West Seattle, Washington
20 Friday
We originally posted this at White Center Now, where we’re the news-coverage part of the contributor team, but in case you didn’t see it there, we’re mentioning it here during weekend nursery-going time: Village Green Perennial Nursery (WSB sponsor) proprietor Vera Johnson‘s husband Bill Curtin is back from his latest Alaska fishing trip, and part of the catch is on sale at Village Green. Here’s the full story (with pic of a humongous halibut).
That’s Steve Rice and Big Squeezy, in the last of four outdoor summer concerts at Providence Mount St. Vincent (WSB sponsor) last night. As was the case with the preceding three concerts, this one drew an all-ages crowd, from young-at-heart Mount residents, to young-in-chronology visitors like these:
Thanks to Karen Berge for sharing that photo (and others from the earlier concerts). We’re already looking forward to next year; meantime, if you’re looking for more music – we also shot video last night for White Center Now at the Cafe Rozella (here) and Full Tilt (here) shows – and there’s more music at Full Tilt tonight (more here).
When we got the news last night about the safe return of the stolen Arbor Heights pugs, we asked owner Marsha Lubetkin if she could send a photo when she got a chance to catch her breath. The photo you see above just came in tonight, along with this note explaining more about the circumstances of the pugs’ return:
I wanted to thank your blog and everyone who helped us search for our pugs, Bandit & Pippin. It is such a happy ending and they are both fine and very glad to be home.
I do want to let everyone know that today I spoke with the woman who took them to the King Co Animal Shelter and she really was a good samaritan. She lives in the Skyway area near Renton and returned home from shopping about 5:00 yesterday with her brother and cousin and found 2 pugs in her yard. She had not watched the news or read the newspapers, so had not heard about Bandit & Pippin. They checked with all their neighbors and no one knew who owned the pugs. Her father told her to take them to a shelter, so she and her brother googled where the nearest shelter was and took them to Kent. She just wanted the dogs to get back to their owners, but felt the staff at the shelter were very suspicious of her and wanted all kinds of ID and she felt she was treated with disrespect. I think it was all a misunderstanding on each side. … After talking with her, I do believe her and thanked her for getting our pugs back to us. She did exactly the right thing and without her they could still be missing. She refused the reward, but I told her I was sending her a check anyway. She is the reason our pugs are home tonight. Thanks for spreading the word.
As for how the dogs got into that yard — still a mystery.
Since we’ve covered more than the usual share of disheartening news this week – although with the heartening flip side of people reaching out to share information and help – we thought we’d call attention to a few ways you can do good this weekend. First, please note there are many MORE ways to do something good, listed in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, including work parties in West Seattle green spaces, the North Delridge Adopt-a-Street cleanup we mentioned here on the main page a few days ago, etc., so please check out the WSWL too. But right now, two more that aren’t on that list – one of which involves a yard sale:Read More
You have to look closely to notice, but there’s a sign down and a couple of those newly planted trees snapped in that median directly across from the Admiral Viewpoint. We checked this out on a tip from Robert a couple days ago but didn’t get too far – here’s a slightly closer view from our visit:
Then it came up in the WSB Forums today, and we pursued it with SDOT, whose communications boss Rick Sheridan tells us there’s no record it had been reported, but now that we’ve passed the word along (thanks, WSB’ers!) the Urban Forestry team will get over to check it out. (First photo is courtesy Meredith K. Hailey, whose guess is that a driver “straddled” the median — though you can’t tell from the photos, looking at it closeup, you’ll notice the soil isn’t disturbed.) We covered the original tree planting just eight months ago, by the way, including this photo taken 12/20/07 to the northwest of the photos above:
FANNA, the group proposing a “play area” and/or expanded “beautification” in the area of California Place, the Admiral District mini-park shown above, just got word of city grant approval – here’s how it was announced on the official mailing list:
We’ve just received word from the Department of Neighborhoods that our application for funds to plan improvements at California Place Park has been approved! We’ve been awarded $15K to hire a landscape architect to help take us through the planning process. Along with our letter was a personally written note from Mayor Greg Nickels who said, “As a neighbor, I’m looking forward to seeing your project!”
Next steps are to align with our Project Manager at the Dept of Neighborhoods and our representative at the Parks Department to define scope and refine our work plan.
That’s the second West Seattle park/play project in less than 15 hours to get word of a $15K grant — we told you last night about the approval for the Cottage Grove Park “tot lot.”
6 am today. Charley Biggs (thank you!) took the photo and shared it with you via us.
