West Seattle, Washington
20 Friday
More NTG (or at least, his style) creations sighted on our side of the bay — this time, on the approach to the low bridge. Thanks to sneakyfreak‘s Nick for the pic:
Lots of energy about to be put into two good causes:
-You have till noon tomorrow to sign up online for the Race for the Cure on The Viaduct this Saturday morning. (And even if you’re not going to join us and thousands of other runners/walkers, keep in mind The Viaduct will be closed for a few hours that morning because of this.)
-One week from Sunday, sometime between 3 and 4 pm, two Eastside men will arrive on the beach at Lincoln Park after swimming 3 1/2 miles from Vashon Island. It’s their 8th annual “Paddle for PAWS” to raise money for that animal-assistance group. They’re hoping to raise $10,000, and they’re accepting donations online right now.
-The monthly West Seattle Art Walk, 6-9 pm in The Junction. Including shoe paintings!
-Less revelry, more revelatory: The city Design Review Board convenes @ 6:30 pm @ the SW Precinct, with just one project on the agenda — the first WS megaproject proposal that’s gone to demolition already (4100 Alaska/ex-Hollywood Video, photo below taken this week).
Seattle Weekly gets snarky about our lack of parking paystations, suggesting it’s ’cause Hizzoner lives here (but what is UP with the quote about “no kids with blue mohawks”?). Meantime, The Stranger includes two WS churches (#10 and #17) in this odd little roundup.
… or, at least for posting on your fridge; just tack it up someplace handy — we happened onto this downloadable version of the cool West Seattle Summer Events poster you may have seen in store windows and on bulletin boards around town.
We recently mentioned the Riviera West building at 7100 Cali, south of Morgan Junction and kitty-corner from Caffe Ladro, was up for sale, and described as a potential condo conversion. Then in the past half-day or so, we received a couple tips/comments that it’s been bought — by the Seattle Housing Authority. This afternoon, SHA communications director Virginia Felton confirmed the purchase. She tells WSB it will be part of the Housing Authority’s “scattered sites” portfolio, explaining, “The Riviera is a good addition to this portfolio because it has six two bedroom and two three bedroom apartments, along with four 1 bedroom apartments. There is more need for these larger apartments.” As for the people who live at Riviera West now, she says they will be evaluated to see if they qualify for subsidized housing; if they don’t, she says they will have one year to “transition,” and she promises that current residents will be getting a letter about all this soon.
Vintage Seattle today is featuring a century-old ad touting the joys of moving to WS — even “graded streets,” brags the ad! (Ah, if the ad-writer could see what’s happening with some of those streets now. FIVE YEARS?????)
Just drove through Fauntleroy/Alaska and spotted both stations suddenly down below $3 for regular — $2.99 at 76, $2.98 at Shell (that’s more than a dime since our last driveby a few hours earlier). Will check the previous low-price leader, Admiral/Cali Chev, in a bit (sightings, anyone?).
Yet another event on the WS docket tonight: Fairmount Park Elementary‘s big goodbye bash. You may recall, it’s one of about half a dozen schools that Seattle Public Schools leaders decided to close after this school year. Tonight, 6:30-8 pm, Fairmount Park puts a brave face on the whole thing with a closure celebration featuring food, music, and a look back at the school’s history. (The official last day for most SPS schools, however, isn’t till next Friday.)
With our state’s earliest primary election ever (Aug. 21) just 10 weeks away, it’s not too soon to start figuring out who merits your vote. To that end, the 34th District Democrats welcome all to their candidate forum tonight, 7:15 pm at The Hall @ Fauntleroy (including nonpartisan offices such as school board). Here’s the list of who they’re expecting.
We must admit we didn’t know this manufacturing business was here in WS (in the business-but-not-retail zone east of The Junction) till this story just turned up about 90 people losing their jobs there.
Lots of West Seattle summer fun between now and then, but our very favorite event, the Hi-Yu Parade, is now only 5 1/2 weeks away – and we just noticed there’s a photo of the 2007 official Hi-Yu Float (which appears in many other parades besides ours) at the festival site. Countdown’s on — lock up July 21 to join us in The Junction!
