West Seattle, Washington
15 Sunday
Earlier this week, we discussed the notice (however official or unofficial) that frequent WSB contributor “The House” got on the windshield of his parked-on-the-planting-strip car in Westwood. At the time, he suggested that police should be focusing instead on the seemingly abandoned RVs lining nearby streets. Tonight, good news for “House” and neighbors — we spotted Seattle Police enforcers in action (on Trenton west of the Westwood Village turn-in) along RV Row:
If you are heading home from downtown or heading toward South Seattle, this could affect you: South Spokane Street/East Marginal Way is blocked by a truck that’s flipped onto the train tracks. This is under the bridge, so if you’re not taking surface streets, you should be OK.
As the Elliott Bay Water Taxi continues its extra bonus month of commuter runs (M-F through November 2nd, plus two Seahawks home game Sundays 10/14 and 10/21), we get a new peek into its possible future, courtesy of documents prepared for a meeting today
— the King County Council, meeting as the county Ferry District Board. A draft PowerPoint presentation linked to the meeting agenda contains the following proposals (major disclaimer, they’re only proposals until and unless they get official approval): Pier 50 downtown as the permanent terminal for the Vashon and West Seattle (Water Taxi) runs that the Ferry District would operate; Seacrest continuing as the WT’s near-term home, also in contention as its longterm home (along with Pier 2); three vessels to be leased by the county for the first years of Ferry District operations — one for the Vashon/Seattle run, one for the WT, one as a backup. (The draft presentation also contains extensive details of proposals for the Vashon/Seattle run that the county will be taking over from the state, as well as for “demonstration runs” between Seattle and TBA locations on the Eastside — Kirkland or Bellevue — North King County, and South King County.) And it envisions the Water Taxi operating an “extended” season next year — March through October — then starting year-round operations in January 2009. Last but not least, the presentation also looks at how Ferry District service will be paid for, and what it will cost; part of the $ will come from a property-tax levy, with the rate yet to be set. Again, all this is from a draft presentation to be given to councilmembers during their meeting as the Ferry District board at 1:30 this afternoon; you should be able to watch on cable TV or online (KCTV link here), and of course we’ll continue to keep you updated on what happens next.
A month and a half after major work finished up, the city says Sylvan Way is scheduled to close this Saturday for a one-day paving project, weather permitting.
The Times has a big article today about biodiesel with a citywide map purporting to show where it’s available – including two spots on the eastern edge of West Seattle — but that map omits two more-centrally located spots in WS where we know biodiesel to be available (though sadly we don’t have a car capable of using it): The Admiral Safeway service station (as first mentioned in February) and Hans VW (35th/Graham). Anywhere else?
VIADUCT MEETING: “Scoping meeting” regarding the project that the state says will replace the south end of The Viaduct no matter what’s decided about the rest of it — 5-8 pm tonight, with the official presentation starting at 6, Madison Middle School.
DINING FOR LITERACY: A portion of tonight’s proceeds at three WS restaurants — Angelina’s Trattoria, Garlic Jim’s Pizza, Talarico’s — go toward a literacy campaign, as part of Page Ahead’s area-wide Dish Up Literacy campaign.
Time to get back on the horse and resume galloping around WS checking on gas prices, now that the price of regular unleaded is perched on the precipice of 3 bucks once again, after bottoming out in the $2.60s just six weeks ago. Two 76/Conoco Phillips stations in WS share the honors of highest per-gallon price for that grade as of late this morning, Fauntleroy/Alaska (left) and Lincoln Park. At the low end of the scale is Arco on Delridge, by Home Depot, $2.85/gallon for regular unleaded as of late morning. We’ve seen prices past $3 in other parts of town; the latest national coverage suggests prices won’t be dropping again any time soon.
If you’re getting ready to head onto The Bridge — beware, there’s a big backup because of a three-car crash. The city bridge cam that faces west appears to be deliberately pointed away from it; the city bridge cam facing east shows things are OK once you get past it; the city cam at Fauntleroy/Alaska shows the backup waiting to get onto The Bridge (our source in traffic isn’t even going a block a minute). 7:59 AM UPDATE: Radio traffic reports say the crash scene is now clear, though residual backups will take a while to ease.
