West Seattle, Washington
22 Sunday
Despite its longrunning “grand opening” sign, the teriyaki/burger place next to Tervo’s on Fauntleroy (4400 block, kitty corner from Starbucks’ drive-thru) has been closed for a while – but something new is moving in. Tim Roberts sent a tip yesterday that he’d heard about a barbecue joint coming in; we went by, nothing in the window, couldn’t find anything online – but now Tim sends this followup – a sandwich board in the window:
OK Corral
Sam’mich SlingersB-B-Q
Pulled Pork
Fried Catfish
Hot Link
We’re going by to check it out. 12:09 PM UPDATE: Added photo of the sandwich board. Nobody there so we couldn’t ask about plans for opening; tried the number, no answer. Will keep checking!
All from the WSB Events calendar page: At Southwest Community Center, help design SWCC’s new fitness room, first workshop at 6 pm; at St. James Place (9421 18th SW), South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition monthly meeting, 6 pm (reps from Seattle Police and King County Sheriff’s Office among other agencies/groups, always lots of great information); at Southwest Precinct meeting room (Delridge/Webster), Southwest Design Review Board, Admiral Safeway project at 6:30 pm and 38th/Alaska “Link” at 8 pm; at Bamboo Bar and Grill, auditions start for “Alki Idol,” 9:30 pm
That’s the photo we published in this report the night of June 15, when a motorcycle and minivan collided at 30th/Trenton (map) and closed streets for a few hours. The photo we didn’t publish, with the motorcycle on the ground, is later in the story. That night, there was no word if the motorcyclist was likely to survive. But she did. Days and weeks later, friends dropped into the comment thread on that same lone post from time to time with updates – finally, a few weeks ago, out of curiosity, we e-mailed one of the commenters to ask if the crash survivor would care to tell her story. And that’s how we met West Seattle photographer and motorcycle rider Karen Derby, who is battling back from leg and face injuries, and hoping to ride again. Here’s her story – including photos, some she took herself, before and after – but before you click ahead, a warning that two included in the story (and one you won’t see unless you click a link) are somewhat graphic – Karen wanted to tell her whole story, and the visuals are part of it:Read More
We went tonight to the West Seattle homeless camp calling itself “Nickelsville” (previous WSB coverage here, here, and here) to see what would be discussed at a strategy meeting of sorts, to which they had invited their “community supporters.” Among those at the camp, Bill Kirlin-Hackett, director of the Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness — who said the mayor told him twice today that the squatters would be booted off the Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way site sometime Friday morning; they were put on 72-hour notice at 5 pm Monday, so technically it could happen any time after that. “Nickelsville” organizers and campers, meantime, say they’ll resist, and plan to start building “permanent” shanty-type structures tomorrow afternoon. ADDED 9:59 PM: More from tonight’s meeting, including another photo, a video clip, and who organizers say is going to lobby the mayor on their behalf:Read More
The official WSB ex-shelter-cat mascots (left) probably won’t want to be scooped up and carted out of their happy albeit messy home for this – but we’re sure there are hundreds of West Seattle pets, and their people, who’ll have a great time, so here’s an early alert about the two announcements we’ve received so far, both in honor of the upcoming (10/4) feast day of St. Francis of Assisi (patron saint of animals): Providence Mount St. Vincent invites everyone to its “Blessing of the Animals” at 10:45 am October 4th in the front lobby, with Father Lyle Konen performing the blessing; the next day, Sunday 10/5, St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church also invites everyone to its “Blessing of the Animals” in the neighboring West Seattle High School parking lot at noon, with blessings for any pet you care to bring, plus a chance to adopt a new one from the Seattle Humane Society’s MaxMobile mobile adoption/education center — this one will be conducted by Rev. Peter DeVeau, with brothers and associates of the Order of St. Francis, Olympia Diocese chapter, plus refreshments and a sale of handmade items.
