West Seattle, Washington
19 Friday
You can make your opinions about the viaduct measures, and other transportation issues (including future tax votes), known via this new “opinionnaire.” (!)
Check this out. Now our heads really are spinning (along with our wheels).
Yet more details in a long investigative Times article today, suggesting criminal and unethical activity among employees at Huling went far beyond the infamous case that broke wide open last month. (Last part of the story says the new owners “will not try to undo the sale” but are accelerating the sign-changing process, though we haven’t seen anything new since what we posted two weeks ago.)
Promise we won’t waste your time by mentioning this every day it continues. But since it does seem confusing and some have asked … the Metroblogging Seattle “best blog” poll is an NCAA spoof. They named “regional brackets” that have nothing to do with the physical locations of the blogs they chose to put in their polls — so that’s why West Seattle Blog wound up in the “Ballard Regional” (after winning the “City Beat Qualifier”). To vote (continuing six more days), go here and click the little circle next to our blog’s name in the box titled “Ballard Matchup 1.” OK, thanks again, and now on to bigger things.
We were just reminded that it’s been exactly a year since the developers of Fauntleroy Place east of The Junction announced they’d signed Whole Foods. Six months since their land-use permit application. Looks like they’re not through the red tape yet — another Design Review Board meeting is tentatively set for the project in a month. Seems somewhat behind schedule, since the developer’s own fancy PR sheet suggested (page 11) groundbreaking ’06, completion mid-’07.
Mentioned earlier that Junction Art Walk organizers were hoping to finally get a break from bad weather. Tonight’s the night; forecast’s fine; get out ‘n’ show ’em some love!
Doesn’t the whole Viaduct thing seem more like a bad movie every day? Usually a comedy; hopefully not eventually a tragedy. Today’s plot twist: The No-Tunnel-No-Way state legislative leader starts making Third Option noises. Incidentally, the official ballot measures we’ll be voting on by-mail-only (boo) are now online (here’s tunnel yes/no; here’s replacement-a-duct yes/no).
On behalf of your humble WSB team, people who in school would never even have been allowed within 100 miles of a popularity competition, thanks for helping us win the first round of our “bracket” in Metroblogging Seattle’s NCAA-style blog popularity tournament — now it’s Round 2; please take a sec to go here and vote for us (we’re up against somebody really good this time so we’re underdogs). This round is apparently running for a whole week. Thank you! (P.S. We will be especially touched if you tell your friends, neighbor, parents, therapist, whomever to vote for us too. Look, it could be worse, at least we’re not asking you to support our kid’s school by buying The Fundraiser Wrapping Paper From Beyond.)
WSB comment denizen “Jiggers” wrote to say Jak’s Grill in The Junction (trivia: they used to be in Admiral) is now open for lunch, Tues-Fri. (He recommends their burgers.)
Just posted at the Seattle Weekly site: new information about the victim in the Huling Brothers car-salesmen scandal, suggesting the accused bilkers/burglars weren’t the only ones who did him wrong.
We mentioned the city’s first “warning shot” about this just after Christmas. Now, shall we say, they’re barking more loudly: Buy a license for each and every one of your pets, NOW, or else. The “known delinquent pet owners” and “patrolling neighborhoods” rhetoric in the latest press release makes us wonder if Critter Cops might be driving past our house, spotting our all-indoors-all-the-time cat sunning itself on a window ledge, then leaping out of the car to bang on our door and demand proof “Fluffy” (pseudonym) is licensed.
The proprietress of Divina writes, “I think that if we have any kind of storm this Thursday, I will cry.” See, the 2nd Thursday is Junction Art Walk night, and the past two “second Thursdays” both were beset with cataclysmic weather (Dec. 14 rain/wind, Jan. 11 snow). But TOMORROW, February’s 2nd Thursday, sounds tame. Which is good, because this Art Walk celebrates young artists. Here’s the list of venues and artists:Read More
… seems to be the message Seattle Public Schools can take away from the “special election.” Both props are passing in a big way.
Not the owner of a business that’s moved out, if you are interested in its old space, apparently. Got e-mail from Emerald City Locksmith, which (as we mentioned last week) has left its JuNo — sorry, we mean, north-of-Junction-location. The e-mailer claims to be getting besieged by calls and respectfully asks everyone to please stop, so (he?) can finish working on the move to a new Harbor Ave location. If you’re interested in the space, the e-mail goes on to say, Landlord Management Inc. is who to call, NOT ECL.
