West Seattle, Washington
20 Friday
Brother Nicholas Kis from the Order of St. Francis in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia blessed dozens of West Seattleites’ pets this afternoon in the West Seattle High School parking lot, at a “Blessing of the Animals“ presented by neighboring St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church. Mostly dogs, just a few cats, one of whom received the first blessing; later, we discovered it had a special meaning:
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
When we caught up with Pesky the cat a few minutes later, Pesky’s owner told us that blessing was really like “last rites” — later today, she was taking 14-year-old Pesky to the vet to be euthanized, after a long and painful battle with incurable renal disease. She read about today’s event on WSB and thought it would be an appropriate place to bring Pesky first. Just ahead, more video and photos:Read More
Inside Olympic Hall Room 101 at the south end of South Seattle Community College on Puget Ridge, those ham-radio operators and others spent several hours Saturday morning making sure they’re ready for something they hope to never have to do: Relaying emergency help needs, status information, and more to the city Emergency Operations Center when all other means of communication are out of commission. Coincidentally, the test, which was meant to simulate “a major catastrophic winter wind storm,” happened just a few hours before the first hint of fall wind blew through the area. Involved were two trained ham-radio communications teams, all volunteers, from the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) that serves the city’s Office of Emergency Management, and the Seattle Sub-Group of the Western Washington Medical Services Team. From outside Olympic Hall, these portable antennas hinted at what was going on inside:
The radio operators can use antennas like those to transmit directly or to relay the signal via one of four “repeaters” around the area, one of which is in West Seattle. Meantime, some of the gear inside was marked with the scenario for which it was being used; the storm simulation focused on communicating with Seattle Public Utilities regarding two areas of (hypothetical) trouble, the Madison Valley area where flooding killed a woman in the December 2006 pre-windstorm deluge, and the Perkins Lane area of Magnolia, a waterfront strip beset by mudslides over the years:
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that computers are part of the scenario these days too – one team was using battery-powered laptops to feed digital messages into radio equipment (sort of like wireless Internet), and Mark Sheppard from the city was at a computer-equipped command post overseeing the test, explaining where these volunteers would be dispatched to if disaster actually struck:
Spokesperson Dave Mann tells WSB that Seattle ACS members do drills like this about four times a year, to make sure they’re ready … just in case. More than 100 communicators belong to the Seattle ACS but there’s definitely room for more — considering they might have to assist the entire city in a time of trouble; find out more about them at their website (which also details exactly how many people are involved right now and what they’re ready to do) at seattleacs.com.
Today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, and that’s why this weekend you had two invitations to get your pets (etc.) blessed. First one happened this morning at Providence Mount St. Vincent; that’s Father Lyle Konen in the video above, delivering the blessing (The Mount asks that residents not be photographed, so as far as the participants go, Cesco the dog at left is all we’ve got, but overall there was quite the crowd – listen for the collar-jingling in the video). Next blessing event is tomorrow, public also invited, at the West Seattle High School parking lot at noon tomorrow, presented by neighboring St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church. Full event info here – not only will blessings be offered, but handmade items will also be for sale, along with refreshments, and if you’re in the mood to add to your household, the Humane Society’s MaxMobile will be there (second half of this post shows its recent appearance at Thriftway).
Lots going on today (all in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup) but if you can get over to West Seattle Stadium, go give three cheers – or more – to the Westside Wildcats junior football teams, who are playing their counterparts from the Rainier White Ravens organization in a series of games starting at 9 o’clock this morning. We took the photo above at one of their practices earlier this week at the Madison Middle School field; the Wildcats have more than 160 kids ages 6 to 14, counting the cheerleaders, according to the “bantam” group’s head coach, Bill Kemp, who took a moment to talk to WSB on video:
This is the first year for the Westside Wildcats, who play in the South King County Junior Football League. Some Saturdays they play here in West Seattle (like today), some Saturdays they’re in other neighborhoods as the visiting teams – here’s their schedule; they’re playing at home next Saturday too, same times as today, five matchups starting with the seniors at 9 am and running through the bantams’ 4 pm start.
