West Seattle, Washington
30 Monday
(WSB photo from December 2009 by Christopher Boffoli)
Remember that scene from last December? As we and others reported, community generosity saved the day – and the holidays – for local kids in need, when Bishop Deborah Dinkins of Restoration Worship Center – which meets at High Point Community Center – reached out for help. She is hoping you can help again this year:
Greeting from Restoration Worship Center Bishop Dinkins
We are having our annual Toy Drive starting the first Sunday in November and continuing every Sunday in November. We have more than 1,000 names already of children needing toys. We have not gotten any donations yet. We are in desperate need of Toys, Gift Cards, Clothes and Monetary Donations. Donations can be dropped off at the High Point Community Center, 6920 34th Ave SW, West Seattle every Sunday in November between the hours of 12 noon to 2:00 pm outside to collect all donations.
The toys will be given away on Sunday in December 5th from 12 to 2:00 pm @ the High Point Housing Office in West Seattle.
For more information please contact Bishop Deborah Dinkins at 360-440-4428 or Tina Taylor at 206-261-4225
Thank you!
Festive green balloons mark the now-open door to High Point Mini Market, the small grocery that has just opened at 3413 SW Graham (map), next to Hans’ VW Repair. Its sign announces halal meat and spices – halal means slaughtered/processed in accordance with Islamic dietary laws (explained here) – and it’s also offering a selection of other foods, as you’ll see on the shelves inside:
The store’s hours are 9 am-9 pm daily for starters, according to its cards; they’re at 206-932-4003.
“The epicenter of the achievement gap in Seattle.” If you watch that video clip from our partners at the Seattle Times, you will hear West Seattle Elementary fourth-grader teacher Chrissie Coxon use that phrase. In the start of a special series of Times stories, she discusses how they are working to close it – and her hopes for her students. The Times also reports that because of implementation of the mandated transformation plan for West Seattle Elementary, which must shake itself out of being one of the lowest-performing schools in the state, about half of last year’s teaching staff chose to leave. Find the Times’ first story here.
Two photos from a jaunt out-and-about during this spectacularly sunny afternoon: While we were in The Junction checking on a few things, Michael from Liberty Bell Printing pointed out that the crosswalk signals at Walk-All-Ways have been switched to the increasingly common “countdown” style – so now you know exactly how long you have to scamper diagonally (or otherwise) to the other side. Meantime, in High Point:
Thanks to Jake for sending word that the sign’s up for the market going into a spot on property owned by Hans’ VW at 35th and Graham. We reported on the new market three months ago, when support was being sought for a “change of use” permit to make it possible. We will keep checking to see if we can find out how soon it’s likely to open.
(WSB photos by Ellen Cedergreen)
The Halloween wave is rolling in … and first to arrive, Toddler Pumpkinpalooza in two sessions today/tonight at High Point Community Center.
Other city-run community centers in West Seattle have celebrations tomorrow (and HPCC has another one)- but this one ushered in the festivities:
They got to show off costumes – like Clarabel above – and decorating skills:
Not only is High Point CC doing a second round of Pumpkinpalooza right now, they’ve also got a Freaky Fall Festival planned tomorrow night (Friday) at 6, same time as Halloween Carnivals at Alki and Hiawatha Community Centers; also tomorrow night, Southwest Pool has a free Halloween Family Swim at 7 pm. (Tons of other activities for all ages at multiple West Seattle venues, all listed on the WSB Halloween page.)
Two cat-adoption notes tonight. First, an update on the five kittens that Wendy and Stephen Hughes-Jelen have been fostering in their High Point home, chronicled on Facebook via Kitty Cornered: Two weeks after our first story, your editor here and WSB’s in-house Young Photographer dropped by on Wednesday night, procuring a few photos, including the floor-level view above. At that point, two of the kittens already were spoken for, including Purrl, seen here with Wendy:
They went home with their new family the next night. Now, via Kitty Cornered, we see two of the remaining three were expecting prospective adopters to visit tonight, likely heading off to their “forever home” tomorrow. That would leave little striped Legacy, photographed frolicking with feet:
Wendy and Stephen are fostering through West Seattle shelter Kitty Harbor (3422 Harbor SW), which means if Legacy is indeed the last of the quintet to go, she has to go to a home that already has at least one cat (or could be adopted with another Kitty Harbor kitty – they’re open Saturdays and Sundays, more info, and lots of cat photos, here). They’ll clearly miss their young charges, and still hope to try it again sometime – maybe next year – but they note that foster families should be ready for one thing: Raising a big group of kittens can be a bit costly, in terms of milk and food!
