West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
Late word from the Fauntleroy Community Association – Mayor Nickels won’t be able to appear at the community meeting in Fauntleroy a week from tomorrow, but THE MEETING IS STILL ON — with a very good (and powerful) surrogate — his righthand guy — Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis. Apparently the mayor has a sudden date to go to the nation’s capital to testify before an environmental committee in Congress.
The Times reports on this morning’s biodiesel-mania at Admiral Safeway. A member of the WSB posse managed to pop by for a photo. That’s Hizzoner on the right, amid the throng.)
We just learned a blogger trick: look for unusual local Craigslist ads to spotlight. We could resist almost everything … except this. (Hope someone finds it!) AFTERNOON UPDATE: Re-checked the ad, it’s now bannered “it’s been found.” Was it a WSB reader? We may never know.
Look for hubbub around the Admiral Safeway gas station sometime today. The P-I says a “news conference” is planned, with no less than Hizzoner on the guest list, to show off the station’s new biodiesel (fuel from veg oil) offering. We noticed it on the sign yesterday:
Check it out. And remember, if you are interested in helping — or at least monitoring — the campaign to save the Charlestown Cafe, you can join the Our Town/West Seattle group.
A city press release is out with official names for two West Seattle parks. No surprises, though — the site known as Junction Plaza will be Junction Plaza Park, and the site in the Delridge/Cottage Grove area is Cottage Grove Park.
If you want to learn how to really bake, it appears you can do so with the help of the champion chef who runs Bakery Nouveau in The Junction — he’s offering classes, according to BN’s relatively new webpage.
If you’re registered to vote, you might get your viaduct ballot before the week is over. In today’s viaduct news (so far), the guv still says it’s Replacement-A-Duct or nothing — no, wait, she even ruled out “nothing.” And if you want to read all the million-dollar fine print before your ballot arrives, the official “voters’ guide” is now available on the city website.
28 mph wind at Alki Point as of a few minutes ago. Could get a little worse tonight, says the forecast. Put that flashlight by the pillow.
Tomorrow would have been Kurt Cobain’s 40th birthday.
(Though we categorized this under “Not West Seattle but [etc.]” — he did have a WS link … a fascination with one of West Seattle High School’s movie-star alumna, Frances Farmer, after whom he named a song but apparently not his only child.)
High Point-to-Delridge drivers, beware: Cindi from the Morgan Community Association alerts us to more upcoming traffic woes; this excerpt is from the latest Morgan Junction e-mail newsletter, quoting the major construction company on the High Point project:
“SW Morgan / Sylvan Way will most likely be closed for a short period (one to two weeks) during late February/early March. This closure is being planned in conjunction with work taking place on an unrelated development east of High Point. This coordination will minimize the impacts to the neighbors and surrounding area. SW Morgan / Sylvan Way will then be temporarily closed for a longer period (several months) this summer to allow for complete rebuild of the roadway and utilities associated with our project. We will provide notification to local residents and businesses and will have a detour route well-indicated. Every effort will be made to minimize the duration of street closures.”
We’ve been asked before about the deplorable condition of Sylvan Way closer to Delridge; Cindi is checking on whether repairs to that stretch might be included in those summer closures.
Also from the P-I: a little hand-wringing about the teardown trend — not homes-to-townhomes, which seems to be West Seattle’s most popular flavor, but homes-to-bigger-homes. Our favorite quote in the story (which doesn’t feature WS but still seems relevant) is an explanation of why people are moving from the burbs back to the city:
“It’s the commute,” he said. “If you’re not working at Microsoft, why would you want to live in Issaquah?
(For us, the commute is only one of about 6,955 reasons we don’t want to live in the burbs, but that’s another post.)
Great Presidents Day article in the P-I, set at the retirement home near Westwood Village.
Just saw bold new T-shirts on the “Walking on Logs” figures alongside the Fauntleroy end of the high bridge — bearing the official Rat City Rollergirls logo. Bet that’s in honor of their season-opener next weekend.
If you see this before 5 pm — a big weekend event that didn’t make it to C Ro’s roundup (linked below) is happening right now — the West Seattle Rock Club’s annual Gemboree, at the Masonic Temple on 40th. Free!
A list of great/not-so-great moments in Seattle transportation history that’s in the Times today includes this line:
1984  Scandal-plagued high-level West Seattle Bridge survives referendum and opens.
Had no idea, about the scandal OR the vote — just the freighter crash that accelerated the bridge work. Online, we found a little bit about the scandal (design problems, city employees getting fired over them), but can’t find more about the vote. Old-timers, any enlightenment? (We weren’t here in the eighties.)
Quiet night, weather’s turned miserable again, nothing in WS seems to be making news right about now. So how about a little discussion? Tell us about your favorite shop (non-food/beverage, please, we’ve talked about all THAT enough for a while) in The Junction. We’ll start — Pegasus Book Exchange. You can take in books to sell, and you get credit applicable to part of the price of anything there you want to buy, same day or even years into the future. So what’s your fave? Leave a comment!
One result of a No/No viaduct vote might be the so-called retrofit. Viaduct, The Blog coined a new catch phrase for it: “Repair & Prepare.” LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE: Just read at Friends of Seattle that the 34th District Democrats decided this week not to endorse the rebuild (so did they go pro-tunnel, or No/No?).
Yes, we know new owners have taken over Huling. But the fallout from the recent scandal continues, in little ways as well as big, such as this blogger deciding to finally write, in furious detail, about a previous experience at the dealership.
If you didn’t see the mobile light-up signboards today, here’s the warning in writing: Some WS Bridge ramps will be out of commission for a while 2 am-10 am Saturday.
We’ve been slacking lately on our previously reliable Friday roundups of weekend events. Luckily, today, Alki’s contributor to Metroblogging Seattle, C Ro, did it for us — although with a lot more drinking opportunities!
Two bits of good news:
–The P-I says (opening with a couple of West Seattle anecdotes) car theft is way down.
-The minutes from the last SW District Council meeting say tagging is way down because cops have recently nabbed no fewer than 10 graffiti vandals.
Don’t know if we’re ready for another community meeting till we truly recover from WSDPM, but this one could be good. Same location as WSDPM — The Hall at Fauntleroy. The Fauntleroy Community Association has enticed West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician to travel a few miles south from his Admiral home base to answer citizen questions at 6:30 pm March 1 (but will it be over in time for GA?). The FCA site asks that you e-mail questions, however, so we’ll have to get some clarity on whether there will be any actual audience open-mike time at this event. (We still have the same question we had two months ago — why was he virtually invisible when thousands of us were without power for days after the windstorm?)
| Comments Off on Mayor cancels but meeting’s still on