Even if you don’t usually use the WSB Forums, you might be interested in this thread – WSB’ers sharing their recommendations for low-price, high-quality wine.
Enjoy the outdoor activities while they last: Arts-in-Nature Festival, Duwamish River Festival, final concert at The Mount, final Movie on the Wall, a free beach-volleyball class, a block party, North Delridge’s next Adopt-a-Street cleanup (and picnic!), a graffiti paintout, the Great Cross-Sound Race (2007 WSB photo above), 48 events on the list ahead:Read More
That’s Coco the dog, wearing bandages where she needed IV treatment for medications and fluids after an apparent poisoning right in her own yard in the 47th/Genesee vicinity (here’s a map). We first heard from Coco’s owner Kate K very early this morning, and then a followup after they visited the vet – she’s also put up flyers to get the word out (we just got e-mail about one of them) – here’s her story:Read More
What you see in those photos are two displays (first one, “blackberry root ball”; second one, “red elderberry”) in the main hallway at Youngstown Arts Center — part of an ongoing exhibit by young artists, presented by the Nature Consortium at Youngstown through next month (drop by any time). We found out about it while chatting with NC executive director Nancy Whitlock in that hallway during our stop yesterday afternoon to preview the art being created for last night’s “Skiffle” event (waiting to hear some final numbers on that, by the way). She was on her way over to Camp Long as setup continued for this weekend’s biggest West Seattle event, the Arts-in-Nature Festival tomorrow and Sunday — you can see the schedule online here — they’ve added some new features this year, so even if you’ve been before, it’s a must-see.
We’re checking to confirm this but West Seattle CoolMom.org leader Abby Suplizio tells WSB there’s word the grocery/chemical-industry-backed (references here and here) bag-tax referendum petition drive already has enough signatures to get it before voters next year, 
less than two weeks after they started circulating petitions (here’s our report from the Thriftway sighting August 10th). We’ll update this item when we hear back from the organizers. The bag-fee battle was featured on National Public Radio yesterday (Suplizio gave us this link, where you can find the audio) — says the Sierra Club “is organizing a campaign about the petition gatherers misleading people all over Seattle” and asking people to send their stories to bradym@balestra.org – here’s what she sent about a West Seattle encounter (followed by some other info we found):Read More
That’s Steve Rice and Big Squeezy, specializing in Cajun/Zydeco music a la New Orleans, and they’re playing tonight as Providence Mount St. Vincent (WSB sponsor) wraps up its monthlong series of free outdoor concerts. As you know if you’ve been to one or more of the concerts, they’ve drawn all-ages crowds (our reports, with photos/video: 8/1, 8/8, 8/15); the evening starts with food/beer/wine available for purchase starting at 5, then music at 6, all in the courtyard/parking area on the south side of The Mount. See you there!
We told you last month that Mars Hill Church was planning water baptisms at Alki again this year. Tonight the church has posted an update on the event planned for next Tuesday night, including an FYI that “This event pertains to the West Seattle campus only and is not an all-campus event like last year.” The update also says the event will include “BBQ, epic beats via DJ Sandman, a brief message, testimonies.” (Here’s our coverage from last year.)
News tonight from the North Delridge Neighborhood Council e-mail list: The project to add play equipment for small children to Cottage Grove Park (map), creating a “tot lot,” has won a $15,000 matching-funds city grant, according to Betsy Hoffmeister. (This is the project we’ve told you about several times in the past few months, including this springtime request for input on three play-equipment options, and the architect search earlier this summer.) Organizers promise info soon on what happens next.
We told you about the big event the other night, but never did get around to asking for an electronic copy of the full recipient list. The P-I has put one up tonight, along with capsule descriptions of everyone’s achievements, and it’s pretty cool to read; check it out here. (Also includes one West Seattle recipient we missed in our report: Carol Madaio, who found a lost child on a busy WS street.) The event’s organizer, Cathy Wenderoth (who is a West Seattleite too!), kindly sent our official photo too; it’s now on our About page.
