West Seattle, Washington
09 Wednesday
Two of the hottest recent topics here, so we wanted to share what our fellow neighborhood-news sites have unearthed: SDOT told the Rainier Valley Post (whose neighborhood is home to Car-Free Day #2 next weekend, while we have #3 at Alki on 9/7) that some Capitol Hill residents who got towed because of CFD #1 are being reimbursed; Blogging Georgetown digs up more of who’s involved in the anti-bag-fee campaign.
The only West Seattle connection here is County Councilmember Dow Constantine, but “Voice of the Mariners” Dave Niehaus (at the center of the photo, next to DC) is beloved here as well as elsewhere in M’s-land, so we wanted to show you this county-provided photo. Constantine and fellow councilmembers paid tribute to Niehaus at their meeting today; from the news release:
“Dave Niehaus loves the players and he loves the game, but he has never forgotten that his first duty is to the fan sitting at home,†said Constantine. “To the radio listener, this excitement and wonder for our national pastime is what makes Dave Niehaus special.â€
Also per the news release, Niehaus had this to say: “Those magic moments of 1995 will return to Safeco Field. I promise you, they will return.†Sure hope so. (Semi-pertinent side note: When we got here in ’91, and went to our first M’s game in the Kingdome, its interior signage carried the name “King County Stadium.”)
We’ve had this on the WSB Events calendar ever since we spotted it on the USCG Local Notice for Mariners (a wonderful weekly bulletin to watch) — a fireworks show tonight for the conclusion of the Downtown Sailing Series races. We finally succeeded in getting details about the show, with a call to Olympia-based Entertainment Fireworks — they say the show will be from a barge offshore at Elliott Bay Marina in Magnolia, just west of the Port of Seattle’s piers. Time — probably 8:45-9 pm-ish. Rain or shine, says the fireworks company — their main pyrotechnics wizard, Ken Julian (with whom we worked while managing TV fireworks shows a few years back), is out assembling the show right now. So you’re likely to be able to see something from north-facing West Seattle spots.
This just popped up on the LA Times Twitter feed we monitor (remember, you can follow us on Twitter, at westseattleblog; we also have set up a Twitter account for our partner site at whitecenternow): The “Save the Plastic Bag Coalition” has sued the Southern California city of Manhattan Beach over its plastic-bag ban, claiming the city failed to analyze environmental effects of the ban.
Just saw this, regarding the power problem. We’ll start watching traffic early just in case. Seattle City Light is having a media briefing at 1:30 pm. Here’s the news release SCL sent literally a minute after we originally published this:Read More
These events aren’t happening IN West Seattle, but they involve West Seattleites who have lent WSB a major helping hand at times when we needed it – plus, they’re interesting events in their own right – so we’re helping spread the word:
PHOTOGRAPHERS’ CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: West Seattle lawyer Venkat Balasubramani is on a panel tackling this topic; WSB has been blessed with so many great photography contributions, we thought a few of you might be interested. Here’s more info including how to RSVP for the event.
GNOMEDEX 8.0: West Seattleite Stuart Maxwell, who provided us with technical consulting last year (including installation of software for the WSB Forums, the busiest neighborhood-news-site forums in the city), is helping coordinate Gnomedex, a tech conference next week at Bell Harbor on the downtown waterfront (a short distance away). Among the online-world luminaries who’ll be speaking, the guy behind the insanely popular ICanHasCheezburger.com. Check out the conference slate and registration information here.
