West Seattle, Washington
29 Thursday
It’s the first goat sighting in West Seattle since Kids for Kids @ Gatewood Elementary in October (our report with video here) — we received two tips about goats at work now in north West Seattle, including this from Eric Bell of fridgefoto.biz, who also sent the photos above and below:
While on one of my regular walkabouts (Sunday) afternoon, I happened upon an increasingly familiar Seattle occurrence… a herd of goats ridding a hillside of unwanted foliage. These free-range ruminants. aptly named goattrimmers.com, were clearing brush from a couple of overgrown properties on Ferry Avenue, a sidewalk-deprived backroad that connects the Admiral District to Harbor Avenue. After conversing with the “shepherd” – who actually wore a floppy hat and carried some sort of shepherd-like device, I discovered his gang of goats will be around for about a week. This was literally a traffic-stopping event, while taking photos (and shooting some video), at least five cars pulled over to witness this pastoral event.
Our other tip came from “Garybert & Garybert’s Lady,” who e-mailed:
In travels (Sunday) am spotted ruminants ruminating on the hillside northside of Ferry by Victoria SW. Goat herder advised they would be there another week and then move across the street to another hillside. Just look for the bright orange (and electrified fence).
In case you’re not familiar with that area, here’s a map.
Some weeks back, we carved out a little section in the right sidebar to spotlight current “most-discussed posts,” since our publishing volume 
tends to push things off the main page within a few days. Toward that end, our second of three WSB “Top 7 of ’07” roundup counts down the posts that drew the most comments – with a couple exclusions: We’re leaving out our “unveiling” post from earlier this month, which drew 90-plus comments from (mostly) well-wishers, and we’re leaving out reader-recommendation posts (original RRR archive here; new RRR forum here), which by their nature are meant to draw comments (including the all-time recordsetter so far, “West Seattle Dishes to Die For,” at 161 comments). So here goes:
#7: With 58 comments, “For the First Time Since Spanky’s Went Out …” in which we discussed the appearance of a new sign at Morgan Junction’s Short Stop, touting “Adult DVD,” which was pointed out in an e-mail tip.
#6: With 62 comments, “Admiral Acceleration Agitation,” inspired by e-mails questioning the 30 mph speed limit on Admiral Way.
#5: With 65 comments, “Wheels Up,” which began with e-mail from WSB regular “The House” regarding a note left under his windshield.
#4: With 70 comments, “Mars Hill Money Trouble,” regarding a revelation from the only megachurch with a West Seattle branch.
And now, as we invoke Casey Kasem yet again, the top 3:Read More
Thanks to “H” for sending photos (taken from a distance, with a long lens, he wants you to know) of a seal pup he says drew a crowd in the 2200 block of Alki this afternoon. (Perhaps in honor of seal-pup mania making our first West Seattle Top 7 of ’07 list?)
Inspired by the waste-saving tip that Chris sent to WSB regarding canceling phone-book deliveries if you don’t want/need them (read about it here), someone else from WSB-land (who wanted to be anonymous) forwarded two recycling tips: First, if you have CDs or DVDs to get rid of, you can recycle them by mailing them – in any quantity — to the CD Recycling Center of America. It launched earlier this year; read about it here, and get the how-to specifics on their FAQ page here. Here’s the second forwarded tip, regarding holiday cards (this eHow page appears to be the original source):
Instead of throwing out your old holiday cards, consider donating them to charitable groups that will create new cards – or turn them into new cards yourself.
Things You’ll Need
* Gift Tags
* Ribbons
* Blank Cards
* Electronic Greeting Cards
* Holiday Greeting Cards
* Hole PunchersStep One
Send holiday cards to St. Jude’s Ranch, a nonprofit home for youths that collects old holiday cards for reuse. Either cut off the backs of the cards or leave them intact. Children at St. Jude’s earn money by creating new holiday cards from the old.Step Two
Mail the cards UPS “ground” or “bound printed matter” to St. Jude’s Card Recycling, 100 St. Jude Street, P.O. Box 60100, Boulder City, NV 89006.Step Three
Cut off the backs of old holiday cards that do not have writing behind the front and use them as postcards.Step Four
Create your own card by cutting and pasting parts of old cards onto a new blank card. You can find packages of blank cards at most arts and crafts stores.Step Five
Use old holiday cards as gift tags by cutting them into square or rectangular shapes and punching holes in the corners for string or ribbon.Step Six
Make placemats out of holiday cards instead of buying new ones. Cut out pictures or shapes from the old cards, place them between two pieces of contact paper and press together.Step Seven
Save holiday cards for arts and crafts throughout the year if you have children.
