A comprehensive update at Fauntleroy.net tells the tale of the Fauntleroy Creek “Reach to the Beach” project, all finished except revegetation, just south of the ferry dock …
Next step: Awaiting the salmon. According to the Fauntleroy.net writeup, some coho already have been seen off Lincoln Park, so they “are optimistic watchers will have fish to watch” when the annual Salmon Watch begins along Fauntleroy Creek next month. Sign-ups for volunteers are under way now; scroll to the bottom of this Fauntleroy.net page for contact information, and also mark your calendar for 5 pm Sunday, October 21st, when the community will gather at the creek’s fish-ladder viewpoint for drumming to call the salmon home.
A few folks have e-mailed in recent weeks to inquire about the definitive West Seattle neighborhood map. You would expect the city to have the final say, but upon a closer look at their neighborhood map boundaries for West Seattle — which, annoyingly, the city seems to consider separate from greater Delridge — we’re not so sure. Take a look at what the maps linked below say is your neighborhood; comment here if you disagree. (Note some neighborhood names are missing altogether, such as Pigeon Point.)
Yet another WS event to add to the list of what’s happening Tuesday night: West Seattle High School has a community forum @ 6:30 pm tomorrow to talk about the recent announcement that it will change from 4-period days to 6-period days as of next school year. (There’s also a student-only forum at WSHS tomorrow afternoon.) This is a huge change for the school, which has had 4-period days since 1994, and described them in its 2006 annual report as “(facilitating) in-depth and hands-on learning.” Some of the arguments against the 4-period day were discussed in the unofficial Seattle Public Schools Blog a few months ago.
The next phase of work is beginning at the megaproject site across Alaska from Jefferson Square, former home of Hollywood Video etc., future home of QFC and Office Depot as well as other retail and residential units. A few days ago, the city granted a permit for excavation to begin; today, Christopher Boffoli took this photo of the first construction equipment to arrive at the scene:
More news from beverageland: The T(ea) Gallery, the friendly teahouse at 2707 Cali in the business block just south of Lafayette Elementary, is opening a second location! Not in West Seattle, though — this one will be downtown, on the north side of the Seattle Municipal Tower, open 7:30 am-4 pm weekdays starting on a TBA opening date in mid-October. The original Admiral shop‘s hours will stay the same (Tues-Thurs nights, all day Sat-Sun). Congratulations to T(ea) Gallery proprietor Tracy (who also has just posted about this at her official store blog)!
New WS liquor-license filing that just bubbled up: Pioneer Coffee Roasting Company is seeking a beer/wine license for 2536 Alki, the onetime Alki Mail & Dispatch building between Coastal & Slices. (Hard to see from the angle below, but there’s a Pioneer Coffee sign in the window closest to the plywood.)
We have notes out to Pioneer and to property owner Tom Lin to ask what they can tell us about what’s planned there; the city business license for Pioneer Coffee Roasting at the address is under the category “miscellaneous food stores.”
We keep trying to catch up with the Seal Sitters who have been keeping watch for weeks to protect the baby harbor seals that turn up to take a break on the beach at Alki. Almost connected after hearing about their 1 pm picnic on Sunday — then rain forced them indoors — but at least our videographer found one of the seals. Adorability awaits:
One WSB reader asked us if the Seal Sitters are on duty 24 hours a day. Seal-sitter organizer Brenda Peterson says they’ve been trying their best to cover most of the clock, as volunteer availability allows. (If you’re interested in volunteering, e-mail us and we’ll forward her your contact info.) Wondering why Seal Sitters are needed? Here’s just one anecdote underscoring the need. You can read more about harbor seals and the laws protecting them here.
As the number of pay-to-park lots around WS increases, watch closely for the signs, and do be aware that the enforcers make the rounds — as discovered today by the spouse of a regular reader. Reportedly, more than a dozen cars in the lot near Wells Fargo in The Junction all got simultaneously ticketed during the Farmers’ Market across the street. The reader went back for a closer look at the signage … and yes, it’s posted (reader photo @ right) … but that doesn’t make the $35 ticket any easier to take. (Payable online, courtesy of the industrious folks at Diamond Parking.) Yes, of course lot owners have the right to charge whatever the traffic will bear, as discussed after our recent post about the future Fauntleroy Place site converting to a Diamond-managed pay lot. But you can’t help wonder if it’s a slippery slope. The Junction merchants have worked hard to keep several free lots available for us all, and lobbied against paid parking on WS streets (earning us the envy of other neighborhoods). But as the pay lots multiply, can the city resist trying for a cut of the action?
