West Seattle, Washington
13 Friday
Five months after our last update on that empty lot along California just north of Morgan Junction (previous WSB coverage here), Knoll Development has just been issued construction permits for the four addresses at the site where townhomes and live-to-work units are to be built: at 6021, at 6025, at 6029, and at 6031. Looks like this is the Knoll website page about the development (this is just up the block from the live/work units that will be part of the 6053 California development).
UPDATED WITH NEW ROUTE SINCE ORIGINAL POST AT 9:49 AM: As mentioned earlier this morning, the Southwest Precinct wanted us to share this so that you will know ahead of time and be able to help contribute to the safety of the “Inconvenient Ride” students and their bicycling escorts, who could number up to 200, as well as their police escorts. This is the route they are to follow after a welcoming celebration at Chief Sealth High School in mid-afternoon, as they then head on to tonight’s Global to Local benefit downtown. The route has changed a little since our first post an hour ago:
Starting approximately 4:15 pm Tuesday:
From Chief Sealth, east on Thistle Street, then north on 16th Avenue, west on Myrtle, and north again on 21st Avenue. We will veer west on Croft Place, then Juneau in order to head north on 26th Avenue, then pass by the Gatewood bus riders at Delridge Community Center. Following a brief hello, we’ll continue on to the Lower West Seattle Bridge.
(From earlier update, the rest of the route will be:
Remain on Bike Trail over West Seattle Low Level Bridge
Cross Spokane St. at 11th Ave SW, continue East on trail to E Marginal Way S
Head North on E Marginal Way S, becomes Alaskan Way S
Continue North on Alaskan Way S to Spring St.
Head East on Spring St., up the hill to 3rd Avenue
Head North on 3rd Avenue to Union St.
Turn W on Union and into Benaroya Loading Dock – North side of Benaroya Hall, entrance is off of Union St.)We will be riding single file, observing bike safety rules and etiquette, and will be accompanied by a number of expert riders, including some from Cascade Bicycle Club.
1:37 PM P.S.: Thanks to “Que” for sending us the KING5 noon news link.
TONIGHT: 6:30 pm, Chief Sealth High School, the next public meeting regarding the Denny-Sealth construction project — as described by Westwood Neighborhood Council president Steve Fischer, “The School District has issued their Environmental Determination; the Appeal period closes shortly. Copies of the Environmental Checklist will be available for the community to review. For those who are interested, they should attend the meeting and see what the District is proposing.”
TOMORROW: The Seattle School Board agenda includes several items related to the Denny-Sealth project – somewhat technical but if you follow the links to the attached documents, there are a few more project-plan specifics to be learned.
Archived WSB coverage of Denny-Sealth can be found here.
Thanks to Arbor Heights Elementary School teacher Mark Ahlness for sharing that video of his third-graders (who can be found online at roomtwelve.com), decorating “Earth Day” grocery bags and then delivering them to the Roxbury Safeway. Ahlness says Arbor Heights kids decorated more than 300 bags this year, the 16th consecutive year of their Earth Day partnership with Safeway on this project, and the 15th anniversary of the Earth Day Groceries Project, which Mark notes began at Arbor Heights. If you shop at that store today, you’ll likely get one of these bags. Meantime, today is the day the five local students on “An Inconvenient Ride” are expected back in Seattle, with the homecoming festivities taking them downtown tonight for the “Global to Local” benefit at Benaroya Hall. 8:11 AM UPDATE: Just got word from the Southwest Precinct that the Inconvenient Ride-rs may have up to 200 bicyclists accompanying them on their last leg, and the precinct wants to alert you to their route, for safety’s sake – will post more on that a little bit later this morning.
9:45 am today is the time set for a statewide earthquake drill, as part of Disaster Preparedness Month (which West Seattle neighborhood groups are highlighting with a focus on neighborhood readiness): The state has handy info here on how to handle this type of drill for home, office, school.
West Seattle photographer Eric Bell sent that shot with the following musings, including one similar to our headline:
After seeing this, I know without a shadow of doubt that Christmas is over, but then again … was Mama caught kissing Santa Claus and a jealous party caught ’em in the act? Or is this a futile attempt by persons unknown to hold back the chilly-weather gods? Maybe “Proudly Made in Oklahoma” was stamped on his butt. Whatever the reason for Santa’s demise, does he deserve to be dumped head first in an ill-fitting trash can? By the time I found him he was cold and there was no pulse.
