Friday night photos – plus, prominent photoblogger moving here
First: Deb sent the link to this West Seattle post on Vintage Seattle, through which we learned that VS blogger Jess Cliffe is moving to WS this weekend; welcome! Now, some current-day pix (from before the rain swept in):
That’s from Marybeth, as is this surf-level bird’s-eye view:
Next – two photos courtesy of Chas Redmond, who was on the Lincoln Park shore at a moment today when the water was sapphire blue:
Chas reports the afternoon winds gave that kayaker quite a bit of trouble.
Admiral Safeway: Looking ahead at its future
More future West Seattle development news, this time from Admiral Neighborhood Association president Mark Wainwright: He says a representative from Safeway has contacted the ANA because, according to Mark, “They would like to start the process of redeveloping the Admiral store, and want to talk to the community. … No specifics at all right now, but it’s great that they’ve reached out to us early on.” It is indeed considered ideal for neighborhood associations to get first word of something major like that, and it’s another good reason to be involved with the association that represents your neighborhood — to see if there is one, check the WEST SEATTLE NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS list in our sidebar.
Motorcycle crash at 35th/Graham
Just saw a major medic call at 35th/Graham on the 911 log and got a simultaneous reader report — “terrible accident, motorcycle hit by a car and destroyed.” Heading over to check it out. 4:17 PM UPDATE: Got there within minutes of the original post; the motorcycle was upright but clearly damaged (will add a photo in a minute); no car in sight, except for two police cars bookending the motorcycle, before a tow truck arrived moments later. The road was open. Our original tipster said the motorcycle rider appeared “hurt” but “was moving around.” 4:21 PM UPDATE: Photo added:
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A few fast Friday afternoon site notes
Before the next wave of news hits (we have some in the hopper, never fear), a few quick WSB notes:
NEW PAGE FINALLY READY FOR PRIME TIME: You may already have checked out the page titled MORE (in the navigation tab bar below the page header on all WSB pages) – We wanted to tweak it before officially announcing it but it seems announceable now: It’s where you can find the latest West Seattle headlines from citywide media sources (and a few regional/national ones that might mention WS from time to time). MORE is based on the same tech application that powers the BLOGS page, which displays the latest excerpts from 100-plus “Other Blogs in West Seattle” — so those are both pages you can check out any time to find fresh West Seattle stuff to read.
WSB MOVES FROM GOOGLE BLOGS TO GOOGLE NEWS: In recognition of the fact that we are as much a news site as a blog (if not more so), Google is now aggregating WSB content in Google News, rather than Google Blogsearch. You won’t see all WSB posts there; some are too short, but the meatiest stuff should turn up there (and is always quickly indexed in regular Google Search as well).
WSB FORUMS MILESTONE: More than 400 WSB readers are now signed up for the forums, a heartening percentage of the thousands who read them. Anyone can read ’em; registration is required to post or comment, and we’re glad to see participation hit that level after just 2 months. We set them up so you could “talk amongst yourselves,” particularly with WSB Reader Recommendations — and here’s one great example of how WSB’ers helped each other, the saga of the metal plates. Also, we recently added a West Seattle Rants and Raves forum, thanks to a reader suggestion.
PLEASE TAKE A SECOND TO VOTE FOR WSB: For the second year in a row, WSB is in the “final four” of the Metroblogging Seattle blog tournament. Their format is a quirky little thing that’s a takeoff on NCAA March Madness; voting takes only a second, and you don’t have to register for anything – just go here (we’ve got a link at the top of the right sidebar, too). Voting’s open till Wednesday, after which we will plead for your vote one more time if WSB reaches the finals. Thank you!
Floating a concept: What Hi-Yu has in store this year
There’s the latest example of plans for summer getting under way well before the end of winter – that’s a preliminary sketch for this year’s West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival float, which represents WS in parades all over the region and of course appears in the big WS parade too. As previously reported here, this year’s theme is Luna Park, celebrating West Seattle’s historic amusement park. The sketch was shared with WSB by Danette Carufel of the Hi-Yu Committee, who also says:
Hi-Yu is still looking for a place to hold work parties (painting, cutting, gluing) to help build the float. If you know of an empty work space or garage that could be used please contact us through the Hi-Yu website. Once a location is found we will schedule work parties and hope that the community would like to join us in building the float. If any clubs, organizations or anyone looking for community service hours would like to join us at a work party please (also) contact us.
We’ve got one more sketch to show you, plus Danette has a few words of thanks regarding a recent Hi-Yu event:Read More
5020 California, 9030 35th advance through Design Review
At left is design option D for 5020 California, aka Spring Hill (not the restaurant), which got the best reviews from the Southwest Design Review Board tonight at Denny Middle School during a semi-rare second round of “early design guidance,” mandated because the first round didn’t go well (WSB coverage here). One of the main concerns that architect David Hewitt was asked to address with this 6-story, 90-unit apartments-and-retail building was the fear it would leave the single-family neighborhood behind it with their alley-facing back yards staring at a big hulking wall. Board members’ consensus tonight was that the revised proposals removed that concern, and also moved more of the building’s “mass” onto the California SW street front, as they also had asked. The dozen or so neighbors who attended tonight’s meeting voiced fewer concerns than the larger group who showed up last month; one outspoken neighbor, Nancy Woodland, noted that reps from the developer, BlueStar (which is also handling Fauntleroy Place, aka the Whole Foods project), had even come to her house for a first-hand survey. Next step for Spring Hill will be the “recommendations” Design Review meeting. Before re-reviewing Spring Hill tonight, the SWDRB got its first look at 9030 35th SW, smaller but not without controversy:Read More
Even if you’ve walked by ’em a hundred times, take a second look at some of the public artworks around West Seattle. We just happened onto the city pages that provide a little background into these installations (artist, date, inspiration, etc.), such as the 
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