West Seattle, Washington
01 Thursday
6 pm tonight, the new statue (below) will be unveiled on the old base, with Mayor Nickels, Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, 
the West Seattle Big Band, and many others on hand. This won’t be the end of the saga; a new pedestal and plaza for Ms. Liberty are still on the drawing board, and the Alki Bathhouse meeting @ 7 pm Thursday will dig into that. But first, let’s recap the intense past few months that brought us to this day (after years of lead-up):
EXACTLY TWO MONTHS AGO: The first public meeting called by Paul and Libby Carr to explain their new committee and the renewed push for a plaza. A few dozen people gathered by the statue base in the blazingly hot evening sun; one man wondered wistfully if at least a flag could be placed at the statue base in time for 9/11 — hope he will be able to watch the ceremony tonight!
ONE WEEK AFTER THAT: The Carrs and their team (and their new logo) appeared before the Alki Community Council. So did Parks Department point person Pamela Kliment, who announced the Bathhouse meeting that’s finally coming up this Thursday.
THE FOLLOWING WEEK: In a WS Herald letter to the editor, former Alki fixture Cindi Laws declares the statue “deserves to be set free.”
A FEW DAYS LATER: The “Bring Miss Liberty Home NOW!” faction goes public.
NOW ON TO EARLY AUGUST: The Carrs intensified their support for bringing the recast statue to the Bathhouse while the plaza plan (architect-provided art at right) proceeded.
TWO DAYS LATER: They announced the city had agreed to do just that.
FIVE DAYS AFTER THAT: Parks Department leaders announced the statue would arrive on 9/11.
AUGUST 12-SEPTEMBER 4: Things got very quiet. We routinely nagged various city folks for details of the 9/11 “homecoming,” but none were available. Finally a week ago, Councilmember Tom Rasmussen’s team sent word that the statue would be placed on the old base, rather than in the Bathhouse, and that the city would chip in new $ for the plaza project.
LAST FRIDAY: We found out more about tonight’s ceremony — the West Seattle Big Band announced its participation and (in the comments on this post) other participants were revealed.
LATER THAT DAY: The “new” statue got a test run on the “old” base, and a WSB reader sent us the photographic proof.
LAST SUNDAY: The Carrs announced the plaza group has its official nonprofit sponsor.
TONIGHT: Finally, the “where’s the statue?” signs can come down. 6 pm.
Finally heard from Lady Di-Pet Chaperone regarding her plans as her current Admiral location (site of the 2310 Cali project) gets closer to demolition. She says she’s expecting to be able to stay there at least another 9 months, but is actively looking for someplace new.
Haven’t run a lost-pet post in a while, but Hugo’s disappearance is an unusual case. His owners say housekeepers accidentally let him out today at their Upper Fauntleroy home, but he’s a fast runner and could be anywhere by now. No collar. He’s a “big whippet that looks like a greyhound,” as his heartbroken owners describe him, and they say he’s under treatment for cancer. If you see him, call April at 206-351-9756 or John at 206-954-2694. 8:42 PM UPDATE: Note in the comments says Hugo’s been found.
ÂÂ
FOOD: A simple question from a WSB reader — “is there ANY PLACE to get a GREAT sandwich around here?”
HOUSECLEANING: Another reader would love your recommendations for “good, reasonably priced” maid or housecleaning service in WS.
Don’t forget, you can check out all previous “reader recommendation” posts and replies here (reachable any time from the CATEGORIES list on the right side of the page.) We’re expanding that category by adding some popular past posts such as the now-famous “WS dishes to die for.”
A preliminary Fire Department report confirms the fire last night at the Endolyne Garden building in Fauntleroy started in the garage. That’s where most of the damage is confined so far as we could tell from stopping by for a look this morning (that’s ceiling material dangling down onto the cars):
The west-side entrance canopy for Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant also burned:
5:42 PM UPDATE: We have just been forwarded e-mail about the restaurant’s status — it was not damaged by the flames but was closed for today “to clear out the smell of smoke”; owners were considering opening on a limited basis tonight, but DEFINITELY plan to be fully open tomorrow so Guadalajara can participate as planned in the fundraiser for the Fauntleroy Fall Festival — as a sandwich board sign across the street from the restaurant reminds passers-by, a portion of tomorrow night’s proceeds from Guadalajara are to go toward next month’s festival.
Spotted from Delridge by Mike Dady (thanks for sending us the photo!) — this paraglider headed in the Camp Long/WS Golf Course direction this morning:
Anyone know where in WS they take off from? Web searching yielded nothing obvious.
