West Seattle, Washington
23 Wednesday
The Seattle Glee Clubs – based in West Seattle, performing citywide – start a new season next month, so they’re recruiting singers right now:
Seattle Glee Clubs’ two vocal groups — the Seattle Metropolitan Glee Club women’s choir (the Met) and the Offbeats Vocal Jazz Ensemble — both have openings for the 2012-2013 season that begins in September.
The Met, which performs a combination of traditional choral, folk, jazz and popular music, has openings for all female voice types. The group is led by highly experienced musician and director, John Gulhaugen. An audition and some background in music are required. Rehearsals begin Tues., Sept. 11. 2012. For more information, e-mail John Gulhaugen at: The_Met@Seattlegleeclubs.org.
The Offbeats, performing a variety of jazz styles, including swing, bebop, Latin and contemporary, has openings for tenors and baritones. Acclaimed Seattle jazz singer Kelley Johnson directs the group. An audition and some background in music are required. Rehearsals begin in mid-September. For more information, e-mail Kelley Johnson at: Offbeats@seattlegleeclubs.org.
First of two reports from tonight’s Fauntleroy Community Association board meeting:
(WSB photo added Wednesday afternoon)
While FCA board members say they’re fine with the Seattle Police plan to install a fixed speed-monitoring/ticketing camera in the Gatewood Elementary school zone on Fauntleroy Way, they say the current southbound warning light needs to be moved. (That point also was made in comments on our Sunday night story about the forthcoming camera.) Ahead, the letter FCA is sending to the city:
The weather alert we mentioned this morning has gone up a notch or two: We are now up to an Excessive Heat Watch alert for Thursday and Friday, which the National Weather Service declares are “likely to be among the hottest days of the year,” possibly the mid-90s here. (The recent mini-heatwave officially peaked at 93.) The warning is currently expected to kick in Thursday afternoon and remain in effect through Friday night. We’ll keep an eye on the forecast as it evolves.
Sometimes WSB commenters, usually referring to quality-of-life issues, wonder aloud if West Seattle is going to hell. It is, literally, said one of the demonstrators who took up positions this afternoon by the 35th SW entrance to/exit from the bridge. We passed by a little while ago and heard the man on the southwest corner using a megaphone to amplify a monologue about his opposition to abortion. Then we got a note from Krista, who sent the above photo and says the shouting was quite audible in nearby businesses, including a nearby martial-arts studio: “This obnoxious man plus 2 others are using the corner of 35th/Fauntleroy to shout anti-abortion and other prosthelytizing rants while my son and other children are trying to do martial arts class at SIMA. He’s been using a loudspeaker and it’s attracting quite a disgusted audience.” She says they called police, who said the amplification would be illegal (obviously otherwise, freedom of speech should apply) so they would send someone by to check it out. The people on other corners appeared to be quietly holding signs, including a woman on the northeast corner with one about choosing between Jesus and the devil. We didn’t see any mention of a particular church or denomination affiliation.
5:36 PM: As of about 10 minutes ago, Krista says, they’re gone.
WSB is proud to be a co-sponsor of West Seattle’s next summer festival – Delridge Day, coming up this Saturday (August 18th). We’ve been bringing you previews, and today we asked organizers if the official vendor list is out yet; turns out they had just finished the brochure, with the list and map and other details of this Saturday’s festival, 11 am-3 pm at the park between Delridge Community Center and Delridge Skatepark (Delridge/Genesee) – see it all here (and we’ll see you there!).
Story and photos by Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Three weeks from tomorrow, the sprawling Seattle Public Schools campus at 5950 Delridge Way SW will reopen as the new K-5 STEM at Boren elementary.
It’s been boarded up for two years, since the end of Chief Sealth International High School‘s two-year stay.
Now, elementary schoolers are moving in, and crews have been working to “make it a respectable place,” as project manager Jeanette Imanishi puts it.
She was our guide for a tour on Monday, along with district communications specialist Tom Redman. Outside, of course, there’s fresh paint. Even the north-side portables, which won’t be used but are staying on the site, are getting a new coat.
