West Seattle, Washington
09 Wednesday
Several people have e-mailed us recently to ask why the city’s West Seattle Bridge cameras – including the one we’ve had linked in our sidebar for a long time – just don’t seem to show the traffic any more (example above). We in turn asked SDOT‘s communications chief Richard Sheridan, and also threw in an inquiry about the status of additional cameras that had been in the works for West Seattle. Here’s his reply, including news of 4 new cameras on the way (we had reported plans for 3 more in May but looks like one’s joined the list):
The (bridge) structure’s north and south side cameras are controlled using wireless operation and have proven to be unreliable. The south side camera will be upgraded with a fiber optic control system as part of a larger project that starts next week. So your readers will be able to see bridge images shortly. We also want a fiber optic system for the north side and are trying to find money in this year’s budget for it.
With the work underway next week, we will install two other West Seattle cameras beyond the south bridge camera. They will be at Fauntleroy Way SW and SW Cloverdale (near Lincoln Park/Fauntleroy Ferry) and at the West Seattle Bridge near the pull-out by the [Walking on Logs] sculpture (east of the pedestrian overpass.)
Two other cameras will be installed in early- to mid-October and will be operational in November (along with several other locations not in West Seattle.) Those cameras will be located at SW Alaska St and 42nd Ave SW, and SW Alaska and California Ave SW.
So we’ll take the bridge-cam link out of the sidebar till SOMETHING is working – and will keep an eye out for those extra cameras. Here’s the city page where you can find all SDOT cams; the state cams (I-5 etc.) are separate, and can be found here; the county’s cams are here. We’ll also update the WSB Traffic page when those new/fixed ones come online.
FIGHTING GRAFFITI: This thread regarding graffiti vandalism at a local school is an excellent example of what the WSB Forums – and discussion here in the WSB news section too – are all about, at their best. It started with a citizen concern about getting police to pay attention to a problem; other members joined the discussion, we secured some information, the original post’er followed up, and now more action is being taken. Read about it – and/or join the discussion – here.
WEEKEND SALES: Reminder that yard/garage sales (and business sales too) can be listed free in the WSB Forums’ Freebies/Deals/Sales section – sale season is starting to ebb but there are a few for this weekend listed here.
CITYLINK: We noticed a while back that some of the city’s newer web sections, such as SPDBlotter, had a “CityLink” logo, perhaps a sign of something to come. Turns out it was — the city has just unveiled CityLink Seattle, with 11 city “newsfeeds” (including SPDBlotter) linked from one page. See it here.
TWEETING FOR STARBUCKS, AND HITTING THE ROAD: Got word from Starbucks PR that its official tweeter at @starbucks, Brad Nelson, is hitting the road as part of a nationwide promotion for the company’s new instant coffee – and she noted she was letting us know because Brad is a West Seattleite. They had a big kickoff event today – we were at the Concord event instead, but they promise they’ll be tweeting (at @starbuckslive), posting video, and more. (P.S. Brad’s not the only West Seattleite who is the “Twitter voice” of a major Seattle-based company – there’s also Elliott Pesut, who tweets for Alaska Airlines at @alaskaair.)
While a lot of Twitter marketing is fairly basic “hey! come see us and buy our stuff!” (in the case of us news sites, we send out links in hopes you’ll come READ our stuff), there are also 
cool little moments like this one we just happened onto, hours after it happened: Pearl Jam‘s official Twitter account sent word of a photo (at left) of a limited-edition “record” (remember those?) and said, first person who finds it gets it. If you look at the photo full-size here, you’ll see the visual hint – Easy Street Records coffee cups. According to the comment thread on the Twitpic photo page, “someone named Megan got it.” (Reminds us of the April tale of a local family that found a Tony Hawk skateboard at Shadow Land via Twitter.) We use Twitter not just to send out story links (if you ONLY want those, find ’em at @westseattlenews), but also, at @westseattleblog, other tidbits, newsy and otherwise, plus Twitpics of events we’re covering, while we’re there, like the Denny International Middle School ceremony Monday morning (here and here). You can also just check in on the Web – our main @westseattleblog account is at twitter.com/westseattleblog. P.S. Easy Street itself is on Twitter, here – you’ll see tweets about the Pearl Jam release party this Saturday night and the Black Whales in-store show at 5 tonight.