Turnout at our precinct was pretty lousy by the time we voted at midday — only one other voter turning out for the school propositions. If you missed our thoughts on them a few days ago, just scroll down this page. Whether you vote no/yes, yes/yes, whatever, they do have “validation requirements,” which means TURNOUT. Only takes a minute. (Meantime, in a much less important but much more fun vote, thank you for helping us win our “bracket” in the Metroblogging Seattle blog-popularity contest — now we advance to the second round, so we’ll be begging you again Thursday to take a sec to vote, again, for WSB.)
A great, informative discussion in the comments here, after the Charlestown Cafe site/Petco project Design Review Board meeting, has led to action. Admiral Neighborhood leader Mark Wainwright has set up a Yahoo! group (with a cool logo) as a rallying point for those concerned about the development (and the way things are going around here in general). Go sign up!
2 hours and 40 minutes, but nobody was really fired up till the very end … shame, since by then, about 95% of what started as an SRO crowd had long since fled into the fog.Read More
So the very last speaker at The Windstorm/Snowpocalypse/Disaster-Prep County Council Meeting in Fauntleroy tonight was a literal space cadet; yet his comment was the truest of the night. A onetime political candidate now best known as Goodspaceguy (name changed to reflect his interest in space colonization), said something along the lines of this: “Honorable Councilmembers, a whole lot of people got up and left, disgusted, because they waited and waited and didn’t get a chance to talk. I respectfully suggest that next time you let the PEOPLE talk first, so that if they have to leave after a while, they can do it when it’s the presenters’ turn, not theirs.” A-men. Not a single NON-politico/bureaucrat got a chance to open her/his mouth until well past an hour in. More in a bit.
Last warning — 7 pm tonight, The Hall at Fauntleroy, our West Seattle rep on the King County Council, Dow Constantine, brings the entire council to WS to look back at our windstorm woes, and look ahead to how to avoid similar trouble next time. Councilmember Constantine’s office tells us this will NOT be televised live on public access, so if you wanna know, you gotta go. (It will be taped for broadcast online and on the air tomorrow.)
We mentioned last week that work has begun across the street from Gatewood Baptist Church, where land sold by the church is turning into “townhomes” (first noted here almost 3 months ago, then re-noted when multiple permits were issued just before Thanksgiving for four addresses all assigned to the one site – 7200 Cali, 7202 Cali, 7206 Cali, 7208 Cali). Now, with yet another permit JUST assigned to a fifth address at the site (7204 Cali) and the heavy equipment having arrived (photos below), neighborhood watchdogs have uncovered the magnitude of the project — contending this is ONE semi-big development that should have been subject to public hearings and a more intensive review process, instead of sliding through under the guise of multiple small projects. They’re conferring frantically about what they can do to get construction put on hold. They also say the work has opened “a natural spring” that’s causing water trouble at the site and may be reason alone for city review. They’d be interested in hearing from any land-use experts with thoughts on all this. (Side note, the house hidden in the trees at the upper right of the top photo is described by neighbors as an old “hunting lodge.” Who knew?)
As we noted when we discovered Metblogs Seattle planned to run a blog-popularity contest of sorts, it’s contrived … but nonetheless, it’s happening. And our appearance in it is apparently TODAY ONLY (unless we win this round and move on). So please take a sec, click here and vote for us in the first part of this poll. Thanks.
Highlighting here because you’d miss ’em unless you happen to check back on certain comment threads: First, the closure of El Chalan (ex-Ezell’s, ex-Wendy’s, south of White Center) is explained in a new comment on this post; second, those late-night half-closures on the WS Bridge are demystified by a commenter here. (Regarding the El Chalan site, records from the King County Parcel Viewer confirm the “Nickels Brothers Partnership” ownership — and an entry on this page from King County court records suggests some sort of recent court action was involved, elaborated on somewhat here.)
Second-to-last reminder: Tomorrow night, The Hall @ Fauntleroy, 7 pm, the entire County Council plus reps of Seattle City Light among others, our chance to hear them explain why we were in the dark so long after the December windstorm, and what’s changed (if anything) to prevent a rerun “next time” … we’ll of course post a report here afterward, but a full house would sure make a nice statement to TPTB.
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