West Seattle, Washington
22 Sunday
As school open-house season continues, Harbor School on Vashon Island, which serves grades 4-8, is sponsoring WSB to reach out to West Seattle families, and is offering special transportation assistance to get interested families to its open house next Wednesday – including a ferry ticket if you RSVP today, and shuttle service from the dock if you RSVP by Tuesday:
On Wednesday, November 13 at 7 PM, Harbor School will be holding an Open House for prospective students from West Seattle and their families on their Vashon Island campus.
Harbor School, a non-profit, independent school, serving Grades 4 through 8, would like to introduce West Seattle families to a vibrant academic environment on Vashon Island – just a short ferry ride from Fauntleroy. Newly positioned to expand their student capacity, Harbor School has begun an active outreach program to West Seattle families.
Read on for specifics:
(East-facing camera on the West Seattle Bridge; see other cams on the WSB Traffic page)
This weekend’s Highway 99 closure starts late tonight. As for the roads right now, there’s a crash reported on Highway 509 on the way to the 1st Avenue S. Bridge.
VETERANS DAY REMINDERS FOR MONDAY: Metro is on a “reduced weekday” schedule Monday; the West Seattle Water Taxi will NOT be in service.
As the holidays approach, we celebrate both annual traditions and new events that might become traditions. In the latter category is a gala just announced by the West Seattle Tool Library:
After nearly 3-1/2 years of providing free tools, advice and workshop space to the community on a donation basis, the West Seattle Tool Library is holding its first fundraiser and inclusive “Festivus” party.
Everyone is welcome. No cover charge.
The fundraiser gala, which will also serve as Sustainable West Seattle’s annual winter holiday party, will be held Friday, Dec. 6, from 6:00 to 9:30 pm. Any funds raised will go to the maintenance of tool library operations, as well as potential enhancements such as extended hours and more classes, depending on the amount raised.
To be held at the dance studio at Youngstown Cultural Arts center, the fundraiser is being billed as a Festivus in a nod to a classic Seinfeld episode, with beer, wine, soft drinks, food, music, a silent auction, kids activities and a used tool sale.
For the first time since a proposed standalone drugstore project became public – first reported here in late July – it’s officially listed in public records as a future CVS Pharmacy. The project proposed for 4722 Fauntleroy Way SW has yet to be scheduled for a design-review meeting. It’s been assumed that it would be CVS because of the client list of the company listed as the applicant, and because of similar applications in other areas, but now the name has formally emerged for the first time – on a liquor-license application.
Washington CVS Pharmacy, LLC, has just applied for beer/wine/spirits sales licenses for the Fauntleroy Way SW site as well as for the lower Queen Anne, Wallingford, and Burien locations that were mentioned in our July report. Other than this, no new documents regarding the West Seattle project have emerged since the ones we found in late July, mentioning a one-story, 14,500-square-foot store (the site is zoned for mixed-use development up to 8 stories). But if you’re looking for hints, you might look at the newest design proposal for the lower Queen Anne project, which goes back to Design Review next week – though keep in mind there are site differences, such as size (the smaller Queen Anne site is proposed for an underground garage, while the roughed-out “site plan” for West Seattle showed surface parking).
Just over four years ago, King County reps first came to Fauntleroy for meetings with neighbors about two projects to reduce combined-sewer overflows from two area pump stations. Now, many meetings later, both of those projects are on the verge of construction, and last night at Fauntleroy Church, the Murray project – named after the Lowman Beach pump station to which it’s tied – was discussed in detail with neighbors, in a pre-construction briefing. Ahead, some of what neighbors and Lowman Beach/Lincoln Park users alike should know about the impending three years of construction:
Eastridge Church has just announced the date for its annual turkey-and-groceries giveaway. This year, between its West Seattle and Issaquah campuses, it’s increasing the number of turkeys to 1,500. Lori from Eastridge says they’re offering “a helping hand and a little hope this Thanksgiving” with the giveaway starting at 9 am Saturday, November 23rd, “no questions asked, nothing to fill out.” Eastridge is at 39th/Oregon.