A Saturday night comment reminded us we’d been meaning to add this feature, so now we have: In addition to being able to preview your comment before it’s published, you now get a 5-minute window to edit it, after you publish it. No log-in required; the comment system otherwise works the same way it always has. Once you’ve posted the comment, you’ll see a countdown clock ticking down that 5-minute editing period, during which you can use a button to the left of the countdown clock to open an editing window (click “more options” to edit the screen name and/or URL you used with the comment).
WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham (from mattdurhamphotography.com) spotted Sofia Mabee and 4-year-old daughter Savannah refusing to let the rain keep them inside – which is what PDieter advises in a discussion under way now in the WSB Forums, regarding the joys of living here despite the sometimes-turbulent weather. Speaking of which – The National Weather Service‘s “special weather statement” (see it here) remains in effect, with “significant precipitation” and unseasonably chilly weather expected to continue tonight.
Though yard-sale season is ebbing, several West Seattle sales for this weekend are posted in the Freebies/Deals/Sales section of the WSB Forums. You’re welcome to post your sale there too, free, whether personal or business; an increasing amount of freebie listings are showing up as well. Here’s where to start!
FRIENDS OF SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT SOUTHWEST DISTRICT COUNCIL: Two FSPL reps spoke to the group last night, and asked again for library users to speak out to help them campaign against even more cuts next year. For starters, the survey mentioned here yesterday (direct link here) is one tool they hope to use; they also want library users to show up at budget hearings this fall, saying the usual handful of people who turn up to testify won’t be enough to impress city leaders. FSPL’s Sarel Rowe also noted that budget cuts and closures “leave a legacy” – the regular hours that don’t start till early afternoon part of the week are a never-changed holdover from years ago (as the group points out here).
USUALLY GET ONLINE AT THE LIBRARY? If you know someone who usually gets online at a library, here’s an option: Lora Lewis at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) reminds us that her shop next to the Junction Post Office has a bank of computers, and “we have Internet happy hours open to 10 am and then 4 pm to close. You receive a full hour of Internet surfing with a beverage purchase. Outside of happy hour you still receive 15 minutes free Internet surfing with a beverage and it’s just 10 cents a minute for any overage. We have desktop computers, free wireless, a black and white printer, full color scanner, black and white copier. All the desktops have the full Microsoft Office Suite. We’re open 6:30 am to 7 pm.”
ROXHILL ELEMENTARY BARBECUE: Thanks to Donn for spotting this on the Roxhill school marquee along Roxbury – school barbecue today, 4:30-6:30 pm. (Lots of back-to-school events in the days ahead; let us know about yours!)
SEE THE WEST SEATTLE “COVER DOG” CANDIDATES: West Seattle-headquartered CityDog Magazine will announce its Cover Dog winner soon; meantime, photographer J. Nicole Smith from Dane + Dane Studios has posted her gallery of all 100-plus “candidates” from the West Seattle Thriftway shoot (8/16 WSB photo above, also featuring Richard and cover-dog hopeful Lulah) – see the picture-perfect pooches here.
FUN TO BE FRUGAL: That’s the name of a new website written by West Seattle resident Nora Laughlin. She e-mailed to let us know about it; we’ll be adding it to the feeds for this WSB page too, but in the short run – you can browse her entries about coupons and other deals.
Late August is supposed to be a slow time, with summer ebbing, extra time to enjoy the sun. But somehow it always manages to be an exciting time here at WSB HQ. Almost exactly two years ago, your support helped plant the seeds of WSB’s transformation into a business, with seed money raised during our first and only Pledge Day. Today, we’re thrilled to announce our participation in a new journalistic collaboration involving our region’s largest news organization as well as three of our fellow independent, neighborhood-based online news publishers.
Employers are welcome to post their West Seattle-based job openings FREE in the WSB Forums‘ West Seattle Jobs Offered section, and two more just have – including one offering a meet-and-greet tomorrow night – go here to see what’s listed.