That video is from tonight’s Family Fun Night Sock Hop (check the golden-oldies music!) at Fauntleroy Schoolhouse, presented by the Seattle Civic Concert Dancers. SCCD is based at Seattle Civic Dance Theater school, one of the tenants at the schoolhouse, the purchase of which (as we reported earlier today) is not yet a done deal. Seattle Civic Concert Dancers’ performance schedule — you can see them at Fauntleroy Fall Festival on October 19th! — can be found here.
(if you’re looking for someone in the crowd, here’s a slightly larger version of that clip)
Last night, we told you West Seattle-based Northwest Hope and Healing had 750-plus people signed up for today’s Alki Beach Run 5K run-walk to raise money for its mission of helping breast-cancer patients. Today – just take a look at that first video clip atop this report; we had a great eagle’s-eye view of the start of the race, and in our video, you can see all ONE THOUSAND-PLUS participants stream by – huge turnout! We talked to Northwest Hope and Healing director Shari Sewell during the run/walk, and she told us they had printed up 900-plus bibs, but ran out during registration this morning! Now – did you notice the flag in the video clip? Read on to see what it symbolizes, see a clip of what the flagbearers did just before the run, and hear from the person they walked in honor of – oh, plus, see the first finisher, all ahead:Read More
Just north of The Junction, quite a sight this morning outside one of West Seattle’s historic churches: First Lutheran Church of West Seattle marked its 90th anniversary with a bagpipe-led procession, beginning from the original 1918 church site (photo here) behind the current one, heading along Dakota to the 1950-opened sanctuary — designed by a member of the Seattle-founding Denny family — front. The video clip above shows the start of the procession (which FLCWS’s pastor, the Rev. Ronald Marshall, previewed in this article we published earlier this week), led by Tyron Heade, Pipe Major from St. James Cathedral downtown; just ahead, three more clips as the ceremony moved to the church’s door:Read More
Some people just get involved in politics young. That little girl seemed determined to get the day off to a running start, along with one of three groups that toured the city today to campaign for Seattle Proposition 2, the $145 million, six-year parks levy (text/pros/cons/$ impact here) that’s going before voters just as the old Pro Parks Levy expires. This group started its day with a stop at Delridge Playfield, one of the West Seattle spots that stands to benefit if the levy passes, according to West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen: (who chairs the council’s Parks Committee):
Specifically, Delridge Playfield would get $3-plus million to replace its sand fields with artificial turf; the fields were hosting games when the levy campaign stopped by today:
The official pro-Prop 2 website has a map of other projects in West Seattle (and around the city). This is one of three local money-raising measures you’ll be considering on the November 4 ballot – the others are Seattle Proposition 1, the Pike Place Market levy (text/pros/cons/$ impact here), and Sound Transit Proposition 1 (text/pros/cons/$ impact here), which would expand light rail and includes money to study a potential future expansion into West Seattle.
We haven’t been back yet tonight, but by all accounts, some of those who were camping on city land till police swept the site this afternoon are now on adjacent state land – this is still all part of the potential city jail site at Highland Park Way/West Marginal – and have a few days grace period there. At the end of this afternoon’s sweep, the city said 13 campers had taken them up on their offer of a shelter bed, and insisted they had room for everyone who wanted one. And tonight, there’s a new call from local legislators for the mayor to negotiate with advocates for the homeless. This afternoon, we reported on the sweep as it happened, and finally tonight have finished going through our video and photos to create a diary of sorts, in case you are interested in seeing more of what it was like:Read More
When we ran a quick clip of last week’s “Ladies of Laughter” headliner a few hours before she performed at the Admiral Theater, we prefaced it with something like, it’s been a week with a lot of gloomy news, so maybe you could use a laugh. And here we are a week later, and things really didn’t get much cheerier. So we hopped over to the Admiral this afternoon to talk for a moment with Susan Rice, who’s the last “Ladies of Laughter” performer, tonight and tomorrow at 10 pm at the Admiral ($25 with $5 going to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer fund). We asked her how can you … or do you … come up with humor at a time like this; she answered wryly, but also thoughtfully. Read more about her here (by the way, she’s a native of Longview); tickets are available here.
