West Seattle, Washington
11 Wednesday
At left is “Daisy,” the missing Boston Terrier whose photo is on almost every utility pole, store window, and bulletin board in West Seattle — she’s even the subject of a spray-painted bedsheet hung over a section of waterfront railing. We posted her photo on our Pets page, and there it stayed till we got a note Friday from a friend of Daisy’s owner Dez, saying Daisy’s still missing and by the way, not only is Dez dealing with this frantic, relentless search, she’s also 8 months pregnant. We thought you might want to hear from Dez herself, so we talked with her Friday evening at her workplace, the Forsythe Studio salon in The Junction:
As the posting on our Pets page says, Daisy got out quite by accident. A reward is offered; call 206-935-1865 or cell phone number 206-227-7090. if you’ve seen her.
Thanks to Capers for again hosting the quarterly West Seattle Community Recognition Awards get-together, with complimentary coffee, tea, and brownies like last time (January report here) – and thanks to everybody who attended – more pix, and the winners, ahead:Read More
Next Tuesday is homecoming day for the half-dozen local students (and their adult chaperones) who’ve been on a cross-country environmental-awareness bicycle trip dubbed “An Inconvenient Ride” (we interviewed them on video a few days before they left). Their trip officially ends with the Global to Local benefit for Project Earth Care (a West Seattle-based initiative) at Benaroya Hall downtown on Tuesday night. We just noticed a few new updates on the IR website — some humorous road musings on the main page, additions to the “trip log” page where the kids tell their stories, and added links on their media-coverage page. According to the route page, they’re in Northern California tonight.
Just a reminder, you’re invited to Capers in The Junction 7-8 pm for the second quarterly informal get-together to announce the latest West Seattle Community Recognition Awards recipients. The three of us will be there, as will WSB Forum Community members selling tickets for tomorrow night’s raffle, plus – treats! Come say hi if you can. 8:41 PM UPDATE: Great crowd, fun event. We’ll post with photos and winner announcements in a bit.
People returning home tonight from work to the Alki neighborhood along and around SW Stevens and 59th/60th environs will notice many new markings like that (as well as the word “locate”) on the curbs near driveways and corners, thanks to a city Transportation Department worker who was out there, wielding a can of white spray paint, this morning.
This is a busy parking street about to get busier, with the sign in the photo above heralding a teardown we’ve mentioned before, five units going up in its place, directly across 59th from Alki Elementary/Playground/Playfield. But the city marking project — delineating the areas around driveways/corners that must be kept clear — is the first step toward getting cars out of some illegal spaces on the street, for safety’s sake:Read More
So says the National Weather Service in its latest “forecast discussion,” for those of you tracking Possible April Snow Panic ’08. (If ANY kind of weather is really possible, we vote for 75/sunny.)
Last night we published a letter on which we were cc’d, from Denise Sharify of High Point’s Neighborhood House, regarding some long-fought-for High Point-area pedestrian-safety improvements that are apparently finally on the way. This afternoon, we got the official details from SDOT communications boss Rick Sheridan and wanted to share that with you too:Read More
That’s a photo by Ann Summa, whose “Punk Los Angeles” exhibition opens at Skylark with a reception at 4 pm this Sunday – one of 47 events ahead on the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, including two WSB-related events: Please drop in to say hi during the West Seattle Community Recognition Awards informal get-together tonight @ Capers in The Junction, 7-8 pm, all three of us will be there as will members of the WSB Forum Community; then tomorrow is the night for the Forum Community’s big get-together/fundraiser on behalf of Puget Sound Key and Lock, 6-9 pm Saturday @ Admiral Pub. Now, the full lineup:Read More
We are putting together the West Seattle Weekend Lineup right now for publication by 2 pm and just remembered, we wanted to tell you about this separately — One of the C & P Coffee Company regular live-music guests, Bobcat Bob, will be putting on a special performance tonight. Here’s the e-mail, forwarded by C & P’s Cameron Moores, explaining why:
dear friends, almost 3 weeks ago our bass player dave lucas and his wife kenna lost their only child jessica in a car accident back in the midwest. my brother dave and i are dedicating the c and p performance on april 18th to dave, kenna, jessica’s husband and her 2 children. they need our help spiritually and financially. please come to this performance in a show of support for this sweet family. dave will be in his position on bass and we hope to see you all there. thank you. most sincerely, bob.