IN A FLASH: It’s been discussed here on WSB multiple times; now channel 4 has crossed the bridge to do a story about the frequently flashing 35th/Thistle (map) red-light camera. (Most interesting factoid in there — this camera is reported to average 2.5 tickets/day.)
TRANSPORTATION (DEPARTMENT) TALES: This relatively new city website is providing updates on SDOT projects at a fairly busy clip. Most recent West Seattle update – a look at this past week’s work to repair sections of the Duwamish Trail.
FAREWELL, FERRIES: Two of the four steel-electric ferries the state took out of service and sold for scrap started their final journey last night, under tow. Since they were briefly in Elliott Bay, you might have seen them; if not, here’s a Seattle Times photo. Until concerns about their seaworthiness arose, a steel-electric was usually the third boat on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run. Quinault and Nisqually were the two towed last night; the other two, Klickitat and Illahee, will be towed away later this month.
Just a reminder that the Freebies, Deals, Sales category in the WSB Forums is open to yard/garage sale listings (as well as individual items you or your business is offering at a “deal” price) – free. Five yard sales are listed for tomorrow, so far, including a big group sale at Youngstown Arts Center by the Service Board. See these sales (and the other Freebies/Deals/Sales items) here.
We haven’t written an item like this in a while. More than a few people, however, have suggested we shouldn’t be so shy about sharing good news regarding this trailblazing business of making a living as an independent, journalist-run, community-collaborative, online-only news service. So here’s a little bit about WSB’s July. According to Google Analytics – the gold standard in traffic measurement – WSB pageviews totaled 706,143 for the month of July. 23,000 homes/businesses (unique users) visited at least once a week; more than a third of them visited at least once a day. This is the biggest month we’ve had so far this year, second-biggest to snowbound December 2008, and through the end of July, our pageviews for this year total more than 4.6 million. We thank you SO MUCH for finding value in being part of WSB. But even more than the numbers, we are proud of more big stories this month. The biggest: Myrtle Reservoir neighbors e-mailed WSB, wondering why the reservoir-covering project was being dug up again; we uncovered the fact that the waterproofing material used at Myrtle and Beacon reservoirs had hundreds of leaks and needed to be replaced, in a $4 million “change order”; the story was picked up by almost every major news outlet in the region, with credit to WSB in print and on the airwaves. Speaking of airwaves, we guested on KUOW’s “The Conversation” twice this month to talk about neighborhood news. The WSB Pets page helped reunite more than a dozen lost/found pets with their owners; the WSB Forums’ West Seattle Jobs Offered section helped match jobs and jobseekers (see this recent “thank you” from a recruiter) – employers can post job listings there for free. And last week, for the second consecutive year, Seattle Weekly announced that readers voted WSB the best website of its kind in the city – and this year the competition was tougher than ever, with more great independent news sites appearing almost weekly. Though we don’t all run our operations exactly the same way, there is one guiding principle we all share: Community collaboration. So much of what you see here begins with your e-mails, phone calls, WSB Forum posts, tweets, Facebook posts, and in-person conversations (all contact info here) – we were pleased to meet so many people this spring/summer while tabling at festivals from Gathering of Neighbors to Delridge Day to the Morgan Junction Community Festival to West Seattle Summer Fest. Thanks again for being part of an incredible community, and thanks to everyone who is part of WSB by collaborating with helpfulness and respect for your fellow neighbor. Though some days bring bad news, and it’s part of our job to report that too, together our future as a community is nothing but bright.
The White Center Food Bank, which also serves West Seattle south of SW Myrtle, just launched a “blog” section on its website. To kick it off in style, they’re looking for name suggestions – send one in and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a $25 Farmers’ Market gift certificate. Read all about it here.
It’s the city department we discuss the most here, so we’re guessing you’ll want to check out SDOT’s new website. With it – a new Twitter account through which they promise traffic alerts, @seattledot (they used a different one a bit during last year’s snowstorm). And they’ve put the Community Parking Program, which includes the Junction parking review that’s been under way for a year and a half, on Facebook. Plus, you can get their news releases via RSS. (We’ve had state transportation news on our Traffic page via RSS for a while so we’ll add city shortly too.)
