West Seattle, Washington
29 Thursday
It’s a WSB tradition to let you know when a new sponsor comes aboard. This morning, we’re welcoming Curious Kidstuff, whose team invites you to “come on down to The Junction’s fun place to play and shop.” Next year, Curious Kidstuff celebrates its 10th anniversary – how time flies – in the meantime, your time for Christmas shopping is flying, and Curious Kidstuff is offering 20% off any purchase through 12/24/07, except for sale and clearance items; gift wrapping not included. Thanks to Curious Kidstuff for supporting WSB; all our current sponsors are listed on our “Advertise” page, along with information on how your business can join them!
No, not looking for a new arena site on all that suddenly vacant property; it was a special holiday-shopping spree at Westwood Village Target, according to the official Sonics blog.
EARLY MORNING UPDATE: As noted in comments, Metro says the bus tunnel is back in business. PREVIOUSLY: Metro still doesn’t know if the bus tunnel will be back in business for the Tuesday morning commute. They’re promising updates at the Metro website sometime after 4 am, so we’ll leave this at the top of the page into the early morning.
One week till Christmas Eve! If your dream would resemble a warm Christmas more than a white Christmas, check this out:
Thanks to Becky for the photo, which she reports is from “36th or 37th just south of Roxbury” — we’ve added that approximate location to our clickable, printable West Seattle Christmas lights map (find it on the WSB Holidays page), will try to nail it down more closely with an in-person visual tomorrow. With your help, we’ve now featured 30 displays, all archived here.
Couldn’t watch the councilcast today so we’ve been keeping an eye out for word of what happened — finally, the P-I has a short story up.
The alliteration’s the only link between these two, but we wanted to get them both out tonight. First, from Denise:
My husband has his grandmother’s old rocker that really needs to be reupholstered. I am looking for some folks nearby that do a good job. Also need to find someone who refinishes wood. I have some old nesting boxes that need some love. Any help appreciated!
Please read this next one carefully. This reader isn’t looking for a specific babysitter recommendation – but rather, the best place to find a good babysitter:
We need to find a reliable kid-sitter but want to stay off craigslist if at all possible (we’ve found it useful for other things not human-related). Is there a way to get input from folks on how they’ve found someone local?
The reader further elaborates that the child in question is kindergarten-age and needs care a few afternoons a week. Please post responses to either of these RRRs as comments; as always, we remind you all RRRs and resulting responses are archived here.
Over the weekend, we mentioned the fire that swept through this house early Saturday. Tonight, we have a followup e-mailed by Ricardo Guarnero, proprietor of nearby Cafe Rozella:
Wanted to let you know of an unsung hero in the fire that gutted the house at 9415 Delridge. Six people were sleeping upstairs where neighbor Paul saw a bright light from his window next to the house. He looked out and saw flames bursting out of the lower window. Paul immediately started yelling to wake up the inhabitants. He then ran out and saw a truck with a ladder. Wasting no time, he propped it against the house and helped out all six residents. Had it not been for his timely actions all could have perished. Paul is the owner/mechanic of 944 West, a high-end German automobile repair shop.
Thanks to Ricardo for sharing that. (Also thanks to Trina for posting a comment with similar info, below the original post.) Whatever you see/hear/find out about in your neighborhood, e-mail WSB with info (photos and video welcome too), any time.
If you use it and you haven’t heard yet: details are on the Metro site – the downtown bus tunnel is out of commission for the rest of today/tonight, and possibly beyond – we will keep an eye on this for updates later tonight and tomorrow morning.
Those Fairmount Springs folks have done it again – decorating their traffic island along Fauntleroy (which sported Halloween spirit earlier this fall) – augmenting the year-round candy-cane striping of the stop-sign poles. And this time they’ve included a little sign taking credit (closeup below); their website, by the way, is among the neighborhood-group sites we’ve just collected for a new list you’ll find on the right WSB sidebar.