We’ve heard about these planting plans at recent community-council meetings, and now we have official details from SDOT – 100 new street trees will be planted along Fauntleroy Way SW across from Lincoln Park, and along California Avenue SW in Morgan Junction, starting next Tuesday. Read all about them here.
(What the bus network in our area would look like AFTER the cuts, IF they have to be made – click for full-size view)
11:01 AM: We’re at Metro Transit‘s SODO base awaiting a briefing on the cuts that are expected in service if there’s not what at this point would amount to a last-minute funding miracle – even as the Legislature starts its special session. Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond is here, and County Executive Dow Constantine is expected at any moment. We’ll update with details as they are announced. We have a stack of printed-out documents already, listing among other things (following list was updated post-meeting, with links to route-specific proposal info):
West Seattle routes among the routes countywide that would be deleted:
21 (click on the number on this page for info)
22 (click on the number on this page for info)
37 (click on the number on this page for info)
57 (click on the number on this page for info)
113 (click on the number on this page for info)
West Seattle routes among the routes countywide that would be “reduced/revised”:
Rapid Ride C Line – details
50 – details
55 – details
56EX – details
116EX – details
120 – details
125 – details
128 – details
131 – details
11:05 AM: Constantine begins by saying “Thank you for being here today, but we should not have to be here today.” He says the Legislature “has a unique opportunity to do what it wasn’t willing to do last year … let us prevent cuts to bus service … The size of these cuts is without precedent in the 40-year history of Metro Transit.” Transit service “is congestion reduction,” he said, adding that he is headed to Olympia in minutes “to present the case to lawmakers (who) need to act now – it will be dramatically more difficult to do so during next year’s regular session … I want our Legislature to be different from Congress; I want our Legislature to *work*.”
(11:08) Constantine says that this is a time for MORE bus service, not less, before he gives the mike to County Council Transportation Committee chair Larry Phillips, who points to the non-moving buses in the parking lot out the window (photo added) –
“That is the future (you) will see … buses idle, parked, not serving the public, drivers laid off … riders left stranded, passed by, buses very full, overcrowded, that is our pending reality … one we have held off for five years by a significant number of actions by (county leaders).” Service already is overcrowded and riders ‘are fed up with traffic and congestion’ so cutting service is ‘exactly the wrong direction for us,” Phillips warns. “Yet the council has no choice – we have to balance our budget …” He says the county already has found $800 million in efficiencies, fare hikes, one-time monies, etc., to “fill the (funding) gap,” but they have “no more way in which to stave off 17 percent cuts in service … now all that’s left is cutting service unless we have new revenue. The council would like to give the voters of King County that choice.” He adds, “If the Legislature does not act, we will have to explore other options. … People across King County are about to find out what not having a bus will mean to them.” Next, Metro GM Desmond will speak.
11:13 AM: Desmond begins. He goes into the sales-tax-funding mechanism that’s been in crisis for years. He reiterates that “we’ve been working for five years to keep service on the road” but a $75 million “challenge” remains. “Absent new revenue, we will have to proceed with an unprecedented downsizing of the system. … Instead of (doing that) we really should be growing the system.” He says there is documentation (we’ll add a link to that) showing why. He points to a chart showing that transit should grow by “almost 90 percent” by 2040 but “we’re falling behind, not getting ahead.”
**If you want to skip ahead, the Metro docs about cuts and more are now online here**
Desmond mentions a 42 percent increase in growth along the Alaskan Way Viaduct corridor, “most of that coming from West Seattle, Burien area.” He mentions that Rapid Ride is already “very very crowded” along the four lines launched so far. “As jobs continue to come to this very vital part of the United States, it will be a tremendous setback to the economy of this region if Metro Transit” has to make cuts like these. He mentions that employers offer transit passes a benefit “because they know the value of transit to their employees … in an incredibly competitive environment as they try to get the best and brightest to come (here).” Desmond mentions systems to the north and south that have “already cut a third of their systems.” He again mentions the $800 million that Metro has already ‘generated to help keep service on the road.’ (Added: Here’s the breakdown.)