We went tonight to the West Seattle homeless camp calling itself “Nickelsville” (previous WSB coverage here, here, and here) to see what would be discussed at a strategy meeting of sorts, to which they had invited their “community supporters.” Among those at the camp, Bill Kirlin-Hackett, director of the Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness — who said the mayor told him twice today that the squatters would be booted off the Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way site sometime Friday morning; they were put on 72-hour notice at 5 pm Monday, so technically it could happen any time after that. “Nickelsville” organizers and campers, meantime, say they’ll resist, and plan to start building “permanent” shanty-type structures tomorrow afternoon. ADDED 9:59 PM: More from tonight’s meeting, including another photo, a video clip, and who organizers say is going to lobby the mayor on their behalf:Read More
Before we get to the “Nickelsville” discussion at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting – which ended in a way you might not have expected – the rest of the agenda, including a “thank you” to a popular policeman:
That’s HPAC chair Dorsol Plants presenting a certificate of appreciation to Southwest Precinct Community Police Team officer Adonis Topacio. CPT officers (read about them here) are each assigned to proactively work a certain area of the Southwest Precinct’s region, and Officer Topacio’s includes Highland Park, so he’s often at HPAC meetings to present updates (like this one) and listen to concerns. Tonight, he offered some crime stats from the past month and a half in the Highland Park area: Four auto thefts, 13 car prowls, 15 burglaries. Overall, though, he said it had been a relatively quiet summer, but added that police are working to deal with the recent wave of gang graffiti (WSB report here). Also on the agenda tonight, two reps from the White Center Community Development Association with a briefing on what’s going on with their organization – we’ll be writing up those details for partner site White Center Now and will link back here when that’s up. No major updates on the jail-sites issue, meantime, as the process is idling somewhat while Seattle awaits its potential partners to offer more suggested sites; Dan Mullins is trying to organize more Duwamish-corridor business owners to get involved with opposition to the WS sites and said a meeting with at least two City Council members is planned later this fall. Plants warned tonight’s attendees that if HPAC participation (about 20 people were on hand tonight) dwindles out of complacency, it raises the chances unpopular projects like this will turn up in the area. But the latest development at the potential jail site closest to Highland Park, “Nickelsville,” drew what some might consider a surprising reaction – read on to see why:Read More
(photos by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
A few more tidbits on “Nickelsville,” the homeless encampment set up near the southeast corner of Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way in eastern West Seattle (here’s our first report). So far as we can tell from the people we talked with at the site, they were unaware that they happen to have set their camp up at one of two West Seattle locations on the “final four” list of potential city-jail sites; just a coincidence. We told them we had just seen the mayor interviewed on TV, saying the city would treat this camp like any other – post a 72-hour warning, then clear it. Here’s what spokesperson Anitra Freeman said in response to that:
We pressed for more specifics – so when/if the posting goes up, what exactly will you do? She said the camp is not operating “top down,” so they would call residents together for “a meeting.” We’ll keep an eye on what happens here; as mentioned in our previous report, it will come up at tonight’s Highland Park Action Committee meeting (7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club at 11th/Holden); in fact, HPAC chair Dorsol Plants just confirmed to WSB that he has visited the site and “has representatives coming to the meeting.” (5:35 PM note, just saw TV pix of city crews already delivering the 72-hour warning to the scene, while organizers promise “a standoff.”) Meantime, while WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli was shooting the photo you see atop this report, he also happened onto a not-so-trumpeted encampment in the nearby woods, where he caught these scenes:
P.S. If you are interested in reading some backstory, Blogging Georgetown points to this blogpost by an organizer;
