Get ready to hear a lot about this
There’s a lot at stake for West Seattle in the school vote coming up five weeks from today. The measures are mentioned as part of this “year ahead for Seattle Public Schools” story in today’s Times. To find specifics, you have to scavenge through the SPS site; a no-frills doc outlines the half-billion dollar bond measure that we’ll be voting on, a large chunk of which would go toward combining the Denny Middle School & Chief Sealth HS campuses on this side of WS (new turf for the Denny/Sealth field is in the bond plan too). But when you go vote, keep in mind the bond measure is separate from the $400 million levy the district needs just to keep running. And neither will pass, no matter how many “yes” votes, if not enough voters (at least 40% of the # who voted last November) show up.
Happy 2007
Looks like our neighborhood is still in one piece this morning, despite thunderous midnight explosions (even saw a red flare in the distance, as if someone was sending up the signal to say YO! NEW YEAR! WE’RE OVER HERE!). Now a day to recover, before we start looking ahead to the next “holiday season” (summer, of course — 4th of July! parades! Blue Angels! and so on). Meantime, some practical information — here’s what to do with the tree.
West Seattle 2006 Year-In-Review
Since we’ve been keeping an eye on WS this whole year, our 2006 WSYIR will be way meatier than our 2005 WSYIR, which was our 13th post (viewed on 1/1/06 by a grand total of 0 visitors, since this blog had existed, fanfarelessly, for all of eight days at that point).
Enough about us. Here they are, the year’s top 10 WS “stories” (as we see ’em, anyway):
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Happy last day of ’06
Staked out your fireworks-watching spot yet? Ours is in front of the tv; much as we enjoy the West Seattle waterfront, we won’t be out on it this night, this year. The internet also makes New Year’s Eve more interesting for us homebodies; here at WSB World HQ, that dates all the way back to ’94, when we shared NYE virtually via the original mainstream chat program, IRC, with all sorts of folks hopping on and off to report on the New Year’s status in their part of the world/country. Now things are more compartmentalized and sophisticated online; already this morning, we can watch video from NYE celebrations already complete, like Sydney, on computers much faster than the one we used in ’94. We’re also still working on our West Seattle 2006 Year In Review, which you’ll find here by midafternoon. First, a few last things to procure for tonight’s party!
Bubbly & giggly
–Bubbly: We mentioned the other day that while state liquor stores aren’t open New Year’s Eve, West Seattle Cellars is. Also just found out they’re having a sale (big sign outside), so you can get a decent deal on your champagne/wine/champagnish-type sparkling wine.
–Giggly: After the latest major West Seattle power outage, we decided you’ve gotta laugh or else you’ll cry. So, having been through three of them this month here at WSB World HQ, we decided they might be well-named after the Star Wars trilogies. So far — we’ve got A New Problem, The Substation Strikes Back, and Return of the Blackout. Next 3 might work well with The Powerless Menace, Attack of the Trees, and Revenge of the Laterals.
Shining bright
Thought we heard a broadcast report mentioning some people are still out, but a quick spin around found no evidence of that, and there’s nothing on the City Light hotline. (The SCL website’s been useless; they haven’t updated since last Tuesday’s outage.) Did see a SCL crew at Caffe Ladro, but it looked like a well-deserved coffee break, nothing more. All the Morgan Junction businesses are back on, and darn good thing, since there’d be hell to pay, for example, if one of WS’s two liquor stores were closed the day before New Year’s Eve … but it’s not, and looks like all’s right with the world. We’d expect a fresh run on D batteries today, though. (P.S. Let us know if you DO know of any “pocket” that’s still out.)
We’re back on, but not everyone
OK, Upper Fauntleroy here got power back just after quarter till 11. We got that report from the home front while driving around to see the extent of the outage. But as of 11, some other areas are still out — you gotta ache in particular for the south end of Beach Drive, Lincoln Park Way, Lowman Beach, areas that took a week or so to get it back after The Big Outage — not to mention the Morgan Junction businesses now in their third major outage (the one on Wednesday of last week lasted all day and into the night for them, even though up here that “re-outage” lasted “only” two hours). We tried to soothe a younger member of our entourage by saying “you know, there are places in the world where life is like this all the time, power comes on, goes out, comes on, goes out,” but the younger member shut us up smartly by retorting, “yeah, but they’re USED TO IT.” Maybe we should be, too, by now.
Suddenly they change the tune
Weird … five minutes after we listened to the City Light recording (206-684-3000 and wade thru the menu), they posted a new one that was much vaguer. Gone were the specifics about a certain area that might be out for eight hours; gone were the specifics about the “broken cross arm on a pole” being to blame … instead, the 9:07 pm update had the language of bureaucracy, “no estimated time for restoration” and “the cause is unknown.” The boundaries seemed a little off too, considering what we saw as we drove north of Morgan Junction. If you’ve got yours back, please post a comment and let us know; our correspondent back home in Upper Fauntleroy is definitely still in the dark.
Third outage the charm?
To use an old quote, “this is getting old.” Yes, we too are in the outage zone. Again. Took a while to get out of the house and find someplace to go online. Looks like some areas have gotten their power back — in fact, we were driving past Chuck & Sally’s when a couple blocks right there north of M-Junction went on, and the smokers out on the corner all cheered lustily. But to the south, we’re not back yet, and the City Light outage hotline (which blames “a broken crossarm on a power pole”) says there’s a certain chunk that could be out for up to 8 hours. Stand by for more …
Don’t wait too long to buy your bubbly
Caveat first, we are not condoning New Year’s Eve drunkenness and we trust that if you leave the house, you will pick a DD or take a taxi. (What happened to Avi, memorialized in a poster we saw in a WS shop window last night, could happen to you.) That said, there’s no denying that many of us will drink something alcoholish Sunday night. So this might be helpful info, if you, like us, need to buy something to serve @ home: West Seattle’s state liquor stores are closed Sunday, but they’ve got helpful signs posted noting that the one in The Junction will be open later than usual on Saturday (10 pm). And if you’re just looking for fine wine/champagne, you CAN shop Sunday @ West Seattle Cellars, according to their site.
Outage is a six-letter word
If you get internet service from the same place we get internet service, you might also be experiencing this new nightly ritual … sit down at the computer, type a website address, and … wait to see if a Certain Cable Company Starting With C will allow us to access the tubes. The spotty service finally got bad enough last night for us to call and complain. Yes, we were told, there is a major outage (THAT WORD AGAIN) in areas including West Seattle, and it’s due to damage from The Storm. (This article talks about one ongoing since the storm, but ours has been intermittent. Just like, interestingly, these folks back east.) Our next two questions: (a) will this bring a discount on our bill, and (b) is there some more reliable way to get fast internet service (Clearwire? Sprint? aluminum foil around our ears?). Anybody who’s switched from The Cable Company Starting with C and is happier with their new provider, please do tell.
Somebody out there in the dark
Kudos to Seattle City Light for a raw, but thorough, update on cause of last night’s outage, presented here in its entirety in case it’s gone when you check the link:
Power to the Highland Park, Delridge, White Center, South Park neighborhoods have been restored. Cause was unstable hillside sluffing off & trees falling into 26kv @ Highland Park Wy SW between W. Marginal Wy SW & SW Webster St. A crew is onsite to repair but ETR is unknown due to still unstable hillside. 1 customer remains out until perm repair is done.
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