West Seattle, Washington
28 Monday
After a series of briefings and hearings focusing on how the city dealt with the challenges of Snowstorm ’08, this morning we will hear about the “after-action reports” that key departments were ordered to prepare. Three Seattle City Council committees are meeting jointly at 9 am to get the lowdown from three department heads: Barb Graff, Director of the Office of Emergency Management; Grace Crunican, Director of the Department of Transportation; and Ray Hoffman, Acting Director of Seattle Public Utilities (previous director Chuck Clarke has moved on to his new job with Cascade Water Alliance). Here’s the agenda; you can watch live online at seattlechannel.org or on cable Channel 21. 10:01 AM UPDATE: This discussion is just starting now, after the meeting’s first hour was spent on the Mercer Corridor project.
(CSS team members, from left: Doug, Justin, Carmela, Tiziana, Carlos)
We’re welcoming a new WSB sponsor today: C.S.S. (Computer Service Solutions). Here’s what they’d like you to know about what they can do for you: C.S.S. (Computer Service Solutions LLC) has been serving our local community’s Computer and IT needs for the last eight years, growing at a steady pace. The foundation of C.S.S. success is built into the motto: “Better Technology to Serve You Better.” They recognize the importance of remaining nimble enough to hear what their customers are saying, as well as strong enough to provide the level of support and expertise their customers deserve. Serving both home users and the business community, C.S.S. provides a variety of computer services and IT solutions, including: Computer repairs, general system optimization, point-of-sale customized systems & support, data recovery/backup, upgrades, networking (Virtual Private Network), digital surveillance systems, anti-virus sales & installation, and software configuration. C.S.S. welcomes the opportunity to help you find a solution to your personal or business computer or IT project or problem. The team at C.S.S. is a dedicated group striving to perform their own personal best everyday and to achieve excellence, with the best customer-service possible, and the latest hardware and software technology. C.S.S. is also proud to be part of our community’s effort to recycle unused computers. It’s a free drop-off point for InterConnection, which refurbishes computers for reuse at a low cost while keeping hazardous materials out of our landfills. C.S.S. is located at 6030 California Ave SW, just 2 blocks north of Morgan Junction (map), 206-935-5808, with ample parking in front. We’re glad to have C.S.S. (Computer Service Solutions) join the WSB sponsorship lineup, which you can see in its entirely here (with information on how to become part of it).
By request, we’re trying out an iPhone version of WSB that should enable you to skim the site faster. So, if you have an iPhone (or iPod Touch) that version will load as the default, but you can switch to “normal” view with a link at the bottom – to go back to the “iPhone version,” you will again see a link at the bottom of the “regular” page. Let us know what you think!
All from the Sunday section of the WSB West Seattle Weekend Lineup:
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm, as always. The fresh sheet wasn’t published this week – but you’re bound to find a tasty surprise.
HEALTHY HEART DAY: There’s one more thing you can do in The Junction today to be kind to your heart (besides buying fresh produce at the Farmers’ Market) — Pharmaca (WSB sponsor) is celebrating Healthy Heart Day, 11 am-3 pm, with free cholesterol screenings, raffles, and more (details here; also, take along this WSB coupon to get $10 off a $50 purchase).
MORE DOG DONATIONS: The folks at Muttley Crew Cuts have some more bake-sale goodies today, raising money to help the North Sound puppy-mill rescue effort. (The Saturday sale raised more than $1,000, according to Muttley Crew co-owner Kelly; Bernadette from The Wash Dog also was raising money on Saturday, half the proceeds from self-serve dog washes, more than $700!)
WSB FORUM POTLUCK AND DONATION DRIVE: Furry Faces Foundation, which also is helping the puppy-mill rescue effort, is one of two nonprofits for which WSB Forum members are inviting donations during a potluck get-together today (the other is Seattle Education Access). Everybody’s welcome! 1-5 pm at Big Al Brewing in White Center; read more here.