1:11 PM UPDATE: WSB contributing photographer Christopher Boffoli got to the scene on Hudson west of 42nd first (and photographed part of the actual fire, as seen above and below) and reports:
Engine 32 and Ladder 11 are on the scene and a bunch of firefighters are watching the wires burn. Even they were scratching their heads about how weird it is. One firefighter told me that when they rolled up, a length of wire a block long was on fire. For some reason the wires are so hot that the insulation is burning off. They said there is nothing they can do but to let the insulation burn out. (You obviously cannot douse the wires with water). They said that afterward they have to watch them because the fire can weaken the metal and they can fatigue and come down.
ORIGINAL POST AT 12:46 PM: “Wires down” — That’s the label for a fire call happening right now in the 5000 block of 42nd. Heard some scanner talk about possibly restricting some access in the area; off to investigate. 12:59 PM UPDATE: Hudson blocked west of 42nd. Two engines on scene, including the one shown below:
(which we were, on Saturday) … an excavation/”shoring” permit has just been issued for the vacant parcel at 35th/Avalon – if you drive by there frequently, you have probably noticed there’ve been stirrings of work. We discussed this project very briefly toward the end of this post three months ago; here’s another look at the architect’s current webpage for what’s proposed at that corner.
Got last-minute Christmas mail to send? We just checked on West Seattle post-office hours. 
The Junction branch is open 8:30-5 on weekdays; the Westwood branch is open 8:30-6, though when we stepped into the lobby to check on its hours, a worker volunteered that the doors open a few minutes early this time of the year. (Here’s the Postal Service webpage with holiday deadlines.)
Two things to mention, unrelated so far as we know except that they involve Seattle Police and are both of course in West Seattle:
-First, reminder that – per what we reported Friday afternoon – you may notice an increased police presence around West Seattle High School again today.
-Second, this photo (and the reader report beneath it) came in last night from “Bob Loblaw”:
SPD said it was a “routine traffic stop,” but they had three cruisers present nonetheless. A big thank you goes out to them for being highly visible on 38th Ave. SW when a suspicious-looking vehicle with a flat tire and smashed headlights showed up on our normally quiet street near Fairmount Park. Thank you, SPD.
— Bob Loblaw
Per the P-I — the controversial proposal to annex White Center to Seattle might die Monday.
This is one of the flashiest displays in the greater Admiral area — 45th and Stevens, just west of PCC. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us to make sure it made the WSB roundup! While snagging this photo tonight, we noticed several other well-lit houses along 45th north of this spot. Please keep sending in suggested locations – we’ll continue featuring local lights nightly through Christmas; you’ll find them all on our clickable, printable West Seattle Christmas lights map, viewable on the WSB Holidays page, with the nightly features archived here.
-The collection of links on the WSB right sidebar formerly titled WEST SEATTLE MISCELLANY is now WEST SEATTLE NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS — several local activists have suggested it, and we hope it will be a reminder to everyone that West Seattle has some great groups well worth getting involved with. We’re pretty sure our list has all the big ones; if you have a smaller neighborhood group (whether it has a website or an e-mail group) and we missed it, please let us know.
-While checking in with those neighborhood sites, we noticed that the Highland Park Action Committee is looking for a 2008 chair, with this pitch: “Become the new HPAC chair and make a positive difference in our neighborhood. And what perks! like a cool secret handshake. You’ll find out the rest after you’re sworn in.” Interested? In Highland Park? Here’s the HPAC website.
-Tomorrow is when the full City Council is scheduled to take up the industrial-zoning issue that’s attracted the most coverage regarding how it could affect our neighbors to the east in Georgetown, but could affect some industry-/port-neighboring land in eastern West Seattle too. Here’s the full text of the proposal. Lots more coverage at Blogging Georgetown (multiple posts currently linked from its home page); Mid Beacon Hill wrote about it too (here); the measure passed a council committee last week (P-I story here). If you’ve got strong feelings on this issue, get them to the City Council (e-mail addresses and phone numbers here) by tomorrow morning.
