West Seattle, Washington
25 Friday
Reminder — Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis talks transportation at the Fauntleroy Community Association’s community meeting at The Hall tonight. (He’s filling in for Hizzoner, who is in DC this morning to talk to Congress about global warming.)
Though the North End is still a mess, looks like WS made it thru the night snow-free. No school changes either, except for a few Head Start programs to the north.
That’s what Kokoras Greek Grill in Morgan Junction just got from the Seattle Weekly, five months after opening.
Kinda like that nickname for the upward development along Cali. Or maybe we’re just hopeless SW geeks. Anyway — today’s developer development: Houses going down, more townhomes going up, on the north end, on a lot sold to Omni for a cool $1.8 mil last spring.
Under The Viaduct, WSB reader Lillie found this wolf, clearly cousin to the owl and bear beneath The Bridge, perhaps howling in anger at the vote that’s wasting $1 million?
At least at our house … though Everett, Snoqualmie Pass, and other areas are getting snow-blasted. Let us know if you see WS snow!
It’s school $-raising season, and the parents at Madison Middle School asked us to share this request: Donate to their upcoming auction. They’re looking for new items, open to just about anything — art, gift baskets, sports souvenirs, you name it. If you don’t have schoolkids in your family, you may not realize how important these annual fundraisers are — a couple WS elementary schools, for example, are raising $ to fix deteriorating playgrounds. To offer an item (or find out about auction tickets), click here to e-mail the Madison auction chairperson, who also explains where the $ will go:
The auction benefits the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) programs and this year’s fund a wish item is a message board much like the one in front of West Seattle High School which will help to communicate to the parents/community the events at the school as well as important messages that somehow seem to get lost in a pre-teenager’s backpack!!!
-City Council member Peter Steinbrueck says he’ll leave the council when his term expires this fall, to focus on The Third Option.
-His current council colleague Nick Licata, who’s pro-rebuild, answers questions on the Seattle Times website from noon-1 pm today. You can send yours now. (If you missed it, here’s the transcript of Hizzoner’s lunchtime online Q-n-A from yesterday. Even just the photo of him at the keyboard is worth the click.)
-No surprise, this ballot of too many options, yet too few, is apparently confusing people. (Can’t say we didn’t warn ’em.)
As of this writing, we’re a bit behind in the Metroblogging Seattle popularity poll, which closes this round tomorrow. Boo! Please vote again today. Show ’em the West Side rules.
One month after our last post on the controversy over the city’s proposed crackdown on “nightlife” businesses — the so-called “nightlife premises legislation” — opponents and supporters are about to get their day before a City Council committee. Opponents, including West Seattle restaurateurs whom you would never consider to be “nightclub” operators, contend this law will hurt their businesses and your/our right to patronize them — so they’re pleading for backup at the meeting (9:30 am Thursday, City Hall downtown) to make sure they’re not outnumbered by community groups (reportedly mostly from other parts of the city) who have rallied in support of the law. If you can’t be there in person, here’s how to contact council members to let them know what you think. If you want to read the whole ordinance for yourself, here it is.
Thanks to CHS for pointing to Defend Capitol Hill. As in, from condos. In our case, townhomes. Perhaps the iconic image could be a red circle-slash through the Death Star Trench (as coined by “Steve E” in a comment on this post).
Seems that somewhere around the time some criminal idiots were stealing copper wire and throwing hundreds of people off the phone system the other night, some (other?) criminal idiots were smashing out car windows on lower Gatewood Hill. Happened to us near The Beach years ago. If the cops don’t get ’em, karma will. Here’s hoping.
Just spotted along the westbound Fauntleroy Way end of The Bridge — huge banners with a sequential message (a la the “Burma Shave” roadside signs way back when) — REPLACE IT?/NO … FIX IT! (We feel a growing sense of kinship in our pro-retrofit-ness.)
West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician is just wrapping up an hourlong q-and-a session on the Times website. Some WS-specific stuff, too.
Two months after Wind-tastrophe ’06, a new city report is out (here’s the city press release, with a link to the full report). Best quote is on page 11: “Seattle City Light should develop a more robust emergency power restoration plan for storms.” No comment.
A little too cold for us personally to get out on the water (ice on the car roof this morning, yikes), but this photo (thanks to Bob Bollen) is immensely cheering anyway:
-Want to hear the experts discuss the viaduct situation, present and future? Tonight’s the big forum at West Seattle HS (6:30-8 pm) with panelists including City Council member Jan Drago and Seattle Department of Transportation boss Grace Crunican.
-Just two nights till you can get the mayor’s office perspective from Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, courtesy of the Fauntleroy Community Association.
-Ex-govs Gary Locke and Dan Evans declare themselves anti-viaduct (though not necessarily pro-tunnel) in today’s Times.
–MIDMORNING ADD: The No Tunnel Alliance says it will “rally” 4:30 pm-6:30 pm today at 35th & Fauntleroy.
For everyone kind enough to have been voting for us in the seemingly endless saga of the Metroblogging Seattle popularity poll (we’re in it too deep now to quit) — the original polling service (dPolls), died, and they’ve just relaunched our part of the poll here. (We’ve updated the page that links to the tab atop this page, too.) Thanks for your help!
Or the front SEVERED lines, anyway … those caught up in crime-caused phonelessness (see below) include one of the blogs linked from our Other Blogs in WS page, Cracks in the Facade.
The wire-theft epidemic has not only hit another utility, it also cut off phone service for hundreds of folks in WS.
If you’re seeing this in early afternoon, stay clear of Fauntleroy/California/Morgan for a while … lots of fire engines checking out something (our witness doesn’t see any smoke so we’re not sure what) at the renovation-in-progress bank, and that means traffic tieups till they’re done.
A reader e-mailed us with word that Retroactive Kids is leaving its space north of Morgan Junction and moving to Columbia City; the store’s site and blog (with construction pix from the new space) confirm it. Perhaps no surprise, since the three-business building it’s in has been for sale for a while.
–Interesting explanation from another “no and hell no” voter.
–Pix of the anti-viaduct “kids’ parade.”
-The Stranger rebuts The Times’ “voting ‘no/no’ is stupid” editorial.
-The Urban Environmentalist says pro-tunnel and pro-Third Option folks should bond.
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