They’re playing C & P 6-8 pm tonight. (Drop in early, then pop down California SW to Capers and make a cameo appearance at our West Seattle Community Recognition Awards get-together 7-8 pm!)
So we checked with the Southwest Precinct after getting this e-mail yesterday from Sunny:
Our house was broken into on Tax Day :(
We’re on the 7900 block of 12th Ave SW and both the officer and I suspect the same bra-flinging/pizza-eating group. The thieves helped themselves to some candy and a Coke and made off with some replaceable electronics. They rummaged through my lingerie and really ripped the bedroom apart. The officer walked away with LOTS of evidence which I hope is enough to catch the thieves. I am annoyed about having to replace my pricey toys, but just sick over someone invading our home.
Sgt. Jeffrey Durden at SWP says there’s “no real leads, yet” on the “bra-scattering” burglar. However, he did have more details on the burglary suspect we mentioned in this report from Tuesday night’s West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting: “Thanks to good investigative work by patrol officers — three different officers lifted the same suspect’s fingerprints at residential burglary scenes –” prosecutors are expected to seek charges against the suspect, who’s currently in custody in Florida, in three burglaries from the past few months.
When the city Parks Department started its first tour of meetings last fall to ask for input on a potential Strategic Plan, we covered the Southwest Community Center version of the meeting in late November (read the story here). After going back to Southwest CC to check in on the second round of meetings last night — three more in West Seattle in the next six days for your chance to have a say — we can tell you how these meetings work, what you’ll hear, what the Parks employees say they want to hear from you, and even some parks-related revelations that emerged last night:Read More
SNOW? We’ll believe it when we see it, but here’s the forecast discussion.
WEST SEATTLE COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE DAY: 1 more week to sign up! Do it here.
“MASTER OF DISASTER” MAP: Pigeon Point just added. Click on your nearest site here.
TWITTER: Scroll to see the widget we just added to the WSB sidebar for our “feed” (we’re “westseattleblog”); plus, find breaking citywide news here.
Yeah, it’s supposed to be cold on Saturday (and probably sooner). That’s not going to stop the hardy West Seattle souls planning a huge slate of events we’ve been telling you about (see the Events page for most of ’em, and the West Seattle Weekend Lineup at midday Friday for even more), and here’s another one we wanted to preview — the Duwamish Alive! Earth Day festivities planned for Saturday:Read More
34th & Morgan is the High Point intersection – on the way to West Seattle Elementary – where we caught this school-crossing close call on video in January:
Neighborhood leaders and pedestrian-safety advocates have been trying to get that situation improved for a long time; in the story that originally accompanied that clip, we detailed some of their concerns. Then on April 1st, we told you about Denise Sharify, who works in High Point for Neighborhood House, pleading with the City Council’s Pedestrian Safety Committee to take action; we followed up the next day. Now tonight, we just got cc’d on this letter she wrote to them:
Dear Mr. Licata, Ms. Drago, Ms Clark, Mr. Conlin and Mr. Burgess:
I was walking to High Point this afternoon and discovered that Jim Curtin of SDOT was measuring this intersection for a temporary crosswalk. New student crossing signs will also be moved to appropriate locations. Two new signs to restrict parking were installed last week and Leah, the crossing guard reported that it is making a big difference for pedestrians and drivers. In addition, Mr. Curtin informed me that the half traffic light at 35th and Raymond will be changed to a full traffic light which is desperately needed.
I cannot thank you enough for you support and your commitment to making our pedestrians safer in this neighborhood. We will invite you to a celebration after the crosswalk is painted (and when the weather is nice).
Thank you very much,
Denise Sharify
Jim Curtin is the newly reassigned SDOT “community traffic liaison” who was part of the West Seattle Community Safety Partnership briefing we covered two nights ago. (The 35th/Raymond light upgrade is mentioned in that report; that addresses some of the challenges Councilmember Nick Licata witnessed firsthand during a High Point tour with Sharify and others [WSB video coverage here].)