SIDE NOTE – CITY FOSTER-CAT-ADOPTION EVENT IN WEST SEATTLE: The cats you’ll see at Hiawatha Community Center (2700 California SW) tomorrow, noon-3 pm, have been cared for by volunteers who have been helping the Seattle Animal Shelter by providing foster homes. More details here.
6:57 PM: Busy, busy day/night for firefighters. Now a single-family-residence fire call in the 6500 block of Sylvan Way (map). We’re en route. 7:04 PM: First crews arriving suspected “food on stove,” per scanner – at the scene, we’re trying to verify; definitely not a big fire, but lots of smoke being ventilated right now. Also note that Sylvan Way eastbound is blocked at the moment. 7:08 PM: Verified – food fire. Should be wrapped up shortly.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Never a dull moment at Wendy and Stephen Hughes-Jelen’s High Point townhome.
They always have a variety of enterprises under way. For one, they’re companions to Sophia, the Italian greyhound, who’s appeared on the cover of CityDog Magazine. For two, Wendy has a green real-estate practice, and a social-media sideline with multiple blog-format websites (most recently, she’s been producing videos to promote Eat Local Now! – the local-food celebration coming up Sept. 30th).
We could go on, but why bother, when the next thing we’re going to list is so all-consuming: Their current sideline is round-the-clock kitten-raising. Five heart-stealing kittens – with, best of all, webcams. (One’s here; the other’s here.)
On behalf of West Seattle-headquartered nonprofit shelter Kitty Harbor, Wendy and Stephen volunteered to foster the little fluffballs – now six weeks old, two weeks away from adoptability – and decided to chronicle the whole thing online.
Today’s semi-surprise sunshine ended right before the speeches concluded at this afternoon’s Seattle Parks celebration in honor of the newly named Walt Hundley Playfield by High Point Community Center. But the event continued with the cheery atmosphere of a family-and-friends reunion – which it was, with dozens of people on hand in addition to the official participants shown above – from left, Mr. Hundley’s son Evan, former mayors Wes Uhlman (1969-78) and Charley Royer (1978-90), former Parks superintendent Ken Bounds, Mr. Hundley’s son David, acting Parks superintendent Christopher Williams, and former Parks finance director Curt Green. Mr. Hundley had held other city roles, including budget director, and Uhlman recalled appointing him to the job in which he made history, serving 1977-88 as the city’s first African-American parks superintendent:
Everyone who spoke remembered Mr. Hundley’s mentorship skills – Williams, too, cited him as an inspiration:
Walt Hundley died in 2002; here’s his biography on HistoryLink. Members of the Hundley family noted sadly that they had hoped to have Walt’s widow Felisa Hundley would there to share in the tributes. She, however, died just weeks ago, two days before what would have been her 79th birthday (here’s her obituary). (added Sunday morning) Evan Hundley – who heads Explorer West Middle School – read a Maya Angelou poem that, he explained, his mother originally was planning to read at the event:
This Saturday, the Parks Department will pay tribute to a Seattleite who made history, while renaming High Point Playfield in his honor. Read on for the official announcement of the naming celebration for Walt Hundley Playfield:Read More
When we went by 10-month-old High Point Neighborhood Center this afternoon for a look at the work A&R Solar has done to expand the solar array atop the building, we should have realized it couldn’t be seen without going up on the roof. We’re not much for climbing, but luckily Dave Kozin from A&R agreed to take our camera up and get a few photos. He says they just finished installing the expansion – 128 more solar panels, added to the original 256 panels – and will be working on wiring tomorrow; then it should be turned on by the weekend. The solar array atop High Point Neighborhood Center already was one of the largest in the region; they are new to the project – a different company installed phase 1.