Just posted – here’s the listing. Reminder that anyone who is hiring one or more employees in the West Seattle/White Center area is welcome to post the job in the WSB Forums – the listing is FREE – start here. (Another section of interest to businesses, as well as shoppers: Freebies, Deals, Sales.)
Today we’re welcoming a new sponsor, Michelle Babb, MS, RD, 
a Bastyr graduate and adjunct professor who consults on finding optimum health by improving nutrition. New sponsors are always offered the chance to share information with you regarding what they do; Michelle says, “Clients seek me out because they’re looking to change their lifestyle to address their health issues and restore vitality. They’re often very frustrated and worn out with traditional methods for weight loss and disease prevention, and they don’t know where to turn. Most people need a little information and a lot of motivation. I encourage them to make small, but meaningful changes and build up to an optimal diet and I provide support every step of the way. I also use therapeutic diets when warranted, and my patients commonly report feeling better than they have in years. Once they start seeing and feeling the results of restoring balance to the body through good nutrition, exercise and relaxation, that becomes its own motivation.” Michelle says that if you’ve been trying to lose weight or have been diagnosed with a digestive problem, she can work with you to find the right foods. She’s also in touch with naturopaths, medical doctors, acupuncturists and chiropractors to create a whole plan for better nutrition and health. Find Michelle Babb, MS, RD, online at eatplaybe.com. We welcome her to the WSB sponsor lineup, listed in full here along with information on how to become part of it.
And to think it started with a WSBer’s photo. Here’s the WSB Forums thread.
We were helping cover this story via Twitter early this morning – didn’t think it was West Seattle enough for WSB but as more of the effects become obvious, we’re realizing it is: A relatively small fire late last night at Fisher Plaza downtown (4th/Denny, south of the Space Needle) cut power to the building, affecting not only KOMO TV (flagship to Fisher Broadcasting) but also a slew of websites whose hosting companies have servers in the building. We first learned about this indirectly from a West Seattleite whose site was affected – then it was revealed that national sites like geocaching.com and authorize.net (which processes credit cards) were involved too – and now we’ve learned that organizations with West Seattle branches, like PCC and Mars Hill Church, also are without their sites. After several hours of lag, some citywide/national media coverage is FINALLY starting to turn up, but for the best up-to-the-minute news, track Twitter, where many of the companies/organizations that are affected are sharing information – hashtag #fisherfire – direct access to the latest, go here. 1 PM UPDATE: Added this in comments a little while ago since we got the call while out and about, but it needs to be in the main report too: Square 1 Books (WSB sponsor) is also among the companies whose servers were affected by this fire/outage – proprietor Gretchen says they have no e-mail access right now, in addition to their website being down, so call if you need something (935-5764). Some other affected websites (not necessarily WS-linked) are listed here.
Just launched, a city-assembled page of “recession resources” links — see it here.
Have to confess we STILL have not been there. But here’s the next best thing – Mary T tells the story of a Walker Rock Garden visit with words and pictures on her site Shelterrific. (The “garden” is also featured here on WSB in the West Seattle 101 section.)
Today we’re welcoming a new WSB sponsor, Kayle Shulenberger, MA-CCC-SLP, 
Licensed Speech Language Pathologist. Kayle has recently moved her office from the University District to West Seattle and she’s available to see children in their homes. If you have a child with speech production disorders and language delay, Kayle has a few openings for new clients right now.
Kayle has been in private practice for the majority of her career. She’s also had experience in schools, hospitals, nursing homes and as a clinical supervisor at Western Washington University. Her references are available upon request and she’s received positive reviews on Yelp. Also, Kayle bills Premera, Regence and Aetna insurance companies for covered speech pathology services. You’ll find her online – with contact information – at kaylespeech.com.
Thanks to Kayle Shulenberger, Licensed Speech Language Pathologist for supporting 24/7 community news/information/discussion by sponsoring WSB; our full sponsor lineup, and info on how to become part of it, is on our Advertise! page.
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