We love sharing your pictures … send ’em to editor@westseattleblog.com …
As reported here last week, one of the new features at the July 11-13 Summer Fest in The Junction will be an “Art Dive” that’s being organized by Twilight Art Collective. Tonight, the folks at Twilight asked us to share this call for participants:
In an effort to inject even more LOCAL ART in this year’s Summer Fest community celebration, this year we will be introducing “ART DIVE”! Art Dive will be a flea-market-like area designated for local artists to sell their goods. 8′ x 2′ tables in the Art Dive tents will be just $125 for the three-day weekend. The Art Dive will have a PRIME LOCATION on California Avenue just South of the North Performance Stage at the Oregon/California Ave intersection! ALL artists are welcome and encouraged to apply!! Just send Twilight an e-mail at info@twilightart.net and put “ART DIVE” in the subject line, and we’ll forward the application to you.
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Twilight, by the way, just launched its redesigned website; you can see it here.
That photo and video clip show the house at 5645 21st SW (map) where flames did significant interior damage within the past hour. Firefighters tell WSB the house was a “vacant rental”; nobody was inside, nobody hurt, they don’t know yet how the fire started — damage was particularly heavy in the living room, and firefighters had to “ventilate” the roof. Investigators are just getting to work on looking for the cause.
One witness in line of sight reports “significant smoke”; big callout headed that way, we are too.
Latest move by the City Council in its pursuit of a new parks levy – which the mayor reportedly wants to delay – as the old one expires, is the appointment of a citizens’ advisory council. We recognize at least three names on the list as West Seattle citizen activists (Pete Spalding, Bruce Bentley, and Sharonn Meeks); while we crosscheck for other WS ties, here’s the full list of members:Read More
Or so the latest forecast says. Hope so, before we all go nuts. We started an interview on Delridge at 5:35 pm under blazing brilliant sun … an hour later, thick gray clouds and cold rain.
As we reported last week after covering the Morgan Community Association‘s quarterly meeting, some controversy remains over the Parks Department‘s plan to save space for a skateboard “feature” at the soon-to-be-built Myrtle Reservoir park. At that meeting, Parks Department project manager Virginia Hassinger suggested a firsthand look at some existing skateboarding facilities might assuage concerns. MoCA’s Cindi Barker is proposing organizing a tour this Saturday if enough people are interested. Here’s more from Cindi:
One of the suggestions made near the end of last week’s Morgan Community Association meeting was for people who had not been to see a skatepark in action to take a “field trip” to get some info. I’d be willing to organize such a trip, something like in a caravan to visit the Ballard Bowl (4,200 sq ft bowl), the Burien Skate park (a 7,500-square-foot skate park, Nakano Associates, architect, coincidentally the same architect hired to do the Myrtle Reservoir Park itself) and a third park mentioned by Virginia Hassinger at the MoCA meeting, which sounds smaller in scale and is more melded in with the surrounding park rather than a pure bowl design. If neighbors can observe the skate parks in operation, it might answer some questions and give neighbors a good idea of what they can expect. I realize that the next Myrtle Reservoir Park design meeting on May 1 isn’t about the skatepark, but it sure is sounding like we should know what to consider around this proposed skatepark feature. I would propose a Saturday morning, maybe running from 10 to 2, to cover drive time and allow us to spend about 45 minutes at each park. If people could comment to this posting, it would give me an idea of how feasible or well attended this would be.
No obligation, but if you’re potentially interested, say so in the comments here and we’ll let you know about “next steps.” This could be a good prelude to the next public meeting about the Myrtle park, which is 7 pm May 1 at High Point Community Center.
That’s a photo of 15-year-old Sydney Hess, a West Seattle High School student who is missing, according to a family friend who asked us to post her photo and a request for help in getting her safely back home. She is believed to have run away on Friday night and did not show up for school today. The family asks: “If you have seen her or have any information about her whereabouts, please call Heather Hess at 206/291-4933 or contact the Seattle Police Department [Southwest Precinct] at 206/733-9800.” 6:48 PM UPDATE: Word is that she is back home safe.