(2007 West Seattle Summer Fest, photo courtesy Chas Redmond)
Third and final update from our recent chat with West Seattle Junction Association president Dave Montoure (of West 5) — some advance scoop on this year’s West Seattle Summer Fest, coming up July 11-13. Last year, you may recall, Summer Fest was retooled with the help of input requested from WSB readers (your input is popular, by the way, the Chamber of Commerce is reviewing everything you had to say on this recent development/business thread). This year, more new features are on the way:Read More
We called earlier this afternoon to check on the status of the new Beveridge Place Pub (slightly delayed by a little red tape), and the person who answered the phone said they were expecting to find out by late afternoon if it was thumbs up for opening — Just checked back minutes ago and learned they got “thumbs up,” so they opened the new location (just north of the old one) immediately, and starting at 6 pm, they want you to know, it’s “Georgetown Brewers’ Night.”
That’s a look inside Puget Sound Key and Lock in Morgan Junction while owner Michael Dein was there this morning to talk to news crews about what’s happened since the firebombing 4 weeks ago. As you can see, the view hasn’t changed much. But he’s managed to keep working by going mobile — he talked about that, and about how little time he would need to get set up again, once his landlord’s insurance coverage (for the structure, not his destroyed business) comes through:
Dein will be on hand for the fundraiser/raffle event that WSB Forum Community members are having Saturday night at Admiral Pub. One more clip … in which he shows the rock he says the firebomber(s) used … plus raffle/fundraiser details (including the list of what’s up for grabs so far!) … ahead:Read More
Thanks to the WSB Forum and the WSB inbox for bringing in the info on these: Easy Street is participating in Record Store Day this Saturday; 12 West Seattle restaurants are participating in Dining Out for Life next Thursday (participants are listed on the DO4L site as well as in this WSBF thread).
5:35 PM UPDATE: Just got e-mail from Jordan’s mom, she has been found. ORIGINAL POST FROM LATE THURSDAY MORNING: That’s a recent photo of 14-year-old Jordan King, a West Seattle teen with Asperger’s Syndrome who was missing three days last month until a WSB reader spotted her at the White Center library. Now Jordan’s mother has e-mailed WSB asking that you be on the lookout for her again; Jordan has been staying at a group home in Burien and has not been seen since 11 pm last night. Her mother describes her as follows: “She may have been wearing black sweat pants and black tank top. Hair has been dyed blue. She is 5’3″ and about 140 lbs.” Call 911 if you see her. 2:30 PM UPDATE: We just talked to Jordan’s mom, who is out putting up flyers in Burien right now — she wanted to add that the investigation is being handled by the King County Sheriff’s Office (since this is outside Seattle city limits) and also that Jordan’s hair may be better described as streaked with multiple colors, according to staff at Sylvester Middle School, where she had just started attending classes yesterday.
Look for coverage from all four TV stations and the P-I – that’s who came to the arson-gutted Puget Sound Key and Lock site in Morgan Junction this morning for an interview availability with owner Michael Dein, updating what’s been happening with him and his business since last month’s still-unsolved firebombing, and looking ahead to Saturday night’s Admiral Pub fundraiser/raffle, organized by WSB Forum Community members. The Forum Community also organized this morning’s interview opportunity and was represented on-site by JoB and Kathy, seen in the second photo above, talking with the KOMO 4 News crew. Full WSB story, with video, to come in a separate post. 1:29 PM UPDATE: Here’s a link to the first TV story to appear online, the noon coverage from KING5’s Roberta Romero. 5:37 PM UPDATE: Here’s the P-I story.
Much smaller crowd for the city Parks Department‘s project manager on the Myrtle Reservoir park project, Virginia Hassinger, at the quarterly Morgan Community Association meeting at The Kenney last night — but for a few minutes, it was even more contentious than the testiest moments of the last public meeting specifically about the park project (WSB coverage here). Main reason: As Hassinger reiterated, and as we reported here and here, “the decision is made” to set aside an area of the Myrtle park for a future “skate(board) feature.” The most pointed questions for her tonight sought to zero in on who made that decision, when it was made, and why High Point Community Center — listed in the city Skatepark Plan as the other option for a West Seattle skateboard park — was ruled out.Read More
We told you Monday night about the abrupt cancellation of the Parks Department Strategic Plan public meeting @ Hiawatha, blamed on lingering fumes from the previous week’s floor refinishing work. Just got word from Parks spokesperson Malia Langworthy that a new date is set for that meeting — 6:30 pm Monday (4/21) — so check it out if you haven’t gone to one of these meetings yet and can’t make the one tonight @ Southwest CC, or Saturday @ Delridge CC, or next Thursday @ High Point CC.
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