West Seattle, Washington
29 Thursday
Several people have e-mailed us about those light poles that have popped up on strategic spots along West Seattle arterials — two round lights and a solar panel — wondering what they are for. We hadn’t gotten around to checking with SDOT or WSDOT yet but Ty has saved us the trouble (thank you!) — he says at least one of them now has a sign saying “ALASKAN WAY VIADUCT CLOSED WHEN FLASHING.” Great idea! (Will they add a second sign beneath saying “so don’t bother leaving West Seattle right now, k?”)
It’s the hottest topic on WSB since the now-legendary “West Seattle Dishes to Die For” — 85 comments and new ones every day — so we’re thinking you might be interested in the next chance for an in-person discussion of the upzoning proposal on California between Hanford and Hinds (and a little further south, on the west side of the street, as shown on the city map @ left): Tomorrow night, you’re invited to the monthly meeting of the Admiral Neighborhood Association, 7 pm tomorrow at Admiral Congregational Church (California/Hill, map here). The ANA’s last meeting brought the first word of full details on this proposal, so who knows what you’ll hear if you drop by tomorrow night!
Or maybe even your mom’s. Back when we moved here in the early ’90s, really not THAT long ago, we lamented that we would have liked to do more shopping in The Junction, but everything seemed to close so early — “rolling up the sidewalks,” as the small-town saying goes. Not these days, and here’s the latest proof: Coinciding with this Thursday night’s West Seattle Art Walk in The Junction is “Wrap It Up,” with participating stores open well into the night for holiday-shopping fun. And it’s not just The Junction that will be jumping — on the north side of West Seattle, we’ve heard from more shops planning to be open late on Thursday, including WSB sponsor Click! Design That Fits and Shanti in the Admiral District, and along Avalon, Murphy’s Furniture Studio has an event planned Thursday night for late-night shopping while raising money for GambiaHELP. All in all, Thursday’s a good night to spend your $ where you live. Here’s the “Wrap It Up” flyer listing Junction participants, by the way:Read More
Just a bit north of where the fire-interrupted live/work project has resumed at 4132 California, a demolition permit has now been granted for these old rentals, slated to be replaced by a 4-story, 39-unit apartment building with 3,300+ sf of ground-level retail space plus 51 parking spaces (so says the city project page). Between that site and 4132 is yet another future apartment building; we saw some cleanup work going on there this morning, though that project isn’t as far along in the permit cycle.
Joining WSB today as our latest sponsor: John Moore, with Northwest Insurance Group (south of the Admiral District, at 3210 California), an independent agency dealing with a variety of insurance companies including the ones listed on this page of the Northwest Insurance Group site. As we do with all new sponsors, we wanted to publicly thank John for supporting WSB, along with our other sponsors (all listed on our “Advertise” page, where prospective advertisers can find information on how to join them).
A new development three weeks after we first wrote about Nucor‘s application for permits to upgrade a crane. When we first heard about it, thanks to an eagle-eyed WSB reader, time for public comment was already running out, and a note on the public posting said a hearing would be scheduled only if there was “significant public interest.” Looks like somebody subsequently expressed that level of interest; Trissa just e-mailed WSB (thank you!) with word that a public hearing is now set for January 9 @ Alki Community Center (more details here), plus a note that the time for public comment has been extended to January 14 (more on that here). We’ll add both dates shortly to our ever-growing West Seattle-wide Events page.
Excerpted from what Mark just wrote in the comments below our original report on the small fire that closed California for a while Sunday morning:
I was visiting with several residents at the Admiral Plaza Condominium … At one point I was a resident there and am familiar with many of the neighbors. Apparently a less than competent owner on the courtyard level fell asleep with a cigarette in hand. It was his next-door neighbor, an RN who just happened to be home on a Sunday, that detected smoke odor and pounded on his door. After what seemed like an eternity he answered, disheveled; smoke was apparent and she immediately called the fire department. … The victim sought shelter with the assistance of the Red Cross in a W. Seattle motel. … It was by God's grace and Maggie the RN's quick thinking that prevented what might have been a disaster. Most of the damage appeared to be limited to his one-bedroom unit.
We patrol Craigslist every day or two to keep an eye out for anything unusual that’s West Seattle-related. Nothing’s really jumped out for a while – till the pug saga. Apparently there’s a missing pug out there somewhere. The latest ad seems gentle and desperate — talking about a lost pug and a heartbroken child. But it’s the same dog featured in this extremely gruff ad from five days earlier, directly addressing a suspected thief and snarling, “We are closing in on where you live, pal … Give him up, you bastard!” Then, between those two postings, was the appeal to the heartstrings, featuring baby pictures of the dog in question. Certainly desperation can be the parent of creativity; good luck finding the pug.
Thanks to Katie for e-mailing to tell us about this house in North Admiral (west side of 45th SW, south of SW Seattle). This is a camphone photo; the real thing is exponentially more festive. It’s the latest addition to our clickable, photo-embedded West Seattle Christmas lights map, viewable any time on our WSB Holidays page.