MUSIC FESTIVAL TO HELP KIDS: This afternoon, 2:30 pm at Grace Church, it’s the concert and fundraiser (for Baphumelele, a South African children’s home) organized by Seattle Lutheran student Lauren Vanderpool as her senior project. Full details and a map await you here.
For more than a year, we’ve had a “Share This” link beneath each WSB story; clicking it would open a new page giving you some options for e-mailing that story to others or sharing it via “social” sites. A note from a WSBer this week reminded us that those options were limited – Facebook, now hugely popular (more than 1,000 people have “friended” us as WS Blog there, where we share selected links and quick updates, and are glad to get messages from you when you have something to say/share), wasn’t available, for one. So we just upgraded “Share This.” Look for it with the little green icon (like the one shown at left) at the end of each WSB report. Clicking it will open a small window with three tabs:
POST: You can post the link to your Facebook profile, Twitter account, Blogger or WordPress.com site, among others
SEND/E-MAIL: E-mail the link, or use the drop-down menu here to choose messaging such as AIM or MySpace
SOCIAL WEB: Share the link through various services from Facebook (behaves the same way as “posting” to FB) to Google Bookmarks to Delicious and Digg, with more options along the way
Hope this is useful. If it’s missing something you use to share links, please let us know!
Thanks to Troy for sharing that photo of tonight’s sunset via Facebook (where you’ll find us as WS Blog). It’s a view of West Seattle from the downtown waterfront, near Colman Dock ferry terminal and Ivar’s, which of course has a WS tie too, since founder Ivar Haglund was a West Seattleite. Speaking of sunsets, we swapped out the WSB header photo for the first time in more than a year – after featuring that photo recently, someone suggested doing that, so we’re giving it a whirl.
Two links to share if you are Web-wandering tonight: Just got word from Alki Bike and Board‘s Stu Hennessey that Sustainable West Seattle has relaunched its website with a brand-new look; check it out at sustainablewestseattle.org. Also just heard about a new site focusing on news about Puget Sound – pugetsoundnews.org, “a project of the University of Washington’s Environmental Journalism class” this semester, according to its About page.
It’s come to our attention (thanks!) that a phone survey under way in West Seattle right now includes questions about WSB — apparently, what you like, and what you don’t like. Just to make you sure know, in case your phone rings, this survey is NOT being done BY us. 
We prefer to have direct contact with you, from you, any time you have something to say. But in case there IS something you’ve been meaning to tell us you DON’T like – DO like – or would like to see – let us renew our invitation: Call us, e-mail us, text us, send us a tweet, send us a Facebook message, OR send us good-old-fashioned postal mail, any time, 24/7/365. (This page has all our contact info for all those methods.) Or leave a comment on this post! Almost every improvement we’ve put in place here in the past few years has been in direct response to suggestions, requests, complaints, and we’re working on more upgrades/additions even as we speak. Thanks again for making WSB West Seattle’s most-read community-news source (1.5 million pageviews in the past two months alone, with at least 17,000 homes/businesses checking in at least once a week) – although it’s not “being read” that we find most exciting – it’s collaborating with you – to find and share West Seattle news/information.
Today we’re welcoming our newest WSB sponsor, Anytime Fitness. 
Here’s what this brand-new West Seattle business would like you to know: Anytime Fitness is a 24-hour coed fitness center where members can work out any time day or night, every day of the year. A 3000-square-foot fitness boutique that opened its doors in December, this is a brand-new facility with state-of-the-art cardio equipment, weights, and a personable atmosphere. Anytime Fitness also offers 24-hour tanning and membership reciprocity among its clubs, which allows members to use any of the more than 900 clubs that are currently open in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Looking for a new fitness routine? Getting ready for that 5k? Shaping up for summer? Owners Weston Smith and Dave Preston are dedicated to assisting their members in committing to important fitness goals by providing free fitness education, highly trained staff, and a non-intimidating environment that is sure to produce results! Anytime‘s smaller, intimate atmosphere allows its members to work more closely with their trainers, 
in an efficient and convenient setting.
