West Seattle, Washington
18 Thursday
As holiday-shopping season looms, we’re throwing in a few words of support for shopping at local businesses as much as you can. A lot has changed in The Junction, for example, since last holiday-shopping season. And many businesses are doing what they can to court you — such as, we learned at last weekend’s Gathering of Neighbors that Square One Books has a pre-holiday sale next weekend — 19% off! Check them out before wandering resignedly over to the big chain bookstore at W-Village. And if computer stuff’s on your list, sounds like changes are afoot at Quidnunc — its new newsletter reveals it’s now part of a company called HomeTown Computer Centers, and promises “changes to improve prices and customer service.” Certainly we all pay attention to prices … but it’s worth considering that paying a few cents more is the worthwhile price of not living in one of those hideous megaburbs without a true small-town downtown.
-A comment just posted a ways down the site is worth spotlighting: Some folks who’ve had it with the Mars Hill guy’s misogyny are planning a protest outside MH-Ballard next weekend.
-News on two churches entirely unrelated to MH (so far as I know): Gatewood Baptist Church is moving from Cali & Othello to 35th & Cloverdale. GB has sold its land on both sides of Cali; the land on the east side (sold for $3.2M) will turn into “townhomes” (here’s a story about the company that bought it) — the west side is up for “re-sale” in two chunks, the school/office building along Othello ($800K) and the church itself ($1.8M). Meantime, with at least part of the proceeds, Gatewood is taking over the former Calvary Lutheran Church. Calvary’s signboard already reads “Welcome, Gatewood Baptist” but the person who answered the phone at Gatewood told us they’re not moving till renovation work is complete after the first of the year. As for Calvary’s future, its phone recording says that as of last weekend, it’s holding services at The Kenney.
Didn’t get to do this last year ’cause we didn’t launch WSB till Christmas Eve. But this year, we’re rarin’ to go. Our “WS holiday stuff” page is up — just a couple entries so far, but many more to come. When you’ve got a big public holiday event planned, or when you see a spectacular decoration display — something to rival the Menashe house, for example — be sure to let us know, so we can add the info to the holiday page and share it with everyone.
Wow, the weekend already? The calendar doesn’t lie. So here’s some of what’s up around WS this weekend, in no particular order: If you want to see the biggest movie of the year for cheap, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 has finally landed @ the Admiral … A much different sort of film screens tonight at Youngstown Arts Center, “I Know I’m Not Alone: A Musician’s Search for the Human Cost of War” … The Friends of Orchard Street Ravine have a work party tomorrow … The Four Sheep Acoustic Music Concert Series continues Sunday night at Youngstown AC with Susan Gibson … Looks like a slow weekend otherwise; calm before the holiday storm! Leave a comment if you know of something cool we missed …
West Seattle-based “faith meets fashion” fame-gaining Vox Sacra got a network TV spotlight this week, according to this blogpost (with pics).
The folks at Divina remind us that (as we mentioned earlier) tonight is the first of the revived West Seattle Art Walks. (2nd Thursday of each month) Participants include: At Divina, local sculptors Randy Bolander, Art Donnelly and Karin Richardson; painters Kelly Rae Cunningham, Brian McGuffey, Carla Davis and Deana Plymale; illustrator Jeanette Piper; creative concept designer Wyn Bielaska, Seattle Lutheran art teacher Jacob Dahlke, and Colombian artisan Clara Obregon … at Hotwire Online Coffeehouse, paintings by Mary Enslow, co-owner of Twilight Artist Collective, curator of Hotwire coffeehouses …
At Clementine, West Seattle metal sculptor and ring maker Rachel Alber … at Coffee to a Tea with Sugar, photographs by Michael Spence … 8 Limbs Yoga (enter from alley), West Seattle photographer and painter Lauren T. Kitsner … at Cupcake Royale, paintings by Alex Thomas … at Elliott Bay Brewery, oil paintings by Tim Pew and Will Hass … then stop at West 5 afterward, tell server or bartender that you took the Art Walk, and organizers promise a complimentary glass of champagne. All this tonight, 6-8 pm in The Junction!