One of those side things we wouldn’t usually bother you with ’cause it’s off-topic, but several people just sent e-mail and other messages so what the heck: The New York Times website has posted tomorrow’s Page 1 story about the massive delay in tonight’s Olympics-opener broadcast. Your editor here, identified as “a blogger in Seattle,” is quoted. Just because it’s an anecdote about the new world of new media, we thought we’d note how that happened, jumped off the home page so you can scroll by if you don’t care:Read More
JayDee caught five of the six Blue Angels during a flyby at Costco on 4th Ave. S., a Blue Angels-viewing spot that’s been discussed here before. And shortly after we originally published this post, David Hutchinson sent photos from the north side of Boeing Field – here’s #5 coming in:
As for us, yes, the Museum of Flight one more time – for the up-close-and-semi-personal look before and after the airshow:
Fat Albert, the Blue Angels’ support plane, is a U.S. Marine Corps C-130, and it flies just before the Angels; as it taxis before and after that flight (which ends with a thrilling nosedive landing at Boeing Field), a crew member always spyhops from the top hatch to wave a flag and just plain wave. From the fence by the FA-18s’ parking spot, you can wave to the BA pilots themselves, too:
More scenes from today, and what’s next for the Blue Angels, ahead:Read More
Usually David Hutchinson contributes great Alki-area photographs – this time, he sent shots from the east side of Boeing Field, where he captured the Blue Angels‘ post-show, pre-landing flyby (which we usually see from the Museum of Flight at the other side of Boeing Field) as shown above, and on the runway, as seen here:
(#6 is the one that, as we reported yesterday, came back a few minutes after takeoff, with a mechanical/operational problem requiring its pilot to switch to a backup plane.) As David pointed out in his e-mail to WSB, that view is as close as you can get to the planes on the runway. But if you want to see the pilots up close and personal, you have to be at the Museum of Flight’s far-south fence – right next to where the jets are headquartered during their Seattle visits – and even though you have to watch through a chain-link fence, it’s a front-row seat to the “walkdown.” Standing in front of Blue Angel #1, we caught the first part on video Saturday (listen very closely to hear the commands):
There’s one other element to the pageantry – watching the crew. A video clip of that, plus a few more Saturday photos, just ahead:Read More
That’s Blue Angels jet number six getting inspected after its participation in today’s Seafair airshow abruptly ended after just a few minutes: It wasn’t long after all six took off that this one came back in to Boeing Field to land; once it was parked, its pilot got into one of the two #7 backup jets, took off, and rejoined the show. More than a dozen people were last seen working on #6 after it was towed to a spot on the east side of the area where the jets are headquartered during their Seattle visits. For our fellow Blue Angels fans, more later on today’s Museum of Flight/Boeing Field sightings.
Never mind the rain. Tomorrow’s what we refer to as “Seafair Free Day” – you can go to Lake Washington and watch hydro trials and the Blue Angels’ “practice show” for free, on the same shores where you’ll pay admission to watch Saturday and/or Sunday (read more in our “Seafair Secrets” post from last year). So what if it’s still cloudy, you ask? Checking the WSB archives (where we’ve now set up a Blue Angels-only category), seems that Seafair Weekend last year was plagued with the same problem – on “Free Friday,” though the clouds mostly burned off by noontime, the Blue Angels did their “low show” anyway (here’s our coverage). For the next three days, by the way, the I-90 bridge will be closed 12:45-2:40 pm for the Blue Angels shows (which don’t last two hours, but WSDOT needs to set a wider window).
Thanks to Mark Rhea for those photos of the Seafair fleet on “parade” in Elliott Bay this afternoon (first photo, a Navy and Coast Guard ship; second photo, two of the visiting Canadian ships; as we reported last night, the Coast Guard’s Local Notice to Mariners identifies the participating ships as USS Princeton, USS Germantown, USCGC Steadfast, and three Canadian ships – HMCS Yellowknife, HMCS Saskatoon, and HMCS Raven). You can tour them at Pier 90 tomorrow through Sunday; full details on the Seafair website. And tomorrow’s also the day you will start seeing the Blue Angels (who arrived on Monday; WSB video coverage here) practice, which also means I-90 bridge closures; tomorrow’s the one day with two separate closure periods, 9:45 am-noon and 1:15-2:30 pm – all closures are listed here. And we always put in a plug for the alternative way to enjoy the Blue Angels — by watching their takeoffs and landings at the Museum of Flight adjacent to Boeing Field (not that far from West Seattle) — explained in our “Seafair secrets” post from last year.
