West Seattle, Washington
11 Thursday
Just in from the West Seattle Junction Association — the program for West Seattle Summer Fest, coming up July 11-12-13 — and it has first word of the music acts you can expect to see. It’s not on the Summer Fest website just yet, so download it here (the music lineup is on page 7, with performer info starting on page 10). The program has other Summer Fest details too; click ahead for a few additional notes of interest:Read More
Tama and Sacha are two of the Charlestown Cafe team members working hard today to get the beloved restaurant back in shape for its grand reopening, now just days away, as first reported here last Thursday. It’s been a long and bumpy road to get the restaurant reopened after the February fire that at first left cafe co-owners hoping they’d only be closed for “days”; here’s one reason it took so long:
That’s the new hood system required as a condition of reopening. But as our photo shows, it’s in place and ready to go, and the place was abuzz with work when we stopped by earlier today:
Our Charlestown Cafe coverage — not just the fire, but also the development controversy that unfolded in preceding months — is all archived here.
Just out of the WSB inbox, from BG:
Yesterday (6/22) an attempted burglary was successfully thwarted on the 9000 block of 13th Avenue SW [map]. At approximately noon on Sunday, I was in my home office when I noticed three youths engaging in suspicious activity across the street in my neighbor’s driveway. With one youth serving as a lookout, the other two removed the screen from our neighbor’s kitchen window and attempted to enter the house. The neighbors were away for the weekend.
I immediately called 911 and police arrived in time to apprehend one of the suspects. Two suspects escaped and were not apprehended. I was shocked by the brazen attempt to burglarize our neighbor’s home in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon. These three juveniles have been recently observed by others in the area looking into cars and appearing to case houses. I urge you to keep an eye out for them in your neighborhood. Their physical descriptions are as follows:
1. Female, juvenile (14 – 17 yrs. old), African American, approx 5’ 5’’, stocky build. Short hair, worn in a bun in the back of the head. Last seen wearing tight blue jeans, and a tight black top.
2. Male, juvenile (14 – 17 yrs. old), African American, approx 5’ 8’’, muscular build. Last seen wearing baggy shorts, a dark oversized coat, and an orange knit stocking cap.
3. Male, juvenile (14 – 17 yrs. old), African American, approx 5’ 10’’, muscular build. Last seen wearing baggy shorts, a dark oversized coat, and a red baseball cap.These three juveniles work as a team. The female has been observed walking in our neighborhood on the more than one occasion, and serves as a lookout for the male juveniles. Vigilance made the difference on our block yesterday and the West Seattle Blog deserves credit for making us all more aware of suspicious activity in our neighborhood.
And in turn we hat-tip to West Seattle’s police force at the Southwest Precinct, which is trailblazing for the whole city by aggressively advocating this kind of watchfulness and repeatedly reminding us all not to hesitate calling 911 for ANY kind of suspicious activity as it happens. If a life’s not at risk, the response time depends on what else is going on, but as we were reminded in a recent chat with precinct leaders, thorough and complete crime reports at the very least help them decide where to best deploy their people when they’re planning schedules and emphasis patrols.
STATION CONFIRMATION: Yesterday, we showed you the long-closed Roxbury 76 station getting fueled. Today, the state liquor-license-application site shows “Roxbury Gasoline” at that location applying for a store license to sell beer/wine. So a mini-mart’s on the way too.
FUTURE TOWNHOUSES: The city’s latest Land Use Information Bulletin includes the decision approving a five-lot “subdivision” at 4009 California, currently home to this:
A permit to build five townhouses here was issued earlier this month.
TONIGHT: The Highland Park Action Committee meets tonight (7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club, 11th and Holden) to continue strategizing opposition to the two HP-vicinity sites (map) on the city’s “final four” list of potential jail locations. THURSDAY: The first of two city-organized public meetings focusing on those two sites — this one’s in neighboring South Park (6 pm @ 9125 15th Place S., map here); the second meeting is July 26 at South Seattle Community College. More on all planned city forums here; city info page on jail-site search here; HPAC jail-sites info page here; all WSB coverage on the jail-sites issue is archived here.
Not West Seattle-specific but worth a reminder: The State Patrol is launching publicity this week to remind all drivers that troopers plan to start enforcing the “hands-free law” July 1st (one week from tomorrow. Drivers holding cell phones to their ears could face $124 fines – unless you were calling 911 to report “a highway emergency.” WSP will be partnering with at least one mobile-phone company at a media event this week to point out that it’s easy to set your phone up so you can talk “hands-free” while you drive, if you need to.