BUS ROUTES: First and foremost, a reminder that changes kicked in this past weekend on the downtown section of several routes that go through West Seattle, leading up to today’s reopening of the bus tunnel: The following routes that used to travel 1st Avenue downtown now travel 3rd Avenue instead — 54 and 55 all the time (their 5th Ave segments also now are on 3rd instead), 56 Express northbound during mornings only, 21 Express northbound during mornings only. Read this carefully for Metro’s complete update, including a list of the routes now running in the tunnel again, and other changes. 
THE VIADUCT: The city Transportation Department reps at last week’s Alki Community Council meeting said the city and state are now cooperating again in the process of figuring out what’s next for The Viaduct. Whew, that’s a relief. This week, you can participate in a West Seattle “public scoping meeting” regarding the plan to replace the south end of The Viaduct no matter what is decided for the middle part of it; it’s happening 5-8 pm Wednesday @ Madison Middle School, with the presentation scheduled to start at 6.
Not far past the spot shown above (west end of the public Alki waterfront), the sidewalk on the north side of Alki Avenue mostly stops, and to keep walking west to Alki Point, you have to cross the street and stay on that side till you get south of Alki Point. But for the first time in years, there’s hope that might change, according to what we heard at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting. After years of trying, Alki community leaders have gotten the sidewalk proposal onto the list of potential Neighborhood Street Fund projects, and the more “votes” it gets, the better its chances of happening. The sidewalk project is one of the Bridging the Gap projects shown at the WS meeting this past Wednesday night, but if you didn’t attend the meeting to “vote” in person, you can do it online: Go to this site, choose South Sector, then rank projects on the list (which includes other WS proposals). This project is sixth from the bottom of the list. Deadline to “vote” in this survey: Next Thursday (September 27).
TOMORROW NIGHT: What should the city do with millions of your $ earmarked for transportation projects? Don’t wait till you read here that crews are on their way to (fill in the blank) and then say “Hey! Why don’t they (whatever) instead?” — stop by tomorrow night’s city Transportation Department open house at Youngstown Arts Center between 5 and 8 pm, look at what’s under consideration, register your preference. Or – if you absolutely can’t make it in person – the city has set up a webpage where you can see what’s on the potential project list and rank your preferences – click here, then choose South Sector; with 29 WS locations on the list, one just might be near you. Make your choices by September 27th.
ALL DAY TOMORROW: Chief Sealth HS hosts Seattle Earth Summit II 9:30 am-3 pm with an impressive guest list, including the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai, as well as West Seattle’s world-famous photographer Art Wolfe. Also part of the agenda: a ceremonial tree-planting @ 11:30 am at Pelly Place Ravine, which Wolfe and local students are working together to revitalize as part of Project Earth Care.
As the number of pay-to-park lots around WS increases, watch closely for the signs, and do be aware that the enforcers make the rounds — as discovered today by the spouse of a regular reader. Reportedly, more than a dozen cars in the lot near Wells Fargo in The Junction all got simultaneously ticketed during the Farmers’ Market across the street. The reader went back for a closer look at the signage … and yes, it’s posted (reader photo @ right) … but that doesn’t make the $35 ticket any easier to take. (Payable online, courtesy of the industrious folks at Diamond Parking.) Yes, of course lot owners have the right to charge whatever the traffic will bear, as discussed after our recent post about the future Fauntleroy Place site converting to a Diamond-managed pay lot. But you can’t help wonder if it’s a slippery slope. The Junction merchants have worked hard to keep several free lots available for us all, and lobbied against paid parking on WS streets (earning us the envy of other neighborhoods). But as the pay lots multiply, can the city resist trying for a cut of the action?
