Quick! Rush to the beach!
Or anyplace you have a view of the Sound from west-facing West Seattle … a bunch of military ships are going by right now (Navy, Coast Guard), we believe as part of the Seafair fleet parade, heading south past north Vashon. 12:45 PM UPDATE, ADDING PHOTOS: They just went back the other way, to dock near downtown. Here are a couple shots we got from Marine View Drive.
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Our Seafair “secrets”
Love it or hate it, it’s here … the frenzied finale to Seattle’s biggest summer festival, Seafair. 
We had been debating whether to take up space here with our Blue Angels and hydro obsessions interest, given that it’s not WS-specific, but bless the reader who wrote us to suggest we do exactly that … so here goes.
SECRET #1 — Watch the Blue Angels take off from and land at the Museum of Flight, which is at Boeing Field, just a few miles east of West Seattle. You don’t have to pay MOF admission to go stand along their fence and do this, although we highly recommend the very affordable MOF membership — it’s a unique Seattle institution worth supporting. This is always stirring, particularly on the Friday-Saturday-Sunday occasions, when you can see the full pageantry of the “walkdown,” the synchronized crew checks, the jet engine smoke, the feel-it-in-your-bones takeoffs … anyway, you can read our tales from last year: day 1 here, day 3 here, day 4 here. The Angels will have two takeoffs and landings during practices tomorrow (Thursday), then one each for the “rehearsal” show on Friday and the real deal on Saturday/Sunday.
SECRET #2 — “Free Friday.”
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Delridge fights back
We wanted to make sure everyone saw this note added late last night as a comment on both of our recent posts about the Delridge shootings, since the event is tonight. (A reader had described it here as a “block watch” meeting but it’s much more.):
For those residing in North Delridge please come to the North Delridge Neighborhood Council monthly meeting … Wednesday August 1st, at the Delridge Library. Meeting starts at 6:30 and ends at 7:45. One of SPD’s finest, Community Police Team Officer Brian Ballew, will be present to fill in folks on the recent shootings.
Relentless citizen pressure is, and will continue to make a difference. Never hesitate to call 911, because if you think it looks strange, I will almost guarantee that it is strange.
Mike Dady Co-Chair – North Delridge Neighborhood Council
A moving sight
We happened onto this scene today at Fairmount Park Elementary, one of the buildings closed by Seattle Public Schools at the end of this past school year to save $. While the building is being taken out of commission, Fairmount Park’s people and programs are “merging” with High Point Elementary one mile southeast; tomorrow night (Wednesday) the School Board is set to vote on the proposal to give the “merged” schools a fresh start by renaming HP “West Seattle Elementary.” (Also on the board agenda, the introduction of the proposed contract for architect and engineering services on the Denny/Sealth project. More on that in the morning; we’re discovering too many nested documents linked from the agenda to coherently summarize it all tonight!)
A brag, and an expression of gratitude
With about an hour and a half left in July, this has become WSB’s first month with six-digit “traffic,” as they say in internetland. 101,099 “page views” for July; double what we notched as recently as February; 12 times July ’06. Without marketing or gimmicks — people are just discovering WSB online, or hearing about it from friends/relatives/co-workers. By “people,” we mean YOU, so we want to thank you not just for coming by to look at what we’re posting about, but especially for e-mailing us with rants, raves, questions, photos, tips, whatever you are seeing/hearing in, and about, WS. That’s what makes this so much more than we imagined possible when we launched it on a lark, yet it’s barely a shell of what it can become … with your continued help. Thank you, thank you, thank you, 100(thousand) times thank you!
New WS pizza place now open
Tomorrow is the first full day of business for Giannoni’s Pizza, on the south side of Westwood Village (between Sally’s Beauty Supply and the future Taco Del Mar), after a soft launch for lunch today:
The Giannoni’s proprietors tell WSB the restaurant opened for 4 hours at lunchtime today for 4 hours and served more than 140 slices. Starting tomorrow, they plan to be open 11 am-10 pm daily.
South Morgan Junction on the move
If you’re looking for someplace to move a business, south of Morgan Junction is where you might want to be. In fact, space is available at the current home of Authentic Home, which is moving later this year to the north edge of The Junction (4151 Cali, former home of Emerald City Locksmith). Below the photo, some other changes in the same business area south of Morgan Junction, which covers two blocks north of Caffe Ladro:
In this block, the Tail Wag has rebranded itself as Stella Ruffington’s; in the block north of the photo, Chill is open, offering massages and “modern apothecary” (its website isn’t built out yet but the flyers at its storefront promise an intriguing mix of aromatherapy). All this within a stone’s throw of development/housing action we’ve reported on previously, including the SeventyOne apartments-turned-condos, the Housing Authority purchase of Riviera West, and the big clump of townhouses on former Gatewood Baptist church land across from the ex-GB/now Seattle International Church itself.
Diving death near Seacrest
So said channel 7 tv news, briefly. Rescue apparently happening now. We’ll see what else we can find out. 12:35 PM UPDATE: channel 5 says the diver has died. 12:59 PM UPDATE: Here’s an update from the P-I. 1:50 PM UPDATE: Medical Examiner and Police vehicles still at Seacrest when we went by. Also, a short article from the Times.