Just before landing: Here’s our video of the traditional Museum of Flight flyby:
Please forgive us this non-West Seattle digression; it’s an annual thing. We’re at the Museum of Flight side of Boeing Field, where the Blue Angels have just landed for their Seafair appearances. You can see the planes through the fence on the south side of the Museum of Flight (right up against Boeing property) any time during their stay here; they’ll go up twice on Thursday to practice maneuvers, then do a practice version of their full airshow on Friday, and “the real thing” over Lake Washington Saturday and Sunday. As we’ve written here before, there’s a lot to see if you come to the MoF and watch the takeoff and landing (such as the “walkdown”) – and since the airshow site is just over the ridge east of the MoF, you get to see some flybys too. They land one by one (which is why the photo above shows just one), but then they taxi in a group – here’s how that looked, peering through the chain-link fence between the MoF parking lot and the west side of the runway:
Later this week – the Seafair fleet arrives (sailing in Wednesday, tours start Thursday). Two of the ships that are coming are identified on this Navy page.
For our fellow Blue Angels fans as well as those who appreciate advance notice of possible loud flybys (with Boeing Field relatively close to West Seattle, etc.) — we have word from Seafair that the Angels are flying in around 11:30 am tomorrow, after a weekend airshow in Twin Falls, Idaho. Their official practicing doesn’t start till Thursday but you may see one or two flying in the interim, for special media flights and so on; once again this year, there’s a local pilot on the team — Lt. Cmdr. Craig Olson, a native of Kirkland. (Also remember, I-90 will have closures Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the practices and airshows; dates and times are listed here.)
That’s the view Team WSB’s resident parade nut currently has – staked out on the Seafair Torchlight Parade route, across from the stately old Rainier Club at 4th and Columbia, which is about three blocks farther down the route than where we found curbside room at the same arrival time last year. Pet peeve: People who block off sections of sidewalk with ropes or tape, put their chairs out, and leave. Our code of parade stakeouts: Once you stake your spot, at least one person stays there (rotate out if you have to). The Rainier Club, by the way, has quite a party going – there’s a kid bouncy zone way off to the right side of the photo, and on the lawn at left, its entire lawn is planted with plastic pirate flags. (And they have blocked off what looks like 100 seats along the sidewalk.) Stakeout’s fun – you get to see the participants go by ahead of time – so far, a huge posse of bicycling Seattle Police officers, and a school bus with the Chinese Community Girls’ Drill Team. Anyway, we’ll be watching out for West Seattle parade moments – you can count on the Hi-Yu Festival float and West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician, plus Denny Middle School music director Marcus Pimpleton leading the All-City Band; other parade highlights will include the grand marshal, “Deadliest Catch” captain Sig Hansen, and the crowning of Miss Seafair at the start of the parade (contenders include 2006-2007 Miss West Seattle Hi-Yu Tricia Thompson). The parade starts at the Seattle Center end of 4th Avenue around 7:30 pm, but downtown will be tough to get through starting about an hour from now, since the Torchlight Run precedes the parade (and will close the northbound side of The Viaduct for a while). No worries, we’re still in position to cover West Seattle news tonight too, but here’s hoping for a quiet fun night on both sides of the bay.
SDOT is out with two traffic alerts that you might need to know about: First, the eastbound left lane of the Spokane Street/East Waterway Bridge on East Marginal Way will be closed 9 am-3 pm tomorrow for expansion-joint repair (the city describes the exact spot as “between the Spokane Street Swing Bridge and the on-ramp to the Spokane Street Viaduct“); then on Sunday, at the north end of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the left-hand lanes in both directions of the Battery Street Tunnel will be closed 10 am-6 pm for drain-cleaning work. (Also a reminder, while we’re at it, that the Seafair Torchlight Parade is Saturday night, so downtown traffic will be restricted from late afternoon through late evening; looking further ahead, the four days of Blue Angels-related I-90 bridge closures will start a week from tomorrow.)
We spotted the city’s newest fireboat Leschi cruising past Seacrest at sunset – no spray but scenic nonetheless. To the southwest, David Hutchinson caught this view of a sailboat near Alki Point:
One other photo to share – a different view of the Mount Rainier cloud we photographed from a ferry west of Fauntleroy last night – West Seattle resident Scott took this pic from Sunrise:
We love photos, from beauty shots to breaking news and beyond – editor@wsb.blackfin.biz any time!