If you’re in Upper Fauntleroy, heads-up, you may get a doorknock from “Evans Glass.” At WSB HQ, it was a particularly energetic doorknock, er, door-pounding, moments ago. We don’t open the door to anyone, even in the interest of journalistic research; “sorry, we don’t deal with solicitors” was answered with “Oh, we’re not trying to sell you anything, we’re from Evans Glass” and we repeated “no thanks” (answered with a polite “OK”); coincidentally, we had just received a note from WSB’er Venkat, also in Upper Fauntleroy, saying they’d been at his door offering “free energy inspections” that online research suggests is a prelude to window sales.
Before the autumn weather sweeps away all traces of Garden ’08 … Nancy Evans, who’s on the selection committee for the West Seattle Garden Tour, sends word they’re looking ahead to next year already:
Do you have or know of an amazing garden in West Seattle? The West Seattle Garden Tour Selection Committee is currently viewing gardens for the 2009 tour. We would love to hear about any gardens that you may find interesting and a possibility for the upcoming tour. Please e-mail nancyellenevans@comcast.net with contact information.
You can check the WSGT site for some pix of the featured gardens from this year’s tour.
“ALKI IDOL”: Starting tomorrow night, a two-month talent contest kicks off at Bamboo on Alki. Auditions are tomorrow night and October 2, 9:30 midnight. Here’s the official website.
DECALS ONLINE: The question comes up from time to time, “where can we get those Alki decals with the seagull?” – various stores are mentioned, but now there’s also a place to get them online, announced in the WSB Forums today: alkidecals.com.
Just got word from the state that tomorrow, before the next meeting of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Central Waterfront Stakeholders’ Advisory Committee tomorrow afternoon, the media will be briefed on major new info that’s about to be presented to that committee — the first evaluation results of the 8 “scenarios” currently under consideration. The media alert notes that:
This set of evaluation results will include shading and views, transit access to the waterfront, and environmental issues. Because of the number of evaluation measures, data is being released as it is available. Using the complete set of evaluation results later this fall, teams from WSDOT, the City of Seattle, and King County will take the best elements from the tested scenarios to create two or three new scenarios for further evaluation.
As we did when the 8 “scenarios” were unveiled, we’ll report major developments “live” from the briefing, which is set for 12:30 pm tomorrow at Viaduct project HQ downtown.
The Highland Park Action Committee website now has a photo report up about members’ visit to the “Nickelsville” homeless camp yesterday, one day after representatives spoke at HPAC’s monthly meeting (WSB coverage here). 5 pm tomorrow is the deadline the city has given for the camp to clear out; the land it’s on is one of two locations identified by the city as a potential jail site, and has city/state/private ownership.
UPDATE FROM ORIGINAL POST: When we first posted this a few hours ago, it was a forwarded request for volunteers to go help Hurricane Ike survivors. We have since been contacted by the source of the e-mail saying they are overwhelmed with volunteers and don’t need any more for what that solicitation specifically mentioned – but they DO have a different need:Read More
From Kim Petram, e-mailing about the Fauntleroy Fall Festival, coming up Sunday, October 19th, 2-6 pm, at Fauntleroy Church/Schoolhouse/YMCA:
This will be the 6th year of our free community festival. It has grown tremendously and this year we are expecting more than 1,200 people to attend.
There will be many of the favorite activities returning including the climbing wall, pony rides, pumpkin painting and lots of community performances and music. The wood project for the year will be a fun airplane to build and the main craft project will entail designing and painting the Metro bus stop kiosk panels for Fauntleroy.
More details to come – posters and signs will be up soon in the community.
Currently we are looking for volunteer support to fill a few slots still remaining. If you can volunteer 2 hours on the day of the event we would love to have you! Please contact terry@fauntleroyucc.org to sign up.