The highest price in this week’s West Seattle Gas Price Watch — our weekly survey of posted regular and premium prices at all West Seattle stations (checked during late-Sunday-night drives and posted early Monday mornings) — is only two cents over last week’s highest price: It’s $4.45/regular at Lincoln Park 76 (photo left). More than half the other 19 West Seattle stations have the same price for regular, a rare sort of consensus – some are even unchanged from last week — one station is actually cheaper! See the latest prices, on our map and text list, ahead:Read More
Thanks to Dan E for that view of tonight’s sunset – color breaking through the gray in the northwest sky. And thanks to Pam from Nerd’s Eye View for this Saturday shot from Solstice Park:
Thanks to Jenny for sending new photos including that one showing the notice posted a few days ago on the 45th/Trenton tree we wrote about last month – marked for removal by agreement with the city, after the latest round of city-contracted trimming to try to create clearance around power lines just didn’t work out (near another tree that was botched in a way that led to one crew’s removal from the city contract). This is what’s currently left of the to-be-removed tree itself:
Jenny also sent a view we didn’t have before, this tree “in happier times” – she knows it as “the candelabra tree”:
As the notice says, it’s to be replaced with two “power line-appropriate” trees. The notice also says comments will be accepted by the City Arborist until June 28th (next Saturday) – here’s the phone/e-mail/postal-mail info.
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Tiffany D:
Just wanted to put the word out. Someone broke into one of our vehicles (again!!) which was parked in our driveway on 41st Ave. SW (near the high school) They started rummaging, but I think may have been scared off. Nothing appears to have been taken. This same vehicle was stolen (and recovered) about two years ago. Another car of ours has been repeatedly broken into over the years.
We’re thinking of printing up signs and put in the cars that say “Aren’t you bored of us yet? Nothing new here.”
Anyway – keep the doors locked and aware.
As the West Seattle La Leche League breastfeeding-support group prepares for its monthly meeting tomorrow (10:30 am at Seaview Methodist Church, map here), leader Betsy Hoffmeister sends word of a group project that could use your help: They have posted a proposal online and are in the running for a $10,000 grant to write a children’s book “that would contain positive depictions of moms breastfeeding” – which, as you know if you are or have been a nursing mom, are not easy to find. Read on for Betsy’s explanation and how you can help:Read More
While reporting on the Parks Department‘s latest Myrtle Reservoir park-plan presentation before the city Design Commission last Thursday (WSB coverage here), we mentioned we would check with project manager Virginia Hassinger for electronic copies of what she and architect Jim Nakano showed, so we could share them with you. She has sent them, so we’re sharing. What you see above is the latest “schematic” (click the image to see a PDF of the full-screen version) that won the commission’s approval on Thursday, with a few comments as noted in our report. Here are two other new visuals from the presentation: the play structure, and a cross-section of the park. Seattle Public Utilities continues its work on the reservoir site (which has recently been grass-seeded); actual park construction is scheduled for next year – the city’s project page doesn’t have these new images as of this writing but probably will soon.
Photos at Beach Drive Blog — damage includes a bench, greenery, and sign. We were up late and saw a “heavy rescue” call on the 911 log for 4520 Beach, but it closed shortly after the initial 3:40 am call, and scanner traffic didn’t suggest anything major going on, so we didn’t go; it was followed by an aid call for almost the same address 22 minutes later.
Thanks to Kevin McClintic of Arbor Heights for sending us that photo taken from downtown (with West Seattle in the background), which he captioned “When the Water Taxi Grows Up.” Yes, that’s the Elliott Bay Water Taxi dwarfed by the cruise ship Golden Princess as it headed off for another weeklong Alaska cruise late yesterday afternoon. Back on land, thanks to Jim Edwards for this shot:
That’s the long-shuttered 76 station on Roxbury, which has been cleaned up in recent months, and this would seem to be potential confirmation it’s gearing up to reopen. Might soon be another stop on our weekly West Seattle Gas Price Watch surveys (archived here) – next one coming up late tonight. ADDED 12:12 PM: Another photo just in – came in on our phone so we’re not sure who sent, nor do we have the kids’ names, but this appears to be another lemonade stand (with baked goods AND “saxophone entertainment” per the sign and the instrument at left!) on Alki – raising money for the Obama campaign:
Can’t recall ever seeing a campaign bake sale. (Glad to see kids getting excited about politics so young; your editor was 12 when she discovered her mom wasn’t registered to vote, and made a deal – “you register, Mom, I’ll do the research to help you figure out who to vote for.” About seven years later, Mom belatedly completed college … as valedictorian … with a degree in political science.) 12:41 PM UPDATE: Thanks to JanS for enlightening us to the fact this is a nationwide event (as were yesterday’s nonpolitical charity lemonade stands); they’re listed online here – the Alki one doesn’t appear to be registered, though the one at The Junction is.
You’ll find today’s happenings on the West Seattle Weekend Lineup list, but here are a couple quick highlights: Seattle Free School returns to West Seattle with a free soap-making class at the Admiral library branch (map) at 12:30 pm; West Seattle Farmers’ Market will be hopping as always, 10 am-2 pm (find the fresh sheet here — note it’s the citywide list so some items are noted as available at other markets only).
Maybe you saw them at Alki on Saturday afternoon – that’s Sam Orlin (11) and Ben Orlin (9), who raised $150 for Child Haven with their Pink Lemonade Brigade stand, one of several in West Seattle – part of a nationwide event in which Crayons signed up 1,000 kids nationwide to get free lemonade-stand setups (including the drinks and the cardboard stand itself) to raise $ for charity. (Crayons, by the way, is headquartered in Bellevue.)
