Traffic alert: Fender-bender on The Bridge
Leave a few minutes early if you come from the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge – there’s a four-car fender-bender blocking the left lane on the eastbound side, roughly parallel with Delridge. Note the solid block of headlights in the background of this west-facing bridgecam (8:35 AM UPDATE: the city has shifted the camera angle, and it’s now simply showing the backup, still looking west):
Here’s the backup on Fauntleroy (camera pointing east):
8:18 AM SIDE NOTE: We just heard the first radio traffic report about the Bridge problem on our news station of choice — one hour after it happened. As with other matters of WS-specific interest, we will do our best to monitor traffic trouble for you during rush hours, and we also appreciate your help — if you see a problem on a route into, out of, or within West Seattle, you can call or text us at 206-293-6302 (2062936302@vmobl.com) and one of us will post as soon as possible to get the word out.
Happening tonight: 2 meetings on multi-million-$ projects
DENNY-SEALTH UPDATE: It’s been a few months since the last general update on what’s going on with this fast-track Seattle Public Schools project to consolidate the neighboring middle and high schools on one campus. Tonight, the Westwood Neighborhood Council sponsors a gathering to get out the latest info. Read more here, including the meeting agenda. It all starts at 7:30 pm @ Southwest Community Center.
HIAWATHA PLAYFIELD IMPROVEMENTS: The city will present details on improvements to the field, iighting, and more that have been years in the making; read more here. This meeting happens at 6:30 tonight @ Hiawatha Community Center. (Got the reminder about this last night at the monthly meeting of the Admiral Neighborhood Association, where the main topic was the California/Hanford/Hinds upzone proposal; our full writeup on that is coming up a little later this morning.)
West Seattle holiday lights, 12/11/07
Two photos from the WSB inbox tonight (thank you!):
First photo, an electric menorah — sent by Lyn and Les — fully lit for the final night of Hanukkah. Second, just part of what looks like another truly spectacular Christmas-lights display, photographed at 10th & Barton by “a neighbor.” It’s now on our clickable, updated-nightly Christmas lights map, viewable any time on the WSB Holidays page.
West Seattle High School travelers journey toward $ goal
A few weeks after we first told you about the West Seattle High School Travel Club working to raise $ to make sure no one’s left behind when they journey to Italy & Greece next year (original report here) — there’s word of progress. First, the club reports last weekend’s rummage sale raised more than $2,000; second, your next chance to help is coming up on Saturday night, when three West Seattle restaurants will donate part of their proceeds to the Travel Club quest — Beato, Puerto Vallarta, and Kokoras Greek Grill.
West Seattle crime watch: Dognapping attempt
Out of the inbox, from Robyn, who wanted to share a warning for other dog owners:
I went to the Alki bonfire/Christmas ships event Saturday night, December 8. I’m a long-time Alki resident and have two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels who are family members and function as service dogs. For 9 years my dogs have greeted visitors to Alki from all over the world, spreading peace and love and community. On Saturday night a woman greeted my dogs, and then came back under cover of the music and tried to steal my eldest dog. My dogs were leashed and standing quietly beside me. This woman, who smelled of alcohol, first grabbed my dog’s leash and demanded I give her my dog, then grabbed the leash with both hands and started yanking. I was with a friend, who helped me protect both my dogs and fend off the thief. A warning to West Seattleites—all small dogs need to be protected, even when they are right beside you. Do not leave small dogs and children unprotected for even a minute. Do not tie your small dogs up at coffee shops or grocery stores, particularly gregarious breeds like Cavaliers! Alki residents—be vigilant, wacko criminals are everywhere!
Robin’s note to WSB also expressed concern that she didn’t see any police at the event; she acknowledges that friends have since urged her to report what happened, and we would echo that for everyone who experiences a crime or attempted crime – be sure to call 911 — even if you don’t think something can be done about it, or if you are sure the culprit(s) are long gone, police need to have a record to track what’s happening in the community, to assign resources and follow trends.
