West Seattle, Washington
14 Friday
BUS FARES: The Metro adult-fare increases kicked in today. Full details here.
FERRY CHANGES: 3 boats on the Fauntleroy run next weekend; this explains why.
Reminder that you are invited to the Alki Bathhouse 4-7 pm today to help celebrate the life of longtime West Seattle Herald reporter Tim St. Clair, who died earlier this week after battling cancer. Two other notable passings have come to our attention in the past few days: WSB regular Jan reports that well-regarded guitarist and West Seattle native Rick Novito died this week (he played most recently with Leroy Bell, whose MySpace site has a few tributes); Jan says Rick’s memorial is set for Thursday at Holy Rosary (Sunday night update: 4 pm, according to this published obituary), and there are efforts to organize a jam in his honor afterward. Here’s a photo of Rick sent by his family:
Last note, Cafe Rozella is remembering a longtime patron known as Panchito; the CR blog pays tribute here.
Thanks to Bob for the tip that the design/construction firm Pb Elemental is re-selling the above-pictured Alki house that it bought along with the neighboring Shoremont, $875,000. (Most recent WSB coverage here; we checked with Pb after Bob’s note, and they say the re-sale was part of the plan, and that they will share renderings of the Shoremont-site plan shortly.) Also notable: The building going up at 35th/Avalon (most recent WSB coverage here) appears to have a name – we came across this space-leasing listing referring to it as Avalon Square. The listing says it has two rentable retail spaces of about 1,300 sf each. (That’s in addition to 60 apartments, per the city permit files.)
So much happening today that we have another round of reminders to come in a few hours — but first, some events that begin this morning: 9 am, the West Seattle High School Class of 2008 fundraising car wash starts at the WSHS parking lot; 10 am, the West Seattle Family Wellness Fair starts at High Point Community Center; also at 10, the Sanislo Elementary used book sale and bake sale gets under way. Much more on the Events page.
With everything that is discussed openly in our everyday lives and in the media these days, you might conclude there is nothing too taboo to talk about. That would not be true; a big, dangerous one remains.Read More
First: Deb sent the link to this West Seattle post on Vintage Seattle, through which we learned that VS blogger Jess Cliffe is moving to WS this weekend; welcome! Now, some current-day pix (from before the rain swept in):
That’s from Marybeth, as is this surf-level bird’s-eye view:
Next – two photos courtesy of Chas Redmond, who was on the Lincoln Park shore at a moment today when the water was sapphire blue:
Chas reports the afternoon winds gave that kayaker quite a bit of trouble.
Last weekend we told you about the draft West Seattle Walking Trails map (if you haven’t checked it out yet, feedback is still welcome) – tonight, the new Discovery Map, which we heard about from the folks at Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor). They’ve written about it on their bizblog (if you haven’t already seen the entry in the latest roundup on our Blogs page), and are offering free copies at their shop in the Admiral District. You can also preview the map online.
More future West Seattle development news, this time from Admiral Neighborhood Association president Mark Wainwright: He says a representative from Safeway has contacted the ANA because, according to Mark, “They would like to start the process of redeveloping the Admiral store, and want to talk to the community. … No specifics at all right now, but it’s great that they’ve reached out to us early on.” It is indeed considered ideal for neighborhood associations to get first word of something major like that, and it’s another good reason to be involved with the association that represents your neighborhood — to see if there is one, check the WEST SEATTLE NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS list in our sidebar.