One last recycling note for now – if you’re ready to recycle your Christmas tree, here’s the info we shared the day after Christmas.
It was in the “fresh sheet” we posted last night but we didn’t believe it till we saw it with our own eyes … winter tulips. The grower, from Alm Hill Gardens in Whatcom County, says he’ll be there next week too. Also, since there’s a relatively cozy group of vendors at this point in the winter, the southern edge of the lot is open to parking:
Remember, NEXT week the Farmers’ Market moves to 11 am-2 pm Sunday hours through February.
Shannon in Fauntleroy reports she was “watching the Olympics pop in and out of the clouds” when her photo caught something else in the distance – a submarine being escorted by the Coast Guard. With the big sub base at Bangor in Kitsap County, you know subs are out there, but they’re not often seen.
New upgrade – before you post a WSB comment, you can preview it. Give it a spin next time you’ve got something to say (or test-drive it on this post). Just remember to click “post” once you’re happy with the way your comment looks – “preview” alone won’t put it on the site. (And in previous “new feature” notes, remember RRRs now live here.)
Continuing our new series of late-night followups whenever there’s not “new” news to report at this hour: We have continued to watch 
the case of the Alki teenager charged with second-degree murder in West Seattle’s third (and we hope final) killing of the year, the shooting in a car at 59th/Admiral on October 13 (as shown in WSB scene photo at right). In our last update on November 1st, we reported to you that a judge had granted the bail-reduction request for the suspect, from $500,000 to $200,000. (We stopped including the suspect’s name in our reports, as explained October 29th, because a key part of his defense is the contention that he was a victim of sexual abuse, molested for years by the man he allegedly shot.) Since that update, there have been several developments:Read More
-Blustery out there now, but the forecast for New Year’s Eve and Day looks great (though cold); the Polar Bear Swim at Alki will be interesting!
-Speaking of wind — ever been on a kayak in choppy seas? Found this video clip shot off Alki Point yesterday, featuring swells resembling the open ocean.
-Back to the matter of New Year’s — we’ve added more businesses’ holiday hours to the WSB Holidays page (and more to come). Perhaps most notably, in case you were wondering, both state liquor stores on California (Morgan and Alaska Junctions) are open till 7 pm New Year’s Eve.
-And yes, the West Seattle Farmers’ Market is still going strong each and every Sunday — after tomorrow, though, it switches to 11 am-2 pm hours for January and February. Here’s this week’s “fresh sheet” provided by citywide Farmers’ Market organizers:Read More
It’s just not late December without a slew of reviews of the year that’s about to end. So we’ll join the parade again this year — in three daily installments, starting today with our picks for Top 7 West Seattle video moments of ’07. Since the WSB video era only began on 9/11/07 (thanks to the generosity of Pledge Day donors), we only have 3 1/2 months of video clips from which to choose, but it’s been a busy fall, so this is a decent list. The links in the headline/date go to the WSB posts containing the video clips, not straight to the clips themselves, so you’ll get the full context if you missed any of these original reports. Now the countdown:
#7 — WINDSTORM WINDSURFER, 10/18/07: A windstorm that caused trouble for many gave this adventurer a chance for thrills.
#6 — WEST WATER SPOTLIGHTS, 11/14/07: West Seattle’s most hyper-marketed condo conversion didn’t stop at billboards, bus boards, sandwich boards, or broadcast commercials — it even sent spotlights into the WS sky for a few noteworthy nights.
#5 — BABY SEAL MANIA AT ALKI, 9/17/07: Throughout late summer and fall, the Seal Sitters kept watch as baby harbor seals hauled out along the West Seattle shore. Their watch spanned both joy and tragedy. WSB videotaped one of the crowd-pleasing pups.
#4 — MARS HILL IMMERSION BAPTISMS AT ALKI, 9/14/07: Hallelujahpalooza, we and others dubbed it. The only megachurch with a West Seattle branch brought a band as well as members from around the city to cheer (and pray for) those baptized in the chilly water of Puget Sound.