Tomorrow night, the Southwest Design Review Board (explained here) takes a look at two more major West Seattle projects — the proposed Admiral Safeway rebuild (here’s our coverage of the community meeting last week in which Safeway unveiled what it’s hoping to do) and “Link” (shown above), Harbor Properties‘ mixed-use building at 38th/Alaska (former site of a Huling garage and West Seattle Montessori School). If you’re not familiar with the Design Review process, this is a rare chance for public input in some of the major developments proposed around the city — and we’ve seen many cases in just the past year-plus where public input made a difference. Both projects will be reviewed in the Southwest Precinct meeting room, with Safeway (officially known as 2622 California) on the agenda at 6:30 pm (first review), “Link” (officially known as 4550 38th) at 8 pm (second review). Sometimes the official presentation is available on the city’s website before the meeting, and in fact, the one for “Link” is available online now – you can get it here (note it’s a BIG file, 33 MB).
Out of the WSB inbox from Lisa:
I just wanted to report witnessing a very brazen mail thief in West Seattle; we are on 42nd Ave. SW between Dawson & Hudson (just south of the Alaska Junction). On Monday, Sept. 22nd around 11 am we looked out the window to see a young man walking up to our neighbor’s door. Our dogs barked and he appeared to hesitate and walk back towards the gate, then after a few moments returned to the door. We then saw him leave the yard and cross the street. He walked a few doors down, then sat down and proceeded to open the outgoing mail he had taken from our neighbor’s mail slot. Apparently he didn’t find anything good because he dropped the mail on the ground and eventually made his way down the street. We called police and filed a report, including a description: white male, early 20’s, around 5’8” medium build, dressed like a normal young kid (black Easy Street Records t-shirt, white baseball cap, black backpack, jeans). Unfortunately, there were much more tragic things occurring yesterday, and the police were not able to respond until an hour or so later.
Our street does not have mailboxes, all of the houses use mail slots, so it was especially bold of this thief to walk all the way up to the house in full daylight to steal the outgoing mail, not to mention examining his loot just across the street. Either bold or dumb, we’re not sure which. We just wanted to send out a heads up in case our neighbors are in the habit of using their mail slots for outgoing mail. Going forward we will most likely be dropping ours at the Post Office.
Here’s the official US Postal Service advice on preventing mail theft. (That link can be found anytime in the Crime Watch page‘s resources section.)
QUAKE DRILL: A statewide earthquake drill is planned for 10:15 this morning, and EVERYBODY is urged to participate. Find out more about it here.
A CALL YOU MIGHT GET IF YOU’RE A SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS PARENT: In connection with the quake drill, SPS is sending out “test emergency calls” from its new SchoolMessenger system; a “random sample of 5% of … families” will get these calls; another 5% will get a “general announcement” version of test calls from the system.
SPEAKING OF SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Today is the first “two-hour early dismissal day” of the school year.
AND ONE MORE SCHOOL NOTE: Today’s the first monthly informal coffee hour that West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist — 9 to 10 am, Coffee to a Tea with Sugar in The Junction; drop by to talk education issues.
GETTING OUT THE LONG-TERM-CARE-RESIDENT VOTE: That’s the topic of a major conference at Providence Mount St. Vincent today, 9:30 am-2:30 pm, with everyone in the local long-term-care community welcome to participate.
“NICKELSVILLE” UPDATE: Not much was reported on the second day of the homeless camp’s existence at Highland Park Way/West Marginal; tonight at 7 pm, organizers hope to rally “community supporters” as they count down the final hours till the city’s eviction notice kicks in at 5 pm Thursday.
That’s Tessa Code distributing toothbrushes and hygiene information in Mexico as part of a Fauntleroy Church trip this summer. While talking with Judy Pickens about the church’s ongoing centennial celebration — which includes tonight’s 7 pm showing of the documentary “The Fauntleroy Story: 100 Years of Community” (previewed here; you’re invited; showing’s in the Fellowship Hall; DVDs will be available) — she mentioned this trip, and we said we’d love to share the story with you:Read More
First one we got a half-hour or so ago, we were mulling over how to handle. Then came the second one. That suggests a trend – so here are two reader reports of pushy door-to-door folks out in southwest West Seattle (Gatewood and Fauntleroy) tonight:Read More
Just broke this story at our partner site White Center Now: King County Councilmember Dow Constantine‘s office has announced a discussion October 2nd about a potential Alcohol Impact Area in the White Center business district – and the announcement notes that since the district includes areas within Seattle city limits as well as unincorporated King County, authorities and community members on both sides of the line are invited – and that the concept of “adjacent AIAs in unincorporated King County and the South Delridge area” should be considered in the discussion. The discussion is set for 7 pm Thursday, October 2nd, during the regular meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council at North Highline Fire District headquarters. Read more here (the seventh news item today on White Center Now, with at least one more to come – newsiest day for our partner site since it launched seven weeks ago).
