West Seattle, Washington
18 Wednesday
One loose end from our report on Starbucks moving into Jefferson Square is now tied up: Starbucks says it’s moving into the Infinity Espresso spot (not the former Washington Federal spot), and hoping to open around the holidays.
South WS drivers beware: Seattle city crews have stepped up the drainage work at the south end of the Cali straightaway (Cali/Thistle) and, a block downhill, next to the Thistle/Northrop sinkhole that opened in the deluge before last December’s windstorm. Heavy equipment tore up more pavement today at Cali/Thistle (photo below) and the Thistle/Northrop bend is squeezed to one lane.
Two retail notes from Alki this afternoon: First, if you look down 61st, you’ll see this umbrella right by the Homestead:
Thanks to the Alki Beach Community group on Yahoo! for tipping us to the little produce stand now set up under that umbrella. Fruit on one side, vegetables on the other, all organic, obtained from Charlie’s Produce. According to what Homestead owner Tom Lin told the ABC group, its operator is a UW student named Eric. First place on Alki you can buy uncooked food since Alki Market shut down again. Speaking of that space …
… that’s the scene next to Cactus, as the future All the Best Pet Care continues getting ready for business. This will be West Seattle’s northernmost pet-stuff store, joining (north to south) Mud Bay, Next to Nature, Petco, Pet Elements, and Pet Pros.
Just a few one-time only events in this advance alert (much more tomorrow morning in our weekly WS Weekend Lineup):
TONIGHT: Open house @ High Point Community Center, 6:30 pm. (It’s a beautiful facility, just 3 years old.)
TONIGHT: The Southwest Design Review Board meets @ SW Precinct, 6:30 pm, to review the proposed new building at the Alki Pegasus Pizza site.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Last outdoor concert of the season @ Providence Mt. St. Vincent, dinner available @ 5 (wine-tasting booth too), music by the fabulous West Seattle Big Band starts @ 6.
SATURDAY: The Great Cross-Sound Race, with rowers going from Alki to Bainbridge and back.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Festival season isn’t over yet! Arts in Nature happens at Camp Long all weekend. It’s presented by the Nature Consortium, a WS-based organization profiled today in the Times.
From the Luna Park/Java Bean land of the former crosswalk (below left), we now have pedestrian flags (reader photo – thanks! – below right):
—
Interesting “blind” for-sale listing. 98116, bistro, outdoor patio seating 30, owner expanding “other brand” … guesses?
We were so hoping to snag a pretty summer sunset photo tonight for the first time in a while. The clouds refused to cooperate. So instead, in case you didn’t get to go out and enjoy it, here’s actual proof that summer returned for a while this afternoon …. honest.
As of October, all PCC stores (WS & 7 others) will discontinue plastic grocery bags.
King County has posted its latest ballot count, and in Seattle School Board District 6, nothing has changed from last night – looks like it will be Steve Sundquist (left) vs. Maria Ramirez (right) for the West/South Seattle school board seat that Irene Stewart is giving up. After today’s count, Sundquist has 51.8% of the vote, Ramirez has 24.1%, with Dan Dempsey at 17%. The unofficial Seattle Public Schools Blog notes that more people voted in our district than in the other district with a primary battle, North Seattle District 2, and also notes that while the primary votes were by district, the entire city votes for all school board races in the fall, so Sundquist and Ramirez (along with other school board candidates) will have to campaign citywide. One other WS note from the election: King County Councilmember Dow Constantine lopsidedly (91%-9%) beat his eclectic fellow Democrat primary challenger Goodspaceguy Nelson, and now goes on to a general-election race against Republican John Potter (who doesn’t seem to have a campaign website).ÂÂ
Reader e-mail:
I’ve noticed a couple of well dressed guys driving around in a new Ford Explorer, blue. They’re trying to pull the age old scam of saying that they were out on an install for ‘home theater equipment’ and that they accidentally picked up a double order and they’re willing to sell it to you for dirt cheap. This is a scam … also when I turned down their offer to buy this home theater system they got upset and hostile.
One of the comments on our last door-to-door alert thread mentioned, ask to see a “residential sales license” before buying anything at your door from anyone.
P-I has a short mention of the fire on Webster in east WS last night. (We saw the call on the city’s ever-handy live 911 log but it had closed before we were able to survey in person.)
-The saga of Alki seal-sitting is told poetically in the P-I by WS writer Brenda Peterson.
-Also on seal-pup watch, Cathy Woo points out that unleashed dogs can be among their worst enemies.
-The Weekly tries to find new nuggets in the casino-cheating case involving Hizzoner’s son, among others, unearthing details including what’s on the walls in the “pad” where Jake Nickels lived while working at the casino dubbed “the Sack.”
-For everyone in the Short Stop sign discussion who thinks WS needs a little more spice, the Chelan Cafe is the place you will want to be tomorrow night.