That video shows a classic car revving up at the West Seattle Junction Car Show this afternoon (so loud, our camera’s mike had a little trouble coping!) – just as awards were handed out. Dave Dunn‘s ’41 Willys won the top award of the show, named in honor of the co-presenting Maple Valley Street Rats‘ Gary Parker, who died earlier this year. We also snagged a photo of Dave (plaid shirt) and his trophy with other event organizers, including our main info source, Michael Hoffman from Liberty Bell Printing (far left):
We don’t have the full official list of winners – they were rattled off faster than we could write – but we did want to note one other recipient – youngest participant, Steve Becker, 16 years old, who brought a 1941 Buick (not shown):
Now a few more pics, as promised:Read More
While back in The Junction for the Car Show-ending awards ceremony (more on that in our wrapup later), we hopped over to the Seattle Lutheran High School gym, where the Cupcakes for Cora fundraiser (previewed here) continues till 5:30 pm. And we got to meet Cora, who is in pre-kindergarten at Our Lady of Guadalupe. She said she’s feeling “fine,” and her parents confirm all’s going well right now; some 4-year-olds just aren’t too chatty but we really got Cora to talk a blue streak when we asked about her friends at school:
Mom Chrissie and dad Ron were kind of out of the viewfinder by the time Cora told us all that, but they wanted to say “thanks” to the West Seattle community for its generosity. If you don’t see this till after Cupcakes for Cora is over, there’s info in our preview post about how you can still chip in to help Cora and her family as this brave little girl fights to win her battle against the Wilms Tumor that has already put her through surgery and chemotherapy.
Thanks to Mark B. Bauschke for those photos with a closer look at a few of the cars gracing California between Edmunds and the post office (closed to traffic except for the cross streets) right now during the first-ever West Seattle Junction Car Show, continuing till 4 pm. We also received this cameraphone photo from somebody – nostalgic to us, since Dad had a T-Bird like this one in the early ’60s:
When we checked with one of the organizers, Liberty Bell Printing’s Michael Hoffman, about participants we might interview before the show, he mentioned West Seattleite Gordie Ryun, calling him “the reason we have a Car Show … (he) has had this idea for several years.” We didn’t catch up with him in advance but found him and his car at the show today.
Here’s video of Gordie telling the story behind his “T-Bucket”:
If you have any pictures you’d care to share, send ’em along (and be sure to let us know how you want to be credited) – we’ll post more tonight.
Left to right, that’s JanS, JoB, and Kat near Mars Hill Church-West Seattle tonight, in a vigil/protest that grew out of a vigorous discussion in the WSB Forum and elsewhere this past week. It began with first word that MH was sponsoring a two-day seminar with parenting author Tedd Tripp, whose teachings include an advocacy of corporal punishment and say it may even be merited for babies. Opponents decided to gather tonight outside MH-Ballard, where Tripp is speaking, and MH-West Seattle, one of several MH branches where the seminar is being broadcast live. As families arrived, the West Seattle trio stood on the corner across from the church’s south side and offered their thoughts to those who walked by, as well as offering flyers.
Some accepted flyers, some didn’t; one person was heard to suggest that the protesters go inside to listen for themselves. To that point, we should note that a Mars Hill representative, in logo T-shirt and name tag, offered us and the other media reps the chance to go inside and observe the seminar. We didn’t take him up on it; the controversial topic itself comes up late tomorrow morning. Meantime, we’ve received a photo of the concurrent Ballard protest tonight:
That photo is courtesy of our friends at MyBallard.com; you can see their coverage here.
On the national/world front, a rough week, scary week. If you need a little distraction, the West Seattle Weekend Lineup has lots of it, including comedy tonight and tomorrow as the Admiral Theater‘s “Ladies of Laughter” series continues. This afternoon, we caught up briefly with headliner Carrie Snow, who managed to tie yoga and comedy together:
Snow says Seattle comedy star Peggy Platt will appear with her at The Admiral tonight. Meantime, you can read more about Snow here; tickets are $20, with $5 going to the Susan G. Komen breast-cancer-fighting fund.