11:20 AM: Desmond continues with a reminder that the Congestion Reduction Charge, which staved off earlier cuts, expires next year. “There is good news (though) – the economy is improving and our sales-tax collections have been growing somewhat faster than expected … but make no mistake, that increase doesn’t come anywhere near close to resolving our problem, especially in the context of the need to continue growing our system.”
Now, he gets to the proposed cuts. “The program calls for 600,000 hours or 17 percent of the system potentially to be reduced.” See them here. He says productivity, social-equity, and geographic considerations were involved in making the decisions. “All of the routes you’ll see … are ranked in tiers, high, medium, and low …” Most of the cuts, though, are “cutting deeply to the bone” in services ranked “medium.” Metro has 240 routes; 74 routes will “be deleted altogether, 35 percent of the system – the routes, gone. Another 107 routes, 50 percent of the routes, will have some kind of service reduction,” he says, either schedule changes or ‘pieces of a route’ might be cut off. (The walls here are swimming in pie charts, posters with route numbers and big X’s on them, by the way [photo added].)
He says, “The vast majority of our customers will almost certainly feel negative effects.” (Various maps are up around the room, too.) “42 percent of the reductions will be taken for peak-only service,” Desmond adds. “In many cases … many of the routes you’ll see deleted are well-used routes, but they’re very expensive to operate … if we don’t eliminate those services, we’d have to cut some place else.”
The cuts, he said, would add up to about 50,000 fewer transit trips per day – 14 million per year – and those are trips currently taking cars off the road; “with these cuts, we would estimate something like 20,000 or 30,000 more car trips on the road in King County … loss of these trips will slow highway travel …” (There’s another chart up on an easel detailing that – see it here. Lots and lots of numbers here.) Either the state would have to build more lanes “at a tremendous cost” or else the roads “won’t work any more,” and he warns that would affect industry tremendously. The cuts would “bring our service back to 1997 levels,” but since that time, King County has grown 22 percent in population, according to Desmond.
11:29 AM: Desmond goes on to mention the other funding/service loss – Alaskan Way Viaduct mitigation service added because of construction. “In order to keep Seattle moving … (the state) understood they had to (pay for more bus service).” That led to 7,500 seats, 150 daily trips, being added to the system. “That service contract expires prematurely in June of next year,” Desmond said, as has been noted before. They want the state to extend that “at least until the tunnel is open in 2016 … For West Seattle transit riders, we’ll have an instantaneous reduction of 11 percent of service in June, on top of the cuts that area of the county would experience through the systemwide reductions.” So, he says, they are kicking off an extensive public-outreach process. “We want our customers to understand how we made these decisions – they are objective and transparent and anyone can see the homework (behind them).” He says nine “large public meetings” will be held throughout the county plus “more than 30 additional outreach events” and they’ll be “open to other invitations.”They will have a van going around “on the fly.” And they want people to check out the website we linked earlier – kingcounty.gov/metro/future – to find out more about this, route by route, among other ways. They want to hear from you, Desmond emphasizes.
“When is all this going to happen?” he says you’re likely wondering. First, he says, they are hopeful the special session will result in action. If not – April 1st is when they’ll deliver the 600,000-service-hours-cut proposal to the County Council, depending on how their March economic forecast comes out, “based on our finances at that time.” By end of May/early June the reductions would be approved, and then after that, starting in September 2014, February 2015, June 2015, September 2015, is when the cuts would kick in, “by installment.” But “the timing can remain fluid,” Desmond said.
“In closing … we should be growing by half a million hours, 15 percent, to keep the county moving … I want to assure the public we’ll continue to take steps to be as efficient as possible .. but .. at some point the only way to balance the budget, is to affect the bus service. … We also urge the state to work with us to stave off the Viaduct-related cuts (too).”
