West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
Two months after Wind-tastrophe ’06, a new city report is out (here’s the city press release, with a link to the full report). Best quote is on page 11: “Seattle City Light should develop a more robust emergency power restoration plan for storms.” No comment.
A little too cold for us personally to get out on the water (ice on the car roof this morning, yikes), but this photo (thanks to Bob Bollen) is immensely cheering anyway:
-Want to hear the experts discuss the viaduct situation, present and future? Tonight’s the big forum at West Seattle HS (6:30-8 pm) with panelists including City Council member Jan Drago and Seattle Department of Transportation boss Grace Crunican.
-Just two nights till you can get the mayor’s office perspective from Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, courtesy of the Fauntleroy Community Association.
-Ex-govs Gary Locke and Dan Evans declare themselves anti-viaduct (though not necessarily pro-tunnel) in today’s Times.
–MIDMORNING ADD: The No Tunnel Alliance says it will “rally” 4:30 pm-6:30 pm today at 35th & Fauntleroy.
For everyone kind enough to have been voting for us in the seemingly endless saga of the Metroblogging Seattle popularity poll (we’re in it too deep now to quit) — the original polling service (dPolls), died, and they’ve just relaunched our part of the poll here. (We’ve updated the page that links to the tab atop this page, too.) Thanks for your help!
Or the front SEVERED lines, anyway … those caught up in crime-caused phonelessness (see below) include one of the blogs linked from our Other Blogs in WS page, Cracks in the Facade.
The wire-theft epidemic has not only hit another utility, it also cut off phone service for hundreds of folks in WS.
If you’re seeing this in early afternoon, stay clear of Fauntleroy/California/Morgan for a while … lots of fire engines checking out something (our witness doesn’t see any smoke so we’re not sure what) at the renovation-in-progress bank, and that means traffic tieups till they’re done.
A reader e-mailed us with word that Retroactive Kids is leaving its space north of Morgan Junction and moving to Columbia City; the store’s site and blog (with construction pix from the new space) confirm it. Perhaps no surprise, since the three-business building it’s in has been for sale for a while.
–Interesting explanation from another “no and hell no” voter.
–Pix of the anti-viaduct “kids’ parade.”
-The Stranger rebuts The Times’ “voting ‘no/no’ is stupid” editorial.
-The Urban Environmentalist says pro-tunnel and pro-Third Option folks should bond.
The WS Farmers’ Market is on hiatus till April, but there’s still somewhere to load up on great produce for cheap — we just noticed Tony’s is back from its winter break! Sample of today’s prices — 69 cents per huge head of garlic, less than a buck for a head of lettuce (half the current grocery store price).
It’s neck-and-neck; our neck is currently the one behind … we’re not going to be able to pull off the win without you … you can vote here once a day from each and every place you go online … and we’ve added a handy tab at the top of this page (see VOTE DAILY FOR WSB tab) for quick access. Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
After the latest update from the guy opening Garlic Jim’s in The Junction, we asked if he could share any interior-in-progress photos, since they’ll be cultivating sit-down biz as well. So he sent a few — including this one showing where monitors are going in over tables:
You might have noticed this sign that just went up in The Junction, over Matador. Seems to be a personal-training franchise, according to this press release (the company’s own site isn’t working at the moment.)
We had heard the Bear Under The Bridge had been joined by an owl, but hadn’t gotten a chance to seek it out with our camera. No need now; somebody else captured it.
Just when we thought we knew every square inch of West Seattle … sharp reminders that we don’t, not by a long shot. Drove out to look for something that somebody e-mailed us about; haven’t quite found it yet, but we did find incredible curving semi-secret streets on the bluffside over Beach Drive (such as 54th south of Genesee), stretches of road we never knew existed (Hillcrest to Andover north of Genesee is pretty wild too, especially the steep slope on Andover). Next time you’re bored with the same ol’ scenery, check ’em out (but not in a big car — they abruptly dead-end with driveways).
Since we’ve got our ballots and you probably do too, let’s call this the first weekend of the election, which could be dubbed Pointlessness at the Polls, even though we’re not going to the “polls,” aka “polling places” (however, the big envelope of dead tree matter that accompanied the ballot reveals we can drop off the ballots rather than entrust them to USPS, so we’re going for that option — here in WS, a dropoff spot will be open at High Point Community Center on 3/8, 3/9, 3/10, 3/12, and 3/13 **only** — before 3/8, the only dropoff available is downtown). As a service to anyone still deciding whether to go no/no, yes/yes, no/yes, or yes/no, here are today’s related headlines: “Tunnel lite” MIGHT work (Times), Scare tactics in the election? EEK! (Times), N/N wins Stranger poll (Slog), P-I editorial board boss sort of plugs retrofitting (P-I). P.S. To hear in-person debating on all this, check out the WS Chamber’s transportation forum at WSHS Tuesday night.
Interesting tidbits in the city’s latest sheaf of Land Use Permits/Applications:
-Part of the “greater than the sum of its parts” townhome project across from Gatewood Baptist Church needs an environmental review. We non-experts are guessing that’s why the sudden sign went up. But is it enough for the upset neighbors?
-Speaking of GBC, its new home (formerly Calvary Lutheran) has spawned two applications (here and here); both appear related to its auxiliary child-care enterprise.
-A bit to the north, sign installation appears to be next for the ex-Doxa home of Mars Hill-West Seattle.
So much going on this weekend (and slightly beyond), we couldn’t resist. Full list ‘n’ links on the next click.Read More
-Ryan, owner of the forthcoming Garlic Jim’s in The Junction, says the grand opening next month will now kick off with an 11 am ribboncutting on March 19 featuring WS-residing City Council member Tom Rasmussen. Ryan also notes he’s still looking for drivers (with tips, he says, they could earn $18-ish an hour).
-Not even a week after its closure, the ex-Guadalajara Hacienda is already sadly signless:
… we got our ballots today; did you? Half your WSB team has taken its stand: No And Hell No (even Susan Paynter is going that way). What DO we support, you ask? Retrofit. If you want to review other campaigns, try No Elevated, or No Tunnel, or No New Viaduct, among others (like the too-young-to-vote view).
And only YOU can get us into the Final Four. That seemingly endless blog popularity poll at Metroblogging Seattle has just moved to the next round (recap, it’s pretending to be like the NCAA basketball tournament, brackets and all) and YOU HELPED US GET THERE! But we need your vote again. Please go here and vote for WSB. Today, tomorrow, every day for a week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We’ll give you the trophy. (Or is there one?)
Maybe this is how all car salesperson “help wanted” ads read. But the “no experience” part could probably be subtitled, “especially not if you have HB on your resume.”
On the heels of yesterday’s biodiesel-mania, this seems to fit into a bit of a theme. Tonight at Camp Long, you can check out a free screening (donations welcome) of “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, with guests on hand from FlexCar, GreenCar, and the Seattle EV Association.
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