Here in the wee hours of early Sunday morning, throughout downtown and surrounding neighborhoods including Capitol Hill and Lake Union, small groups like that one are walking in a longer, more contemplative awareness- and fund-raising event: the Out of the Darkness Overnight, organized by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. We told you about it back in March, interviewing a West Seattle woman who was planning to be part of it, after losing her father to suicide (read our story here). This is the first time The Overnight has happened in Seattle, one of two cities to host the walk this year (New York City had one earlier this month); the walkers started at Seattle Center at 7:20 last night and will end the event with a ceremony there at 5:15 this morning, after walking all night. The mission of this walk is to bring suicide “out of the darkness” – it’s an epidemic, but it’s seldom discussed, and seldom reported because there is a media misconception that the mere mention of it will trigger more. One poignant thing we have noted in reporting some suicides here on WSB is that days and weeks later, people who knew the victims have found our posts, and used the comment sections to post tributes (see here and here, for example). They were looking for a public place to say “this person mattered.” We think discussing, and reporting on, suicide is another way to say its victims matter – and that it’s important to find ways to prevent their number from growing. (The local 24-hour crisis line is 206-461-3222.)
The past 36 or so hours have been by far the “busiest” ever for the West Seattle Blog Pets page – SEVEN new reports of lost or found pets, including 2 birds. This link takes you right to the lost/found listings; maybe you can help reunite one of these pets with its people.
(Photos by Christopher Boffoli; added at 10:57 pm)
An apartment building at 3821 Beach Drive, according to 911; WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is there so we should find out more shortly. Map here. Thanks to everyone who has texted/e-mailed/called about this! 10:02 PM UPDATE: Christopher says residents reported hearing “an explosion.” 10:12 PM UPDATE: Christopher says fire crews are wrapping up, so not a big incident BUT Beach Drive is closed in both directions at that spot. He also confirms, no injuries. What fire there was, was in a lower unit on the water side (this is a waterfront building), and the person who lives in the unit was NOT home at the time. Christopher reports fire investigators are there now and trying to figure out how the fire started. 10:25 PM UPDATE: One lane of Beach Drive now open. 10:40 PM UPDATE: The woman whose unit caught fire has just returned home to an upsetting shock. Forgot to mention, in relation to the earlier mention that residents thought they heard an explosion, they told Christopher the building does NOT have natural-gas service.
The banners are up for the Seafair Pirates‘ Landing, two weeks from today (July 5th; event details here, including freebies for kids). Further down the beach, we couldn’t get out of the car in time for a full view of that last sunset moment (that’s a picnic-shelter roof in the center of the pic), but it was a beauty:
High tide and sunset were almost concurrent tonight – this table has high tide at 8:56 pm; the sun finished slipping behind the Olympics at 9:01 (by our clock). One more interesting stat (hat tip to The Weatherman, where we found the link) — the “length of visible light” is 17 hours, 20 minutes (scroll down this page to “astronomy” section). And another Alki note – in the WSB Forums, JoB reports seeing a whale (believed to be a humpback) off Alki Point today!
John and Frances Smersh at Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) in Admiral were inspired enough by news of Feet First‘s Cart Project (reported here yesterday) that they’re offering 25 percent off their stylish “shopping trolleys” — provided you mention The Cart Project when you stop in. Full details (and pix of the carts) are on the Click! blog; their hours/location can be found here.
We mentioned here last month that the Westwood Neighborhood Council was looking for drawing help to draft neighbors’ vision of what could be done with the Denny Middle School site when the new Denny is ready on the Chief Sealth High School campus and the old Denny is demolished. The first draft (mentioned at the last WNC meeting; WSB coverage here) is above; click it for a fullsize version so you can read all the descriptions. So far, as reported here, early Seattle Public Schools thoughts on the site have focused on tennis courts and a softball field (
Within the past few hours, Walking on Logs (Fauntleroy end of The Bridge) was decorated in honor of the upcoming Relay for Life-West Seattle, an American Cancer Society fundraiser that involves walking/running around the track at West Seattle Stadium overnight next Friday-into-Saturday. This week, we interviewed a West Seattle couple who’ve been part of it since the event’s inception, and you’ll see their story here this weekend; meantime, go here to find out more about the event, including good times to drop by and support the participants – by cheering and or donating – even if you’re not in the event yourself.
We stopped to phonephoto the Relay for Life decorations this morning while on our way back from Seattle Race for the Cure; that photo shows the sea of people in front of Team WSB as the three of us engaged in our annual tradition of joining the thousands of people who walk on the temporarily carless Alaskan Way Viaduct during the breast-cancer fundraiser’s 5K Walk section. We take pretty much that same photo every year; it’s always an incredible sight. Here’s the view after we got to the Western Avenue end and started back south toward Qwest Field, with some participants still heading southbound to our right:
With all the projects in the pipeline for The Viaduct, we couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the last chance to take exactly this route; it was closed 7:45-11 am for the event and one WSB commenter in an earlier thread said the “Viaduct Closed” signs weren’t working on Admiral – did you see any of them in operation? Just wondering before we check with SDOT on Monday.
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