Just saw a major medic call at 35th/Graham on the 911 log and got a simultaneous reader report — “terrible accident, motorcycle hit by a car and destroyed.” Heading over to check it out. 4:17 PM UPDATE: Got there within minutes of the original post; the motorcycle was upright but clearly damaged (will add a photo in a minute); no car in sight, except for two police cars bookending the motorcycle, before a tow truck arrived moments later. The road was open. Our original tipster said the motorcycle rider appeared “hurt” but “was moving around.” 4:21 PM UPDATE: Photo added:
Before the next wave of news hits (we have some in the hopper, never fear), a few quick WSB notes:
NEW PAGE FINALLY READY FOR PRIME TIME: You may already have checked out the page titled MORE (in the navigation tab bar below the page header on all WSB pages) – We wanted to tweak it before officially announcing it but it seems announceable now: It’s where you can find the latest West Seattle headlines from citywide media sources (and a few regional/national ones that might mention WS from time to time). MORE is based on the same tech application that powers the BLOGS page, which displays the latest excerpts from 100-plus “Other Blogs in West Seattle” — so those are both pages you can check out any time to find fresh West Seattle stuff to read.
WSB MOVES FROM GOOGLE BLOGS TO GOOGLE NEWS: In recognition of the fact that we are as much a news site as a blog (if not more so), Google is now aggregating WSB content in Google News, rather than Google Blogsearch. You won’t see all WSB posts there; some are too short, but the meatiest stuff should turn up there (and is always quickly indexed in regular Google Search as well).
WSB FORUMS MILESTONE: More than 400 WSB readers are now signed up for the forums, a heartening percentage of the thousands who read them. Anyone can read ’em; registration is required to post or comment, and we’re glad to see participation hit that level after just 2 months. We set them up so you could “talk amongst yourselves,” particularly with WSB Reader Recommendations — and here’s one great example of how WSB’ers helped each other, the saga of the metal plates. Also, we recently added a West Seattle Rants and Raves forum, thanks to a reader suggestion.
PLEASE TAKE A SECOND TO VOTE FOR WSB: For the second year in a row, WSB is in the “final four” of the Metroblogging Seattle blog tournament. Their format is a quirky little thing that’s a takeoff on NCAA March Madness; voting takes only a second, and you don’t have to register for anything – just go here (we’ve got a link at the top of the right sidebar, too). Voting’s open till Wednesday, after which we will plead for your vote one more time if WSB reaches the finals. Thank you!
The city just issued a reminder that it’s patrolling parks and neighborhoods to check for licenses.
Prime rib, puppets, yachts, health, discount comedy if you mention WSB, classic-rock tributes, a book sale, live theater, and lots more — 49 West Seattle weekend events listed ahead:Read More
As we briefly reported yesterday afternoon, Harbor Properties not only is building Mural in The Junction and proposing a residential/commercial building on the ex-Huling land it’s just bought at 38th/Alaska, it’s also “under contract” to buy West Seattle’s only motel — the former Travelodge, now Seattle West Inn and Suites. This morning, we have more details — on all three — after talking with a Harbor Properties executive:Read More
Thanks to Eddie for the tip: Seattle Public Schools is raising a little extra cash by auctioning a lot of stuff off at Boren tomorrow, starting at 9 am. More info (list, photos, etc.) here.
There’s the latest example of plans for summer getting under way well before the end of winter – that’s a preliminary sketch for this year’s West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival float, which represents WS in parades all over the region and of course appears in the big WS parade too. As previously reported here, this year’s theme is Luna Park, celebrating West Seattle’s historic amusement park. The sketch was shared with WSB by Danette Carufel of the Hi-Yu Committee, who also says:
Hi-Yu is still looking for a place to hold work parties (painting, cutting, gluing) to help build the float. If you know of an empty work space or garage that could be used please contact us through the Hi-Yu website. Once a location is found we will schedule work parties and hope that the community would like to join us in building the float. If any clubs, organizations or anyone looking for community service hours would like to join us at a work party please (also) contact us.
