West Seattle, Washington
30 Wednesday
A little more information is now available about what’s proposed for the new Pegasus Pizza building. Linked from the city site announcing the project’s Design Review meeting this Thursday is assembled info including simple sketches for the plan (none of those fancy color renderings, though, nor could we find anything on the architect‘s site). Here’s the downloadable info; it includes three alternative sketches of what the new building might be like.
Remember the “SBF” story from August 3? Its central character might have gotten some sympathy from this Slogger who was forced — forced! — to ride to WS.
West Seattle resident Cheryl Stumbo, who survived the Jewish Federation attack downtown last year, completed the Danskin Triathlon over the weekend.
17 minutes from the top of The Bridge at Fauntleroy, to the end of The Viaduct (just before the Battery Street Tunnel). The Admiral and Delridge onramps looked somewhat crunchier than usual, however. (Also, the city traffic cameras are back online.)
On the good side, we soon won’t have to worry any more about I-5 (and ripple effects); bad side, the added early Water Taxi run will end when the project does. The folks who unveiled the Pier 2 dock/terminal proposal last week sent along this photo of the WT’s biggest line on its biggest day (today’s commute info continues below) …
This week is still prime time because I-5 is down to two lanes north of the WS Bridge until the work is done; that made things crunchier last Friday morning and today’s rain won’t make it any better. (Also note the bridge ramp to NB 5 will be closed overnight for the next few nights.) Meantime, here are a few relevant “live” cameras (refresh this page for the newest picture, or click on the images to go to the cameras’ “home” pages); as of this writing, the Seattle city website has been out of commission since late last night, so we won’t link those cameras here; check our permanent cams page to see if they’re back. (Left to right below, three state cams: I-5 @ Spokane just before the construction zone, I-5 @ Holgate through the construction zone, Highway 99 on the southeast side of WS)
If you don’t vote by mail, don’t forget to visit your polling place tomorrow, on our state’s earliest Primary Election Day ever. Two noncontroversial (as far as we can tell) county ballot measures (park-related levies) will be decided. Otherwise, ballot highlights include City Council and County Council races, and most notably for West Seattle, the open Seattle School Board seat for District 6 (incumbent Irene Stewart chose not to re-run). We covered the forum at Pathfinder K-8 two weeks ago including all 4 of the active District 6 hopefuls; there wasn’t enough time at the forum for organizers to ask all the questions submitted by the audience, so they later sent the candidates the full list and invited them to reply. One of the candidates, Dan Dempsey, just sent us a detailed document with his responses to those questions; we uploaded it to our site so you can read for yourself (click here to download it as a Word doc). We haven’t received, and can’t find online, any other candidates’ responses to those same questions, but if you want to check out the District 6 candidates’ websites, besides Dempsey’s site (hotlinked to his name above), Maria Ramirez‘s site is here; Steve Sundquist‘s site is here; Edwin Fruit is siteless. ELECTION DAY VOTING HOURS: 7 am-8 pm tomorrow.
Noticed this week that 3256 Cali is for sale, the site best known for its little brick business duplex with the timeless Beauty Box sign on the south wall; appears its owner died earlier this year. Before we got around to mentioning the listing here, reader e-mail tipped us that the Beauty Box shop is closing next month; big sign in the window verifies it, GOING OUT OF BUSINESS/EVERYTHING FOR SALE. No development application filed for the site yet so far as we can tell from the city database.
That’s the subject line of reader e-mail we just received — wondering if “Walking on Logs” was OK after a crash in the area last night — the reader was driving past that spot on the Fauntleroy end of the WS Bridge approach and saw an overturned car (as well as police cars and a tow truck). We won’t be able to go by to check for a few hours; in the meantime, any and all info appreciated. 7:40 PM UPDATE: Just drove by, looks none the worse for wear.