11:37 AM: Desmond takes questions. First one – what EXACTLY are they looking for in a funding package? He says, what was recommended to the Legislature almost a year ago by a coalition of organizations. And he reminds, it’s not just about holding off cuts – it’s about allowing the service to grow. It was in HB 1959, which was passed last session (but died in the Senate). Councilmember Phillips elaborates on the voter approval that would be needed – this mostly is about the Legislature authorizing the county to ask voters to approve funding. He doesn’t have a specific sum; “right now we just need the authority to move forward and fill this gap.” What was asked about before equaled something like $150 per $10,000 of vehicle value. Desmond steps in to remind that the tax would NOT be just for Metro – voters would be asked for taxing authority that also would pay for local roads (the County Roads department, for example, is so low on funding, some roads are going into non-maintained status – those are county roads, outside the Seattle city limits, by the way, including White Center just south of West Seattle).
TAKE NOTE – Meeting schedule includes:
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in North Delridge, 6 pm December 3rd
Elaborating on the traffic effects of bus cuts, Phillips says 90 percent of Metro riders are believed to have access to cars. Drivers are making a decision about their “congestion future” if they even get a chance to vote on potential.
P.S. We asked Desmond if the numbers on the documents include the potential expiration of the Viaduct-related service (which heavily affects West Seattle) as well as the other money – he says yes. A staffer says that overall, West Seattle would lose 27 percent of its current bus service combining the 17 percent potential funding loss systemwide and the Viaduct-mitigation money loss.
11:52 AM: Briefing’s over. We will add more links, more maps and other graphics directly to this to cut down on the amount of wading through the website that you would have to do otherwise. For starters – here is a direct link to the map showing potential service reductions in our area.
2:50 PM: We’ve added numerous links as well as photos/graphics above, with more information route-by-route. In case you missed the links in the comments, we also have some backstory – earlier this year, the stage for this was set by another announcement we covered as-it-happened – that link is here; six weeks later, we had a one-on-one interview with Metro GM Desmond answering some of the questions readers asked then (and are asking again now) – see it here.
(Photo by Deborah Achak, via the WSB Flickr group – recent turf war between great blue heron and crows, near Lowman Beach)
Here’s some of what’s up today/tonight, from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Today, bring the little one(s) to Southwest Branch Library at 11 am to enjoy story time! (35th/Henderson)
WEST SEATTLE THRIFTWAY HOLIDAY TASTE: 4-7 pm, come to WS Thriftway (WSB sponsor) and sample food and drink to consider for your holiday gatherings. (California/Fauntleroy/Morgan)
WEST SEATTLE MONTESSORI OPEN HOUSE: Tonight’s your chance to tour West Seattle Montessori School (WSB sponsor) – it’s the fall open house, 6 pm-7:30 pm. Here’s the official flyer. (11215 15th SW)
WEST SEATTLE CYCLERY BIKE CLUB LAUNCH: First meeting at West Seattle Cyclery (WSB sponsor), 7 pm! Topics to include:
• Clinics with local coaches
• Discounts on products
• Team and shop rides, runs and gatherings
• Multi-day rides around the PNW
See our calendar listing for more info, including how to be part of it even if you can’t make tonight’s meeting. (4508 California SW)
GENESEE-SCHMITZ NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL: GSNC‘s general meeting is at 7 tonight, West Seattle Presbyterian Church. (3601 California SW)
USO BENEFIT: Casino-style games, silent auction, more, at the annual USO Fundraiser at Emeritus @ Admiral Heights (WSB sponsor) 7-9 pm – details in our calendar listing. (2326 California SW)
OPEN MICROPHONE: Thursday is open-mike night at Diva Espresso in The Triangle, 7-9 pm. (4480 Fauntleroy Way SW)
Not in West Seattle but of interest:
WHAT SHOULD BE IN THE NEXT PARKS LEVY? As previewed here last week, tonight is the hearing at which you can tell the Parks Legacy Advisory Committee your thoughts about proposed priorities for the potential parks-funding levy that might go to voters next year. This is your chance to advocate for specific West Seattle projects and/or priorities (such as – money for maintenance, which wasn’t in the last levy). The hearing is at 6 pm (but show up earlier to sign up), Miller Community Center on Capitol Hill. (330 19th Ave. E.)