A new liquor-license application just landed on the state’s site for “Spring Hill,” seeking a restaurant/lounge permit for the ex-In Bloom spot on the north side of The Junction. (Side note, according to the semi-official Junction history page, the business district “is built on a swamp originally known as Spring Hill Pond.”)
Seattle Public Schools is re-testing water at West Seattle High as well as Alki, Cooper, Highland Park, Lafayette, and Schmitz Park elementaries (plus more than 2 dozen other schools citywide). The general story is that the plumbing may be the culprit — but when you look at the geographical location of the schools, it’s interesting (and of course potentially coincidental) that none of the southernmost WS schools are on the list (such as Gatewood, Arbor Heights, and Roxhill elementaries, or Denny Middle, or Chief Sealth HS).
Just east of The Junction, an all-too-familiar story is playing out in a neighborhood that is looking for support in their quest to make sure this version will not have the usual ending. Neighbors worried about a project on the board for 4515 41st SW say that even with condos and commercial development creeping closer to their block, what’s proposed for that site just doesn’t fit — a 7-story apartment/condo building. Only single-family homes and townhomes are on their block right now; adding this project would be something like going from 0 to 60. The Southwest Design Review Board will take another look at the plans when it meets a week from tomorrow (8 pm Nov. 16, SW Precinct on Delridge). One neighbor tells me he’s been trying to contact the city planner assigned to the project and hasn’t received so much as a courtesy reply. This is one of two projects on the SWDRB agenda for that night; coming up in December, the same board checks back on Fauntleroy Place.
The rain stopped. The voting’s over. I waited all the way up till what looks to be the very last vote-count update of the night morning, for one last pounding of proof that I voted out of the mainstream. (Go enjoy your lap dances with abandon, kids.) So now let’s talk about something cheerier. Thanksgiving is two weeks from tomorrow. If you can spare a turkey or two, the White Center Food Bank needs 1,500 of ’em. (We found this out at the Gathering of Neighbors last weekend; a nice lady from the 34th District Dems told a friend of ours that she volunteers at the WCFB and was sad to see last year that they only had turkey “quarters” to hand out to families in need.) Also, you can get some immediate return on your generosity at Southwest Pool tonight and tomorrow night, when Public Swim admission is only two bucks if you bring at least one can o’food for their food drive.
Once you’ve voted – in person till 8 pm (and don’t forget to bring ID), or if you haven’t mailed your “absentee” ballot, it’s gotta be postmarked today! – here’s where you can watch results update as the county election dept. posts ’em:
King County Prop 2 (“Transit Now”)
Seattle Ref. 1 (strip clubs) and Prop 1 (“Bridging the Gap”)
Seattle City Council #9, and Initiative 91 (sports stadium deals)
West Seattle’s state legislators (District 34)
Hours till the voting begins — at least, for those of us who still vote the old-school way. If you do that too, don’t let the weather keep you away — this West Seattleite is offering free rides, no matter who you’re voting for. (For real; we didn’t just pluck that out of Craigslist — the “advertiser” e-mailed us herself to get the word out about her offer.) Also going the extra mile to encouraging voting, the proprietress of Bird on a Wire, who sent the whole BoaW mailing list this handy link where you can create a personalized voting guide, among other things. Happy (we hope!) Election Day!
Hope you make it through the storm ok – heard some alarming forecasts out there such as “worst in years.” If something does go wrong in your neighborhood — the city’s got a lot of helpful information (including phone numbers) on this page.
The shooting happened in Renton; the 19-year-old victim was from West Seattle (that link also shows a surveillance camera pic of the suspected killer).
The West Seattle Library (Admiral branch) just launched its own blog, after a citywide in-service day where library workers discussed blogging, among other things. We usually wait a while to see if blogs will live or die, before adding a link here, but this is such a worthy one, we’ll add it to our WS Blogs page now with optimism and good wishes. (TUES. UPDATE: As a comment points out, this blog seems to have gone back undercover since we detected it via Google Blogsearch.)
