Congrats to the ‘Cats: West Seattle HS wins again
That picture just in from Paul Cozens (thank you!), with this news:
The West Seattle Wildcats defeated the Bellevue High Wolverines in boys’ basketball today 82-76, in overtime. West Seattle will play for the District Championship next Tuesday at Bellevue CC, opponent to be determined.
2:15 AM UPDATE: Here’s what the Times wrote about the win; the Wildcats’ next opponent is now set – Rainier Beach.
Tony’s opens tomorrow
For the second time today, we have good news for fans of fresh fruit and veggies — 
A few WSB’ers asked when Tony’s Produce will reopen for the year – so we just called & spoke to Tony himself, who says tomorrow is opening day, “8 to 8, 8 days a week, as usual.” He adds, “Just wait till you see the stuff I’ve got!” (If you haven’t been there before, it’s at 35th/Barton — map here — under the new red/white/green canvas installed before the holidays.)
Reader report: Hawkish about pigeons
That photo, and this narrative, just out of the WSB inbox, from Babs:
I had just walked into my front door and looked toward my deck which is 5 stories up with a city view. Two birds fell off the roof to the deck in right in front of my slider door. I looked closer and it was a hawk with a pigeon in his (or her) talons. I grabbed my camera and moved toward the slider – that scared the hawk and he moved allowing his lunch (the pigeon) to escape. Insanity occurred in the sky (crows and pigeons flying everywhere to get away from the unhappy hawk.)
A few minutes later the hawk returned to my deck and I took this picture (not the best but I had just a second) – So guess I’m in trouble with the hawk hood! My cats are indoor girls! Sorry dude! (My building has a lot of pigeons that hang out up here so I assume it’s an “all you can eat Hawk buffet.”)
Pay stations in The Junction? Everything’s on the table
WSB EXCLUSIVE: The city Transportation Department invited reporters to a briefing downtown this morning announcing a new program to evaluate and potentially revise parking in several Seattle neighborhoods, including The Junction — and those revisions could even include a return to paid street parking. Other media invitees were no-shows, so your editor here got an exclusive briefing and a chance to ask SDOT all the questions we could think of. Most important thing you need to know: SDOT says the process of assessing the Junction parking situation, coming up with recommendations, and implementing them, will take a full year, and the clock on that doesn’t start ticking till later this year — but you can start having a say NOW. (Other West Seattle neighborhoods will get the same sort of review within the next few years; more on that ahead too.) Read More
Job cuts at Starbucks’ HQ
This isn’t strictly West Seattle but we know many people who work at Starbucks HQ in Sodo live on the peninsula, and this hasn’t gotten wide media exposure yet – apparently big job cuts announced today. An e-mail tipster says a friend is one of those who got the ax. This is the first official word we’ve seen, more to come, we’re sure. 12:21 PM UPDATE: Just hearing a radio bulletin about this now – 200 job cuts at corporate HQ, more than 300 open jobs that won’t be filled. Yet more details here.
It’s official: West Seattle Farmers’ Market going year-round
We told you this was in the works, and now it’s official: Following a vote of approval by the West Seattle Junction Association board, the West Seattle Farmers’ Market is now clear to go year-round (otherwise, it was set to close for about 2 months after this Sunday). Seattle Neighborhood Farmers’ Market Alliance director Chris Curtis says, “The market currently is about 17 vendors. It will get a little bigger toward the end of March and should be close to 25 vendors in April and over 30 by the first of May.”
Mystery cameras/cables on 35th SW explained, sort of
We have answers this morning to yesterday’s questions, thanks to Marybeth Turner of SDOT:
Our traffic engineers are counting traffic volumes on 35th SW and Thistle, and at several other locations on 35th SW. This is a follow-up to traffic counts done last year. I understand that results will be available in several weeks.
12:07 PM ADDENDUM: Now we’re told the cameras are NOT part of this, nor part of the red-light cam program. So they remain a mystery.
Crash at West Seattle’s only motel
We’re off to get pix. For now, here’s online tv coverage; an SUV lost control and slammed into the lobby at the Seattle West Inn and Suites on Alaska west of 35th (aka the former Travelodge). Its driver and passenger went to the hospital; the desk clerk escaped injury.
History we might want to forget, but shouldn’t
Tonight at South Seattle Community College (in West Seattle), the Japanese American Citizens League of Seattle and SSCC presented a program for the Japanese American Day of Remembrance — commemorating the internment order signed February 19, 1942. As the years go by, we have fewer survivors left to tell the story firsthand; one of them, 81-year-old Sam Mitsui, spoke last night about having been interned, and having served as one of the celebrated, decorated WWII Nisei fighters:
Sam is not only a veteran and internment-camp survivor, but also a UW graduate and Boeing retiree. Though he doesn’t live in West Seattle, SSCC tells WSB he had local ties, teaching martial arts at the West Seattle YMCA in the ’60s and ’70s. Also featured at tonight’s event was Suma Kato Yagi; she was a high-school freshman when her family was ordered to leave Seattle. Suma and Sam were among more than 13,000 Seattle-area residents of Japanese descent who were ordered to the internment camps.