Sign on the gate @ Hotwire says last night’s rained-out showing of “Monty Python & the Holy Grail” WILL be rescheduled for “a Saturday in September,” no date yet, we’ll let you know the second we hear. Meantime, in the rainout post on his Sidewalk Cinema blog, movie maestro Philip notes that next Saturday’s “Edward Scissorhands” showing will have an 8 pm opening band, Pagasys (hear them here).
Within just a few minutes’ time — the view westward from Alki Avenue; the view south from Constellation Park:
Just ventured into the monsoon to verify this reader tip: The major east-west WS route between 35th/Morgan — running down Sylvan Way — and the Home Depot intersection is open again. (The project that closed it was supposed to take 3 months but it’s only been 2; we’ll check tomorrow for official project status — the detour signs on 35th aren’t gone, just covered with black plastic.) And even though those involved with the project insisted they were only focusing on Sylvan Way in the new housing area (photos), those ruts on the last eastern stretch have been filled. Hallelujah!
1 more week or so to go till we can stop hearing about I-5, for better or for worse, for now. Remember, the WS Bridge ramp to NB 5 is closed this weekend, like last weekend. Other WSDOT updates are here. Meantime, some related notes to share:
-On the citizen-group proposal for a new Water Taxi dock/terminal, one of the group’s leaders, Vlad Oustimovitch, posted a comment that you might have missed (scroll down on this post), answering some of the questions about the plan, which also got some exposure at the Seattle Weekly blog, Daily Weekly.
-Hey, what ever happened to the dithering over the future of The Viaduct? The Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Project for Regional Development is suggesting a new tunnel idea — under downtown. (Whatever the case, this page seems to suggest WSDOT believes The Viaduct will be coming down in 2012. Its next public meeting about The Viaduct’s future is next Wednesday in Pioneer Square.)
-Catching up with the 83 sites on our Other Blogs In WS page, we came across a few people’s I-5 tales: Esprit de l’escalier wrote about the Chicken Little-ness of it all, Mountain Songs says even her bus was early, 1000 year headache recounts his first week of FF ’07.
-Last but not least, some cruise-ship passengers missed their boat on Saturday, and Freeway Fright ’07 is fingered as the possible cause.
The Instant Hausfrau cc’d us on correspondence with someone who is moving back to West Seattle soon after some years away and now has a 4-year-old. Our excellent local network of co-op preschools already has been recommended, but the parents aren’t sure they can make the co-op time commitment. Any other recommendations from WSB-land?
What kind of a summer IS this? For the second time in a month, the Sidewalk Cinema outdoor movie next to Hotwire is rained out tonight. We’re dejected, as we were completely looking forward to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and the live opening band. We’ll let you know if and when we find out about a rescheduling date; in the meantime, “Edward Scissorhands” is scheduled for next Saturday night — cross your fingers for cloudlessness.
Cool crowd, both hosts and visitors, at the police department’s annual Picnic at the Precinct this afternoon. As big and busy as WS is, it’s hard to believe we didn’t get our own police precinct till 2003. It’s a lovely building, but today (before the rain moved in) most of the fun was out in the street on the building’s south side; they shut down Webster for the occasion. Our first photo here is a great crowd shot sent in by WSB reader LyndaB:
(Thanks, LyndaB!) From here, photos are by the WSB team. Besides meeting-and-greeting, the police showed off some of their arsenal, including this robot:
Next — a closeup of the robot, Chief Kerlikowske in casual wear, one of the SPD vehicles you don’t see every day, and more:Read More
Thanks to everyone who wrote to make sure we didn’t miss this: The ATF presence yesterday was not incidental; the 4132 Cali fire was deliberately set. 1:45 PM UPDATE: The P-I has now posted an article as well, saying police don’t have any suspects yet. If anyone thinks they saw, or know, something about who was involved, call the arson hotline at 800-55-ARSON.
(photo courtesy Garrett Burke)
Our websearch for WS news turned up the following quote in this story from Spokane. We’re scratching our heads because honestly, even with the condos and townhouses, we still think WS is far from a horror story.