A&R Solar is based in Seattle and notes in the announcement of the project:
This system is currently one of the state’s largest solar projects with 48.6 kilowatts (kW) of capacity. The additional 128-panel installation from A&R Solar will increase the community center’s solar energy output to 73.6 kW. … With help from Sally Knodell at Environmental Works, as well as engineering support from Glumac (electrical) and Swenson Say Faget (structural), A&R Solar began installation of the additional 128 solar panels on Monday, August 23, 2010, and is scheduled complete the project by Friday, September 10. Many thanks are in order for the City of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development, who helped streamline the permitting process, and to the City of Seattle for providing most of the funding for the project.
A&R Solar says it’s also working on a system at Walla Walla Community College with almost as much capacity as High Point – 72 kilowatts. HP Neighborhood Center, meantime, has other energy-saving features beyond the social array – we detailed some of them during a hard-hat tour last year.
That’s new principal Vicki Sacco greeting parents and students this morning at West Seattle Elementary in High Point. Students were decked out in new school clothes as they lined up to gather their school supplies before sitting down for a barbecue lunch prepared for them by the smiling cafeteria staff.
Orientation continued afterward with a school walk-through. Students will return for the actual start of classes at 8:15 am tomorrow.
Meet Roxanne Brown. She’ll be teaching a brand-new early-education program in West Seattle starting next month, and you can check it out during an open house tomorrow (Thursday) night. The program’s called Small Scholars Academy and classes will be at High Point Community Center. Roxanne’s been teaching for five years, with two of those years in a Head Start program, and she says Small Scholars is meant to offer child-led experiences where kids can learn based on what they’re interested in – say, the kids want to talk about dinosaurs, and it’s time for language skills, you might bring in alphabet letters associated with dinosaurs. Play, Roxanne explains, can also lead to educational experiences. They’re registering kids 3-5 now for these options – Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays ($230 a month), Tuesdays/Thursdays ($185), or five days a week ($315/month), morning (9:30 am-1 pm) or afternoon (2-5:30 pm), kids must be potty-trained. Tomorrow night’s open house is 5-7 pm at High Point CC (6920 34th SW); classes start September 13th.
Everyone’s familiar with West Seattle’s famous murals of historic scenes, mostly in The Junction (including the recently removed-and-replaced “Press Day“). Soon, new art will join the connection, courtesy of local youths. We caught up with the young artists for these photos during a recent work period at High Point’s Commons Park.
High Point Community Center‘s Rebecca Hall explains the project:
High Point staff is overseeing a mural project at Commons Park. The theme is past, present, and future. It was teen led, designed, and executed. It incorporates soccer, different ethnicities (including a hajib on one of the girls), local industries such as Boeing, and local attractions such as the Space Needle. There were a total of 46 different youth who worked on the mural project over the past three weeks. Youth ranged in age from 8 to 18 with the majority falling between the ages of 9 and 14. The mural will be complete after the youth add in writing what they want to be when they grow up on the panels. The mural will then be sealed and with the assistance of the Junction Association it will be installed in the walkway between California Avenue and the parking lot behind merchants in the Alaska Junction.
We hope to get an installation date firmed up soon. The Junction Association is having the hallway painted before the new murals are installed.
That’s the walkway in the block between Edmunds and Alaska, near Northwest Art and Frame.
As part of West Seattle Elementary‘s “transformation plan,” required because it was on the state’s “lowest performing” list, the school had to change principals. We checked with Seattle Public Schools today to see if a new one had been named yet, since WSE’s school year starts early – August 31 – and learned that a letter recently went out to WS Elementary families with the announcement. The new principal is Vicki Sacco, who, the district says, has worked for 15 years in Brevard County, Florida. There are more details on her background in the letter sent to WSE families – read it here. The school website invites families to meet the new principal at a barbecue on August 30th. As for former principal Gayle Everly, news about her next job is expected later this week.