Another WSB milestone: Dropping the veil
That’s the sign that started it all.
One year ago this week, we were going about the business of WSB being a standard-issue little hobby blog, a little info here, a little opinion there. Only a few hundred people knew we were here.
Then: Windstorm ’06.
We lost power for four days. Many people in West Seattle went without it for even longer. Almost as bad as the power outage – the information outage. West Seattle-specific updates were virtually impossible to come by.
We happened to be off work that week. So we decided to start roaming WS and trying to gather and share some of that info. We received, and answered, e-mails from people stuck at work or out of town and wondering if their lights were back on yet.
From there, even after the power came back on, with the phenomenal help of reader e-mail, tips, photos, and other contributions, WSB started morphing into a community-news site. “Hyperlocal,” as the buzzword goes. The more news and information we put up, the more came in, and more people kept finding the site, by Googling for something specific that we happened to have reported, or by word-of-mouth.
For months, we’ve been doing this in our spare time, early morning, late night, lunch break. But now it’s time to make a real commitment. So your editor here just quit her day job.Read More
Design Review meeting set for 5020 California
We first told you in October (detailed report here) about Spring Hill, the development planned for the area shown above, in the 5000 block of California, just south of The Junction (map). The developer is BlueStar Management, same firm behind Fauntleroy Place, future home to Whole Foods, 170 apartments, etc. Now, a date is set for the Southwest Design Review Board to give “early design guidance” on the project — January 10. According to the city project page, the scope of Spring Hill (no known relation to the future restaurant) has grown a little since our original post – it’s now described as six stories, 90 apartments, 4,000 sf of retail, 100 parking spaces.
Paintbrush, anyone?
Just noticed this comment from a local elementary-school principal came in Monday afternoon on this week-old post, so in case you missed it:
Is anyone interested in painting halls in a school? Arbor Heights Elementary School desperately needs a few coats of paint in the hallways. We want to color-code each hall and brighten up the interior. Call me (the principal, Carol) at 252-9250. Thanks!
West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/10/07
Tonight, two featured homes, one theme:
On the fence in front of the first home, along Thistle east of 42nd (Upper Fauntleroy), are big white snowflake lights. Dangling from the eaves of the second home, along 106th near 31st (edge of Arbor Heights; thanks to Vickie for the tip), are blue-and-white snowflake lights. Both homes are now added to our clickable West Seattle Christmas lights map, viewable any time on our Holidays page; plus, you can find all previously featured homes on this archive page. And we’re still thrilled to get your tips about the best of the brightest, homes and/or entire neighborhoods!
Reminder: Neighborhood policing meeting tomorrow
Thanks to LyndaB for forwarding this reminder of an important Seattle Police Department meeting Tuesday night that’s not happening in West Seattle but involves a plan that definitely will affect us. Here’s the full text of the city announcement:
The Chief’s quarterly City Wide Advisory Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 11th from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. at the Seattle Vocational Institute (SVI) in room #509 (5th floor). SVI is located at 2120 S. Jackson and we have permission to park, at no cost, in the lot directly behind the building.
Meeting Topic:
The entire meeting will focus on the new Neighborhood Policing Staffing Plan that will begin to be implemented in January 2008. Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer will present the plan and answer any questions. This plan affects anyone who lives or works within the City of Seattle. If you know community members who are interested in this plan please bring them to the meeting.
“The Neighborhood Policing Staffing Plan is the most significant change to how we police our city in more than 30 years. It will not only expand our patrol force, it is a faster, stronger and smarter approach to protecting our neighborhoods: faster response time regardless of the time of day, day of the week, or season of the year; stronger police presence when responding; and smarter use of patrol resources to focus on persistent problems that can affect quality of life in the city. The plan puts officers where they’re needed when they’re needed.”
Mars Hill money trouble?