That’s a bit of video from last week’s practice for the Thrill the World West Seattle team – second time they got together to work on the “Thriller” moves they’re going to do as part of the Thrill the World world-record attempt on October 25th. Starting tomorrow night, the weekly 8 pm Wednesday practices are in a new location: a bigger room at West Seattle Christian Church (SE corner of 42nd/Genesee, across the street from the previous location). And mastermind Lora Lewis of Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) has a question for you: If you were going to pick someplace “West Seattle iconic” for the big zombie dance that day, where would you pick? Someplace obviously with room for a few dozen dancers, but otherwise … she’s interested in what you would suggest. Meantime, keep up with the Thrill the World West Seattle exploits on the official blog.
If you can spare two minutes, listen to former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle tell that story. At its heart, it’s about the work done by Southwest Youth and Family Services, the West Seattle-based nonprofit that’s headed by his brother Steve Daschle – but it’s also a reminder that problems can be solved creatively and sometimes more easily than we expect. Daschle spoke this morning at Salty’s on Alki, site of the annual SWYFS fundraising breakfast/silent auction. This has been a big month for SWYFS — just last week, Mayor Nickels announced it would play a key role in a new initiative to prevent youth violence in our area (and two other parts of the city, where two other agencies will lead the way).
(top photo shows damaged sailboat, with Coast Guard boat nearby)
Thanks to the tipster who called with word of this – All that activity in the water off Alki Point is because of what the Coast Guard says was a collision between a sailboat and a power boat. Three people are reported to have minor injuries. The Coast Guard has a 41-foot vessel involved in the rescue, and says the Seattle Fire Department is involved too. Helicopters (including TV-news choppers) are also in the area. 3:34 PM UPDATE: The fire boat is reportedly bringing the injured people to Don Armeni – we’ve got a crew there and just confirmed with SFD that the fire boat’s heading that way, to meet up with an engine that just pulled up. 3:49 PM UPDATE: The injured boaters have now arrived at Don Armeni, where fire, medics, and TV crews are all gathered too. We just added two cameraphone photos from the Don Armeni arrival – looks like it was actually one of the smaller Coast Guard boats involved in bringing them in. More as we get it. 4:10 PM UPDATE: We’re south of Alki Point now, and what looks to be the sailboat involved in this (TV news choppers hovering over it are a giveaway) is closer to the Emma Schmitz-vicinity Beach Drive shoreline and coming close to shore – we’re heading that way. 4:36 PM UPDATE: We’re still at Emma Schmitz, where Coast Guard boats have been up next to the sailboat that we believe to be the one that was involved (hard to tell for sure because two are out there):
The TV news choppers continue to hover, so if you’re in front of a TV you may have seen more from their megazoom aerial cameras. Meantime, back at Don Armeni, an SFD briefing confirms the three people who were hurt will all be OK – two with leg injuries, one with head and neck lacerations. A fourth person was brought ashore but is not hurt. 4:47 PM UPDATE: The sailboat has moved further away from where we are – it’s southwest of Emma Schmitz, probably more directly west of Lowman Beach, but out in the middle of the sound. 5:01 PM UPDATE: Looks like the damaged sailboat is now heading slowly north, and will be passing by here (Emma Schmitz still) before too long, it’s got a boat ahead of it and one behind, escorting it. 5:26 PM: We’re watching now from Constellation Park, just south of Alki Point – it’s closer in as it approaches this part of the shore, with a smaller Coast Guard boat right alongside. Definitely a sizable yacht; haven’t seen anything yet about its name or ownership (let us know if you have, and by the way, THANKS AGAIN to everyone who called, texted, etc., as this unfolded – once you let us know, then we can get busy helping find out what’s up so everybody else knows too! call, text, e-mail 24/7 – all the options are here). 5:48 PM UPDATE: The sailboat and its entourage are starting to pass Alki right now, heading east (we’re watching now from just west of 64th) — spoke too soon, now it’s pointed north, perpendicular to the beach, still offshore at 64th … then headed northward, where we’re ending our surveillance. Here’s video we got earlier, just after the injured boaters were brought to Don Armeni:
8:18 PM UPDATE: The Coast Guard has issued a news release identifying the sailboat involved in the collision as the chartered 70-footer Neptune’s Car; the other sailboat we saw was the Obsession, out picking up some of the passengers who were still on Neptune’s Car after the original rescue. Here’s the full text of the USCG release:
The Coast Guard, Seattle Fire and Police responded to a vessel collision one mile off of Alki Point, here, where a 22-foot runabout and a 70-foot charter sailboat, Neptune’s Car, collided Monday.
