Bakery that’s not opening in WS

Don’t faint. A West Seattle-based couple is opening their own bakery — but not on our side of the bay. We best remember Stephanie Crocker and her “Sugar” creations from the Farmers’ Market last year; also, last November we told you about the pie fundraiser to help Stephanie and her husband John with expenses from his fight against cancer. That’s going well and now they’re getting ready to open their own place, Sugar Bakery & Cafe on First Hill (and blogging about it too). Stephanie tells WSB they hope to open in October – just in time for the bakery-mania of the holiday season.

Commuting critter

So it seems that before The Commute From Hell became hellish yesterday, it got a little wild. Reader e-mail that just came in:

Did anybody see if the smaller possum that was trundling earnestly up
the center lane (right along the cement divider, not in a traffic lane)
of the eastbound West Seattle freeway at about 7:20 yesterday morning
got up and over the bridge?

When I saw him/her, the little feet were scurrying right along, and
however I felt about possums, I wanted him to get to safety!

City cash for two WS projects

July 19, 2007 10:49 am
|    Comments Off on City cash for two WS projects
 |   Gatewood | How to help | West Seattle parks | West Seattle schools
ercolinicertif.jpg

The folks working on Ercolini Park on SW Alaska just west of The Junction are in line for a $90,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund Award from the city — this isn’t a giveaway, but a hard-fought win that’s only possible when community members commit time and money to projects, enough to impress city leaders to chip in. Ercolini Park organizer Bill Barna says they have a little more fundraising to do — $6K worth — you can go to the Ercolini Park website to find out how to contact them to chip in $ (or anything else the project needs). Congratulations also are in order to Gatewood Elementary School; the next phase of its playground project also is in line for a $90K matching-fund grant. (Full list of matching-fund projects citywide, including a South Park skatepark, is readable here.)

Gatewood townhouse tussle gets a citywide spotlight

Less than a week after we told you about the deal that ended the fight over the clump of townhomes going up (one nearly complete building, shown below) at the SW foot of Gatewood Hill, the situation gets ink in this week’s Stranger (one correction, the church wasn’t demolished; the property had belonged to Gatewood Baptist Church across the street and was sold along with it, but the developers re-sold the church to Seattle International; also the arrival of equipment wasn’t the first word of the development — we posted here 3 months earlier when the permit applications were filed). P.S.: You can expect work to start any second now on the final disputed row of townhomes (permit just issued); the selling agents have just planted a big sign plugging the “Seattle Townhome Team“; and developer Dan Duffus is on the panel for a city-organized “Forum on Housing Affordability” this Friday.

gatewddvl.jpg

Liberty sooner or Liberty later: Meeting #3 tonight

One year ago tomorrow, the old Alki Statue of Liberty was taken down and trucked away. nwartsstatuephoto2.jpgTonight at the monthly Alki Community Council meeting, it’s a third round of discussion about what could, should, and might happen next. (This follows two meetings in the past 8 days organized by community members Libby and Paul Carr, who are trying to re-start the project to build a plaza around the recast statue; here’s our report on the first meeting; a WSB reader’s observations from the second one is in the comments here.) Parks Department rep Pamela Kliment, who’s collecting public comment on all this, tells us she’ll be at this meeting after having to skip the last one; so will the Carrs. It’s an important debate about a West Seattle icon; get in on it by going tonight (7 pm, Alki Community Center) or by e-mailing Kliment (click here).

Thanks & good night

Much more WS news to tell you about, but it’s going to have to wait till morning. For now, we close the night with words of thanks for polite WS drivers, from a WSB reader who hopes to see more of them:

I know that it’s been tough for commuters using Admiral Way lately.

From those of us living just off Admiral between 37th and 39th, I’d like to send out a thank you to the few drivers who have been kind enough to let us into and out of our neighborhood.

Some days (like Monday when I had to take my cat to the vet) I waited 10 minutes to turn right onto Admiral from 39th. Finally, one driver, a man in a black sedan, let me in. Special thanks to that driver!

Parade Countdown ’07: Reason #3 to see it Saturday

July 18, 2007 10:21 pm
|    Comments Off on Parade Countdown ’07: Reason #3 to see it Saturday
 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle festivals

smallerspud.jpgHey, leg lovers! Remember the virtual catcalls over the Spud mascot in our pic (photo back for an encore performance at right) from the Seafair Pirates Landing festivities weekend before last? The West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival American Legion Grand Parade lineup for Saturday morning promises the Spud mascot … you better be there just in case it’s The One With The Calves! (Reminders: #1, parade route here. #2, the 11 am parade is preceded by the Rotary Club Kiddies’ Parade, in which just about any junior WS-ite is welcome to participate — meet at Cali/Genesee by 10 am.)

Your tree, your plaque

We didn’t get pix during the Concert in the Park last night … so here now for your viewing pleasure now, belatedly, are the tree and plaque on the south side of Hiawatha Community Center, officially dedicated last night by Hizzoner in honor of West Seattle’s annexation centennial (so now can we secede? j/k): 

centtree1.jpg

 

centtree2.jpg

 

Toddler-friendly WS coffee shop?

A WSB reader stuck on this side of the bridge because of the Commute From Hell (see below) wonders if any WS coffee shop is toddler-friendly (play area, perhaps?). We have been to most if not all WS coffee shops in recent months and can’t recall any — but perhaps something has changed — anyone?