“My vision of Spokane Valley is not to look like West Seattle in 30 years,” (Spokane) Councilman Rich Munson said
You suppose we can get our WS-dwelling mayor and councilmember to call him up and tell him to stop dissing us?
Every week in our West Seattle weekend lineup, we include the “work parties” that are set up each month at sites that are among our area’s most precious natural treasures. For example, the Brandon Street Natural Area, which is a section of the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail, where Jay Mirro leads the monthly events and is hoping to see a few more folks turn out today. He writes:
Brandon Street Natural Area is just west of the corner of 26th and Brandon Street (2 blocks west of Delridge). We work from 10-2. Volunteers can expect to pull weeds and wheelbarrow mulch. It is a family friendly day of work along a beautiful day section of the trail by Longfellow Creek. Folks should bring water and a lunch.
Nice day to work outdoors, too, with the cloud cover. Drop by & be a hero. If you’re wondering first, what’s a work party really like – Lina Rose from EarthCorps wrote us with a recap and some pix from the West Duwamish Greenbelt event last weekend; like the one today at Brandon Street, it involved a lot of mulch:
Click ahead to read Lina’s recap (including what this work will enable volunteers to do next time), see more pix (including one that might answer questions such as “gosh, would I really fit in at one of those work parties?”), and find out about an event next weekend:Read More
A nerve-wracking time tonight for the Delridge complex hit by the last big-ish WS fire just last weekend. Here’s another eyewitness account and pix from Sage K:
Our SFD has been hard at work lately; there was another response to the Longfellow Creek Apts, D building tonight around 9 pm. 6 fire trucks rolled up and Delridge was blocked off around the complex. 3 fire trucks were quickly sent on their way, and the remaining 3 had things quickly under control as it was only smoke and not a fire. They soon rolled up their hoses, let people back into the building and were on their way. The scene was clear as of 9:30 pm. On an interesting note a Metro bus 120 got waylaid on the side of the road where it had pulled off. The hoses were right in front of it. The bus with passengers had to wait their until the road was cleared.
Photos below from tonight’s Alki community picnic @ the playfield — barbecue and bouncing, what more could you ask for on a nice night like this? Tomorrow afternoon, another picnic to which all of West Seattle is invited: It’s at the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct next to Home Depot, and besides picnicking with your protectors, you also will get a chance to tour the precinct — 1-4 pm tomorrow.
—
More pix and a little more information on the aftermath of the 4132 Cali fire: First photo below, looked like investigators were wrapping up at the scene a little while ago. Slog reports the Seattle Fire Department told them that the ATF involvement is routine for “large fires” like this and that so far there is no reason to suspect anything criminal, though the official cause has yet to be announced. Second photo below is from Christopher Boffoli, who talked with firefighters when he visited the site and reports the ones who were hurt are doing OK; in addition, he was told the firefighter who reportedly had a broken leg, actually just has a dislocated shoulder.
By all accounts, things are uglier out there than even the usual sunny “let’s get out of here and get the weekend started” Friday afternoon. And there’s a Mariners game tonight, to boot, which usually bodes badly for the southbound Viaduct. Here’s the latest from WSDOT; if you want to check our group of relevant-to-WS live cams, all six are now at the top of our West Seattle Cams page. Drive safely!
Thanks to a WSB reader tip, which we just confirmed with an in-person check, we know that ATF, the federal agency that investigates arson among other things, is now at the 4132 Cali fire scene. (This is what the project was supposed to look like, by the way.) From our understanding, ATF presence does not necessarily mean they know it was deliberately set, but there is some reason they want these specialists to be there taking a look. Also at the scene, the following photos (taken from the north side of First Mutual Bank, as 2nd photo shows); one firefighter was atop the ladder as another one joined him/her — what a perspective on the scene they must have:
| 1 COMMENT