NORTH HIGHLINE UNINCORPORATED AREA COUNCIL: The community council for White Center and other nearby unincorporated-area communities has its monthly meeting tonight – very busy agenda, with details on our partner site White Center Now. NHUAC meets at 7 pm at the North Highline Fire District‘s HQ. (1243 SW 112th)
Three Four reader reports in West Seattle Crime Watch today – click ahead for details:
(East-facing camera on the West Seattle Bridge; see other cams on the WSB Traffic page)
7:08 AM: Wet roads, so be careful. The wind advisory, meantime, was pushed back overnight, to take effect at 7 am – so even though it’s not windy out there yet, forecasters still think it’s on the way, likely peaking this afternoon.
REMINDER – 99 CLOSURES THIS WEEKEND: Alaskan Way Viaduct is closing starting tomorrow night, and there’s a partial weekend closure north of the Battery St. Tunnel too.
METRO’S MEDIA BRIEFING: As the Legislature starts its special session today, Metro/King County leaders plan a media briefing with new information on the cuts they say they’ll have to make unless legislators include a funding solution in whatever they come up with. Watch for that info after 11 am.
7:49 AM: Checked out a crash reported at 35th/Juneau – 2 vehicles but off to the side when we passed a few minutes ago and not blocking traffic.
8:07 AM: Big squall just arrived – heavy rain, breezy. Be EXTRA careful.
8:38 AM: Commenter “Enough” explains intensified backup: “FYI.. Disabled car at bottom of hill by Nucor, right lane. Both lanes getting by.”
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Less than a year into its existence, the Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights Community Council has taken on some of the area’s thorniest issues – safety in Roxhill Park, Westwood Village, and environs.
Chair Amanda Kay Helmick called it “the meat of the meeting” for WWRHAH last night; she was one of the volunteers who helped build Roxhill’s new Castle Park playground and says she’s there with her family at least three times a week. She wants to apply for a grant for the park – but wants public input “what should we do with the money?”
That opened a discussion about the park’s components – which go far beyond the newly renovated playground and the newly installed skatepark. Safety topped the list because of incidents in recent months from armed robberies to an incident just last weekend in which someone was threatened with a knife at the playground.
The discussion led to revelations including a Seattle Police announcement that the park now has regular foot patrols.
Again this year, West Seattle American Legion Post 160 and Auxiliary are inviting local veterans and their families – all branches, active duty or reserve – to a free dinner commemorating Veterans Day. The gourmet Italian dinner will be served 5-8 pm this Sunday night (November 10) at the West Seattle Veterans’ Center (longtime home to Post 160), 3618 SW Alaska in The Triangle. Here’s more info via the official flyer.
We’ve been hearing for a while about a major slowdown on southbound 99 headed this way, and now we know why – a crash right at the bridge. One WSB’er who passed it while riding Metro Route 55 reports, “There is a three-car accident in the left lane, just before the WS Bridge ramp. An ambulance and cop are on the scene. Avoid the area!”
Almost a year has passed since Life Care Center announced it would close its nursing home at 47th/Admiral, and we finally know a bit about the 1 1/2-acre site’s future, the source of much speculation and more than a few questions. For some weeks, the real-estate listing has had the notation “pending” – as in “sale pending” – but there’s no public information until the sale closes, so we’ve just kept watching public records. Then a WSB reader pointed us to a recent magazine interview in which the CEO of Redmond-headquartered Aegis Living mentioned the company had property in West Seattle. Today, a company spokesperson confirmed that Aegis “has the property under contract.” For further details on their plan – whether renovation or new construction – we’re awaiting an interview with CEO Dwayne Clark later this month; no applications are in city records yet. Aegis Living has 14 locations in the Puget Sound area, in addition to 15 in California and one in Nevada, and describes itself as “a leader in assisted living and memory care.”