On Saturday, February 21st, at 2 pm, Anytime Fitness will host Valerie Waugaman, known as ‘SIREN’ of NBC’s hit television reality series, “American Gladiators” (photo right). The public is invited and admission is free. Valerie is also a professional athlete, successful business owner, and motivational speaker who will be speaking on personal success and putting on a fitness workshop. She will be available for autographs and pictures.
Anytime Fitness is located on the second floor of the new Charlestown Center at Charlestown/California (map). WSB welcomes Anytime to our sponsor lineup, listed here along with information on how to be part of it.
From the WSB More page (which automatically posts the latest West Seattle mentions from citywide/regional media, followed by the latest West Seattle mentions on CL): First, a Leschi rental ad headlined ESCAPE WEST SEATTLE and raising the spectre of looming traffic doom – might be misplaced given that the tunnel proposal could keep The Viaduct open during construction. Second, a reported dog attack in Lincoln Park (thanks to Diane for the tip) – we’ve sent a note with a followup question.
If you read WSB via RSS – or are interested in doing so – we apologize for having our various feed links scattered senselessly around the site – till now: We just added a page to the tab-navigation bar under the sunset header, labeled simply RSS – it’s got direct links to our main feeds and instructions on where to find the links to the many other ways you can use RSS to read WSB (you can get a feed on the fly for any individual comment thread or forum thread, for example). Not sure what RSS is? Here’s a pretty good explanation.
As you probably know, for more than two years WSB has had a page (see it here) which points you to the latest updates from nearly 100 blogs by West Seattle-based writers. Among the latest links: This post by Ian Lurie, from his always-snappy site Conversation Marketing — geared toward marketing writers, but it made us laugh; maybe just because we get so much spam, it hit home.
Today we’re welcoming one of our newest sponsors: Snap Fitness, 
which recently opened in Jefferson Square. Owners Jim Flynn and MJ Benavente (left) – who live in Gatewood – say there’s lots of gyms out there you could join, but they think Snap is the best because of their philosophy that exercise should complement your health. MJ says her background in medicine taught her one thing – fitness is preventive medicine. She says a regular exercise routine is a proactive way to keep yourself in good health. That’s why she and Jim 
say that Snap Fitness has a numbers of ways to help you stay fit no matter how busy you are. Snap is a no-contract club, offering 24/7 access to the equipment. Snap also believes in reaching out to its members before they get to the gym. Free fitness assessments with a personal trainer are part of your membership package, along with online tips about keeping up good nutrition habits to go along with your workout. Also, Jim says you can get up to speed fast: Snap has trainers who can show you easy routines that you can do on day one. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, and your West Seattle Snap membership lets you use any Snap Fitness center in the US. (Here’s where to look up its other locations.) Not only do Jim and MJ live in West Seattle, they also are members of the West Seattle Junction Association, they’ve volunteered for Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, and they belong to the Seattle Audubon Society. Snap Fitness is in lower Jefferson Square (map), online at snapfitness.com/seattlewest, or you can call 206-299-1597. Thanks to Snap Fitness for joining the WSB sponsor team; see the full lineup here, same place to find information on becoming part of it.
You might have seen a citywide article or two suggesting arts organizations are struggling in these tough times. Not ArtsWest, retorts exec director Alan Harrison in this essay.