Just four months into its hopefully long lifespan, Sustainable West Seattle continues to grow. Tomorrow night, you’re invited to its next meeting — 7 pm, Camp Long, family-friendly, so kids are welcome — where county and city reps will talk about transportation and climate-change issues, respectively. The latter is of special note, with a Seattle CAN (Climate Action Now) kickoff event in WS next Saturday. (Here’s a new reason to care about climate change.) If you can’t make tomorrow’s meeting, see the Sustainable WS website, which includes contact info for the people running its action groups (Energy, Transportation, Food & Health, Water & Waste Reduction, Green Building & Planning).
Crews working on the bus shelter next to KeyBank in The Junction — spotted this morning as we headed to the Farmers’ Market — reminds us it’s time to talk about many changes for WS bus riders …
Some of those changes involve renovations, repairs, and replacements for many other WS shelters. More on that in a few sentences. First: Some bus routes will change starting next weekend, in preparation for the reopening of the downtown bus tunnel on Monday, 9/24. Lots and lots of changes, all detailed here. People who know the quirks of the Metro system much better than we do say that some of the changes are positive for links between WS and other parts of the area. Now, as for those bus-stop/bus-shelter changes — after a few people e-mailed us with questions about work they had noticed, Chris Arkills from the office of West Seattle-representing King County Councilmember Dow Constantine was kind enough to get us a list of what Metro’s working on. We’ve had this in queue for about a week and a half so some of these projects may already be done, but you might find it handy anyway (it also explains exactly what those crews shown above are doing at the shelter by KeyBank):Read More
Our logs show a fair amount of WSB visits from people with IP addresses from the University of Washington … so here’s hoping some of you can help this reader, whether you are a UW student or UW employee!
I have been attending SSCC for the past year and graduated this spring. Now, I have been accepted to UW Art School and am having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to make my commute to the campus from West Seattle manageable. I am not going to be taking my car as the parking on and around campus is too expensive for me. So far, I have found no direct options from West Seattle to the campus on the metro. The best I can find is an hour long journey involving two transfers. I am looking at using my bike as part of my daily commute possibly too. I was wondering if maybe you could help me find out how other West Seattle residents attending the UW get to and from school?
Thanks to Jerry @ JetCityOrange for sending pix of the crosswalk work by Lafayette Elementary:
The pattern is made of a heat-transfer type of plastic called DuraTherm, according to this Herald article from last month; read more about DuraTherm crosswalks here.
Think our crosswalks need more of this treatment? That’s probably something you can bring up at next Wednesday’s WS open house about how to spend millions of voter-approved city $. And steps away from this street work, a Lafayette note: School families are wrapping up Phase 1 of their playground renovation project with a volunteer planting party this Saturday. Congratulations!
OK, so driving on them isn’t always a dream, but an engineering group says the WS bridges are among our area’s most amazing creations of the past half-century.
Continuing today’s unplanned “in other blogs” theme … beware the F-bombs if you are sensitive, but that said, if you drive the WS bridge, you might identify with this driver’s fury.
You may have thought last March’s Viaduct Vote (advisory as it was) ended up “don’t replace.” But its south end is slated to be replaced with a surface highway no matter what, so the state Transportation Department is inviting us all to a WS meeting later this month (September 26th, Madison Middle School) to help pave the way for the project it says “would replace more than 40 percent of the viaduct.” As for what’s next for the other 60 percent … we’ll be up all night researching that one.
In one of the early stories about yesterday’s bicyclist death on Eastlake, a local bike advocate was quoted as saying the city usually averages one such death a year. Last year, there were two in West Seattle alone. In March 2006, on the eastern edge of WS, a teenage driver veered onto a bike path along Highland Park Way, killing 58-year-old Marvin Miller. His death didn’t get the sort of citywide attention that followed the September 2006 bike/van collision at 35th/Graham that killed 27-year-old Susanne Scaringi, just six weeks after she moved to WS. (Susanne’s family maintains a tribute page here.) As noteworthy and tragic as the deaths are – they are outnumbered almost 100 to 1 by the crashes that leave bicyclists injured. Interesting and important information here. For a refresher on Seattle traffic laws regarding bicyclists and driving other vehicles in their presence, look here.
Remember the saga of the pregnant woman not offered a seat on the bus? This morning, we have the tale of the baby-wearing dad who couldn’t get one either.Read More
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