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: If you liked last Saturday’s weather – stand by for a possible encore tomorrow. The National Weather Service has just announced a wind advisory will be in effect for our area and the rest of the Western Washington lowlands, 3 am to 8 pm tomorrow. Right now, the alert – read it here in its entirety – forecasts wind out of the south, 20-30 mph with possible gusts to 45. (Last Saturday’s peak gusts were around 60.) We’ll update here if the forecast changes with the NWS’s next review cycle this evening.
THURSDAY MORNING: Overnight, NWS pushed the advisory back, to 7 am-8 pm Thursday – here’s the new text.
(Photos by Christopher Boffoli for WSB – initial cameraphone photos replaced Wed. evening)
2:12 PM: There’s a report of a crash on the Admiral Way hill north of the bridge, 3500 block, with a major emergency response. We’re on our way to find out more.
2:21 PM: Added a photo. We don’t know yet about the condition of anyone who had been in the vehicle.
2:28 PM: Christopher Boffoli reports from the scene that the driver of the car, a Nissan Z, got himself out of the wreckage and does not seem to be seriously hurt. Both Christopher and co-publisher Patrick Sand, also there, report that some traffic is getting around the scene – but we’d still advise avoiding the area if you can.
5:04 PM UPDATE: The scene cleared some time ago, as noted by a commenter (we have since driven through the area as well).
A second vehicle was involved; we asked Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore about the drivers’ conditions, and he replied, “AMR transported a male in his 30’s in stable condition with minor scrapes to HMC. He was from the car that was rolled over. The female driver of the other car declined treatment or transport.”
Don’t lose that election spirit yet! Less than 24 hours are left in a quick-and-easy online vote – and one of the three candidates is the West Seattle woman featured in the video you see above, Tari Coffey. She is a finalist to become Verity Credit Union‘s next “Verity Mom” – a yearlong role. And as you can see in Tari’s video, her campaign includes promoting West Seattle! Voting ends at noon tomorrow. The vote has NO strings attached – no requirement to “like” or sign up for anything – just go here.
On the same day that one of King County’s two current combined-sewer-overflow-reduction projects in West Seattle will be the subject of a pre-construction meeting (see our West Seattle Wednesday preview), the other one enters a new phase. As part of the Barton CSO project in Westwood and Sunrise Heights, 24 trees that will be transplanted into new homes – some public right-of-way, some private property – over the next three weeks, as a three-person contractor crew works to dig them up and move them, starting today. The transplants are meant to ensure the trees won’t be destroyed to make way for the bioswales/raingardens that the county is installing, starting next March, to capture rainwater before it gets into the combined-sewer system, therefore helping to keep millions of gallons of raw-sewage-contaminated water from overflowing into Puget Sound when the Barton Pump Station gets overloaded during storms. As shown in the photo we took this morning, the trees that are to be transplanted have been marked with ribbons and notes.
You might have noticed that some demolition work started today at 4755 Fauntleroy Way – aka the Whole Foods (and ~370 apartments as well as other retail) site – but that does not mean the project has its final approvals, and it has nothing to do with the results of last night’s mayoral election (you might recall that the “alley vacation” needed for the project became a campaign issue, when Mayor McGinn told SDOT not to approve it). What’s happening here, a project spokesperson told WSB today, is demolition of the former gas station on the Fauntleroy/Alaska corner, so that its tanks can be dug up and the site can be cleaned up.
This work will take about three weeks, according to the project spokesperson. (Even if the site had remained under its previous ownership, the tanks were slated for removal and replacement – we had been watching permits and processes there for a long time.) As for the aforementioned alley vacation, it still has to go before the City Council Transportation Committee, which wouldn’t happen any sooner than next month. As SDOT’s street/alley-vacation specialist Beverly Barnett told the Junction Neighborhood Organization in September, the proposal remains open for public comment.
(Photo by Mark Wangerin – common loon snacking on a starry flounder)
Before we get any further into Wednesday – highlights from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:
MADISON MIDDLE SCHOOL BOOKFAIR: One of the school fundraisers we’re spotlighting is the Madison Middle School Bookfair – and in addition to on-campus purchase opportunities, there’s a way to participate online too – explained in our calendar item.