Early Sunday, we posted 3 reader reports about gunshots at 17th/Trenton and promised to follow up with the Southwest Precinct. Just heard back from Sgt. Jeff Durden, who shared this info from the report: A 22-year-old was having a party for a friend’s birthday; “uninvited guests” showed up, a fight ensued, “several rounds” were fired into the air. The shooter(s) took off. No arrests, no injury, no property damage … no description of the suspects’ car, either. Regarding readers’ reports that this house had problems before, Sgt. Durden, who leads the Community Police Team, says it wasn’t on their radar but CPT officer Adonis Topacio will investigate — that’s who to contact (info here) if you have info to share.
That photo taken a short time ago shows the work that’s under way right now to dismantle this wall put up earlier this year along Harbor Ave (without proper permits, according to the city) east of Salty’s – here’s the photo we took last month:
As we wrote at the time, the city had posted “stop-work” orders earlier in March; the project is NOT related to Salty’s at all — it’s an industrial site with a different owner. We have messages out to city inspectors to try to find out more about the site’s status.
SUSTAINABLE WEST SEATTLE: Last general meeting before SWS presents its first-ever Sustainability Festival (May 4, NE corner of Alaska/44th, right across from the Farmers’ Market, lots more info here) – tonight’s meeting is at 7 pm, Camp Long.
RESCHEDULED PARK MEETING: Quick reminder, the rescheduled Hiawatha Community Center open house/meeting to get your take on the Seattle Parks & Rec Dept.’s future (the original meeting was postponed a week ago because of floor fumes) is tonight @ 6:30. Last West Seattle opportunity is Thursday night @ High Point CC. What’s the meeting all about? See our report on the one @ Southwest CC last Thursday. (If you can’t attend a meeting, share your thoughts online by 4/30.)
We told you two weeks ago about the new community-organic-farming effort on a plot of land off Delridge known as “Longfellow Creek Garden.” Today, the LCG blog has photos from the hugely successful work party on Saturday to clear the land, plus a short list of what’s on the agenda next. (That site, by the way, is one of 3 just added today to our “Other Blogs in West Seattle” page, which features links to 144 WS-based blogs, after a frequently updated digest of excerpts from the sites’ latest updates.)
The big day – dozens of sales all over West Seattle, a shopper/seller’s dream! — is Saturday, May 10; registration ends this Friday night 4/25 so we can work on the map, get packets to the participants, and intensify the areawide publicity blitz. Join the fun! Registration links and more info are on the official West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day website.
7 weeks ago, we took a baseline check 
of the regular/premium prices at every gas station in West Seattle, when it looked like prices were about to start another relatively steep rise. Tonight, we went back for another WS-wide survey, 
just to take more of a macro look at what’s happened in those seven weeks. The lowest price for regular is still where it usually is, Arco at Delridge/Orchard ($3.47, left, up 22 cents in 7 weeks); the highest price is at the Shell on California in Morgan Junction ($3.71, right, up 24 cents in 7 weeks); and one gas price in WS has passed $4 (premium at Admiral Chevron, $4.05, up 22 cents). Here’s the full survey, regular and premium prices at each station, listed lowest-to-highest, followed by where that station was seven weeks ago:Read More
When we dropped by the Morgan Junction “get to know your neighborhood gathering place in case of catastrophe” table at Thriftway this afternoon, one of the items Cindi Barker (right, with Helen Daniel) showed us really caught our eye, and she says it had many table visitors abuzz too: The Duracell 3-in-1 hand-crank light/radio/charger:
We have a hand-crank light/radio around here somewhere, but the charger is a new and welcome addition — this sort of gizmo would cover you in a true regional catastrophe. Cindi says she found the Duracell 2-pack for $12 at Costco; we’re going to check local hardware stores – also found a variety of similar items online by several different manufacturers. Meantime, next scheduled disaster-prep-info site/time is for Junction-area residents, at Ercolini Park, 10 am-2 pm next Sunday; check this map for the location or for a place/time nearer your home.
From the P-I: 32nd SW burglar(s) made off with $7,500 in athletic shoes.
From CL: Laptop stolen from a car in The Junction, but the owner doesn’t care so much about the laptop, just really needs the accompanying hard-to-replace notebook back.
One month since we debuted a new WSB section — featuring (note the “tab” link on our header) stories from the popular book “West Seattle 101” by Lori Hinton. 
We’re continuing to add to the list of “West Seattle 101” stories available on WSB: today, we’ve added two more, both fun places to go and both deeply linked to West Seattle history: the Log House Museum on Alki, and Husky Deli in The Junction. You can find all nine “West Seattle 101” features published here so far by going to the WS 101 on WSB “home page”; more to come!
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