If you really want to know and don’t have weather gadgets that can tell you … our favorite weather geek advises us there’s a close second. The National Weather Service posts “current observations” online from stations including Alki Point. Go to this page and look for K91S; I don’t even know what all the stats are, but the T column is temperature, the SP column is wind speed, the GS is wind gusts (when applicable). If you’re more inland, KBFI is Boeing Field, which is a little closer to much of West Seattle than the standard Sea-Tac stat cited in many spots for “official” city weather tracking. And if you want to go non-official, Weather Underground lists two people in WS with personal weather stations: one described as “North Admiral,” and “Weather at the Hoffmeisters’.”
Couldn’t resist mentioning, the Mars Hill guy’s latest lunacy (our rant is below) is getting national play (Seattleite David Goldstein on the Huffington Post, Atrios, and James Wolcott among others).
Fingerprint payment usage must be lagging at the West Seattle (Morgan Junction) Thriftway. With signs, banners, and even a winnable car on display, it’s pushing people to sign up for Pay By Touch. Four and a half years after the store made national news as the first grocery store anywhere to sign up for the system, we have yet to personally witness a single person using it. However, the store owner is quoted in a variety of articles as saying they’ve processed tons of, shall we say, digit-al transactions. (Not us; we still are not ready to have our fingers, retinas, or any other body parts scanned and linked to our $.) Checking the Pay By Touch website, it appears the WS Thriftway folks remain “early adopters”; according to its “store locator” engine, this store remains the only store in Seattle deploying PBT (possibly even in the region; we tried Everett & Tacoma zip codes, and nothing came up).
We love voting. Haven’t missed an even remotely noteworthy election in my (cough, mumble) years of voting. But it’s unfortunate that, when we vote, we don’t get to explain WHY we vote. So since we have the luxury of this here blog – on the offhand chance any decisionmakers might stumble onto it, we’re going to take some pixels to explain why we plan to break with the 34th District Dems’ recommendations on three local issues. (And if anyone cares to explain why you think we’re wrong, wrong, wrong, the comment section is all yours. We vote in person, so it’s not too late to win us back.)Read More
Not sure if the graffiti rampage mentioned here is the one we ranted about three months ago, or something more recent, but glad to see somebody finally behind bars for this particularly odorous form of crime.
We’ve now reached the point where we believe the guy who just branched his megachurch into West Seattle is only talking trashily to get attention. And yet, since he wants to fill our neighborhoods with his followers, we feel duty-bound to keep you updated on his utterances. Thanks to Slog for spotlighting the latest: Pastor Preposterous suggests that his colleagues like Colorado’s Mr. “It Was Only a Massage” might sin less, if their wives didn’t “let (themselves) go.” And don’t miss the passage where he recommends employment discrimination against women as another way to stay out of trouble (and reveals he’s afraid of reading e-mail from anyone but his henchpeople, lest temptation lurk between the pixels). Ladies, cover yourselves; that’s coming next. Never mind the $212 jeans; might as well start asking our Junction boutiques to start stocking burqas.
On our list as a must-go: Megawatt’s Gathering of Neighbors, noon-3 tomorrow @ Chief Sealth HS … Tonight and tomorrow are the last performances of tick, tick … BOOM! at ArtsWest … Partman Parthorse is live in-store tonight @ Easy Street in The Junction … Twelfth Night stages “The Dining Room” this weekend @ Youngstown Arts Center … Free “Walk/Talk/Taste” tour @ PCC West Seattle this Sunday … All-You-Can-Eat Spaghetti Dinner tonight at High Point CC … 4 live music shows tonight, 3 tomorrow @ Skylark Cafe … It’s post-weekend, but the Ballard Sedentary Sousa Band will be at The Hall @ Fauntleroy on Monday … And don’t forget that the West Seattle Farmers’ Market continues 10 am–2 pm Sundays all the way into mid-December! … What’d we miss? Leave a comment on this item with the info, or e-mail us.
Speaking of boutiques (see below) … the proprietor(s) of Divina just let us know about the first edition of a new series of West Seattle Art Walks, coming up next week! It’s set for 6-8 pm one week from tonight (Thursday 11/9) starting at Divina, where walking maps will be available (along with vino and snax). Organizers plan to do this each month thereafter, on the 2nd Thursday. (Perhaps it could evolve into something like this.)
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