While working on last week’s update about preparations to build the new Fire Station 37 at 35th/Holden, we found out a Portland artist has been commissioned for a “public art project” at the new station. 
We asked the artist, Pete Beeman, what that project will entail. He told us, “The selection was based on my past work and an interview, rather than on a specific proposal. So as yet there is no design. … It will probably be a freestanding iconic sculpture, separate from the fire station itself.” He added that once the contract is finalized, he will “come to Seattle and meet with the design team, hopefully spend some time at the existing station [our photo above], and possibly visit with some other interested parties. Those meetings will provide the parameters within which I will design the sculpture. That should be early October.” His site has photos of other projects he’s done.
… permit filings are now in to rebuild the “live-work units” project that went up in flames three weeks ago (4132 Cali; here’s the original plan), and to repair one of the damaged buildings next door (4138 Cali). The arsonist or arsonists, meanwhile, are still running free out there somewhere.
These photographs just in from Christopher Boffoli show you more of what it was like at 45th/Wildwood at the height of the Fire Department response a short time ago:
All those sirens were for a fire at Endolyne Garden, the bright blue apt/condo building kitty-corner from the Original Bakery/Endolyne Joe’s business block — same building with Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant on the ground floor.
No, those aren’t flames in the center, just fire-truck lights — which lit up the night (along with the huge floodlight atop one of the biggest trucks) for blocks around. Witnesses we talked to say they saw flames, but fire crews got it out fast. The scanner report we heard earlier about a possible car fire being involved seemed borne out by this:
What you see there is smoke curling from some sort of smoldering wreckage just behind what’s left of the wall in front of the ground-floor garage, adjacent to the restaurant — we will check on its status first thing tomorrow. No ambulance/aid car activity while we were at the fire scene, so here’s hoping nobody got hurt.
Sirens are piercing the early early morning air here on the south side of WS: it’s a call to a building at 9212 45th SW. Not sure yet how serious; one scanner report said there’s a possible car fire at the address. More to come.
First — Bob Bollen sent us this pic of true dogpaddling off Alki today:
Also from the inbox — word that one of the Alki baby seals got tv time today.
Some parts of Alki edge closer to something resembling the area’s original name: While we were on Alki Ave this morning watching the 3-Day walkers, we noticed the under-construction condos @ 1350 Alki promoting their “New York-style direct entry elevators.” And from the “soon to be history” file, take another look at a doomed classic brick building; nobody commented when we posted a couple weeks ago about the teardown-to-townhomes plan for the Shoremont Apartments @ 57th & Alki – will it really go without a fuss?
The goal is the same — momentum toward a breast-cancer cure — but the Race for the Cure and the 3-Day Walk are very different, even to watch. The former is an intense, relatively brief crowd event; the latter, we learned along Lincoln Park and Beach Drive and Alki Ave this morning, is no giant throng with the hundreds of walkers passing at once, but instead a steady stream, sometimes one by one:
Emotions run high — watching the 3-Dayers while shadowing them for a few miles from the other side of the street brought us to tears at times, perhaps intensified by the fact we both lost our moms to cancer — but that includes joyful emotions; the 3-Day clearly is boisterous and celebratory, as were the people who could be found all along the route this morning, cheering the walkers from the sidewalk (or honking from the street):
Along Alki Ave’s Condo Row, signs and pink ribbons cropped up on balconies:
And all along the shore, the walkers streamed on by:
By 10 am, while the fastest/earliest walkers were out of West Seattle and headed for this afternoon’s ceremonies at Seattle Center, the last group members were still walking along Beach Drive, just past the whimsically decorated rest stop set up at Me-Kwa-Mooks:
Before a few final pictures … a reminder why this matters.
Less than a week after we spotted their store-in-progress during a Labor Day afternoon walk along Cali, the folks at On The Way Maternity e-mailed us to say they’re now open:
Thanks to all that gave us such a warm welcome at this year’s street fair. Also, we would like to thank our wonderful neighbors at C&P Coffee House, which is one block south of us, for all of their help. We carry designer maternity wear, nursing wear, Medela breast pumps/accessories, maternity pillows, feeding accessories, Phil and Teds strollers, and many more items.
The store will be open 7 days a week
10 am-6 pm
5446 Cali Ave. 938-2229 (938-BABY)
The breast-cancer-fighting 3-Day Walk participants continue streaming northbound alongside Lincoln Park and down Lincoln Park Way toward Beach Drive. First photo below shows an unofficial “cheering station” at Fauntleroy/LP Way, across from the 76 station, with two women greeting the walkers (one seated, left, the other standing in bright blue shirt; they had a music player blasting the inspirational theme from “Rocky”!)