Another not-just-West-Seattle item, but as with the previous one, your tax dollars are involved here, so you ought to know. Just announced by Seattle Public Utilities:
The city of Seattle’s five automatic public toilets, the subject of intense controversy even before their installation in 2004, will be auctioned on eBay, beginning tomorrow (July 16).
Minimum bid on the Hering-Bau automatic public toilets is $89,000 each. A public meeting on the surplus sales process for the toilets is set for Wednesday, July 23, 2008, at 3 p.m., in the Bertha Knight Landes Room on the first floor of Seattle City Hall, 600 4th Ave.
The toilets will be removed from service — locked and fenced in — on Aug. 1. The units are expected to be physically removed by their new owner sometime later in August.
P.S. Also from eBay, the West Seattle Pizza Time auction has ended with no bidders. (Thanks to Marge for spotting the item.)
The forum this morning at North Seattle Community College was intended to focus on the proposed Aurora site, though the city had said discussion of any of the 4 sites (including the two in West Seattle) would be welcome. 
We’re expecting an update from Highland Park Action Committee reps in attendance, but in the meantime, the P-I has posted a story. 9:05 PM UPDATE: HPAC tells us members will be at Summer Fest in The Junction tomorrow gathering signatures, and they’ve sent a report from Ken Knoke, who attended today’s north-end forum:Read More
PARKS LEVY PUBLIC HEARING TONIGHT: The City Council is getting closer to deciding whether to pursue putting a new parks levy on the ballot this fall, when Pro Parks expires. Next step – a public hearing tonight before the Parks Committee, chaired by West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, 5:30 pm, City Hall. The final list of projects currently proposed for the potential levy is in this document.
BIGGEST ROAD CLOSURE OF THE WEEKEND: Besides the West Seattle Summer Fest road closures in The Junction kicking in at 6 pm tonight (mentioned earlier here), if you haven’t seen this in citywide media already, be forewarned the 520 bridge across Lake Washington closes for its annual inspection, 11 pm Friday-5 am Monday.
WSDOT has sent a bulletin about trouble on southbound I-5 through downtown, blocking three lanes just south of the West Seattle Bridge exit, currently causing a SEVEN-MILE-LONG backup. So if you happen to be reading this from points north, avoid I-5 TFN. 1:37 PM UPDATE: The crash scene is cleared but the backup is 9 miles and will probably take a while to thin out, so we’d still suggest alternate routes.
Not West Seattle-specific but worth a reminder: The State Patrol is launching publicity this week to remind all drivers that troopers plan to start enforcing the “hands-free law” July 1st (one week from tomorrow. Drivers holding cell phones to their ears could face $124 fines – unless you were calling 911 to report “a highway emergency.” WSP will be partnering with at least one mobile-phone company at a media event this week to point out that it’s easy to set your phone up so you can talk “hands-free” while you drive, if you need to.
Here in the wee hours of early Sunday morning, throughout downtown and surrounding neighborhoods including Capitol Hill and Lake Union, small groups like that one are walking in a longer, more contemplative awareness- and fund-raising event: the Out of the Darkness Overnight, organized by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. We told you about it back in March, interviewing a West Seattle woman who was planning to be part of it, after losing her father to suicide (read our story here). This is the first time The Overnight has happened in Seattle, one of two cities to host the walk this year (New York City had one earlier this month); the walkers started at Seattle Center at 7:20 last night and will end the event with a ceremony there at 5:15 this morning, after walking all night. The mission of this walk is to bring suicide “out of the darkness” – it’s an epidemic, but it’s seldom discussed, and seldom reported because there is a media misconception that the mere mention of it will trigger more. One poignant thing we have noted in reporting some suicides here on WSB is that days and weeks later, people who knew the victims have found our posts, and used the comment sections to post tributes (see here and here, for example). They were looking for a public place to say “this person mattered.” We think discussing, and reporting on, suicide is another way to say its victims matter – and that it’s important to find ways to prevent their number from growing. (The local 24-hour crisis line is 206-461-3222.)
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