(West Seattle Pharmaca Team: Jessica, Dava, Angela, Matthew, Joanna, Meranda, Brian)
Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy — which took over the old Morton‘s spot in The Junction last spring — has been on the WSB sponsor team since early in the month but we just got the staff together for a photo so we could introduce them to you along with sharing information they’d like you to have regarding what they’re all about: Pharmaca became the first integrative pharmacy in the U.S. back in 2000. This model brings a full-service pharmacy and complementary treatment options together under one roof so customers can enjoy the best of both worlds. Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy is changing the way people think about their health by offering traditional pharmacy services and alternative remedies under one roof. Stores feature the best in natural products, certified staff members, safe cosmetics, fair-trade gifts and more. Band-Aids never kept such good company! Integrative medicine is now embraced by 75% of medical schools, including such prestigious names as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Duke, Yale, and the Mayo Clinic. From acupuncture to aromatherapy, these institutions are exploring methods of treatment beyond standard western medicine. Pharmaca customers get a choice when it comes to their health care. For example, they offer several ways to stay healthy during the flu season:
*Flu shots can be scheduled for those who want to receive immunization
*Preventive supplements like Echinacea come with free advice from our expert staff
*Prescription medications are available if your doctor recommends treatment
Expect total care when you come to Pharmaca. Your body—not to mention your mind and spirit—will thank you for it. Pharmaca is in West Seattle at 4707 California Avenue SW (map; at the Alaska Junction, next to the Farmers’ Market lot; formerly Morton’s Pharmacy), 206.932.4225. Hours are Monday–Friday 9 am-7 pm, Saturday 9 am-6 pm, Sunday 10 am-6 pm. (Online, you can find a list of the special in-store events they have coming up.) We welcome Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy to the WSB sponsor lineup, listed here along with info on how to join the team.
Lots to see and read at the Seal Sitters’ “Blubberblog” site 
these days. Just posted last night – an update on sunbathing sea-lion sightings on the West Seattle shore. There’s also the saga of an elephant seal that spent a few days on a “South Puget Sound” beach, and full details of Forte’s day along the Alki boardwalk (photo at left from our much-less-detailed coverage here), among other stories.
Today we welcome a new sponsor – West Seattle Montessori School, which is inviting prospective students and their families to two open houses, including one tomorrow afternoon. Here’s what WSMS would like you to know about their school: 
Choosing a school where children flourish according to their needs and abilities is more critical today than ever. West Seattle Montessori School is pleased to offer individualized teaching from experienced professionals, and would be delighted to assist you throughout your child’s academic journey. Since 1985, West Seattle Montessori School has been an integral part of the West Seattle Community. Offering preschool through 8th grade education, WSMS prides itself on fostering independence and intellectual curiosity, stimulating personal growth, and encouraging innovation and a love of learning. As part of our close-knit WSMS community, we focus on the development of the whole child, not only providing personalized attention and student centered lessons, but also creating a rich and broad variety of experiences beyond our walls through art classes, stage performances, engaging field trips, and activities throughout Seattle’s eclectic neighborhoods. It is our goal to instill within our students a clear set of values, including respect for each individual and her or his own unique talents and contributions. We are now enrolling for the 2009 – 2010 academic school year at our newly remodeled building, only a few miles away from our current location! Please join us for an Open House to hear more details about this exciting move, Montessori curriculum, and our amazing community on Saturday, January 24, from 1 pm to 3 pm, or Thursday, February 5, from 6 pm to 8 pm, 4536 38th SW (map). For more information, please contact our main office at (206) 935-0427, or take a look at our website westseattlemontessori.com. **** Welcome, West Seattle Montessori, to the WSB sponsor lineup, listed in its entirety here along with info on how to become part of it!
Wherever you are tomorrow at 9 am and whoever you’re with, we would love to have a photo of your inauguration-watching group, so that we can post it tomorrow as part of the WSB “historical record.” Cameraphone, whatever. Names if possible, but not mandatory. Sorry we didn’t think of this sooner, but better late than never. Either send it to editor@wsb.blackfin.biz afterward – or if you upload to Flickr, Facebook, TwitPic, wherever, just let us know where to find it so we’ll know we have permission to use it. Thanks! (More local inauguration info is on our special page, here.)
Two more updates this morning (in addition to our first two installments from West Seattleites in DC – 
read them here and here): First, we’ve added an Inauguration page, with a variety of info including local events planned during and after the actual swearing-in (chances to celebrate on into the night). Second, we wanted to remind you about the WSB Forums-organized shoe drive in honor of the new administration’s call for service — now through Tuesday, there’s still time to take new or gently used shoes to drop boxes at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) and Full Tilt Ice Cream. They will all be donated to Soles4Soles (read about that organization here). And here’s the official flyer.