P-I ON PRODUCE: Eric’s produce stand by the Homestead is featured in this P-I article.
STATUE OF LIBERTY GROUP GETS TO START RECEIVING $: With days to go till the Tuesday unveiling and Thursday public meeting (7 pm @ the Bathhouse), Paul Carr announced in e-mail:
Seattle Statue of Liberty Committeeâ€â€Phase II is happy to report we finally have our sponsoring 501(c)(3) organization, Urban Sparks. Urban Sparks began here in Seattle when they saw the need for community groups to have a Fiscal Sponsor. They have sponsored several other local groups doing local parks projects.
We can now begin, in earnest, to complete the Alki Statue of Liberty Project by accepting donations. Our thanks particularly to Pam Kliment of the Seattle Parks Department, who suggested this organization to us recently.
Paul says they’ll have more information up on their sealady.org website later this week. Meantime, if anyone spots Lady Liberty making the big move before for Tuesday night — we would love to get another photo like this one.
The entire route is not publicly released, but from some sightings around WS tonight, you can put together the path the 3-Day walkers will be taking starting early tomorrow morning. Once they are bused from where they’re camping tonight, it looks like they’ll start at Lincoln Park, where we found this line of temporary relief stations in the south parking lot:
The route from there appears to go along Fauntleroy, then down to Beach Drive and around to Alki, where, as we’ve mentioned previously, an “official cheering station” will be set up in the 1700 block of Alki Ave from 7:40 till 10:15 am. The walkers then proceed toward downtown, where the 3Day ends with ceremonies at Seattle Center. We thought the route from Alki was probably the obvious path along the low bridge, but one e-mail tonight reports another line of Honey Buckets at the park at 26th/Genesee so sounds like there’s a detour along the way — drivers in the morning, please be extra cautious and watch out for this big event on our WS roads.
Thanks to the tipster who e-mailed us about a liquor-license application posting going up at 3405 Cali (formerly Leslie’s, next to Spiro’s Pizza & Pasta). We combed through the online files and found this one had appeared on the state liquor-ap listing site August 29th, for a restaurant & bar at that address to be called The Bohemian. Didn’t find any obvious background from web-searching the names on the application, but did find this website — registered to the same company name that’s on the liquor-license ap. We’ve e-mailed the contact listed on the website and we’ll let you know if we hear anything back.
You may have thought last March’s Viaduct Vote (advisory as it was) ended up “don’t replace.” But its south end is slated to be replaced with a surface highway no matter what, so the state Transportation Department is inviting us all to a WS meeting later this month (September 26th, Madison Middle School) to help pave the way for the project it says “would replace more than 40 percent of the viaduct.” As for what’s next for the other 60 percent … we’ll be up all night researching that one.
Any time now, that bright blue cover comes off for the final weekend of the 2007 season at West Seattle’s only public outdoor pool, Colman Pool on the shore at Lincoln Park. (Our favorite way to get there is to park near Lowman Beach and walk the south stretch of Beach Drive, plus the unpaved section of Lincoln Park shore trail.) Both days this weekend, Colman Pool is open for lap swim noon-1:30 pm and 5-7 pm, public swim 1:45-4:45 pm. After Sunday, unless you belong to one of the private organizations with pools (Allstar, YMCA), your swimming option will be Southwest Pool (on Thistle next to the SW Community Center, a few blocks east of 35th).
In one of the early stories about yesterday’s bicyclist death on Eastlake, a local bike advocate was quoted as saying the city usually averages one such death a year. Last year, there were two in West Seattle alone. In March 2006, on the eastern edge of WS, a teenage driver veered onto a bike path along Highland Park Way, killing 58-year-old Marvin Miller. His death didn’t get the sort of citywide attention that followed the September 2006 bike/van collision at 35th/Graham that killed 27-year-old Susanne Scaringi, just six weeks after she moved to WS. (Susanne’s family maintains a tribute page here.) As noteworthy and tragic as the deaths are – they are outnumbered almost 100 to 1 by the crashes that leave bicyclists injured. Interesting and important information here. For a refresher on Seattle traffic laws regarding bicyclists and driving other vehicles in their presence, look here.
Remember the saga of the pregnant woman not offered a seat on the bus? This morning, we have the tale of the baby-wearing dad who couldn’t get one either.Read More
| 1 COMMENT