(WSB photo from 35th/Juneau crash scene, 9/4/08)
Just in from Denise Sharify, who works for Neighborhood House in High Point and has been active on area pedestrian issues: A pedestrian-safety rally is set for 2:30-4 pm October 7 at 35th/Juneau, where a High Point 15-year-old was hit and injured just a few weeks ago. Everyone concerned about pedestrian safety in our area – not just on 35th – is encouraged to join in; Denise’s note to community members also mentions the California/Dawson crash that killed 92-year-old Rosemary MacCorkindale yesterday and the 35th/Brandon crash that killed 39-year-old Gregory Hampel last month. More details on the rally when plans are further finalized.
The Neighborhood Farmers’ Market Alliance, which manages the West Seattle Farmers’ Market among others, says not only will WSFM be year-round again this year, it also will keep its regular hours throughout the year (winter hours last year were 11 am-2 pm, but this year, Janet Hurt just confirmed, it’ll keep the 10 am-2 pm schedule every Sunday, all seasons).
(On the West Seattle border, anyway.) Just out of the WSB inbox from Vera at Village Green Perennial Nursery (WSB sponsor):
Hey- just to put the word out- last night someone stole our Village Green sign from the corner of Roxbury and 26th (map) – it was chained to the tree and they SAWED off the leg and stole the sign. I have the sawed-off piece. If anyone sees a sign around – probably lying on the side of the road somewhere…or being reused as a ‘newly made-over’ sign- please contact us- they are not cheap. Someone also had to have seen this event take place…sawing wood takes a minute or two…
(Photo from Monday afternoon, while investigators worked at the crash scene)
One day after the deadly crash in the California/Dawson crosswalk south of The Junction, we checked with Seattle Police to get an update on the investigation and the people involved. First: Seattle Police media unit Officer Mark Jamieson tells WSB the victim was a 92-year-old woman; (this added 3:29 pm) the Medical Examiner’s office has just identified her as Rosemary MacCorkindale. Officer Jamieson also tells us the driver was a 77-year-old woman. Both are described as “Seattle residents.” As for whether the crash will result in a citation or charges, none so far, since the investigation is not complete yet, but Jamieson notes the driver did not appear to be “impaired.”
Last week, we mentioned a briefing planned this week by the Florida man who proposes the “Seattle Skyway” – an admittedly pie-in-the-sky, or road-in-the-sky – Alaskan Way Viaduct alternative. He called this morning to say that it’s open to the public – which hadn’t been noted before – so if you’re interested, it’s 6 pm tomorrow, Duwamish Room at Ivar’s Acres of Clams on the downtown waterfront (the room seats about three dozen, first-come first-served).
If you want to know what’s going on in the official review process for what will happen to the Central Waterfront section of The Viaduct, here’s the next place to be: 
Day after tomorrow (Thursday 9/25) is this month’s meeting of the people from all over the area who have been meeting as the Stakeholders Advisory Committee (including West Seattleites Pete Spalding of Pigeon Point and Vlad Oustimovitch of Gatewood). As was reiterated during the recent Viaduct briefing presented to the Southwest and Delridge District Councils (WSB coverage here), this committee is not making a decision or recommendation, but rather helping vet the possibilities (8 current “scenarios,” as we reported when they were first unveiled, soon to be narrowed to 3, then 1). You’re welcome at these meetings too – Thursday it’s at 4 pm, Bertha Landes Room at City Hall downtown (map).
Recent WSB coverage of the Alaskan Way Viaduct is archived here; the state has a prodigious amount of info available on the official AWV site here.
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