At 3:03 p.m., Coast Guard Sector Seattle received a call on VHF channel 16 reporting the collision had occurred.
Station Seattle launched a 41-foot rescue boat crew.
Two passengers aboard the Neptune’s Car and the operator of the runabout were transferred to the Don Armeni ramp in West Seattle to a waiting emegergency medical crew.
The remaining 13 passengers and two crew members aboard the Neptune’s Car have been removed from the vessel, transferred to the sailing vessel Obsession and are returning to Pier 54, here.
The Neptune’s Car was taking on water from a large hole on the forward port side but the flooding was stopped by rescuers. The Neptune’s Car was able to move under its own power and is returning to CSR Marine escorted by a Coast Guard small boat.
ADDED LATE MONDAY NIGHT: Here’s a short video clip of Neptune’s Car while it was still off Beach Drive shoreline, the gash plainly in view.
(video added 1:42 am – this is looking toward the alley through bushes from 40th SW, close as we could get, you can see the flames’ glow and hear sirens and also hear, then see, a chainsaw crews were using)
ORIGINAL POST: First engine arriving in 10000 block of 40th SW to a “garage fire” call reported via radio a “fully involved” garage – so we’re headed that way to check it out. Two garages and one vehicle burning, according to a subsequent scanner broadcast. 1:29 AM UPDATE: Just back from the scene. At least one garage burned along the alley between 40th and 41st in the 10000 block (map). Huge flames when we arrived – even bigger before we got there, according to neighbors on two sides of that block – who told us they heard explosion-type noises shortly after the fire started (not uncommon). Here’s what else one neighbor about a block west told us:
No official info just yet so everything we report will be from what we saw at the scene and learned from witnesses. No injuries so far as we could tell – a medic unit was there and left empty. Uploading video momentarily – we couldn’t get too close to a burning garage on a narrow alley, obviously, but the flames were clearly visible between houses from a vantage point on 40th. Also note, 100th and 102nd were still blocked off from 40th to 41st when we left a few minutes ago. 1:48 AM UPDATE: The SFD media hotline confirms “two garages about 10 feet apart” burned, no injuries. Scanner traffic is still very active, so fire crews clearly will be there for quite some time. 2:18 AM UPDATE: Still monitoring the scanner; seems at least one other media crew just got there a short time ago, so you might see something on at least one of the early morning newscasts. Here’s a photo from nearby resident Kevin McClintic that shows how thick the smoke was in the air, even more than a block away:
One more clip from our video, more notable for the sound than the picture … as one engine backs up to switch locations, you can hear lots more in the distance – many more arrived even after we got to the scene:
We will update whenever there’s more official info on the damage and any possible cause.
OK, who said retirement means shuffleboard? We found that pool table upstairs from the great room that was headquartered for today’s grand-opening party at the newest retirement community in West Seattle, Bridge Park (WSB sponsor). Guests of honor at the party — Bridge Park’s first residents:
Highlights from today’s event, ahead:Read More
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