We’ve got one more sketch to show you, plus Danette has a few words of thanks regarding a recent Hi-Yu event:Read More
At left is design option D for 5020 California, aka Spring Hill (not the restaurant), which got the best reviews from the Southwest Design Review Board tonight at Denny Middle School during a semi-rare second round of “early design guidance,” mandated because the first round didn’t go well (WSB coverage here). One of the main concerns that architect David Hewitt was asked to address with this 6-story, 90-unit apartments-and-retail building was the fear it would leave the single-family neighborhood behind it with their alley-facing back yards staring at a big hulking wall. Board members’ consensus tonight was that the revised proposals removed that concern, and also moved more of the building’s “mass” onto the California SW street front, as they also had asked. The dozen or so neighbors who attended tonight’s meeting voiced fewer concerns than the larger group who showed up last month; one outspoken neighbor, Nancy Woodland, noted that reps from the developer, BlueStar (which is also handling Fauntleroy Place, aka the Whole Foods project), had even come to her house for a first-hand survey. Next step for Spring Hill will be the “recommendations” Design Review meeting. Before re-reviewing Spring Hill tonight, the SWDRB got its first look at 9030 35th SW, smaller but not without controversy:Read More
Thanks to Paul Cozens for the latest update:
In a hard-fought battle which went down to the last second, the West Seattle boys beat Cleveland 56 – 53 Thursday night at Bellevue Community College (BCC.)
West Seattle now plays Seattle Prep for third place in the Sea-King District. The game is at 3:00 PM on March 1 at BCC. Win or lose, the Wildcats are going to the state tournament!
Let’s see how many fans we can pack in the BCC gymnasium Saturday.
Go West Side!
Postponed from last night: the latest reports from the Southwest Precinct:Read More
Per KOMO website: Ephraim Schwartz, the West Seattle rabbi who hit and killed city council aide Tatsuo Nakata at 47th/Admiral in November 2006, must pay a fine and do community service, and loses his driver’s license for 2 years, but no jail time. 10:36 PM UPDATE: Many more details in this P-I story, including City Attorney Tom Carr calling the sentence “outrageous” and the judge calling Schwartz “a lousy driver.”
That’s a photo sent to WSB by a man who lives in the Westwood neighborhood where police shot two dogs, described as pit bulls, night before last. (Original WSB report here.) The neighbor believes those are the same dogs – even if not, he says there’s a dog problem — irresponsible owner problem, maybe more like it — in his neighborhood: “I have called Animal Control AND Police on these dogs NUMEROUS times. I have photos attached of the dogs hunting/stalking during the day right in a neighborhood where children play outside all day and walk to and from school. … I have many, many photos of these and other loose dogs stalking my neighborhood day and night.” On the night of the police/dogs confrontation, we heard scanner traffic indicating a history of previous trouble with the dogs that police shot. Now we’ve seen the full police writeup of what happened Tuesday night, and thought you might be interested in additional details:Read More
If you’re wondering what the TV live truck is doing at Lincoln Park, channel 4 is following up on our report Monday about the “Coyote Warning” flyers papered throughout the hillside neighborhood over the central part of the park. Haven’t seen their story yet but the reporter told us they found the family who says a coyote snatched their dog. Meantime, we got a coyote-sighting report this morning from Dean, who wrote: “I live on the hill above La Rustica along the Me-Kwa-Mooks greenbelt and about 1 am today i was awakened by a howling coyote nearby. Very cool!” (Reminder, info you should know about coexisting with coyotes is in this WSB report about the recent citywide info meeting.)
Didn’t know about this till it landed in our inbox but we of course have no choice but to let you know: Admiral Theater boss Steve Garrett 
is offering WSB readers a discount at this Friday night’s comedy performance by Dante (from “Last Comic Standing“) — according to Steve, “Tickets are normally $15 in advance, $20 at the door, but we are extending this to West Seattle Blog viewers: Come into the theater before the show and mention that you saw it on the blog and receive comedy tickets for only $10.” Also mentioned in the latest Admiral bulletin, this Saturday night’s the monthly “Rocky Horror Picture Show” extravaganza, and next Wednesday night @ 7, the 75th anniversary showing of “Duck Soup,” which Steve says “will be introduced by Frank Ferrante, world-class Groucho impersonator.” (Dante’s show Friday is at 10 pm, according to the Admiral website; you can find out more about him on his MySpace site, which includes clips.)
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