And now the top 3 (we feel like Casey Kasem):Read More
After the $2.4 million grant for Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association‘s Strength of Place Village project was announced earlier this week (WSB report here), we asked DNDA executive director Derek Birnie for more details. Today, we have them, starting with this early design view of the future complex:
He also provided WSB with a detailed press release. While this project will be in White Center (map), it’s noteworthy for West Seattle not just because that community continues to grow and change and may eventually be part of our city, but also because DNDA is based in WS (where it’s already been at the heart of transformational projects such as the Youngstown Arts Center and West Seattle Community Resource Center). Here are the Strength of Place Village details:Read More
First — WSB contributing photographer Matt Durham says he discovered that sign greeting “visitors to a home at the corner of SW Forest and Fairmount SW. The neighbor in the background (who wished to remain nameless) believes the cart was from a family business that was once on California Ave SW. According to a Google search, Abe’s Place was located at 2310 California Ave SW and served ‘American Turkish’ cuisine.” (Prints of Matt’s photos are available at his site, MattDurhamPhotography.com.)
Second note – Fauntleroy’s Judy Pickens sends word of her book chronicling the history of Fauntleroy Church, as it celebrates its centennial:Read More
The Seattle Parks Department has just set two public meetings in West Seattle next month for two parks-in-progress, the one on the former Fauntleroy Auto/monorail-station site north of the new Beveridge Place Pub, and the one next to the Myrtle Street Reservoir. According to the Parks Department’s announcement, both projects have just entered the design phase. First, the Morgan Junction meeting will be at 7 pm January 15 at The Kenney; from the announcement forwarded by Board of Park Commissioners vice chair (and Alki Community Council president) Jackie Ramels:
Project objective: Develop the recently-acquired property on California Ave SW north of Beveridge Place into a park or plaza. At this meeting, the community will have the opportunity to review preliminary site plans and to provide feedback to the design team. Landscape architects Hough Bec & Baird (HBB) started design work for the site in Dec 2007 and are currently preparing conceptual site designs based on themes the community expressed in spring 2007. The themes to be explored include the creation of a gathering space or plaza for the community and family activities that will feature hardscape, natural vegetation edges, seating, and a shelter structure.
The meeting about the Myrtle park will be at 7 pm January 22 at High Point Community Center. From the Parks Department announcement:
The site will be converted to usable open space for family-oriented activities once the reservoir is lidded. At this meeting, the community will have the opportunity to review preliminary site plans and to provide feedback to the design team. Landscape architects Nakano Associates started design work for the site in December 2007. They are currently preparing conceptual site designs based on themes the community expressed in spring 2007. These themes include a desire to emphasize the site as a viewpoint and to maximize greenspace. The community has also expressed both interest and concern about potentially locating a skateboard facility on the site, which was identified as a potential skatepark site in the Citywide Skatepark Plan. Other site features to be considered include ADA-accessible pathways, play equipment, and general landscaping.
Both of these parks-in-progress have been the subject of public meetings before, but the last ones were more than a few months ago, so these will be opportunities for new information and input on these parks’ creation. We’re adding both meetings to the WSB Events page, so you can find them later.
WSB contributing photographer Christopher Boffoli is at the scene of a fire callout at 9231 32nd. He says it’s a small fire blamed on a candle that got knocked over. Photo to come. (P.S. The Fire Department has released information about the fire we covered this morning at 9000 20th SW, and we’ve added it to the top of our original report.) 8:18 PM UPDATE: Here’s one of the photos Christopher sent back. The call is closed now; no injuries, no noteworthy damage.
Three Harbor Ave notes tonight: First, property in the 3200-3300 block potentially earmarked for an apartment building called the “Aqua Bella” (rendering above from the real-estate listing’s flyer) is now up for sale, $6.4 million dollars. Second, a hearing is set before the city hearing examiner January 15 for a proposal to divide 1 parcel of land in the 2300 block into 7. And third, a rumor that’s been going around for at least five months seems to have gained a grain of potential reality — a Salty’s hotel — right now, of course, West Seattle has only one motel/hotel, the former Travelodge that is now “Seattle West Inn and Suites” (as we reported here in July). Tonight’s article mentions the Alki hotel proposal too, but as an informed observer notes to WSB, Alki zoning is NC-1, which wouldn’t allow a hotel, while Harbor Ave is NC-2, which would.
Just back from checking the past week’s worth of reports at the Southwest Precinct (thanks again to the fine folks there for the access). 