Thanks to Cindi Barker for pix of two events this morning and afternoon – first, the Orchard Street Ravine planting party in Gatewood. Cindi reports volunteers “focused on planting the remaining plants provided by Parks right before the snowstorm and mulching everything around the trail and up on the steep east slope.” Here’s a wider shot – the orange flags, Cindi says, mark spots where Parks Department employees did some planting right before last month’s freeze/snow:
Can’t quite place OSR? Here’s a map; here’s our coverage of its dedication three months ago. Meantime, Cindi also provided photos and info from an event this afternoon that was her brainchild, an informal Google Map-making workshop with Alice Enevoldsen, who turned WSBers’ road reports into fabulously helpful G-maps during Snowstorm ’08. Half a dozen people showed up for the gathering at Uptown in The Junction – although Cindi reports it took a bit of a low-tech turn:
Uptown’s wi-fi was having trouble, so Alice resorted to pen and paper for a while. Then a nearby signal was acquired and she was able to get back to demonstrating via the actual website:
If you missed it – Google Maps do have online tutorials, although that’s seldom a substitute for watching somebody like Alice who knows their way around. Thanks again to Alice for being so generous with her time and talents. One last photo to share right now – we certainly agree with JayDee when he sent this under the heading “It was nice to see the sunset tonight”:
Looks like the sun might make an appearance again tomorrow.
VIDEO SHOOT SCARE: Found this tale of police summoned to what turned out to be a video shoot. Not exactly on the Seacrest Game Show Inferno scale, though.
LIGHTS DOWN, OR ELSE: If you live in High Point, you’re under orders to take your Christmas lights down before this weekend’s over.
ROAD WORK: Three spots you might encounter city crews today – SDOT’s Marybeth Turner sent us the alert:
An SDOT crew plans to repair street pavement previously excavated for work on utilities at two locations on 35th SW … 5500 block of 35th SW (map) and at 35th SW and SW Raymond (map). They will also do the same type of work at 3500 West Marginal Way SW (map). The streets will remain open for traffic. They plan to work from 9 am until 3:30 pm.
ALICE’S MAP DEMO: One more reminder — one of the heroes of the incredibly collaborative (thank you again!!!!) WSB Snowstorm ’08 coverage was Alice Enevoldsen, who saw a need and filled it — creating customized Google Maps of West Seattle-wide road conditions as reported by WSB’ers. Morgan Junction‘s Cindi Barker asked Alice if she’d consider sharing her expertise with others, and the resulting get-together is at 1 pm today, Uptown Espresso in The Junction, BYOL(aptop).
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING? It’s all in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup.
Even though new school years start in fall, decisions about each year are made the preceding winter, so this is a busy time for local schools and families. Today, we’re welcoming a new WSB sponsor, The Community School of West Seattle, which invites you to attend an open house tonight or tomorrow morning. 
Here’s what they’d like you to know about their school: The Community School of West Seattle (CSWS) provides a unique family friendly learning environment. Their philosophy of Organic Education creates respectful early learning experiences in an enriched, anti-bias environment. The teachers work with the children on communication skills and problem-solving techniques, they support social, intellectual, physical, emotional and cognitive growth in a creative and developmentally appropriate space that has lots of outside space and a large dedicated studio. They believe in supporting the whole family by offering a year round program, parenting workshops, social events and a resource library. CSWS is currently accepting applications for Fall 2009. There’s two open house events — one tonight (Friday, January 16th) at 6 pm, and another tomorrow (Saturday, January 17th) at 10 am. These events are for adults, but you and your child will be able to schedule an observation when the classes are in session. At the open houses, parents will learn about; Messy Play Day for Toddlers age 18 months to 3 years. Pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds. And, the multiage Kindergarten through 2nd grade program. We welcome The Community School of West Seattle to the WSB sponsor team; full lineup’s on this page along with info on how to become part of it!
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