West Seattle, Washington
01 Sunday
West Seattle author Lisa Haneberg is looking for a little help as she gets ready to lead a group of local seniors in writing their life stories for family, friends, and posterity. Here’s her request:Read More
According to the official website for the Washington State Ferries wi-fi Internet service,
Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth is still the next route scheduled to get it … and still no date set; after various delays last year, the site switched its public projection to “fourth quarter 2007,” and now that’s moved to “first quarter 2008.” However, if you have any reason to use WSF wi-fi on a route where it’s up and running (listed here), you can get a free week of service by taking a relatively quick (we tried it) survey.
In advance of the West Seattle open houses later this month (listed on the WSB Events page and here) about RapidRide bus service starting in 2011, Metro has now posted more West Seattle-specific info on this page, including an online questionnaire for you to fill out before February 1st, asking which route alternative (map here) you’d prefer. (Hat tip to Seattle Transit Blog for pointing out the updated Metro page.)
So says the Times. Heartening news for us fans of in-person voting.
Continuing our series of late-night followups when there’s no urgent news at this hour — we noticed today that construction is moving fast on the townhouses at the ex-Guadalajara Hacienda site in the 5900 block of California. First, from last February, the old restaurant’s festive facade just after it closed and the sign came down:
And the townhouses-in-progress, today:
Good news from our latest review of Seattle Police reports at the Southwest Precinct — no major crimes reported in West Seattle over the New Year’s holiday. Not to say things were completely quiet, of course – here are four incidents of note:Read More
Police are on the scene of an accident that’s causing some traffic trouble if you are trying to turn northbound on Delridge from westbound on Roxbury. Doesn’t look too major; we’re just alerting you to avoid the area (map).
All sorts of West Seattle stuff on the city’s press-release site today. We first told you last Friday (with a lively discussion erupting afterward, of course) about the public meetings coming up later this month for the future parks at Morgan Junction and Myrtle Street Reservoir; the official city press releases are out today (Morgan Junction 1/15 meeting here, Myrtle 1/22 meeting here) so we’re mentioning them again in case you missed the news during the holiday crunch.
This just in from the city press-releases page: 35th/Thistle and 35th/Avalon will get cameras this year to snap photos of red-light runners. If you get caught, it’s a $124 fine (up from $101 last year). Specifically, at those intersections, the cameras will watch drivers heading south on 35th @ Thistle (above photo, right) and west on Avalon @ 35th (above photo, left). Full citywide list of present and future cameras here; map of West Seattle locations here:
And thanks again to our fabulous tech consultant Stuart Maxwell for troubleshooting: Long story short, because it includes some behind-the-curtain stuff you should know — The world of “spam” online doesn’t just affect your inbox; it also affects websites like ours that accept comments. Automated programs are out there relentlessly patrolling for places to try to post fake comments with addresses for porn sites, pharma sites, things like that. There’s an excellent spam-fighting program called Akismet that we and many other sites use, and it catches literally thousands of spam comments per day, on WSB alone. (Sometimes it accidentally nets bonafide comments too, so if a comment you post never turns up, that may be what happened.) According to what Stuart found out, Akismet had a glitch very early this morning, so the spam comments were flooding in, and the site-hosting company disabled the function till the problem could be solved. All’s well now, the old comments are back, and you can post new ones too. Sorry for the snag!
Just to let you know – we’re having some trouble with the “comment” function right now, including posting them and reading them. Sorry about that; will let you know when it’s fixed.
Since we first reported two months ago that the last remaining space in the ex-Alki Market would become the “Alki Urban Market,” hopes have run high, as has the volume of questions. A few more facts emerged when a sign appeared on its door December 21st featuring an e-mail address with the “seattleurbanmarket.com” domain, thus confirming AUM will be part of a group of stores run by Eastside businessman Thampipillai Thilakarajah (WSB photo above). But the website doesn’t have Alki specifics (yet), so to find out more, we requested an interview. Here’s the result:Read More
Just west of The Junction, and a couple houses west of Ercolini Park, you’ll find this deteriorating old home whose current appearance doesn’t hint much at its vital past as a neighborhood market — unless you look at the “past” photo sent by neighbor Bill Leaming (who also sent the “present” one below):
If you had trouble reading the inscription on the “past” photo of Fraker’s Grocery, it’s from 1956. County property records show the building dates back to 1926. City records don’t show anything new currently proposed for the site. Thanks to Bill for sharing the past/present photos; we love history tidbits here, so they’re always welcome. (Speaking of neighborhood markets, our Alki Urban Market update will be published first thing tomorrow morning.)