We’ve got a variety of incidents to tell you about – starting with this eyebrow raiser (note that we have agreed, as is standard for police-blotter reporting, to omit specific addresses and victims’ names): Between 9 pm Christmas Eve and 5:30 am the morning after Christmas, somebody broke into a fast-food restaurant in the 3000 block of California through the drive-thru window. They stole just one item: The donation jar — which they had to pry off the front counter — full of bills and coins collected for a charity! No arrest reported so far. Here are more highlights/lowlights, in reverse chronological order (including the tale of the Christmas Canine Chase):Read More
If you’re looking for New Year’s Eve/Day excitement, we’ve got options on the WSB Holidays page; but if you’re looking for fun today through Sunday, 15 listings are here:Read More
8 PM UPDATE: According to the fire department’s media-info line, this fire did $40,000 damage to one apartment and a hallway on the building’s third floor; investigators say it’s accidental, caused when combustible items were left too close to a hot-water heater. A woman and three children were living in the apartment and the Red Cross is helping them find someplace else to stay. No one was hurt. 12:58 PM UPDATE: Video clip showing the scene. Again, not a big incident, but certainly affected dozens of residents.
11:58 AM UPDATE: Just back with pix (and video to come). No visible smoke or flames from outside; firefighters have been working on ventilating the roof to clear out smoke that’s reportedly inside the building. No word about injuries, or extent of damage.
ORIGINAL 11:35 AM POST: 9000 20th SW – thanks for the e-mail and text messages – we’re en route to check it out. (33-unit apartment building owned by the city Housing Authority, according to property records; the SHA info page with building photo is here.) Scanner communication suggests some road blocking in that area, so stay away if you can. Map:
On this breezy Friday morning, Bob Bollen just sent this great photo to share (thank you!):
Have you signed up for our new Forums (discussion boards) yet? More than 100 people from around WSB-land have, in just the first week, and the discussions are getting ever-livelier. For example, here’s the start of a new topic in the Open Discussion section:
Here is my rant West Seattle – Please STOP for Pedestrians in crosswalks! West Seattle drivers seem to be having some troubles in this area, especially (gulp) those drivers trying to catch the Fauntleroy Ferry (Black Toyota 4Runner who did not stop 12/26 at 4:00 p.m. you know who you are!) Now on to the Admiral neighboorhood, again, at a crosswalk in front of Spiro’s (Black Mercedes who did not stop 12/27 at 6:40 p.m. you know who you are!). Please stop for pedestrians. Please. Please. Please.
BTDT – we’ve got an anecdote to share on that one ourselves, so join us in the WSB Forum for that (or head on over to the Reader Recommendations forum, where topics right now range from West Seattle burgers to searches for contractors, financial planners, mechanics, and more.
Got this e-mail from Chris (thank you!):
We got yet ANOTHER set of phone books today. If these are junk mail
(and a colossal waste of paper) to you, give them a call and opt out.Verizon: 1-800-888-8448
This number came right off the front of the book, and my call was
quickly answered.
Let us just say, we USED TO love phone books, but as online searching gets easier and easier, at our house they go straight to the recycling bin, and what a waste that is. So in case that’s how things work at your place, we thought we’d pass this along. We don’t get Verizon books here; found this number for Dex — 800-422-1234 — choose option 4 first, then choose option 2; even though the recording doesn’t specifically say “press this number to cancel directory delivery,” the person we reached after those two choices said that’s the right place to call. (Found this related website, too.)
More than 50 people attended a cozy fundraiser upstairs at Duke’s on Alki tonight for the Seattle (Alki) Statue of Liberty Plaza Project. It marked the start of one more big push for the $57,000 that SSLPP leaders Libby and Paul Carr say they still need to pay for their group’s full vision of a plaza to surround the recast statue and its future new pedestal. They’ve already raised more than $100,000, including $50,000 from the city and other donations including this one announced by Walter Reese from Delridge’s Nucor steel mill (introduced by Libby Carr) at tonight’s event:
Here’s part of the opening remarks by KIRO Radio talk-show host Dave Ross, who emceed the evening, telling a story about appreciating the US – and its icons such as the Statue of Liberty and replicas like the one on Alki – after a trip in Eastern Europe long ago:
Other dignitaries who attended (but didn’t make speeches) included West Seattle-dwelling Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, his newly elected fellow Councilmembers Bruce Harrell and Tim Burgess, new city Parks Superintendent Timothy Gallagher, and West Seattle’s County Councilmember Dow Constantine. Here’s one more clip, as Paul Carr explains the state of the SSLPP finances:Read More
Just out from Seattle Public Utilities. We won’t get to read through it till later but wanted to get you the links now.
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