Shared by Sustainable West Seattle president Brian Allen – High Point community management is putting out a call for support on behalf of a man who wants to open a small East African food store in what was a storage space on the Hans VW site along Graham just east of 35th [map]. They say the would-be proprietor of High Point Mini-Market and Deli needs city permission for change of use at the location, though, and that’s why they’re looking for letters of support. We went over to Hans VW to check; they confirm that they’re renting a small structure on their site to the future market proprietor. DPD online files do not turn up an application regarding any part of this site so far, but according to what SWS’s Allen forwarded, support letters are being collected ASAP by Jeanette Fournier, who sent this letter as an example; you can e-mail yours to her at Jeanette.Fournier@cdcmanagement.com.
In case you heard the sirens and wondered – we just checked out the scene of a house-fire call in High Point, at 34th/Juneau. Firefighters are mopping up after making quick work of a small but smoky fire inside a closet. Nobody was home at the time; nobody hurt.
That photo’s from last Wednesday, when we checked in on the new weekly “learn to play soccer” series that High Point Community Center is presenting over at Commons Park – while Seattle Sounders Women midfielder Tafara Pulse was visiting. This week, HPCC’s Rebecca Hall tells us, Seattle Sounders FC defender Taylor Graham, #26, is the special guest, and, she says, “We’d like to invite everyone out to come play soccer that evening.” 6-7 pm Wednesday, free – Commons Park is right by High Point Neighborhood Center at Lanham/Morgan.
That’s midfielder Tafara Pulse from the Seattle Sounders Women team, visiting High Point’s Commons Park on Wednesday night for the second weekly summer soccer-learning session presented by High Point Community Center.
The players are 7-to-14-year-olds, in the midst of a free six-week session learning the ever-more-popular game. Gorgeous night to be out on the field.
The whiteboard with the produce prices proudly proclaims that this is the first farm-stand day of the season at the High Point Market Garden (32nd/Juneau). We just stopped by, and found out that the produce is so fresh, they’re picking it even as customers are shopping! Here’s the stand to look for, on the east side of the beautiful “farm” plot where it’s all grown:
They’re open till 7, and subsequent Wednesdays, 4-7 pm. Read more about the market-gardens program here; meet some of the farmers here.
Back in April, Seattle Parks announced it was taking name suggestions for High Point Playfield. On followup, they explained to WSB that it was a process triggered by a request to name it in honor of Walt Hundley, the department’s first African-American superintendent. Today, it’s official – Parks has announced three new facility names citywide, including Walt Hundley Playfield in High Point. Here’s the official news release.
After getting the word that Marination Mobile won’t be making its usual Saturday stops in West Seattle this weekend and next, we followed up with co-proprietor Kamala Saxton on something we had heard a while back – that the popular food truck was looking for a new West Seattle spot. Kamala replied it’s true, they need to move:
We have been granted an extension from the Seattle Housing Authority to stay at our current location until August, however, after that we will need to find a new WS location. … We are absolutely committed to remaining in W. Seattle on Saturdays and any leads you have would be greatly appreciated.
The 35th/Graham site (map) where they’ve been for a year has long been tabbed for a future development project – so we wondered if maybe the move mandate meant the project was starting up. We checked with Housing Authority media liaison Virginia Felton, and found out something a little different:
A long-planned cleanup is going to put the site out of commission, starting in September. “There’s pretty serious petroleum contamination on the site,” Felton explained, “but we finally got the money trickled down through EPA to the state to King County to do the cleanup.” Even after the cleanup, the site will be fenced, and “it’ll be a big pit for a while,” she said, adding that more specifics about the cleanup will be available by late summer. As for Marination Mobile – SHA hasn’t been able to find anything in High Point that’ll work, according to Felton; Saxton said her entreprise has examined some obvious possibilities like the remaining Huling sites in The Triangle, and Youngstown Arts Center, but nothing has clicked yet – so again, any suggestions, post them here (or contact them through marinationmobile.com). [Photo credits: Top picture courtesy of Daniel, from July 2009; center photo taken by us today]
(WSB photo from July 2009)
Just circulated by the Seattle Housing Authority, word that the High Point Market Garden produce stand will open for the season a week from today – Wednesday, July 7th. It’s scheduled to be open 4-7 pm every Wednesday till September 29th, according to the announcement. The produce that’s sold at the stand is grown and harvested on site; the garden and stand are at 32nd/Juneau – here’s a map. (Hat tip: Delridge Neighborhood District Coordinator Ron Angeles‘s mailing list.)
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