Just four months into its hopefully long lifespan, Sustainable West Seattle continues to grow. Tomorrow night, you’re invited to its next meeting — 7 pm, Camp Long, family-friendly, so kids are welcome — where county and city reps will talk about transportation and climate-change issues, respectively. The latter is of special note, with a Seattle CAN (Climate Action Now) kickoff event in WS next Saturday. (Here’s a new reason to care about climate change.) If you can’t make tomorrow’s meeting, see the Sustainable WS website, which includes contact info for the people running its action groups (Energy, Transportation, Food & Health, Water & Waste Reduction, Green Building & Planning).
Crews working on the bus shelter next to KeyBank in The Junction — spotted this morning as we headed to the Farmers’ Market — reminds us it’s time to talk about many changes for WS bus riders …
Some of those changes involve renovations, repairs, and replacements for many other WS shelters. More on that in a few sentences. First: Some bus routes will change starting next weekend, in preparation for the reopening of the downtown bus tunnel on Monday, 9/24. Lots and lots of changes, all detailed here. People who know the quirks of the Metro system much better than we do say that some of the changes are positive for links between WS and other parts of the area. Now, as for those bus-stop/bus-shelter changes — after a few people e-mailed us with questions about work they had noticed, Chris Arkills from the office of West Seattle-representing King County Councilmember Dow Constantine was kind enough to get us a list of what Metro’s working on. We’ve had this in queue for about a week and a half so some of these projects may already be done, but you might find it handy anyway (it also explains exactly what those crews shown above are doing at the shelter by KeyBank):Read More
On each and every WSB post, there’s just no telling where you all will take the discussion — or if you’ll choose to discuss at all. Last month, we mentioned the addition of an ADULT DVD sign to a Morgan Junction market, with a headline citing Spanky’s, the adult retailer that closed on mid-Cali some years back. That led to some discussion of Spanky’s in the comments; tonight, its former proprietor wrote us (comments are closed on the original item since 3+ weeks have passed) to set the record straight. Here’s his note:Read More
Our logs show a fair amount of WSB visits from people with IP addresses from the University of Washington … so here’s hoping some of you can help this reader, whether you are a UW student or UW employee!
I have been attending SSCC for the past year and graduated this spring. Now, I have been accepted to UW Art School and am having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to make my commute to the campus from West Seattle manageable. I am not going to be taking my car as the parking on and around campus is too expensive for me. So far, I have found no direct options from West Seattle to the campus on the metro. The best I can find is an hour long journey involving two transfers. I am looking at using my bike as part of my daily commute possibly too. I was wondering if maybe you could help me find out how other West Seattle residents attending the UW get to and from school?
Though this post is 10 days old and long since fallen off the WSB home page, it’s still getting comments because of other related sightings, including one last night in Pigeon Point — worth another look before that next knock at your door, especially the police advice in this newsletter. (Which reminds us, next Tuesday is the monthly West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting – 7 pm @ the Southwest Precinct – and as we all were reminded last month, it’s a great place to get updated information on what/who to watch out for and how to protect your home and your family.)
On Thursday night, while the Alki Statue of Liberty meeting was under way at the Bathhouse, a SW Design Review Board meeting was under way at the Precinct, and several WS schools had events — a quiet but important demonstration was under way in West Seattle waters: Members of the Surfrider Foundation, People for Puget Sound, and others paddled out from Seacrest to remind us all that the state needs a better oil-spill prevention plan, specifically one that protects the ultimate gateway to Puget Sound — the Strait of Juan de Fuca — with a year-round rescue tug @ Neah Bay. Since we knew we’d be otherwise occupied, we asked the Surfrider folks to send pix; here’s one from water level (the banner has the SF name & logo).