Inside, the floors are shining:
Read on to see the rest of our photo tour – from the classrooms to the playground, and beyond:
(Photo courtesy Heath)
12:10 PM: The “car fire” call at East Marginal/South Spokane is a truck fire, according to a caller (thanks!), and causing traffic trouble on the east side of the “low bridge” – so if you’re headed that way, we’d suggest an alternate route for now!
12:14 PM: Adding an image from the eastbound high bridge a few minutes ago – smoke was visible across the top of the screen.
(Photo courtesy Heath)
12:24 PM UPDATE: Thanks to Heath for the fire photos. Harbor Island exit from West Seattle Bridge is going to be shut down because of the fire, per scanner. Fire itself is reported to be “tapped.”
12:51 PM UPDATE: Still snarled at last report.
12:56 PM UPDATE: From SDOT via Twitter, the Harbor Island offramp from the Spokane St. Viaduct (westbound) is reopened, but southbound E. Marginal and eastbound Spokane St. are still blocked.
1:26 PM UPDATE: Traffic is moving again, says commenter NorDel; police are still awaiting the tow truck.
4:38 PM UPDATE: There’s a new, not-related-so-far-as-we-know crash in the same area; meantime, we passed by around 3 and though we weren’t in a position to get a photo, we saw the burned truck on a flatbed, apparently getting ready to be hauled away. And now we have followup information courtesy of SFD’s Kyle Moore:
At noon, Engine 13, and Engine 36 were dispatched to reports of a truck fire on the lower level bridge at East Marginal Way South and South Spokane Street. When Engine Company 13 arrived they found a cargo truck fire with an exposure to an empty gasoline tanker truck.
Firefighters laid a hose line and pumped foam on the fire putting it out. Firefighters evaluated the driver of the cab for his complaints of minor smoke inhalation. The driver declined transport to the hospital.
The cause of the fire is considered mechanical or electrical deficiency due to the driver complaining of smoke coming from the engine and then his cab filling with smoke while he was operating the cargo freight truck.
The cab was a total loss but the damage is still being estimated.
I was told he was hauling frozen fish.
Thanks to Mark for the photo and a heartening tale (tail?) from the West Seattle Bridge this morning: Somehow a dog turned up on the westbound bridge around 9 am. Both directions stopped, Mark says; he and others on the EB side watched as people on the WB side “chased the little thing all around the bridge deck and finally corralled it, to some applause.”
ADDED: Even if you don’t usually read comments, make an exception here – as Laura, who was involved in the rescue, tells the story of saving little runaway Bell.
After a wave of stolen-bike reports, this morning, a stolen car – Ann hopes you can help find hers:
This morning we woke up to find that my 2000 green Honda CRV had been stolen. It was parked outside our home in the 3900 block of SW Austin St. [map] SPD has been notified. It has an aftermarket spare tire on the back and a yellow KEXP sticker on the upper right side of the back window and a worn Rat City Rollergirls sticker on the left side of that same window. We would appreciate everyone keeping an eye out for it.
As of this writing it’s not yet on the SPD @getyourcarback Twitter feed but should eventually turn up there. (The latest tweets from that feed, by the way, are featured on the WSB Crime Watch page.)
(Lincoln Park wading pool, by Michelle Riggen-Ransom via the WSB Flickr group. Its season goes through 9/3 but some pools close this week!)
Enjoy this not-too-hot day – the National Weather Service has published a “special weather statement” warning about the next heat wave, later this week. Just in time for the next round of outdoor music/movie/festival fun … but more on that later. A few highlights from the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar for today/tonight:
LIBRARY STORY TIMES: Three in West Seattle today/tonight! 10:30 am for toddlers at the West Seattle Branch; 11:30 am for babies at the Southwest Branch; 7 pm for families at the Delridge Branch.
LUNCH AND FASHION SHOW: 11:45 am at the Senior Center of West Seattle – details (including reservation number) here.
NIGHTLIFE: Trivia That Rocks at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) with food and drink specials, 8 pm … Baby Ketten Karaoke at Skylark, 9 pm … Starlite Singer-Songwriter Showcase at Shadowland, 9 pm.
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