West Seattle Crime Watch: Dog bites kid; fare beats cabbie
From the latest reports filed at the Southwest Precinct: A nine-year-old girl had to be rushed to Harborview Medical Center yesterday afternoon after a dog bit her in the face. It happened in the 7900 block of Delridge around quarter past 1; the dog’s owner wasn’t around when it happened, but the girl’s parents were. The report describes the dog as a 3-year-old pit bull named “Cain” and says it was taken away by Animal Control, along with another dog found at the location. Next, the cabbie attack:Read More
Lunar eclipse, high in the eastern sky
First photo in, from WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli. At least one more pic to come. And go out and have a look if you see this relatively close to when we posted it! 8:25 PM UPDATE: Er, hope you got a chance to see it – in the past 15 minutes, a cloud layer has swept in, though the edge of the emerging-from-eclipse moon is peeking through. Anyway, here’s another photo, this one from WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham:
9:26 PM ADDITION: Thanks also to Minette Layne, who sends this photo from Gatewood Hill:
11:29 PM ADDITION: And thanks to Jill in Highland Park for this pic:
What awesome photos, compared to the lousy example we ourselves provided during that wee-hours eclipse six months ago. Apparently we won’t see another one for a couple years.
Bulletin: 3811 California advances to next landmark round
(photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
First time we’d ever gone to a city Landmarks Preservation Board meeting. Had no idea it would take four hours for them to get to 3811 California (aka Charlestown Court). Four fascinating hours, though, considering the first three were mostly devoted to the Ballard Denny’s nomination (as you may have read elsewhere, perhaps at our hyperlocal counterparts MyBallard.com, it was approved, shocking many members of the capacity crowd). Once all the dust settled from that, and the capacity crowd cleared (before/after photos coming up), it was time for the West Seattle presentation (most of which you can read here), which was interrupted briefly so everyone could view the lunar eclipse through the meeting room’s huge windows (south-facing, 40th floor of the Municipal Tower downtown). Anyway, we’ll add more detail shortly, but the headline – Landmarks Board members voted in favor of city staff’s recommendation to consider the exterior of Charlestown Court for potential landmark status. Next step in the process – a public hearing April 2. ADDED 10:10 PM: Here are the details from tonight’s vote —Read More
Sunday dinner – for Olivia’s sake
That’s 10-year-old Olivia Shain, cuddling her cat Bebe during one of the many hospital stays Olivia’s had to endure in her short life. She has been living with Crohn’s disease – which seldom strikes children – since she was a toddler. Olivia’s West Seattle church and school community are coming together to raise money for her massive medical bills, and inviting you to join them for a spaghetti dinner and silent auction this Sunday. Olivia’s mom, local pet-sitting entrepreneur Demery Shain, agreed to talk with WSB about her daughter, their life, and how you can help:Read More
Busy day on 35th SW: Paving, cameras, cables
(Thanks to Val for the newly added second photo.) As the city Transportation Department promised yesterday, their crews are out on 35th just north of Alaska today, starting repair work on what became known in WSB-land as “Bruno” the megapothole. (Backstory here.) Reminder that they expect to work for a week, 8 am-2 pm, reducing 35th to one lane at that spot. Meantime, thanks to several WSB readers for pointing out that SDOT crews were busy elsewhere along the 35th corridor even earlier in the morning, putting down detection cables and installing cameras like this one:
That camera is near 35th/Thistle, identified as one of the two West Seattle intersections that will be first to get red-light cameras, so we have a message out to SDOT asking if that’s what this is all about. One more camera note: Remember the speeder-cam bill (much-discussed here last weekend)? You can track its status here; right now, it’s moved on to the state House Transportation Committee – whose membership does not include either of West Seattle’s state House reps.
Free plants!
Too good not to share immediately (the deadline to apply is Friday) – someone in West Seattle just might be perfect:Read More
Speaking of history: Charlestown Court landmark hearing today
This afternoon, the city Landmarks Board considers 3811 California, aka Charlestown Court (historic King County Assessor photo above), the brick Tudor four-plex across from Charlestown Cafe that otherwise is proposed for demolition and replacement with a mixed-use building. Its history is told, with copious photos, in the 46-page landmark-nomination document by West Seattle-based Nicholson Kovalchick Architects (you can read it here), with details such as “this was one of many apartment buildings for which the architect William H. Whiteley was well-known locally”; the document also includes a summary of West Seattle history and the background of the “bungalow court” type of apartment building this is considered to be, with an addendum cataloging some of West Seattle’s “bungalow courts” (such as the “Green Ghetto” whose ex-residents eulogized it in comments here after its demolition, and the 3400-block California buildings torn down recently, before/after photos here) The Landmarks Board meeting (3:30 this afternoon, 40th floor of the Seattle Municipal Building downtown) should be lively – also on the agenda, the much-discussed Ballard Denny’s.
The friends/family search website says 
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