We’re going to have to go out and check on the tree situation West Seattle-wide as time permits this afternoon – we figured some things might have changed since we did the research 2 weeks ago for our West Seattle Christmas Tree Price Check (read it here) — and in fact, we just got e-mail from this year’s new addition, the tree lot on Harbor Ave across from the 7-11. Jeff Sullivan wrote (as of half an hour ago):
We just wanted to let you know that we have around 40 or 50 trees left in a variety of shapes & sizes. We still have Noble, grand and douglas firs. All trees are just $20/each!
Merry Christmas to you!
Sincerely,
Jeff Sullivan
Skyline Secure Park
Heard the other day from Eric Renn, who’s getting ready to open West Seattle Digital in the storefront shown above at 6016 California, in the same block as Puget Sound Lock & Key, Star Nails, and West Seattle Cellars (Eric sent the photo too, after hanging the festive COMING SOON banner). He says WSD will be an authorized retailer for Dish Network, XM Satellite Radio, Clearwire, and VOIP.com (broadband telephone); he lives in West Seattle and plans to have the store open by the first of the year.
Tonight at 7, Tibbetts United Methodist Church is presenting what its new pastor calls the “Blue Christmas/Longest Night” service. Rev. Dr. Joanne Carlson Brown describes it this way:
No, it is not just an Elvis song. For many people, Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year. Maybe someone you loved died this year and this is the first Christmas without them. Maybe you lost someone around Christmas time and the anniversary is painful. Maybe you’ve lost your job or even your faith. Maybe it is just the holidays are way too much to handle. For whatever reason, if you find yourself at odds with the holiday cheer, come spend an hour with others in a time to acknowledge the grief, the sadness, the pain and to find a way to hope. This is a service of readings, prayers and music.
Tibbetts UMC is at 3940 41st SW (that’s 41st/Andover; here’s a map). When we first heard from the pastor about this, and she mentioned having just been appointed, we asked her for a short bio:Read More
The 911 log shows a car crash after midnight at 35th/Avalon. No details except for a note that came in from Creighton (thank you), who wrote:
Big Car Wreck: Just drove past the intersection of 35th Ave and Avalon in front of the 7-11 mostly on the westbound side of the street. Odd scene as there were two Santas on the side of the road watching the cops sort it out.
Just out of the WSB inbox, from Jessica (thank you!):
Last night, our neighbors had their home broken into while they were out of town. The window was broken on the alley side of the home, and I’m guessing it was someone from the neighborhood who knew the homeowners were gone (given the silence of the dogs). The police found no prints (they used gloves) and saw “small shoe marks”. The burglars took smaller items that were quick to grab.
Last week, our neighbors across 35th Ave told me about 3 incidents of cars being keyed.
And we frequently see drug-activity at the 35th Ave SW and Roxbury corner.
It would be so helpful if people see strange activity to report it to the police as soon as possible. Hopefully this gets the word out in the South end.
That’s exactly what the West Seattle-based Seattle Police Department team at the Southwest Precinct would say – keep the non-emergency number handy, 625-5011 – and crime prevention coordinator Benjamin Kinlow would certainly add, set up a Block Watch if you don’t have one already. Another excellent resource for the area in Jessica’s note is the White Center/South Delridge Community Safety group; here’s the WSB report on their October meeting, and their upcoming meetings are listed here.
Jodi e-mailed WSB (thank you!) about a house in the 4000 block of Fauntleroy, which runs parallel to the end of The Bridge; we hope this is the right one — impossible to see street numbers in the dark, and there are several nicely lit homes on the block, but this one is the brightest, and the photo barely does it justice because there’s a whole lot of blinking and strobing going on. It’s the latest addition to our clickable/printable West Seattle Christmas lights map, linked from the WSB Holidays page and now featuring 28 locations, all around our peninsula, and all also archived here.
Here’s the weekly update from the West Seattle Farmers’ Market organizers – remember the market’s not taking a winter break; it’s 10 am-2 pm Sundays through month’s end, then 11 am-2 pm for a while starting in January:Read More
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