-Ending on a G-rated note, tonight is opening night at ArtsWest for the show put on by its Musical Theater Adventures Camp kids — “Schoolhouse Rock Live Jr.” (photo courtesy ArtsWest)
Huge thanks this morning to Sage K, who already has enriched WSB with eyewitness reports about incidents including last Friday night’s Delridge fire scare and the August 12th Longfellow Creek Apts. fire. When we realized we couldn’t get to last night’s West Seattle Community Safety Partnership meeting, we asked Sage about possibly providing notes — and what notes they are — comprehensive, enhanced with attachments featuring informative handouts from the meeting, such as a list of West Seattle businesses fined for liquor violations in the past several months …Read More
Not related but we’re putting them all in the same post for balance. First the rant and side-note rave, from the WSB inbox:
Sunday there was some guy parked sideways across the
Roxbury Schucks’ ONLY disabled parking spot. I very politely let them
know as I walked in, so they could take care of it. The response? A
shrug.I walked through the store to see if they had what I wanted, and heard
the two guys who were working there begin talking. They were talking in
what they thought was a “retarded” voice and saying stuff like “heh,
look at me – I’m handi-CAPABLE!” It went on for 2-3 minutes getting
more and more stupid, and more and more insulting. I finally walked out,
glaring at them. They didn’t even notice. (FYI, I use a cane due to a
spine problem)Yes, I will be writing a letter to the CEO. I’m really pissed.
What saved my mood was that afterward I went to Tony’s (he had fresh
Okra! And corn picked that morning!) Tony was there. He gave me a great
deal on a flat of strawberries. And he insisted on carrying my bags to
the car for me since the “other half” wasn’t there. He’s a big sweetie.
The other rave we wanted you to hear about was this nice tale from the WS Herald Letters to the Editor.
These links will take you to the newest available results:
Seattle School Board
Seattle City Council #1 & #3 (bottom of page)
Seattle City Council #9
Seattle Port Commission
King County races (D)
King County races (R)
King County ballot measures
1:30 AM UPDATE: In the most noteworthy West Seattle-specific race of the night, 97% of the precincts are counted in Seattle School Board District 6, and so far Steve Sundquist and Maria Ramirez are leading the field, with 51.6% and 24.2% of the vote, respectively. Top 2 move on to November. Dan Dempsey is in third, with 17.1%.
For everyone looking for proof that the Seattle summer weather this year truly is as exceptionally lousy as it seems … our favorite non-WS bloggers, at Capitol Hill Seattle, have crunched the numbers one more time.
Alki Community Council prez Jackie Ramels points us to this article — it’s about her fellow ACC officer Peter Stekel making a discovery in California that could solve more of a World War II-era mystery he’s been investigating.
… there’s a sign on Cali prominently advertising “adult” merchandise.
We noticed the new “adult DVDs” addition to the sign at the Short Stop market on the north edge of Morgan Junction several days ago and felt a little hinky about it, but then thought, nah, we’re just prudes. A day later, we got reader e-mail voicing concern, and we decided it’s worth raising the question here. The reader wrote, in part:
It’s lit up and elevated up on a big pole, which is unfortunate for the neighborhood. What’s next, strip clubs? Now when my family comes to visit, I’ll have to tell them “Take a right at the Adult DVD store.”ÂÂ
Now, in fairness, this sign is not exactly next to a school or day-care center. Chuck & Sally’s Tavern is the second building to the north, Beveridge Place Pub is the next one south. But it is next to the site of a future park, and smack in the middle of a neighborhood in transition — with a big condo conversion and future townhomes also steps away. So what do you think? “Unfortunate,” as the reader wrote? Or no big deal?
If you also happened to be wondering: Seattle Police tell us this morning they have nothing new to report on last Friday morning’s big fire, just that they are “actively investigating” it. Also, they are still choosing not to talk publicly about what evidence they found that led investigators to call it arson. If you have any idea about who’s to blame, or saw anything (as police put it) “even remotely suspicious before, during, or after” — the hotline to call is 800-55-ARSON. (Photo below is one we didn’t get around to posting in the fire aftermath — chillingly charred sign nearby.)
FREEWAY FRIGHT ’07, FOURTH-TO-LAST WEEKDAY: The I-5 work crews have reached a milestone. (Maybe we’re just punchy; we childishly giggled at the text clump toward the end of that WSDOT page’s full web address: Crewsfinishjoints …) Now they’ve just got some more paving to do — weather permitting. Only two lanes open till they’re done. To check the live cams before your commute, go here.
PRIMARY ELECTION ’07, 7 AM-8 PM FOR IN-PERSON VOTERS: On the ballot you will see City Council races, Port Commission races, the School Board District 6 race, a smattering of county contests, and 2 park levies. All the info you could possibly want, even video voters’ guides, can be found from the list of links here. (We’ll have links to results here tonight.)
HELP FIGHT, AND PREVENT, CRIME, 7 PM TONIGHT: Everyone’s invited to tonight’s meeting of the West Seattle Community Safety Partnership, 7-8:30 pm @ the SW Precinct. Main topic: Protecting your home from burglary. You’ll also hear updates on recent area crime, and neighborhood reports.
Several articles are out tonight about two men the FBI hopes someone can identify. They apparently were spotted on several ferry runs. The FBI isn’t saying which ferry runs, but if you look at the second photo in this story about them (another site has a larger version here), the backdrop certainly resembles a segment of Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth.
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.
| 8 COMMENTS