The first Southwest Design Review Board meeting of the new year, one week from Thursday, is scheduled to look at the Spring Hill apartment/retail mixed-use building proposed for 5020 California and 2 parcels south of that address (area photo above; developers BlueStar told WSB last week there’s no project rendering yet). As mentioned in our December 11 update, it’s now outlined as a 6-story building with 90 apartments, 100 parking spaces, and 4,000 square feet of retail. Area resident Mary wanted other neighbors to know that she’s drafted a letter opposing it and that they can contact her if they want a copy of it or are interested otherwise in joining forces:Read More
What a New Year’s Day along the West Seattle shore. First the Polar Bear Swim (see below), then the Seattle HOG (Harley Owners’ Group) taking off from Don Armeni on their annual “Chilly Buns Run” to Federal Way:
The cheering section outside the Alki Tavern was a nice touch.
Pix of this morning’s swim, courtesy of Dan E (thanks!):
Water temperature, by the way, was 48 degrees (warmer than the air, though!).
Also happening on Alki this morning – Harleys gathering for their annual New Year’s ride, south through Burien and on to Federal Way. Video of that in our next post; meantime, a few more Alki Polar Bear pix from Dan E:Read More
Nominate somebody for the West Seattle Community Recognition Awards. Quick, easy, free. If you missed our announcement just before Christmas, read it here.
Ours: Sanity, reason, compassion … and we want to see orcas up close and personal for the first time in a decade-plus. Yours? Discuss here.
On Saturday we listed our Top 7 WSB ’07 video picks; on Sunday, the Top 7 most-discussed WSB posts of the year. Finally tonight, with hours to go till 2008, the more traditional list – top West Seattle stories of the year. Let us know if you think something else should have made the Top 7. Here goes:
#7 — 4132 CALIFORNIA FIRE: This August inferno was the biggest West Seattle fire of the year, and it was arson; no arrests reported to this day, but reconstruction of the project is now well under way.
#6 — CALIFORNIA/ADMIRAL REPAVING: From March through July, city crews repaved major stretches of two of West Seattle’s most significant arterials. (Ah, if only Fauntleroy and Alki, among others, could get the same love.)
#5 — NEW JUNCTION FOOD: What a year it’s been, from Garlic Jim‘s to Shoofly to Ama Ama to Shadow Land, with Spring Hill up next.
#4 — ALKI STATUE OF LIBERTY RETURNS, BUT THE SAGA’S NOT OVER: A big year for this West Seattle icon: The plaza project hit the radar in July; the recast statue returned to its original pedestal on September 11th; the plaza fundraising has two more weeks to go. Bound to be a major story again in ’08.
And one last Casey Kasem turn … the countdown continues:Read More
Thanks to Marco in High Point for e-mailing this photo of Lincoln Park in today’s glorious sunshine.
Two main headlines from the latest stack of reports at the Southwest Precinct: An alert neighbor helped police nab three burglary suspects, and somebody targeted two cars driving along Delridge. First, the cars: Both incidents happened Friday night while the drivers were heading northbound in the 4500 block of Delridge. First, a 34-year-old woman driving a Nissan Quest told police that around 7:25 pm that night, her passenger-side window suddenly shattered; then, a 43-year-old man driving a Mercedes heard something hit his passenger-side door around 7:30 pm, and when he stopped, he noticed a small hole made by what looked to have been a BB pellet. Nobody hurt in either case, and no arrests reported so far. (In case you were wondering, that is 3 miles north of where bicyclist Peter McKay was shot with pellets on Delridge last month.) Now, the rest of the reports, starting with the burglary arrests:Read More
WSB dropped in for a quick soundbite as the retirement celebration began this morning for Lien Animal Clinic‘s Dr. Larry King. We asked what he’s going to do now:
The clinic, of course, will keep going strong. Read more about it and its staff at the Lien website.
Thanks to everyone who e-mailed to say the crane equipment has arrived at the QFC/Office Depot megaproject site in The Junction. WSB contributing photographer Christopher Boffoli took the above photos from the 9th floor of Alaska House (the ex-Huling/Gee land and Fire Station 32 are in the background). Christopher also reports that there’s a traffic alert in connection with this: “41st St SW is closed between Alaska and Oregon. 42nd SW is open but electricians are working on the west side of the site and have the sidewalk closed.” Another of his photos:
More info from Christopher: “It looks like they’ve poured a large footing in the very bottom and middle of the building site to which they are attaching a crane in sections. It looks like this large, yellow crane will be a fixture on the West Seattle skyline for the foreseeable future. Workers erecting the crane told me that it will be 140 feet high when completed.” Three more photos ahead from different perspectives:Read More
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