-A WSB reader from the West Seattle Unitarian Universalists asked us if we’d mind mentioning that the WSUU congregation is looking for a music director. Full posting is on their site; or send an e-mail inquiry here.
-The school year may be almost over, but learning doesn’t stop when the last June bell rings. The Youth Tutoring Program needs volunteers for its summer reading program, right here in West Seattle. We heard about it from a WSB reader who says she’s been volunteering for YTP and loves it; she adds, “The long-term effects of this impact our neighborhoods and communities as a whole, as well as each individual child.” Click to read more about YTP and how you can help:Read More
After we posted about the award-winning wine made at SSCC, we got some questions about where to buy it. We checked with the college, and here’s the scoop: Nothing left from the first release of white wine, but a big party coming up in October will debut their first red wines — plus two chardonnays and one “late-harvest” sauvignon blanc. You can get your name on the list for an invitation to the Oct. 15 party by clicking here to e-mail SSCC’s wine-technology coordinator Regina Daigneault.
Over the next four days (Wednesday through Saturday), we’ll see the lowest tides of the summer (yes, we’re aware summer technically is still about a week away) — all -3 feet or lower, with the absolute lowest a -3.8 on Friday morning (check the full tide chart here). Seattle Aquarium beach naturalists will be out on Friday (and over the weekend) at Lincoln Park and south of Alki Point; one of our favorite low-tide spots is Lowman Beach, one of the areas where submerged structures start to emerge, as seen this morning:
A WSB reader e-mailed us to ask if we knew what was going on with the triangular spot of commercial land along Erskine a little ways west of The Junction. We remember driving past for years and noticing what looked like an old gas pump, though now (barely visible in the left foreground below) there’s just a concrete pad.
County property records show the parcel was sold in April; city permit files show the “storage shed” will make way for a single-family house. The person who e-mailed us says this site used to house “Thor’s Towing”; any WSB oldtimers have stories to share?
OK, so it’s $2.99 diesel at Admiral/Cali Chevron, but that’s still below three bucks. And regular isn’t far behind — now down to $3.05 (left photo). At least two other WS stations are down to $3.09 for regular — Cali/Andover Exxon and Delridge Arco, where (right photo) the guy with the thankless job of fixing 12 sets of numbers with every price change was busy again, just moments ago. How low will it all go? Maybe not much lower, if you believe the national reports. But on the other hand, it’s worth noting that suddenly West Seattle gas prices are significantly below the Seattle average.
Educating Mom has offered space to all school-board candidates to post “guest blog entries” making their pitches for the job. One of the first, just up today, is Dan Dempsey, WSHS teacher who’s one of the five people in the Aug. 21 primary for the school-board job that Irene Stewart is leaving.
Hot on the heels (tails?) of discovering that All The Best is Alki-bound, we think we can match a name to the pending pet-stuff store at Westwood Village: Pet Pros is advertising jobs at its “new West Seattle store.”
Next Monday, if you’re out for a walk on Alki around 9-something am, watch for a woman heading out into the water. No, not a polar-bear swimmer … a County Public Health employee. We’ve seen her the last two Mondays – today, wading quite some distance from shore – taking water samples, then returning to her official county government car. Trying to find out where we can see the test results!
This just in from the Seattle Department of Transportation:
Work on California between SW Genesee and SW Spokane Street has been completed except pavement striping, to be done within the next three weeks.
Final paving of California Avenue SW between Spokane Street and SW Admiral Way is tentatively scheduled for the last week of June.
The contractor plans to begin work on SW Admiral Way between 41st Ave SW and SW Olga Street the first week of July.
The entire project is scheduled for completion in mid-August. Normal work hours for the contractor on California Avenue SW are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
During the peak periods (6-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m.) at least one lane of traffic in each direction on California Avenue SW will remain open. At other times, traffic on California may be restricted to one lane with the use of flaggers. Turns to and from side streets to California Avenue SW may be restricted. Detours may be necessary at times. On-street parking is not allowed in the construction area.
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