Life on Easy Street

This week’s Seattle Weekly has a mini-profile of the man who runs Easy Street, including his five fave records albums (what do we call them these days, anyway?) of all time.

Commute from hell

Was it a preview of Life Without The Viaduct? The Battery Street Tunnel closed for a while at peak commute time this morning because of an accident, and that meant an hour-plus from WS to downtown. Another reason to check traffic reports BEFORE you hit the road (oops).

clostunnl.jpg

Aliens over Alki?

A local internet-service pioneer (we remember hearing about his company way back when we got online in the early ’90s) keeps a blog about UFO sightings and ET encounters, after experiencing one himself. Today he has posted a photo he took at Alki on Monday, saying he thinks it shows a “teardrop-shaped UFO.” (Hmm, taken the same day it was reported a new “X-Files” movie might finally come to pass. The truth is out there … somewhere.)

Delay for Fauntleroy ferry wi-fi

July 18, 2007 6:49 am
|    Comments Off on Delay for Fauntleroy ferry wi-fi
 |   Fauntleroy | Transportation | West Seattle online

In June, the state said wi-fi service would be on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry run by July 16th. Didn’t happen. Now there’s a new date: August 13th.

Big Band, big fun

This morning’s rain was just a memory by the time the West Seattle Big Band opened its annual Hi-Yu Festival Concert in the Park tonight at Hiawatha. Excellent, eclectic program … preceded by West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician, who said a few things about his home ‘hood’s annexation centennial and noted a new commemorative tree and plaque on the south side of the community center. We caught a more interesting scene on the sidelines pre-concert, which we would have liked to have dubbed the dog ‘n’ pony show if only a canine had been present:

ponyandmayor.jpg

Then, the tunes. This was the first time we’ve ever seen/heard the WS Big Band, a volunteer group which donates its time and money to promote music in public schools.

bigband.jpg

More pix and notes from the concert, plus your next chance to catch the WSBB, after the click:Read More

Parade Countdown ’07: Reason #4 to see it Saturday

flamingos.jpgWe’re counting down to the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival American Legion Grand Parade this Saturday morning (on Cali, starting at Lander, ending at Edmunds). Reason #4 it’s worth your time: Humor! The Furry Faces Foundation promises a “Flamingo King and Queen” (probably closer to life-size than the PFs at right); legendary local tv clown JP Patches will be back; so will the Seafair Clowns, and the wonderful Red Hat Society, sub-billed as “Stewed Tomatoes.” Who can resist?

2 simple ways to help WS families

#1 — Buy a backpack (or more than one) and donate it to the West Seattle Helpline back-to-school backpack drive, under way right this very moment. They hope to hand out hundreds next month. Drop off the backpack(s) at Capers in The Junction, or at Helpline’s new HQ in the WS Community Resource Center, 35th & Morgan (Tues-Thurs, 10 am-2 pm).

#2 — Pre-order your copy of the new “Harry Potter” book from Square 1 Books in Jefferson Square before Friday, and $5 will go to WestSide Baby — plus you’ll get two tickets to a special “Harry Potter” event at the Admiral Theater on Friday. (It’s also not too soon to start gearing up for WestSide Baby’s “Stuff the Bus” diaper drive on 7/29!)

On the overpass and the internet

The first banner to appear on the Fauntleroy overpass since its last cleaning has also appeared online, thanks to the birthday girl’s proud dad.

Stop and smell the roses (and the lavender, and …)

rosetrio.jpgGreat news for garden lovers — organizers tell us tickets are still left for this weekend’s West Seattle Garden Tour. At your leisure, as long as it’s between 9 am and 5 pm Sunday, you will get to go gawk at “an eclectic mix of eight residential gardens” and hear from guest lecturer Marianne Binetti. You can even buy tickets online if you do it by tomorrow, or you can get tix in person up through tour day at a variety of locations including ArtsWest, West Seattle Nursery, Capers, True Value, and Metro Market.

Recycling, the final frontier

recyclebucket.gifWe’ve confessed before that food-waste recycling is the one type of recycling we just haven’t quite gotten on board with yet. Looks like we’re going to have to; reports this morning (Times here, Weekly here) say we’re all going to be paying for pickup in less than 2 years. We hate paying for something we’re not using. Like the basic cable channels we don’t watch. Wish tv channels could be purchased a la carte. But we digress. So, we’ll get with the program. Maybe Sustainable West Seattle has advice! (More on the city’s “zero waste strategy” here.)

Parade Countdown ’07: Reason #5 to see it Saturday

2006PocoParade15.jpgWith the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival American Legion Grand Parade just days away, your resident parade maniacs here have to kick the countdown machine into gear. And now that our favorite e-mail of the year — the sneak peek at the parade running order — has arrived, we can start with reason #5: More than 75 entries, including the only Seattle-area performance by the ever-wild Vancouver (B.C.) Motorcycle Police Drill Team (VPD photo at right from an ’06 appearance).

WS Gas Price Watch: When it’s good to be “below average”

gas0716.jpgWe haven’t updated WS gas prices for a while; the price situation has stayed relatively stable. Arco on Delridge by Home Depot retains the title of WS Gas Station With The Lowest Posted Price, $2.87 as of early this afternoon (photo left); more than half a dozen other stations are in the $2.90s. This all puts us way below the state that now has the highest prices in the nation (Nebraska!), and even below the national average.