Since the burn ban (see previous post) won’t last forever … Rick needs recommendations:
Can anyone recommend a qualified chimney repair person, i.e. tuck point and
cap repair/replace? Thanks.
If you have someone to suggest, please post a comment; previous RRRs are archived here.
The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency just implemented a burn ban throughout King County (and Pierce and Snohomish) – so no fires unless that’s your only way of staying warm. Here’s what the burn ban means, and why it was called.
What a night last night turned out to be — not just because of the Christmas Ship, but also because “West Seattle Art Attack” and accompanying elves (explanation and background here if you need it) struck again. Here are a few of the pix that arrived with the WSAA communique:
ORIGINAL 10:40 AM POST: Just getting reports and pictures. Will have something up in a couple mins. 10:42 UPDATE: First photo from WSB contributing photographer Christopher Boffoli. He says California is closed here because of all the firefighting equipment. This is near California/Spokane (map).
Another view of where the street was blocked off comes in this photo from Jerry (thank you!):
10:55 UPDATE: This building is home to a salon and insurance agency among other businesses; here’s a picture from a leasing-agency site. Here’s 2 more photos from Christopher, in which you get a better look at the ground floor of the building. We’re listening to scanner communication – doesn’t sound like a huge fire, which is good news.
Christopher reports no smoke smell or visible damage. We’ll let you know if/when we find out anything else.
Our hosting company had an outage this morning that, judging by our logs, rendered WSB inaccessible for about an hour and a half. Please forgive us. It’s normal for any website to have the occasional flutters but if we ever intentionally plan on something long like that, we will forewarn you; thanks to the people who e-mailed to be sure we knew WSB was out of commission. Now, on with the day; sounds like other areas got some snow but so far we’ve been spared – here’s the newest forecast. 1:36 PM ADDENDUM: The hosting company says there may be intermittent problems for a while. So if you wander by and see the Internet equivalent of this … know we’ll be back soon (here’s hoping).
Quick reminder that the county Public Health Department‘s free flu-shot clinic in West Seattle is happening today: 10 am-2 pm, Delridge Community Center.
From Chris (thank you!):
I visited the gas station/convenience store at 35th and Barton earlier today, and the front wall of the store had been smashed in. The owner said it was a car sometime in the night, probably stolen. The store was open and he had a crew there making repairs, so I guess the business won’t be interrupted, but it must be costing him quite a lot of money.
We’ll go over to have a look in the morning.
The picture doesn’t do it justice but this is one of our favorite simple-yet-striking Christmas light displays every year – it’s directly east of the Metropolitan Market parking lot, across 41st. The lights alternate red/white, and trace the home’s features quite beautifully. This house is now added to our clickable West Seattle Christmas lights map, which you can find any time on the WSB Holidays page.
Three West Seattle stops down, one to go (Don Armeni, tomorrow night @ 7:10) for the Christmas Ship. We are just back from the Alki visit, quite a party with live music, free treats, and even Santa Claus — on a motorcycle:
We’re still testing out the various video-uploading options; tell us how that one worked for you. Meanwhile, two more clips:Read More
This time of year, ours is one of only two Farmers’ Markets still running in the whole city – we’re lucky! And it’s continuing on into the winter (in January it will switch to a slightly shorter schedule, 11 am-2 pm, but right now, it’s still 10 am-2 pm). Here’s the latest “fresh sheet” from the Farmers’ Market organizers:Read More
Under brilliant sunshine, in the face of biting cold wind, about 20 people just took the climate-change-awareness Alki plunge we mentioned yesterday. We’ve got the video to prove it (ADDED 3:40 PM; trying YouTube’s player again for the folks who say MySpaceTV isn’t working so well for them):
First, there’s the Kitten Holiday Party (listed on the West Seattle Weekend Lineup) at Pet Elements south of Morgan Junction:
That’s where we found this new kitten owner adopting what she referred to as “Elliott’s new friend.” (Elliott being the cat who will be surprised and hopefully pleased to meet his new pal.)
Also today and tomorrow, noon-4 pm (and those hours Thursday-Sunday every week), an exhibit at the Log House Museum with a unique take on Seattle history, and it’s only there a few more weeks – here’s what the LHM folks have written up about it:Read More
(photo from Shannon, taken this morning in Fauntleroy — thank you!)
It’s one of those rare times when Saturday and sunshine synchronize. We’ll be out decorating (after braving the basement, who knows what moved in down there during the bad weather); after night falls, please let us know what spectacular new holiday displays you see, for the ongoing WSB Christmas lights features (photos archived here, clickable map on the Holidays page). We’ll also be covering some of the numerous events happening today and tonight (check the West Seattle Weekend Lineup for the most detailed list) and are especially looking forward to the Christmas Ship’s three WS stops tonight (Seacrest at 5:15, Lowman at 8:50, Alki at 9:40). So enjoy all this because we just checked the forecast and tomorrow says “chance of rain or snow”!
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