Delridge shootings: Block Watch and more
From the eyewitness who first told us all about Sunday morning’s shooting, second one in a short stretch of Delridge in two days:
I talked to my neighbor today and she said that an officer paid her a visit, as a follow up to Sunday’s shooting. The officer told her that apparently there is a turf war going on between gangs in White Center and West Seattle. There seems to be a house or apt. around the 5600 block of Delridge that is bringing them down here. As of yet they are not exactly sure what address or people.
The officer said that Sunday’s shooting was in retaliation for Thursday’s shooting. They encouraged her to call the police if you see groups of 2 or more around the 5600 Block late at night that appear to be doing anything like through gang signs or getting loud etc. they hope that if they can bother them enough they will move on.
Also of note there will be a block watch meeting at the Delridge library on Wednesday August 1, 2007 @ 6:30 pm. I encourage everyone in the neighborhood to attend. This is our neighborhood and we don’t have to put up with this cr*p!
WS Lost/Found Pet Watch: Sammy’s out there somewhere
The subject line on the e-mail about this lost cat was a grabber — LOST SPECIAL NEEDS CAT. Sammy’s owner writes that he’s a “special needs, indoor cat. His hind legs don’t work well, so he drags them around while he pulls himself along with his forelegs. He can move unexpectedly fast though. He was lost at 46th and Genesee in West Seattle on Monday morning. He is a medium-sized Siamese and he does not have a collar on.” Call Sammy’s people at 937-4418 or 396-8026.
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WS on the radio
WS writer/broadcaster/blogger John Moe wrote to let us know his latest piece for public radio’s Weekend America has a WS angle — as he describes it, “comparing and contrasting Lindsay Lohan and West Seattleite Frances Farmer. I talk about her life in West Seattle, mention West Seattle High School, and a couple other local things.” Here’s the link.
Wondering about Divina?
Several people have written us wondering what’s up with Divina, north of The Junction, since it looks rather empty from the outside. We stopped to check out the sign on the door; it promises they’ll be “back in August” with more “new, fun” stuff.
Float fun: The inside story
This Hi-Yu Festival season, we’ve been privileged to correspond with some of the folks whose hard work makes a ton of West Seattle summer fun possible. Among them are Hi-Yu President Tim Winston, and Jim Edwards, who among many other things has a key role in making the Hi-Yu Parade happen, and a big role in the West Seattle Big Band, which keeps a busy schedule that included the Concert in the Park earlier this month. After our Torchlight Parade report including the photo of the Hi-Yu float getting a little help, Jim sent us some parade photos, and the tale of his 15 years driving the float …
Jim photographed the float from the Westlake Park grandstand area, just before it needed a little help. He also sent pix of his daughter, who represented West Seattle in this year’s Miss Seafair competition, and the outgoing Miss Seafair, Erin Waid, also from WS … those pix and Jim’s float-history tale, after the click.Read More
WS Gas Price Watch: Numbers gone wild
We’ve mentioned before that Delridge Arco, besides usually having the lowest posted gas price in WS (though one reader warned, that can be negated by a surcharge for using plastic), has quite the challenge for those tasked with changing its price signs: They have to change four sets of numbers, one on each side of its two big signs. If one particular digit appears too often — well, see our picture to witness the results. (The backward and missing digits are supposed to be 9’s.) Arco’s $2.79 is still the lowest in WS; next up, Admiral Chevron at $2.87 as of last night, with many others following at $2.89. Speaking of numbers, interesting Times story today about what kind of profit station operators apparently are NOT making off these prices.
New WSB tweak: “Live” traffic cam images
Our WS “live” cams page has long featured links to city and state traffic cameras in and near WS. In time for this morning’s commute, we tweaked the page to add images from those cameras: Each time you check the page, you will see the newest images from all the cameras we link to. They won’t automatically refresh (nor do they on their source sites), but every time you “refresh” or return to the page, you will get updated images for all cameras. Let us know any other cameras (the city and state have a ton) you would like to see added.
Building beef
A reader sent us this photo, saying he took it this morning while passing by a house under construction in Fauntlee Hills. Haven’t seen a whole lot of protest banners around here, so we looked around online and found some backstory …
The unfinished house (which is separate from the older brick home in the foreground) is for sale for $1.2 million, according to this listing, about $1 million more than the landowner paid for the 5k-sf lot a year and a half ago. So what’s the banner-inspiring beef about this development project, compared to the dozens of others under way around WS? The online city records give us a hint; a complaint filed earlier this month, investigated, and found without merit, carries a note about checking the house’s height at the “external nailing inspection.”
Seen on the Sound
First, a reader question for anyone and everyone in WSB-land. After that, three photos — not related to the reader question except that they are also things seen on/over Puget Sound. So here we go —
i’m curious if anyone else has seen a mysterious man, paddling STANDING UP on the Sound. we saw him last night about 6 pm, couldn’t believe our eyes! then, at 9 am this morning, we saw the same guy (we’re assuming). when we looked through our binoculars, it appeared that he was standing up on something resembling a surfboard as he paddles. has anyone else seen him or knows what it is he is doing?
If you do, leave a comment. Now, three photos we took around sunset tonight from the northern shores of Lincoln Park. Some of the folks on the boat in the first photo (which appeared to be related to an outdoor party at one of the waterfront homes just past the park) were actually jumping into the water. Brrr!
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Ten days till 
when the city sends out its 
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