‘GROWTH BOUNDARIES’ THIRD DRAFT AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING: While the vote is two weeks away, the introduction of the third and potentially final draft of the “Growth Boundaries” for Seattle Public Schools happens at tonight’s meeting. (Here’s our report from Friday, when the draft was published – read the comments for more info from people who’ve been reviewing it.) The meeting starts at 4:15 pm, but this isn’t until the 6 pm (and beyond) section, which also includes the Intermediate Capacity-Management Plan, featuring the designation of E.C. Hughes as a future emergency site and the change of Boren to be the permanent home of K-5 (future K-8) STEM. Here’s the agenda. (3rd/Lander – comments also are still being taken at growthboundaries@seattleschools.org)
DANCE TIME WITH LAUREN PETRIE: The popular musician plays at the Senior Center of West Seattle tonight for a 6-8 pm dance; details in our calendar listing. (California/Oregon)
MURRAY CSO ‘PRE-CONSTRUCTION MEETING’: Before construction gets going on the Murray Combined Sewer Overflow Control storage-tank project across from Lowman Beach Park, King County Wastewater Treatment Division invites you to a meeting tonight for information and Q/A re: what’s about to happen. Fauntleroy Church, 6:30 pm. (9140 California SW)
SOUTHWEST DISTRICT COUNCIL: Tonight’s meeting includes a briefing on the city’s move toward requiring owners of unreinforced-brick buildings to retrofit them for earthquake safety, as previewed here last weekend. The council also will talk about new leadership for next year. 6:30 pm, Southwest Teen Life Center. (2801 SW Thistle)
‘POWER OF PARENTS’ AT WSHS PTSA: As previewed here earlier, the West Seattle High School PTSA invites the community to a “Power of Parents” workshop during tonight’s meeting, 7 pm in the school library. (3000 California SW)
ALSO AT WSHS – ‘DIARY OF ANNE FRANK’: The West Seattle High School Drama Club production – previewed here earlier this week – continues tonight, 7:30 pm, at the WSHS Theater. Details in our calendar listing. (3000 California SW)
MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWERS’ MEETING: As noted here earlier this week, the new Association of Cannabis Breeders and Growers – working to keep the medical-marijuana industry from being rendered extinct by the new recreational-marijuana industry – is having its first meeting at 8 pm at the VFW Hall in The Triangle. (3601 SW Alaska)
See our calendar for even more of what’s up tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month, and beyond!
About 100 people came to Hope Lutheran last night for the safety presentation offered to the community in the wake of recent incidents near local schools. Leading it was Kim Estes of Savvy Parents Safe Kids, at center in our photo below with daughter Arden at left and Hope principal Kristen Okabayashi at right:
The heart of the advice: Small conversations you can have with your kids, frequently, as in shorter than a minute, just to help drive the message home.
Key points: Myths about people to be wary of – it’s not always some obviously scary-looking person; it might even be someone known to you. When difficult situations arise, talk calmly with your kids; they will be more open if they know you aren’t panicking and won’t be, and you’ll make more progress.
In particular, Estes promotes 10 rules which she suggests posting on your refrigerator or someplace else that you and your family can easily find and refer to them – see them here (you can download them from that link too).
Q/A after the presentation was dominated by technology-related questions – when is it OK for a child to have a cell phone or e-mail address? for example. Estes pointed out that 13 has been set by many services as the minimum age, and in her view, simple cell phones are a good idea as kids move into their middle-school years. But, she reiterated, it is vital to keep an eye on how your kids use phones/computers/technology.
It’s playoff time for many fall sports – and last night, we stopped by Southwest Athletic Complex as Metro League girls-varsity soccer teams including West Seattle High School played post-season games. The Wildcats – winners of so many shutouts during the regular season – were held scoreless by Seattle Prep, 2-0.
Their postseason continues Thursday; we’re still checking on schedules.
P.S. We appreciate time/place info on any and all playoff games involving other schools and sports; postseason schedules aren’t as easy to track down! editor@wsb.blackfin.biz – and good luck to all!
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