interaction? It brought us 10 more acquaintances tonight — in the name of soup. We’d never been to a Soup Swap, had never even heard of the concept, but that all changed after a recent visit to Nerd’s Eye View (among the 100-plus West Seattle-based blogs linked and frequently updated here). There, we saw this post, and left a comment along the lines of “wow, cool concept” – which to our surprise and delight brought us an e-mail invite from the person who hosted tonight’s West Seattle Soup Swap. This has actually become a national phenomenon (you’ll note from that site, National Soup Swap Day is supposed to be this Wednesday, but many gatherings like the one we attended west of The Junction tonight are being held on other dates). NEV author Pam explained tonight that the whole thing started right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill, a couple years ago. If you’re a soup fan, check it out. The ones now in our freezer following tonight’s Soup Swap range from carrot habanero to beef ‘n’ cabbage (the full lineup, six containers from each contributor, shown above). This time of year, as temps keep dipping, it’s truly Nature’s Perfect Food.
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