Right now, rescue tugs are only stationed at the state’s northwestern tip for the winter. (The next one is scheduled to be in place October 1st-March 15th. That time frame wouldn’t have covered the disastrous Tenyo Maru incident in July 1991, which as this link reminds us took 15 years to recover from.) Here’s more on where the push for a year-round tug stands now.
Congratulations to new Alki News-Beacon editor Cami MacNamara on publication of her first edition – you can check it out online here. Cami is also webmaster for AlkiNews.com, where you can always find a link to the latest Beacon as well as other info from the Alki Community Council, which is preparing for its regular bimonthly meeting next Thursday (have you joined yet?).
The website for Ama-Ama, the restaurant taking over the ex-Ovio spot in The Junction, still promises an October opening, and now they’re advertising for help: one ad seeks a shucker, the other one casts a net for “all positions.”
As we mentioned in our detailed report about last night’s Parks Department-organized meeting on the proposed plaza — the remaining time for public comment appears to be short. The official person to send your thoughts to is project manager Pamela Kliment at Parks; but unofficial discussion will continue online at sites including WSB and the Seattle Statue of Liberty Plaza Project blog. Those following the discussion might be interested in a new anti-plaza letter to Parks, cc’d to us and others, from former Alki community leader Cindi Laws:Read More
One police officer informally guesstimated the crowd for tonight’s Mars Hill Alki baptism-fest at around 750.
Loud but peaceful so far as we could tell, perhaps at least partly thanks to all the guys in black T-shirts stenciled MARS HILL SECURITY. We’re adding video clips at the bottom of this post, but first a few more stills, starting with Mars Hill’s controversial leader Mark Driscoll, who declared this to be the biggest mass baptism in Seattle history (he said 200 people had signed up to get baptized, then welcomed anyone else who wanted to, to join in).
Other church leaders on hand included West Seattle campus pastor Adam Sinnett, caught by our photographer with towel in hand as he prepared to head for the water.
The event even featured a band, which proclaimed itself (and the crowd) there “to praise, and party.” Our photographer didn’t see any of the threatened protesters, unless you count the kid seen hooting out the window of a passing car and flashing devil-horn hand signs. 9:10 PM UPDATE: Three more photos, these taken and e-mailed to us by Elspeth Jones (thank you SO much!):
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9:56 PM UPDATE: Video of the actual in-water event, starting with the baptism of a child.
10:35 PM UPDATE: Adding this clip of Mark Driscoll talking about those about to be baptized, as they stood in front of the stage. Church leaders, by the way, say this is their 11th summer baptism event – the first one drew 3 to be baptized, 40 to watch.
11:57 PM UPDATE: Last addition, a clip showing what it was like in the throng during the event — some baptizees getting congratulated, and a Mars Hill guy trying to keep order as others waited to take part.
P.S. — Thanks again to the WSB Pledge Day contributors who made it possible for us to get the video camera; we pledge to keep working on better video quality (this was only our second video-recorded event since the camera was delivered a few days ago).
Just confirmed by King County Councilmember Dow Constantine‘s office: The Elliott Bay Water Taxi won’t end its season September 30th as scheduled, but will continue with weekday commute runs, plus runs on two Seahawks home-game Sundays (10/14 and 10/21), through Friday, November 2nd. The shuttle will be extended too. Here’s the weekday schedule for the extended season; scroll down below it to click ahead to the full text of the official announcement.
That’s really all we could say when we saw what was going on at Alki during a brief stop before our below-documented search for breakfast. Just west of The Statue, crews are setting up what appeared to be stage, scaffolding, bleachers, etc., for tonight’s Mars Hill mass baptism. Two photos are below (wide shot, then closer in); up on the street, several parking spaces are blocked off, likely for the promised shuttle buses. To steal a ’60s term, this is gonna be “a scene.”
As the number of pay-to-park lots around WS increases, watch closely for the signs, and do be aware that the enforcers make the rounds — as discovered today by the spouse of a regular reader. Reportedly, more than a dozen cars in the lot near Wells Fargo in The Junction all got simultaneously ticketed during the Farmers’ Market across the street. The reader went back for a closer look at the signage … and yes, it’s posted (reader photo @ right) … but that doesn’t make the $35 ticket any easier to take. (
As we mentioned in our 
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