So suggests the fifth bullet point in this entry on “Pastors’ Prayers,” one of the many official Mars Hill Church blogs. Quoting here:
Multiple pastors request prayers for our financial state. With the deep deficit, it is a test for all the staff to choose Jesus over anxiety when ministry funds are cut short and the possibility of lay-offs and additional budget cuts is on the horizon. Please pray for repentance by those who are disobeying God in their giving …
Now, before the Mars Hill critics fire up their typing fingers to snark, we also did want to note there is a sad West Seattle-related item in the same long Mars Hill blog entry: Jeanne Clem, wife of Bill Clem, the pastor who led Doxa in the building that became MH-West Seattle, is described as “slipping away” in her battle with cancer. (She is interviewed starting about 3 minutes into this recent Mars Hill video clip we found on YouTube.) TUESDAY MORNING ADDENDUM: Thanks to Adam on Alki, who points out in the comments below that Mars Hill has gone back and edited out the “disobeying God in their giving” line. We briefly cursed ourselves for not getting a screen grab, then remembered the miracle of Google caching, where it had already been captured. So just in case you didn’t believe us (full cached version here):
Mystery lights, finally explained
Several people have e-mailed us about those light poles that have popped up on strategic spots along West Seattle arterials — two round lights and a solar panel — wondering what they are for. We hadn’t gotten around to checking with SDOT or WSDOT yet but Ty has saved us the trouble (thank you!) — he says at least one of them now has a sign saying “ALASKAN WAY VIADUCT CLOSED WHEN FLASHING.” Great idea! (Will they add a second sign beneath saying “so don’t bother leaving West Seattle right now, k?”)
More proof this ain’t your grandma’s West Seattle
Or maybe even your mom’s. Back when we moved here in the early ’90s, really not THAT long ago, we lamented that we would have liked to do more shopping in The Junction, but everything seemed to close so early — “rolling up the sidewalks,” as the small-town saying goes. 
Not these days, and here’s the latest proof: Coinciding with this Thursday night’s West Seattle Art Walk in The Junction is “Wrap It Up,” with participating stores open well into the night for holiday-shopping fun. And it’s not just The Junction that will be jumping — on the north side of West Seattle, we’ve heard from more shops planning to be open late on Thursday, including WSB sponsor Click! Design That Fits and Shanti in the Admiral District, and along Avalon, Murphy’s Furniture Studio has an event planned Thursday night for late-night shopping while raising money for GambiaHELP. All in all, Thursday’s a good night to spend your $ where you live. Here’s the “Wrap It Up” flyer listing Junction participants, by the way:Read More
Reader report: 3425 California fire follow-up
Excerpted from what Mark just wrote in the comments below our original report on the small fire that closed California for a while Sunday morning:
I was visiting with several residents at the Admiral Plaza Condominium … At one point I was a resident there and am familiar with many of the neighbors. Apparently a less than competent owner on the courtyard level fell asleep with a cigarette in hand. It was his next-door neighbor, an RN who just happened to be home on a Sunday, that detected smoke odor and pounded on his door. After what seemed like an eternity he answered, disheveled; smoke was apparent and she immediately called the fire department. … The victim sought shelter with the assistance of the Red Cross in a W. Seattle motel. … It was by God's grace and Maggie the RN's quick thinking that prevented what might have been a disaster. Most of the damage appeared to be limited to his one-bedroom unit.
The pug saga
We patrol Craigslist every day or two to keep an eye out for anything unusual that’s West Seattle-related. Nothing’s really jumped out for a while – till the pug saga. Apparently there’s a missing pug out there somewhere. The latest ad seems gentle and desperate — talking about a lost pug and a heartbroken child. But it’s the same dog featured in this extremely gruff ad from five days earlier, directly addressing a suspected thief and snarling, “We are closing in on where you live, pal … Give him up, you bastard!” Then, between those two postings, was the appeal to the heartstrings, featuring baby pictures of the dog in question. Certainly desperation can be the parent of creativity; good luck finding the pug.
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