Just talked to Marsha, owner of the stolen pugs, and she confirmed what had been left as a comment on one of our earlier posts a short time ago: The dogs are safe. Here’s what happened: They got a call from the Kent Animal Shelter around 5:30 pm, thanks to the information on the pugs’ microchips. A woman apparently brought the dogs in this morning, said they had been in her yard and she was turning them in, and she left. They are in good health and appear to have 
been kept indoors since they were stolen back on Monday. Marsha says THANKS SO MUCH to everyone who helped look for them and expressed hopes they would be found safe – she told WSB, “That’s one good thing that came out of this – seeing how caring and supportive everyone was.” She told us about bumping into a young woman who was out in the Fauntleroy Park ravine area this morning, looking for the dogs because she’d read about it here on WSB and wanted to help. (Apparently the pug spotted in the 35th/Barton area earlier today is someone else’s dog.) That’s the second happy ending today, hooray. We asked her to send us a photo of the dogs back safe at home (Pippin, above left, and Bandit at right), so we can share that with you, once she gets a chance.
We’ve mentioned the “Skiffle” show and auction tonight at Youngstown Arts Center, to raise money for All-Access afterschool programs, free to their young participants; the auction will include original works of art created during group sessions this afternoon, and we stopped by in the middle of the work to take a peek, emerging with photos including the ones you see above. Last reminder, doors open @ 6, show @ 7, suggested donation $25 at the door.
This note came in from Marsha, owner of the stolen pugs:
“Pippin [left] has been seen within the last few hours running. She is freaked out and will not come to anyone. She was seen at 35th & Barton (people at Tony’s Fruit Stand saw her), she’s been seen on Roxbury & 34th and also heading west on Barton. Dic is helping us search and he said she appears to be heading north. If she is west of 35th, she may be in more familiar territory since we walk that area a lot. I walked through the ravine (where we also walk) but didn’t see her. My husband, Barney, and I are out searching. Please call our cells if you spot her and can’t catch her. If you can get her, please do and call us. Barney’s cell is 206 730-0143. Marsha’s cell is 206 915-3308. Thanks for all your help on getting our pugs back.“
We’ve had this on the WSB Events calendar ever since we spotted it on the USCG Local Notice for Mariners (a wonderful weekly bulletin to watch) — a fireworks show tonight for the conclusion of the Downtown Sailing Series races. We finally succeeded in getting details about the show, with a call to Olympia-based Entertainment Fireworks — they say the show will be from a barge offshore at Elliott Bay Marina in Magnolia, just west of the Port of Seattle’s piers. Time — probably 8:45-9 pm-ish. Rain or shine, says the fireworks company — their main pyrotechnics wizard, Ken Julian (with whom we worked while managing TV fireworks shows a few years back), is out assembling the show right now. So you’re likely to be able to see something from north-facing West Seattle spots.
Tension last night as the Admiral residents proposing a “play area” for the California Place mini-park faced vocal opponents who live nearby. Project organizers, meantime, stress that it’s extremely early in the process, while revealing a new possibility has emerged — “beautification” beyond the park. More on that, and last night’s meeting, just ahead:Read More
What a deal – awesome entertainment rolled up with the chance to help keep after-school arts programs FREE at Youngstown Arts Center. “Skiffle” is happening tonight, and we found a few more details on the big-name musicians who’ll be part of the show: the blog Bring the Noise quotes an e-mail from Pearl Jam‘s publicist as saying Bison, which is part of the “Skiffle” lineup, includes PJ’s lead guitarist Mike McCready, Dave Dederer from Presidents of the United States of America, Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, and members of the Dusty 45’s. More details in our previous mentions; tickets are available at the door for a suggested donation of $25, doors open 6 pm, show at 7. And don’t forget the auction that’s also part of the fun(draising) – original works to be created at Youngstown this afternoon by performers, youth program participants, and community members.
Also tonight – providing the weather clears (National Weather Service says the showers should stop) – it’s the rescheduled West Seattle Movies on the Wall presentation of “Finding Nemo” in the courtyard by Hotwire, with cooler-than-ever raffle prizes and free treats (get the full scoop on the raffle offerings, and more, here). If the weather still looks iffy later in the day, check back here because we’ll post up-to-the-minute info on whether the movie’s a go. 1:27 PM UPDATE: Lora at Hotwire says the movie’s still a go since the forecast continues to look promising. But we’ll have another update late in the day.
Just e-mailed by Delridge District neighborhood coordinator Ron Angeles, this note from Chief Sealth High School:
Chief Sealth High School is seeking a family to host our Chinese guest teacher. Zhu Dan teaches Mandarin Chinese at Denny Middle School and Chief Sealth. She would need to have her own bedroom. The guest teacher is responsible for her own food. Zhu Dan has taught Mandarin at Denny and Sealth for a year and a half and she will need housing through the end of the 2008-2009 school year. She is a pleasure to host. If you are interested in hosting, please contact Principal John Boyd.
His number is (206) 252-8550.
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